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On the ninth consecutive day of decline in US stocks, in classroom 301 of the Economics Department at Harvard University.

This is one of the top macroeconomics courses in the United States, taught by Professor Richard Evans, a student of Nobel laureate economist Paul Samuelson.

Fifteen days ago, he publicly commented on Lin Haoran's speech at MIT in class, saying in a slightly sarcastic tone: "A young man from the East uses an overly simplified model to predict the complex US market. His courage is commendable, but he probably lacks an understanding of the market's depth and resilience."

Most of the students present at the time agreed with Professor Richard Evans's statement.

Some students even felt that they had previously regarded Lin Haoran as an idol, and it seemed that his previous achievements were just due to good luck.

However, half a month later, the atmosphere in the same classroom is completely different.

A chart was frozen on the projection screen, showing the Dow Jones Industrial Average's rise followed by a continuous plunge over the past ten days. The steep red downhill line was like a sharp blade, piercing through all optimistic expectations.

The students below the podium had solemn expressions.

Professor Evans stood at the podium and remained silent for a full minute.

This economist, who is known for his confidence and sharp insights, appeared somewhat tired at this moment.

He adjusted his glasses and finally spoke:
"Last week's assignment was for everyone to analyze the three core arguments put forward by Mr. Lin Haoran in his speech at MIT: the suppression of corporate profits by a high-interest-rate environment, the unsustainability of valuation bubbles, and the catalyst for a reversal in market sentiment."

He paused, his gaze sweeping across the audience: "Now, please open your notebooks."

A rustling sound came from the classroom, but there was mostly an awkward silence.

In the back corner, a blond boy quietly closed his notebook, which was still stuck on the first paragraph: "Lin Haoran's argument lacks supporting data..."

“I believe many people, like myself, had reservations about Mr. Lin’s warning,” Professor Evans said in a low voice. “But we were wrong. The market, the most ruthless referee, has already delivered its verdict.”

He pressed the remote control, and the projection screen switched to a video clip, which was a segment of Lin Haoran answering students' questions in an MIT open course, which was recorded by some students with video cameras.

Lin Haoran appeared calm in the video, but his tone was resolute: "When everyone thinks the bull market will continue forever, that's when the risks have accumulated to their peak."

After the video finished playing, the classroom was completely silent.

“True insights often transcend data models,” Professor Evans said slowly, his voice carrying a rare humility. “Mr. Lin Haoran is a prime example.”

He saw not just superficial price-to-earnings ratios and GDP growth rates, but deeper structural contradictions: the vulnerability of corporate debt in a high-interest-rate environment, the overly optimistic collective mentality in the market, and the chain reactions that a policy shift might trigger.

He walked to the edge of the podium and placed his hands on the table: "Today, we will go through the lesson again, but not by analyzing the data, but by analyzing why we collectively made a misjudgment."

Lesson One: Beware of Consensus. The greatest risk often lies when Wall Street, academia, and the media are all shouting in the same direction.

In the last row of the classroom, an Asian boy wearing black-rimmed glasses raised his hand.

He is Michael Chen, a student at MIT Sloan School of Management, who came to Harvard specifically to audit this course.

After the professor gestured for him to speak, Michael Chen said, "Professor, I would like to add that Mr. Lin Haoran's insight may also stem from the differences between Eastern and Western ways of thinking."

Western economics emphasizes linear extrapolation and quantitative models, but Eastern philosophy focuses more on cyclical patterns and the balance of Yin and Yang.

Seeing the seeds of decline in prosperity and the possibility of new life in despair—perhaps this is why he was able to issue early warnings.

A murmur rippled through the classroom.

Someone recognized the boy; he was the first student to stand up and ask Lin Haoran a question during the MIT open course.

Professor Evans nodded: "Very good observation. This leads to the second question we need to consider today: In a globalized financial market, should we introduce a more diverse framework of thinking?"

……

After class, students poured out of the classroom, their voices rising and falling in unison.

“I actually laughed at Lin Haoran before!” a boy wearing a Harvard baseball jersey said regretfully. “Now my account has lost 40%, and all my savings from my summer internship are gone.”

The girl next to him sighed: "The Wall Street Journal said that Citigroup lost at least $4 million in proprietary trading because it didn't heed Lin Haoran's warnings. Financial giants like Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and Mellon also lost as much money as Citigroup."

Even top-tier giants like these make mistakes, so what are we students?

At the corner of the corridor, a familiar figure walked quickly past with his head down. It was Mike Jenkins, the Harvard junior who had led the questioning of Lin Haoran in the open class.

Fifteen days ago, he submitted an article to the campus magazine entitled "Exposing the Pseudoscience of the 'Eastern Prophet'". After the latest edition of the campus magazine was printed, it received the approval of many students, and he was very proud of it.

Now, all he wants is to find a place to hide.

Back in his dorm, Mike slammed the door shut and slumped down at his desk.

On his desk was a financial newspaper with the latest stock price fluctuations of major stocks. Several energy stocks in which he held large positions had all plummeted by more than 20%.

He leveraged his investment by 3 times, which means he lost at least 60% of his capital!

In the corner of his desk, there was a cartoon he had cut out earlier: a cartoon character dressed in a Tang suit holding a sign that read "US stocks will definitely fall," with the words "Eastern witchcraft finance" written below.

Mike stared at the cartoon for a few seconds, then suddenly reached out, tore it off, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it into the trash can.

He opened the drawer and pulled out the notes he had taken when he listened to Lin Haoran's speech.

The hastily written handwriting records several key points of Lin Haoran's thinking: "Interest rates are the attraction of assets" and "When everyone is making money, the game is over."

He stared at the words, suddenly feeling dizzy. If only he had listened carefully to those words back then, if only he hadn't blindly followed the professor's "optimistic view of the US stock market," if only he had...

Unfortunately, there is no such thing.

At the same time, at the "Red Eagle" restaurant on the east side of the MIT campus.

This is a popular dining spot for students from MIT Sloan School of Management. The decor is typical of American industrial style, and photos of outstanding alumni from previous years are displayed on the walls.

But tonight, the atmosphere in the restaurant is somewhat unusual.

Five students were sitting at a long table by the window.

The man in the middle is Michael Chen, the Asian boy who spoke in the Harvard class earlier. After class, he rode his bicycle back to MIT.

To his left and right were Alan Patel, of Indian descent; Ethan Cohen, of Jewish descent; Lewis Zhang, of Chinese descent; and Sofia Larsson, a blond-haired, blue-eyed Swedish exchange student.

These five people have one thing in common: they all attended Lin Haoran's open course at MIT and listened attentively.

During this time, because they shared the same ideas, they often got together to discuss things and became very good friends.

Moreover, after the stock market continued to decline, they even came up with the idea of ​​establishing a new student club – "Linmen".

"Linmen," as the name suggests, is a community inspired by Lin Haoran's ideas, gathering like-minded people to discuss financial, economic, and business wisdom.

And the spiritual leader is naturally Lin Haoran, the young super-rich man who has once again become the focus of public opinion.

The name is concise and powerful, with both Eastern connotations and the implied meanings of "gateway" and "school of thought". What's even more ingenious is that it is a homophone of the surname "Lin", and can be easily understood in English as Lin School.

The purpose of this gathering was to discuss the establishment of the "Lin Men" (Forest School).

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Michael raised his beer glass, his face beaming with an undisguised smile, “a toast to the upcoming founding of ‘Linmen’ and to our success in the stock market.”

A burst of laughter and the clinking of glasses filled the table.

But the students at the surrounding tables cast complex glances at them, a mixture of envy, curiosity, and a hint of barely perceptible jealousy.

“My initial investment was $52,000,” Allen’s voice was not loud, but loud enough for the people at the next table to hear. “Now the number in my securities account has reached $315,000, with five times leverage, all shorting Nasdaq index futures.”

In other words, even after repaying the leveraged loans, I now have over $100,000 in funds, and with the stock market still declining, profits can continue to increase. Thank you, Mr. Lin Haoran, for the inspiration!

There was a gasp of air around him.

In 1981, $50,000 was an astronomical sum for students on American university campuses. It was equivalent to two years' salary for an average professor and an enormous fortune that most students had never seen before.

The figure of "three hundred and one hundred thousand US dollars" plunged the entire restaurant into an eerie silence.

Ethan took out a thick ledger from his briefcase. This was a habit of their generation; important figures were neatly recorded on paper.

He turned to the latest page and showed it to his companions: "I had less initial capital, $28,000, and now my account is worth $186,000."

The main short positions were taken against the tech companies Mr. Lin mentioned that had precarious cash flow—those companies still burning through cash and relying on rounds of financing to stay afloat.

He tapped the ledger with his pen: "At this rate, breaking 250,000 by the end of the month shouldn't be a problem."

Sofia calmly replied in her Scandinavian-accented English, "I was rather conservative and only used four times leverage, with a principal of $40,000. The account is now worth $192,000."

The most shocking one was Lewis.

This usually quiet, Chinese-American boy, who always wore faded shirts, took out a leather notebook from his inner pocket and opened it to a page.

The transaction details were densely written in pen, with the last line of numbers heavily circled: $478,500.

“I borrowed $30,000 from my parents, plus the $8,000 I saved as a teaching assistant, and…” He paused, “and the student loans I took out, totaling $45,000 in principal, with an eight-fold leverage.”

Lewis glanced around at the students who were now speechless with astonishment, and said calmly with a smile, "Now, the securities account has $478,500."

That's enough to buy this restaurant, and also a brand new Porsche 911.

Although the funds included in this figure are the leveraged borrowed funds, even after deducting the leveraged loans, doubling the profit is entirely possible.

Most importantly, the stock market is still falling, meaning that as long as they haven't withdrawn from the market, their profits are likely to continue to rise. The clatter of cutlery falling onto plates echoed throughout the restaurant.

Accompanied by an uncontrollable gasp.

David Rosenberg, a boy at the next table wearing thick-rimmed glasses, suddenly stood up, his chair scraping against the floor with a screeching sound.

He is a star student in the economics department with a near-perfect GPA and has just received a summer internship offer from Morgan Stanley.

But at this moment, his face was ashen, and his knuckles were white from the force he exerted.

“You’re gambling!” David’s voice trembled with excitement, drawing the attention of everyone in the restaurant. “Short selling with high leverage will leave you penniless if the market rebounds!”
Furthermore, student loans are for education, not for speculation! This goes against the very purpose of education!

Michael calmly looked at the Massachusetts honor student and put down his beer glass.

He took off the silver badge pinned to his shirt collar—the badge engraved with "Linmen" and the Latin word for "foresee the future"—and gently placed it on the table.

This was specially commissioned by him after he had the idea of ​​establishing the "Linmen" club.

Michael laughed and said, "David, if I remember correctly, didn't you use all your scholarship money last month to buy those 'Energy Star' stocks that Professor Evans recommended in his Wall Street Journal column?"
The professor said it was a "once-in-a-decade investment opportunity," was that correct?

David's face flushed instantly, his lips moved, but no sound came out.

"Let me see today's New York Times."

Michael took a neatly folded newspaper out of his backpack and turned to the financial section.

Then, in a calm tone, he read: "The energy sector suffered a severe blow, with the stock prices of many listed companies halved. Analysts say the impact of the oil crisis is gradually diminishing, oil prices are falling, and the high-interest-rate environment is exposing the vulnerability of the energy industry."

He raised his head, looked directly at David, and continued, "According to public data, the three companies you heavily invested in have fallen by 45%, 43%, and 51% respectively in the past week or so."

So, how much is left in your account? Forty percent? Or less? Or, if you entered the market with leverage, have your funds been forcibly liquidated, and you might even owe your brokerage firm money?

David didn't answer, he just clenched his fist.

He did indeed leverage his position heavily in energy stocks recommended by several well-known professors, arguing that they "represent America's future of energy independence."

Two weeks ago, these stocks were hitting new highs.

But now, the $25,000 scholarship he worked so hard to obtain has been completely lost due to his leveraged investment in the stock market.

What terrified him even more was that the money not only covered his tuition and living expenses, but also included the college application fees he had promised to send to his sister.

“This is not gambling,” Ethan interjected, pointing lightly to the open ledger where every transaction was clearly recorded.

"This is the realization of knowledge. Mr. Lin Haoran has made the logic clear: in a high-interest-rate environment, those companies that rely on cheap funds for expansion and have weak cash flow will be the first to go bankrupt."

He even mentioned specific industry characteristics in his speech: "We simply did our homework, analyzed the data, and then assumed the calculated risks."

Sofia took an elegant sip of her coffee and pointed to the badge Michael had placed on the table: “We are not believers, we are students, and the best students are those who can recognize true wisdom and put it into practice.”

She paused, glancing around at the shocked or envious faces around her: "When Mr. Lin was giving his speech in the auditorium, how many of you were listening attentively? How many were taking notes? And how many of you were just secretly mocking his accent and questioning his qualifications?"

A deeper silence fell over the restaurant.

Many students lowered their heads.

They remembered that afternoon, their initial disdain, and the jokes circulating on campus about "Eastern witchcraft finance."

After everyone had left, leaving only five people in the restaurant, Lewis Zhang spoke up: "Gentlemen, I think the time is ripe to establish 'Linmen'."

This isn't just because we made money and proved Mr. Lin's ideas were viable; more importantly, we saw a deeper need: students yearn for genuine thinking, not just standard answers.

Lewis's voice was calm. He opened his leather notebook, turned to the last page, where instead of transaction records, there was a passage neatly handwritten in pen:

"Education is not about filling a bucket with water, but about lighting a fire."

—William Butler Yeats
“Mr. Lin ignited us,” Lewis looked up at his four companions, “Now, it’s our turn to ignite more people.”

Allen nodded vigorously: "I agree. In the past two days, at least a dozen classmates have privately approached me to ask how I did it. They don't just want to learn investment skills, but also want to understand the thinking behind it."

“But we must be careful,” Ethan pushed up his glasses, his tone serious. “'Lin’s Club' cannot become an investment club. Once we focus on making money, we will have deviated from Mr. Lin’s original intention. He taught us how to think, not how to trade.”

Sofia elegantly twirled her coffee cup: "We should establish a structure, not a loose gathering, but an academic society with bylaws, goals, and a legacy."

Like debate clubs and philosophy societies that have existed for decades, 'Linmen' should become a place that continuously sparks intellectual exchange on the campuses of MIT and Harvard, and even in many other prestigious universities, and we will be its founders.

As Michael listened to his friends' discussion, a clear plan formed in his mind.

He took out the "Linmen Association Charter (Draft)" from his bag again. He had drafted it by referring to the charters of other associations and combining them with the original intention of establishing "Linmen".

But this time, he turned to the last page, which was blank, awaiting joint signature.

“I propose that ‘Lin’s Gate’ have four core principles,” Michael said.

"First of all, Mr. Lin Haoran will always be the spiritual leader of the 'Lin Family'!"

"Second, we are open-minded. We welcome any viewpoint and encourage any questioning, including questioning Mr. Lin himself. Truth becomes clearer through debate."

"Third, interdisciplinary integration. Economics, physics, philosophy, history, art... any knowledge that can help us understand the world should be included in the discussion."

"Fourth, practice-oriented. Thinking must be grounded in reality. Whether it's investment analysis, business cases, or solutions to social problems, we must learn to transform ideas into action."

He quickly wrote down the four principles on the draft and then handed it to his colleagues: “If we all agree, sign here.”

The pen was passed around.

Allen, Ethan, Sofia, Lewis—each of them solemnly signed their names.

When Lewis finally finished signing, the five men looked at each other and smiled. They knew that at this moment, something more meaningful than personal success had begun.

"So, what's next?" Allen asked.

Michael put away the signed charter: "First, we need a supervising professor, someone with academic authority, for 'Linmen' to gain formal recognition from the school."

“What about Professor Evans?” Sophia suggested. “His reflections in class demonstrate his academic courage and open-mindedness.”

Ethan added, "Moreover, his status in the economics field can open many doors for us. More importantly, the fact that a professor who once questioned Mr. Lin is guiding the 'Lin School' sends a strong signal that true scholars respect the truth, not face."

The proposal was approved by everyone.

“Secondly,” Michael continued, “we need a launch ceremony, not a party, not a celebration, but a real thought workshop. I’ve already thought of the theme.”

He paused, then continued, "'From prediction to understanding: a paradigm shift in economic analysis.'"

"Whom should we invite?" Lewis asked.

“To everyone who is interested,” Michael said, “students, professors, even people on Wall Street—we want to show the outside world that ‘Linmen’ is not a small circle of self-entertainment, but a serious platform for thought.”

"Finally," Allen interjected, "we need to establish a succession mechanism. We will all graduate sooner or later, and 'Linmen' cannot disappear just because we leave."

There should be clear rules for member selection, leadership succession, and data archiving. I even hope that in the future, "Lin Men" will be a resounding label in society, a certification of intellectual quality, just like "Ivy League graduate" today—making people immediately recognize: this person is a thoughtful individual.

This idea invigorated everyone.

Ethan pondered: "So, 'Linmen' shouldn't just be a campus club; it should be a 'community of thought' that can accompany us throughout our lives?"
Even after graduation, scattered across the globe, can we still connect in some way, share insights, and collaboratively address complex real-world problems?

“That’s right!” Michael’s eyes lit up. “Imagine, ten years from now, a member of ‘Linmen’ in London is dealing with a tricky merger and acquisition, a member in Tokyo is studying the restructuring of Asian supply chains, and a member in Silicon Valley is exploring technology ethics.”

However, they can quickly exchange perspectives through the 'Linmen' network and gain insights across regions and industries.

This is what's truly valuable!

Sofia nodded: "This requires careful design and long-term investment, but if we start planning now, such as creating detailed member profiles, regularly publishing internal newsletters, and planning annual global gatherings..."

In the future, it could truly become a unique network of intellectual elites.

Lewis had been listening quietly, and now he spoke slowly, his tone more resolute than ever: "Then we can't just plan it as a student activity."

In the future, we need a more formal legal structure, such as registering as a non-profit educational and research institution.

It requires seed funding, legal counsel, and a clear governance charter, much like running a startup, but the product is 'ideas' and 'connections.'

This ambitious vision put a bit of pressure on all five of them, but more than that, they were excited.

They realized that what they were planning might go far beyond the scope of an ordinary student club.

Of course, things must be done step by step; it cannot be accomplished overnight.

The most important thing now is to make "Lin Men" famous at MIT, Harvard University, and other major universities in the United States!
The five of them discussed it until late at night.

When the restaurant closed, they moved to Michael's student dormitory to continue their business.

On a cold winter night in 1981, the temperature in Boston was already very low, and snow was even falling outside.

But in this small dormitory, the enthusiasm of the five young people was enough to dispel any chill. (End of Chapter)