The Analects of Righteous Father’s Collapse

“This is the great sturgeon caviar from Iran, Almas Caviar! Almas is identical to diamonds in Russia ah!"

This time Jiang Liu came to Xiangjiang city to attend a small banquet to represent his father. This banquet didn’t involve too much business dealings and the main purpose of this banquet was to improve business contacts.

The host of the party gave a brief opening speech before the pre-meal was delivered to each guest.

At this time, a delectable white caviar was placed in front of Jiang Liu. It was on a delicate crystal plate and the base of the plate was covered with ice cubes while caviar sat on the fine ice cubes to preserve the best taste of the dish.

A seashell spoon was also placed aside for him. As metal is reactive to the caviar and can destroy the taste of the dish, so usually seashell spoons were prepared to taste this type of precious food.

Jiang Liu had acquired the knowledge of caviar from the memories of the original. The price of this precious food was about US $25000 per kilogram and it would fluctuate according to its quality.

Although Jiang Liu was also rich in his last task, his overall wealth couldn’t be compared to his current wealthy life. Especially so for a great extent he had to restrain himself and put the limited money into unlimited charity.

The only extravagant consumption in the last task was the blue Ferrari he bought for his son. This type of food was not included in Jiang Liu’s consumption list.

Now it’s different. In this world, the original was used to such luxurious life since he was a child and was famous for showing off his wealth. Not to mention the caviar in front of him, even if he bought dozens of pounds of caviar to play, others would just scold him at best for wasting money but he wouldn’t have any problem.

Looking at the small quantity of caviar in front, Jiang Liu was a little excited. It is said that the price of such small quantity servings in restaurants is as high as HK $12,000. With such an expensive price, taste should be extremely delicious.

He was excited and thinking stupidly but had to hold his face in the banquet. After all he was now the son of the richest man.

With the etiquette inherited from his original body, he gracefully used a shell spoon to scoop up and took a small bite of caviar.

The round beads of caviar spread in his mouth and Jiang Liu made a little effort to crush these precious beads. Just as Jiang Liu was prepared for its supreme taste, his face changed slightly.

In all fairness, Almas caviar can be regarded as the most delicious caviar in the world. Besides its expensive price and preciousness, its taste is also impeccable.

Unlike ordinary caviar, Almas caviar has a little more elasticity, and its taste is more delicate with nutty flavour and non-salty exterior. Unfortunately, Jiang Liu was not a food critic so he couldn’t taste the mild salty and fishy taste behind it.

“Host, isn’t it delicious?”

001’s eyes had already been replaced with ripple patterns. As a system of Jiang Liu, it could clearly feel the emotional ups and downs of Jiang Liu. In its view, this caviar must be super delicious, so Jiang Liu would have such emotional changes.

“Well, money tastes good.” Jiang Liu responded while trying his best to ignore the strange taste in his mouth. He took a sip of brandy while looking at the joyful expressions of the other guests.

By the way, this is the French brandy that Napoleon hoarded in 1811, with a market price of US $6000.

Jiang Liu was too lazy to study why the brandy of 1811 can be preserved until now. When he was about to finish the drink, he heard some collectors saying that they still had such precious wine with historical significance. He only knew that he was not drinking wine but money, and money can always add flavour to the food.

Fortunately, the taste of the dinner and the desserts was pretty good, especially the filet mignon steak for dinner. It’s meat was extremely tender. Even though Jiang Liu was not a food critic, he could also say that it was delicious.

However, these exquisite dishes obviously couldn’t satisfy Jiang Liu. After this round of banquet, his stomach still wanted ten skewers of lamb kebab, ten skewers of beef, five skewers of leeks, five skewers of chicken hearts and duck sausages, two grilled bread skewers, a pack of grilled foil mushrooms and two bottles of beer.

***

“Ahh! Finally came alive!”

At eleven o’clock in the evening Jiang Liu sat on a stall at the night market with his rolled up sleeves. Because he was in Xiangjiang, he could not eat the skewers he wanted most. However, he ordered a stewed radish sirloin, a portion of steamed vermicelli (rice noodles) rolls, as well as a portion of stewed beef offal served with a can of beer. After ordering these dishes, the whole person’s spirit got better.

“The host is too disappointing.”

001 didn’t know the difference in food taste, but he thought that not long ago the host had been very happy for getting wealthy overnight, and then came to eat street snacks. It was obviously a very disappointing performance.

“You little fool can’t understand it.”

Jiang Liu burped and hated that iron didn’t become steel before saying, “You say would I dare to order the stewed radish sirloin with a stewed beef offal before. And I don’t like liver beef, you see I left the liver aside. You say, when I had no money before, would I dare to do this all?”

“More than that, I have thought about it. When I go back to the inland and eat hot pot, I will order two Yellowthroats and two hairy-belly animal’s tripe. Not only that, I don’t have to worry about ordering beef or lamb anymore. Now I have money so I will order the best quality. You say, being this extravagant, do I still disappoint you?”

‘A small child looked down on him. Can you be a spendthrift and spend like this without having money?’

Thinking of the nine figure deposit in the original’s bank card, and his Express Centurion Black Gold Card with an overdraft of up to 10 million US dollars, Jiang Liu felt that after experiencing so many worlds, his spring had finally arrived.

After hearing the host, 001 became dizzy.

‘Is it lavish to order a piece of lamb while eating beef in a hot pot? Seeing the attitude of the host, it seems really lavish.’

001 was a little relieved thinking that the host adapted well to the current rich second-generation identity.

*****

When Jiang Liu came into this body, the original had just finished celebrating his 17th birthday. Now Jiang Liu was a high school sophomore with academic difficulties. Because the richest father was protecting his son, the internet was not as overwhelming and full of his news as in his last task world. Therefore, Jiang Liu was walking on the road without worrying about others recognizing him and pointing at him.

Soon after he came back from Xiangjiang, his summer vacation as a sophomore was over, and he was promoted to senior three.

The family had a plan to send the original body to study abroad very early. Therefore, the original was not particularly tense for senior three’s curriculum. What he was really tense about was the homework arranged by the home tutor. The tutor was hired by his family to help him prepare for IELTS and TOEFL tests.

He was the son of the richest man of China. Even if his family was capable of knocking out any Ivy League school door for him, his performance couldn’t be too ugly and losing his family’s face.

The timing when Jiang Liu came to this world was best for him.

First, in the storyline he accepted, the richest father placed high hopes on his son like now, and spent a lot of financial and material resources to train him in vain.

Second, at this time, as the original body used to show off to the girls so his reputation was not good among people. However, even if people around him knew about his extravagant and wasteful habits, this irrelevant conduct would not be taken into account by the rich man.

However in any case, if you are a student then you have to attend the classes. Even being a son of the richest man is no exception.

After travelling through several worlds, Jiang Liu once again carried his schoolbag and entered the high school.

***

“Ah! It’s good to be young!”

Jiang Liu stood near the door of the third and second class. When he looked at the young boys and girls in the classroom, he could not help but sigh.

By the way, the original body never seemed to have told his classmates about his true identity. In the eyes of these students, he was a rich second generation with a little money in his family.

Jiang Liu felt that it was not good. The classmates took the original as a friend. How could the original body hide his true identity from these friends? When his identity would expose, the students would recall this all. Wouldn’t this incident create a gap in their friendship?

“I think the host just wants to show off.”

001 spoke after silence.

“I don't, I don't.”

Jiang Liu felt wrong, thinking how he could be that kind of person. And even if he was, it must be the fault of the original that his residual memory had affected him.

He was such a pure, bright and innocent boy that even if he pretended to be a zhuang B one day, it would mean that he was forced by the system and the society. It had nothing to do with him.

(T/N: 装B is a shorthand for 装牛屄 (zhuāng níu bì): Here, zhuang actually means “pretend” and figuratively means “poser”, while niu bi figuratively means “badass/ cocky/ showy.”)

Jiang Liu grinned and hummed Xiao Qu’er while carrying his bag to his seat.

Before he could put the bag into the desk, the person on the same table quietly handed over a note. Her head was lowered so he couldn’t see her face clearly.

Ah, a small pink note.

Jiang Liu had not experienced high school life, however he also knew what this ambiguous color represents.

Thinking that it was bad to rashly reject a little girl, Jiang Liu kept the little note in his hand without a trace before leaving the classroom. Jiang Liu walked into a male toilet compartment and then opened the small note.

It said, ‘Sorry, I like Bernhard Riemann. Thank you for your love. Now we should all focus on academics.’

It was not the confession as he imagined. Looking at the content of the small paper slip, it was more like that the original person once confessed to the girl, but he was rejected.

Jiang Liu looked at the memory of the original body, however the original body left him with 83 years of memory, so the tender love in high school had already disappeared from it.

After clearing up the mood, Jiang Liu rushed back to the classroom before the start of the self-study.

When his little deskmate saw him coming in, she quickly lowered his head. Jiang Liu could only see her thick hair bangs. Her tender white hands were clenching the ballpoint pen tightly.

Ah! the little girl regards him as a savage beast. Jiang Liu was a little uncomfortable. How could he bear the pot left behind by the original while simply being a rich and handsome second-generation man?