"Alright, that’s everything I needed to say."
"Come on, let’s have one last drink, and then we should get some rest."
"It’s already very late. If we keep talking, the sun will be up!"
Su Ruoxi glanced at her watch and saw Lin Xiaoman’s slightly drowsy expression. She knew it was time to wrap up this conversation of apologies and encouragement.
Sometimes, it’s best to know when to stop.
Pouring everything out at once can sometimes be less effective than saying nothing at all.
Lin Xiaoman let out a sigh of relief.
Although she was uncertain and even worried about her future, Lin Xiaoman still felt that no matter what, her brother would have her back and help her.
Especially when Lin Feng had just offered to make a reading list for her. Lin Xiaoman, who had never enjoyed reading, was already dreading it.
She could already picture herself in the future, forced to hold a book she couldn’t get into—one she actively disliked—but having to read it word for word just to complete the task her brother had set for her.
Even her parents’ constant urging for her to study since she was a child had never succeeded in the end.
But this time, Lin Xiaoman understood. This reading wasn’t for someone else, nor was it just for the sake of a better future. It was for the group of people who followed and trusted her.
As more and more streamers and employees joined her Streamer Alliance, Lin Xiaoman was beginning to understand that the greater the ability, the greater the responsibility.
The higher her position, the more she needed to be responsible for the efforts and futures of others.
Many of them came from difficult backgrounds, their entire families relying on streaming as their livelihood.
So if she really messed this up and let everyone down, ’I probably wouldn’t even be able to forgive myself!’
But it was the middle of the night, so there was no way Lin Feng would let Lin Xiaoman go home alone.
Besides, they had a room at the house set aside just for her.
「It was almost sunrise.」
Only then did the family return to their own bedrooms, lie down, and begin to drift off to sleep.
"Do you think that conversation tonight actually helped?"
"We spent all evening patiently talking her through it, but how much do you think Lin Xiaoman really absorbed or even understood?"
Even though it was very, very late, Lin Feng couldn’t sleep. He tossed and turned, unable to calm his thoughts.
He didn’t know how to ease the worry he felt for his sister.
"Sigh, I knew you couldn’t sleep."
"You were tossing and turning. I was just waiting for you to tell me what’s bothering you so I can help."
The woman beside him had, of course, long since sensed that her boyfriend was wide awake.
’But sometimes, you can’t just ask a man directly. You can’t be too eager to question him or solve his problems for him.’
’Especially with a successful man like Lin Feng. Their pride is stronger, their competitive spirit fiercer!’
Lin Feng smiled knowingly, grabbing his pillow and propping it against the headboard.
He leaned back against it and reached over to turn on the bedside lamp.
The warm yellow light cast a gentle glow across the room, illuminating the soft contours of Su Ruoxi’s face.
"To be honest, it’s not just about Lin Xiaoman. I’ve suddenly realized that the world is less and less like what we imagined it would be when we were kids."
"It feels like we’re becoming more and more utilitarian, more and more... jaded."
Lin Feng leaned against the headboard and gazed up at the ceiling, bathed in the warm yellow light.
It no longer seemed as plain as usual. Instead, it was like the dusk sky of his childhood, gentle and reassuring.
It reminded Lin Feng of his childhood fantasies, of the memory of his own young, proud face as he grandly announced to everyone that his great ambition was to become a scientist.
Back then, Lin Feng didn’t have a system, no life running on cheat codes. He was like most little kids, especially little boys, who loved imitating cartoon heroes. He could pick up a stick and brandish it for half the day as if it were the Dragon-slaying Sword.
The Lin Feng of his childhood had no real worries. His biggest hardship was probably having to go to kindergarten and eat food he found hard to swallow. But what were those troubles compared to the joy of playing with his friends?
"Yeah..."
Su Ruoxi let out a long sigh as well.
She rolled onto her back to gaze at the gently lit ceiling, memories of her own childhood stirring within her.
"But after growing up, it seems we’ve become more and more afraid to dream, more afraid to even think about accomplishing the impossible."
"That ’youthful spirit,’ those ’ideals,’ those ’dreams’—they’ve all been crushed by reality."
"Now, if an adult talks about dreams or says something even remotely ’childish,’ they get ridiculed by others."
Su Ruoxi felt a sense of helplessness, but it was unavoidable.
After all, in this era dominated by profit and desire, everyone is judged by a single standard: their potential for monetization—how much money they can make, how much financial value they can generate.
While measuring a person by their wealth isn’t inherently wrong, it just feels so... worldly. And ’worldly’ is the polar opposite of elegance, of dreams, of childishness, of the innocence we once had!
"Yeah, and even at our age, we’re slowly being pulled down into this materialistic society. It seems we’re also starting to think more about it."
"How much a person is worth, how much money they can make, whether they can cash in in the quickest way possible, and what their future value is."
Lin Feng continued to stare at the ceiling, an increasing sense of world-weariness washing over him.
"And even though these terms sound so sophisticated—we can use all sorts of English acronyms to make them sound impressive—we can’t escape the reek of money."
"The values we were taught growing up—to not bow to money, to not kowtow to wealth—they’ve slowly turned into a sad joke as we’ve gotten older."
Lin Feng’s voice suddenly turned listless, as if he were a frail old man drained of strength, or a hearth fire that had its fuel taken away, its desire to burn suddenly extinguished.
And they were just a young man and woman, barely out of their teens.
Though they had already weathered many storms, and though their current wealth and experiences far surpassed those of their peers—to the point where even adults in their thirties might not match their maturity and life stories—the things they had been through were, in the end, only external.
Internally, however, the conflict between the pursuit of their original dreams and the pressure of reality forced them to make compromises and changes.
Even though Lin Feng knew he had a system, he felt powerless to fight against the prevailing current of the times.

Comments

Loading...