Chapter 173: Have You Achieved Financial Freedom?

Zhang Yang picked up his phone and took a look.

“Long time no see, old classmate. You still remember me, right?” Zhou Xiaoyi sent a message.

“Yeah, I remember,” Zhang Yang replied.

“Haha, it feels like you’re still the same as in middle school. Not very talkative, still quite quiet.” Zhou Xiaoyi typed quickly, making a round of task-like small talk. “So here’s the thing… there’s something I’d like to ask for your help with, old classmate. Um… are you free for a voice call right now?”

“Sure, go ahead,” Zhang Yang sighed softly. How could he not know what it was about?

A moment later, the voice call came through.

Zhang Yang walked to the balcony and answered.

“Hello Zhang Yang, so here’s the situation. I’m currently doing self-media,” Zhou Xiaoyi explained the whole story.

Zhang Yang didn’t interrupt and quietly listened.

“So, you see, the blind box just happened to land on you. What do you think, old classmate? Would it be convenient if I came to visit you?” Zhou Xiaoyi asked over voice chat.

“You’re welcome to visit as a guest, of course. But recording my current situation and posting it… that’s not very convenient for me personally,” Zhang Yang declined politely.

“You’re still so shy. Be a little more confident. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about showing. Look at our former classmates-most of them are just living ordinary lives. Old classmate, just agree, okay?” Zhou Xiaoyi said with a laugh.

“Alright then, come over,” Zhang Yang nodded.

At worst, when she arrived, he could just let her selectively film and post some things. He wasn’t the kind of person to fuss over it.

“That’s great. Then I’ll head to Shanghai now. I’ll be there soon. How about we meet around noon?” Zhou Xiaoyi said quickly with a smile.

“Then… should I pick you up?” Zhang Yang asked politely.

“No, no. I can’t take up too much of your time. I’ll go to your workplace at noon. We can chat for a bit during lunch. How does that sound?” Zhou Xiaoyi said.

“Sure.”

A moment later, the call ended. Zhang Yang casually sent Zhou Xiaoyi the address of the office building and didn’t think much more about it.

After that, he drove his Cullinan and headed to Nimbus Capital first.

Inside the company, Zhang Yang sat steadily in his office, reviewed the latest progress from the HR department, and met the newly hired full-time driver.

The driver was a particularly young and agile young man.

As for the age requirement, Zhang Yang had specifically asked for it.

A driver needed flexible hours and had to be available whenever the boss called. A middle-aged person with a family couldn’t always do that, but a single young person could.

“You’ve been told about the working hours, right? You can accept them?” Zhang Yang casually flipped through the résumé.

“Chairman Zhang, absolutely,” the driver Xiao Sun replied without hesitation.

“Alright then. You start today. Go to the maintenance center tonight and drive my Phantom back to the company,” Zhang Yang instructed. “You can go now.”

Driver Xiao Sun immediately nodded and left the office.

Just after he left, Bai Jingyi gently pushed open the office door and brought in coffee.

“Chairman Zhang, the coffee you asked for. I added ice.”

“Thanks.” Zhang Yang took the coffee and casually looked at Bai Jingyi today.

Hmm?

He looked her over from head to toe.

A floral chiffon blouse, a tight skirt, combined with Bai Jingyi’s youthful energy-nice. Fresh yet sexy.

Zhang Yang couldn’t help glancing a few more times.

“Chairman Zhang, is… something wrong?” Bai Jingyi displayed herself slightly shyly and asked with a hint of nervousness.

“Nothing wrong. You have good taste in clothes,” Zhang Yang withdrew his gaze and commented.

“Thank you for the compliment, Chairman Zhang.” Bai Jingyi immediately felt secretly delighted.

“I may not be at the company around noon and possibly this afternoon. Continue familiarizing yourself with the work. Go help out at the general affairs department or something,” Zhang Yang checked the time and glanced at his phone again.

Not long ago, Zhou Xiaoyi had messaged him saying she had already arrived in Shanghai and was on the way here.

They would meet downstairs shortly.

“Alright, Chairman Zhang. By the way, Chairman Zhang, I have a gathering tonight, so I was wondering…” Bai Jingyi said timidly.

“You want to ask for leave?” Zhang Yang looked up and asked.

“No, no.” Bai Jingyi waved her hands quickly. “It’s just that if you have any arrangements tonight, I might not be able to respond immediately, so…”

“I thought it was something serious.” Zhang Yang laughed. “You’re an assistant, not a 24-hour assistant. When it’s time to get off work, just get off work.”

“Ah? Thank you, Chairman Zhang.” Bai Jingyi became so happy that she immediately bowed in thanks, which made Zhang Yang feel a little embarrassed.

Not long after Bai Jingyi left the office, Zhang Yang received a message on his phone.

“Classmate Zhang Yang, I’m downstairs.”

“Alright, I’ll come down now,” Zhang Yang replied, standing up and walking out of the office.

Downstairs at the office building, Zhou Xiaoyi had just come out of the subway.

From the subway exit to the front of the building, she opened her recording device and filmed a short casual video.

“I’ve arrived in Pudong now. I’ll be meeting this middle school classmate in a moment. Honestly, it’s been ten years since we last met, so I’m not even sure if I’ll recognize him at first glance.”

Then she stood at the entrance of the building, waiting while mentally reviewing the details of what she would talk about later.

Since it was for short videos, she naturally had to pay attention to the effect.

Every meeting with a classmate, the topics of conversation, and the final reflections all had to be prepared in advance. Sometimes she even needed the classmates to cooperate.

Around noon, people constantly came and went through the lobby of the office building.

White-collar workers, employees, delivery riders…

To ensure authenticity, Zhou Xiaoyi kept the recording device running and continuously looked toward the entrances and exits, trying to find the shadow of the person from her memory.

“Is it that one over there? The slightly chubby one running over?”

“What about that one? The one wearing glasses, walking quickly with tired eyes?”

Several in a row were not the person she was waiting for.

As she waited and grew bored, Zhou Xiaoyi suddenly blinked and stared at a tall, handsome figure not far away.

Damn, that guy is really handsome. Great temperament, great figure.

Taking a break to admire a handsome guy wasn’t bad at all.

While she was appreciating the handsome man from afar, Zhou Xiaoyi suddenly realized with surprise that he was walking straight toward her.

Before long, he actually stopped right in front of her.

“Hi, have you been waiting long?” the handsome man greeted her with a smile.

“Do we… know each other?” Zhou Xiaoyi’s heart started pounding wildly as she asked cautiously, while an unbelievable thought flashed through her mind.

That couldn’t be possible… probably not.

“Zhou Xiaoyi, I didn’t mistake you, right?” the handsome man said a single sentence that shocked her.

“You-you-you!” Zhou Xiaoyi’s eyes widened, and she instantly became tongue-tied.

She looked at the flawless, handsome face before her.

Bit by bit, the figure buried deep in her memory surfaced and gradually overlapped with the handsome man in front of her.

Then she cried out in shock.

“Zhang Yang?! You’re Zhang Yang?!”

“You didn’t recognize me just now?” Zhang Yang looked at Zhou Xiaoyi, whose mouth was open wide enough to fit an egg, and shook his head with a smile.

“No way. You really are Zhang Yang? This is unbelievable,” Zhou Xiaoyi murmured.

“Let’s go eat first. We can talk while we eat,” Zhang Yang said, gesturing forward. “I didn’t expect that after so many years, you’d become a big internet celebrity.”

“No, no, not even close. I’m just a porter,” Zhou Xiaoyi snapped back to her senses and smiled shyly. “I just carry out the stories of you old classmates and let them resonate with viewers.”

Normally, in her videos where she met classmates she hadn’t seen for years, she was quite talkative and cheerful. But for some reason, today after seeing Zhang Yang, she felt somewhat restrained and couldn’t fully relax.

In contrast, this old classmate was handsome and elegant, with an indescribable aura in every movement.

“You’re being modest.” Zhang Yang smiled. “I watched your videos too. Everyone’s changed quite a lot.”

“No one’s changed more than you. If your episode gets released, it’ll be a bombshell. By the way, old classmate, do you work in this building now? What exactly do you do?” Zhou Xiaoyi asked curiously.

“Me? I run my own company,” Zhang Yang said.

“You run your own company? That’s impressive!” Zhou Xiaoyi was even more shocked.

She vaguely felt that this episode would have more explosive moments than she could imagine.

After making so many episodes, some classmates were living ordinary lives, some had become outstanding elites, and some had started small businesses.

But none of them had actually started a company.

Even though she didn’t yet know what Zhang Yang’s company looked like or how big it was, just being able to open a company in a Grade-A office building in Pudong meant the scale must be decent.

“It’s alright, nothing special,” Zhang Yang said modestly.

“Old classmate, later on, could you take me to look around your company? Please,” Zhou Xiaoyi asked eagerly.

“Sure. You can selectively post whatever you want later,” Zhang Yang said.

“Looks like even after all these years, you’re still as low-key as before,” Zhou Xiaoyi immediately made an OK gesture.

For lunch, Zhang Yang didn’t deliberately pick any special place. He simply went to a nearby restaurant and had a casual meal.

Casual from Zhang Yang’s perspective.

But in Zhou Xiaoyi’s eyes, a restaurant with a per-person cost of several hundred yuan was absolutely not casual at all-it was quite grand.

“As expected of a boss, treating me to such a nice meal.” Zhou Xiaoyi rested her chin on her hand and looked at Zhang Yang. “By the way, I want to ask you a small question. Have you already achieved financial freedom?”

“That’s pretty direct. Asking that right away?” Zhang Yang laughed.

“You have to ask some sharp questions, or at least attention-grabbing ones. Honestly, there’s so much I want to ask and learn about,” Zhou Xiaoyi said.

“I guess so,” Zhang Yang said after thinking for a moment.

“What kind of financial freedom?” Zhou Xiaoyi hadn’t expected him to answer so directly and without hesitation. “You know, there are many types of financial freedom. Having enough money to live comfortably with no financial pressure, being able to do what you like, or buying whatever you want without worrying about money at all, or…”

“Mm… I guess so. I don’t really have to worry about money,” Zhang Yang said.

“Wow.” Zhou Xiaoyi fell silent.

She wasn’t stupid. She naturally understood what kind of confidence it took to say something like that so casually while living in Shanghai.

After the meal, the two walked back to the office building.

They chatted along the way.

“I really didn’t expect that the most inconspicuous little nobody in our middle school class back then would become so dazzling now. By the way, you’re not already married, are you?” Zhou Xiaoyi asked while walking beside Zhang Yang.

“No,” Zhang Yang shook his head.

“Hmm… makes sense. Career first. Then you must at least have a girlfriend, right?” Zhou Xiaoyi tapped her chin lightly.

“Yes,” Zhang Yang nodded again.

“What does your girlfriend do now?” Zhou Xiaoyi looked at Zhang Yang and asked.

“I opened a book café for her. She’s basically doing something she’s always wanted to do,” Zhang Yang said, glancing at Zhou Xiaoyi. “By the way, have you been recording this whole time?”

Zhou Xiaoyi suddenly laughed happily.

“What’s wrong? Worried that I’ll leak your privacy? Don’t worry, old classmate. Before uploading the video, I’ll definitely let you review it first. You can rest assured.”

The two walked into the office building and entered the elevator.

A moment later, the elevator doors opened.

“Hello, Chairman Zhang.”

As soon as the doors opened, the two receptionists greeted him.

Even though Zhou Xiaoyi had mentally prepared herself in advance, standing in her old classmate’s company at this moment still left her feeling shocked.

“Nimbus Capital?” she murmured the company name while looking around at the entire floor occupied by the company, so stunned that she could barely speak.

She wasn’t someone who knew nothing.

On the contrary, she knew far more common knowledge than most people.

For example, in Pudong’s Lujiazui area, the annual rent for an entire floor of this size would definitely be in the millions. She finally understood how much weight was behind her old classmate’s casual statement about not worrying about money.

“I’ll show you around a bit,” Zhang Yang said after looking at Zhou Xiaoyi.

Zhou Xiaoyi nodded quickly and followed behind him.

Inside the impressive company, every detail revealed something unusual and refined. The employees working there all carried the subtle air of high-level white-collar professionals.

Zhou Xiaoyi felt more and more certain that this was absolutely not some ordinary small company.

“Just sit wherever you like, old classmate. No need to be nervous,” Zhang Yang said after sitting down in the chairman’s chair in the chairman’s office and noticing Zhou Xiaoyi looking a little stiff.

“Zhang Yang, your place is really impressive,” Zhou Xiaoyi said as she looked around the enormous chairman’s office and then out through the floor-to-ceiling windows at the vast skyline of Pudong’s Lujiazui, a feeling she could hardly describe rising in her heart.

Zhang Yang smiled but said nothing.

The office door was gently knocked on and pushed open. Bai Jingyi walked in carrying tea and placed a cup in front of Zhou Xiaoyi.

Looking at the girl in front of her-whose figure and appearance both qualified as that of a great beauty-Zhou Xiaoyi couldn’t help feeling secretly shocked.

After the girl left, she finally couldn’t hold it in anymore.

“Old classmate, you’re already using an assistant now? And a beautiful assistant at that?!”

“That’s a strange way to put it. An assistant is just an assistant. In my eyes there’s no difference between beautiful or not. Yet you specifically emphasize beautiful assistant,” Zhang Yang said with a smile. “Actually, you know I’m kind of face-blind.”