Video Editor

On the fifth day of Chen Qiming's stall in the underpass, he only sold two T-shirts.

He squatted in the corner, munching on a cold steamed bun, listening to the conversation of the stall owners next door.

"Have you heard? Old Zhang made 100,000 yuan in the stock market last month!"

"Really? One hundred thousand?"

"Why would I lie to you! He bought that 'Shenzhen Development Bank' stock for a little over one yuan, and sold it when it rose to over three yuan. His principal was only thirty thousand yuan!"

"My God...this is so much better than setting up a stall!"

"Of course! I opened an account yesterday and deposited 20,000 to test the waters..."

The steamed bun in Chen Qiming's hand fell to the ground. He pricked up his ears, his heart pounding.

The stock market? 100,000?
Then he leaned closer and cautiously asked, "Brothers, is that... stock trading you're talking about really that profitable?"

A bespectacled stall owner glanced at him and said, "Making money is possible, but there are risks too. However, the market is good lately; you can buy with your eyes closed and expect the price to rise."

"Then...where should we buy it?"

"The stock exchange! There's one over on Shennan Middle Road. You can buy it by opening an account."

Chen Qiming wrote down the address.

That afternoon, after closing his stall, he headed straight for Shennan Middle Road.

Sure enough, we found an impressive building with a sign that read "Shenzhen Stock Exchange" hanging at the entrance.

The hall was packed with people, even more bustling than a vegetable market.

On the huge electronic screen, red and green numbers kept jumping around, and people below looked up, some cheering and some sighing.

Chen Qiming squeezed in and saw a long queue in front of the trading window.

He grabbed a middle-aged man who had just finished completing the formalities, "Brother, how do you trade stocks?"

The man was in a good mood and patiently explained, "First, go over there to open an account and get a shareholder code card. Then deposit money into the account. If you want to buy a particular stock, just fill out a form and submit it."

"Does it make money?"

"The market's been great lately, look..." the man pointed at the screen, "'Shenzhen Development Bank' closed at 3.2 yuan yesterday, and it's already 3.5 yuan today! I bought 5,000 shares, and I made 1,500 yuan in just one day!"

Chen Qiming's heart skipped a beat.

1500 a day!

He only earns three hundred a month at the grain bureau!
You can only earn a few dozen yuan a day setting up a stall!

"Then... is there a loss?"

“Of course there are,” the man said. “But the market has been rising recently, so losses are less. If you’re worried, buy large-cap stocks; they’re safer.”

Chen Qiming thanked the man and stood in the hall for a long time.

Then he saw someone excitedly slapping their thigh, "It's gone up! I've made another 20,000!"

Someone was seen clutching their head, crying, "It's all over, it's all over, my pension..."

But it seems that more people are making money.

The entire hall was filled with a frenzied atmosphere, and everyone's eyes were gleaming with an undisguised greed.

Chen Qiming acted rashly.

He walked out of the stock exchange, found a public phone on the roadside, and dialed his hometown number.

"Hello, Mom, it's me."

"Qiming! How's it going in Shenzhen? Have you found a job yet?"

"I...I found it," Chen Qiming lied. "It's in a big company, in sales, and the pay is good."

"That's good, that's good! Your dad was worried about you!"

"Mom, there's an internal investment opportunity at the company that's guaranteed to make a profit, but it requires 50,000 yuan in principal. I don't have enough on hand, could you... lend me some first?"

There was silence on the other end of the phone.

"Fifty thousand? That much?"

"Mom, this is a great opportunity! Our manager invested 100,000 and made 30,000 in a month! Trust me, I'll pay you back as soon as I make money, and I'll even give you interest!"

"But we don't have that much cash at home..."

"Withdraw the money from the fixed deposit!" Chen Qiming exclaimed anxiously. "Mom, this opportunity won't wait for anyone! If we miss it, it'll be gone forever!"

The mother hesitated for a long time before saying, "Let me discuss it with your father."

"Stop discussing it! Dad will definitely disagree! Mom, please trust me this once! I saw it for myself in Shenzhen, so many people have made a fortune from this! Don't you want me to succeed?"

Another long silence followed.

“Alright…” Mother finally relented, “I’ll go to the bank tomorrow to withdraw the money and transfer it to you. Qiming, please don’t get scammed…”

"No, no! Don't worry!"

After hanging up the phone, Chen Qiming found his palms were sweaty.

Although he knew he was gambling, he had to gamble.

Setting up a street stall offers no future, and working for someone else offers no prospects. This is his chance to turn his life around!

Two days later, the 50,000 yuan arrived in my account.

Chen Qiming immediately went to the exchange to open an account and deposited all 50,000 yuan into it.

Standing in the trading hall, staring at the densely packed stock codes on the screen, I felt a little bewildered...

Which one should I buy?
"Brother, is this your first time trading stocks?" A man wearing gold-rimmed glasses struck up a conversation with him.

Chen Qiming nodded.

"I recommend you buy 'Shenzhen Technology'. It's been getting a lot of good news lately, it's bound to go up!"

"Really?"

Why would I lie to you! I already bought 100,000 worth!

Chen Qiming gritted his teeth and filled out the form...

I bought Shenzhen Technology with all my funds, 50,000 yuan.

For the next three days, he spent every single day at the stock exchange.

On the first day, Shenzhen Technology rose by 5%, and he earned 2,500 yuan.

The next day, it rose another 3%, bringing the total profit to 4,000.

On the third day, the market opened and continued to rise.

Chen Qiming looked at the numbers in his account and his hands trembled with excitement.

In just three days, I've earned almost five thousand!

At this rate, it can double in a month!
"I told you we could make money!" the man with the gold-rimmed glasses said smugly. "It'll definitely go up again tomorrow!"

Chen Qiming was completely convinced. He calculated that if the price rose to 100,000, he would sell it, pay back 50,000 to his family, and still have 50,000 left for himself.

With this 50,000 yuan as capital, we can make another round of speculation and quickly gain a foothold in Shenzhen.

Back in his rented room that evening, Chen Qiming, unusually, went to a small restaurant downstairs and ordered two dishes, along with a bottle of beer.

Suddenly, I realized that this is the kind of life he should be living!

……

On the fourth day, Chen Qiming arrived at the exchange early.

Before the market opened, he had already planned everything out in his mind...

If it rises another 5% today, I'll sell and secure my profits.

The market opened at 9:30.

Shenzhen Technology's opening price... fell by two percent.

Chen Qiming was taken aback, but didn't pay much attention...

After rising for so many days, a pullback is normal.

At 10 o'clock, it dropped to 5%.

This time, Chen Qiming panicked a little.

"Don't worry, it's just a shakeout!" the man with the gold-rimmed glasses encouraged from the side. "The big players are shaking out weak hands, they'll definitely push it up this afternoon!"

Chen Qiming believed it and didn't sell.

The market continued to fall after the afternoon opening.

Eight percent, ten percent...

By the close of trading, Shenzhen Technology had hit its daily limit down.

Chen Qiming's account profits were all gone, and he even lost three thousand.

He stood blankly in the hall, his face pale.

"It'll definitely rebound tomorrow!" The man with the gold-rimmed glasses patted him on the shoulder. "The bull market isn't over, hold on and don't move!"

However, the next day, it continued to fall to the daily limit.

On the third day, it still fell.

A week later, Shenzhen Technology's stock price had fallen by 30% from the price at which Chen Qiming bought it.

Of his 50,000 yuan, only 35,000 yuan remained.

The stock exchange was filled with despair. Those who were cheering earlier were now crying.

Chen Qiming called the man with the gold-rimmed glasses, but his phone was already switched off.

He then realized that he had been tricked and scammed.

What to do? Sell at a loss of 15,000? Or hold on and wait for a rebound?

He remembered his mother's words, "You must not be fooled..."

Chen Qiming squatted at the entrance of the exchange, holding his head in his hands.

It's over, it's over.

The 50,000 yuan in the family was money that my parents had saved up their whole lives through frugality.

He lied and said it was an investment, but it was actually gambling.

Now that I've lost the bet, how am I going to explain this to my family?
He dared not go home, dared not make a phone call. He lay in his rented room for three days, like he was dead.

On the fourth day, the landlord knocked on the door, "Xiao Chen, it's time to pay the rent."

Chen Qiming felt his pockets and realized he only had a few hundred yuan left.

I got up like a zombie, washed my face, and looked at my haggard self in the mirror.

Investing in stocks is no longer a viable path.

Now he only has two choices: either pack up and go back to his hometown, where he will be scolded to death by his parents and laughed at by his neighbors.

Either... go find Liu Yuan and admit defeat.

Chen Qiming gritted his teeth and dialed Liu Yuan's number.

"Liu Yuan, I...I want to work for you. Are you hiring?"

On the other end of the phone, Liu Yuan sighed, "I told you before. Come on! Start work tomorrow."

After hanging up the phone, Chen Qiming collapsed onto the bed.

He paid a price of 50,000 yuan for this lesson.

But I also know that this is not the worst thing. The worst thing is how to explain it to my family.

Looking at the ceiling, I truly understood Liu Yuan's words for the first time:
"Shenzhen isn't an easy place to make a living."

……

In a private room at Paradise KTV, Liu Yuan poured Su Ning a glass of wine and sighed, "President Su, that kid Qiming is now working here as a bouncer. He makes eight hundred yuan a month, including room and board."

Su Ning leaned back on the sofa, toying with a lighter in her hand. "Guard the place? Wasn't he arrogant and wanted to make his own way in the world?"

“What are you doing!” Liu Yuan shook his head. “He went to speculate in stocks and lost all the 50,000 yuan his family gave him, leaving only 20,000. He didn’t dare tell his family and was always looking worried. I felt sorry for him, so I let him work for me first.”

"Stock trading?" Su Ning laughed. "Does he even know anything about stocks?"

"What do you know!" Liu Yuan scoffed. "He heard from others that he could make money, so he jumped in headfirst, put all his money into one stock, and ended up getting trapped. He had to cut his losses and get out. Now he watches over the place here every night and catches up on sleep during the day. He's completely exhausted."

Su Ning lit a cigarette and slowly exhaled a smoke ring. "I've seen through Chen Qiming long ago—he's all talk and no action, incompetent, and obsessed with saving face. When he was just coasting along at the grain bureau, he looked down on that 300 yuan salary; now that he's in Shenzhen, he's not interested in working for you; he insists on making his own way, and ends up losing everything. That's the kind of person he is for.

“I tried to persuade him. But I could tell he was still resentful and felt ashamed to work for me.”

"Shameful?" Su Ning sneered. "He has no ability and yet he feels ashamed? Liu Yuan, let me tell you, you can't help this kind of person. No matter how good the opportunity is, he won't seize it. Because deep down he thinks he should be superior to others and is unwilling to start from the bottom. But he doesn't have the ability to be superior."

"What can we do? We can't just watch him starve to death, can we?"

"That's your problem." Su Ning waved her hand, naturally understanding what Liu Yuan meant by saying this, which was simply to get her to arrange a job for Chen Qiming. "I certainly won't use someone like that. When Shengang Electronics is hiring, the first thing they look at is ability, and the second is attitude. Chen Qiming doesn't fit either of those criteria."

Liu Yuan nodded and changed the subject, "By the way, President Su, I heard your new phone is about to be launched?"

Speaking of this, Suning smiled and said, "Yes, the Shenzhen-Hong Kong 2 will be released on October 1st. This time, we've made quite a few upgrades—a larger screen, longer standby time, and we've also added caller ID."

"And the price?"

"Five thousand."

"Five thousand?" Liu Yuan's eyes widened. "That expensive? Can it even be sold?"

"Expensive?" Suning laughed. "Liu Yuan, do you believe that this phone will sell out on the first day it hits the market?"

Liu Yuan was skeptical. "Really?"

"Just wait and see! Shenzhen-Hong Kong 1 has already established a brand image."

……

On the evening of September 30th, long queues had already formed outside the stores of Shengang Electronics across the country.

At the entrance of the flagship store in Huaqiangbei, Shenzhen, the queue stretched from the store entrance all the way to the street corner, a distance of more than 200 meters.

The people in line included businessmen carrying briefcases, young couples holding hands, and even middle-aged women in pajamas.

"Old Wang, are you joining the queue too?"

"Absolutely! My son insists on buying it, saying all his classmates use Shenzhen-Hong Kong mobile phones, and he wants one too. What can I, as his father, do?"

"I heard that the Shenzhen-Hong Kong 2 phone number storage function is very powerful, and it can store a hundred phone numbers!"

"Not only that! There are also games, like Snake. My nephew got hooked after playing it just once!"

"Five thousand yuan! That's really not cheap..."

"It's expensive, but it works great! My colleague bought the first generation and has been using it for six months without a single problem. It's not easy for a domestic product to be this good!"

"That's true! Compared to foreign brands that often cost tens of thousands of yuan, Shenzhen-Hong Kong mobile phones are really reasonably priced."

"Where do you think Shenzhen-Hong Kong mobile phones get their communication technology? Even those big foreign companies can't compare."

"I don't understand! Maybe it's because the Shenzhen-Hong Kong electronics sector performed well!"

"What a pity! Shenzhen-Hong Kong Electronics is not listed, otherwise I would definitely buy their stock."

"I heard that the founder of Shenzhen-Hong Kong Electronics does not seek to go public because going public would mean accepting the system of being controlled by capital, and it would not be pure to operate and develop."

At 8:00 a.m. on October 1st, the store opened on time.

The crowd surged in like a tide.

I want one!

Give me two!

Do you have a silver one? Reserve one for me!

At the checkout counter, three cashiers were in a flurry of activity.

The store manager shouted into the walkie-talkie, "Warehouse! Send another hundred units! No, two hundred!"

In just one morning, all 500 mobile phones prepared by the Huaqiangbei store were sold out.

A sign that read "Sold Out Today" was displayed at the store entrance, but the people in line still refused to leave.

"Is there any stock left for tomorrow?"

"What time do they open tomorrow? I'll come early to queue!"

The same scene was playing out simultaneously in more than 20 cities across the country.

Beijing Wangfujing Store, Shanghai Nanjing Road Store, Guangzhou Tianhe Store...

All stores' inventory was cleared out within half a day.

The sales department at the headquarters of Shenzhen-Hong Kong Electronics was inundated with phone calls.

"President Su, the capital city has requested another thousand units!"

"Shanghai says 500 units are not enough, they need at least 2,000!"

"The distributors in Guangzhou came directly with cash to pick up the goods, saying they wanted as much as they could!"

In his office, Suning looked at the sales data sent from various regions, showing no surprise.

Holding the report, Huang Yunyun's hands trembled with excitement. "President Su, in just half a day, we've already sold 12,000 units! Sales revenue... 60 million!"

Yang Ru was also there. Although she tried to remain calm, she couldn't hide the excitement in her eyes. "They called from Hong Kong too, asking if we could give them priority in supplying goods. The people queuing up there have blocked the road."

Suning nodded. "Tell the production department to operate on three shifts, 24 hours a day. Also, tell the suppliers that the supply of raw materials must be guaranteed. Prices are negotiable, but the quality cannot be reduced."

"Yes!"

After Huang Yunyun and Yang Ru left, Su Ning walked to the window and looked down at the busy factory area.

The popularity of Shenzhen-Hong Kong 2 was within his expectations.

In 1995, entry-level Motorola and Nokia phones cost seven or eight thousand yuan, while the Shenzhen-Hong Kong 2 sold for five thousand yuan, making it a very cost-effective option.

With the reputation built up by the first generation, it would be strange if it didn't become a hit.

But he wants more than just a fleeting moment of fame.

What he wants is for Shenzhen-Hong Kong mobile phones to become synonymous with domestic mobile phones, and for him to squeeze those foreign brands out of the Chinese market.

This takes time, technology, and continuous investment.

But at least, the first step was taken steadily.

……

That evening, Liu Yuan called Su Ning, his tone full of admiration, "President Su, I'm impressed! You were absolutely right! Today, several customers at my KTV were showing off their Shenzhen-Hong Kong 2 phones! They were practically scrambling to buy these 5,000 yuan phones like they were free!"

"This is only the first day," Suning said. "It'll be even more popular later on."

"You've really hit the jackpot this time!"

"We did make money, but the investment was also huge," Suning said frankly. "We invested 20 million in R&D, 15 million in expanding the production line, and another 10 million in marketing. We haven't even broken even yet."

"That's worth it! Once the brand is established, there will be plenty of opportunities to make money in the future!"

After chatting for a few minutes, Liu Yuan suddenly said, "By the way, Qiming saw the Shenzhen-Hong Kong 2 commercial today and his eyes were glued to it. He looked so envious. I told him to get back to work, but he just mumbled 'uh-huh' and his mind wasn't on his job at all."

"Let him be!" Su Ning said. "Everyone has their own destiny. It's good enough if he can stay put and watch the place. I'm afraid he's still not giving up and wants to cause trouble for something else."

“I will keep an eye on him.”

After hanging up the phone, Su Ning shook her head.

He'd seen plenty of people like Chen Qiming...

Ability doesn't match ambition, and effort can't keep up with dreams.

In the end, you either accept your fate or become completely useless.

In Suning's world, there has never been a place for such a person.

Shenzhen-Hong Kong Electronics needs soldiers who can cross the river and generals who can stand alone.

She is a reliable and hardworking confidante like Huang Yunyun, a smart and studious soulmate like Yang Ru, and a capable and energetic assistant like Xiao Ran...

This is also the fundamental reason why Suning has always tolerated Xiao Ran's bad temper. If it were Chen Qiming, he would never have paid any attention to him.

As for Chen Qiming?
Let them fend for themselves.

Suning picked up the sales report on the table and continued looking at it.

Outside the window, Shenzhen's night is brightly lit.

On the stage of this city, some rise to prominence, while others fall silently.

The era of Shenzhen-Hong Kong Electronics has only just begun.

...(End of this chapter)