Chapter 1 A Rocky Start

After a round of plunges, A-shares and Hong Kong stocks continued to decline, but the destructive force had diminished considerably. The so-called continuous decline refers to the rise and fall of stock prices, with more falling than rising. If stockholders have good luck and make timely short-term trades, they can still earn some pocket money. Some stockholders who don't see the big picture and rush into the market without careful consideration have already begun clamoring for a bottom-fishing rebound, or that the reopening of fund subscriptions is a major boon.

Su Yexiao heard some news and clearly understood that the reason the northern side was loosening fund subscriptions was because the capital of their peers had already bottomed out. If they didn't loosen up, major problems might arise. If clients can't redeem smoothly, leading to a run, it could easily trigger a systemic financial risk.

It's not to say that entering the market now will definitely result in losses, but most of the fools who buy funds under these circumstances will end up losing everything, properly becoming bagholders. At the very least, Su Yexiao personally searched online for a long time but couldn't find a fund worth recommending. Frustrated, he suspended the sale of new funds and decided to wait and see for a while longer. Even he couldn't find opportunities in the stock market; it would be even harder for others to make money. It's obvious that it's a bear market, and the worst thing to do is blindly rush in.

Su Yexiao, who had a large amount of cash, began to buy futures and gold in large quantities. As a hedging asset, this usually has opportunities to rise sharply during market turbulence. He also bought a large amount of bonds denominated in Renminbi, waiting for the market to recover to rationality.

December 10, 2007.

A research report was delivered to Su Yexiao, placed on top of a thick stack of documents. Assistant Zhuang Wei had a bit of obsessive-compulsive disorder and liked to arrange things according to urgency and importance, so the first document seen each day was usually the most important. Su Yexiao was naturally aware of this after so many years of working together.

At this moment, he was already prepared with a pen, planning to sign and stamp the document to complete the process. Seeing that it was a risk assessment survey report piqued his interest. He lit a Xue茄 (Xue Qie - cigar), leaned back in his comfortable chair, and began to read carefully.

In short, the report mainly assessed the results of an investigation into the international hot money secretly causing trouble in the north, attempting to harvest the mainland's economy. On the one hand, from the second half of last year to the beginning of this year, massive amounts of capital flowed into the mainland through underground money shops, circumventing supervision, and entered the stock market for speculation. On the other hand, some people were playing tricks, desperately hyping up the mainland's real estate market, intending to hinder the mainland's development by undermining a pillar industry.

Old America had repeatedly failed to reap the benefits and had recently shown signs of desperation. Since the beginning of this year, it had not only tried to force the appreciation of the Renminbi but also repeatedly named names on many occasions. There's a saying that the business world is like a battlefield, and the field of international trade is even more so. Spending money to cause small disturbances, targeting an entire country, is a common trick used by Old America: low cost, quick results, and shocking destructive power.

Su Yexiao had previously felt that the mainland market this year was unusually volatile, whether in the real estate or stock market, the increases were not normal. After reading this report, with its highly reliable source from the East Coast of the United States, he suddenly realized the truth. He belatedly remembered the crackdown on underground money shops two months ago, which seized hundreds of billions of Renminbi. He originally thought it was some people raising money to run away, but now he realized it was originally foreign money, which was taken away to fill the public coffers. They died unjustly indeed.

The massive influx of hot money into the stock market could have a leveraging effect. This also explained why policies such as raising stamp duties were ineffective. Stockholders were still being roasted on the fire, indeed miserably trapped by hot money.

The real estate market had also risen sharply, with some small bubbles appearing that needed to be digested over time. Compared to the stock market, Su Yexiao felt that the real estate industry didn't seem to have too many problems. After all, homebuyers were using most of their life savings to buy houses. Even if prices fell, they would just live in them. Only a fool would arbitrarily default on their mortgage, which was clearly different from American homebuyers. Not only that, with the urbanization rate where it was, there were many potential buyers who wanted to buy property in the city. Forget about a 20% or 30% drop in housing prices; even if developers only offered a five-point discount, they could attract a large number of buyers to line up to buy. Under these circumstances, the real estate market's performance was naturally very stable.

The history of the United States using external conflict to divert domestic contradictions and fleece the world was long-standing. The report also mentioned attempts to inflate the prices of bulk commodities, force the appreciation of the Renminbi, deplete the north's foreign exchange reserves, and disrupt the north's economic development by suppressing the foreign trade industry, thereby triggering a financial crisis.

Angered, Su Yexiao took several deep breaths before throwing the document into the shredder, muttering to himself, "I was originally thinking of making a fortune with everyone, but now don't blame me for learning from Soros and turning around to give you a hard time..."

Personally showing his face would be too eye-catching. After thinking it over, the first person he thought of was Zheng Yongwen, the chairman of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Su's old man was right; peaceful days were comfortable, but after conceiving the idea of shorting Old America, Su Yexiao was uncharacteristically excited.

No sooner said than done.

They met again on the rooftop of the Hilton Garden Hotel. Zheng Yongwen, with a hint of curiosity, joked after showing his face, "I didn't know I was so popular. Recently, I've been summoned by you two or three times in a row. My face isn't small at all."

Su Yexiao sat under the sunshade, drinking coffee with his legs crossed, and got straight to the point, saying:

"Life is like a ruthless carving knife, changing our appearance. Must we wither before we even bloom? Brave Brother, do you still have any dreams? Haven't your initial ideals been realized yet? An opportunity to become a deity in one battle, to achieve fame and success, has arrived. Do you still have the guts to be Asia's sniper once again?"

Zheng Yongwen, who was already in his forties, didn't care about the graying hair at his temples. He had long lived a life of composure. Hearing Su Yexiao's words at this moment, Zheng Yongwen was struck by lightning, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Standing there in silence for a long time, he finally said:

"Although it's a bit exaggerated, it directly hits my soul. I've had enough of this nagging job at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Tell me, who are you going after this time?"

"Don't worry, and you don't need to resign. When your name shakes the world, all financial practitioners will look up to you." Su Yexiao took a sip of coffee, his tone playful:

"After being messed up by the United States in so many markets, they themselves are now having problems. Even a centipede dies hard, they're still clinging on with their last breath. Are you interested in avenging a past grudge, writing your name into the textbooks of all business schools in the world? If you're not interested, then pretend I didn't ask."

"Too... good, when do we make our move?" Zheng Yongwen almost cheered, excitement written all over his face. Su Yexiao replied: "The sooner the better. We can't wait until they're ready to make their move. They just want to find an excuse to ease the current contradictions by releasing liquidity. Catching them off guard is the only way to maximize the destructive effect and achieve a more shocking return..."