Chapter Thirteen: The Eve of the Storm

Lin Chu continued, his voice laced with excitement: "We’re all on the same side here, so I won't hold anything back. The truth is, I want to recruit some new people to build up my own inner circle. Right now, it’s just you and Li Sen; we’re spread too thin. To be blunt, if the shareholders and those old foxes hadn't been keeping quiet lately, I wouldn't be able to get anything done at all. Forget anyone else—I can’t even command the head of the accounting department. Just a few days ago, he had the audacity to yell at me. I wanted to fire him on the spot, but guess what? I couldn't even get the HR manager to listen to me. I couldn't even fire a single person, and it drove me absolutely mad. They were all promoted by the old guard and have no intention of taking orders from me."

This explained why Lin Chu was so anxious to hire a fresh batch of recruits. Although Lin Chu had only brought it up today, Li Fengyu had sensed for days that the company was effectively fractured, with department heads harboring deep-seated resentment beneath a veneer of cooperation. Li Fengyu was just as anxious, but he chose the most rational and secure strategy.

After a moment of thought, Li Fengyu said, "We’ve only just managed to stabilize the shareholders, and we are currently in the critical phase of our first trading operation. If we trigger shareholder discontent over this and the capital chain snaps, not only will we fail to establish any authority, but we risk losing everything we’ve worked for so far. Even worse scenarios aren't out of the question. Logically, this should be put on hold. We have to take things one step at a time."

A flash of disappointment crossed Lin Chu's face as he listened, but he knew the reasoning was sound. He gestured for Li Fengyu to sit down and chat for a while. A gentle breeze brushed against their faces as they sat before the entrance of the Xinmin Building, lost in thought. Only a few months ago, Li Fengyu had still been a student; now, thanks to his sharp wit and ability to help Lin Chu stabilize the situation, he was a senior executive. He was eighteen. Beside him sat Lin Chu, a brilliant Stanford graduate who had always been the "model student" in his parents' eyes, a man driven by the desire to achieve something great for his country and his people. He was twenty-five. The sun began to set, the summer evening breeze carrying a hint of melancholy, as if it were whisking the dreams of these two young men off into the distance.

Just then, Li Sen emerged from the building, bag in hand. "Fengyu, Lin Chu, what are you two doing? Work is over for the day. Aren't you heading home?"

Lin Chu and Fengyu snapped back to reality, realizing they had been sitting there for over an hour. Lin Chu brushed the dust off his trousers and walked toward Li Sen. "How did the trading go today?"

Li Sen handed a file to Lin Chu. "Overall, it’s going well. The trend line is flattening out. After the profit-taking and the panic-selling, we’ve reached the final stage of accumulation. Based on the market conditions, we can start driving the prices up next month. There’s quite a bit of follow-up buying, too, which is partly due to this year's pandemic. With the real economy becoming increasingly difficult, most capital is flowing into futures and the stock market. Our situation is, one could say, flourishing."

Lin Chu and Fengyu were overjoyed to hear this. The last of the sunset faded amidst the trio’s laughter. Everything seemed to be proceeding exactly as they had planned. But as the saying goes, life is full of ups and downs, just as the moon waxes and wanes; things never go entirely smoothly. After tonight, everything would change. Where would the three of them go, caught in the relentless torrent of history?