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

Tuesday, 10:00 AM.

The sky over Beijing was so gloomy it looked like it was about to collapse, and the humidity in the air was so high it made people feel suffocated.

Huaying Entertainment's stock price barely managed to stay in positive territory for the first half hour after the market opened.

Countless retail investors believed the online trolls' attempts to clear up the situation last night and are now frantically buying at the bottom, hoping to make a fortune after the "rumors" are clarified.

"A bunch of idiots."

In the trading room of the Hong Kong Ark Fund, Xie Yu looked at the flood of buy orders with pity in his eyes.

"They're catching throwing knives."

Lin Che sat on the sofa behind him, holding a cup of espresso in his hand.

He wasn't looking at the screen; he was looking at his watch.

"Time is up."

Lin Che said in a low voice.

Almost the instant he finished speaking.

Ding--!

A sharp alarm shattered the silence of all financial terminals.

That was the highest level red alert simultaneously issued by Bloomberg and Wind.

A line of glaring, bold red text popped up on the screen:

[Breaking News: An immediate investigation will be launched into the contract issues of film and television industry professionals. Any violations discovered will be dealt with strictly in accordance with the law.]

Just a few dozen words.

No emotions, no nonsense.

It was like a purple bolt of lightning that struck the very top of the Chinese entertainment industry.

……

Huaying's trading platform.

10:03.

The stock price of Huaying, which was slowly climbing, suddenly stopped for a second.

It was a heart-stopping pause.

It's like a roller coaster reaching its highest point, and then the chain suddenly breaks.

Immediately afterwards—

boom!

Buy 1, Buy 2, Buy 3... The thick row of buy orders below was instantly shattered by a massive number of sell orders.

The red numbers instantly turned green.

-2%

-5%

-8%

There was absolutely no time for anyone to react.

Those retail investors who were just dreaming of getting rich hadn't even had time to touch the "sell" button when the stock price plummeted to the floor like an elevator with a broken string.

-10.00%.

It hit the daily limit down.

At the top sell position, 800,000 lots of sell orders piled up instantly.

That was a wall of despair.

They buried everyone alive inside.

……

"It's completely sealed off!"

Xie Yu leaped up from his chair, slamming his fist into the air. "No resistance whatsoever! Welded shut! Huaying's bookmaker has run away!"

It's not just Huaying.

On the screen, the entire film and television media sector looked like a field of frost-bitten chives, so green it was unsettling.

Brothers Media's stock price plummeted to its daily limit.

Tangde Film & Television hit the daily limit down.

Lightspeed... hit the daily limit down.

More than 30 listed companies, with a market value of 200 billion yuan, are as fragile as toilet paper in the face of this announcement.

"Brother Che! Profits have doubled!"

Xie Yu turned his head, his face flushed red from excessive blood flow, his voice trembling, "In this one minute, our unrealized profits have increased by two hundred million US dollars! Two hundred million!"

A long-suppressed cheer erupted in the trading room.

That was the howl of a predator tearing apart its prey.

Lin Che put down his coffee cup.

The porcelain cup touched the saucer, making a soft "ding" sound.

Amidst the frenzied cheers, he remained as calm as an outsider.

"This is the will of the nation."

Lin Che stared at the screen full of dismal green candlestick charts, his eyes deep and unfathomable. "When the referee blows the whistle, all the techniques, all the market manipulation, all the capital operations become a joke."

……

Huaying Entertainment Headquarters, Top Floor.

This place has been turned into a mental hospital.

The phone rang incessantly, like a death knell. Every call was from someone demanding payment, issuing interrogations, or withdrawing investment.

"Mr. Wang! The stock price has hit the daily limit down! There are a million sell orders! We simply can't sell them!"

"Mr. Wang! Three banks just sent us letters simultaneously, demanding that we provide additional collateral, or they will forcibly liquidate our positions!"

The secretaries cried out as they reported one piece of bad news after another.

Wang Zhonglei slumped into the expensive boss's chair.

His suit was soaked with cold sweat, and his tie looked like a noose, making it hard for him to breathe.

He stared blankly at the television on the wall.

On television, the news channel was broadcasting that brief announcement.

Every word was like a nail, driven into his coffin.

"How could this happen..."

Wang Zhonglei's lips trembled, his fingers gripping the handrail so tightly that he didn't even feel the pain when his nails broke.

"How dare they... It's impossible, absolutely impossible!"

"We're the industry leader... why would they target us..."

Nobody listened to him.

The trees fell and the hozens scattered.

The vice president who used to fawn over him is now hiding in a corner making a phone call to a headhunter.

The CFO who swore to live and die with the company is secretly transferring his personal assets.

at the same time.

Wang Zhonglei suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest. He clutched his chest and gasped for breath, like a fish out of water.

That was the spasm of the heart caused by extreme terror.

Inside the securities brokerage, an older woman was looking at a large, green screen when her thermos cup suddenly fell to the ground with a "thud," splashing hot water everywhere.

She plopped down on the ground, wailing, "My retirement money! That heartless Hua Ying! You liar!"

……

7 PM.

This massacre reached its climax.

News Broadcast.

As that familiar opening theme song played, hundreds of millions of families across China were having dinner.

The news anchor, in that unchanging, steady tone of his voice, reported the news:

[An immediate investigation will be launched into the contract issues of film and television industry professionals. Any violations discovered will be dealt with strictly in accordance with the law.]

It's been determined.

The nature of it has been definitively determined.

This is no longer an entertainment news story, nor is it a financial news story.

This is a political signal.

This means that the patience of those above has reached its limit, and that the sword of "governing the country through taxation" has been wielded.

……

Weiguang Building.

Lin Che turned off the TV.

The office was quiet, with only Xie Yu's heavy breathing.

"Brother Che."

Xie Yu placed a latest report on the table, his hands still trembling slightly. "This is today's final result."

"Ark Fund's single-day profit: $3.8 million."

"Cumulative unrealized profit: $6.2 million."

"With the principal and leverage from before, our current available funds... are already an astronomical figure."

Xie Yu looked at Lin Che with eyes full of admiration, even a hint of fear.

This man not only predicted the market, but also the national policy.

He seemed to be standing from God's perspective, watching the people below busily working like ants, and then gently crushing their anthill with a single step.

"Should we...close our positions?" Xie Yu asked cautiously. "The price is locked at the daily limit down now. Buying back to close the positions might require some skill, but the profits are already astonishing. Shouldn't we stop now?"

"Stop?"

Lin Che turned around and walked to the huge map of Beijing.

His finger traced across the China World Trade Center, across Chaoyang Park, and finally stopped at the Huaying Building.

"Xie Yu, do you think I'm only doing this for a few hundred million US dollars?"

Lin Che smiled.

That smile looked particularly sinister in the night.

"This is just an appetizer."

"The current limit down is simply due to panic. Retail investors are running away, and institutional investors are running away."

"But the real bombshell hasn't exploded yet."

Lin Che turned his head and looked at Xie Yu, his eyes as sharp as a freshly sharpened scalpel.

"Wang Zhonglei holds 40% of Huaying's shares. As far as I know, he pledged 90% of them to securities firms and trusts for that '100 billion plan'."

"The collateral threshold is 28 yuan. The liquidation threshold is 24 yuan."

Lin Che reported these two precise figures.

"Today's closing price is 29.8 yuan."

"Tomorrow, if there's just one more limit down..."

Lin Che stretched out his hand and made an explosion gesture.

"Boom."

"His pledged shares will be liquidated."

"At that point, in order to stop losses, securities firms will dump shares at the daily limit down price regardless of cost. That will be a real 'nuclear-powered' drop."

"That's when the corpses are strewn everywhere."

"That's when we'll go in and collect the bodies."

Xie Yu felt a chill run down his spine.

This series of deadly moves was practically driving Wang Zhonglei to his doom, leaving him no chance to surrender.

"So what do we do now?" Xie Yu asked.

Lin Che walked to the liquor cabinet and poured two glasses of ice water.

He handed Xie Yu a cup.

"wait."

"Wait for tomorrow's sunrise."

"Wait until that trillion-dollar empire becomes a pile of scrap metal that can be bought for just a few dollars."

Lin Che raised his glass and gently toasted the dark night sky outside the window.

"A salute to this cruel world."

"A toast to the new order that is about to arrive."