Chapter 227

Waiting was agonizing. Chen Yang kept hoping new capital would quickly push up the stock price, but the other side wasn't in a hurry at all, continually absorbing shares around the twenty-one yuan price level.

This left Chen Yang bewildered. If it was just absorbing shares, why not do it at the limit-down price? If the goal was to stabilize the stock price, wouldn't directly pushing it to the limit-up be more effective for steadying morale?

Chen Yang thought for a long time, then suddenly realized a possibility: the other side was likely using the pretense of absorbing shares to secretly dump stock. After all, as long as the bull side kept placing support orders, tempted retail investors would follow suit. And if the bear side mostly consisted of their sell orders, they only needed to pay a small cost to cash out all their shares at high prices.

To test his guess, Chen Yang placed descending price orders starting from twenty-one yuan. Then he noticed the other side's ask prices also began to drop.

Seeing the other side lower its price, Chen Yang followed suit. Repeating this, he eventually pushed the price down to nineteen point five yuan before the morning close.

Chen Yang had already sold 30,000 hands of Liu Clan Group's stock. The average price was exactly twenty yuan. He recovered funds of fifty-nine million nine hundred ninety-five thousand yuan. Total available funds were two hundred thirty-three million one hundred fifty thousand yuan.

As for the remaining six million shares, Chen Yang planned to continue observing for a while. If Liu Clan Group's stock price rise slowed, he would dump his holdings. If the price kept rising, he would wait for a new high before acting.

This waiting continued until market close with little change. Liu Clan Group's stock price finally settled at twenty yuan. The day's outflow of funds exceeded another five hundred million.

Chen Yang reviewed Liu Clan Group's trading situation and found that, besides Xingcheng Securities, the large selling capital today also included a securities firm from Shencheng.

Because of Chen Yang's meddling, the other side's selling funds exceeded buying funds by only one third. They probably spent much of the trading session cursing at their computers.

Likely because Chen Yang had disrupted their rhythm, they changed strategy after Friday's opening. They also imitated Qi Yunxiang's operation from the previous day, directly lifting Liu Clan Group's stock to twenty-two yuan before beginning to place sell orders and dump shares.

However, with the lessons from Yexin and Qi Yunxiang, retail investors' enthusiasm for chasing gains dropped considerably. Even enthusiastic shareholders posted warnings on the forum urging others not to fall for the trap.

Because no one took over the shares, Liu Clan Group's stock price quickly fell back to twenty yuan. At the morning close, trading volume was a miserable fifty million, with turnover rate even under 0.5.

Chen Yang estimated this state would last a while, and he suddenly lost interest in monitoring the screen. To guard against a surprise move, he placed a limit-up order for ten thousand hands, then shut down his computer and went to sleep.

After about two hours of sleep, the phone rang again. It was Luo Zhikai calling.

"Chen Yang, I heard you're back in Xingcheng. Do you have time tonight to grab a meal together?"

Chen Yang knew he wouldn't come for no reason, so he asked directly: "Private matter or business?"

Luo Zhikai didn't expect Chen Yang to guess his intention so quickly, and he laughed embarrassedly: "I heard your company wants to expand its physical store scale. I just wanted to know if you have any financing needs."

"Yes! Send me the address, and I'll bring our CEO over shortly." Chen Yang wasn't worried about debt at all. The Old Commoners Agricultural Products Trading Company needed to expand its store scale in prefecture-level cities across Dongjiangsheng while also establishing a branch in Shencheng—the more funds, the better.

"How about the Good Luck Comes Restaurant right across from your company?" Luo Zhikai had visited the Old Commoners Agricultural Products Trading Company several times and was quite familiar with the situation there. He knew most of the company's senior executives lived in hotels opposite the Trust Union Building, so he deliberately chose a restaurant near that location.

Upon hearing the meeting place was near the company, Chen Yang had no objection. After Luo Zhikai hung up, he first went to the restroom to freshen up, then drove to the company and summoned Shen Anna and other senior managers for a meeting.

The core topic of this meeting was not only discussing the specific scale and required funds for opening branches in each prefecture-level city of Dongjiangsheng, but also thoroughly studying the appointment and dismissal arrangements for regional management personnel across all areas.

You should know, the Old Commoners Agricultural Products Trading Company is merely a newly established enterprise just a few months old. Whether it's the high-ranking management members or the frontline ordinary staff, most are still quite inexperienced, essentially total novices. Such a hasty, large-scale outward expansion of business will undoubtedly expose numerous management shortcomings and deficiencies.

To reduce risk, Chen Yang's suggestion was to continue hiring senior management talent externally. Whether letting Yexin introduce industry elites or recruiting experienced people from the talent market, both are better than forcibly promoting from within.

Shen Anna, however, insisted on cultivating talent internally, only sending them out to local posts for training when the timing was right.

Regarding this, Chen Yang held an opposing opinion. He told Shen Anna: 'The reputation of the Common People's Agricultural Products Trading Company has already been established in Dongjiangsheng. If we don't seize this opportunity to set up branches in the local market, once someone imitates our business model, we will lose the first-mover advantage in capturing the market.'

Shen Anna reminded Chen Yang: 'Boss, have you thought about it? Such a rash expansion will cause the required costs to increase exponentially!'

Chen Yang laughed: 'As long as we can seize the market first, spending a bit more money is no problem.'

Shen Anna helplessly shrugged her shoulders. Since Chen Yang, this boss, doesn't care about money, what else could she say? 'Since you've already decided, I can only follow orders.'

Only then did Chen Yang bring up the matter of discussing a loan with Xingcheng Bank. 'My classmate Luo Zhikai said he would treat everyone to a meal at the Good Luck Restaurant. By the way, we can discuss financing for our company. Are you interested?'

Shen Anna had been pestered by Luo Zhikai several times, so she naturally understood the matter. 'Boss, you currently aren't short of funds; why would you want to give away interest to the bank for nothing?'

Chen Yang said to her: 'Banks only add icing on the cake; they won't give charcoal in the snow. Now that our reputation in the industry is good, they are willing to lend money. If the company runs into trouble, they will also be the first to cause difficulties. Therefore, the funds I have on hand are the company's last trump card; they can only be used when we face a life-or-death critical moment.'

Shen Anna carefully analyzed the meaning of Chen Yang's words and felt there was some truth to it. No matter how well she performs in her current work, behind it all lies Chen Yang's influence. Going to the bank for a loan, cooperating with other companies—these are all actually Chen Yang pulling strings behind the scenes.

If Chen Yang invests all of his personal funds into the company, then should an unpredictable crisis arise in the future, they would truly have no way out.