The Heiress's Game

Gu Yunjin invited Zheng Qiming, chairman of Galaxy Securities, for afternoon tea. When Gu Yunjin arrived, Zheng Qiming had already personally prepared the first brew.

He had the air of an old-school financier, in his early fifties, with his hair neatly combed. Behind his gold-rimmed glasses were small eyes, but so shrewd that he could weigh a person from head to toe in three seconds.

He was wearing a dark gray Zhongshan suit, and the watch on his wrist wasn't a top luxury brand, but an old Shanghai brand manual mechanical watch.

People in the industry know that it was the first watch he bought when he started from scratch, and he wore it for thirty years without changing it.

One can imagine the business style of someone who can use a watch for thirty years without changing it: steady, slow, meticulous, and never making a losing deal.

"Mr. Gu, what brings you to visit this old man today?" Zheng Qiming pushed a cup of Phoenix Dancong tea in front of Gu Yunjin.

He had dealt with Gu Yunjin several times, all in formal business settings, such as mergers and acquisitions, private placements, and cross-border restructurings. Each time, the woman's performance at the negotiating table left a deep impression on him.

"Uncle Zheng, what are you saying? Can't I come to see you if there's nothing wrong?" Gu Yunjin picked up her teacup.

"However, I am here today because I really want to do some business with you."

Zheng Qiming raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to continue.

"You must have quite a few shares of Brilliant International, right?" Gu Yunjin didn't beat around the bush, her tone as casual as if she were asking what year's tea was from.

Zheng Qiming calmly put down the teapot. "There are indeed some. Some are allocated by our own trading platform, and the other part is held on behalf of several large clients. The lock-up period hasn't expired yet."

These shares are just sitting there untouched. I usually have the trading department rent them out to make a little money, like a landlord renting out a house. So, Mr. Gu, are you interested in Brilliant International?

"I wouldn't say I'm interested." Gu Yunjin picked up the second cup of tea and blew on the tea leaves floating on the surface.

"However, I want to lease out all the stocks you have."

"All of them?" Zheng Qiming raised his eyebrows by half an inch.

"Yes, I've done a rough calculation. Your proprietary trading and nominee holdings combined donate a considerable sum. I'd like to lease out all of these shares, for the short term."

Gu Yunjin wants to rent shares of Brilliant International, for a short period—one month? Two months?

This means she judges that Brilliant International's stock price will fall in the short term, and the drop will be significant.

This was no ordinary transaction, but the financial market is ever-changing, and Gu Yunjin is still too young. Even if it falls, it's a normal drop with only minor fluctuations.

But it would be foolish not to make money when you can.

"Renting it out is fine," he said slowly.

"However, as you know, once the lock-up period for these shares expires, they still have to be returned to the client, so the rental period is not long."

"That's why I need it for a short period, one or two months." Gu Yunjin picked up her teacup and smiled slightly.

Zheng Qiming quickly did some mental calculations. These shares of Brilliant International were usually just sitting idle in the account, but they would rent them out to collect rent, which would generate a very good income from the interest.

Now, some people are willing to rent the whole thing for one or two months. Although the time frame is short, the rental price can naturally be set higher.

More importantly, this kind of thing involves no risk, no buying or selling, and no illegal operations.

He simply "lent" Gu Yunjin his idle stocks for a period of time, and she would return them to her in their entirety when the time came. The stocks she returned would be the same ones.

With the quantity and code remaining unchanged, no audit will detect any problems.

The rent paid in between is safely pocketed, and is entirely legal and compliant.

"One or two months is indeed a bit short," Zheng Qiming said, picking up his teacup with a hint of genuine regret in his voice.

"But the interest—"

"The interest rate will be based on market rates, so Uncle Zheng won't lose out," Gu Yunjin interrupted him.

Zheng Qiming smiled.

"Then thank you, Uncle Zheng. I'll have my legal department send the contract over tomorrow; your transaction department can handle it directly." She stood up and extended her hand.

Zheng Qiming also stood up and took her hand.

"Remember to come back to me next time you have business like this. But could you rent for a longer period next time? One or two months is too short, it's a pity."

"That depends on the market."

It wasn't until his third day at Yunwhale Capital that Xu Yan truly realized what kind of place he had entered.

He graduated from a top finance university in China and earned his master’s degree from London Business School. His resume is filled with scholarships, competition awards, and two internships at leading securities firms.

With his resume, he wouldn't be considered to be climbing the social ladder by joining any top investment bank.

But he chose Cloud Whale Capital, an institution that moved back from Wall Street.

Yunwhale Capital is well-known, not in the way that it constantly makes its presence felt in financial news, but in the way that is known by word of mouth among those who truly understand the industry.

Wall Street has had several famous short-selling battles, which have been studied repeatedly by people in the financial world for years, and to this day no one can be 100% certain who the mastermind behind them is.

However, several versions of the story vaguely mention the same name—the cloud whale.

When Xu Yan saw the company on the recruitment website, he submitted his resume without hesitation.

High welfare, high benefits, high entry requirements.

Xu Yan had to overcome numerous obstacles to get the offer, and all the other employees joining at the same time were master's and doctoral graduates from top universities.

During the onboarding training, the HR said with a smile, "Our Yunwhale has a zero turnover rate." At the time, Xu Yan thought they were just bragging.

Later I found out it was true, because no one who gets in is stupid, and no one would voluntarily leave a company whose salaries and benefits crush their competitors and whose project resources are so mysterious they're outrageous.

During his first week at the company, Xu Yan spent his days familiarizing himself with processes, organizing data, and conducting industry research.

His mentor, surnamed Qin, was a fund manager in his early thirties. He was usually quiet, but every time he spoke, he could pinpoint the unreasonable assumptions in his model and the problems with the data sources.

Xu Yan was tortured by him for three months, and felt that all the fancy skills he had learned in investment banking over the past three years had been completely dismantled.

Then in the fourth month, he was pulled into a conference room.

Inside the conference room, President Zhou Ji was already seated in the main seat.

There weren't many people at the meeting. Besides Xu Yan's mentor, Lao Qin, there were two senior fund managers and a risk control director.

Xu Yan sat at the very end of the table, with a laptop in front of him and his palms sweating profusely.

"Everyone's here." Zhou Ji glanced at him.

"Xu Yan, today is your first time attending a project meeting. Don't be nervous, just do what you're supposed to do."

Then, turning to everyone, he got straight to the point: "Over the next two weeks, we're going to acquire shares of Brilliant International on the secondary market."

Xu Yan's fingers paused on the keyboard. Brilliant International? The Brilliant International whose stock price just broke 100?

He had been following this company before joining, and it's been riding high lately with its market value soaring. Brokerage research reports are all touting it as a "hidden champion in the real estate supporting services sector."

Xu Yan was about to ask, "Do we believe in its long-term value?", but Zhou Ji's next sentence cut him off.

"This is no small matter," Zhou Ji said calmly.

"We need to create the feeling that a powerful institution is launching a takeover bid for Brilliant International by consistently making large purchases."

The goal is to make everyone in the market believe that Brilliant International is about to be acquired.

There was a two-second silence in the conference room. Xu Yan could hear his own heartbeat, thump, thump, thump, rapid and heavy.

The words "creating the illusion of an acquisition" kept echoing in his mind.

He studied finance for six years in school, where textbooks taught valuation models, portfolios, and risk management; not a single course taught him this phrase.

Is this what financial trading feels like? Is this what Cloud Whale Capital is really doing?

He subconsciously turned his head to look at Lao Qin, who was looking down at the document in front of him, his expression as calm as if he were looking at a supermarket promotional poster.

Clearly, this level of maneuvering is commonplace for him.

"Old Qin, you're in charge of the specific transaction execution." Zhou Ji opened the documents in front of him and began to assign tasks one by one.

"The establishment of positions should be carried out in batches, not concentrated in the same period of time, but the size of each transaction should be eye-catching enough."

The goal is to enable the exchange's data monitoring system to detect unusually large orders and for financial media's algorithms to identify abnormal fund movements.

Remember, our goal isn't actually to acquire Brilliant International; we just want to convince the market that someone is considering a takeover.

"Understood." Old Qin nodded and made a few notes in his notebook.

"We are keeping a close eye on risk control. Brilliant International's stock price is currently at a high level, and short-selling pressure could emerge at any time."

While establishing a position, we must prepare hedging plans. If the stock price fluctuates abnormally, we must immediately activate the backup plan and not expose our own positions to risk.

The risk control director was a middle-aged man in his early forties. For every sentence Zhou Ji spoke, he would type a few lines on the computer in front of him.

"The media channels are all ready." Another fund manager glanced at his phone.

Several financial media outlets will publish articles simultaneously on the second day after we establish our positions. The headlines and content have already gone through three pages, and the core message is just one thing—"Mysterious investors are eyeing Brilliant International, and acquisition rumors have attracted market attention."

They won't name the specific acquirer, but they'll use phrases like "according to sources close to the deal," which is enough to let the market speculate.

"Not naming names is the right thing to do," Zhou Ji nodded approvingly.

"Let people guess and make connections; the information vacuum itself is the best tool for communication."

When those brokerage analysts start writing "A Revaluation of the Acquisition Value of Brilliant International," we'll have completed half our task.

"Xu Yan," Zhou Ji called his name.

Xu Yan sat up abruptly, his fingers almost pressing the backspace key on the keyboard.

Being publicly called out by the CEO caused sweat to break out on his back.

"You'll keep an eye on the market for Lao Qin, paying attention to any unusual activity in block trades and the daily trading data. Report any abnormalities to Lao Qin immediately."

"Keep your eyes peeled. Lao Qin will verify your judgment, but the data waits for no one."

"Understood." Xu Yan's voice was more steady than he had expected.

He thought he was nervous, but the moment he opened his mouth, the nervousness transformed into something even more intense.

All he knew was that this wasn't a simulation trading platform, nor was it a sand table exercise in school; this was the real-money secondary market, a financial battlefield that countless people dreamed of participating in while staring at candlestick charts.

And he was sitting in the command room.