The "gatekeeper" completely ignored the noise, as if the five men didn't exist. After Lu Tiannan finished shouting, Ning Zichen shouted, and Yu Shifeng spent half an hour trying to persuade the gatekeepers, even promising them a million-dollar reward. But the five men didn't even blink. This finally convinced them that the gatekeepers were blockheads, and that talking to them was like casting pearls before swine.
After despair came tranquility. Lu Tiannan and the other four felt a chill in their hearts. Luo Wanjiang had resorted to force because he couldn't hold out any longer when they refused to agree to his terms. But now that their freedom was restricted, why hadn't Luo Wanjiang shown up? He could have easily taken advantage of the situation and seized all the shares they held!
Bored but afraid of falling asleep and never waking up again, the five people forced themselves to stay awake. Someone's eyes slid across the screen, and a news item they hadn't noticed before caught their attention: "Haifeng Group financial scandal, internal employee reveals shocking information, industry giant on the verge of collapse, shareholders rush to sell Haifeng stock."
Gong Linsheng held the most shares, so he was the first to faint upon seeing the news. Lu Tiannan, on the other hand, was more resilient and angrily cursed, "Luo Wanjiang, do you think you'll benefit from this? If Haifeng collapses, your Luo family will suffer the most! If you want to die, don't drag us down with you!"
Amidst this torment of fear and panic, the five arrived at the next day. Bored in the morning, they watched TV and heard that Luo Wanfeng, looking grief-stricken, was holding a press conference. In response to the demands of the majority of shareholders, he disclosed part of Haifeng's financial situation, verifying the rumors circulating online that Haifeng's capital chain had broken down and that its senior management had committed serious crimes of embezzlement and misappropriation of public funds.
Lu Tiannan was also stunned this time. All five of them understood that with the matter now exposed and Haifeng's general manager confirming it, it meant that there was no way to salvage the situation. They were now essentially holding a bunch of worthless documents, and they might even be implicated in the case.
With a bang, the warehouse door opened. The five directors thought Luo Wanjiang would come to negotiate with them, but instead, a young man entered. Or rather, he was pushed in, tripped and fell at the door, and then got up cursing and kicking the warehouse door. But once the heavy door was closed, not even the Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms could open it, not to mention there were guards at the door with guns. So the young man cursed a few times and kicked a few times before walking towards the center of the warehouse. The lights were bright here, and the corners were dark and scary.
"Hey, you guys have food and drinks. Give me a glass of water. I've been cursing all morning, my throat's burning." The young man grabbed the drink on the table without ceremony. The black-clad men guarding the gate had brought breakfast to Lu Tiannan and the others that morning, but the five of them had no appetite and only drank some beverages to fill their stomachs.
"Who are you?" Yu Shifeng asked. Unable to figure out who the newcomer was, no one wanted to speak.
The young man gulped down a bottle of beverage, wiped his mouth with his sleeve, and said, "Who are you? Did you arrest me?" The other party asked in return.
Ning Zichen said, "Who knows you? We're imprisoned here too."
The young man suddenly realized, "I see, you were also arrested by Luo Wanjiang?"
Gong Linsheng jumped up and grabbed the young man by the collar: "Quickly tell me who you are!"
The young man was a little scared. "I'm a retail investor. I bought a lot of Haifeng Group stock. I didn't expect it to drop like this overnight. So I ran to the entrance of Haifeng Group early this morning to blow up those damned guys. Who knew that the bastard who sold explosives lied to me. The explosives didn't go off, and I was brought here."
“Damn it,” Gong Linsheng loosened the young man’s collar, “yet another victim.”
The young man chuckled: "So you guys bought Haifeng Group stock too? Seriously, the Luo family is scum. What are they doing? Everything was fine before, and suddenly they say there's a serious deficit. They even found out that Vice President Luo embezzled hundreds of millions of yuan. Damn it, if they used that money to sleep with women, they could have one every night and still not run out of money even after several years."
Lu Tiannan glared at the young man. "A bunch of ignorant, brainless fools who only know how to play around with women! Is the future of our country going to be ruined in their hands? They're useless and can't achieve anything, so what are they doing playing around with women? They have no ambition!" Lu Tiannan felt a pang of patriotism.
The young man ignored the five men's gazes and sat down at the computer, saying, "I have a computer, huh? The pay is pretty good. I'll see if there's any progress. Damn it, the finance minister is putting on a show too. This is going to be even more interesting."
Yu Shifeng snatched the mouse from the young man's hand, pulled up the window, and sure enough, it was Liu Qiheng. He had actually revealed some old company secrets to the reporter, complaining bitterly, saying that it was all Luo Wanfeng's doing. He said that because Luo Wanfeng was not Luo Xin's biological son, he had been plotting to seize the Luo family's assets since ancient times. Luo Wanjiang had always been suppressed by his elder brother and had not been able to gain power. He had only been in power as vice president for less than a year and a half and had not yet been able to make any real progress. Suddenly, Luo Wanfeng had bewitched the old man and seized the general manager's position. Now, the old man was old and senile, letting the Luo family head towards its demise. All of this was the fault of Luo Wanfeng.
Gong Linsheng pointed at the screen and shouted, "Did you see that? Luo Wanjiang is trying to distance himself. The two brothers have started hurling insults at each other in the media. We are the victims! It doesn't matter if the Luo family lives or dies, but we can't let our stocks be trapped like this! The Luo family wants to take someone down with them if they want to die. Otherwise, why would they lock us up? Isn't it because they're afraid we'll take the opportunity to sell our stocks? In a day or two, the Luo family will collapse. When we get out, it will be too late to turn things around. We'll have nowhere to cry."
The five directors were complaining bitterly, unanimously believing that Luo Wanjiang had lost his temper. Seeing that the five men were asking for exorbitant prices, he simply stopped negotiating with them, imprisoned them, and started a war with his elder brother. This was a plan to fight to the death, and he even wanted to take the five directors down with him as revenge for their exorbitant demands! They regretted it, deeply regretted it.
The constant tapping of a keyboard reached Yu Shifeng's ears, and he asked curiously, "Hey, kid, what are you doing?"
The young man, without looking up, said, "Chatting? I don't know you guys well, there's nothing to talk about."
Ning Zichen leaned closer to look: "Who are you chatting with? How did you log onto QQ?"
The young man said, "It's just a little bit. Then I entered my QQ number and logged in. Are you stupid? You don't even know how to log in to QQ?"
Gao Tian, who considered himself experienced in the electronics chain business for decades, grabbed the mouse and keyboard. Sure enough, a QQ icon appeared on the desktop, which hadn't been there before. He asked in confusion, "What's going on? Why is QQ here?"
Volume 2 [291] A Thousand Pieces of Gold for a Beauty's Smile
The young man said, "I downloaded it."
Gao Tian shouted, "You're talking nonsense. I've checked. This computer has many functions restricted."
The young man said, "That's because you're stupid. You can't treat everyone else in the world as a fool just because you're stupid."
As Gao Tian spoke, he tried to log into his QQ account, but it kept showing an error message saying it couldn't connect to the server. He was puzzled. "What's going on? Your account is already logged in."
The young man said, "If everyone were as smart as me, the world would be in chaos. Don't think too highly of yourself. I'm not stupid. Why should I let you get your account too?"
So it turns out not just any account can log in! Gao Tian understood a bit more now, and he said, "Then you should call the police quickly."
The young man said in bewilderment, "Call the police? Call what? Are you out of your minds?"
Gong Linsheng wanted to knock the young man on the head, but the young man easily dodged it. Gong Linsheng said, "Of course we should call the police because we've been kidnapped!"
The young man laughed: "You're the ones being kidnapped, not me. I'm carrying a bomb, which is already a crime. If I call the police, I'll be the first one arrested, and I might get a few years in prison. Do you think I'm crazy? I'm still young. I haven't even succeeded in chasing girls yet. Why would I want to die?"
The five men thought it made sense; the young man's attempt to kill Luo Wanjiang was already a serious crime, and he wouldn't voluntarily call the police. However, in order to escape, they decided to force the young man to call the police. So, grabbing chairs and ashtrays, the five men surrounded the young man. But before they could say anything, the shadowy figure in the corner opened fire, shouting, "All fighters die!"
Damn, I forgot, there are people watching outside! Looks like forcing the young man to call the police won't work. The guards aren't stupid; they won't just watch you call the police and ignore you. They'll probably just shoot you down first.
The young man smugly started a voice chat, but since there was no camera, they could only see the other person's face. What they saw startled the five directors. They recognized the girl on the screen, but couldn't quite place her. She seemed to be Luo Wanfeng's daughter, Luo Wei, who had recently started Qimingdeng Electronics on her own, so Lu Tiannan and the others knew about her.
The young man said to the girl with some resentment, "Are you sure what you're saying is accurate? I embezzled more than 80 million from my dad's company, and now the stock price has suddenly plummeted. 80 million is less than 50 million. If my dad finds out, how am I supposed to explain this? I'll be beaten to death. Is it really going to go up?"
The girl's voice was sweet yet tinged with sadness: "Qiang, do you think I would lie to you? I have always loved you deeply, and I am doing this for your own good. As long as you resolutely seize this opportunity to buy a lot of Haifeng Group stock, I guarantee you will make a fortune. Then we can buy a house and a car and build our own happy family without having to rely on our families for support anymore."
The young man said, "But Wei, give me some confidence. It's already hit the daily limit down. What's the point of making money? I'm a college graduate, I know this much common sense."
The girl gave a seductive smile: "That's why most people don't make money, because they don't have the guts and courage. If you don't listen to me, our relationship will be over, and you can forget about me loving you again."
The young man seemed afraid that the girl would leave him, so he could only say repeatedly, "Okay, okay, if you say buy, then buy. I'll continue to buy when the market opens tomorrow. So what if I lose? I've already lost money anyway. But you have to give me some consolation prize. I'm already trapped here."
The girl smiled sweetly, suddenly kissed the camera, then blushed and turned off the video. Her profile picture went gray, while the young man stared at the screen, grinning foolishly, as if that kiss had really landed on his lips. Ah, the magic of love!
After chuckling to himself for a while, the young man suddenly opened another video. When the person appeared, Lu Tiannan was stunned. He recognized the person's face and quietly nudged Gong Linsheng, whispering, "Who does this person look like?"
Gong Linsheng said, "He looks a bit like the chief accountant of PetroChina. Didn't we run into him once when we went to Beijing for a meeting last time?"
Lu Tiannan said, "Yes, I also have doubts, so I asked you to verify. What is this guy's background? How did he get tricked by Luo Wanfeng's daughter? He even has connections with the chief engineer of CNPC and boasted that he lost more than 30 million before."
Gong Linsheng said, "I don't know. Let's keep quiet and just watch. The truth will probably come out soon."
"Uncle Zhang," the young man's tone lacked respect, suggesting he was a useless playboy. Otherwise, only a fool would think of becoming a human bomb; wouldn't that be a thankless and deadly endeavor?
"Third Young Master," the man addressed as Uncle Zhang spoke with surprising respect.
"You'd better keep buying Haifeng stock for me as soon as the market opens tomorrow," the young man ordered, displaying a truly spoiled and arrogant air.
"Ah!" Uncle Zhang's face was very anxious. "Third Young Master, we can't buy anymore. We've already lost more than 30 million. I don't know how to explain this to President Sun. He'll beat me to death if he gets angry."
The young man said impatiently, "What are you babbling about? I'm telling you to buy it, so buy it. Buy as much as you can. I'll take responsibility if anything goes wrong. If you don't do as I say, I'll tell my dad everything! And he'll still beat you to death in a fit of rage."
It seemed that Uncle Zhang had a lot of leverage over the young man. He said with a worried look, "Alright, Third Young Master, I will do my best, but the number of shares on the market is useless. If you want to control Haifeng Group, you have to find shareholders to buy their shares. Otherwise, how long will it take for you to succeed?"
The young man said, "But Wei only told me to buy individual shares, she didn't mention anything about shareholders."
Uncle Zhang was speechless, but he didn't say much. He just said, "Understood, Third Young Master. I will do as you say when the market opens tomorrow. I think you should go back to Beijing as soon as possible. It's too dangerous for you to go to Donghai to chase after that girl. If something happens, President Sun will be worried sick."
The young man said impatiently, "Alright, alright, what could possibly happen to me with all my skills? Just do as I say, I'm logging off."
After logging off, the young man smugly crossed his legs, hummed a strange tune for a while, and then suddenly turned on the girl's video again, saying somewhat boastfully, "Wei, I've already told my people to continue buying tomorrow when the market opens. I've done so much for you, you should finally agree to be my girlfriend, right?"
The girl said shyly, "But my dad hasn't succeeded yet. He can't sit still until he completely wipes out my second uncle. How can I talk about love with you at this time?"
The young man said angrily, "My family is not short of money. We can have whatever we want after we get married. Why does your dad insist on having such a lousy company? I saw the news and it almost made me explode with anger. What is he doing? With this, won't Haifeng Group really go bankrupt? You're not deliberately trying to throw my dad's money down the drain, are you?"
The girl looked pitiful: "Qiang, do you think I'm that kind of person? My grandfather didn't give my dad a single share. If I don't help my dad buy up the scattered shares on the market first, my dad will suffer losses in the fight with my second uncle and the others."
"But you should also talk to the major shareholders. What's the point of us just trying to buy shares from the retail investors?"
The girl said, "I do want to, but after asking someone to contact them once, I couldn't find them anymore. Who knows where Luo Wanjiang hid them? My dad is so worried he's going gray."
Upon hearing this, Yu Shifeng lunged forward, his mouth forming the words, "We're here!" But Gong Linsheng and Lu Tiannan covered his mouth from either side and pulled him back. The two shook their heads, signaling him not to act rashly. Although the indirect words indicated that Luo Wanjiang had locked them up for fear that Luo Wanfeng would find them, this young man could not necessarily be completely trusted!
The young man said, "Alright, don't worry about this anymore. I'll keep buying for you. As long as you're happy, that's all that matters. But I want to see what you're capable of. Dance for me, be enthusiastic!"
The girl blushed even more. "Now?"
The young man said eagerly, "Yes, I miss you so much. Let's jump! Otherwise, I won't have the energy to buy you stocks tomorrow."
Seemingly for the sake of the stocks, the girl finally agreed, "Okay then."
The young man glanced back at the five people, then turned the screen around and sat there with his butt sticking out, chuckling to himself as he watched. After about three minutes, the girl finished dancing, and the two said goodbye and closed the video. The young man logged out of QQ, found a bed, lay down, and started to drift off with a sly smile. Before long, he actually fell asleep. It seemed he was quite tired from buying explosives last night and then staking out the location early this morning. These days, no job is easy, and being a human bomb is even harder.
Lu Tiannan, Gong Linsheng, Ning Zichen and the other two ran to a corner and started whispering. Yu Shifeng said angrily, "Why won't you let me tell Luo Wanfeng's daughter that we're here? Luo Wanfeng can definitely get us out of here. He needs our help right now."
Lu Tiannan said, "Are you stupid? How can you think that this kid wasn't just someone Luo Wanjiang brought to deceive us?"
The member said to Shi Feng, "You're the fool. Do you think Luo Wanjiang could incite Luo Wanfeng's daughter to join forces and deceive us?"
Lu Tiannan was stunned. Yes, why couldn't he think of that?
Gong Linsheng said, "Regardless of whether Luo Wanjiang set this up for us or not, it's right for us to be cautious. If we rashly reveal everything to him, who knows if we'll fall into his trap! Shouldn't we remind you that we're being held captive here?"
Gao Tian said, "He refuses to call the police for us and is foolishly being used as an ATM by Luo Wanfeng's daughter. So why don't we take advantage of him this once? Doesn't he want Haifeng Group's stock? Let's just sell it to him."
Ning Zichen said, "I agree. It doesn't matter who we sell to. We originally intended to sell to Luo Wanjiang. We didn't want to keep it for ourselves. Who knew that guy would be so impatient? He didn't even try to negotiate with us and just pulled this stunt. Now we can't even talk to him. And we missed our chance to contact Luo Wanfeng. If we miss this opportunity again, who knows if there will be another chance?"
Volume 2 [292] is now worthless.
Gong Linsheng hesitated and said, "Okay, even if this isn't a trap set by Luo Wanjiang, what if it's a trap set by Luo Wanfeng? If we sell the stock so easily, we'll all lose a lot of money. Don't forget how much you bought it for, which is higher than the market price a while ago. We've really been ripped off by that old man Luo. The stock hasn't appreciated since it came into our hands."
Ning Zichen said, "Then what do you suggest we do?"
Gong Linsheng said, "I think we should observe for a while longer before making a decision. At the very least, we need to find out his identity. Anyway, he can't leave anytime soon, so we have plenty of time to talk business with him. Besides, given the number of shares we have, if we sell them to him, can we still use the market price? So there's no need to worry about the stock market price."
Lu Tiannan said, "Is there any doubt about his identity? I'll tell you he's Sun Yingqiang, the third son of Sun Baiyun, the CEO of CNPC. Otherwise, would CNPC's chief accountant call him 'Third Young Master'? And would he dare to use CNPC's public funds? Eighty million! Thirty million went down the drain in the blink of an eye, but look at him sleeping like a log, not taking it seriously at all. I guess bombing Luo Wanjiang was a brainless act by a young man. This further shows that he's an incompetent playboy who does whatever he wants. People like that are easier to fool. It's perfectly feasible to sell our shares to him at a high price!"
Gong Linsheng insisted, "I've decided to wait and see. Why don't you go and talk to him?"
Seeing Gong Linsheng like this, Lu Tiannan remained silent. The others also sensed something was amiss, so they all kept quiet and watched as the boy slept soundly. During this time, Gao Tian went to tinker with the computer again, but this time he couldn't even run the QQ program, which made him so angry that he almost smashed the mouse.
At noon, another major news story suddenly broke online and was widely reprinted by major portal websites: the logistics department of a certain unit of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) discovered that a batch of military televisions purchased from Haifeng Group had serious quality problems. The PLA unit has formally filed a claim against Haifeng Group based on the purchase contract, and will also abandon all unfinished purchase projects and terminate all forms of cooperation with Haifeng Group!
Since this news was released by the military, its reliability is 100%, so its impact is even greater than Luo Wanfeng's speech and Liu Qiheng's speech this morning. The stock market is already filled with criticism, and many people are despairingly believing that they can't expect to cash out a single penny of their stocks tomorrow. At this rate, the market will definitely hit the daily limit down as soon as it opens.
The five directors of Haifeng Group turned pale. If they had previously dismissed the rumors as smokescreens by Luo Wanfeng and Luo Wanjiang, this well-documented military information couldn't be false. Even if Haifeng Group had only lost one business deal, the timing was terrible. This was like adding fuel to the fire, plunging Haifeng Group into an abyss. The directors, who were supposed to make crucial decisions for the company, could only stare helplessly at the television. Their only way to escape this predicament was to find the young man soundly asleep across the table and shift the blame for the loss onto him!
Once the military's message was released, within an hour, numerous companies demanded compensation from Haifeng Group for various reasons. Of course, there were undoubtedly some fraudulent individuals among them. However, the situation became increasingly chaotic. Lu Tiannan and others believed that even a miracle couldn't salvage the situation. Even if they sold their shares to Luo Wanfeng or Luo Wanjiang, neither of them would want them, because the matter had already spiraled out of their control. Even if they gained full control of the board of directors, it would be too late to reverse the outcome.
Even worse, during lunch, the provincial government issued instructions requiring banks to immediately freeze Haifeng Group's finances, thoroughly investigate the problems within Haifeng Group, and ensure that those responsible do not escape legal punishment. The province also demanded that Haifeng Group's board of directors immediately provide an explanation. According to news reports, the Donghai City Economic Police have already rushed to the locations of the directors. Their first step will be to monitor their behavior, and if necessary, to place the directors under "shuanggui" (a form of internal party discipline) to make them explain their relationship with the incident. Of course, whether the police can find the directors after arriving in the area is another matter.
"What to do?" The sudden turn of events left the five directors completely bewildered. What was worse, they were utterly powerless and could only watch helplessly as things spiraled out of control. At this point, forget about whether the market would even open tomorrow; with the banks freezing their accounts, what was the point of opening a market? The next step would likely be an investigation, leading to insolvency and the collapse of Haifeng Group. Those stocks wouldn't even be good enough to wipe their bottoms with! And the fate of the various branch factories would naturally be to be taken back by the banks. Did they really think they could exchange those worthless stocks for production lines and factories? Dream on.
This time, Lu Tiannan ignored what Gong Linsheng said and said, "I don't care anymore. I want to talk to this Third Young Master. You can do whatever you want. It would be best if none of you sold, then I can negotiate a good price."
Gong Linsheng grabbed Lu Tiannan and said, "Are you stupid? If we take the initiative to beg him, don't you think he'll lower the price? Can you stop being so impatient? Let them come and beg us to sell to them. Anyway, he doesn't know what happened at noon and in the afternoon. He's still waiting for the market to open tomorrow. As long as we keep our mouths shut, how will he know that these stocks have become worthless?"
Lu Tiannan pointed at the TV and computer and said, "He doesn't have eyes himself."
Gong Linsheng said, "Smash them! Just blind him, won't that solve the problem?"
Everyone chuckled, "Great idea!" So they all got to work, smashing the TV and computer until they were smoking. The men in black guarding the door didn't care at all. Their only task was to prevent these people from going out and fighting. They couldn't take responsibility for killing anyone; just keeping them under house arrest was enough.
The third young master was startled awake and jumped out of bed with a start: "What's wrong? What's wrong? Is it 2012 already?"