117. I know not in what year or on what day, my heart's desire shall be fulfilled.

Bai Haonan found it incredibly amusing, even more fun than accompanying a wealthy socialite to the pinnacle of life back in the provincial capital.

He wasn't even in a hurry to find Qian Niu anymore. It didn't look like there was any violent foul play involved; perhaps Qian Niu was just as happily lost in the company of that girl, Xiaoting. That was how Bai Haonan, always quick to pursue a pretty face, chose to view the situation.

He had initially hoped to lure the crisp-radish-like girl named Xiaowan out for dinner, but he didn't succeed. As soon as the three-hour lecture finished, several people swarmed over to enthusiastically replace Xiaowan, claiming they would take the new friend to try the local specialty, old duck soup. Bai Haonan wanted to give them a cold shoulder, but he held back and simply went along with three or four other newcomers, with whom he had no intention of interacting.

After walking for what felt like forever and cutting through a vegetable market, they entered the third floor of a commercial building. The exterior was dilapidated, but after winding through a few corridors inside, Bai Haonan was genuinely stunned by the sight before him.

It was an enormous hall, brightly lit and packed with about a hundred round tables, every seat taken. There were men, women, young, and old—people of all ages and types. He thought about his own new fitness center, which boasted the largest floor space in the province; he had visited the construction site twice recently and felt it didn't even compare to the size of this hall. Perhaps the high ceilings contributed to the effect, but the sheer scale was overwhelming—a sensory shock akin to moving from a small five-a-side pitch to a stadium packed with tens of thousands. A massive LED screen on the wall cycled through bombastic promotional videos, and the room was a cacophony of noise, bustling with intense, manic energy.

The young man who had been sticking by his side, trying to strike up conversation, boasted proudly that the place was packed like this every day. Bai Haonan finally snapped, "Who the hell are you? Are we that close? I finally found a girl I could talk to, and now I’m stuck with your mug? Get lost, you’re annoying!"

His refusal to blend in and his impatient tone caused the temperature to drop among the seven or eight people surrounding him, but no one lost their temper; they just looked at him with complex expressions.

Bai Haonan wasn't afraid. He had faced down hostile crowds in stadiums of tens of thousands; as long as there were no weapons involved, he felt no fear. He sat down and started eating the food on the table. The others awkwardly followed suit. Bai Haonan didn't even bother to distinguish between the newcomers and the veterans. He used his chopsticks to fish for vegetables in the pot—he wasn't interested in the meat—and even enjoyed the boiled corn he found at the bottom. Meanwhile, he scanned the room for beauties, ignoring whoever snuck off to report his behavior.

In reality, there was a fair proportion of women, though they were scattered widely. In a crowd of thousands, there were only two or three per table; there was certainly no sign of the "co-ed living" rumors. The restaurant owner had been talking nonsense!

Bai Haonan’s inner monologue was cursing; he wanted some action!

Perhaps it was because they realized he only responded to beauty, or maybe Xiaowan had reported back that he was interested in paying, but just as Bai Haonan was gnawing on his second piece of corn, Xiaowan returned, looking full of energy. She clearly had been given a heavy dose of encouragement, which only made her slight malnutrition look even more pitiful.

Bai Haonan noticed that when she sat down, she barely touched her chopsticks and kept her eyes off the soup pot, focusing entirely on pouring him beer. She didn't push him to drink, but instead explained the content of the promotional video on the big screen just as the young man had.

Hearing the exact same words from a girl instead made Bai Haonan feel like a sucker; he listened quite intently, smiling. He even pushed the boiled corn he had fished out toward Xiaowan. "Go ahead, take a bite. Actually, eating some grains and corn right now is better for your energy levels than meat—the starch and proteins are more effective."

Xiaowan looked at the small plate with surprise. She glanced around instinctively and swallowed hard. She wasn't as dramatic as Isha had been, but her hunger seemed more desperate. She slowly picked up the corn and began to gnaw on it, nibbling with her fingers. When Bai Haonan leaned over to point at the screen with his chopsticks to ask a question, she didn't have to stop eating to talk.

How considerate the great Casanova, Brother Haonan, was to women!

Crucially, those nearby could see that he was being successfully "guided" by Xiaowan; the conversation seemed perfectly normal.

In truth, he had barely eaten a bite when he realized what the beer pouring meant. "Successful individuals" began to appear, backed by booming music and shrill microphones, going from table to table to toast. They kept repeating that it was a "great opportunity for development granted by the nation" and warned everyone not to make hasty decisions, but also not to miss out.

The big screen began to flash images and speeches of various national leaders. Even someone like Bai Haonan, who came from a background in football, could tell how crudely forged these images were. A picture of a leader would be followed by a bunch of text claiming to be their speech—anyone could write that! They even analyzed and annotated speeches from different years, claiming they were hints at the massive development happening here. The reason it wasn't stated explicitly, they claimed, was to prevent the limited opportunities from being snatched up by everyone. Being here was a blessing earned in a past life!

Bai Haonan suddenly remembered that Zhang Fei was also said to have had delicious beef. They were all a bunch of swindlers!

However, it was clear that many people around him were becoming excited. A few were even sharing their stories with tears in their eyes, claiming they had originally thought pyramid schemes involved kidnapping and violence, but seeing so many people living peacefully and not being rounded up by the government made them believe this was a legitimate cause.

Bai Haonan craned his neck to see if these people were wearing "long socks" (a signal of being part of the scheme). It seemed that those with weak wills were indeed being infected, embarking on a glorious path of idiocy.

Bai Haonan, the seasoned veteran who wasn't about to be fooled, focused his attention on keeping Xiaowan happy.

The girl seemed a bit happier; after eating a few pieces of corn, her smile became more genuine. She was pleased that Bai Haonan was picking up their enthusiastic jargon. After he had a few drinks with several "successful" people, she looked away for a second, only to be shocked to see Bai Haonan getting excited and heading to other tables to toast!

He was passionately sharing what he had heard and felt, declaring his decision to join the wave of development.

This caught the "long-sock" wearers—who made up half the room and were actually tightly organized despite their seemingly relaxed demeanor—completely off guard. But having such an active recruit among the newcomers didn't seem like a bad thing. Especially since everything Bai Haonan said was impeccable, like a skilled veteran. Xiaowan was stunned for a moment before being ordered to follow him and carry the beer bottles.

It was like watching Bai Haonan as a substitute player; you couldn't judge his performance from one match. You’d need to look at his record over a year, or five, or ten to find the pattern. It was the same here—if you had a camera on the ceiling, you’d see he was almost exclusively targeting tables with more young women.

He moved with great subtlety, wandering between tables. He didn't toast every one, and didn't even necessarily toast the ones with girls. He would just chat, sometimes being very enthusiastic, sometimes using different regional dialects to strike up conversations, making himself look just like a "successful" person.

The sober Xiaowan was truly acting like a secretary, scrambling to keep up with Bai Haonan as he darted around.

By the end of the night, the thousand people present—whether they were genuine newcomers, hesitant onlookers, or the conspirators of the pyramid scheme—all remembered this tall, bearded young man, and were deeply impressed by his enthusiasm and eloquence.

But who could have guessed that Bai Haonan’s theatrics were just a way to observe the female members of the scheme up close?

Being able to drink and flirt with so many dim-witted girls—how could he pass up such an interesting opportunity? Even nightclubs weren't this much fun!

They had gone through a dozen bottles of beer on this round of toasts, and Bai Haonan wasn't even tipsy yet when Xiaowan whispered to him, "That's all. They said you've drunk too much and the consumption is too high..."

It seemed even the landlord didn't have much grain in the storehouse. Bai Haonan said sullenly, "That's only a few bottles. Dammit, at a nightclub, we'd at least drink a few dozen. Are you full?"

As Bai Haonan wandered around, he had also been helping himself to the boiled corn from other people's pots, sharing it with his little secretary. It was all very normal.

Xiaowan blushed. "I'm full!"

It seemed like a tender moment, but Bai Haonan never once tried to talk her out of it. After two days, he realized that what Yu Jiali and that middle-aged man had said was true: it was pure brainwashing. They created a false sense of being cared for and valued for people who were otherwise unsuccessful in their daily lives. Once someone was on this path, no amount of reasoning would help.

To borrow a phrase Brother Nan often used: "Damn it, why waste so much effort? Trying to reason with them is less effective than getting straight to the point!"

The aftermath of the dinner proved this. The girl, who seemed slightly touched, remained full of enthusiasm as she led Bai Haonan to meet more "successful" figures. There were "immortals" who could interpret a hundred-yuan bill as a sign of impending wealth, "great masters" who synthesized Buddhism, Taoism, and Christianity to find theoretical support, and speakers with immense rhetorical skill who could take a map of Beijing and match the architectural layout, the orientation of buildings, and even the number of steps at the Great Hall of the People or trees in the Forbidden City to the numbers in their "five-level, three-tier" system. If Bai Haonan hadn't been so accustomed to the real bosses, real officials, and real successful people who loved to blow smoke in the football world, he might have almost believed them.

It felt like a mental assault. The brainwashing sessions, where three or five people would sit in a room listening to lectures, lasted until past two in the morning. Bai Haonan felt that if he closed his eyes, his brain would be dancing with the data of the "five-level, three-tier" system. With his already extraordinary memory, he might even be able to recite those heart-pumping motivational slogans in his sleep. In this environment, the process, which had likely been verified repeatedly, ended with the legendary "CEO" delivering a powerful line: "The question now isn't whether you are willing to do this, but whether you are qualified! The nation is testing you! Can you strive for the national interest and our future cause by stepping into these ranks..."

On the way back, three or four people accompanied Xiaowan as they walked with Bai Haonan, playing on his emotions and asking how he felt...

Bai Haonan went silent again. When they pushed him, he just asked where his friend was.

Xiaowan was starting to understand his temperament. When they turned a corner, she asked him privately, "Brother Wang, you... didn't you say you could invest?"

Bai Haonan replied with a devil-may-care attitude, "Yeah, it’s a good project, but I need to consider it more. I mean, look, I’m bored at home, no friends, no girlfriend. But here, everyone is a talent and they speak so nicely. I really like it here."

Xiaowan opened her eyes wide, trying to see if he was telling the truth. Having dealt with countless women, Bai Haonan’s skill in this was maxed out.

That night, he was taken to a room with four bunk beds. Three men monitored his reactions, talking nonsense to him, but Bai Haonan just flopped down and went to sleep. Who knew if he talked in his sleep?

The next morning, it was Xiaowan again who tried to wake him up. Even the soft-spoken Xiaowan couldn't help but smile. Bai Haonan jumped up, and they repeated the same routine of morning beach visits and daytime meetings.

But the old duck soup was served again, and another dozen bottles of beer were drunk. Bai Haonan got to see what other foolish women had arrived, but he still hadn't paid a cent.

Usually, there were three or four people surrounding him, monitoring him. By this time, Bai Haonan had probably been "figured out" by them, and for the next two days, he was surrounded entirely by women. Although, other than Xiaowan, they were all over thirty, a couple of them weren't bad-looking. They sat around in the small room, chatting enthusiastically.

Bai Haonan thought, *How is this any different from going to a nightclub and chatting with the hostesses?*

At least these women put effort into trying to please him, unlike the hostesses who only cared about drinking and racking up the bill. As he lounged on the sofa, he almost had a hallucination!

Perhaps Xiaowan had reported his shameless flirting, because finally, a buxom young married woman named Chen Meijuan glanced at him several times before whispering, "How about... I let you have your way with me, and then you sign the contract? Just buy one share!"

Hahaha, Bai Haonan almost burst out laughing. This was exactly what he had been waiting for! But he noticed the other women looked slightly shocked, and Xiaowan even seemed embarrassed, which suggested this wasn't common practice. He put on an act, playing hard to get: "This... how could I? That doesn't seem quite right, does it?"

One of the women immediately stood up and pulled the others out, claiming it wouldn't be good if they were caught, and that they would go outside to keep watch!

It seemed that for the sake of their performance quotas, these saleswomen, who were racking their brains to drag people into the trap, would stop at nothing.

Who could have imagined that a pyramid scheme, which outsiders feared like a tiger, had been cracked wide open by the irrepressible "Teddy Brother"?

He had originally intended to tease Xiaowan a little more.