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

The Violet Conference Room on the third floor of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

This place was originally used to host private buffets for VIP investors.

Now, it has become Alibaba's temporary crisis command center.

No champagne, no music.

There was only deathly silence.

The air was so cold it felt like it would freeze you to the bone.

Li Mo sat in the far corner of the conference table.

He kept his head down, his hands gripping his knees tightly, his knuckles turning white.

His once slicked-back hair is now a mess, like a chicken coop.

A few strands of hair hung down, stuck to his forehead with cold sweat, making him look utterly disheveled.

Seated in the main seat is the group's CFO, Mr. Cai.

The man who was adept at navigating Wall Street and always wore a gentle smile had no expression on his face at this moment.

It looks like an ice sculpture.

A thick stack of papers lay in front of him.

That was the Muddy Waters short-selling report that had just been printed from the hotel's business center.

The edges of the paper were still warm.

But every word above exudes a chilling aura.

Mr. Cai did not curse or slam his fist on the table.

He simply picked up the report and read it calmly, in a tone as if reciting a eulogy.

"Case number one."

His voice echoed in the empty conference room.

Alibaba claims it spun off the low-quality asset "WePintuan" to optimize its financial statements.

"But in reality, these assets are still parasitic on Alibaba's core servers, consuming Alibaba's bandwidth and computing power."

Mr. Cai paused for a moment and turned the page.

The sound of papers turning over was particularly jarring in the deathly silent room.

"Case number two."

"On the very day the roadshow kicks off, which is today."

"This so-called 'stripped-off assets' generated more than three million concurrent requests."

"This level of traffic surge directly caused Taobao's main website to crash and payment interface response times out."

President Cai raised his head and looked coldly at Li Mo through his glasses.

"in conclusion."

"Alibaba lied in its prospectus."

"This is not just a serious operational accident, it's blatant securities fraud."

These words were like a heavy hammer blow, slamming into Li Mo's skull.

Li Mo shuddered, his lips trembling as he tried to speak, but no sound came out.

"This isn't over yet."

Mr. Cai picked up a tablet computer from his side.

Instead of handing it to Li Mo, he slid it across the table and tossed it in front of Li Mo.

With a "snap".

The tablet computer came to a stop next to Li Mo's hand.

The screen displays a high-resolution scan.

The image was enlarged and took up the entire screen.

That was a document: "Memorandum on Technical Resource Support During the Diversification of Microgroup Buying".

And in the bottom right corner of the file.

The name signed with a black pen—"Li Mo"—was so clear it was almost blinding.

Li Mo had practiced that signature for a long time; the strokes were sharp and exuded confidence.

But now.

It looks like a scar etched on a pillar of shame.

A piece of evidence that can't be washed away no matter what.

"Li Mo, I don't need to hear your thought process."

Mr. Cai took off his glasses, took out a piece of velvet cloth from his suit pocket, and slowly wiped the lenses.

The movements were slow and deliberate, yet carried a suffocating sense of oppression.

"I'll only ask you one question."

"Did you sign this?"

Looking at the name on the screen, Li Mo felt as if a wad of cotton was stuck in his throat.

Even with the air conditioning blasting in the room, sweat still dripped from his chin onto the expensive carpet.

"yes..."

His voice was hoarse, like a broken bellows.

"But Mr. Cai, please let me explain..."

"At the time, it was to ensure we met our sales targets for Singles' Day..."

"Lin Che said that if we don't give them a transition period, the data won't be cleaned properly, which will affect our user activity data..."

"I did it to make the prospectus look better..."

That's enough.

Mr. Cai put his glasses back on and interrupted him.

His voice remained calm, but his eyes had turned extremely cold.

"For performance targets?"

"To make the data look better?"

Mr. Cai pointed out the window.

That's the financial center of Manhattan, a place coveted by countless financial giants.

"For the sake of those impressive numbers, you handed over the company's core control to an outsider."

"You gave us access to our most critical server privileges to a former employee."

"Li Mo, this isn't about achieving results."

"You're handing a knife to the muddy waters, letting them slit Ali's throat."

Li Mo's mouth dropped open, and he slumped into the chair.

He finally realized what a stupid thing he had done.

He thought Lin Che was an obedient lapdog who would wag his tail if given a bone.

He thought the agreement was just an insignificant formality.

But he never expected it.

That seemingly honest young man who constantly talks about "empowerment".

Actually, it's a wolf that's always sharpening its teeth.

That agreement was not a transitional solution at all.

That was the grave Lin Che had dug for him.

"Roadshow suspended."

Mr. Cai stood up, straightened the buttons on his suit, and spoke in an unquestionable tone.

"We need to submit supplementary information to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission immediately."

"The public relations department will immediately draft a statement to clearly delineate responsibility."

After saying that, he didn't even glance at Li Mo, and turned to walk towards the door.

As he reached the door, he paused, his back to Li Mo, and said:

"From this moment forward, you are suspended from all duties."

"After returning to China, I underwent an internal compliance investigation within the group."

"You'd better watch yourself."

The door was slammed shut.

Li Mo sat alone in the empty conference room.

The television in the corner was still on silent.

On the screen, the CNBC news scrolling bar was entirely in glaring red:

"Muddy Waters Shorts Alibaba".

The red subtitles were flashing.

It's like a countdown is being given to him.

.......

The corridor outside the roadshow hall.

This place should have been a world of fame and fortune, filled with red carpets and flowers.

Now it's all in complete chaos.

Staff were frantically taking down the promotional banners that read "Alibaba's Initial Public Offering".

"Sizzle—"

The huge poster was rolled up, making a tearing sound.

It sounds like they're wrapping up a corpse.

The champagne towers that had been prepared were hurriedly moved away by several security guards before they could even be filled with champagne.

The remaining glasses of champagne on the tray had all lost their bubbles.

It became lifeless, like cups of spoiled urine.

The hundreds of fund managers who were originally preparing to enter the venue to listen to the roadshow are now all stuck in the corridor.

Nobody cares about Alibaba's e-commerce ecosystem anymore.

Nobody cares about the future growth curve anymore.

Everyone was looking down at their phones, scrolling through Twitter, and reading that muddy waters report.

"Oh my god, the server really crashed?"

"Muddy Waters is live-streaming that error page, saying that millions of bot users are attacking the main site."

"This isn't a technical malfunction; it's a loss of management control!"

"If Alibaba can't even control its own infrastructure, we need to reassess its security."

Whispers buzzed like flies.

Li Mo was escorted by two burly men as he walked out through a side door.

He wore sunglasses, trying to hide his pale face.

But the group of reporters pounced on them like sharks smelling blood.

"Mr. Li! Is that memo authentic?"

"Mr. Li! Muddy Waters has accused Alibaba of undisclosed related-party transactions. How do you explain this?"

"Who exactly controls this 'micro-group buying' platform?"

"Has Alibaba been hijacked?"

The cameras and microphones were practically shoved into Li Mo's face.

The flashbulbs went off wildly, making Li Mo's bloodless face look like a dead man.

Li Mo lowered his head and remained silent as he was shoved into the elevator by the security guards.

On the periphery of the crowd.

An elderly man with a full head of silver hair was staring at the candlestick chart on his phone screen.

That's Yahoo's stock price.

As a "shadow stock" holding a large number of Alibaba shares, Yahoo's stock price is a barometer of market confidence in Alibaba's IPO.

now.

On that candlestick chart, a long, thick red bearish line resembled a sharp sword.

It broke through the 30-day moving average.

A precipitous drop.

"It's over."

The old man sighed and his fingers trembled as he pressed the "sell" button.

"This IPO is going to fall through."

.......

In a dark internet cafe in Queens, New York, filled with the stench of urine.

Lin Che stared at the greasy screen in front of him.

The screen displayed the candlestick chart that the old man had just seen.

Yahoo's stock price plummeted.

The decline has exceeded 15%.

The entire screen is green.

To correct you, is it true that US stocks are down when they are up and down when they are down? No, US stocks are up when they are down and down when they are down.

Lin Che looked at the red pillar pointing downwards.

That vibrant red was more beautiful to him than any other scenery.

That's the color of money.

"That's about it."

Lin Che picked up the flat cola bottle next to him and took a sip.

That cloyingly sweet taste spread in my mouth.

He placed his finger on the mouse, which had a slightly faulty connection.

"Close out the position."

He said softly.

On Interactive Brokers' trading interface, he closed out all the "put options" he held.

"Click".

Press the left mouse button.

A few seconds later.

A crisp notification sound came through the headphones.

"Ka-ching!"

That was the sound of money falling into a pocket.

The numbers in the account balance column started jumping wildly.

The original principal of three million US dollars was leveraged four times and boosted by this 15% plunge.

It expanded like a snowball.

five million.

Eight million.

Twelve million...

The numbers eventually stopped at an astonishing position.

This was a perfect hunt.

They took advantage of information asymmetry, Li Mo's stupidity, and Wall Street's panic.

Within hours, he tore a piece of fat flesh from the mouths of these greedy crocodiles.

The Mexican guy next to me who was playing video games turned around again.

He saw Lin Che staring at the screen and grinning foolishly, and couldn't help but shake his head.

"Hey bro, got all your money back?"

"I think that red thread is in pretty bad shape."

Lin Che turned his head, looked at the young man with a full beard, and gave him a bright smile.

"Yes, it fell so badly."

"so..."

Lin Che turned around, his eyes instantly becoming sharp.

"It's time to buy at the bottom."

He did not withdraw the huge sum of money.

There wasn't even a second of hesitation.

His fingers flew across the keyboard.

Go long!

Buy Yahoo's "call options".

Buy Yahoo's underlying stock.

All in!

All in!

Lin Che looked at the huge crater that had been created by the panic.

Everyone thought it was a bottomless pit, but only he knew it was a gold mine.

Muddy Waters' report is indeed very serious.

But they got one crucial premise wrong.

They thought "micro-group buying" was garbage, a virus, a cancer created by Alibaba to commit fraud.

But Lin Che knew better than anyone else.

That's not a cancer.

That is the future.

That's the entry ticket to the 600 million-strong lower-tier market.

That was the prototype of Pinduoduo.

Once people see the truth, the current panic selling will immediately turn into retaliatory buying.

Lin Che exited the trading interface.

On that messy desktop, he found an unsent PowerPoint file.

The filename is very simple, consisting of only one line of English text:

"The Forgotten 600 Million: Strategic Value of WeiPinTuan"

(The Forgotten 600 Million People: The Strategic Value of Micro-Group Buying)

Lin Che tapped his fingers lightly on the table.

"Mr. Li, don't blame me for being ruthless."

"You taught me."

"The capital market doesn't believe in tears, it only believes in candlestick charts."

He stared at the file icon on the screen as if it were a missile about to be launched.

"Now, I've already dug the pit for you."

"Now, let me help you fill this hole."

Just then.

My phone, which was next to the keyboard, suddenly vibrated.

The screen lights up.

A WeChat message popped up.

From: Li Mo.

The content consisted of only three words, without any punctuation, yet it exuded an aura of despair and death:

"Help me."

Lin Che looked at those three words and smiled.

He picked up his phone and slowly replied:

"I'm at an internet cafe, it's ten yuan for the whole night, it's your treat."