Chapter 107: Turbulence Returns

“The battle isn’t over yet!” Fang Ruohai smiled on the surface, but inwardly despised those cowardly Wang Minggui and Wang Yu. “With Xiao Ran’s adventurous nature and determination, he’ll never give up. Wang Yu, don’t forget how he played you after you forced him to write a script for you!”
“Xiao Ran still has 300 million. Given his personality, he won’t give up until the very end.” Fang Ruohai wore a mysterious smile as he glanced at his brother, who was listening quietly, and continued, “He’s now well aware of our strength, so he definitely won’t confront us head-on. In fact, he’s an opportunist—he’ll wait for the perfect chance before taking action.”
“As long as we don’t scatter our strength or keep some reserves for emergencies, we can deal with him,” Fang Ruoshan said calmly, picking up his brother’s words. “The rest of the funds can be used to seek opportunities in the market—this is a great chance!”
Wang Yu and Wang Minggui could only nod in agreement. Just considering the over a billion they earned yesterday was enough to make them respectful. Mo Fei cleared his throat lightly, drawing everyone’s attention. “Young Master Fang, I think I should tell you that this is an excellent opportunity to make money. With such a large increase yesterday, and your father still working with others in the U.S. to manipulate the market, there’s bound to be an even bigger rise today—probably back to the original level at the very least!”
The original level was around 3,900 points, meaning there was still room for a 400-point rise. The Fang brothers exchanged glances and agreed to seize this golden opportunity. If they could defeat Xiao Ran, that would be ideal.
Fang Ruohai closed his eyes, showing pain for his sister. “Xiao Ran, this time you’re dead!”
“You’re wrong!” Xiao Ran smiled faintly. Having gone through a bankruptcy crisis, he felt as if he’d crossed the threshold of death, which only intensified his desire to control everything. “This time, they can’t touch us. I think this is indeed a global stock market crash—only just beginning.”
Fang Xiaoqiang looked shocked and almost jumped up. “It can’t be a global crash! U.S. stocks and the Nikkei are both rising and falling. Although the fluctuations are large, it definitely isn’t a crash, let alone a global one!”
Xiao Ran smiled, walking slowly around the room with his hands behind his back. “It’s precisely because of the fluctuations that I conclude it’s a crash. Look at the situation these days—have you noticed that after each panic-driven drop, there’s always a one- or two-day rise?”
“That’s true, but it doesn’t mean anything!” Fang Xiaoqiang stood up to argue with Xiao Ran. “There are fluctuations, and the amplitude is indeed a bit abnormal, but it’s completely reasonable!”

“You’re wrong!” Xiao Ran suddenly turned and stepped closer to Fang Xiaoqiang, speaking those words with such certainty that no one dared doubt him: “This rise precisely shows that many people have realized the possibility of a stock market crash, so they’re deliberately trying to stabilize the market. Unfortunately, no matter how capable these people are, they still can’t prevent a crash—they can at most delay it. Have you all forgotten that this is exactly the cycle that occurs in Western economies every five or six years?”
At this point, Xiao Ran looked at the stunned Rong Xiaoyi and Lin Yongqiang, as well as the dejected Fang Xiaoqiang, and said with absolute certainty, “These people have held on for a long time, but they can’t keep going forever. Everything will explode in the next few days. Please remember, if the stock market were truly normal, it would be impossible for it to rise by only 20 points in the half hour before closing yesterday, given that Fang Ruohai placed 50,000 orders.”
“Is it really a stock market crash?” Fang Xiaoqiang was gradually convinced by Xiao Ran. In fact, he already knew he had been convinced. Yet the impending crash still filled everyone with fear. If what had happened earlier was just a rehearsal, it meant the real thing was about to begin: “I wonder how many people in Hong Kong will commit suicide now!”
Upon hearing this, everyone looked at Xiao Ran solemnly, their eyes filled not only with admiration but also something very strange. Xiao Ran glanced at Guan Xin, who too was staring at him with a serious expression.
He couldn’t help but laugh heartily. Everything before him filled him with joy—it was the taste of power; no wonder so many people loved it. As he laughed, Xiao Ran waved his hand lightly: “Don’t worry. I just want to avenge myself and recover my money at the same time. I definitely won’t harm the interests of stock investors. Once I succeed, I’ll immediately withdraw from the stock market!”
Xiao Ran’s guess was correct. Fang Xiaoqiang and the others were worried that he would take the opportunity to make dishonest profits. Earlier, they mainly dealt with Fang Ruohai, so they didn’t feel much, but if ordinary investors were harmed and seen jumping off buildings or committing suicide, perhaps not many people in Hong Kong would dare to do the same.
Xiao Ran truly intended to do this only once and never touch stocks again. It wasn’t his forte, nor did he need it. Just as the driver had said yesterday, dealing in stocks meant having money but no time to spend it—either you died in the process or suffered a heart attack.
At 10 a.m. on the 26th, the stock exchange opened. Xiao Ran didn’t act immediately but listened to Fang Xiaoqiang and Rong Xiaoyi report how many orders Fang Ruohai had placed. After calculating, he found that Fang Ruohai had already placed 100,000 orders that morning, meaning at least 1.8 billion had been spent.
Throughout the morning, Xiao Ran remained motionless and gave no orders. Fang Xiaoqiang and the others didn’t ask anything or act on their own, because somehow, they had gradually been influenced by Xiao Ran’s calm smile and began to admire this equally young man.
The one who felt the most emotional was undoubtedly Guan Xin. Although he was a highly trained and determined expert, yesterday’s battle still left him shaken, to the point where he couldn’t sleep all night. Yet Xiao Ran was able to regain his confidence overnight and conduct accurate analyses with a cool head—Guan Xin didn’t even know how he did it.

At noon, Xiao Ran did nothing but sit on a chair, pondering when all this would happen. He knew it wasn’t far off, but he didn’t know the exact time. History could no longer be trusted; he wouldn’t rely on it anymore.

When the market opened in the afternoon, Xiao Ran smiled mysteriously and gave his first instruction: “Open 3,000 lots. Tell Fang Ruohai that I’ve arrived!” As expected, Fang Ruohai immediately sensed Xiao Ran’s presence and, overjoyed, rushed to follow him. Xiao Ran smiled faintly—this was entirely predictable and not surprising. But for the next half hour, he didn’t move again.

The Fang brothers finally lost patience and started placing 10,000 lots at a time, urging Xiao Ran to enter the market and settle the battle. Xiao Ran simply smiled and watched the Hang Seng Index closely. It had risen by over 300 points throughout the morning, approaching the 3,900 mark. The Fang brothers’ actions only accelerated the index’s rise, pushing it close to the 4,000 mark in just half an hour.

At that moment, Xiao Ran smiled eerily. In his view, 3,800 was already the peak for Hong Kong stocks—any further rise would be abnormal. Now that it was approaching 4,000, Hong Kong stocks would surely crash.

Without hesitation, he gave orders to Xiao Yi and Fang Xiaoqiang—his second order of the day: “Xiaoqiang, secretly place 5,000 lots, then open another 3,000.”

Xiao Ran had a reason for this. Everyone knew that two factions had been fighting in the stock market lately, so their actions would surely draw much attention. He believed that his secret addition of 5,000 lots couldn’t be hidden from experts, and soon someone would notice the index approaching 4,000—a sign of collapse.

That would surely cause panic among all experts. And what spreads fastest in the world? Rumors. Once such news spread, it would take less than three minutes for the entire Hong Kong Stock Exchange to be aware of it.

Xiao Ran imagined the people at the stock exchange anxiously watching his actions. Seeing Fang Ruohai add another 20,000 lots, he estimated that Fang Ruohai must have invested 3 billion yuan. With Xiao Ran’s 400 million yuan, it was impossible to profit from that amount, so the rest could be considered as Xiao Ran compensating the stock investors.

Five minutes later, Xiao Ran made his final decision. Without saying a word, he simply raised his hand and cut through the air. Xiao Yi and Fang Xiaoqiang immediately understood his intention and used all their funds to buy stocks.

This time, Fang Ruohai didn’t even have time to replenish his position before the index changed. But it was a change Fang Ruohai absolutely didn’t want to see—the index dropped by 13 points in an instant, seemingly signaling to the two Western guests from the Fang family that this would be an ominous day.

Seeing this, Mo Fei was stunned, as were the Fang brothers, as well as Wang Yu and Wang Minggui. They never expected that just as the index was about to break through 4,000, it would drop instead. Aside from Xiao Ran, no one could have predicted that 4,000 would be the trigger for the collapse of Hong Kong stocks.

If Xiao Ran had to describe how rapidly the index fell, he would surely choose the dramatic reversal scene from “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” to illustrate just how intense and terrifying it was.

How terrifying—within just ten minutes, the Hong Kong stock market plummeted by nearly 200 points as if suffering from diarrhea. No one could stop this decline; in fact, no one even thought about how to stop it, because the situation was already unstoppable.

Fang Ruoshan was the first to regain his senses. He immediately shouted at the stunned Mo Fei, “Place 50,000 lots to buy, quickly! We must stop it!”

The 50,000 lots introduced into the stock exchange only slightly slowed down the decline of the Hang Seng Index, which soon dropped even faster. Fang Ruohai no longer cared about anything. He didn’t even understand how all this happened. Without thinking, he made a decision he would regret for a long time: “Add another 100,000 lots—we must stop it!”

“No!” Fang Ruoshan was horrified upon hearing this. Seeing that the index had dropped by over 50 points in just two minutes and that 50,000 lots hadn’t even made a dent, he knew it was all over. Adding another 100,000 lots at that point was simply throwing money away.

It was too late. Mo Fei acted very quickly, completing the transaction almost as soon as Fang Ruoshan spoke. 100,000 lots, worth about 1.8 to 1.9 billion, was wasted like that. Fang Ruoshan wasn’t even sad anymore—he was completely stunned.

Throwing 100,000 lots into this quagmire didn’t even slow down the decline this time; it was simply swallowed up. If Xiao Ran had seen the expressions on Fang Ruohai and Fang Ruoshan’s faces, he would have found it extremely amusing—their faces changed from red to green, then to white, and finally to deathly pale.

But the two brothers found it nothing funny at all. All they wanted now was to find a rooftop and jump off in this windy weather. 6 billion in funds was gone, completely devoured by this enormous beast known as the stock exchange.

The reason they didn’t jump right away was that they still had a glimmer of hope—that the index might turn around and experience a dramatic reversal. By this point, there was no one left to rely on; they could only pray that God would spare them a chance.

This time, even God couldn’t save them. The Hang Seng Index was like a crashing plane, its numbers plummeting rapidly—from over 3,900 to 3,700, then to 3,400, and soon it dropped to around 3,000.

At around 3,000, the decline slowed down temporarily. But it was only temporary. In less than three minutes, it dropped below 3,000 again. Yet still, there was no sign of stabilization. This damned Hang Seng Index crashed to Earth like a meteor, with no hope of recovery.

2,900… 2,700… 2,400… 2,200—finally, it stopped falling and rose by over 100 points, barely reaching 2,400. And just then, trading closed!

Total defeat—a complete catastrophe. Fang Ruohai and Fang Ruoshan were beyond tears. Wang Minggui fainted as usual, but this time he died from a cerebral hemorrhage. And when he died, no one even noticed his condition—truly pitiful.

If Wang Yu weren’t a coward, he would have probably jumped out of the window. He had seen the stock market crash before, but this was his first time experiencing it. Now he understood why so many people committed suicide. Thinking about it, he had only invested the 20 million yuan that Fang Ruohai offered him as compensation, yet now he was already in debt of 60 million yuan.
The contrasts in life are truly immense. In the morning, he was proud of having made tens of millions by accident, but by afternoon, he was already in debt of tens of millions. The ups and downs in life are too extreme to bear.
It was precisely because Wang Yu couldn’t cope that he simply copied Wang Minggui’s tactic from last time—lying there foaming at the mouth, refusing to get up no matter what. Perhaps he hoped he would never wake up, so he wouldn’t have to face the cruel reality.
*****
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