Chapter 426

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Protagonist:

Chen Yi

Bai Zong of the Jewelry Company arrived fully dressed at the Binjiang Road Cantonese Restaurant, a specialty establishment featuring Ming-style roast suckling pig and Dragon-Tiger Fight. Wild cats from the Northeast were stewed until tender around a Yunnan snake, a delicacy not for ordinary people to enjoy.

Chen Yi liked this shop's steamed buns; inside the thin, translucent skins were over a dozen fillings — shrimp, meat, vegetables — and basically sampling one of each would fill you up — for an ordinary person, that is.

When Bai Zong arrived, Chen Yi had just finished the padding work: two steamers of each of the 17 kinds of buns. So you see, whether it's a martial arts master or a Divine Art Knight, they aren't the kind of people an ordinary household can afford to feed. If the family fortune isn't ample, only swindling, cheating, abducting, killing, and hijacking goods can keep you from starving.

"Another round. Boss Bai is here, sit." Chen Yi called out a greeting.

His so-called "round" was two steamers of each kind, 20 buns total, leaving Bai Zong staring in astonishment.

"Naked Bear, you eat some too. Boss Bai, don't stand on ceremony, help yourself." Chen Yi picked up two sauce dishes and set them in front, saying, "The Continent's barbecue is quite good, but only the barbecue is good. The priority ranking of chefs and seasonings has already risen from Loyalty Level D to Loyalty Level B……"

He omitted the "West" of West Continent, counting as words for Naked Bear's ears; Bai Zong hearing it was fine too — his smuggling of supplies wasn't unknown, just that, awed by the Chen Family's momentum, no one dared interject.

After listening, Bai Zong indeed acted as if he'd heard nothing, and also grabbed a small bun to eat. A child's-fist-sized portion, yet it took him three or five bites to get it down; anyone unaware would think he was some delicate young lady.

Having eaten two buns, Bai Zong also settled his nerves, then smiled and said: "I didn't know you liked Cantonese cuisine. There's a place on Yueyang Road with excellent shrimp wonton noodles; when you have time you can go taste them."

"Seems I've heard of it." After Chen Yi unhurriedly stuffed the last bun into his mouth, savoring the nostalgic feeling of a full belly, he said leisurely: "I have a batch of gold and platinum……"

"Give it to me." Bai Zong shouted immediately. He had bought 4 tonnes of platinum from Chen Yi, thus becoming the jewelry merchant with the richest reserves in Jiangning. Having been summoned again with such difficulty, of course he wanted to stock up some more.

"No rush, no rush." Chen Yi laughed and stopped him, saying: "These things, I'll process them first. The purpose of finding you this time is also processing."

Though regretful, Bai Zong still nodded vigorously and said "No problem."

"First, the precious metals are impure; second, they need to be separated into standard sizes, and done secretly. Can you do it?"

Bai Zong was very familiar with this, and hurriedly said: "That means re-refining them, simple. Actually…… you can just process them directly and give them to me."

Bai Zong smiled a face full of bun-creases.

Chen Yi shook his head laughing: "You can't eat that much."

Bai Zong grew even more excited instead, asking: "How much?"

"92 tonnes."

Bai Zong was greatly startled, lowered his head and silently calculated, eyes full of stars like a young girl's, gazing at Chen Yi with the loyal innocence of a Young Pioneer.

"The precious metals after preliminary refining amount to this much." Chen Yi knew what he was startled about, poured himself a cup of tea, lifted it with feigned elegance, and asked: "Purities range from 40% to 99%. I want gold ingots and platinum ingots of three-nines purity or above, each ingot weighing 10 kilograms. Can it be done?"

Bai Zong wiped his saliva and said: "Can be done. Just, really 90 tonnes? Are you the Crown Prince?"

"What nonsense." Chen Yi glared at him.

"My fault, my fault. Hearing this much gold and platinum, sigh, shameful to say, in this life I've never seen what 10 tonnes of gold piled together looks like, yet I presumptuously call myself a jewelry merchant." Bai Zong decisively gave himself a slap: "If you trust me, these things, I'll process them for you."

Chen Yi said in a deep voice: "How long?"

Bai Zong knew it had to be fast, so he reduced the estimated time as much as possible and answered: "Half a month, at fastest. I have three factories, one lacks a furnace, I'll use an excuse to install it. Conveniently there's a placer gold deal within the province; regardless of loss, I'll take it on, then split the melting and refining across the three factories, swapping out a batch of workers for each job, so ghost-unaware god-unaware, no one knows how much I melted — who could even imagine it."

Chen Yi was quite satisfied with this answer, smiled kindly, and said: "You go with Naked Bear to the warehouse. The rest I won't meddle in."

Naked Bear stepped out and said to Bai Zong in a coarse voice: "Please come with me."

"Okay okay. I understand reason." Bai Zong was like a self-employed boss from the planned economy era, obeying even a lowly soldier's words.

They left the hotel; Naked Bear immediately got into the back seat of a pitch-black Chevrolet SUV. Bai Zong couldn't see outside, only knew they headed north the whole way, finally driving straight into the warehouse.

The warehouse's four walls were all iron; incandescent lights were temporarily installed on the ceiling. Boss Bai was certain that next time he came to trade, the warehouse he'd see wouldn't be this one.

Being cautious is good; businessmen most love cautious fellows and idiotic fellows.

Naked Bear yanked down a piece of black cloth in front, revealing the lower layer of silver-white round lumps, and said: "This is it, net weight 2.42 tonnes, you can verify it.

"Another 'Immortal's Worry', this guy…… how do I move it back?" Boss Bai said shaking his head laughing. If he didn't know Chen Yi's identity, he'd have thought he was trading with some wealthy landlord tycoon.

"We have manpower to load it for you, vehicles all arranged, just say the destination." Naked Bear waited for him to ask, clapped his hands, and immediately four staff came to the big ball, bent knees and locked arms, gave a heave, and the 2-tonne-plus platinum ball was lifted — like hoisting a big meatball — not the slightest sign of effort.

Bai Zong stared dumbfounded and asked: "Really 2 tonnes?"

Naked Bear couldn't be bothered with him; now the Martial Arts Hall students' Body Technique Level had all risen to Level 6, and to gift them housing, Chen Group's Construction Company specially pulled out a team to build an entire community. Today the Martial Arts Hall students serving in the warehouse had even higher Body Technique Levels; four people lifting 2 tonnes was child's play.

Bai Zong had transported 'Immortal's Worry' several times before, each time worrying him terribly; the handling process before using machinery was simply as difficult as driving slaves to build the Great Wall, yet these four people lifted a 2000-kilogram platinum sphere so easily, each bearing an average 500 kilograms of force — truly startling.

He circled the four students three times, like viewing rare animals, checking coat, checking bones, checking teeth, looking left and right and asking: "You aren't the Four Immortals of Taogu, are you?"

A humorous student heard and grinned, speaking in a low ventriloquist-like tone: "You dare speak recklessly, I'll tear you to shreds."

Another student cooperated with a "Wa-woo" sound, as if about to bite him.

Bai Zong whooshed back half a step, clever as a bull terrier.

Naked Bear laughed like a silly bear.

Bai Zong didn't dare provoke this kind of giant-strength man, changed direction and said: "Shall we first measure this platinum lump's purity?"

"No need, we'll send someone to oversee."

Bai Zong naturally could only nod, unable to oppose.

While the Jewelry Company and Warehousing Company secretly melted precious metals, Chen Yi went to the Shanghai Commodity Exchange to short natural rubber. The West Continent's natural rubber output was about to gush forth; 100,000 tonnes of natural rubber equaled 10% of China's annual output, and if released all at once, it was equivalent to increasing monthly output by 100%. This portion of output was known to no one but Chen Yi, yet it would genuinely reflect in the market, driving prices down by at least 50%.

This is actually the so-called pricing power; in a normal commodity world, if whoever controls enough commodity quantity, enough to determine rigid demand, then he has the qualification to set prices. However, likewise in a normal commodity world, companies possessing pricing power usually need to leak information; some related upstream and downstream enterprises also obtain the information they want through various interest relationships……

Chen Yi had no affiliated enterprises, nor did he need to leak information; the output and storage information of the natural rubber he possessed was also completely detached from market existence. From this aspect, he already possessed all attributes of insider trading.

Therefore, Chen Yi completely disregarded the normal fluctuations of natural rubber futures on the market, directly shorting 10,000 lots at the price of 12,600 yuan per tonne — that is, 50,000 tonnes of natural rubber.

The one responsible for specific operations was Liu De, Manager of Chen Group's Investment Department. Chen Yi's order made the self-proclaimed prestigious-school-graduate, hundred-battle-proficient investment genius nervous to death; from before the trade to after, he kept reminding him nonstop: "Rubber prices haven't had major movement for a long time; a short position this big from us will draw concentrated fire."

Chen Yi answered unmoved: "No matter, we look at fundamentals."

"Natural rubber's fundamentals are very good, but look at the current trend chart." Liu De painstakingly plotted the chart, found the chart, displayed the chart for Chen Yi to see.

Chen Yi still answered unmoved: "No matter, I don't understand charts."

"Very simple, I'll explain to you."

"Busy, really can't spare the time." By rights, finance students should be able to read stock and futures trend charts, and Chen Yi actually could read them. It was just that at this moment he had no interest in looking at charts. His fundamentals had absolutely no connection with the fundamentals of the traders in the market.

Liu De might make a move on Chen Yi, so he could only make a final demand: "How about we buy a little less? What about 5,000 lots of long positions as a floor?"

Chen Yi still shook his head.

Liu De felt his job was about to be lost. The price level of 12,600 yuan was already relatively low, and on top of that the peak season was coming; as long as each ton rose by 1,000 yuan, 50,000 tons would mean a loss of 50 million yuan... and when the time came, the only one who would have to bear responsibility would be himself.

Thinking of the tragic situation, Liu De secretly bought 100 lots of natural rubber long positions — that is, buying the rise — counting it as his own unemployment insurance.

Chen Yi heard everything from all directions, knew about it but didn't make a sound. What positions to buy was others' freedom, but whether the price rose or fell was the market's freedom.

In the following period of time, Chen Yi frequently went in and out of the West Continent, not only transporting back platinum and gold, but also transporting back large quantities of natural rubber and latex, and sending them to the Jiangning Chemical Plant for processing.

The Jiangning Chemical Plant was a state-owned old factory with a history of over 50 years, a vice-provincial scale of 2,500 people, quite sizable. Like the state enterprises of the past, they had their own school and hospital, their own cinema and library, virtually a modern small society. Although news inside the factory leaked like a sieve, it was not easy for people outside the factory to know — the state-owned enterprise workers' gazes were sharp and cold.

To this day, although out-of-province enterprises were all clamoring about layoffs and shutdowns, the Jiangning Chemical Plant had not been affected because of its high profits. But this was only at the worker level; at the factory leadership level, they had already begun to feel the severe winter of state-owned enterprises — opportunities to obtain favorable policies and favorable loans were getting fewer and fewer, environmental protection pressure was getting greater and greater, medical expenses and salaries for retired workers were getting higher and higher, the factory's level of influence was getting weaker and weaker... The only thing that could make them submit, that they longed for day and night, was influence.

Chen Yi had no power, but his influence was abundant.

At his request, the Jiangning Chemical Plant provided extremely thoughtful service. The factory not only processed the rubber according to national standards, but also took responsibility for releasing it onto the market — this was equivalent to processing with supplied materials plus sales, letting the factory's channels and equipment all serve Chen Yi. He only needed to lie back and collect money like a genuine official second generation.

Not only that, but constrained by Chen Yi's identity, the factory committee of the chemical plant also saved and saved again on processing fees, stingily setting it at 350 yuan per ton, probably not even covering costs.

If it were normal times, Chen Yi might have taken the initiative to add a bit for them, but this time he ate their big household. In this way, they both concealed the origin of the natural rubber and concealed the processing details of the rubber. In view of the inequality of the transaction, the factory committee naturally had to handle it secretly, even secretly issuing a gag order, not allowing workers to discuss matters inside the workshop, violators to be expelled — with this guillotine of a dog-head chopper, the secrets Chen Yi wanted to keep were kept.

In the blink of an eye, large batches of national-standard natural rubber began to appear on the market.

The Jiangning Chemical Plant released hundreds of tons of natural rubber daily at prices obviously lower than the market. At first, some factories and individuals still made sarcastic remarks, but very quickly they could no longer speak nonsense.

Some people began to speculate whether the Jiangning Chemical Plant had obtained natural rubber allocated by the state, some speculated whether the Jiangning Chemical Plant had gotten cheap rubber from overseas, and even more people worried that foreign investors were dumping natural rubber onto China...

Although the last speculation was the most unreliable, it was actually the closest to the truth.

The Jiangning Chemical Plant had a daily output of 500 tons, and the West Continent's tapping speed was likewise top-tier increasing.

Malacheng was squeezed harshly; the tens of thousands of people left from the slave camp all went to the West River Water Fortress, and after brief training all went on duty tapping rubber. Coupled with newly discovered rubber forests constantly being found, the latex was naturally continuous and unbroken, reaching 3,000 tons for two consecutive weeks. Similarly, once the old-brand state-owned chemical plant entered normal working mode, and was producing materials for superiors, the spirit was vigorous like a newlywed taking a second wife. Workers all worked three shifts, cadres all went down to the workshop to supervise production, and the previous slacking off and nonsense disappeared without a trace amid bonuses and punishments.

Counting the previously accumulated latex and the natural rubber processed by the West Continent itself, Chen Yi sold off 10,000 tons of natural rubber on the market in just half a month. Not to mention 12,600 yuan per ton, the longs couldn't even hold 11,000 yuan, and finally it landed stuck at the 10,500 level, a bit deadlocked. Without Chen Yi needing to continue adding positions, the shorts who heard the news increased greatly in number, and actually slowly ate up his returned closing positions.

While helping Chen Yi close positions, Liu De wore a mournful face and said: "The current market fundamentals are downward. You wait a bit more, I see there's still a downward trend."

This round of 2,000 yuan decline made him lose 1 million yuan, truly heavy losses, and his whole person became listless and dejected.

The West Continent's latex had been tapped for one round and needed a short period of rest. Where would Chen Yi listen to him? He decisively ordered: "Buy 10,000 lots, we're going long."

"Look at the shorts in the market, they're all crazy, all converted from longs. Shouldn't we wait and see? It hasn't thoroughly bottomed out yet, at least it has to reach 10,000 yuan. The news from Malaysia says..."

Chen Yi continued unmoved and said: "Go long."

"Yes." Liu De firmly believed his own judgment, and quietly bought 200 lots of national-standard short positions for himself, betting that natural rubber would fall another 500 yuan to win back his hard-earned money.

... (Unfinished. If you like this work, welcome to Qidian (qidian. com) to cast recommendation tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)