Chapter 388 - 255: The Next Subject: Romantic Love

Chapter 388: Chapter 255: The Next Subject: Romantic Love

He lit a coil of incense and brewed a pot of tea.

Lin Chu sat back in his large executive chair, savoring the current moment of comfort and satisfaction.

—Today, amidst the countless skyscrapers of this bustling city, he finally had a little world of his own.

Unable to resist, he patted his own face. Lin Chu still felt as though he were in a dream.

The real sensation, however, pulled his mind back to reality.

After a slightly speechless laugh, an idea suddenly popped into Lin Chu’s head.

Gu Jiayan had gone out, and there was no one else in the office.

The soundproofing was excellent; there was no noise from the hallway outside.

The workers installing the LC Building sign on the exterior glass wall had also just finished...

A little world all his own.

Lin Chu locked the door from the inside, pulled out a small blackboard, and began to carefully write down names, one by one.

Jiang Ya.

Fang Yichun.

Yang Huixian.

Liao Meili.

Liang Jieyu.

Gu Jiayan.

After he finished writing, he stared at the board for a moment, tutted twice, and lit a cigarette, shaking his head with a self-mocking smile.

’This is my debaucherous... "youth."’

’Or rather, making up for a lost youth.’

’Of course, youth isn’t all about women, isn’t all about desire, but it’s undeniable that they make up a pretty big part of it.’

’And besides...’

’Aside from these names, there were still several I didn’t write down—I left out the ones that felt very "transactional," as well as the girls who weren’t exactly blank slates...’

To be honest, for the girls who still had a bit of innocence, Lin Chu felt a certain sense of responsibility.

This, too, was a natural male instinct.

Now that his career had entered a stable phase of development, the focus of his next stage should be to properly manage his personal life.

He thought for a moment.

Starting a new column on the right, Lin Chu wrote down three more names.

Zhou Luan.

An Yunzhi.

Mo Xiaorou... As he wrote her name, he paused to think, then crossed it out.

Then he reconsidered.

Lin Chu moved the names of Yang Huixian and Liao Meili to the right column.

Four on the left.

Four on the right.

Looking at each column... Lin Chu fell into a mental battle.

Two thoughts surfaced in his mind at the same time.

Along with a multitude of social values, humanistic concepts, public order and good customs, morals and ethics, and most importantly... his own will.

A grand debate tournament began in his mind.

Affirmative: A man should marry a virtuous wife of equal social standing.

Negative: Biological instinct, burgeoning desire.

...

Affirmative: A singular, pure happiness. A perfect family that everyone envies, like Yuan Fang’s.

Negative: Indulgence. Life is but a few short decades; a man’s instinct is to sow his seeds as widely as possible.

...

Negative: No woman is worth entrusting your whole life to. "Husband and wife are like birds in the same forest; when disaster strikes, they fly their separate ways." Marriage is a legal relationship, not an emotional one.

Affirmative: That thing called love... it definitely exists. If you believe in it, it might not happen to you, but if you don’t believe, it definitely won’t. It’s life’s ultimate experience. Besides, I’ve had my fun. "The return of a prodigal son is more precious than gold!"

...

Negative: More children means more blessings. Have a few more kids; I can afford them anyway. Isn’t that just how society works? As a billionaire with tens of billions, what’s wrong with having a few illegitimate children? Not having any would make me the weird one!

Affirmative: What if you really have a child in the future, and he looks up at you with innocent eyes and asks, "Daddy, why are you never home? Who are those other little brothers and sisters?" How will you face him? How will you live with yourself? How will you face your own conscience?

...

And so on, and so forth. After finishing one cigarette and lighting another, Lin Chu licked his lips, sat cross-legged on the floor, and once again shook his head with a smile.

He had previously thought about drawing experience and nourishment from the lives of others, to see if he could find a reference point.

Now, that idea had gradually faded. Everyone has their own path.

Lin Chu fully realized that—he alone could make all the decisions for his life, and he alone had to bear all the responsibility.

Only then could he be called powerful, awesome, and enlightened.

’When was I at my strongest?’

’Right after I broke up with Li Yaoyao, and right when I started to get rich.’

’My heart was like iron, indestructible.’

’I’d made up my mind to live this life on the negative’s side: seal my heart, lock away love, and never get emotionally involved. To walk through a field of a thousand flowers without a single petal touching me.’

’But now, I don’t feel so strong anymore. My feet are starting to move toward the affirmative’s side.’

’After all, who can be truly heartless?’

’It’s just... my love is all-encompassing.’

Yuan Fang’s kind of sweet love also had its objective conditions—he was old, in his fifties, and his hormone and testosterone levels had long since plummeted.

It was like that joke you see online: the best time to get married is after retirement. You don’t have the energy to play around anymore, you’ve seen and done it all, and all you crave is a simple, clean romance in your twilight years.

But he was only twenty-four.

The objective reality was, his heart was still unsettled.

It was like a scene from a game: a greedy person lingering in a treasure vault filled with priceless artifacts, a dazzling array of gems that threatens to overwhelm the senses. But the rules state: you can only take one. You *must* only take one.

He sat there, still as a stone.

Lin Chu was like a monk in meditation.

’This must be that damn "tempering the heart in the mortal world," huh?’

...

After sitting for a while, a knock suddenly sounded at the door. On the security monitor, he saw Gu Jiayan standing outside.

"Don’t bother me. I’m thinking about something."

Lin Chu said in a calm tone.

His voice carried outside the door. Gu Jiayan looked at the security camera, smiled, and gave an OK sign before turning and walking away.