“You want to go to the General Office?” Xia He sounded somewhat surprised. “The General Office handles a lot of miscellaneous tasks.”
“Then assign me fewer tasks,” Fang Qingye said, half-jokingly and half-seriously.
“The Credit Department does have power and prospects, but I’m not interested. Besides, greater power comes with greater responsibility. I’m not very strong-willed—what if someone drags me down? That would be a case of the gain not worth the loss.”
Xia He couldn’t help but laugh. “Not strong-willed? Afraid of a honey trap?!”
Fang Qingye glanced at her but said nothing.
Xia He didn’t continue joking and said seriously, “Alright then, as you wish. Start in the General Office. If it doesn’t suit you, we can switch departments. I’m planning to nurture you properly. I never expected you to be so talented, considering how low-key you used to be!”
Please, don’t talk about nurturing me.
Wouldn’t it be better to let me take it easy every day?
But it wasn’t the right time to say that.
In his previous life, Fang Qingye had also been assigned to the General Office after his internship, and he hadn’t been happy about it at the time.
I graduated from a 211 university with a finance degree—why wasn’t I assigned to the Credit Department?
Now, thinking back, the General Office was actually great. It was easy to slack off, and he could even access the external network to monitor the stock market during work hours.
The two of them didn’t discuss work further and chatted about amusing college stories while finishing their meal. After eating, Fang Qingye sat for a while before saying goodbye. Xia He naturally didn’t try to keep him.
Before he left, Xia He suddenly said, “Xiao Fang, let’s add each other on QQ. If it’s inconvenient to call, you can leave me a message on QQ.”
“Sure.” Fang Qingye took out his phone, logged into QQ, and they added each other.
“East Sea Blademaster? That’s a pretty domineering QQ name,” Xia He remarked with a laugh.
“Your QQ name is quite unique too—The Lotus’s Thoughts,” Fang Qingye replied.
“Hey, let me clarify in advance—I don’t have any hidden thoughts. It’s just a QQ name. Some people who add me like to ask about it, and it’s annoying!” Xia He said.
“I know. Your name comes from a poem by Xi Murong called ‘The Lotus’s Thoughts.’ The first line even has your name in it,” Fang Qingye said, clearing his throat before reciting:
“I am a blooming summer lotus…”
“Go on, keep reciting,” Xia He urged when he paused.
“Sorry, I only remember the first line… Goodbye, Senior.” With that, Fang Qingye walked out the door.
“Goodbye…”
Xia He smiled and closed the door.
Fang Qingye arrived home before 8 p.m. As soon as he opened the door, he saw his mother, Zhang Meili, still sitting in the living room, snacking on sunflower seeds and watching TV.
“Finished eating?” Zhang Meili asked.
“Yeah,” Fang Qingye replied as he changed his shoes.
“Didn’t your Director Xia ask you to stay longer?” Zhang Meili turned to look at him.
“How could that be? We’re not that close. Besides, Director Xia lives alone in the county town. If I stayed too long, people might gossip.”
“Good, it’s best that you understand.” Zhang Meili went back to snacking on sunflower seeds and watching TV.
Fang Qingye was speechless.
His mother had always been like this, so he didn’t plan to say much more. He went to his bedroom and made himself a cup of tea.
In his previous life in Shencheng, he had started out liking coffee, but as he grew older, he gradually developed an interest in tea. Later, he had even prepared to spend his middle age with a thermos of goji berries, only to be reborn back into his youth.
The habit of drinking tea remained unchanged, and whether at work or at home, he always preferred high-quality tea.
The Jinghai region where Nanxin was located also produced tea—varieties such as Rugao white tea, Haimen green tea, Nanxin maojiang, and Junshan tea. Though not as famous as Biluochun or Longjing, their quality was in no way inferior.
More importantly, Fang Qingye didn’t need to spend his own money on tea. His father’s study was stocked with fine teas gifted by various guests. Today, Fang Qingye was enjoying a local specialty—premium Junshan tea called “Langshan Spring Dawn,” an authentic pre-Qingming tea.
After brewing a cup of Junshan tea, Fang Qingye leisurely turned on his computer, ready to focus on his own business—naturally, stock trading.
Just yesterday, the 200,000 yuan borrowed from Song Da Hai had arrived in his account, and tonight he could finally dive into the stock market.
The year 2008 was dismal for global stock markets. From the U.S. Dow Jones Index to Frankfurt’s DAX and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index, the news was grim. The domestic A-share market was even more disastrous.
After the frenzy of 2007, the A-share market could no longer sustain its highs by November 2007 and began to plummet. Then, in 2008, the subprime mortgage crisis erupted, triggering a global financial tsunami. As the global economic environment sharply deteriorated, the affected A-share market plunged from the tenth floor straight down to the ground level. From November 2007 to October 2008, the index fell from 6,124 points to 1,664 points—a staggering 72.8% drop, almost like a free fall.
It was now April, and the market had yet to hit bottom.
However, even in the bleakest bear market, opportunities existed. In 2008, the agricultural sector stood out as the strongest performer, with the leading stock—Longping High-Tech—being particularly remarkable. It was rated as one of the year’s top ten demon stocks.
This was the stock Fang Qingye had his eye on.
The term “demon stock” wasn’t without reason; such stocks often had speculative hype. Longping High-Tech had two major catalysts: first, the state’s review and preliminary approval of a major scientific project for cultivating new genetically modified biological varieties. This undoubtedly stirred excitement among investors, drawing attention to listed companies involved in genetic modification, including Longping High-Tech.
The second factor was the high dividend payout.
The company was about to announce a dividend distribution and capital reserve conversion plan: for every 10 shares, shareholders would receive 1 additional share and a cash dividend of 1 yuan, along with a conversion of 5 shares from capital reserves per 10 shares. This equated to a total of 6 additional shares for every 10 held.
Fang Qingye remembered clearly—back when he had just entered the stock market, he had heatedly debated with fellow traders in a stock chat group. Someone mentioned that Longping High-Tech would issue high dividends and was likely to surge.
At the time, he scoffed. How could a company with such mediocre performance be so generous? It had to be a rumor!
After all, the market was flooded with speculation.
But to his surprise, not long after, the company actually announced the dividend plan. Coupled with the state’s newly released policies on genetically modified biological varieties, the stock price had already skyrocketed, leaving no chance to catch up.
Now, however, none of this had happened yet.
Fang Qingye opened the Flush software, pulled up Longping High-Tech’s K-line chart, and began studying it carefully.
Two months ago, the stock price surged from 15.5 yuan to a peak of 24.38 yuan, then plummeted rapidly. Last week’s lowest point was 13.11 yuan, meaning all gains were wiped out within a month, and it even broke below the previous bottom, forming the dreaded breakout pattern that investors hate most!
A breakout could be a clear sell signal!
Coupled with the four long bearish candlesticks on the weekly K-line chart, it looked downright frightening.
Back then, Fang Qingye saw this situation and made the wrong judgment, thinking the main force was distributing shares, so he quickly sold.
In reality, it was quite the opposite—the main force was just using this aggressive method to shake out weak holders and reduce the cost of pulling up the price.
He was too green back then.
Truth be told, in the A-share market, 99% of retail investors are novices, mere lambs for the slaughter by market makers.
This time, Fang Qingye didn’t overthink it. Seeing yesterday’s closing price was 14.38 yuan, he simply placed an order to buy at 14.38 yuan, investing his entire 200,000 yuan principal to purchase 139 lots.
He left the order hanging, expecting the price to drop further tomorrow, at which point the system would automatically execute the buy.
After everything was set, Fang Qingye logged out of Tonghuashun and, after a moment’s thought, logged into QQ.
In those days, WeChat hadn’t appeared yet, and QQ was bustling with activity. He had many friends and even more QQ groups—Fang Qingye had joined over a dozen stock trading groups alone. As soon as he opened QQ, the little penguin icon blinked wildly, and notifications chimed incessantly.
But in this life, Fang Qingye couldn’t be bothered to check them. He kept all groups muted and usually logged in invisibly, only glancing to see if there was any useful information.
Today, for some reason, he accidentally clicked “Appear Online.” As he prepared to browse through his university and high school class groups to see if there were any important messages, he suddenly noticed his QQ status and quickly switched to invisible. But just then, a window popped up.
His friend “Cosmic Invincible Youthful Beauty” requested a video chat!
The QQ avatar was still an anime-style image of a girl in a sailor uniform—likely Chie Nakatani from the manga “Landlord Girl’s Adolescence!”—super kawaii.
Fang Qingye was taken aback, remembered something, and decisively clicked “X” to reject.