Chapter 147: Chairman You's Defeat, Total Net Profit Surpasses 220 Million

It is better for a few to die than for all to perish.

The neutral faction had always been interested only in profits rather than anything else. Director Zhu and a few others were the hands-on workers who actually exerted effort. If these forces were to leave, Shengxin would be left half-paralyzed.

It would be a complete, paralyzed sort of half-paralysis, rather than its current state of barely managing to continue operations, stubbornly enduring and suffering through the agony.

...

"The bull market is about to arrive."

Inside the Shengxin conference room, Director You said with a gloomy expression and a sharp, lowered voice, "We are about to weather the storm and see the dawn. It is not going to be easy to chase us out at this juncture. No matter who you found behind the scenes to inject capital into Shengxin, it's out of the question."

"Throwing away the crutch as soon as you cross the bridge? Ha!"

Director You and Director Guan were also founding veterans of Shengxin. They had worked together for many years. Although none of them relied solely on Shengxin as their only business venture, there was genuine camaraderie among them.

Earlier, pushing Director Zhu down had only meant moving him behind the scenes and swapping positions; they had never intended to kick anyone out.

Which corporation or company didn't have one, two, three, four, or five factions? Fighting for power and profit was perfectly normal, wasn't it?

To flip the table right from the start and demand to kick people out?

That was completely devoid of friendship and basic codes of conduct!

"It is us who want to leave..."

At this moment, Director Zhu spread his hands with a helpless expression and said, "Director You, what are you panicking for? You are entirely free to buy out the shares and equity we hold, and you can continue running Shengxin yourselves. I never wanted to chase you out."

"Hah, get real."

Director You immediately scoffed and retorted, "More than half of us disagree with your leaving and prefer that we leave instead. Is there any difference? If you show no benevolence, then we owe you no righteousness. Let's just drag this out."

"Just as the bull market is about to arrive, and we're about to start recovering our losses and making money, you want us to leave. Are you out of your mind?"

"Ha, a bull market?"

Suddenly, Director Zhu chuckled. Thinking of some previous communications with Zhang Long, he shook his head heavily and said, "We are already in early March without a single good policy announced. Do you really think a bull market is going to descend around May Day, or even around National Day?"

"I am leaving because I can't see any hope and don't want to keep suffering losses. It's not out of petty-mindedness to target certain individuals. Old Zhu has always been a kind-hearted person."

"Of course, the presence of certain individuals makes me uncomfortable, and I don't want to keep working here."

"My heart is tired, my body is tired, and it's completely meaningless."

How much of this was true and how much was false did not matter. What mattered was reaching a conclusion today. Old Zhu and the others leaving was no joke; at the same time, the neutral faction wanting to keep Old Zhu's group while pushing out Director You's group was also real.

The crux of the matter was that Director You and his faction would not willingly leave. Would Old Zhu and his group keep dragging this out indefinitely?

No, they wouldn't, which meant the matter had to be settled as soon as possible.

...

"Everyone, calm down."

The executive deputy general manager spoke up. He was the representative of Shengxin's major shareholders and also the company's deputy general manager. "Things have reached this point, and it has to be resolved."

"Old Zhu and the others want to leave, but everyone won't let them go. Old You and the others are facing the exact opposite situation."

"The core issue still boils down to interests."

The executive deputy general manager looked at Director Zhu. "If Shengxin's performance were good, even grievances could be turned into driving force. Right now, its half-dead state lacking any motivation is completely normal. However, whether the bull market arrives and when it arrives are merely estimations. Old Zhu, I understand that you don't want to drag this out any longer. That's fine."

With those words, he turned his head toward Director You. "Old You, your situation is simple—you are simply feeling unreconciled."

"We understand that Old Zhu feels aggrieved and no longer wants to work here, and we also understand that you, Old You, are unreconciled and don't want to step down. So how about this: whether the bull market starts on May Day or descends on National Day isn't what matters. Let's sign a supplementary contract. If the bull market truly arrives, we'll draw up a separate compensation agreement..."

"The specific compensation can be negotiated."

The fundamental purpose of founding a company and running a business was to make money. It was agonizing to forcefully hold on when it wasn't profitable.

Director Zhu and his group no longer wanted to work, but in truth, Director You and his group had long been tired of enduring the torment as well.

Over the past few years, Shengxin had burned through its previous profits as well as earnings from other sideline ventures. If not for the fact that everyone had other business undertakings on the side, it would have all gone belly-up long ago.

Whether the bull market would arrive remained to be seen. If it didn't, leaving now was fine; if it did arrive, they would collect an extra share.

Contracts were legally binding, and this was entirely feasible.

...

"How do we define the arrival of a bull market?"

Director You's gaze flickered. "Are we talking about the deadline being May Day or National Day, and what index level the main board needs to reach?"

"I'll name a figure, and you can set it."

Director Zhu and the others fell silent. The executive deputy general manager smiled calmly, "Let's put aside whether there will be good policies in the near future. If the main board doesn't rise, a bull market is nothing more than an illusion. Currently, the main board is hovering around the 2,000-point mark. Let's assume the bull market starts around May Day, how about reaching 2,500 points by National Day, and 3,000 points by the end of December?"

"You must understand that if a bull market truly arrives, the rebound can happen very quickly. This target is not difficult."

Hearing this, Director You, Director Guan, and the others exchanged silent glances and found it acceptable. It was quite reasonable.

Impartial and unbiased, these figures could be set.

...

At noon, the preliminary results of Shengxin's board of directors came out. Zhang Long also received the news from Old Zhu: Director You, Director Guan, and the others were stepping down, which was considered a settled matter.

Next came hiring an appraisal company to value Shengxin's current and future one-year development.

The specific amount would determine the equity and share buyout.

Neither the major shareholder representative's faction (the executive deputy general manager's side) nor the neutral faction wanted Shengxin to go under.

Director You, Director Guan, and the others had to go.

Even though Old Zhu's group leaving could mean recruiting new partners, or Director You and Director Guan returning to the front-end market to barely keep operations going...

Forget it. Having experienced Shengxin's recent turmoil, everyone knew that Director You and Director Guan were absolute dead weight.

The ones who could actually get things done were Old Zhu and his crew.

Better the devil you know; Old Zhu had to stay.

"Buzz, buzz..."

His cell phone vibrated with an incoming call. Zhang Long glanced down and ignored it—just the routine call from Junan Futures, either trying to build a relationship or stimulate him into making trades, nothing else.

Today, his Golden Finger officially upgraded to Level 2. Unfortunately, checking the futures market this morning yielded no reaction.

Zhang Long was actually feeling slightly perplexed.

After all, back at Level 1, it had been able to react to three markets: stocks, spot commodities, and foreign exchange. But now that he had reached Level 2, why was there still no reaction to futures? Could it be that it could only simultaneously provide foresight for two markets?

Did the stock market or foreign exchange market have to stop its foresight before futures could take their place? Thinking it over, that seemed to be the only explanation. Otherwise, it surely couldn't mean he had to reach Level 3 for it to work.

The CFA Level II exam was held in June and December every year, but the upcoming June exam was out of the question.

Zhang Long hadn't been doing much studying or advanced training lately, and he certainly wasn't confident enough to pass Level II just like that. He would take it in December instead.

Upgrading one level a year wasn't too bad, all things considered.

"Just how many levels are there?"

Zhang Long let out a soft breath. His mutated vision didn't even come with a complete system upgrade interface; it was probably fried by lightning during his transmersion, making it somewhat useless.

Otherwise, if there had been a clear and distinct interface, he wouldn't have had to grope around blindly through endless trial and error.

Upgrading was tied to certificates? What a clever gimmick.

...

That night, Old Zhu, Zhang Long, Qian Caiying, and Ling Zhiqing had a brief meeting. What they specifically discussed remained unknown for the time being, except that a good outcome was on the verge of materializing.

Tuesday dawn, morning.

After executing a round of foreign exchange and stock trades, Zhang Long left home to open new foreign exchange accounts—three of them.

Having traded foreign exchange for so long, whether through relevant forums or forex trading chat groups, he had gained a decent understanding of which platforms were more legitimate and reliable. Yesterday, he had made an online appointment for door-to-door account opening today. The processing speed was very fast; once funds were deposited and activated tomorrow, he could start trading. He was thoroughly familiar with the process.

So familiar, in fact, that opening accounts and making money had become somewhat numbingly routine. After all, he had previously opened a full nine accounts for spot trading.

Was he making money? Yes, and he didn't mind the trouble.

And so Tuesday flashed by. On Wednesday morning, he deposited funds into the new forex platform accounts and activated them for trading.

Since the new accounts were just starting out, he could afford to set slightly higher profit targets for the near future, while the older accounts could just be managed casually to make some pocket change before withdrawing the funds and closing them down next Monday.

Thus, Zhang Long followed his operational plan methodically, shifting his focus back to the stock market.

Once he officially joined Shengxin, he wouldn't be able to trade stocks on his own anymore, so he intended to make as much as possible in the near future—earning whatever he could without disrupting the market. However, while his wishes were pleasant, reality brought a few unexpected surprises.

Had the stock market foresight suddenly stopped?

"Damn, another 100 million?"

On Thursday morning, after reading a few online stock recommendation reports and looking at the computer trading interface, Zhang Long noticed there was no reaction whatsoever. Checking the recommendation reports from UBS, Juncai, and Jinchan platforms yielded the exact same lack of reaction.

The Golden Finger Level 2 indicator was still displayed.

Yet, inexplicably, a sudden realization dawned in Zhang Long's mind: once his personal stock trading profits reached 100 million, the stock market foresight would cease, and for it to resume, he would have to operate under a corporate identity.

This realization was extremely vivid and clear, as if the Golden Finger was directly providing clarification within his mind.

Zhang Long was left speechless. He was about to join Shengxin right as the Golden Finger's foresight rules happened to shift?

It was both user-friendly and terribly sly. Impressive.

...

"Huh? What the..."

On Friday morning, whether it was UBS, Juncai, or Jinchan, a few people were left stunned and bewildered. They stared at Zhang Long's account—tens of millions in funds were entirely liquidated, leaving them frozen.

Not buying any new stocks yesterday on Thursday, but instead gradually selling off his existing holdings, had already felt a bit off.

Remaining entirely in cash until today, after the account settlement, the funds could be withdrawn to his bank card at any moment.

And yet, before the market even opened, he wanted to withdraw the funds?

"Hiss, what's going on?"

Hearing the boss's question, Gu Su shook his head, looking equally bewildered and claiming he had no idea. "The day before yesterday, I even made a risk-control phone call, and everything was fine. Brother Long didn't say anything negative about the gold medal analysts."

"Should I call and ask?"

The department director gave Gu Su a light glare, as if saying, *Isn't that obvious? Of course you have to ask.*

Over 30 million, and he wanted to clear it all out?

"Buzz, buzz..."

At The Bund Dragon Residence, Zhang Long ignored the incoming calls from UBS, Juncai, and other platforms. Yesterday, after realizing he could no longer use foresight for stocks, he hadn't hesitated to initiate the withdrawal.

Before joining Shengxin, he had to close his personal accounts anyway, so withdrawing sooner or later made no difference.

He had made a net profit of 100 million in spot commodities, another 100 million in the stock market, and over 20 million in foreign exchange.

Calculated in total, his overall profit had broken 220 million.

Out of that, he had spent 70 million to purchase Liu Yurong's two properties and Zhu Changhai's two luxury mansions, with the next largest expense being the BMW 740.

There were also the jadeite thumb ring and the jade pixiu.

Even so, the cash in his bank cards remained well over 150 million, considering he had won quite a bit from the lottery in the beginning.

Not to mention Shengxin's commission of over 3.8 million.

"Sigh, I still need to spend."

Zhang Long's gaze flickered. Leaving funds idle in a bank card would only cause them to rot; turning them into appreciating assets was best. Joining Shengxin required a fair bit of spending, which could be counted as an investment, but what else should he invest in? Even if he bought another villa, he would still have plenty left over.

Besides, his forex accounts were still continuing to generate profits...

"Buzz, buzz..."

Suddenly, his cell phone rang. Zhang Long glanced down, his gaze narrowing. He swiped to answer, nodded, and gave an OK.

When it came to spending money, the second-generation heirs seemed to be far more proficient.