Back to the teenage years

Chapter 600 The Light of the Market

Time marches on, and it's already mid-May, when the vegetation is lush and vibrant. The heat, swept in by the subtropical high pressure from the Pacific Ocean, passes over the Hengduan Mountains and surges towards Changsha. The scent of summer is already clearly audible in the air.

10 p.m., Huarong Jinhuishan top-floor office.

After signing a bunch of names on his desk, Zhang Yunqi put down his pen, leaned back in his leather chair, and looked out at the Xiangjiang River through the floor-to-ceiling window. In the summer night breeze, cargo ships on the river left long ripples, and the banks were sparkling with lights, people were like a woven tapestry, and the moon was like a hook.

Several documents were spread out on his desk.

The first document is the latest briefing compiled by Ma Shi: Xiongsen Group has officially signed an agreement with the Lijin City Planning Bureau for the renovation project of Zhuxiang Ancient Alley. Lu Yuanzhou is personally in charge, and the project team has been established.

The briefing included several photos of the scene: bulldozers had entered the site, the old osmanthus tree at the entrance of the alley was surrounded by red rope, and a sign on the trunk read "Key Protected Ancient Tree".

At the end of the briefing, Wang Guibing wrote in red pen: "Lu Yuanzhou mobilized three construction teams to work in three shifts, demanding that the street be opened before National Day. The speed is outrageous!"

The last sentence was clearly intended to convey a certain message to Zhang Yunqi.

The second document is Aiwa Electronics' market strategy report.

The conflict between Aiwa and Xinke has now escalated to the point of being featured on CCTV's Focus Interview program, so there's no time for politeness. The two sides have launched a brand marketing war and a battle for customers in shopping malls of all sizes in Lijin. It's as common as finding sand in your food to fight over customers.

After Hu Zhibiao flew back to Lijin from Shanghai, he immediately launched a series of localized promotional activities, placing advertisements intensively in the Xingcheng Evening News and Hunan TV during prime time, setting up experience points in major electronics stores, and Li Yufei and Jackie Chan's advertisements swept across the entire city.

Hu Zhibiao also rented a larger venue opposite the Friendship Shopping Mall to set up a larger-scale "Super Error Correction Challenge." The host was a popular female host from Hunan TV. Offering a reward of 200,000 yuan to recruit top VCD technology experts nationwide to crack the error correction algorithm of Aiwa Electronics' "War God Series" engineering machines was a simple and brutal approach—just throwing money at it—but it completely emptied the Xinke Electronics booth at the Friendship Shopping Mall.

Lu Yuanzhou naturally wouldn't give up easily.

The briefing included a page of intelligence: Fuhai Trading is in contact with several provincial distributors of Aihua Electronics in Central China, offering a 15% reduction in the purchase price and doubling of annual sales rebates.

Wang Guibing made a note in red pen: "We have arranged for someone to contact the other party's core members. In addition, Lu Yuanzhou flew to Shenzhen last week, and it is suspected that he contacted a channel partner with Hong Kong capital background."

Business warfare is never just about empty rhetoric.

Zhang Yunqi wrote the approval, agreeing to Hu Zhibiao's application for an additional three million in operating expenses for the Lijin Market.

Just then, Wang Guibing's voice rang out from outside the door: "Boss, the person is here."

Zhang Yunqi said, "Come in."

The office door was pushed open from the outside.

Wang Guibing walked in.

Behind him was Ma Shi, and a middle-aged man in his forties wearing a faded white shirt.

The middle-aged man's name is Xu Qingshan.

Zhang Yunqi had met him several times already. He was essentially an underground stockbroker, but his behavior was rather mysterious. The only thing Zhang was willing to trust about him was that he and his old partner, Zhao Jianqiang, were college classmates. Zhang had heard Zhao Jianqiang boast that in the 1993 Su Sanshan sham acquisition case, Xu Qingshan was one of the few who closed out their positions early and escaped the peak. However, according to the information Ma Shi had gathered, this Xu Qingshan was also a victim of the 327 Treasury Bond incident.

Xu Qingshan had a shallow scar on his face, running diagonally from his brow bone to his cheekbone, making him look particularly ugly. Zhang Yunqi heard from Ma Shi that this was the scar Xu Qingshan had been given when he was hit with an ashtray in the VIP room years ago.

Without letting the waiters in, Wang Guibing personally brewed tea for Zhang Yunqi and Xu Qingshan.

After sitting down on the sofa, Xu Qingshan got straight to the point without any formalities: "Mr. Zhang, let me report to you that Xiangtai Pharmaceutical closed up 8.3% today. The turnover rate increased to 12%, and judging from the order book, at least three major accounts were operating simultaneously."

Zhang Yunqi stood up and wrote the four characters "Xiangtai Pharmaceutical" on the whiteboard with a marker, then drew a circle around them: "What is the current circulating share capital?"

Xu Qingshan said, "The total share capital is 2.1 million, and the circulating shares are about 5800 million. Among the top ten shareholders, state-owned assets account for 55%, and the rest are scattered among institutional and retail investors."

At this point, Xu Qingshan took out a stack of photocopies of transaction records from his black faux leather briefcase. The edges of the papers were already frayed. "I got these photocopies from my close connections at the business department. They are the transaction records of six related accounts under Yongxin Trust for the past month. They have already bought about 4.2 million shares in the secondary market, with an average cost of about 6.2 yuan."

Zhang Yunqi took the document.

The stock transaction records from 1996 were still handwritten and printed using carbon paper, with inconsistent handwriting. His gaze fell on the last few large purchase records, and he asked, "Did you buy 50 shares in one transaction yesterday?"

Xu Qingshan nodded: "That's right! They bought in the last half hour of trading and pushed the stock price up from 6.5 yuan to 6.8 yuan."

Xu Qingshan paused for a moment: "Based on the information you provided, this should be the person that Lu Yuanzhou arranged to speed up the pace of acquiring chips."

Zhang Yunqi thought for a moment, put down the document, and asked, "What scale can you handle?"

Xu Qingshan held up four fingers: "Four million shares! But there are no formal financing channels, so we can only hold them on behalf of others. We find underground big players or institutions that hold Xiangtai shares, sign a private agreement, we pay a deposit, the shares are temporarily transferred to our designated account, and after the agreed period, we buy them back at the agreed price, or return an equal number of shares and pay the price difference."

This is a combination of "stock holding on behalf of another" and "forward contract for difference," a disguised short-selling mechanism in this era. Zhang Yunqi asked, "What about the interest?"

Xu Qingshan said, "The monthly interest rate is 5%, and the term is three months. The margin requirement is 150% of the stock's market value."

Wang Guibing instinctively said, "So expensive! Are they loan sharks?"

Hearing such naive words, Xu Qingshan remained calm and explained, "President Wang, the other party is also a professional. They can see that Xiangtai's stock trend is a bit erratic, and their risk is high. If the stock price plummets, we might default and not return the shares; if the stock price soars, we will suffer huge losses and may be unable to pay the difference. Therefore, the margin must be sufficient to cover their estimated extreme fluctuations." Zhang Yunqi nodded and turned to write a series of numbers on the whiteboard: "Four million shares, based on today's closing price of 7.2 yuan, the market value is 28.8 million yuan. I need to provide 43 million yuan in margin."

In later generations, this would be an enormous sum of money!
As a professional trader, Xu Qingshan had already come up with a plan for his employer.

He said, "Mr. Zhang, we can use assets as collateral. Real estate, land use rights, bank deposit certificates are all acceptable. These are the things that underground stock lending platforms accept nowadays."

Zhang Yunqi shook his head: "Too slow, I want to do it in cash."

A few days ago, he emptied the pockets of his elder sister Zhang Qiulan and Yu Lin, making tens of millions of yuan, all for this moment!
He said, "Master Xu, please contact the nominee holder and I will pay the deposit in cash."

Xu Qingshan nodded, somewhat impressed; Zhao Jianqiang hadn't lied to him after all.

Zhang Yunqi added, "In addition, find four clean retail investor accounts, and have each account buy 50 shares in batches."

Xu Qingshan was stunned: "President Zhang, what's going on...?"

Zhang Yunqi said, "Lu Yuanzhou wants to drive up the stock price, so I'll give him a little push."

At this point, Zhang Yunqi put down his marker: "Once the price is driven up, we'll sell the shares through the nominee account. When the price drops, we'll buy them back from the secondary market at a lower price and return them to the nominee."

Zhang Yunqi's words were simple, and his plan was perfect, just like the dream every retail investor has. But Xu Qingshan, the underground stock trader, was thinking, "What makes my young employer so sure that Xiangtai Pharmaceutical's stock price will definitely fall after it goes up?"

He said, "This requires the stock price to have a sufficiently large range of fluctuation..."

“Master Xu, you don’t need to worry about that. You just need to believe one thing.” Zhang Yunqi walked to the window and looked at the city in the night: “Xiangtai’s fundamentals simply cannot support its high stock price. No matter how good Lu Yuanzhou’s restructuring story sounds, it cannot change the fact that it has been losing money for many years.”

He turned around: "And what we need to do is follow Lu Yuanzhou around and make the stock price soar to an absurd high before the landmine explodes!"

Xu Qingshan paused for a moment, then hesitated, "This might require hundreds of millions of yuan to back it up..."

Zhang Yunqi turned to Wang Guibing and said, "Have someone conduct an assessment of Liansheng Group's agricultural industrial park and agricultural planting bases in Jiangchuan."

Wang Guibing paused for a moment, then nodded.

He knew exactly what this meant. Liansheng Group was the foundation of the entire United Era system, and now, Zhang Yunqi was going to stake his core business on this gamble worth hundreds of millions of yuan!
Hearing this, Xu Qingshan, who was sitting next to him, felt uneasy. Although his investor Zhang Yunqi had a composure beyond his years, he didn't like this feeling when it came to stock trading. This matter was much more complicated than he had imagined, and he felt that he couldn't control it.

In reality, he was merely the mastermind behind this earth-shattering deal, operating on the principle of doing business for money; as long as Zhang Yunqi's offers were compelling enough, that was sufficient for him. Of course, he preferred to prove his worth in a real financial showdown.

The young man before us, with assets worth hundreds of millions, is the true mastermind behind this gamble. His willingness to wager hundreds of millions can only mean one thing: he still has a real trump card up his sleeve!

At this moment, Xu Qingshan recalled a sentence Zhao Jianqiang had said to him when he asked his old classmate Zhao Jianqiang about Zhang Yunqi's background: "You can doubt whether a hen can lay eggs, but don't doubt Zhang Yunqi's judgment."

Thinking of this, Xu Qingshan stood up and said, "President Zhang, I'll go and arrange the nominee shareholding first."

"Master Xu," Zhang Yunqi called out to him.

Xu Qingshan stopped in his tracks: "What's wrong?"

Zhang Yunqi smiled and said, "President Zhao is coming to Lijin tomorrow. Shall we have a casual dinner together tonight?"

Xu Qingshan was stunned. He seemed to sense a deeper meaning in Zhang Yunqi's words, but then again, he didn't.

He nodded.

Wang Guibing and Ma Shi got up to see Xu Qingshan off, and the three of them left the office together.

Zhang Yun lit a cigarette and walked to the French windows.

In the distance, Huangxing South Road was brightly lit, and the exterior lighting of the first phase of Qingwu Commercial Pedestrian Street was being tested. The entire street was radiant with light, like a golden python lurking in the night.

Further away stands the office building of Xiangtai Pharmaceutical, with only a few windows still lit. Those there, even its leader Xie Yun, are perhaps unaware that a capital war surrounding this state-owned listed company has quietly begun. And the scale of this war may far exceed anyone's imagination!
Just then, the office fax machine rang.

Zhang Yunqi walked over and saw that what was handed to him was a sketch. It depicted the ruins of the demolition area of ​​Xiaogudao Lane, with a wooden sign sticking out at an angle in the pile of rubble.

Although the scanner from 1996 had limited precision, the texture of the ruins was still faintly discernible, and the words "Wang's Grocery Store" could still be identified.

At the bottom of the fax paper was a handwritten line of text that Zhang Yunqi recognized all too well; it was Ji Ling's handwriting: "First piece in the 'Little Ancient Alley' series! Little Zhang, haven't thought of a name yet."

Zhang Yunqi smiled, picked up his phone, and replied to Ji Ling with a few words: "How about calling it 'Light on the Market'?"

"Why?" Ji Ling replied immediately.

"Even amidst the ruins, there is still light."

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