Chapter 15: You're Acting Weird

Having obtained the handy equipment, Xu Heng naturally stopped wandering around the pedestrian street; he had more pressing matters to attend to.

The stock market opened at one in the afternoon. He entered his account into the machine, and a sea of bright red met his eyes.

As expected, the three potential stocks he had bought—Huachuan, Lujin, and Qianmao—showed no obvious downward trend. Huachuan, in particular, surged sharply again after a small dip, reaching the threshold of nearly 180.

This "reverse growth" did not put people at ease; instead, it made some investors who bought Huachuan even more panicked. Some "big shots" who fancied themselves business geniuses warned them that 200 yuan was the "ceiling," and any stock reaching this peak would surely fall back.

Therefore, they subconsciously felt that Huachuan had to fall. Only by slowly dropping to the 150-yuan range would it meet their psychological expectations, so they should sell now while they could!

Xu Heng, however, remained as steady as an old dog regarding this. He didn't follow suit by selling Huachuan; instead, he sold off the other two stocks entirely. After obtaining a few hundred yuan in dividends and over 50,000 in principal, he kept a sharp eye out and jumped in the moment Huachuan hit its lowest point. Sure enough, the small-scale impact couldn't affect Huachuan's momentum at all. After a slight dip back to 170, it immediately started jumping wildly again—hitting the daily limit, then hitting it again—returning to the 180 rank, and continuing to rise. It was only a dozen or so away from becoming the first 200-yuan stock of the year.

With one round trip, he had made a net profit of over 3,000 yuan in a single afternoon.

Of course, this was just the beginning. By October 10th of this year, Huachuan would become the first 300-yuan stock in the history of the Chinese A-share market, once making the front page of the newspapers that year.

Remembering when he saw this news as a sophomore, Xu Heng had even said, "With a stock this awesome, isn't getting in just like picking up money?"

Sheng Bo thought what he said made sense, and the two brothers put their heads together and marched into the stock market hand in hand.

The result was as one might imagine.

The stock market is simply not something a novice can play with; the myth of Huachuan shattered in just a few short months.

The two of them lost 3,000 yuan in blood money on Huachuan, and Xu Heng almost lost his pants in the stock market.

But now, Xu Heng didn't need to worry about losing money. This great bull market this year was a place where miracles were created and the starting point for countless people to make their fortunes.

Before November, it was impossible for it to fall!

During this period, as long as he invested all the money he earned from writing novels and the dividends from stock trading, making a few million wouldn't be a problem.

As for the investors who worried that Huachuan would fall, one could only say that those people were overthinking it.

After logging out of his account, Xu Heng walked out of the securities market.

This was his second time coming to the securities market, and it should also be his last. With a new computer, he wouldn't have to run here twice a day.

It wasn't just a matter of time and energy; there was also the environment. The market was, after all, a place with a mixed crowd where all sorts of people could be found. It was too noisy, and sometimes if there weren't enough machines, people would urge you from behind, "Hurry up! Damn, you're dawdling for ages over a lousy stock; if you don't even know how to use a computer, why are you even trading stocks?"

It was truly hard to operate with peace of mind in such a place; it was better to be comfortable at home.

When Xu Heng returned home, Mother Xu was already preparing dinner. Father Xu would be back to eat in the evening, and since the whole family was finally gathered, they had to cook a few extra dishes.

Xu Heng greeted them and carried his computer bag back to his room.

The house had three bedrooms and a living room. When he wasn't living at home, this room was left empty, but it was very clean; one could tell Mother Xu cleaned it often.

Xu Heng opened the computer and plugged in the network cable.

The computer system was XP, which the flagship store had helped install. It was the same system, but it only took ten seconds to boot up—the speed was several times faster than that "90% new" one from before. The principle that you get what you pay for never goes out of style in any era.

Of course, having the system installed didn't mean the computer was ready to use. Whether it was the stock trading software, word processing software, or Penguin, everything had to be downloaded manually.

By 2007, 360 had already begun to dominate Huaxia. In the face of the new generation of "viruses" called 360, the early Kingsoft Antivirus was powerless.

Xu Heng had no intention of entering the computer software installation business himself. In the next dozen years or so, other than being "stabbed in the chrysanthemum" by Tengzi once, 360 remained as steady as an old dog. It wasn't very realistic to want to defeat 360 in the field of computer management software.

Thinking this, he downloaded a 360 "Security" Center. The internet speed was pitifully slow, only a little over 100 KB.

Actually, unlike many people who criticized 360 as being a virus software itself, Xu Heng quite liked 360.

After learning how to set (tiao) up (jiao) 360, there were basically no pop-up ads. Moreover, 360 was truly ruthless when dealing with other junk software; anything that didn't comply with it would be automatically deleted, which solved the annoyance of not being able to find the software causing the pop-up ads.

After finishing the 360 download, he clicked install on all the software he needed to download. It was estimated that at a 2G network speed, it would take about an hour to finish downloading everything.

While waiting, Xu Heng suddenly felt a desperate need to urinate. He unbuckled his belt and dashed toward the bathroom, but after rushing to open the door, he froze on the spot.

The showerhead was still spraying hot water, and white steam filled the entire bathroom, reflecting the girl's curves in a graceful and alluring way.

He sucked in a breath of hot air and backed out of the bathroom.

Damn! He had seen something he shouldn't have.

This couldn't be blamed on Xu Heng; he and Xu Ruoxi had lived apart for many years, so how could he remember she had the habit of taking a shower before dinner?

Besides, even if he was 99% responsible, didn't Xu Ruoxi, who hadn't locked the door, have 1% of the responsibility?

At the same time, Xu Ruoxi in the bathroom was also stunned.

Although the mist blocked her vision, she could tell who had just blundered in based on his build and behavior.

Seeming to think of something, her fair skin began to flush red under the soaking hot water.

It was hard to say if it was shame, anger, or panic.

As for Xu Heng outside the door...

He was even more panicked inside now.

If Father Xu and Mother Xu found out about this, his old face would be completely lost.

Fortunately, throughout the whole process, Xu Ruoxi didn't scream or call him a "pervert" to attract Mother Xu's attention; in fact, she didn't say a single word the whole time, as if she didn't know he had been inside.

Xu Heng waited outside the door for two minutes, finally waiting for his younger sister to walk out of the bathroom.

She was wearing an orange short-sleeved shirt that was old and faded to white, and on her lower body were the big shorts Xu Heng used to wear in middle school. The length reached just to her knees, leaving a pair of jade-like calves and feet exposed.

This was the first time in his two lives combined that Xu Heng realized a certain problem.

His younger sister had grown up!

"I just had to pee, I didn't notice you were inside."

Xu Heng thought for a long time outside the door, feeling that he couldn't just pretend this hadn't happened, so he explained to her the reason he had barged in.

His younger sister was drying her long hair with a bath towel and shot him a glare: "Then why aren't you going yet? Aren't you afraid of bursting your bladder?"

"Ah? Oh, oh right."

Watching Xu Heng turn and dive into the bathroom, Xu Ruoxi couldn't help but shake her head.

"What a dummy."