Since they are reborn, they must be supported by the school beauties.

Chapter 262 Admitting Defeat in Adversity
For many people, this New Year was neither happy nor joyful.

This is mainly because rumors about SARS have been rampant recently, and three kinds of supplies have become extremely sought-after: white vinegar, Banlangen (a traditional Chinese medicine), and 84 disinfectant.

Chen Cheng's mother was very upset because she hadn't been able to buy any of the three supplies. However, she still had half a bottle of unused white vinegar at home. After hesitating for a long time, she poured out half of it and boiled it in a small pot.

Smelling the tooth-grinding odor that filled the room, Chen Cheng was both amused and exasperated. Although he had already told his parents that white vinegar had no effect on sterilization, his mother didn't care. She said that everyone in the city was scrambling for white vinegar, so why would anyone scramble for something that was useless?
Chen Cheng was thinking that years later, everyone would say that salt could prevent nuclear radiation. Although most people who had gone to high school could tell whether such rumors were true or false, most people would rather believe it than not.

Fancheng acted quickly; before the New Year was even over, the city government ordered internet cafes, bars, KTVs, and similar establishments to cease operations.

It is said that there is a great deal of tension across the country, with people fearing the discovery of confirmed cases locally. As a result, local officials are under a lot of pressure, and ensuring that nothing goes wrong in their own area is of utmost importance.

Chen Cheng wasn't too concerned, because in his memory, no confirmed cases had been found in Fancheng or Jiangcheng. While others were on edge, he was in a great mood and had already bought a train ticket back to Jiangcheng on the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, just waiting to get back to work.

When Chen Cheng returned to Jiangcheng, rumors about SARS were rampant. When he came out of the train station, he found that although there were many taxis waiting for fares, very few people were willing to take them.

People have become wary of taxis, a type of private transportation, to the point that taxi drivers' business has plummeted.

The worst part is that just before the SARS rumors broke, the city increased the number of license plates twice in an effort to squeeze the market for tricycles. Now, the city has several thousand more taxis that can't find passengers.

As drivers' actual income from driving cars plummeted, the first group of people who wanted to sell their cars emerged.

During any market fluctuation, there are two extreme groups: one is like a frightened bird, which runs away without looking back at the slightest disturbance; the other is like a newborn calf, which remains unmoved even when a tiger is charging right in front of it.

When too many people are easily frightened, it often leads to widespread panic. As a result, a large number of taxi drivers quickly followed suit, trying to sell their license plates as soon as possible.

When many people wanted to sell their quotas, the price of quotas instantly plummeted to rock bottom.

Don't even bother asking for 80,000 or 90,000, because nobody will pay attention to you, and you'll often get yelled at. The starting price at the retail level is already 60,000.

But who would buy it?

Even at 70,000, no one bought it.

Someone said they'd buy one if the price dropped to 60,000.

However, most drivers have high ownership costs, and they can't bring themselves to spend 60,000 yuan right now.

But soon, the first person willing to pay 60,000 appeared.

This driver bought his license plate early, at a cost of 40,000 yuan. He was also quite decisive at the time; while others bought Xiali or Jetta cars, he bought Fukang, so he didn't need to change cars after New Year's Day.

Seeing the price of the license plate continue to collapse, the driver lost patience with the taxi industry. He figured he would make a profit if he sold it for 60,000, so there was no need to wait any longer and he made the decision to sell.

Illness strikes like a landslide, and so does a market crash.

Just like when housing prices collapse, those who bought at the peak are reluctant to sell at a loss, but for those who bought at one-tenth the price years ago, it's just a matter of earning a little less.

Those car owners with low holding costs and who have lost interest in the taxi industry are gradually choosing to sell.

The price of the index has thus returned to the era of starting with 5.

Meanwhile, in Wenzhou, a city in the south, a teahouse that had been ordered to close quietly opened its back door.

Many men, women, and children, wearing masks and looking around cautiously like thieves, slipped in through the back door one after another.

In the teahouse's lobby, men, women, and children silently found seats and sat down.

The teahouse owner was still quietly instructing everyone: "Please sit a little further apart. If you're not family, try not to sit next to each other."

The organizer of this gathering was Uncle Gao, the most senior taxi scalper in Wenzhou.

Lately, he has been so worried that he can't sleep every night.

This morning, upon hearing that Jiangcheng's quota had already seen transactions below 60,000, he could no longer sit still and quickly summoned all the speculators who had lent their quotas to Chen Cheng to a meeting to discuss the matter.

This teahouse was an investment he made last year. Southerners love tea, and the teahouse business quickly took off, but he never expected it to go back to zero.

With such a large investment in the indicator, and then Chen Cheng shorting it, it was like doubling the investment. Seeing that the price was about to collapse, he was very anxious, fearing that he would lose all his life savings in one fell swoop.

Everyone else felt the same way. Qi Duo had been losing clumps of hair these past few days.

Originally, she was a successful businesswoman praised by everyone around her—young, capable, and worth millions.

But now, she knows very well that with the current price level of the indicators, Jiang Cheng is likely to lose most of his fortune this time.

Once everyone had arrived, Uncle Gao said with a worried look, "I'm sure you've all received the news: the price of taxi license plates in Jiangcheng has plummeted. It's already in the 50s, and the price is still falling. If SARS isn't resolved anytime soon, I think the price will drop to the 40s, or even the 30s..."

One of them exclaimed, "Three-star? Uncle Gao, if it really is three-star, we're going to lose a fortune! When we first arrived in Jiangcheng, the price of a license plate was already close to 50,000. We kept raising the market price and bought a lot more at higher prices. On average, the cost per license plate is around 100,000!"

Someone else said, "Don't forget, we later lent the quota to that kid surnamed Chen again, and then bought it back for 120,000. In total, we spent 220,000 on two quotas. Even if Chen gives us an extra 30% later, the cost of one quota will still be around 100,000. If the quota drops to 30,000 or 40,000, I'll be bankrupt!"

Wencheng speculators have always been bold yet meticulous. Once they identify a direction, they are willing to use leverage. When everyone first started speculating on indicators, they did so with leverage. Almost everyone borrowed a lot of money from relatives and friends. Later, when Chen Cheng was shorting, they raised a lot of money to buy back the borrowed indicators, which increased the leverage ratio even further.

If the index ultimately closes at 30,000 to 40,000, almost every one of them will be wiped out.

So, when everyone finished calculating the costs, everyone felt extremely desperate.

Qi Duo was filled with regret at this moment.

Wearing a mask, she said regretfully, "If we hadn't signed the contract with Chen Cheng, things would be a little more manageable. If things got really bad, we could have cut our losses and left. But now, although we still have the quota, we've essentially doubled our investment. Cutting our losses now is pointless; the real power is in Chen Cheng's hands..."

One person asked, "Can we breach the contract?"

"Breach of contract?"

Uncle Gao countered, "How are we in breach of contract? We're the ones who lent out the quotas and then bought them back. Chen Cheng has already taken our money. Even if we breach the contract, we won't get our money back. Besides, Chen Cheng only needs to buy the quotas back and return them to us in a few months. It's like we've handed over all the initiative."

Qi Duo said, "We have to find a way to do something. If all else fails, we can pool our money to prop up the market. As long as the price of the index doesn't fall, we'll still get Chen Cheng's 30% interest in the future. If we can push up the price of the index, then Chen Cheng will go bankrupt."

"Pull him up?"

Uncle Gao asked her, "What do you think we should do to boost the indicators? Should we buy all of them?"

"Yup!"

Qi Duo stood up and said to everyone in a very serious tone, "Waiting to die is the only way out. Instead of waiting, we should try to take the initiative. There are only a little over 10,000 taxis in Jiangcheng. If we can control the price, Chen Cheng will have to deliver 130% of the quota. Isn't the competition between bulls and bears about who can crush the other?"

Uncle Gao shook his head and said, "Qi Duo, you make it sound simple, but don't forget, Chen Cheng isn't stupid. He's definitely watching the market more closely than we are. Let's not even talk about whether we can come up with that much money. Even if we could, once we raise the price of the index, Chen Cheng will definitely follow suit quickly!"

“Think about it, the quotas he lent us were sold to us for 120,000 each. With 30% interest, as long as he can keep the cost below 92,000, he will make a profit. He is already in a profitable state now. If we raise the price now, he will immediately follow suit and get enough shares before the average price reaches 92,000. What will we do then? If we want to raise the price, we will inevitably have to continue to buy quotas. We already have a lot of quotas. Chen Cheng will also return the quotas to us in a few months. At that time, we will only have more quotas. We can't possibly get half of the quotas in Jiangcheng, can we? If we raise the price and fail to trap Chen Cheng, we will trap ourselves.”

Uncle Gao's words left Qi Duo speechless.

To boost the market in a panic, one must first absorb all the panic selling.

Only after the panic selling has subsided can we discuss the next step of pushing the price up.

If you keep pulling people along, you might end up becoming a major shareholder in the entire Jiangcheng stock market.

If Chen Cheng hadn't been caught, with so many quotas in hand and no one to take over, everyone would probably have gone bankrupt in Jiangcheng.

Qi Duochou felt a chill run down her spine and couldn't help but ask Uncle Gao, "Uncle Gao, we have to think of something; we can't just sit here and wait to die!"

Uncle Gao nodded and said, "I called everyone over here to share my thoughts. I now believe that the Jiangcheng market will continue to fall and has no chance of recovering. At least for the next three to five years, there won't be any chance. Our best option is to quickly and completely withdraw from Jiangcheng! We need to sell all the quotas we have and talk to Chen Cheng to terminate the contract early."

Qi Duo asked him, "We signed an agreement with Chen Cheng for the return of the quotas. How can we terminate it early? We can't expect him to return 130% of the quotas to them right now!"

Uncle Gao said, "What I'm thinking is to admit defeat in advance and accept a partial loss. We've already bought back the quotas that Chen Cheng lent us at 120,000 each. I hope he won't go all out and can return the money to us at 90,000 each, leaving him a profit margin of 30,000 per quota. As long as we can get this money back, we'll clear out all the quotas we have and withdraw from Jiangcheng as soon as possible."

A middle-aged man said, "Uncle Gao, won't we lose a lot of money like this?"

Uncle Gao nodded: "We will lose money, but at least we won't lose from both ends. If the contract expires and the index drops to 30,000 or 40,000 each, we will lose tens of thousands of yuan for each index. Why don't we talk to Chen Cheng and agree to lose 30,000 yuan per index to prevent the risk of further losses!"

(End of this chapter)