The Final Hunter

The night he was driven out of the company, Cheng Ye saw the truth of the world: every industry rose and fell, following patterns like the tides. He saw that the cooked-food stall would be gone in a year, and that the community canteen’s fortunes were on the rise. He saw that his cousin’s new marriage was a scam, and that the waves of an entire era were hidden beneath his feet. He didn’t play the stock market or gamble with his life. With nothing but eyes that could read the tides, he started out in the most humble of businesses. Some people laughed and called him crazy. Others waited for him to make a fool of himself. Three years later, he reclaimed everything that was his. Ten years later, standing atop the waves, he said to the man who had set the tides in motion: “This time, I’ll decide where the tide goes.”