Scholar's Advanced Technological System

Chapter 1492: A Problem That Money Can Solve Is Not a Problem

Ever since Lu Zhou cut off the electromagnet research laboratory of East Asia Energy, the news about East Asia Energy had not stopped.

Recently, because of a research report on East Asia Energy by Yangwei Capital, the topic of East Asia Energy was once again pushed to the peak of popularity.

Basically, this was a short report.

In the report, Yangwei Capital analyzed the confusion in East Asia Energy’s management as well as the chairman’s unfamiliarity with the business. Yangwei Capital stated that “revenues will be reduced by 11%-15% from the previous two years” and “the second-generation controllable fusion project may not be realized”.

The last time East Asia Energy suffered a short sell was half a century ago.

Now history seemed to be repeating itself again. East Asia Energy was once again in deep crisis for different reasons. Many people felt an unusual taste from it.

This was not the same as last time.

Last time, the great turbulence was caused by the economic crisis.

But this time, even some investment bank interns could feel that there was a taste of conspiracy.

In any case, after the short-selling report had been released, negative news about East Asia Energy emerged endlessly; it had successfully triggered pessimism in the market.

On the second day after the report was issued, more than one billion empty orders were hung on East Asia Energy, which directly accounted for the increase caused by Lu Zhou taking office as chairman and announcing the establishment of the second-generation controllable fusion project. It was back to where it started.

In fact, to be honest, Lu Zhou didn’t care much about stock prices.

As a shareholder from the beginning, his cost was simply minuscule.

No matter how capable Yangwei Capital was, it was impossible to return the market value of these stocks to the level they were a hundred years ago.

He was just a little angry.

He and his teammates struggled on the Pangu scientific research front for countless days and nights to finally complete the fusion ignition.

It had only been a hundred years since then, but the legacy he left to future generations had already been gnawed and riddled with greed.

Fortunately, he was not really dead; otherwise, he would be so furious that he would come out of his coffin.

As Lu Zhou looked at the stock price, he said blankly, “Buy as many market orders as he places.”

Xiao Ai: “Okay, Master, but… this is borrowed money. Master will have to repay it. w(゚Д゚)w”

“I know,” Lu Zhou said casually, “I borrowed money, maybe he did too. I can stay in this fight longer than he can stay solvent.”

Although he wasn’t a finance expert, he still did some serious learning of financial tools.

Short-selling was to first borrow the underlying assets, such as East Asia Energy stock, sell them for cash, then wait for the asset price to drop and return the borrowed assets.

This was a bet against expectations. If the shares of East Asia Energy were to fall in the future, it would obviously be profitable to short East Asia Energy.

But if the opposite was true, where instead of falling, the stock rose instead…

Then they would have to buy back the underlying assets they sold at a higher price. Or perhaps even encounter a short squeeze.

For this kind of bearish force, the way to fight them was actually very simple. One could use news to stabilize the mood of the market or take out substantial money and fight them.

Lu Zhou chose the latter, which was the simplest and crudest way.

Although 50 billion was nothing compared to the market value of East Asia Energy, it was equivalent to the total trading volume of several trading days. Besides, he never thought about buying East Asia Energy as a whole. He only needed to consume the sell orders placed by Yangwei Capital.

Strictly speaking, although Lu Zhou’s thinking was correct, this was quite ridiculous. Generally speaking, even if someone wanted to fight against Yangwei Capital, there was no need to directly pay for their orders.

According to the general laws of economics, emotions were heavily involved.

Under the pressure of such bad news, it was definitely not only Yangwei Capital that chose to sell, but there must be other people or companies that followed the trend.

If he wanted to give those “short forces” a head-on attack, he should wait until the good news was about to come out so that he could maximize his benefits. Furthermore, directly hitting it like this, without giving the opponent a chance to retreat, would also give himself no room to back off.

If it were Chen Yushan, she would not do this.

However…

She wasn’t in charge. Instead, it was a man who never cared about money.

Especially since he didn’t have an idea of how much money was worth in this era. Lu Zhou merely used the borrowed money as a bargaining chip.

A hundred years ago, whether in Princeton or Jinling University, he had never been afraid of betting. The same was true a hundred years later.

But, to be honest, although his operation was full of nonsense, it really scared some people.

Yangwei Capital building.

Staring at the calm stock line on the holographic image, the investment manager in charge of the operation was enraged.

“F*ck me, which imbecile is going against us?! How are all these asks being filled?”

When he saw the two billion volumes of orders that had just been eaten in an instant, his heart hurt as if he were dripping blood.

This was the first time he had seen such a thing!

Song Yangwei stood behind the investment manager. His face was also green, and his pupils were filled with haze.

He had never seen this kind of magical operation either.

The second they put up the sell order, the aggressor instantly filled it.

The two sides stayed in a stalemate for almost half an hour. He had already used up 5 billion worth of credit points. As a result, the stock price of East Asia Energy was on a random walk around a consistent price.

Where did he get so much money?

Could it be the AIIB…

But Song Yangwei quickly rejected this hypothesis.

It was impossible for the AIIB to lend him money to help him increase his stake in East Asia Energy. This was not in compliance with the rules, and secondly, there were legal risks. As for the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, it must issue an announcement at least one week in advance to increase its holdings of a company’s stock.

In this case, there was only one possibility left.

That guy used his own stocks as a guarantee, then borrowed money to fight against him…

“This lunatic…” Song Yangwei gritted his teeth after squeezing these words out of his mouth. “Is he not afraid that he will be wiped out by other people on the board?”

Such a straightforward attack operation could only be done by Lu Zhou.

However, it was precisely because of Lu Zhou’s “straightforwardness” that Song Yangwei felt a little confused.

Five billion credit points went down without even a splash of water. Five billion was a substantial amount, even for Yangwei Capital.

As for the financial predators who were ready to follow the wave started by Yangwei Capital, after seeing that this bone was so difficult to chew, they had now begun to be more cautious. They waited to see the situation before doing anything.

After all, many people had spent most of their lives in the financial field, but this was the first time they had seen such a close head-to-head contest. The sell orders and the buy orders were matched completely.

How confident is this guy at his own company?

Especially since this money was coming out of Academician Lu’s own pocket…

Many people even began to speculate whether the second-generation controllable fusion technology was already developed, making him so confident. After all, logically speaking, they really couldn’t figure out why Lu Zhou did this.

In a blink of an eye, another 2 billion was smashed out.

Looking at the column representing the trade volume that was four times higher than yesterday, the investment manager sitting at his desk finally began to feel scared. After gulping, he turned to the chairman and said nervously, “Chairman, chairman…”

Song Yangwei said with a gloomy expression, “What?”

“We…” The investment manager swallowed and asked in a low voice, “Are we going to continue selling? I feel that there is something wrong with our research report. There’s still no movement.”

“Don’t be nervous, I didn’t ask you to stop, so don’t stop.” Song Yangwei stared at the stock price on the holographic screen that started to rise. The expression on Song Yangwei’s face became more and more gloomy. After a while, he continued, “Wait until the afternoon, then place a one billion dollar sell order. Save the remaining bullets for this weekend. Don’t be afraid. I still have a pair of aces up my sleeve, so just do what I tell you.”

“Yes, sir…”

The investment manager closed his mouth and stared at the holographic screen.

In fact, what he wanted to say was for Song Yangwei to use the pair of aces as soon as possible. If they waited until all of the bullets were used, it would be too late.

As Song Yangwei stared intently at the holographic screen, he had an uncertain expression on his face, and a slight hesitation flashed in his eyes.

After sitting for so long in the top position of the Science and Technology Committee of the East Asia Energy Board of Directors, he knew some shady news about East Asia Energy.

However, if this shady news was released, it would trigger a panic sell in the market. Although it was true that he could make a lot of money, it was really hard to say whether it would be a blessing or a curse.

If only I had more time…

If he were on the Science and Technology Committee for another half a year, he might be able to completely remove himself from that matter without any risk.

He watched at the stock price that looked like a random walk, and a trace of struggle flashed in his heart. After taking a deep breath, he walked outside the trading office and tapped his index finger on the watch.

The light blue light and shadows intertwined, and a translucent holographic image quickly appeared in front of him.

He opened the address book and selected the annoying name. After waiting for a few seconds, he looked at the opened video call window and said with a gloomy expression, “Let’s make a truce.”

Lu Zhou was taken aback for a moment. He then laughed.

“Truce? Mr. Song, I don’t understand what you are talking about.”

“Don’t pretend, I’m open to negotiation right now, but not for long.” Song Yangwei continued to stare at Lu Zhou in the video window. “I have to admire your clever means. Take my incompetent son-in-law as my apology.

“From now on, on the R&D side, do whatever you want. I will never intervene. On the other hand, I will also terminate this short-selling plan. Once I buy back the stocks at a small loss, it’ll be like nothing has ever happened.”

Lu Zhou was amused. He said with a smile, “Isn’t that going to happen anyway?”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” Song Yangwei immediately became angry. “I could kill both of us if I wanted to!”

“Oh, really?” Raising his eyebrows curiously, Lu Zhou continued, “Tell me how.”

“The pool of East Asia Energy is much deeper than you think. You have only been sitting in the chairman’s seat for a few days. Do you think you know everything?” Song Yangwei said with a cold smile, “I have been sitting on the Science and Technology Committee for more than ten years. I have seen everything you can’t see.”

Lu Zhou said, “In other words, you still have tricks up your sleeve.”

“You can understand it this way.” Song Yangwei squinted and said, “If the bad news gets leaked, the consequences will probably be beyond your control.”

Lu Zhou smiled and said, “Then tell me what the bad news is. Maybe it’ll scare me?”

“I’ll give you one day to think about it.” Song Yangwei closed his eyes and said calmly, ignoring Lu Zhou, “After the weekend, when the stock market opens, if you continue to take action against me, then I will assume you have made a decision.”

Lu Zhou almost laughed out loud.

Who is this ridiculous?

You’re the one that went after me first!

“So you want me to sit around and wait to get sh*t on?”

“I promise that I will buy back at a fair price, and three days later, whether you want to increase or decrease your holdings, you can do whatever you want.”

Song Yangwei didn’t wait for Lu Zhou to give a clear answer. He ended the call right away.

At this moment, Xiao Ai, who was sitting on the sofa “meditating”, suddenly opened her eyes and blinked while looking in Lu Zhou’s direction.

“Master, it seems that there are no large sell orders anymore. (๑•̀ᄇ•́)و✧”

“Okay.”

After thinking for a while, Lu Zhou suddenly said, “By the way, Xiao Ai, the person who called me just now… Can you hack into his personal terminal?”

Xiao Ai: “The problem shouldn’t be big, does Master need Xiao Ai to take action? (⃔*`꒳ ́*)⃕↝”

Lu Zhou nodded and said, “Well, the insider bad news he talked about… I kind of care.”

“No problem! Xiao Ai got this! (๑•̀ᄇ•́)و✧”

News that can shake the foundation of East Asia Energy…

Lu Zhou couldn’t imagine what it could be.

Tax evasion?

Fraud?

He could only think of these things, but regardless of which one of these charges it was, it didn’t seem serious.

“I didn’t expect that, after one hundred years, the second generation of controllable fusion is becoming increasingly difficult to build.”

Lu Zhou looked at the unfinished holographic model on the table. He shook his head, reached out to touch the operation interface, and reinvested his energy into the work that actually interested him…