A perfect life begins with changing the timeline.

Chapter 90 From Introduction to Traditional Chinese Medicine to Burial

Li Mu had no idea that his family was already making arrangements for his marriage.

Actually, if he could, he would prefer his family not to know he came to the United States and was attacked. After all, parents are always worried when their son is away from home.

Now that I know, I can just let them know I'm safe.

He had just hung up the phone when a call came in from Guangdong Radio and Television, and the two sides began to discuss the interview content.

The other party's request was the same: that Li Mu simply recount the events of that day truthfully, without any preconceived notions or biases.

With CCTV's live broadcast, this kind of telephone communication now seems rather childish to him.

That's just how men are.

There are some things you won't understand until you experience them. But once you've experienced them, you'll know exactly what to do.

Li Mu stayed up all night until 4 a.m. on September 12th before finally finishing his last interview.

Guangdong, Shanghai, Hunan, and other places—that day, he answered countless questions about the situation on the ground. And as people back home began returning to work, he received messages from many people: university classmates, fellow interns from the same newspaper, and even a text message from Zhao Fengrui.

He clearly saw the news too.

After Li Mu replied that he was fine, the two agreed to have tea together and sit down for a chat after Li Mu returned to China.

He has a few projects that I think Li Mu would be interested in.

Li Mu didn't ask any more questions, afraid of giving himself away.

Finally, utterly exhausted, he collapsed onto the sofa in Chu Jiwei's study.

I slept until around 3 PM New York time on September 12th —

Meanwhile, back home it was the middle of the night. With nothing to do, he took a shower and then turned on the TV to watch a local New York channel. Then he saw that the photos he had taken were on the news—

It looks like his photos have already been sold.

This month's salary should be quite high, right?

His mind wandered to random thoughts, and his gaze gradually became vacant.

Flights across the United States resumed on September 13.

Wang Hai was taken to the airport by Chu Jiwei, who also retrieved Li Mu's luggage.

The wealthy people who came to New York for the investment conference all returned to China. Unfortunately, Li Mu couldn't leave yet. When Chu Jiwei returned home, he saw the neatly folded blankets on the sofa and knew that Li Mu probably hadn't even been to the bedroom. He was quite speechless and told him to go sleep in the guest room.

Li Mu chuckled, took out a change of clothes from his suitcase, and then saw him off.

-

School hadn't resumed classes yet, and the older brother didn't choose to stay in downtown New York for long, instead extending an invitation to go to the farm together.

But Li Mu rejected him again.

Seeing this, Chu Jiwei said no more and left on his own.

Li Mu stayed until the 16th, after classes resumed in New York, before he was notified that he could return to China.

Before returning to China, he invited Chu Jiwei's family, as well as Liu Xiaoli and Liu Qianmeizi, to have lunch together at a restaurant in the United States.

His flight is in the afternoon, so he has to leave right after lunch.

For Chu Lin, the biggest regret was obviously that she didn't get to talk to Fan Bing on the phone.

After all, there's a time difference, so we can only wait for another opportunity.

After the meal, amidst everyone's farewells, Li Mu got into his Cadillac and headed to the airport.

Inside the car, Li Mu said to Chu Jiwei, "Brother Wei, I want to buy US stocks. How do I do it?"

Upon hearing this, Chu Jiwei immediately gave him a phone number.

That was the contact information of his colleagues in Hong Kong before he immigrated.

All Li Mu had to do was entrust him with some information from his ID documents, and he could open an HSBC account in Hong Kong.

He explained very clearly how to trade stocks, including buying and selling.

In summary, it simply involves transferring a sum of US dollars to HSBC and then conducting normal buying and selling transactions with a $50 transaction fee.

Extraordinarily simple.

When Li Mu asked him, "Brother Wei, what do you think of Apple's stock?" Chu Jiwei shrugged and replied, "So-so. They're being squeezed out of the market by other computer companies."

Li Mu was speechless for a moment.

According to Fatty, Apple's stock price would plummet to rock bottom in the second half of 2002, causing a massive sell-off by retail investors. He bought $50 worth of Apple stock at that time, based on Chu Jiwei's advice.

As a result, the stock was worth over one hundred million US dollars a decade or so later.

When Li Mu heard Fatty say that, his eyes widened.

I thought to myself, "Is this the stock market?"

It should be called a money printing machine.

But the older brother who advised "himself" to buy in back then is now saying it's just so-so.

I have no idea what will happen next year.

For some reason, he felt a bit like laughing and crying at the same time.

But he didn't say much, only planning to make up for the favor he owed this guy next year.

Brother Wei, next year I'll take you flying.

They chatted idly the whole way, and finally, the Cadillac arrived at the airport. With his older brother waving, Li Mu walked into the airport. Long lines had already formed at New York airport—after going through a series of extremely strict security checks, Li Mu finally boarded his flight home.

There were very few people on the plane; clearly, after 9/11, people were filled with doubts about air travel.

But Li Mu had no choice but to pin his hopes on the strict security check he had just undergone.

And the Americans' timely and painful lessons learned.

Finally, the plane soared into the sky and disappeared into the clouds.

Li Mu leaned back in his seat, recalling his trip to the United States, let out a long sigh, and closed his eyes.

Life is unpredictable —

He thought to himself.

At noon on the 17th in the East Eighth Time Zone, Li Mu finally set foot on the land of his motherland.

-

No one came to pick him up, so he took a taxi and, instead of going directly back to Mingya Garden, went straight to the Audi 4S store.

The A6 he had been waiting for so long finally arrived, and he couldn't wait to get it.

As it turned out, this genuine German-imported Audi A6 was absolutely worth the month-long wait. When Li Mu saw the black car, tied with a red ribbon, waiting in the handover parking space, he felt it was all worth it.

Excitedly, he walked over and carefully inspected everything about the car. After signing the paperwork, he put his luggage in the trunk and eagerly got into the car.

Wow, the power seat adjustment is so high-tech!

Wow, this steering wheel feels amazing!

This interior—German craftsmanship is no joke!

"Buzz~"

As the car started and the engine roared, Li Mu, a smile unconsciously appearing on his face, waved to the salesperson, shifted gears, and drove off.

Audi, exuding a sense of stability and luxury, immediately attracts a lot of attention on the street.

Li Mu sat in the car and, in a very flashy manner, rolled down the driver's side window.

He drove slowly and steadily, from the 4S store to the gas station, and then all the way to the city center—he never closed the car windows the entire way. He could feel other people watching him out of the corner of his eye at bus stops, intersections, and places where pedestrians and vehicles were!

A car worth over 500,000 yuan deserves this kind of attention!

It made him feel incredibly happy.

And—he finally understood the wheelchair guy.

Or rather, the wheelchair-bound guy before he became paralyzed.

This Audi only costs a little over 500,000 yuan, and it already makes him secretly so happy. If he drove a sports car worth one or two million yuan to cause a ruckus on the streets, how awesome would that be?

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but feel a surge of interest.

But I immediately dismissed the idea.

Forget it, with the wheelchair guy's "miracle" example before me, I'd better not mess around.

While pondering this, he tightened his seatbelt and parked the car on the side of the road in front of Xinhua Bookstore.

As I got off the bus, I ran into two young men riding bicycles.

Li Mu clearly saw the other person's eyes moving back and forth between the car and the person.

He felt much more comfortable immediately.

With this good mood in mind, he walked into the Xinhua Bookstore and asked the clerk directly, "Hello, I'd like to buy a book on self-studying introductory traditional Chinese medicine —"

An hour later, Li Mu returned to his car carrying two stacks of packed books.

Besides the prominently displayed "Introduction to Traditional Chinese Medicine" at the very top, there were also works such as Lao She's "Winter in Jinan" and "Chrysanthemum and Knife."

Various miscellaneous books, including "Capital".

Since we already have a car, buying more won't hurt.

The other books were for reading, but the "Introduction to Traditional Chinese Medicine" was prepared for Brother Bie.

After learning from Fatty that Brother Bie had a tumor and that it would recur after a while, he started thinking about what to do.

As for how to do it, it's actually very simple.

It's in this book.

If you were to suddenly say something like, "Brother Bie, let's go get a physical exam," it would easily seem strange to others.

Not really suitable.

Therefore, Li Mu plans to disguise himself as a "traditional Chinese medicine practitioner".

Of course, traditional Chinese medicine is profound and extensive. Unless he dreams of another TCM doctor who has studied it, thinking he can become a doctor based on just one book is simply delusional.

That's too unrealistic.

But—that's also where human weakness lies.

When Li Mu was a child, he was bitten by a snake in a field. As a result, he feels a sense of fear whenever he walks among the grass and trees, whether he is at home in a wheat field, or with friends in a park, hiking, or any place with more vegetation. He is afraid that there might be a snake in the grass that he does not see and will bite him again.

A tumor, isn't it also a snake?

The reason why Brother Bie is thin is because he had previously undergone tumor removal surgery.

No wonder he had a scar on his stomach when he went to the spa.

Now, although the wound from the snake bite has healed, he believes that Brother Bie will still be afraid if he encounters anything related to it.

So, he plans to frequently wave this book in front of Brother Bie, and then intentionally or unintentionally say things like, "Brother Bie, you don't look too good," or "Brother Bie, judging from your appearance, your stomach doesn't seem to be doing well."

Brother Bie might not care once or twice.

But after saying it so much—he didn't believe that someone like Brother Bie wouldn't risk his life.

Don't forget, Henan Province is a major province for traditional Chinese medicine.

His studies in Traditional Chinese Medicine, given that he is from Henan Province, must be of high quality.

As he pondered this, he drove home.