The richest man started taking advantage of loopholes after joining Alibaba.

The air inside the Weiguang Building was filled with a musty smell.

It's not really musty; it's that people's hearts have grown moldy.

"...Anju Apartments announced yesterday that it has completed its Series D financing, with a valuation exceeding $30 billion, officially joining the ranks of unicorns. In contrast, Weiguang, the former industry leader, has scaled back its operations due to doubts about its funding chain, and its market share has fallen below 15%..."

On the wall-mounted TV in the break room, a financial news anchor was speaking animatedly.

The camera cuts to Jia Yue.

He stood under the lights, his face flushed, holding a champagne glass in his hand, like a newly crowned local tyrant.

"Smack."

Xie Yu turned off the TV.

He threw the remote control on the bar counter, and a crack appeared in the plastic casing.

The employees who were getting coffee in the break room were startled and scurried out, shrinking back.

The entire office area was deathly silent; no one spoke, only the sporadic sound of keyboards clicking.

Xie Yu pushed open the door to the president's office.

A wave of cold air hit me.

Lin Che sat in the large leather swivel chair, not holding a report, but playing with a Rubik's Cube.

Click. Click.

The sound of the Rubik's Cube turning was exceptionally clear in the quiet room, each sound seeming to mock Xie Yu's impatience.

"Brother Che, the news is going viral outside."

Xie Yu threw his tablet on the table, the screen filled with sensational headlines: "Weiguang's Great Collapse," "Lin Che's Waterloo," "Not only did they lose the market, they also lost their courage."

"Some people say our funding chain has broken down, some say you've been scared out of your wits by the regulators, and some headhunters have even called our front desk to openly poach our middle managers."

Xie Yu braced his hands on the edge of the table, his eyes bloodshot like a spiderweb. "Are we just going to stand by and watch? Watch that clown surnamed Jia climb over our heads to get to power?"

Click.

Lin Che solved one side of the Rubik's Cube.

Red.

Like blood.

"That's not called taking the lead."

Lin Che finally raised his head.

His eyes were as calm as a deep well, without a trace of emotion. "This is called a final burst of energy before death."

He put down the Rubik's Cube and pointed to a stack of documents in English on the other side of the table.

"Sign it."

Xie Yu was stunned for a moment. He picked up the document, glanced at the title, and his pupils instantly contracted.

International Swaps & Derivatives Association Master Agreement

The small print below made his heart pound even harder: Anju Apartments and related asset securitization products.

"This is..." Xie Yu suddenly looked up, his Adam's apple bobbing violently, "CDS? Credit Default Swap?"

"Jia Yue is very smart."

Lin Che stood up and walked to the French windows.

Outside the window, the city's neon lights are lighting up, like countless greedy eyes.

"He knew that rental loans alone couldn't fill that hole, so he packaged these rental loans into ABS and sold them to investors in the secondary market. He broke down the risk and fed it to the greedy market."

Lin Che's voice was soft, yet it was as precise as a scalpel dissecting the festering sore from this revelry.

"Right now, the whole market is betting that he can keep winning, betting that housing prices will rise, betting that rents will rise, and betting that a steady stream of young people will come to Beijing to take over the properties."

He turned around, his back to the myriad lights outside the window, shadows enveloping his face.

"Since they're all buying 'up', then we'll buy 'down'."

Xie Yu's hands began to tremble.

It wasn't fear, it was excitement.

A sense of dread, like walking a tightrope over a sheer cliff.

CDS, the nuclear weapon of finance.

Simply put, it's about buying insurance for "fire".

If the house doesn't catch fire, you'll lose the insurance premium;

If the house burns to ashes, you'll earn dozens of times the compensation.

In Lin Che's eyes, the foundation of Anju Apartment was completely rotten.

"Ark Fund has already prepared $200 million in offshore accounts."

Lin Che looked at Xie Yu, his tone as indifferent as if he were asking what to eat for dinner, "I want you to convert all two hundred million US dollars into short positions against the default risk of Anju Apartments. No matter which investment bank issues them, as long as they dare to take them, we dare to buy them."

Xie Yu took a deep breath. The chill in the air seeped into his lungs, instantly cooling his feverish brain and putting him into another extremely excited calculation mode.

"What are the odds now?" Xie Yu asked.

"Jia Yue is currently at the height of his power, and the market believes that the probability of him defaulting is less than 1%."

Lin Che's lips curled into a cruel smile. "So, the odds are 1 to 40."

Forty times.

If the Anju Apartments scandal breaks out, the $200 million will turn into $8 billion.

It's a big gamble.

But in Lin Che's eyes, this was like picking up money.

"Understood."

Xie Yu grabbed the stack of documents, turned around, and left.

His steps were no longer heavy; each step made a thud on the floor.

That sense of despondency and anxiety vanished, replaced by the ferocity of a hunter seeing his prey fall into a trap.

……

Central, Hong Kong.

The Ark Foundation's secret hideout.

A dozen or so Bloomberg terminals were buzzing.

The red and green numbers on the screen jumped wildly, reflecting the traders' pale faces.

"Goldman Sachs took a $5000 million deal! They think we're crazy!"

"Morgan Stanley accepted it too! The trader laughed out loud on the phone and asked if we wanted to add more leverage!"

Xie Yu stood in front of the command platform, listening to his subordinates' reports, his hand tightly gripping the pen.

"Take it, let them laugh."

Xie Yu stared at the upward-pointing candlestick chart of Anju Apartment on the screen.

That's the electrocardiogram of death, only now it's at the peak of its final moments.

"The boss said this isn't gambling."

Xie Yu gritted his teeth and slammed the Enter key down. "This is for burning paper money for the dead. It's pre-ordered, and any overpayment will be refunded while any underpayment will be collected."

[Instruction confirmed: Short position established]

Notional principal: US$2.0 million

Leverage multiplier: 5x

At this moment, in this unknown corner, the behemoth of glimmer of light revealed its sharpest fangs.

at the same time.

The celebration banquet for Anju Apartments in Beijing.

The champagne tower was taller than a person.

Jia Yue stood on the stage, his face flushed from drinking, embracing a popular female celebrity and flashing a victory sign at the camera.

"The future belongs to us!"

Jia Yue raised his glass high, foam overflowing and trickling down his wrist and into his sleeve, sticky and disgusting. "Let that coward Weiguang cower in the corner and tremble! We'll take over all the properties in Beijing within three months!"

The applause of the audience was thunderous.

Investors, media, employees—everyone cheered wildly, as if under a spell.

No one noticed that a waiter in the corner was watching all of this coldly.

Those were informants planted by Lin Che.

Lin Che's voice came through the earphones, cold and devoid of any warmth: "Let him jump. The higher the stage, the better the sound when he falls."

……

The top floor of the Weiguang Building.

Only one desk lamp was on in the office.

Lin Che leaned back in his chair, facing the Abyss system's holographic projection interface in a deep blue.

In the center of the screen is a giant hourglass.

The sand in the hourglass is bright red, representing the cash flow of the Anju Apartments.

[Target Audience: Anju Apartments]

[Ponzi scheme stress test: Extremely dangerous]

[3200 new properties signed today]

[New rental loan liabilities added today: 1.8 million]

The data is being refreshed at an alarming rate.

Every time Jia Yue signs a contract for a property, the red countdown timer ticks faster by one second.

He thought he was expanding his territory, but he was actually digging his own grave.

Lin Che reached out his hand, his fingers passing through the holographic projection, and gently touched the countdown.

[Collapse Countdown: 88 Days]

The number jumped, becoming 87 days, 23 hours, and 59 minutes.

"This is not a retreat."

Lin Che stared at the decreasing number and muttered to himself.

Outside the window, the night view of Beijing is dazzling and picturesque.

The GG sign on the rooftop of the opposite building, belonging to Anju Apartment, is still glaringly bright, like a huge joke.

"This is called replacing one bird with another."

He picked up the phone on the table and dialed a number.

"Feed".

The voice on the other end of the phone was that of a somewhat tired middle-aged man, with the sound of a child crying in the background.

He is the product director of Weiguang.

"Old Zhang."

Lin Che's voice was calm, "Wake up, bring your men, and be in the main conference room at eight o'clock tomorrow morning."

"President Lin? Is there something urgent?" Old Zhang's voice sounded a little confused.

"We are going to launch a new product."

Lin Che stared at the countdown on the screen, which was about to reach zero, a cold glint flashing in his eyes.

"Since they've turned renting into a financial game, let's teach them what 'dimensional reduction attack' really means."

He hung up the phone.

The Abyss system interface switches instantly.

The original red warning page disappeared, replaced by a blue product architecture diagram.

At the very top of the drawing, five large characters shone with a pure light in the dimly lit room:

Micro-light Credit Rental.

In its core logic section, a single line of rules, powerful enough to overturn the entire industry, is prominently displayed:

[No deposit required, monthly payments, 0 financial service fees]

Lin Che looked at the words and a genuine smile finally appeared on his lips.

That was the laugh of a butcher sharpening his knife.