Chapter 7
Translator: Aafkee
Proofreader: Superclubs2
The new-year holidays are ending very soon, and so Lu Chuiqing begins his trip back to the city he is working in, City S. During the holidays, all of his relatives have been sending him greetings, as well as asking him about his work and love life.
Lu Chuiqing has only started working for a few months, there is no way he would have enough saved up to buy his own apartment. After contacting a few of his seniors from university, he finally found a place near a train station and shares a decently priced rental apartment with someone else.
His housemate is a year three university student that studies in a university nearby. His housemate is called Guan Xiaoluo, a male omega like Lu Chuiqing and has a very enthusiastic and cheerful personality.
Lu Chuiqing was initially curious as to why Guan Xiaoluo would want to co-rent an apartment, especially since the price of renting an apartment can be quite hefty for a university student. Understanding Lu Chuiqing’s curiosity, Guan Xiaoluo openly told Lu Chuiqing about his own situation.
Guan Xiaoluo’s parents have been divorced since his middle school years, he has been living with his father since then. Guan Xiaoluo’s father has a job related to international business with pretty good working conditions and benefits. His father ended up forming a new family, has another child and no longer pays as much attention to Guan Xiaoluo as compared to before.
In addition to his stepmother being well-off, and also perhaps out of guilt, Guan Xiaoluo’s father and stepmother have been very generous materialistically. Guan Xiaoluo receives more than enough living expenses every month and is even able to save up for himself with the extra money that he has received.
Coincidentally, Guan Xiaoluo could not get along with his roommate from his university dormitory. Since he has enough savings to rent an apartment outside, he decided to do just that.
Guan Xiaoluo has pretty good living habits; he does not smoke nor drink, loves cleanliness, and would never be noisy when it is nighttime. Lu Chuiqing gladly accepts such a housemate.
When Lu Chuiqing returned to City S, Zhou Ruiyang, who is currently working in the neighbouring city, invited him out for dinner. Zhou Ruiyang’s girlfriend, Liu Yuanyuan, who is also working at a trading company in the same city, joins them for the meetup as well.
Despite knowing each other for so many years, Liu Yuanyuan remains uncomfortable with Lu Chuiqing and Zhou Ruiyang’s close friendship. She will probably never feel relieved until Lu Chuiqing gets his own partner.
During their meal, Lu Chuiqing and Zhou Ruiyang naturally end up talking about the recent stock market, which reminded Lu Chuiqing about Qifu Provisions’ incident from his previous life, “Ruiyang, has your uncle gotten rid of Qifu Provisions’ stocks?”
“Not yet, he is still holding it.” Zhou Ruiyang replies, “I did tell him your advice though, he just doesn’t want to believe me. He has been looking at all those random bloggers and listened to those instead…why? Why are you asking about that suddenly?”
Lu Chuiqing remembers that it is going to be within these couple of days when Value Scan exposes Qifu Provisions’ fabricated reports. The stock market officially reopens next Monday, it would be too late if the stocks are not gotten rid of by now.
“Tell your uncle to get rid of them soon.” Lu Chuiqing urged, “Qifu Provisions’ stocks won’t get any better, their real value is probably less than half of what is listed, trust me, the stock price will plunge down real soon.”
“Seriously?” Hearing Lu Chuiqing’s serious tone, Zhou Ruiyang is slightly surprised and asks in a low voice, “Tell me truthfully, did you get some sort of inside information or something?”
“Where can I even get inside information from…” Lu Chuiqing, feeling a sense of guilt, replies, “I am just a small researcher, I wouldn’t be the first to get my hands on the information even if it exists.”
Zhou Ruiyang squints his eyes and stares at him for a while and finally says, “Alright, I’ll trust your insight.”
Lu Chuiqing left soon after dinner. He can already tell how Liu Yuanyuan wants to spend time alone with Zhou Ruiyang, and Lu Chuiqing refuses to be the third wheel between them.
As it is still a holiday for university students, Lu Chuiqing’s housemate is not back yet, so he has the house to himself.
Since work is starting very soon, Lu Chuiqing has to use this weekend to do some preparations for his projects. His team is mostly consisting of the newly employed. Although their research focus this year is relatively non-complicated, Lu Chuiqing wants to take this opportunity to familiarise himself with the processes.
Work officially starts on Monday. Fang Jiaming, who has always been generous, has given many welfare benefits to his employees on the first day of work. Employees are pretty relaxed and are casually chatting about their own holiday while waiting for the stock market to reopen.
The market has generally been pretty good after the new years. Sitting at his desk, Lu Chuiqing stares at Qifu Provisions’ stock price and transaction trends nervously.
Even until eleven o’clock, Qifu Provisions’ stock price seemed to be normal. There are some rises, but there are no big announcements whatsoever.
Lu Chuiqing cannot remember when it was exactly that Value Scan exposed Qifu Provisions in his previous life, except that it will happen within these few days. As Lu Chuiqing has his own research to do, he cannot stare at Qifu Provisions’ stocks and announcements the whole day. Just as he is about to close the page and start his research, he hears his colleagues next to him let out an astonished shout.
Song Wenxin was pale from shock, “Value Scan has just released a report on Qifu Provisions’ fabricated financial report! Look!”
Although the retail industry is not one of their company’s investment focuses, Qifu Provisions’ recent momentum has been significant enough to affect general trends in the market.
Everyone in the office gets busy in an instant, either to get more updates or to look at the report Value Scan has just released.
Value Scan’s report accuses Qifu Provisions of exaggerating their revenue in the recent two consecutive years, especially with regards to the sales of their goods related to dried fruits. Value Scans made use of data from the border customs, exposing how Qifu Provisions’ exports are much lower than they have claimed and their sales were over-reported for up to forty per cent!
On top of that, Qifu Provisions seems to have under-reported much of its expenditure including wages, retirement fund and so on. After adding in all these calculations, Qifu Provisions is reported to have over-reported their revenue for up to forty-eight per cent!
The most shocking thing is, Qifu Provisions’ certain goat milk biscuit is marketed locally as safe for consumption even for children with lactose intolerance. However, it is stated clearly on their website targeting foreign markets that this product is not suitable for consumption for children with lactose intolerance.
In addition, Value Scan has cross-checked with results from the country’s official food safety and inspection authority proving that the lactose from the product is mostly from milk, not goat milk. Meaning, Qifu Provisions is guilty of false marketing and misleading consumers.
Each word and sentence in this report is a dealing blow to Qifu Provisions.
Lu Chuiqing feels the fear and pressure just by watching the incident unfold. He immediately looks for Qifu Provisions’ real-time trends and, just as expected, Qifu Provisions’ stock price is a straight line downwards within ten minutes of the report release.
With butterfly effects, Value Scan’s report has caused massive disturbance to the stock market. The companies that have invested heavily into Qifu Provisions’ stocks are, of course, extremely shocked. Even the smaller stock players are at a loss at what to do. All they could do is to watch as the Qifu Provisions’ stock price continued to plunge down the depths.
Qifu Provisions’ stock price reaches the limit down* within just twenty minutes, with a loss exceeding one billion dollars. However, the target stock price reported by Value Scan is not even half of what the current stock price is.
(T/N*: The maximum amounts of a commodity future may decrease in any single trading day - IG, retrieved in 2021.)
Song Wenxin, face filled with shock, says, “You were right!”
Ten past ten in the morning, Qifu Provisions released an official emergency statement denying all accusations. Instead of providing some sort of explanation, Qifu Provisions turned around to accuse Value Scan of slander.
However, Qifu Provisions’ statement has no effect on the market’s momentum nor the increasing sales of their stocks. Big players are all pulling back from Qifu Provisions’ stocks, their fate is decided.
In one of the many office buildings in City S, Xiao Zhan is playing billiards in his own office.
His office is very simply decorated with graceful but cold colours. It has a light grey wall with wavy patterns, complementing the beige-coloured marble floor. There is a large abstract painting of polka dots hanging next to a light yellow bookshelf with a hint of classical, traditional design. Next to the guest sofa is an irregularly shaped ebony coffee table with a tea set neatly organised on its surface.
Yuanning is sitting on the sofa, staring at the screen of the laptop placed in front of him. Looking at the transactions, he cannot help but sigh, “The reaction from the market exceeds our expectations.”
Xiao Zhan remains silent, leaning on the billiards table, aiming. As his cue hits the white ball, it travels and collides with the number eight black ball, which bounces off the edge of the table and finally travels into the corner pocket with a clear thud.
All the finance news and financial security information sites have been reporting on Qifu Provisions and Value Scan throughout the morning. Both companies are put under the spotlight, albeit in different ways.
Lu Chuiqing spends his lunch break taking a more detailed look at the report published by Value Scan, and cannot help but be impressed. This is not merely about being well-versed in the financial industry and its workings. To be able to produce such a detailed report, an extremely experienced team with exceptional foresight is needed. On top of the extensive effort and time, it is also necessary for the team to be able to identify and grasp the opportunity presented to do what Value Scan did.
Before Lu Chuiqing could even finish his lunch, he received a call from Zhou Ruiyang.
“Shit, buddy, you were right all along!” Just as Lu Chuiqing picks up the call, he hears Zhou Ruiyang’s voice filled with shock and admiration, “Qifu Provisions actually reached their limit down!”
Lu Chuiqing cannot help but feel guilty when hearing Zhou Ruiyang’s praises. If not for his previous life, Lu Chuiqing would have been one of the many victims right now, “Did your uncle sell his stocks in the end?”
“No, he couldn’t do it in time. He was still overjoyed when there was a slight increase just as the market reopened.” Zhou Ruiyang sighed, “My auntie was furious, she even scolded my uncle in front of a whole group of people, my uncle couldn’t even retaliate!”
Lu Chuiqing can only express his sympathy and regret. In front of big players of the market, there is only so much small players like them can do. Once the main players decide to stop the transaction, the others can only follow the trend or be left hanging.
Funding companies are the same, but Zhong Ming Funding seems to be unaffected, which is not surprising given Fang Jiaming’s close relationship with Xiao Zhan. With some preempt warning, Zhong Ming Funding could easily get out of the situation before shit hits the fan.
However, other funding companies do not have the same luck. Those who have invested heavily in Qifu Provisions’ stock are probably devastated.
To be honest, stocks such as Qifu Provisions’ cannot be considered a valuable investment. No one could explain how a provision company’s stock rose that much or quickly. But for the sake of short-term gains, many are willing to take the risk. After all, to find out whether or not the stock is truly valuable or merely hype, that is where the true work and stress lies in for a researcher like Lu Chuiqing.
But every job and industry has their own stress. What Lu Chuiqing needs to do is to be realistic and stable, not to take the easy way out or take unnecessary risks.
On the second and third day, accompanied by Value Scan’s follow up reports and evidence on the incident, Qifu Provisions’ stock price reached their limit down for three days consecutively. On the morning of the third day, the corporation announced that they would buy back their stocks, which brought their stock price up by three per cent.
However, that did not last long as the market continued to retract from Qifu Provisions, causing their stock price to drop once again. Afternoon, Qifu Provisions finally caved in to the pressure and admitted to inconsistency in their food labels, but continued to deny any accusations regarding the fabrication and overreporting of their revenue. At the same time, the corporation has announced that Qifu Provisions will temporarily halt all operations to rectify their problems. At this point, Qifu Provisions’ value has exceeded more than 2.3 billion dollars loss.
A short sale report that costs 2.3 billion dollars in the market.
For the whole week, Value Scan and their CEO, Xiao Zhan, were the main topics of discussion. Everyone is trying to take a guess at how much did Xiao Zhan earn exactly from this whole ordeal.
As compared to many funding companies’ miserable conditions right now, Zhong Ming Funding is unscathed and even got to acquire some small businesses.
Now is the time for Zhong Ming Funding’s funding manager to pay close attention to new opportunities for investments. Whether or not the researchers’ recommended stocks are chosen by the manager, whether or not the stocks are going well, the results will directly affect the researcher’s appraisal and performance. After collating and organising the research he has done meticulously, Lu Chuiqing finally submits the report to the manager.
Lu Chuiqing would never have thought that his report would end up in Xiao Zhan’s hands, in the hands of someone who has absolutely no relation or connection to him whatsoever.
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Author’s note:
This chapter is based on a real-life incident of Ausnutria (澳优乳业有限公司).
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Translator’s note:
I struggled so much at trying to translate things related to the stock market, etc… I am not well-versed in that so I do apologise for any inaccuracies, but it should not affect your understanding of the story! Anyways, happy reading! xx
i struggled too while reading this ah!! hahahaha you did a good job, thank u~
ReplyDeletecoz i don't understand stocks~ qaq
ReplyDeleteOmg tell me about it. I don't even know the stock terms in English, let alone in Chinese so I was struggling sO MUCH HAHA. Glad you enjoyed the chapter! <:
DeleteLove the chapter and tl is pure quality. Ty!
ReplyDelete