Chapter 5

After clearing the sand that had somehow found its way into his eyes, Jia Hongjian did not, as usual, ignore the household chores and just play around. He washed his hands, rolled up his sleeves, and was ready to help his mother.

"What are you going to do?" Su Ping looked at her son's unusual behavior, genuinely puzzled. "Are you going to help me? Otherwise, you just sit there with your legs crossed while I work up a sweat all by myself? We don't even have an air conditioner, what if you get heatstroke?"

At that moment, Jia Hongjian, who had a deep understanding of people, said, "Of course I'll help you. I can't just sit there and let you work so hard, can I?"

This was a difference in mindset brought about by age. When he was young, he never did any housework. But after entering society, he met a girl born in the 90s. She often told him things like, "You need to be more mature," "You need to learn how to cook, and cook for me in the future," "You need to work hard and support me"...

At the time, Jia Hongjian, who had just experienced this role change, suddenly felt as if he had become a parent himself. He felt a sense of giving without expecting anything in return, and even when the other party was unreasonable, he still had to show love and tolerance... All of this made Jia Hongjian start to understand his parents more, and it also made him scoff at the saying, "Men only grow up after they have children."

Clearly, men only grow up after they have a girlfriend from the new era! These days, girlfriends are much harder to please than children! At least children won't run off with someone richer...

"Alright, alright, I get it. Thank you, Mom. But now, don't get in the way. Go watch your cartoons. Really, you're so grown up, yet you still watch cartoons like a kid. When you have kids, I bet you'll be watching cartoons with your son," Su Ping said, frowning.

Jia Hongjian didn't think his mother was ungrateful. He knew that his parents, being from the older generation, were not used to expressing their true feelings. He knew that his mother was touched by his offer to help and wanted him to rest comfortably, so she used these annoying words to encourage him to rest...

"I'm not watching cartoons; I'm watching loneliness. My eyes see the animation, but my mind thinks about myself. Looking at the twelve frames per second on the TV screen, my mind reflects on my lost youth..." Jia Hongjian sighed, feeling philosophical. He wasn't afraid to play the literary youth; he had used this charm to win over many high-quality girls.

His words quickly achieved their intended effect. Su Ping stared at her son for a long time, unable to understand why he suddenly spoke such philosophical words, which sounded like modern poetry. Had her son become a poet?

While she was in a daze, Jia Hongjian took the opportunity to grab the kitchen knife and the already thawed pork belly and started cutting it. When Su Ping came to her senses, she saw her son cutting the meat with a not very refined but very skilled technique.

This discovery almost made Su Ping break down—this boy was the one she had carried for ten months and raised with her own hands. How could she not know what he could and couldn't do? But how did he suddenly know how to write poetry and cut meat? Where did he learn these things? Had she been a bad mother? Had she not cared enough about her child?

Jia Hongjian, after cutting for a while and noticing his mother's silence, turned around and saw her staring at him. He smiled and said, "What's so surprising? Your son isn't someone else's wooden son. Your son has your blood in him. Can't he be more mature and more considerate of the family than other kids?"

At this point, Su Ping, a bit moved, finally let go of her anger over her son's blank test papers in the middle school entrance exam. She agreed to let her son help her in the kitchen.

When the food was almost ready, Jia Hongjian's father came home from work. Jia Hongjian was very excited to see his father. This wasn't just sentimentality; it was because he hadn't seen his young father in years, and this father was an important figure in his plan to become a wasteful rich second generation. How could he not be excited?

However, his father, Jia Gang, didn't look at his son favorably. In Jia Gang's eyes, this boy had deliberately left his middle school entrance exam blank, causing him to lose face in front of his colleagues and be laughed at behind his back. How could he be happy?

After a few words with his wife, Jia Gang went into the room to watch TV, as if he hadn't seen his son. "Why don't you go and serve your father some tea? He loves you, doesn't he? It's just because you caused trouble before. Your father is like a child; if you go and flatter him a bit, he'll be happy right away. Go on, be a good boy," Su Ping said, pushing her son into the living room.

In the living room, Jia Hongjian seemed to be hesitating, but in reality, he was recalling his father's personality and basic information. To cultivate his father, he needed to analyze his character and design a high-success-rate plan, which would increase his chances of achieving his wasteful dream.

His father, Jia Gang, was the vice president of Yanzhong Industrial, a company with the stock code 600601 on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. This company was originally a community-run enterprise, a small workshop established to solve the employment problem of returning educated youth. Later, it developed quite well.

By 1985, large enterprises in Shanghai were unfamiliar with the capitalist stock market and were unwilling to go public. The municipal government had no choice but to push companies like Yanzhong Industrial, which had no capital, no connections, and widely dispersed shares, to go public and be the first to try.

After going public, Yanzhong Industrial raised a large sum of money, which it used to develop new businesses and purchase strange new equipment like a hamburger production line and a carbonated water bottling line.

In theory, as the vice president of a community-run enterprise, Jia Gang, who earned over 300 yuan a month when ordinary female workers earned only 70-80 yuan, had already made his family well-off.

However, soon, a Shenzhen company would launch the first acquisition in the Chinese stock market. To go public, the Shenzhen company forcibly acquired the widely dispersed shares and became the largest shareholder of Yanzhong Industrial. Soon after, they fired Jia Gang, who did not agree with the parent company's style.

Later, Jia Hongjian's father drove a taxi, sold clothes, and even lived in a pigeon cage in Hong Kong to sell clothes in the night market to take advantage of the exchange rate...

Thinking about what his father had done in history, Jia Hongjian felt that his father was a very ambitious and principled man. If he disapproved of something, he would never do it and would even stand up for justice. But if he could be convinced, he would be very ambitious and take the lead. Such a character was very suitable for success...

"Father, have some tea," Jia Hongjian said respectfully, holding the tea in front of his father. Jia Gang glanced at his son, then scrutinized him for a few seconds, feeling that his son seemed to be truly repentant. He coldly hummed and took the tea. No matter what, they were a family, and the boy had his blood in him, looking much like he did when he was young. How could he really be angry with his son for life? Family feuds don't last overnight.

"Father, tell me about your company. How's the stock price? Is the shareholders' meeting coming up? How's the performance this year? Can you explain it to them?" Jia Hongjian asked tentatively. From his memory, his father's company's performance wasn't good, and with 90% of the shares widely held by individual investors, the shareholders' meetings were quite torturous, with old people often blocking his door to demand answers...

"Adult matters are not your concern. Just focus on your studies and don't cause trouble for the family," Jia Gang firmly rejected.

"You're right, Father. I agree. Teenagers are in the most important stage of their lives, and the most important thing is to study hard and get into a good school. That way, they can get a good job and even find a good partner and form a good family..." Surprisingly, Jia Hongjian suddenly seemed to change his stance and nodded in agreement with his father.

Just as Jia Gang was surprised by his stubborn son's sudden change, Jia Hongjian suddenly changed his tone and said, "But I have a slightly different view. I think that while children are studying hard, parents might as well talk to them about some social issues in a controlled manner."

At this point, Jia Hongjian paused, giving his father a few seconds to let his curiosity grow. When his father couldn't help but speak, Jia Hongjian continued, "Why? Because if children are completely isolated from society, they will be like flowers in a greenhouse. They will think the world is full of good people and that most people have a kind heart. When they grow up and enter society, they will suddenly find that there are many dark sides to the world. They will feel cheated for over twenty years, be confused, and even become resentful, and some might even start to do bad things..."

Jia Hongjian skillfully paused again, giving his father time to think. Seeing his father nod in agreement, he continued, "So I have an immature idea. Just like the Great Yu's flood control, it's better to guide than to block. Parents can't protect their children in a greenhouse forever. It's better to let a little of the outside world in under their control, so the children can get used to it. This way, when they enter society, they won't experience the shock of the collision between ideals and reality... What do you think, Father?"

Following his son's logic, Jia Gang felt a sudden enlightenment. The more he thought about it, the more he agreed with his son, and the more he felt proud that his son had his excellent blood...

At this moment, Jia Hongjian was just smiling, waiting for his father to act according to his request. For a reborn person like him, making others do what he wanted was very simple, and he could even summarize an effective method.

When he disagreed with someone's actions or ideas, he didn't criticize them. Instead, he praised them and gave their ideas full credit. This eliminated their psychological defenses and resolved their potential resistance. Once they lowered their defenses, he would gently introduce his own views, suggesting them as a "soulmate" to the other party, making it hard for them to refuse...

Jia Hongjian had used this method many times, and it always worked.