Return to 88: Starting from Marrying My Sister-in-law

When others are greedy, I am fearful; when others are fearful, I am greedy.

Without a doubt, now is the best time to buy Lianxiang at its lowest price.

Port city.

Inside the trading room, the sound of keyboards clicking was sparse, but the air was tense.

On the screen, the dark line symbolizing despair for LNXY finally stopped plunging downwards, like a dying fish weakly breathing and struggling in the quagmire of HK$6.3.

"It's stabilized again, at 9.35 yuan. Trading volume has shrunk, and panic selling has almost stopped."

A trader, who was intently watching the market, reported in a hoarse voice.

"Should we wait a little longer?"

“There aren’t many large short-selling orders left in the market. Although we’ve been operating discreetly, we’ve already absorbed a significant amount of shares in the past two days. If this continues, we’ll soon see the stock price pulled back above 10 yuan again. This is the third time already, and if this happens again, some short-selling institutions might notice…”

Chen Fan's tense brows relaxed slightly, but his eyes remained as sharp as an eagle's.

He wiped his face, picked up the dedicated phone, and said calmly, "Boss, the price has stabilized around 9.3 yuan, and the target area has been initially achieved."

On the other end of the phone, Lu Yang's voice was calm and even, as if he were dealing with a trivial matter: "Hmm, well done. Follow the plan and call it a day. Remember, 4.99%, not a penny more."

According to the current Hong Kong Code on Takeovers, Mergers and Share Buybacks, when an investor holds 5% or more of the issued shares of a listed company, it must disclose this information to the market within a specified time. Usually, it must issue a written notice to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the relevant listed company within 5 trading days.

— Commonly known as "holding up a sign"!
Clearly, Lu Yang had his reasons and did not want to make the matter public now.

"Understood," Chen Fan replied, immediately turning around to issue the order: "Stop buying!"

He clapped his hands to signal to everyone.

"Everyone, pay attention! The boss has given new instructions: all account holding ratios must be strictly reviewed and precisely controlled below 4.99%. Anyone who dares to exceed this limit will be fired!"

The instructions were transmitted quickly, and the traders' fingers hovered over the "confirm" button as they carefully cancelled the last few buy orders.

The holdings data jumps and freezes on the screen.

It stopped precisely at a delicate, safe critical point.

Going a step further, there's the red line of "raising a sign," which requires public announcement and disclosure of one's identity.

During this brief pause in the trading, a slightly excited voice rang out beside Chen Fan, tinged with a self-satisfied "cleverness": "Boss, this bottom-fishing move by the boss is brilliant! The stock price is so low now, it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! Should we... secretly buy another batch using President Lu's personal account? That way, the total amount will definitely be much larger, and it won't trigger the disclosure rules, all without anyone noticing..."

Before he finished speaking, Chen Fan suddenly turned around, his eyes instantly turning icy cold, like a Siberian chill sweeping across the room.

He took a step forward, his tall figure exuding immense pressure, and almost roared, "Are you fucking trying to harm the boss?!"

The entire trading room fell silent instantly. The sound of typing on keyboards completely ceased, and everyone held their breath, their eyes fixed on the "smart guy" who had been reprimanded.

Chen Fan's voice was filled with suppressed anger, each word like a knife. He pointed at the other person's nose and cursed, "As a trader, you should know the rules of the financial world by heart! You, right now, recite for me what 'acting in concert' means?! If you can't recite it, you can quit and get out of here immediately!"

The reprimanded trader turned deathly pale instantly, and cold sweat poured down his face.

He stammered, his lips trembling, trying to search his memory for that cold clause: "One...a person acting in concert...refers to...the act or fact of an investor, through an agreement or other arrangement, jointly increasing the number of voting rights of a listed company's shares that it can control with other investors...including but not limited to...close relatives, related accounts, accounts controlled by the same ultimate controller..."

"Including 'through agreements or other arrangements'! 'Under the same actual controller'!" Chen Fan interrupted him sharply, his voice like a heavy hammer striking everyone's heart.

"Are Mr. Lu's personal accounts and the accounts we manage both acting on the boss's orders?! Are they all acting towards the same goal?! The regulatory agencies aren't stupid! Is this self-deceptive trick an attempt to push the boss into the spotlight and get him summoned by the China Securities Regulatory Commission?! Idiots!"

He spat all over the young trader's face, but the man didn't even dare to blink.

His face turned as red as a monkey's bottom from shame.

After Chen Fan finished scolding them and saw that the other party knew they were wrong, his tone softened slightly. "Remember, the financial battlefield allows no room for carelessness. Any clever trick could become a loophole that the opponent can exploit to fire the most fatal bullet at us. Once we are hit, the losses will be hundreds of millions or even billions, more than we could ever afford in ten lifetimes. Therefore, the best traders are always just emotionless machines. As the trading director, you do exactly what you are told to do. Don't make any unnecessary moves, understand?"

This time, everyone understood.

Chen Fan then patted "Big Smart" on the shoulder and said, "Work hard. Let's call it even for today. Complete the task assigned by the boss perfectly. In the future, I will personally speak with the boss to recommend you all for commendation. Whether it's bonuses or vacation time, you will all be rewarded."

"Understood." "Long live the boss!"

"Long live Chen Tou! This time I've received a bonus, I'll treat you to a full-service bath."

"Get lost! Keep an eye on the data. If anything goes wrong, forget about the full-service bath; I'll even take this little caterpillar off your body, you believe me?"

"letter!"

"Why don't you get to work already?"

"Yes!"

"Ha ha ha ha."

"Boss, why don't you just take him in now? That little caterpillar Xiaochun is pretty useless anyway."

The trading room became lively again.

Under Chen Fan's strict control, all accounts maintained their positions below the 4.99% red line.

Lu Yang's funds acted like an underground river, quietly supporting the bottom of around HK$9 amidst the torrent of panic selling.

The market was completely unaware of this, generally believing it to be just a technical rebound after an oversold condition or sporadic buying.

A few days later, news that the Chinese Academy of Sciences had convened an emergency joint strategic meeting was "unexpectedly" exposed by Hong Kong media.

This news instantly ignited the market's remaining hope, and pent-up bullish sentiment erupted. Follow-up buying surged in, and with the recent "mysterious buyer" fueling the rally, Lianxiang's stock price soared like a rocket, rising from the ruins of panic and breaking through the HK$15 mark in a short period of time, with an astonishing rebound.

This unusual and rapid rebound immediately alerted short-selling giants like Soros, who began to pay attention to and try to investigate this suddenly appearing "mysterious force." However, just as they were preparing to take further action, the supporting force disappeared "just in time."

Of course, the reason is that Lu Yang already has enough chips in his hand.

He instructed Chen Fan to stop buying Lianxiang's stock and instead invest the funds elsewhere.

But the outside world doesn't know that!
With the stock price of Lianxiang losing support and its fundamental difficulties remaining unresolved, it quickly fell like a kite with a broken string, rapidly dropping back to single digits. This time, it couldn't even hold above 9 yuan, falling all the way down to around 6.3 yuan before gradually finding a balance with the bulls.

Soros' team observed the stock price over the next few trading days and found that it failed to rebound effectively again, and there was no large-scale, sustained buying.

Based on this, they concluded that this was merely a desperate self-rescue attempt by Lianxiang Company through share buybacks, which was limited in strength and unsustainable, and therefore not a cause for concern. It also would not affect their short-selling of the entire Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong, so they lowered their guard.

Beijing, headquarters of Lianxiang Group.

Outside the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, the gray winter sky of Beijing mirrored Old Liu's current state of mind: a sense of relief mixed with a hint of relief at surviving a disaster, yet shrouded in a deeper unease.

He had just finished yet another long and agonizing high-level meeting, the room filled with an atmosphere of defeat and a struggle for survival.

A few days ago, the brief, almost dreamlike surge in stock price was like a shot in the arm, making him almost believe that a miracle had occurred.

From a slump in single digits, it surged all the way to over ten digits, eventually closing at a high of HK$15.

In those few days, the gloom that had hung over the headquarters seemed to have dissipated somewhat, and he could even sense a faint glimmer of hope rekindled in the eyes of the higher-ups.

Although this rebound came quickly and went even faster, like a brilliant but short-lived firework, it quickly fell back to single digits, and even once approached the 6 yuan mark.

But at this moment, looking at the candlestick on the screen that had finally stopped falling around HK$6.3 and started to fluctuate slightly sideways, Liu Zhi's tightly furrowed brows relaxed slightly, almost imperceptibly.

He exhaled a long, deep breath, as if to release all the heaviness that had been building up in his chest for so long.

"Finally... we've stabilized." He muttered to himself, his voice hoarse and weary.

Although prices are still appalling, at least the endless downward spiral has temporarily subsided.

Does this mean that the most extreme panic in the market may have been exhausted?
This means that those short sellers, who are like a persistent thorn in the side, have temporarily lost the motivation to continue their aggressive selling.
This means... he still has some breathing room and room to maneuver, and doesn't need to rush to announce the handover of his power?
However, just as Old Liu let out a long sigh of relief...

Little did he know that the person who helped him stabilize the situation was actually his biggest rival, Lu Yang.

Then, three months later, a crucial turning point arrived!
The Hong Kong government has officially announced an unprecedented bailout plan!
"...Using the Foreign Exchange Fund...to maintain the linked exchange rate system and the stability of the financial markets...the initial bailout funds amounted to...70 billion foreign exchange!" (End of Chapter)