Chapter 4: A blessing in disguise

'Teacher, I'm really sorry. It's all my fault today. I knew that Omar's parents were divorced, but I still used the term single-parent family, which is obviously a bad term to describe an accident involving one parent. I shouldn't have said it, so that's why he was so resistant and even resentful towards us. Not only did we fail to convince Omar for you this time, we even drove him away. I really made the biggest mistake. I'm really a terrible person!'

Ye Ning threw herself into Zhou Ming's arms and cried bitterly, listing her faults one after the other, as if she wanted to convince herself that she was the worst person in the world.

At this time, they had already left Harvard Law School, but Ye Ning did not cry when they left Harvard Law School, because at that time, the lawyer Alan was still here, and she understood that she could not make a fool of herself in front of outsiders, so she had been holding back. However, after sending Alan back to the law firm, Ye Ning could no longer hold back and burst into tears.

Ye Ning cried very sadly, and her tears fell from her cheeks like broken pearls, making Zhou Ming fumble to wipe them away.

'Ye Ning, don't cry. This actually has nothing to do with you. It's just a single-parent family, and divorced people are also single-parent families. No one has to stipulate that it can only be after someone has passed away. You didn't mean any insult. And Omar's words were also very clear. He himself hates the government and parliament, and he himself holds a deep hostility towards politics. It is this hostility towards politics that makes him resent us, not a single word you said.'

Zhou Ming tried to comfort Ye Ning, but Zhou Ming's comfort didn't seem to work, because Ye Ning was still crying in pain.

Zhou Ming scratched his head and continued, 'I know you regret saying that, but crying won't help now! And don't you always tell your brother to teach you self-defense, saying that you're a strong girl? Now it's not good for him to see you like this. Don't forget that your brother is my bodyguard and he drives my car.'

Zhou Ming said this to Ye Ning, but when he looked up, he noticed that ** had left the car at some point.

This made Zhou Ming very helpless, but then a laugh suddenly came from somewhere, and Zhou Ming looked down and realised that Ye Ning, who he had just tried to comfort in vain, couldn't help but laugh.

Without time to ponder the thoughts of this woman, Zhou Ming had to continue with what he had just said: 'We agreed that ** would drive, but who knew that this guy suddenly ran away? He's still my bodyguard, so he's a bit negligent.'

However, this time, Zhou Ming's words did not have such a big effect. Ye Ning lowered her head and said in a low mood, 'Teacher, I'm really sorry. I'm so useless. Not only did I mess things up, but now I have to rely on you to comfort me.'

'What does it matter? And some things just can't be prevented, so we have to stay optimistic,' said Zhou Ming. 'And I'm not some kind of Aladdin's lamp, so what I say won't come true just like making a wish. None of us know Umar, and today is the first time we've met him. No one knows what he's thinking, so before we came here, didn't we all prepare ourselves for being rejected?'

'That's true, but...'

Ye Ning was anxious to say something else, but she was interrupted by Zhou Ming before she could finish.

'There's no 'but',' Zhou Ming said. 'If you're going to do something, you have to be prepared for setbacks. After all, this market sells not only hope, but also more disappointment. If you only want to reap hope, then don't buy anything here.'

Finally, Zhou Ming added, 'And as my student, shouldn't you be persevering? Falling down is not scary, as long as we pick ourselves up and get back up again from where we fell. If you cry and give up at the first thing that happens, what kind of person would that make?'

Ye Ning wiped away her tears and said firmly to Zhou Ming, 'Teacher, I understand. I will not give up on myself. This time it was my mistake that made Omar reject and resent us, but it is not impossible to salvage the situation. I will go back and work with everyone to find a way to convince Omar to run as an elector for our foundation as soon as possible.'

Zhou Ming nodded with satisfaction, 'That's right, it's good not to give up on yourself. So if Omar insists and doesn't seem confident, what then?'

'Don't put all your eggs in one basket. We can always prepare a contingency plan,' Ye Ning said.

Zhou Ming applauded Ye Ning, "Beautiful, my students should have this kind of ideological awareness. I'll call ** in now, and we'll go back to the Harvard dormitory right away.'

As Zhou Ming said this, he rolled down the window, but just as he was about to call ** to get in the car, Ye Ning suddenly said something that made him feel a little embarrassed. Ye Ning said, "Teacher, you really don't know how to comfort a girl!'

Zhou Ming could only embarrassedly scratch his head in response. There was nothing he could do about it. This was a serious flaw in his understanding of women. Otherwise, based on his experiences in two lifetimes, if he knew women very well, he would have had a harem of wives and concubines long ago, and this book would have become a pornographic text that the state would crack down on.

However, Zhou Ming did not hear Ye Ning's last very quiet sentence: 'But it is men like this who are the most reliable.'

Then Zhou Ming** got back into the car, acted as if nothing had happened, and drove back to the Harvard dormitory as instructed.

In the dormitory, Chen Shu and Li Yang were waiting. They were very happy to see Zhou Ming back and said, 'Teacher, you're back. Li Yang and I have just analysed the entire Brighton constituency. Combining Omar's black identity, our insurance company and Chinese identity, we believe Fenway is relatively better. We are currently comparing and analysing various communities in Fenway and believe we will have results soon.'

Li Yang, on the other hand, looked behind Zhou Ming and curiously asked, 'Teacher, why did only you and Ye Ning come back, and didn't that Omar come back with you?'

Zhou Ming frowned and looked at Chen Shu and Li Yang, 'Who told you that Omar would come back with us?'

Zhou Ming's question left Chen Shu and Li Yang stunned. They had no idea why Zhou Ming had suddenly asked such a question. Ye Ning reminded them, 'Don't talk nonsense. Teacher didn't convince Omar this time. He didn't want to join our foundation and run for election, so why would he come back with us?'

'What? Teacher didn't convince Omar?'

Li Yang immediately exclaimed in surprise. When he came to his senses, it was already too late, because the other students in the dormitory had already heard and rushed over one after the other: 'Teacher failed to convince Omar? How is that possible? Today, it was the teacher himself who went out in person, and our conditions were so favourable, why didn't he come? Teacher, this can't be a test of some kind, can it?'

As he listened to the comments of the finance class students, one after the other, Zhou Ming's brow furrowed deeper and deeper. He felt that these students seemed to have a blind faith in him.

Perhaps this is what any business leader pursues, but Zhou Ming does not think this is a good thing, because it is a double-edged sword. They will think that as long as they are in charge, there is nothing that cannot be solved. In this way, they themselves will develop a slackening attitude, thinking that they can handle anything in the end anyway, so why bother?

Zhou Ming of course knew that his classmates in the finance class were all highly motivated, but one must nip things in the bud. More importantly, Zhou Ming did not consider himself to be a God-like being with omnipotent powers. He had only been reborn, not become Warren Buffett or George Soros. What he needed to do was to make his team invincible.

With this in mind, Zhou Ming told everyone to be quiet, then he led Ye Ning and ** into the dormitory and closed the door.

Standing in front of the line, he looked at all the students in the finance class and said, 'Classmates, do you think I'm awesome, that there's nothing I can't do?'

All the finance students nodded subconsciously, and Zhou Ming immediately shouted, 'I'm telling you, this is wrong! I'm just a person too, I'm not a god, and I can't calculate everything to perfection. Wharton Insurance is even more of a whole. We're not at the beginning of the company anymore, when we had nothing and had to take risks with everything. Now we're an insurance company with hundreds of millions of assets!'

'What is the concept?' Zhou Ming asked himself, "An ordinary investment company probably only has a few million dollars in its hands, which means that we already have the ability to have a say in the stock market!'

'And in this situation, we must make more prudent decisions. We should not rely on me for everything, and we should not think that I am a god and I will definitely succeed. We must also make a plan for failure. You must also regard yourselves as part of the company. Only if we work together can we make the company invincible!" Zhou Ming said.

Zhou Ming's words shocked everyone. Chen Shu was the first to stand up and say, 'Teacher, I'm sorry. Your words have reminded us like a bolt from the blue. We have always relied too much on you. We have all forgotten our own initiative. This time is no different. You said to convince Omar, and we believed you could succeed, so we didn't prepare a plan for failure. However, we will correct this in the future.'

Li Yang also immediately stepped forward and said, 'Yes, teacher, this time we were negligent, but we can assure you that this is the only time, and we will never do it again. We will do our best to show our initiative and not let you down!'

Ye Ning also said to Zhou Ming, "Teacher, I bear a large responsibility for this incident, but it is also the greatest lesson for me. I will work harder and be more careful in the future!'

'Of course I believe in you, because you are the best finance class!" Zhou Ming said.

Zhou Ming was really gratified that these students in the finance class were the best in the country and that they were all able to contribute their best. More importantly, they were able to adjust the fastest and listen to their own advice.

As the saying goes, 'A lost horse may turn out to be a blessing in disguise.' In the end, Ming thought to himself, perhaps Omar not being convinced by him this time was, for him or Wharton, a blessing in disguise, because he had allowed himself to discover the problem in time and make the first change, so that his classmates would not be so reliant on him.

'Okay, that's enough talk, so let's move on to the campaign,' Ming said. "Chen Shuli Yang Ye, come with me for a moment."