563 A Talk on How to View Wealth

June 27th, Monday…

In the counselor Zhang Wei's office at Handong University…

"Another donation? You want to add another five million yuan?" Zhang Wei's jaw hung open as he thought about what to say in response.

Pei Qian had visited his office again this afternoon, saying that he wanted to continue giving allowance to the needy students that he had helped earlier. In addition, he wanted to donate another five million yuan.

The previous five million yuan had been distributed to two thousand students. They had been given a five hundred yuan allowance every month for five months. The sum had been added to their campus cards to pay their basic living expenses.

That was back in December. Until now, five months had passed, and Pei Qian's donation was coming just in time to continue distributing the allowance. On top of that, Pei Qian wanted to donate another five million yuan, to be distributed as a type of scholarship.

The current name list would still form the foundation, and five hundred students with outstanding academic results would be given a scholarship of ten thousand yuan each.

Pei Qian had the same aim as before. He specifically wanted to help the needy and not let the money go to waste.

There were many poor people in the world. Although there were many types of charitable causes, giving money to different groups of people would yield different effects.

Some people did not have sufficient awareness. Giving them money alone would not do much to change their poor lives.

For needy students—especially poor students who had outstanding academic results, obtaining this sum of money could be life-changing. It would count as a significant contribution to society.

Now, Pei Qian was allowed to donate a total of ten million yuan. It looked like a lot of money, but compared to the number of poor people who desperately needed financial aid in this world, that sum was still peanuts.

His primary aim was to ensure that the money went to people who needed it most.

"Alright, Teacher Zhang. If there's nothing else, I'll make a move first."

Pei Qian had only come here to settle the donation. Now that it was done, he could go back and worry about how to incur losses.

Zhang Wang and He Desheng had started advertising the Thriller Hostel in the shared phone booths and on 'Top Student, Come Quick'. This was a huge blow to Pei Qian.

"Hey, wait, wait!"

Zhang Wei quickly stopped Pei Qian. "Wait, there's something else."

Pei Qian: "Oh?"

Zhang Wei smiled. "Of course, I am all for your donations being used to improve the lives of needy students in this school. However… have you forgotten about the talk I asked you to do earlier?"

Pei Qian: "…"

He had indeed forgotten.

When he made the first donation, Zhang Wei had said that he hoped Pei Qian would give a talk to share his entrepreneurial experience with the seniors.

After all, to Zhang Wei, Pei Qian was a proper business genius. He would never believe that the latter had no business experience to share at all.

Yet, Pei Qian was helpless. He really didn't have any experience to share!

What's more, Pei Qian did not want to reveal his face in front of all of his seniors. He did not want to become famous, or his schoolmates would be asking him for jobs no matter where he went.

However, this was the second time that Zhang Wei was bringing this up. Pei Qian had escaped the first time, but rejecting him again did not feel appropriate.

Pei Qian pondered for a moment and said, "Well… how about this?

"I'll get someone to speak on my behalf, but I'll write the script. That would be equivalent to me going up on stage to speak, right?

"As for what the speech would be about…

"I have nothing much to say about employment or entrepreneurship. Teacher Zhang, you know that chance plays a huge part in entrepreneurship. My experience cannot be replicated. If I share it, it could mislead others.

"As for employment… a single test is used throughout Tengda. Trying to answer different types of questions is the best method.

"What if… we talk to the needy students? The talk's title would be 'I hope you use the money well'."

Zhang Wei pondered this for a moment, thinking that it made sense.

Entrepreneurial experiences could not be replicated. The more Pei Qian said, the more likely the students would be misled. Employment would be even worse. Those were all taken care of by the HR department, and Pei Qian never interfered with their work.

He had already donated fifteen million yuan to the needy students in school. Although each person was not getting that much, that was not a small sum of money.

It was reasonable for Pei Qian to give a talk, asking them to make good use of the money. In fact, it would be more fitting than sharing his entrepreneurial experience.

Zhang Wei nodded. "Alright, I'll make the necessary arrangements. Once I'm done, I'll send the time and location to your cell phone."

…

After walking out of Zhang Wei's office, Pei Qian called Tang Yishu.

"Little Tang, go and give a talk to the needy students that Tengda is sponsoring on my behalf.

"What? You're shy? No way. This is your mission. You have to go.

"Script? Oh, don't worry. I'll send it to you before the talk.

"Alright, that's set, then."

After hanging up, Pei Qian called Assistant Xin.

"Come up with a script for needy students for me. I have no requests for the content. Just come up with something and tell them to make good use of their newfound wealth or something.

"When can you finish it?

"Tomorrow morning? Alright, once you're done, send it straight to Little Tang."

After hanging up, Pei Qian felt more relaxed.

He was done! That was easy!

Actually, Pei Qian had not thought too much. After all, he was not doing charity to put on a show, and he was not trying to build his reputation either. He was purely trying to help the needy students and spend the maximum amount of money that the System allowed for charity while he was at it.

The only thing he was worried about was that the needy students would spend the money on the wrong things after getting a hold of it.

Thus, he wanted the talk to guide the needy students to the correct path as much as possible.

Of course, exactly what kind of effect it would have in reality depended on how Assistant Xin's script turned out.

…

…

The next afternoon…

At the Science Hall of Handong University…

This was the biggest hall in Handong University, and it could accommodate more than two thousand people. Ordinarily, it was used for large-scale talks, orientation nights, theaters, and dramas, and so on.

At that moment, almost all needy students were present. Apart from a few seats in the row right at the back, every single seat in the hall was filled.

Logically, a horizontal banner that said the title of the talk should have been put up on stage.

However, Pei Qian's script had not been done until the last minute. Thus, he had had no time to think about what to write on the horizontal banner.

Still, that was not the main point, as long as everyone knew what they were there for.

Before the talk began, some needy students began discussing off-stage.

"I heard that today's talk would be about how to view wealth?"

"There's nothing wrong with our view on wealth, is there?"

"I wouldn't say that. I see some needy students eating bread every day and talking about buying Pineapple cell phones."

"That's right, they should talk about it. What if people spent all that money on shoes, bags, and cell phones? Would they still be human?"

Zhang Wei was also seated off-stage, inwardly exclaiming at how simple the event was. He had initially intended to add a few more items to the program. After all, Pei Qian was donating ten million yuan. Having some sort of ceremony would not be overboard.

However, Pei Qian resolutely rejected the idea. Time and time again, he emphasized that he wanted a simple talk and nothing more. Otherwise, he would have canceled the talk altogether.

Zhang Wei had been left with no other option but to go along with Pei Qian's wishes.

"I wonder who Pei Qian got to speak. The Vice President of the company? He would at least have sent the head of the HR department, right?

"Eh, that's strange… where's Little Tang?"

Zhang Wei suddenly recalled that Little Tang was a needy student as well. Yet, why hadn't he seen her yet?

Just as he was feeling confused, he spotted Tang Yishu holding a script, walking out from backstage and towards the podium in the middle.

Zhang Wei: "…"

…

Tang Yishu stood in the middle of the stage, looking down at the crowd seated in darkness. Now, she was feeling even more nervous than before.

When she came to rehearse in the morning, two microphones had failed for no apparent reason. When the staff prepared to send them for repair, the microphones went back to normal. It had all been extremely confusing.

Now, Tang Yishu wanted nothing else but for the microphones not to malfunction again.

"F-Fellow needy students…

"Good afternoon to you all."

Tang Yishu started speaking very carefully. Fortunately, the microphones were all normal.

Her bad luck seemed to have dissipated with the few obstacles that she had met in the morning.

"Boss Pei—the man who donated the living allowance and scholarships—is extremely busy today, and so he's unable to come down. Thus, I will read this letter addressed to all of you on his behalf. I hope all of you will learn something from it."

Tang Yishu paused and then started reading the script in her hands clearly.

"Juniors, I hope you are well. I'm sorry that I cannot be there because of my busy schedule. I can only convey my intentions and hopes and share some of my personal experiences with you through this letter.

"Many of you might think that I want to talk to you about how to use the money you have.

"Perhaps some of you are worried that those who obtain the scholarship money would spend it on meaningless things that could only intensify one's materialism.

"However, I'm sure all of you already know this principle. I don't want to belabor the point.

"I want to explore how we should view wealth from another angle. That is, what are the true riches that we possess and that we should cherish?

"Most of you seated here probably would not think that you once had, or that you now have, an outstanding amount of riches. I believe all of you have been confused about this before: how can I become wealthy?

"Some of you spend most of your energy seeking recruitment to become wealthy. As a result, your academic results get affected.

"Some of you don't dare to fill your stomachs or buy necessities because of your poverty. Like a guardian of cash, you put away all of your money. It's as if your sense of security diminishes with every cent that you spend.

"I want to tell all of you that that is the wrong view of wealth.

"Please think about this: What are you willing to exchange for wealth?

"Imagine that you are a blacksmith living in ancient times. One day, you run out of food. To get grain, there are three things you could do:

"Plant your own.

"Rob and steal.

"Create farming tools and trade with farmers.

"Most people would choose the third option. All of you would realize that constantly manufacturing metal equipment and trading would help you to get richer. Thus, the foundation of accumulating wealth is 'trade'.

"If you choose to plant yourselves, rob, or steal, would you be choosing not to trade?

"That's not true.

"If you choose the first option, you would be trading your time, effort, and farming experience. If you choose the second option, you would be trading your fighting skills, taking risks, carrying weapons, and preparing for crime.

"No matter which you choose, you would be trading. What's more, what you give would not be any less valuable than if you manufactured farming tools.

"Every decision you make to gather wealth would amount to a trade.

"If you take away what is destined to be and the things that you have no control over, what is wealth that we truly possess and can truly trade?

"Is it money? No, that does not really belong to us. That is just a numerical representation of the wealth you have already given away.

"Is it time? No, the passage of time cannot be shifted by human will.

"Is it our bodies? That is indeed wealth that you own, but if you trade it for money, you would become miserable.

"The greatest wealth that anyone has is 'focus' or 'energy'.

"If you want to earn money by working, it would be of no use if you just sit in the office. You have to focus on your work and apply your knowledge to solve problems. That knowledge would be acquired if you focused in class and at work.

"Aside from everything else that we cannot control, the only wealth that we really have is our focus.

"This is the view on wealth that I want to share with you today: how should we make use of our focus?

"Many people might waste it away. Many people's focus might be taken away by businessmen with selfish motives. Some people might focus on big data analysis.

"Many students complain about being born poor and about life being unfair. This kind of resentment would destroy you. It will waste your focus and cause your life to fail.

"If we want to change our fate, we have to invest our focus on ourselves.

"Read a book for an hour every day. Even if you only improve by one percent—a year later, you would be 38 times better than you used to be.

"That's why I hope that the students who receive this sum of money would not store all of it away. Don't feel reluctant to spend it, but don't buy meaningless things to satisfy your own materialism either. Even more so, don't spend it on entertaining activities that would distract and consume you.

"Spend it on what you need most: self-improvement.

"Always keep this in mind: focus is our most valuable resource. I hope all of you would use it wisely and cherish it properly.

"That's the right way to view wealth."