Early the next morning Xu Ye got up, hauled Zhang Xinzhou bodily out of bed, and after a couple of mouthfuls of something in the canteen he drove the two of them off campus.

Zhang Xinzhou sat in the passenger seat looking helpless. "Finals are almost here. Instead of revising properly in the dorm, where are you taking me?"

Xu Ye: "To rent an office."

"An office?" Zhang Xinzhou asked, full of curiosity. "Don't we have an office? What do we want another one for?"

Xu Ye's answer was short and to the point. "I'm setting up an investment company. I've already found the man to head the investment department. Before the summer break I want the office set up and the hiring done."

"An investment company?"

Xu Ye hadn't formally mentioned any of this to Zhang Xinzhou, and learning it all at once left him thoroughly startled. "Where did you get the money?" he said, baffled.

At a red light, Xu Ye unlocked his phone, found the bank's transaction message among his texts, and handed the phone straight over.

Zhang Xinzhou took it and looked, and started counting out loud without thinking. "Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, hundred thousands, millions—Christ! When did you get this rich?"

"Made it in the market. I was running leverage."

"You absolute bastard. First year isn't even over and you're a multi-millionaire. I'm feeling pretty sour about it right now. What am I supposed to do?"

Xu Ye snatched the phone back. "Boo hoo."

Zhang Xinzhou had after all seen something of the world, and he settled down again quickly. If Yang Fei had found out Xu Ye had over thirteen million in his bank account, he'd probably have called him Dad on the spot.

"Where are you thinking of renting?"

"Jinqiao Wanchuang Center, the block just below the Huawei research institute. Ten minutes by car, twenty on an electric scooter. I had a rough look online yesterday — a hundred and forty square meters or so is fifteen thousand a month, two hundred square meters is twenty thousand a month. I'm not…