While the gang leader was feeling proud of himself, Hong Dali was a little depressed.

Hong Dali thought that Zhao Mingguang or GM Ren would contact him that night, but to his surprise, there was no news from them. Hong Dali felt perplexed. However, a comment from Gu Feifei grounded him. “Don’t think too highly of yourself. It’s true that you’re rich. But do you think that such a big country will believe that it can depend on you to deal with such a matter alone?”

That made sense. In such a situation, not any one person was really all-important.

“Alright.” Hong Dali touched his nose. “Let’s observe for a few days before deciding what to do. Anyway, there’s no need to rush even if we are to save the economy. And in the event that it can’t be saved, there isn’t really much I can do either…”

Gu Feifei nodded. “If there’s a real economic crisis, the most important thing to do is to stockpile food.”

Hong Dali: “…”

Should I be buying two food depots and prepare to stockpile food?

Just like that, one night passed quickly.

Early the next morning, Han Songyang arrived at Hong Dali’s mansion with his group of rich young masters in a long row of luxury cars to watch the battle. After all, when Han Songyang returned the previous night, he mumbled something about Hong Dali not being an ordinary person. As for exactly how extraordinary he was, he did not elaborate, so no one had any idea. However, judging by the usually fearless Han Songyang’s attitude toward Hong Dali, it seemed he was indeed someone extraordinary!

“Is Dali awake?” When Han Songyang entered, he saw Tang Muxin watching a movie on the sofa and Li Nianwei listening to songs with headphones on. He asked anxiously, “The brothers plan to watch the stock market here, is it convenient?”

“Brother Han is here? Come in quickly. There’s no need to take off your shoes.” Tang Muxin quickly greeted him. “Dali is still asleep, he won’t get up until 9 AM. Don’t worry, take a seat first.”

So, everyone in the group found a space and sat down.

Speaking of which, they came prepared. They brought with them four ten-socket electrical extensions and one charger each. Everyone took out their IPADs and found a place to sit on the ground, forming a circle.

Actually, they were more anxious than anyone else when the stock market plummeted—among them, at least half had families with listed businesses. The remaining half was originally planning to get listed during the big Bull market this year. But when the market plunged, the chance of them getting listed suddenly diminished. Once it turned into a Bear market, they might as well not get listed—it was easy for stock prices to drop below the issue price in a Bear market…

“The stock market has fallen so much recently. My dad is gloomy every day.” One of them said, “In just two weeks, the market value of our company has dropped by half and billions of yuan have evaporated, sigh.”

“Yeah, it’s the same for my family. Fortunately, my dad managed to react in time and announced a trading suspension. Otherwise, the value of our shares would have fallen further.” Another person said while picking up the phone, “Wait for the market to stabilize. A lot of companies have gone under these two weeks.”

“Yes.” A third person said, “Our company’s stock price was 46 yuan at its highest, but it has fallen to 26 yuan now…”

For the price to drop from 46 to 26, if his company’s previous market value was 9.2 billion, it meant that in just two weeks, it had dropped to 5.2 billion. Four billion evaporated just like that. One could just imagine how depressing that would be.

“Eh, everyone is here so early?” Everyone was just chatting when Hong Dali came down the stairs. He rubbed his eyes as he walked. “You’ve all come to look at the stock market?” Hong Dali took one glance at them and knew they were all anxious.

“Brother Dali.” Han Songyang hurried to him. “Everyone has been stupefied by the drop in prices these few days. Everyone is intending to sell everything once trading starts.”

“Oh, sell once it starts then.” Hong Dali sniffed. “I’m going to sell too.”

“Ah?” When he heard what Hong Dali said, Han Songyang’s mouth gaped open in surprise. “You’re going to sell everything too?”

“I must,” Hong Dali said it matter-of-factly. He repeated what Gu Feifei said to him, “Such a huge situation cannot depend only on me. I might as well sell while I can.”

After Gu Feifei said that to him the previous day, Hong Dali had thought about it seriously.

In fact, during this period when the stock prices plummeted, countless analysts had offered solutions, but to what avail? The state would never listen. At the same time, Hong Dali had so much money. If the higher-ups questioned the source of his funds, they would freeze his accounts and might even arrest him—so he had better not care so much. He would just concentrate on dealing with the Black Dragon Gang leader. As for national-level matters, he had better stay clear.

“Even Brother Dali is preparing to sell.” Han Songyang said decisively, “Everyone, sell once trading starts. Be quick!”

Soon, at 9:15 AM pre-market, everyone stared intently at their mobile phones or IPADs. When they saw the pre-market call auction, everyone’s heart fell. “It’s opening low! Damn, it’s opening low!”

“It’s obvious.” Hong Dali shook his head. “CSI500 is dropping like a ton of bricks. Sell while you can.”

The pre-market stock price fell all the way. It soon reached a certain level and finally stabilized. When the market opened at 9:30 AM, a large number of sell orders appeared, including those from Hong Dali and Han Songyang. The prices just kept dropping. When all the stocks were cleared, Han Songyang sighed and said, “It’s over. People are rushing to get out. It seems it will be the same for tomorrow as well.”

“That’s for sure.” Qiao Mingfeng said helplessly, “Actually, Brother Dali could have had a good chance of saving it. Unfortunately, the state does not trust any individual. Just let them do whatever they want.”

“Oh right, Brother Dali.” Han Songyang asked, “In your opinion, how can the stock market be saved?”

Hearing that, everyone looked toward Hong Dali, waiting to hear his response.

“It’s actually quite simple.” Hong Dali smiled and sat down on the sofa. Then, he picked up a can of beverage and said, “Money, lots of money. The market was picking up yesterday. We should hit while the iron is hot and sink in a few hundred billion to hold the market steady. Regardless of how many individual traders drop out, we keep the market up and wipe out the short-sellers. This way, we will be able to stabilize the market in three days. Once the traders can be persuaded to return, we can still earn some if we release our stocks slowly. It’s okay even if people dump their shares. We can just pump it again. As for now, hehe. If the people’s morale is low, the individual traders will either get their funds stuck or they will simply not dare to enter the market. If there are no traders, the market is bound to turn bear. So, it’s time to retreat. Wait until the news during the weekend before deciding on our next course of action.”

After they heard what Hong Dali said, everyone sighed.

Hong Dali was right. Things like stock market policies were useless. What mattered most was popularity! Once something was no longer popular, it would be hard to make it popular again.

The situation now was like this. Individual investors had all been stuck because of the market plunge. Some may be adopting a wait-and-see approach, but who would dare to venture in when the market was taking such a beating?

Without funds coming in, the market would continue to dive. It was a vicious circle, and due to it, the trading volume would continue shrinking. This could only result in a bear market. There would be no surprises.

“Just wait and see. I don’t think there will be any hope these couple of days.” Han Songyang nodded. “Everyone, don’t buy any more shares these few days. Talk to your family. If you can suspend your stock, do so. Wait for the weekend before further action.”

The trend went exactly as Hong Dali predicted.

The panic caused by the plunging market was beginning to set in. People started trying to dump their shares as soon as the prices began to rise and that resulted in a stampede. Although the market rallied a little at noontime, the effect was not significant. The stock price continued dropping and they took a nosedive at 2:30 in the afternoon. When the market closed at the end of the day, more than 1,000 had hit their limit down.

“It’s over.” Han Songyang looked at the market and took a deep breath. “I’m afraid it will be difficult for it to recover in a short time.”

…

In a small building in a small town where the gang leader and his men were located, everyone cheered when the stock market closed!

“Oh yeah, beautifully done! Another day of short-selling! Hahahaha! Like I said, yesterday’s rally was just an accident. The policies are good, but it’s not possible for them to be so effective. It’s too late for those people to extricate themselves now even if they want to. It’s not possible for the prices to rise so much!”

“That’s right, we fought a good fight today. The liquidation of those financing orders at the end of the trading day was a good coincidence. Hahaha, that helped us a whole lot!”

All the people in the small building were cheering. The leader lit a cigarette and took a deep puff. He smiled and said, “Yes, another day has passed. Did we make a lot of money today too?”

The secretary in charge of statistics laughed. “About six billion yuan, the results are quite good.”

“Six billion? Why is it so little?” The leader frowned. According to his prediction, it should not be so low. After all, during the earlier days, they gained tens of billions of yuan every day. Today, there was suddenly a 10% reduction in earnings. The gap was a little large.

“It can’t be helped. There are a lot more people short-selling with us.” The secretary said helplessly, “The market is so big, it can’t be helped.”

“If that’s the case, haha, it doesn’t matter.” The leader nodded. “It will be much easier for us from now onwards. The hot money, dealers, and individual investors will help us push the market down. Alright, everyone, pack up. Go have some fun tonight.”

“Yahoo!” When they heard that, everyone immediately cheered and started making plans for the night.

“Big Brother, where do you intend to go later?” someone asked.

“Me? I intend to take a look at Shencheng tonight.” The leader thought about it and laughed. “You guys go have some fun. No need to worry about me, just remember to be back by midnight tonight.”

“Understood!” Everyone immediately packed up and left.

When everyone had cleared out, the clan leader looked at the empty room and muttered, “Sigh, now that the end is in sight, I suddenly feel a little empty. A life without an opponent to fight against is really boring.”