“Stock trading? Are you insane?” Song Da Hai was taken aback and quickly advised: “I heard stocks are plummeting disastrously right now, and you still want to jump in? Do you think it’s the bull market from two years ago?”
“Money can be made even in a bear market. I’ll borrow 200,000 from you and pay it back within three months at most. If you don’t trust me, I’ll give you my salary card as collateral, how about that?” Fang Qingye said.
“Alright, alright. What would I do with your salary card? Fine, when do you need it?” Song Da Hai asked.
“It’s not too urgent, just sometime in the next few days.”
“Okay.”
Fang Qingye borrowing money from his friend to trade stocks wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision.
Though his bank job paid decently, it was far from enough to achieve financial freedom.
Starting a real business was out of the question—too exhausting.
Stock trading was simple. With over a decade of experience from his previous life in investment banking, combined with his grasp of capital market trends after rebirth, achieving financial freedom or hitting a small target shouldn’t be much of a problem.
They kept eating hotpot until 8 p.m. when Song Da Hai suggested going to a KTV. Fang Qingye firmly declined.
“With your raspy voice, even the hostesses would get goosebumps—let alone me.”
“I’m heading home. Don’t drive; I’ll ride you back on my bike,” Fang Qingye added before leaving.
“No need. I’ll leave the car here and take a taxi. We’re not going the same way anyway.” Song Da Hai waved his hand and walked toward the street.
They really weren’t going the same direction. Song Da Hai lived in a self-built villa in the west of the city, the opposite direction from Fang Qingye’s home.
Watching his friend get into a taxi, Fang Qingye rode his scooter home.
When he opened the door, the lights were on. His mother had already returned home and was leisurely watching TV in the living room while snacking on sunflower seeds.
She glanced at him when he came in but didn’t ask anything, simply continuing to watch TV.
This was typical of his mother. She had always been indifferent toward him since childhood, never bothering with what he did. Fang Qingye sometimes wondered if he was really her biological son.
But today, just as he was about to enter his bedroom, his mother stopped him.
“Xiao Ye, I heard your bank lost 20 million in cash from a depositor. Is that true?”
“Mom, how did you know about this?” Fang Qingye looked surprised. His mother wasn’t the type to gossip.
Aside from teaching, she showed little interest in anything else.
“Teacher Chen, who shares an office with me, her husband works at your Qianjin Road branch. She also knows you joined Dongfang Bank, so she mentioned it to me privately. Tell me, does this have anything to do with you?” Zhang Meili asked.
“What does it have to do with me?” Fang Qingye found it strange. “I’m still in my probation period. I don’t even have access to core business. Besides, I’ve never worked at the Qianjin Road branch.”
“Good, as long as it has nothing to do with you.” His mother finished speaking and went back to watching TV.
“Mom, what exactly did Teacher Chen tell you?” Fang Qingye grew curious and pressed further.
“If it has nothing to do with you, then it doesn’t matter.” His mother picked up some sunflower seeds, keeping her eyes fixed on the TV without turning around.
Damn it…
Fang Qingye had no choice but to retreat to his room.
It was still too early to sleep, so he turned on the desktop computer on his desk.
This was a computer I assembled myself during my junior year of college, using an AMD Athlon X2 5000 processor, ATi Radeon 9550 graphics card, 2GB DDR2 Kingston memory sticks, a 22-inch AOC LCD monitor, and a 320GB Seagate hard drive. Back then, it was considered high-end, but now it just looks like junk.
It’ll have to do.
He wasn’t browsing online novels or chatting but opened the Tonghuashun stock analysis software to check the recent trends of the stock he had his eye on.
Fortunately, the major players were still quietly accumulating shares, and it would take some time before the stock took off.
Fang Qingye watched the day’s market trends for a while, browsed some financial news online, and then took a shower and went to bed.
In this life, it’s better not to be a night owl—health is important.
The next day, Fang Qingye went to work on time, and it was another chaotic day. The investigation team shifted its focus from the savings office to the branch building, questioning everyone even remotely connected to the matter.
Of course, Fang Qingye wasn’t involved.
A couple of days later, someone posted about the incident in the Nanxin forum on Baidu, and the thread quickly piled up with hundreds of replies, all criticizing the bank for negligence. Some even suspected an inside job.
Reporters had already come to Nanxin specifically to cover the story, and leaders from the municipal People’s Bank, the Banking Regulatory Bureau, and the county government had inquired about the matter in various ways. The atmosphere grew increasingly tense.
From the director to the ordinary staff, the entire Nanxin Branch was shrouded in a stifling mood.
Xia He, who was in charge of daily operations, came and left work on time as usual, but her face was noticeably haggard, having lost its usual brightness.
But it was understandable—who wouldn’t be anxious when something like this happened right at the critical moment before a promotion?
What was even more frightening was that, according to the division of responsibilities among the bank’s leaders, the Qianjin Road Savings Office was under her supervision. If something really went wrong, she would be the one solely responsible—it had nothing to do with the other deputy director, Zhao Wenjun!
The storm was brewing.
Today was a weekend, and feeling bored in the evening, Fang Qingye wandered the streets alone. Out of sheer boredom, he decided to find an internet cafe to play some Warcraft or something. But when he went inside:
Good grief, the place was uniformly filled with non-mainstream styles—Sha Mate, bat sleeves, harem pants—all shrouded in smoke, making Fang Qingye frown from the choking air.
Forget it. An old soul like him shouldn’t join the commotion.
Strolling aimlessly along the county’s main street, he passed the Dingcheng Hotel on Wenhua Road and saw a petite girl in Donghang Bank uniform hurriedly leaving the hotel.
It was Chen Meimei.
She got on her small Kun car parked at the hotel entrance, apparently heading home.
“Chen Meimei,” Fang Qingye called out.
Seeing it was Fang Qingye, Chen Meimei’s tired face broke into a smile.
“Fang Qingye, out for a walk alone?”
“Yeah,” Fang Qingye replied, then glanced back at the hotel. “Finished work for today?”
Chen Meimei naturally understood what he meant and nodded. “Yes, it’s over. The investigation team is returning to the city tomorrow.”
“Did they figure out the whole story?”
Chen Meimei shook her head with a bitter smile. “No, they’re just temporarily going back. Director Liu needs to report to the main leaders at the municipal bank.”
“It’s that complicated?”
“Yeah. How about we walk and talk?” Clearly, Chen Meimei had a lot on her mind that she wanted to share with someone.
Fang Qingye nodded.
Chen Meimei silently pushed her bicycle along the roadside, with Fang Qingye walking beside her, neither initiating conversation.
After a while, Chen Meimei finally spoke: “Fang Qingye, isn’t it strange?”
“What’s strange?”
“The seals left on the 20 million bill that was inexplicably transferred from Tenglong Industry—including the official seal, legal representative’s seal, and the company’s reserved seal—are completely identical. After investigation by the task force, and even with the help of municipal experts through repeated verification, they were absolutely not forged. Moreover, corporate account transfers also require corporate passwords, U-shields, etc., all of which are held by their company’s financial personnel. Our bank staff cannot operate these. So how could the funds have been transferred?” Chen Meimei said as she walked.
“Additionally, upon verification, the 20 million funds were transferred to an account of a company in Zhejiang Province, and this company has had no accounting transactions with Tenglong Company in the past five years—not only at Dongfang Bank but at other banks as well! In other words, Tenglong Company has never had any contact with this company before!”
“Even more bizarrely, the latest news from Zhejiang is that the actual controller of that company, Sun, is currently missing. The task force suspects he has already fled.”
“Oh,” Fang Qingye uttered.
Just like what happened in history.
But he didn’t say it out loud and instead asked, “What has been Tenglong Industry’s reaction?”