Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 54 Stock Security System

The sky was clear and the air was crisp, a rare warm winter day.

At noon, after school, Chen Xuebing came out of the classroom and looked at the bustling basketball court. His mood brightened, and he was filled with emotion.

Damn, I'm really getting old.

I feel surprisingly relieved that I'm about to leave campus.

Who the hell doesn't want to go back to their youth, back to school?
This basketball court was a place he visited every week in his previous life. After his rebirth, Lu Yiwen and Huang Jin also invited him to play basketball.

I went once, and then I never went again.

He can still play basketball, but winning or losing a point no longer excites him, and the cheers around him no longer thrill him.

Basketball remains, but youth is gone.

Some say youth is about school, carefree days, and youthful exuberance. He thought so too when he was reborn. He tried things like suddenly jumping high while walking, dribbling a ball without hands, and playing his favorite computer games. But after reflecting on it, he realized that youth is actually a state of mind.

I have witnessed the sweat of the workers, the pressure my father faced, the hardships of survival, and the cruelty of reality.

Project signings, stock market fluctuations, economic ups and downs, geopolitical conflicts.

Having seen so much, even if one were reborn into youth, one's mindset could never be the same again.

He even felt that during this time in the ivory tower, he sometimes couldn't speak properly, felt out of place with his classmates, and didn't like to have too much communication with people other than purposeful words.

It's not that I'm autistic, but I'm consciously preserving the "mature" state from my previous life, afraid of getting caught up in school mentality, so that I won't be at a disadvantage when I return to society.

In this ivory tower, almost nothing, except for the opposite sex, has ever aroused his interest.

What thoughts and feelings does it convey?

Man, hey.

Only with women can one remain unchanged.

The man took out his phone and dialed Xin Mengzhen's number.

Got connected quickly.

"How about I invite you and Yang Qingyue to lunch this afternoon? I already told Yang Qingyue, but I was worried she might not be able to tell you until this afternoon, so I wanted to ask you in advance in case you had something to do."

Xin Mengzhen never waits for Yang Qingyue at noon; she always leaves directly. During this time, she goes home quickly, checks "Xin Mengzhen's Little Shop," replies to messages on Taobao, and then reads.

Also, he would reply to Chen Xuebing's text messages from time to time. Apart from that, everything else was frighteningly regular.

"Today?" Xin Mengzhen's voice was hesitant: "I really have something to do, my mom is here... we might go out for lunch together this afternoon."

"Oh, never mind then, you stay with her." This was the first time Chen Xuebing had heard the word "Mom" from her, it seemed to appear very infrequently.

"...My younger brother is here too. I haven't seen him in a long time. He's grown so much. What's up? Is something the matter?"

"It's nothing, I just took a long leave and don't plan to come to school. I'm going to hire a tutor." Chen Xuebing smiled lightly.

He wondered if his relationship with Xin Mengzhen could remain so natural after leaving school.

Since we didn't go to school together, we lost some of our paths crossing.

Actually, he still hoped things would remain the same as usual and didn't really want to hear any farewells.

"Is your shop very busy? Actually, I can help you keep an eye on it when I have some free time."

Chen Xuebing smiled, feeling as if the girl was trying to persuade him to stay.

"Forget it, don't waste time. I'll take care of your shop from now on. If you're going to Hong Kong, you need to get into a prestigious university. I'm just planning to get into a second-tier university. You're the one facing a tough competition. Your studies are much more demanding than mine."

Before Xin Mengzhen's father returned home in early December, Chen Xuebing visited her home twice more, but not about opening a shop. Instead, Xin Mengzhen helped him find some challenging math problems and explained them to him, the kind where he could guess the problem types. If he encountered these problems in the college entrance exam, he could solve all the easy ones and maybe even apply theorems to the difficult ones to get some partial credit.

Chen Xuebing also discovered her "Application Guide" at that time, which contained a national list of universities and introductions to majors. He saw that she had made notes in it, and the ones she had checked were almost all on the first few pages, such as Tsinghua, Peking University, Zhejiang University, Fudan University, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

He had heard the saying that "below Tsinghua, Peking, Fudan, and Shanghai Jiao Tong Universities, there is no finance."

That day, Chen Xuebing deliberately brought up her college application, asking her if she wanted to apply to a top ten university. She neither admitted nor denied it, and he realized that she was not as indifferent to her college application as she had been during their conversation.

She even has very high standards for herself; she might not even be interested in Sun Yat-sen University, which Yang Qingyue considers prestigious.

From that day on, Chen Xuebing rarely bothered her, stopped asking her to help with math, and even suggested that she stop managing that shop. However, Xin Mengzhen still did not stop working as a shop assistant on Taobao.

"No, I'm going to do this."

As expected, Xin Mengzhen persisted, then joked in a relaxed tone, "If I really can't pass the exam, I'll just go to New Oriental to learn to be a chef! Anyway, I can't even cook noodles. If I don't learn some skills, I'll definitely starve to death in the future."

Chen Xuebing chuckled.

"I promise I won't criticize your noodle-cooking skills next time, okay? If you keep this up, I'll have to go to Lanxiang Technical School to learn how to operate an excavator to be worthy of your status as a top vocational school graduate."

“Fine, not going would be like being a dog,” Xin Mengzhen suddenly said.

Chen Xuebing paused for a moment, then laughed and said, "Then I'm a Rottweiler, what breed are you?"

Xin Mengzhen didn't answer, but only said, "Rowe-inspires are so ugly, you should be a Doberman instead."

Chen Xuebing couldn't help but laugh and scratch his head, as if searching for his long, upright ears: "Am I that handsome in your eyes?"

"Bye."

The call ended abruptly; we only exchanged a few casual words and nothing else was said, as if nothing important had happened.

Xin Mengzhen seems to have done this intentionally today.

Chen Xuebing got the most reassuring result, the corners of his mouth gradually turned up, he twisted his neck and walked out of the school.

……

Chen Xuebing did not go to class in the afternoon.

At 6:30, I received a phone call from Hangzhou and walked into the "Time Reversal" Western restaurant.

"Yes, I understand."

Chen Xuebing entered the hall filled with soft music and saw Yang Qingyue, wearing a white fitted dress, waving at him from a booth by the wall.

Chen Xuebing nodded, walked to the table, put the file bag in his hand on the table, and sat down opposite her.

"Mr. Ma is very wise. I will keep an eye on it tomorrow."

"Okay, I have something else to do, that's all for now."

"Goodbye."

Chen Xuebing hung up the phone and stared at the table for a while.

The Taobao experience wasn't as wonderful as I had imagined.

Ake called and said that he could only get the homepage traffic for another half a month, but the top ranking in the category could last longer, three months, but it would have to be rotated so that the merchants behind could not stay in the top position.

In other words, for the next six months, his shop will appear at the top of the search category every other week.

Not ideal.

However, the six-character advertising slogan was personally adopted by Mr. Ma, and the other party was not stingy. In addition to the traffic slots, they gave 10,000 yuan for each character.

The reward of 60,000 will be credited to your account after the holiday.

If I had known, I would have preferred to start an advertising company.

Not all milk is called Telunsu.

...

For the best excavator technology, look to Lanxiang Technical School in Shandong, China.

...

African agriculture is underdeveloped, so it is essential to have Jin Ke La (a type of fertilizer).

...

Hello everyone, I'm Zha Zha Hui.

...

If you just throw two of them away, they should cost more than that, right?
I missed the good old days when Alibaba was flush with cash.

A year later, Yahoo will invest $10 billion. For such a major strategic move, how can you put on an advertising campaign without spending at least a million dollars?

"If you dare to pay, I dare to compensate" is Alipay's long-term strategy, which once caused a sensation online.

Oh well, it was someone else's anyway, it was only a matter of time. I'll only do this one thing once, so I'll just consider it saving some time for initial capital accumulation.

Time is money.

Chen Xuebing shook his head, clearing his mind.

Yang Qingyue noticed that he seemed preoccupied, so she sat quietly watching him without saying a word.

"You look beautiful today," Chen Xuebing complimented with a smile.

Yang Qingyue straightened her chest and prepared to speak.

“She’s beautiful normally, but she looks especially beautiful today,” Chen Xuebing answered again.

Yang Qingyue laughed angrily: "I wanted to ask you what you did this afternoon!"

"Just do this." Chen Xuebing smiled, raised his hand, pressed down on the file bag on the table, and pushed it forward, indicating that she should see it herself.

Yang Qingyue was very satisfied with Chen Xuebing's action. She happily accepted the package, opened it, took out several sheets of paper, and then noticed two square and two round seals inside, which she also examined. Chen Xuebing had thoroughly figured out Yang Qingyue; she was always very happy when he completely confided in her about his private matters.

"You're starting a company?!" Yang Qingyue was somewhat surprised after reading the contents of the paper.

"Yeah, I filled out the application and got my name approved this afternoon, and I also got the seal made, so I'm a little late... Have you ordered yet?"

Chen Xuebing had run a labor and materials company in his previous life, so he was quite familiar with the process. He withdrew some money from Alipay and spent the afternoon getting the application procedures almost done. He also had the seal made in advance. He found the phone number of an agent in the advertisement board downstairs in the business building and planned to spend some money after the holiday to have someone complete the business and tax procedures.

“No…Guan Construction Labor Service Co., Ltd.? Is that your company’s name?” Yang Qingyue asked hesitantly.

"Correct."

Chen Xuebing called over the waiter, asked Yang Qingyue, and then ordered two sirloin steaks, two shrimps, two desserts, and borscht.

The menu was simpler than he had imagined, lacking dishes like escargot, foie gras, and cod; besides those, there was only bread and Caesar salad.

These days, Western restaurants aren't exactly high-end. They don't differentiate between French and Italian cuisine, or between appetizers, main courses, and staple foods. If you want to eat well, you basically need to go to limited venues and make reservations in advance, which doesn't fit his current spending level.

However, the environment was relatively quiet, the decor was decent, and they didn't add any low-cost items like popcorn chicken, grilled sausages, sunflower seeds, or fried rice to the menu, so it was a proper Western restaurant.

After ordering, Yang Qingyue finished reading the information and couldn't help but ask in confusion:

"Gu An... what a strange name."

Chen Xuebing smiled and said, "You just didn't understand. The word 'share' is very important to the company."

Today he thought of many names, but then he felt that his company should aim for the SSE 50 index and give future shareholders confidence through its name. So he screened them and hesitated for a while between the two names "An Gu" and "Gu An".

He silently repeated it twice, imagining that when his company became a super private capital group and he added the word "system" to the end of the company name, the three characters "Gu An System" would have an interesting pronunciation.

They immediately chose "Gu An".

The limited liability company needed a second shareholder, so he called Lu Yiwen, who would temporarily hold 1% of the shares.

As for how many shares to give to these brothers, how large a talent option pool to keep, and the financial issues, he is still thinking about them.

We don't need a loan for now, so let's keep things simple. After all, starting a company is still his responsibility for the time being.

"So you took leave... just to start this company? How long will you be gone?"

Yang Qingyue looked at Chen Xuebing and suddenly felt that he had really changed a lot.

Chen Xuebing was also sizing up Yang Qingyue's figure and suddenly realized that this girl was really quite big.

The eyebrows are beautiful, resembling distant mountains shrouded in mist, giving the person a spirited look, like a professionally retouched ID photo from later generations.

She looks fair-skinned and has a very clean appearance; white doesn't make her look dark at all.

A sweet and innocent girlfriend?

Chen Xuebing calmly said, "I won't be coming back before the college entrance exam."

Eyelashes sway.

There seemed to be a touch of sadness in the silence.

"What's wrong? You can't bear to part with me?" Chen Xuebing teased.

Yang Qingyue pursed her lips, and after a long while, said somewhat angrily:
"I was thinking... since you're not here, Zhao Li will come back and sit here again!"

"You... didn't dislike him this much before? He seemed alright to me, he even brought you breakfast..."

Chen Xuebing was speaking without thinking when he suddenly received a death stare from the person opposite him. He quickly changed his tune with an embarrassed smile: "That's easy. I'll talk to Lao Guo and get you a female deskmate."

Yang Qingyue remained silent.

"I'll treat you to a meal when I have time," Chen Xuebing added another condition.

"Phew..." Yang Qingyue suddenly exhaled: "Chen Xuebing."

"Ok?"

"You're so annoying."

After Yang Qingyue finished speaking, she turned her head to look at the person opposite her, her eyes sparkling with light and shadow.

Why do we have to do this?

Why...?

She spoke to the air, her brow furrowing more and more.

Chen Xuebing was at a loss for words.

"Alright, alright, it's not like we'll never see each other again."

Yang Qingyue turned her head to the side and looked out the window.

Just then, the waiter came over to serve the food: two steaks.

"It won't taste good when it gets cold, eat it quickly."

After saying that, Chen Xuebing picked up his knife and fork and started cutting.

I cut out a few strips, picked up one with a fork, and handed it to her.

"Look?"

Yang Qingyue quickly shook her head and picked up her knife and fork.

"I'll eat it myself."

He looked preoccupied and moved incredibly slowly.

Chen Xuebing cut the remaining beef on his plate, lifted the plate, and switched it with hers.

"Eat this plate."

Chen Xuebing was a bit more domineering this time, and his words carried more weight.

Yang Qingyue nodded obediently: "...Mm."

half an hour.

"Why did you ask for leave to go home?" she asked again.

Chen Xuebing patted the file bag on the table.

"Starting a business".

...

ten minutes later.

After Chen Xuebing explained, Yang Qingyue regained her cheerfulness.

"So you're going to work on a construction site after the New Year?"

"Yes, the reason I left the teahouse in such a hurry last time was because of this."

Chen Xuebing had mentioned it to Yang Qingyue when he returned the bank card, but he didn't go into as much detail as he did this time.

"Oh... be careful on the construction site."

Yang Qingyue nodded in realization, then remembered something, took her coat, pulled out something and held it in her hand, looked down at it mysteriously, and then stretched out her other hand to Chen Xuebing.

"Give me your phone."

Chen Xuebing hesitated for a moment, but still handed the phone to her.

Yang Qingyue took it, then lowered her head and began to tinker with it.

This time, Chen Xuebing saw it clearly: she was attaching a charm to her phone.

These days, most phones have a side hole, and it's fashionable to attach accessories or something like that.

In no time, it was tied up, and Yang Qingyue even tied a tight knot, then smiled with satisfaction:

"Here you go, isn't it nice?"

A wood-grain pendant appeared on my phone; upon closer inspection, it was a small calf.

His Chinese zodiac sign.

Chen Xuebing was a little nervous when he saw her tying a knot, after all, it was a bit childish for a man to do this kind of thing.

But they found that Yang Qingyue had good taste; she looked refined and not effeminate.

"Thanks," Chen Xuebing said with a smile as he accepted the gift.

"It's not over yet." Yang Qingyue picked up her phone and pressed some buttons with a smile.

Not even two seconds.

It gleamed in Chen Xuebing's hands.

The calf turned into a kaleidoscope of colors, and its glow shifted, like a disco ball.

Then, the phone started vibrating, indicating an incoming call.

"Holy crap."

Is it really that shameful?!
(End of this chapter)