Zhao Ming led Xu Ye along corridors and through doorways until they came out in an empty rear courtyard.

Zhao Ming looked left and right, and once he was sure there was nobody about he took out a pack of cigarettes Xu Ye had never seen before from an inside pocket of his suit. He shook one out and put it in his mouth with practiced ease. "Do you smoke?"

Xu Ye shook his head and smiled. "I don't, thanks."

At that Zhao Ming put the pack away, produced a Zippo lighter, lit the cigarette with a flourish, and remarked, "I didn't smoke before I went abroad either. When I was studying I had an idiot roommate who smoked in the room all day. I breathed his secondhand smoke every day, and in the end I just started myself."

"Heh~"

"Did you do your degree at your father-in-law's university?"

"No."

Xu Ye didn't explain what lay between himself and Jiang Chao. He answered easily instead. "I'm at the School of Finance. Very ordinary compared with Fudan or the University of California — nothing like you."

Zhao Ming laughed. "Bullshit. I got into the University of California because my uncle donated a building. I never even sat the college entrance exam — I went to America halfway through my last year of high school."

"That's still something to envy."

"True enough."

Zhao Ming plainly didn't find it in the least shameful. On the contrary, he laughed rather smugly. "All roads lead to Rome — but some people are born in Rome. Though now I'm back in the country, my good days are over."

"How so?"

"Abroad there was nobody to keep an eye on me. I did whatever I wanted. Now I'm back I'm about to start work at my uncle's company, and he's kept me on a tight rein since I was small. I expect I'll be getting told off every day."

Xu Ye heard him out and asked, curious, "Did you study finance too?"

"Mm."

"You've never thought about making something of your own?"

Zhao Ming shook his head.…