Half past five the following evening.

Xu Ye set off for Fudan University's Handan campus. The two schools were less than eighteen kilometers apart — twenty-five minutes by car.

Once he reached the school gate he messaged Jiang Chao, and after waiting about fifteen minutes he saw Jiang Chao come out of the school.

"Over here." Jiang Chao put his window down and waved.

Xu Ye ran over and greeted him politely as Uncle Jiang. Jiang Chao said briskly, "We'll take my car. I'll bring you back afterward."

"Right."

Jiang Chao wore formal clothes all year round, and in winter might add a trench coat over them. He and Jiang Wei might be father and daughter, but there was not much resemblance between them in looks — in temperament, though, they were very alike: unsmiling, and always cold with strangers.

Jiang Chao seemed to sense that the atmosphere in the car had turned awkward, and brought up a subject of his own accord. "How's business lately?"

"All right. I've sold the fruit shop on. The vending machines bring in about the same every month, and I barely manage them now — Jiang Wei handles most of it."

Jiang Chao had already heard how Jiang Wei was doing from his younger brother Jiang Ping.

He was rather pleased about it.

He asked nothing much of his daughter. He only hoped she would settle into her studies and her work, and stay healthy and happy after that.

Jiang Chao nodded, then changed the subject again. "Tell me, then. How did you come to be interested in investment?"

"Because there's serious money in it."

"Only a small proportion make money. For most of them it goes down the drain. Besides, I told you before — the bar to entry in investment is high."

Xu Ye laughed. "Actually, I've already invested in two companies."

Jiang Chao frowned, taken aback. "Which two?"

"One is a games studio called miHoYo, the other a clothing brand doing lingerie and swimwear. I put five million into the first for a ten percent stake, and I'm putting five hundred…