Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 184 A Big Yang Line
Xin Mengzhen called last Friday.

This weekend, the two did not exchange any more messages, but communicated by phone.

He was pulled by Hu Li to stay in her Spider Cave Studio to "guide entrepreneurs".

A group of female students from the School of Humanities accompanied him for drinks and chats, and they brainstormed together to discuss how to promote iQiyi.

He was a top-tier resource in the eyes of the girls. Even if he couldn't be their boyfriend, he was still a mysterious big shot who could broaden their horizons. Within two days, all eight girls in the studio had added him on QQ.

Two of them sent him goodnight messages on two consecutive days.

Life is utterly dull and tasteless except for sensual pleasures.

My uncle's work is going smoothly. The water conservancy department issued a notice on the comprehensive management of the ecological environment of Taohuaxi River. The bidding for the management of the 32.79-kilometer river section will be opened in mid-December. Gu'an Labor Service is arranging for several professional scalper companies to prepare bids and participate in bid rigging, aiming to get close to the government's bid of 35 million yuan.

Bidding rigging for these kinds of projects is usually just a formality. For projects with clear targets, the engineering design for the tender is done by Gu'an, and the list of government-invited bidders is also provided by Gu'an. The evaluation committee will basically not say much. They can use the method of one bidder submitting multiple bids (modifying different prices in the same tender document, with the bidders bidding slightly higher, exceeding 3500 million).

Yu Chunyin, however, considered the procedures very carefully. He spent tens of thousands of yuan to have the bid-rigging company prepare different bids and submit multiple bids in one copy to rig the bidding, thereby increasing the secrecy and preventing the loopholes from being exposed and used against him in the future.

After all, bid-rigging is a gray area that arises from engineering projects with set bid prices. Government projects exceeding 400 million yuan must be put out to tender, and tendering requires dummy bidders to ensure fairness. In this Taohuaxi project, water conservancy leaders knew it was contracted out for 3500 million yuan. As long as the winning bid was lower than the reserve price, there wouldn't be any problems with the project's procedures. They could even use bid-rigging to inflate the price by hundreds of thousands to gain more profit, and probably no one would say anything.

However, there is another group of people in society who are really using this method to hunt for publicly tendered projects. They use very unscrupulous methods, including intimidation, bribery, and enticement, which has created many local "Brahmins" (people who exploit local resources) in the county. The winning bids are frighteningly high. A project worth 35 million can be inflated to 40 or 50 million. The extra amount is all profit. Outside companies are envious, but they can't get local projects at all.

Driven by self-interest, many people have also filed reports.

If a major incident is exposed, and local authorities are ordered to conduct self-inspections, or even if inspection teams are dispatched to investigate, these projects that were originally "compliant" may be implicated.

Yu Chunyin knew that his nephew had lofty ambitions and cared about his reputation, so he was more attentive to this project than to his own.

Chen Xuebing was very relieved.

In Shenzhen, in addition to serving as the head of the software department, Lin Bin was also proposed by Lu Weibing to Chen Xuebing to serve as the vice president, specifically in charge of supply chain negotiations. Chen Xuebing felt that the two should work well together and agreed.

Lin Bin lived up to expectations. Through several former colleagues, he contacted Marvell headquarters, which replied that the chip foundry cooperation production line would be available in the second half of this year, and invited Lin Bin to visit the US design department. He would depart in mid-month.

Once the deal is finalized, a deposit must be paid according to Marvell's requirements; otherwise, the production line schedule cannot be guaranteed.

Lin Bin will try to negotiate the specific amount of the deposit and the payment period, but he estimates it will not be less than 300 million US dollars.

Lu Weibing's popcorn project is also hiring. His definition of his first-generation mobile phone is very low: a feature phone, a MediaTek chip is fine, Japanese parts are also acceptable. He pursues full functionality and a cool appearance, and the mobile phone interface must have its own style. Once these design goals are achieved, the marginal cost of production is almost zero.

The main strategy is to wage a price war and create a product that can conquer Southeast Asia.

Now he's eagerly waiting for the shared UI technicians to work on the interface development, and he wants to borrow the technical team for a month.

Chen Xuebing replied: Let's talk about the supply chain first. As for the team, we'll decide on that when he comes to Shenzhen after the New Year.

Right now, it boils down to two words: lack of money.

Everyone was busy with their own things. After Chairman Chen Xuebing gave his only 100 million yuan to Xu Yunfeng and Hu Li, he couldn't make any more waves.

On Monday morning, he and his mother transferred the 1100 million yuan to the fund management account and arranged for Changzheng Capital to invest it, just in case he had some other ideas and couldn't resist touching the money.

Now, I have absolutely nothing to do.

On December 5th, a Monday, he decided to return to the community and set a goal:
I'll keep checking in at school for a month.

He set this goal not so much to actually achieve it, but rather as a kind of metaphysical exercise:
Whenever a person sets a goal, Murphy's Law will inevitably come along to hinder them.

It works very well.

At 3 p.m. that day, Chen Xuebing was in class when Xu Jin called and said something terrible had happened.

Today, Black Monday, the market closed down 1.38%, stopping at 1079.2, breaking through Chen Xuebing's bottom line.

All sectors declined, and one of my heavily invested real estate stocks fell by 8%, resulting in my biggest loss in recent days, amounting to nearly 300 million.

Starting with 1.55 million, he finally managed to earn 160 million in capital, plus an additional 11 million in income. Just when he was about to reach 200 million, this blow wiped out half a month's earnings.

Chen Xuebing was completely numb.

He skipped class, grumbled as he returned to the company, and ordered everyone to collect recent stock market data for a review.

At 12 o'clock, the report came out, and the consensus was that the collective rise in the SME board index launched by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on December 1 had drained market liquidity.

The real estate stock OCT A, which nearly hit its daily limit down, was probably the work of Xu Zong, the newly established leader in Shanghai, who executed a devastating blow.

OCT suspended trading on November 18 for adjustment and just resumed trading today. Before the suspension, its trading seat, Guotai Junan Securities Shanghai Jiangsu Road, appeared on the list of top traders. The purpose of this time to lower the stock price is probably to receive some news and try to suppress market sentiment to buy shares.

Coincidentally, Changzheng Capital was also involved, holding over 90 shares, worth nearly 1000 million yuan, which dropped by 80 yuan today.

Having encroached on Chen Xuebing's territory, he wasn't going to hold back. He ordered all 1300 million yuan of off-exchange funds to be deposited during the opening auction tomorrow morning, to buy up shares at today's closing price.

Changzheng Capital has always diversified its investments, maintaining operations on 25-30 stocks and reserving some funds for averaging down. This is the first time they have made such a heavy position and left no money behind. Xu Jin sensed the chairman's hostility and began to silently study the recent positions of that Xu Zong, the leader.

Today, all institutions in the stock market are busy, mostly studying how long the Shenzhen small and medium-sized stocks can maintain their momentum, preparing to switch positions for a quick and easy profit.

But no one expected that this would be the last day of the turning point for the A-shares market.

……

On the morning of December 6, the Shanghai Composite Index opened 0.2% lower at 1077 points.

Overall sentiment was low, with over 900 stocks declining.

OCT A, however, defied the downward trend and opened with a 9% gain, leading the real estate sector. Investors noticed large funds entering the market. Combined with the previous trading data from Jiangsu Road in Shanghai, everyone thought that CEO Xu was preparing to push the stock to its daily limit. They followed suit and the stock hit its daily limit within 10 minutes, with 20 lots locked in.

Someone in Shanghai is cursing.

Despite a poor external environment, the A-share market remains in the red, with 900 stocks declining.

At 11:00 AM, heavyweight bank stocks began to rise, and the market turned positive.

In the afternoon, the market closed at 1088, up 0.8 percentage points.

With Changzheng Capital having made a significant return, the anxiety finally dissipated. Chen Xuebing didn't think much of it, merely considering it a recovery from the previous day, and his focus remained on OCT.

With the fiscal year-end approaching around New Year's Day, some people are getting in early, possibly related to the upcoming release of annual financial reports.

OCT's headquarters are in Shenzhen, so he asked Kan Zhidong if he could get his hands on OCT's 05 performance data.

Kan Zhidong stated: Yes, but it's not free.

……

On December 7, the A-shares index rose again by 1.09%, closing at 1099.

OCT (Overseas Chinese Town) is in good spirits, rising by more than 4%.

On this day, Changzheng Capital not only broke even but also made a profit of over 300 million yuan, bringing its total share value to 1.74 million yuan.

Chen Xuebing also received a report worth 50,000 yuan.

OCT Group's various tourist attractions and theme parks have received a total of 9.4 million visitors this year, which is expected to be 30% higher than in 2004. Its subsidiary, Huali Holdings, was listed in Hong Kong in November. Its main operating revenue increased by 16% year-on-year, while its net profit attributable to the parent company increased by more than 70% year-on-year.

The fact that the cash received from the sale of goods is higher than the operating revenue suggests that a large amount of accounts receivable from previous periods has been collected.

The fact that someone is willing to pay their bills promptly indicates that the company is highly competitive and capable of driving its upstream and downstream partners to make money together.

The company has had good performance growth in previous years. In 04, its profits increased by 46% compared to 03, making it a good company with steady growth.

The shareholding reform will be completed soon.

Hmm ...

There are quite a few positive news items.

Chen Xuebing and Xu Jin whispered and analyzed the asset-liability ratio, cash flow, and performance growth of the report. They agreed that with someone pushing the stock, the story could easily reach 14 to 15 yuan in the short term, and people would believe it even at 17 or 18 yuan after the financial report came out. At 10.8 yuan, it was definitely worth holding.

Remain inactive.

On December 8th, there was a slight fluctuation.

...On December 9th, the price reached 1113.50, a 1.4% increase!

……

It seems like a bull market has arrived.

But judging from the trading volume, it seems like they haven't come.

For more than two weeks, the stock market fluctuated every day, but each time it saw a slight increase at the close, as if it were telling people something.

But not many people believed it.

Many people rush to sell their stocks as soon as they reach a small peak, while others, drawing on their experience of the past four years of bear market, scoff: It's a trap, absolutely a trap!
Chen Xuebing, however, sensed the overwhelming momentum of the times.

The recent surge has been quite dramatic, but there are too many trapped investors at the bottom. Now, large funds are gradually pushing the price up, maintaining a slight upward trend, bolstering the confidence of wavering investors, allowing those who are not firm to exit their positions, and attracting new investors.

Even so, the situation is already quite encouraging.

On the Friday before Christmas, a light snowfall, combined with the festive atmosphere, provided a romantic experience for young people who admire Western culture.

Chen Xuebing had nothing to do with the situation. During this time, Xin Mengzhen seemed to have disappeared, only sending a message asking, "How have you been lately?"

He replied with a perfunctory "It's okay."

We didn't contact each other often before, but each phone call would last at least half an hour. Now...
Without the aura of a reborn person in his love life, Chen Xuebing also felt the helplessness of an ordinary person.

They can only go to work every day, enduring the tedious and boring experience of earning money as reborn individuals.

"Ha ha ha ha."

At 9:30 a.m., Chen Xuebing entered New York 45, holding his phone and laughing, just like yesterday.

"No profit, no profit, only twenty or thirty million!"

"Small money!"

"Ha ha ha ha."

"Mr. Kan, you're joking! I only made a small profit from OCT! I'm already planning to sell it off! I don't have any money to give you as dividends!"

"also?"

"Don't believe me? Check the market in half an hour!"

Chen Xuebing put down his phone, and Xu Jin in the lobby stared at him blankly.

"Chairman, are we going to divest OCT?"

Chen Xuebing nodded.

Liu Zengcheng was instructing a trader when he heard this and immediately stood up.

"Why sell? It's clearly going to go up! It's already at 13.6 yuan! It opened slightly below the opening price today, so it's likely to rally!"

Chen Xuebing smiled and waved his hand: "We came in so early, we've already eaten the fish head, now we can just eat half the fish body, why do we have to eat the tail?"

OCT has recently seen a promising rise of nearly 30%, and CEO Xu's strategy of pushing stocks to their daily limit has yet to be fully implemented. It's estimated that as a state-owned enterprise with billions of shares in circulation, it's a large-cap stock, so it's easy to push up prices, and the upward momentum can only be generated slowly.

Chen Xuebing invested 2300 million yuan and made nearly 700 million yuan in it. He didn't want to wait any longer. After all, he knew very well that this market would continue to be hot, and there were many bigger fish waiting for him to eat than OCT. There was no need to waste time here.

For example, Jilin Paper, which will resume trading next Monday.

It should now be called ST Universal. Suning Universal's backdoor listing has been a complete success.

Although Suning only became a big hit in 07, a new stock can always be traded for a couple of days.

"Sell it now?"

Seeing the chairman's firm attitude, Xu Jin became an unwavering executor. Although OCT's situation was very good, the chairman's vision was even more distorted.

"Throw it now," Chen Xuebing confirmed again.

With a 3000 million yuan order, Liu Zengcheng immediately prepared to handle it personally: "This stock is in three sub-accounts. Should we gradually push it up while selling, or should we place a large order directly?"

Chen Xuebing thought for a moment, then chuckled: "Let's throw out ten million first, make a big move, and force him to take over."

Both of them knew who "he" was.

Liu Zengcheng scratched the back of his head: "If the other party doesn't accept, selling like this will result in a significant loss of profits."

Chen Xuebing looked at Xu Jin with a cryptic smile: "What do you think? Will he accept?"

Xu Jin hesitated for a moment: "It's hard to say."

“I bet he’ll definitely accept,” Chen Xuebing said with a smile.

Xu Jin chuckled awkwardly, though he himself was a little unsure.

Xu Xiang is still just a leader, not a legend yet, and the two of them don't know each other very well.

Chen Xuebing, however, had read Xu Xiang's history of success. Given his ambition, having spent so long lurking in a stock, he certainly couldn't accept failure.

There's no trading volume in the market right now. If he doesn't take the hit when I make this move, it could push the stock price back below 12 yuan. The profit-making effect that OCT has just accumulated will be gone. It's easy for sentiment to go down, but it will be difficult to pull it back up.

Liu Zengcheng didn't waste any more words and arranged for people to start operating in the hall, while he stood by and watched.

"Xiao Liang, make 500 moves first!"

"Teng Kai, take over 438 orders at 13.56 yuan and finish the orders below!"

Chen Xuebing stood to the side and shook his head.

"It's too slow, people can't see it."

Liu Zengcheng frowned and calculated that it would take more than 70 shares to sell for 1000 million.

More than 7000 hands.

"13.3 yuan, 5000 lots placed immediately!"

11:20, ten minutes before the midday close.

Chen Xuebing came down from his office upstairs.

"How about it?"

Liu Zengcheng stood up and gave Chen Xuebing a thumbs up.

"The chairman has a great eye for talent; he took them all! At an average price of 13.3 yuan, we made 6.7 million yuan!"

Such aggressive trading doesn't generate profit just because it's sitting in your stock account; profit is only realized when you actually cash out and secure your gains.

210 million shares were sold off near the high price, forcing Boss Xu to buy them at a high price.

Chen Xuebing smiled and walked to the computer, then looked at OCT (Overseas Chinese Town).

Just before the market closed, the stock price jumped from 13.2 to 13.8, surpassing the opening price of 13.6, as if to prove that the large sell orders in the morning were a mistake.

This action, however, revealed a sense of impatience and anger. The entire hall of Changzheng Capital was filled with laughter, and no one cared.

"Tsk tsk." Liu Zengcheng clicked his tongue. "He's getting anxious, he's getting anxious."

Xu Jin laughed and said, "Chairman, you've really angered him this time. We weren't even sure it was him last time. Isn't it a bit too early to seek revenge?"

"Bullshit." Chen Xuebing walked away leisurely with his hands behind his back.

"I don't have time to take revenge on him, it's all about profit!"

(End of this chapter)