Chapter 106: A Complete Defeat

The market opened again, but Xiao Ran and the other two, along with Rong Xiaoyi and the rest, were in an extremely bad mood. They watched the Hang Seng Index closely—finally, it moved, but upward. With no sign of stopping, it rose for half an hour before finally calming down. As soon as it stopped, Xiao Ran, whose forehead was covered in sweat, shouted, “Buy in! Buy 10,000 lots! Master, tell Xiaoyi and the others not to rush into buying yet; let’s wait and see the situation.”

These 10,000 lots had some effect, pushing the Hang Seng Index down by about 30 points. But in less than five minutes, Fang Ruohai and the others bought in 30,000 lots, pushing the index back up by over 40 points.

Xiao Ran no longer had much money left, only enough for 15,000 lots. He couldn’t act now; he had to wait for the critical moment to deploy those seemingly insignificant 15,000 lots.

By now, both Fang Xiaoqiang and Guan Xin truly understood one thing: Fang Ruohai definitely had more than 100 million dollars at his disposal—probably at least 300 million. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to keep buying in tens of thousands of lots.

But soon they realized Fang Ruohai’s funds were far more than 300 million dollars. As Fang Ruohai kept buying in, the Hang Seng Index kept rising, though not very quickly. Still, half an hour before market close, it had returned to its original level, even higher by 300 points.

For a moment, all Hong Kong stock investors cheered, except Xiao Ran. As the index continued to rise, his face grew paler, and his breathing became faster. He found it absurd—he felt like Zheng Shaoqiu in “The Big Wave,” the main villain opposing all the stock investors.

His last order of 15,000 lots remained unexecuted, even leading Fang Ruohai to think Xiao Ran had run out of money. But just half an hour before market close, Xiao Ran finally made his last move. Yet this move had no effect—the index continued to rise, albeit more slowly.

Xiao Ran’s heart sank. He knew this last move wouldn’t do much, but he couldn’t bear to hold back. That was the mindset of a gambler—desperate to win, ignoring everything else. If he could lose 1 billion, he wouldn’t care about the remaining 300 million.

The three people in the room were deathly pale, with no trace of vitality in their eyes. Even Guan Xin knew they had lost, and badly at that. Xiao Ran’s heart seemed to stop beating as the numbers kept rising. Before market closed, he left the place as if in a daze.

On the street, he forgot even to drive his own car and hailed a taxi instead. The driver, seeing Xiao Ran’s state, knew he must have lost in the stock market. The driver sighed and said, “That’s the stock market—winning can drive you to heart disease, losing can drive you to jump off a building. Before the crash in ’73, I lost everything. But later I realized money can’t be earned that way. If you want to live longer, it’s better to do something else.”

“By the way, we’ve been talking for so long—why aren’t you saying anything?” The driver talked nonstop, giving Xiao Ran a strange look before continuing, “Exactly how much did you lose? Why do you look like a dead man? Are you planning to jump off a building?”
“One billion!” Xiao Ran spat out those two words, feeling as though his voice was drifting in space, lost and untraceable. Yet, after saying them, he inexplicably felt much lighter.
The driver was shocked, almost hitting the safety barrier. He stared at Xiao Ran in astonishment, “One billion? You mean one billion?”
Xiao Ran ignored the driver’s words and simply crossed his arms quietly, thinking it might make him feel a bit better. His mind was in turmoil: It’s just one billion. I could earn it before, and I definitely can earn it in the future!
Like a zombie, he finally regained some semblance of humanity when he reached Lin Qingxia’s house. He thought that aside from home, this was the only place that could give him warmth.
Lin Qingxia was happily making coffee. She wasn’t some delicate lady who couldn’t handle the kitchen. Ever since she discovered that Xiao Ran liked home-cooked meals, she loved cooking even more. As she hummed an unknown song, she suddenly saw Xiao Ran standing at the kitchen door, staring at her blankly.
In Lin Qingxia’s eyes, Xiao Ran had never looked so disheveled as he did today. It wasn’t so much disheveledness as failure. His appearance wasn’t the issue; it was the despair radiating from him that affected others’ perceptions.
At the thought of failure, Lin Qingxia felt a terriblepremonition. She stepped forward and asked with a trembling voice, “A Ran, what happened? Could it be the stocks…”
Xiao Ran stared blankly at Lin Qingxia, who looked as happy as a homely woman—so beautiful, so perfect. He couldn’t even think of words to describe her. In that moment, he felt unworthy of her, because he had lost everything, everything that could bring her happiness.
Amid Lin Qingxia’s anxious tone, Xiao Ran’s lips moved slightly as he uttered a few words, “I lost it all. Over one billion—I’m bankrupt!”
Lin Qingxia’s face paled instantly. She immediately assumed Xiao Ran must be so desperate he wanted to die. She gently wrapped her arms around him and whispered in his ear, “Don’t do this. I don’t like you like this. I like your smile and your cheerfulness, not your depression.”
“Qingxia, I’ve lost everything. I can no longer give you any happiness.” If Xiao Ran hadn’t stopped crying long ago, he would have cried now.
If he hadn’t gone all the way with Fang Ruohai, if he hadn’t even gotten involved in this stock crisis… The regret surged, but Xiao Ran immediately dismissed it: There are noifs. What’s done is reality. It was one of his habits—though somewhat cruel, cutting off any hope.

Lin Qingxia pushed Xiao Ran away abruptly and stared at him coldly. “Without you, I might have chosen to marry a wealthy man in the future. But with you, everything is different. Do you really think money is all that’s needed to bring me happiness? Or don’t you realize it’s you I care about?”
Xiao Ran sighed deeply. The despair that had nearly overwhelmed him gradually faded. He felt that as long as Lin Qingxia was by his side through any difficulties, that was already perfect. Perhaps he really shouldn’t ask for too much—it would be better to do what he could.
“I’m sorry!” Xiao Ran gently embraced Lin Qingxia, filled with remorse. In her soft body, he found warmth and comfort. They separated slightly, and the despair from his defeat vanished. Smiling at his lover, he said, “I’m hungry. I suddenly really want to eat your home-cooked food!”
At 9:30 a.m. the next day, Xiao Ran was awakened by the ringing of a phone. As he reached for it, he realized he wasn’t at home. Looking at Lin Qingxia lying beside him, half of her delicate shoulder exposed, made him swallow hard.
Last night, Lin Qingxia truly belonged to him. Xiao Ran was happier than if he had won ten billion dollars. Watching Lin Qingxia blink her eyes, he handed her the phone with a smile and playfully tugged her chin.
This teasing immediately caused a blush to appear on Lin Qingxia’s face. She glared at Xiao Ran reproachfully before answering the phone. It was Guan Xin calling, looking for Xiao Ran. Lin Qingxia handed the phone to him. Xiao Ran pointed at himself in confusion and took the phone, asking, “Who’s calling?”
“Aran, it’s me!” Guan Xin’s tone always seemed so calm. “Everyone’s been looking for you for a long time. I thought you might be with Lin Qingxia. Everyone is waiting for you to make a decision—whether to go ahead or not.”
“What decision?” Xiao Ran was confused. It was normal for Guan Xin to know about his relationship with Lin Qingxia.
“The market is about to open. Do we still need to continue fighting?” Guan Xin patiently explained. This kind of task requiring patience was perfect for him. “The Fang Ruohai brothers still haven’t planned to back out. They want to make a huge profit in the stock market!”
“But didn’t we lose everything yesterday? Where do we have the money to compete with them?” Xiao Ran was very puzzled, as was Lin Qingxia. Xiao Ran’s behavior yesterday wasn’t fake.
“We haven’t lost everything. It only rose to 332 points yesterday. We still have about 400 million left!” After hearing from Xiao Qiang in the next room, Guan Xin quickly told Xiao Ran in surprise, thinking he already knew.
Xiao Ran was stunned. He couldn’t believe his ears. But after calculating carefully, he suddenly realized it was all true. An overwhelming sense of joy surged through him. “I’ll be there right away!”
Seeing Xiao Ran hang up the phone, Lin Qingxia’s expression first turned ecstatic before becoming serious. Worried, she asked, “What happened? Why do you need to go in person?”

“I still have four hundred million, Qingxia. I’m not bankrupt yet, hahaha! Heaven won’t abandon me!” Xiao Ran was filled with nothing but joy now. The happiness of surviving such a crisis made him feel as if he could fly. He tightly hugged Lin Qingxia and kissed her deeply before shouting, “Wait for me! I’ll go check things out first!”
Seeing Xiao Ran’s happiness, Lin Qingxia was also infected and gradually became happier. Before Xiao Ran left, concern appeared in her eyes: “Whether you decide to fight on or not, I just want to tell you that whether you win or lose, I’ve left you a pillow here!”
“I definitely won’t lose!” Perhaps because he had picked this brilliantly beautiful flower yesterday, Xiao Ran was extremely confident. He smiled at Lin Qingxia and said, “Wait for me! I’ll definitely return victorious! Don’t forget to save me a pillow!”
When they arrived at the command center, Rong Xiaoyi and the others were all there. Seeing Xiao Ran rush in in a hurry, they heaved a huge sigh of relief. Their expressions weren’t very good, clearly still haunted by the memory of losing nine hundred million yesterday.
The only one with a smile, the only one looking happy, was Xiao Ran. On the way here, he remembered what the driver had said yesterday. He thought maybe it was time to give up—four hundred million was already far more than his initial goal. Most importantly, he realized that with Lin Qingxia by his side, money wasn’t that important.
Seeing Xiao Ran’s smiling face, everyone felt a slight shock, but gradually calmed down under his influence, thinking he must have some good idea. The frail Fang Xiaoqiang awkwardly raised a question, “Boss, should we continue?”
“The market opens in ten minutes. Tell me, should we go ahead or not?” Xiao Ran suddenly took a deep breath, just like in movies, and exclaimed, “How fresh the air is, how wonderful the world is!” But he still only showed a calm smile. “I want to hear the experts’ opinions before deciding!”
The expert here was undoubtedly Fang Xiaoqiang. He hesitated for a moment, glanced at yesterday’s records, and scanned the room with a grim expression. “It’s certain the Hang Seng Index will rise. If we keep fighting against Fang Ruohai and the others, we’ll have to side with them. I think we shouldn’t continue. The situation isn’t clear at all—there’s hardly any room for an increase.”
Xiao Ran didn’t answer. He was thinking about something very important. Yesterday, he had been defeated because he trusted history too much, lacked funds, and fell for a trick. But his intuition told him there must still be an opportunity—not just because history showed that this stock crash had lasted two whole months.
Where exactly was the opportunity? He tried to find the weakness. But it was clearly difficult to find an answer. Wait a moment, Xiao Ran thought, focusing on Fang Xiaoqiang who was waiting for a reply. “Xiaoqiang, I hope you can tell me why we lost yesterday. It’s very important!”
“Yesterday, U.S. stocks stopped falling, and the Nikkei rose a bit. But these are normal things—there are always ups and downs even during a stock crash!” Fang Xiaoqiang didn’t understand Xiao Ran. His small eyes lingered on Xiao Ran’s calmly smiling face for a moment.

How did this stock market crash in Hong Kong occur? Affected by U.S. stocks, coupled with previous manipulations by market players, things got out of control. Xiao Ran quickly reached this conclusion. Why did the Nikkei rise yesterday and U.S. stocks stabilize? Why is Fang Ruoshan here? It’s definitely not just to bring money!
Why does the Fang family, with its $1 billion in assets, still have $500 million in liquid funds? With a broader perspective, Xiao Ran gradually understood that the entire Fang family was involved in this struggle—the two brothers were acting in Hong Kong, while Fang Poli was creating momentum in the U.S.
Thinking of all this, Xiao Ran came to a bold conclusion. After taking a deep breath, he looked around and said, “The battle isn’t over yet.”
*****
Due to technical reasons, the character reference table wasn’t included in the previous chapters, but it should be added next month!
Also, readers who have VIP tickets might want to support Da Da Sai Leng’s “The Media Empire: The YY King Trilogy” with a VIP monthly subscription.
Friendly recommendation: “Desire in the Universe,” by Gu Du Tian Han, a veteran author from Qidian, available at http://www.feiku.com/showbook.asp?bl_id=38480