Chapter 61: You Must Give to Receive

TeleA surged by 10.05%, closing at a share price of 10.85 RMB.

Lu Liang no longer concealed his moves. Like countless hot money funds flooding into state-owned enterprise stocks, he bought aggressively at the upper limit price, snapping up every available share until the market was completely cleared of supply.

After all, retail investors were not fools. A limit-up today meant a high probability of a higher open tomorrow; this was a consensus shared by the general public.

By the afternoon market close, Lu Liang's holdings exceeded 40 million RMB, totaling 37,383 lots at an average cost of 10.65 RMB.

Making twenty RMB per lot, after deducting transaction fees for over 37,000 lots, the profit was not even enough to buy a BMW 3 Series.

At 5:30 PM that same day, TeleA powerfully entered the top-gainer list, displaying the top three heavy-buying institutional seats.

The first place was Zhongxin Fuying.
The second place was No. 12 Futian Road.
The third place was No. 88 Punanan Road.
...

"Wu Junle from CITIC Securities on Futian Road, often dubbed the God of Stocks of Futian, has been active in the market for a decade up to the present day."

The moment the Shenzhen Stock Exchange released the information, Lu Liang also obtained the detailed dossier on No. 12 Futian Road.

Three dossiers lay before him: TeleA, Zhongxin Fuying, and No. 12 Futian Road.

"They're all in Shenzhen!"

Lu Liang increasingly felt that someone was orchestrating a scheme for profit; the concept of state-owned enterprise reform did not support such a violent surge in TeleA.

For a trading board with over 7.0 billion circulating shares to subsequently skyrocket tenfold was by no means a coincidence.

Meanwhile, Li Jianlin and Wu Junle also received detailed dossiers on No. 88 Punanan Road and Lu Liang.

Li Jianlin asked, "Lu Liang from Guotai Securities? Old Wu, you used to operate in Shanghai, have you ever heard of this character?"

Wu Junle pondered for a long time, shook his head, and said, "Judging by the registration date, he must be hot money; probably just wanting to come in for a gamble."

"Then what should we do?"

"Deal with him, of course."

The two exchanged glances, wearing tacit smiles.

How could one allow others to snore soundly beside one's couch? Naturally, the first step was to wash him out of the position.

They had spent nearly half a year plotting this, with multiple parties secretly signing lock-up agreements precisely to pull off a massive play.

In the future, TeleA's share price would rise to at least over 50 RMB, yielding a full fourfold profit.

If retail investors stumbled into it by good fortune, that would be one thing, but if peers dared to intrude, their hands would be chopped off.

The next day, at 11:15 AM,

Fifteen minutes before the morning close.

TeleA experienced a sudden mid-session reversal; the strong opening-to-high trend abruptly turned into a roller coaster, spiking and then pulling back.

The opening gain was 4.6%, surging to 7.5% mid-session, only to plummet all the way down during the final fifteen minutes before the close.

7.5%... 5.5%... 2.5%...

By the noon close, only a 1.25% gain remained.

Anyone with discerning eyes could see that had there been no midday break, the share price would have fallen even further.

"Are they trying to shake me out?"

The smile on Lu Liang's face remained undiminished as he calculated in his heart how to cooperate with them.

If he did not cooperate, they likely wouldn't willingly initiate a new round of market movement.

In any case, his objective had already been achieved.

Right now, it was like a mystery drama where a seemingly casual extra appearing at the beginning ultimately becomes the final beneficiary.

When the truth was eventually revealed, it should drop quite a few jaws and also make the name of No. 88 Punanan Road resound far and wide.

The afternoon session opened at 1:00 PM, and the stock price continued to slide until the glowing red turned into depressing green.

The transition was not particularly abrupt; the concept of state-owned enterprise reform was merely a minor wave and could not forge a true major bull market.

For most state-owned enterprise stocks, after experiencing two days of gains, pulling back from highs could be considered normal and unremarkable.

Lu Liang was not in a hurry to act either; washing out positions required a process.

He had to play his part thoroughly to make them believe he had already been shaken out.

Over the next few trading days, the share price continued a slow, grinding decline until it broke through the 9 RMB mark.

This was the price level where Lu Liang began his performance.

He started selling off, offloading 10 lots each time while buying back 20 lots, quietly establishing a new bottom position.

Yet, despite clearly holding few chips, this left-hand-to-right-hand trading caused the turnover rate to be absurdly high.

Over the recent days, it averaged around 17%.

"Some shareholders have locked up their shares."

Arriving at this conclusion, Lu Liang's expression grew solemn.

If shareholder lock-ups had nothing to do with Li Jianlin and Wu Junle, Lu Liang wouldn't believe it even if his life depended on it.

After pondering for a moment, Lu Liang also grasped their plan.

Catching wind of the state-owned enterprise reform, they incited shareholders to lock up shares, leveraging the minimum capital to drive the maximum market movement.

40 to 50 RMB was likely the end of the first wave; they didn't dare play too big, lest the China Securities Regulatory Commission set its sights on them.

The peak price of 108 RMB should have already escaped their control, becoming the result driven by market retail investors, hot money, and institutions.

With his thoughts flying, Lu Liang unknowingly completed his position rebuilding.

The share price was 8.75 RMB, with a decline of -4.55%.

He held over 65,000 lots at a cost of 9.5 RMB, having invested 62 million RMB.

Taking a loss of 75 RMB per lot, his paper loss on the account stood at 4.897 million RMB.

"To gain, one must first give up. Only with sacrifice can there be reward. They should believe I've been shaken out by now."

The corners of Lu Liang's mouth curled upward as he deployed a bitter misery ruse, pretending to be overwhelmed by the burden and forced to cut losses and exit.

However, Li Jianlin and Wu Junle exhibited unexpected vigilance and took no further action.

The subsequent days remained the same, continuing an unyielding downward slide as if they still didn't believe Lu Liang had truly been shaken out.

Lu Liang was not in a rush either, completely locking down his position.

At least until the share price surged to 30 RMB,

he would not make any move.
...

It was Thursday. After lunch, Lu Liang received an invitation from Meng Changkun for deep-sea fishing.

"Departing at two o'clock? Sure!"

Having been busy for nearly half a month,

and through various twists and turns, he had finally completed his position building.

Lu Liang was just thinking about taking a vacation for himself and genuinely had no reason to decline Meng Changkun's invitation.

Remembering his tutoring session with Su Wanyu that afternoon, he called her to let her know she didn't need to come over today.

With one or two lessons every workday, the initially booked 20 lessons were nearing their end.

Before leaving the building with Meng Changkun, Lu Liang had Chen Chunchun place an online order for another 50 lessons.

His main goal was to continue learning English. Yesterday, Su Wanyu tested him, and Lu Liang scored 99 points. If 100 was a perfect score, he could naturally graduate, but the maximum score was 710.

For the national college English test Band 4 paper,

at least 425 points were required to be considered a pass.

Cultivating romance was merely secondary; if it happened, great, but if not, Lu Liang wouldn't force it. Su Wanyu's personality was simply too slow-warming.

Even after twenty sessions together, their relationship could only be described as ordinary friends, far from familiar.

Still, aside from teaching, they now chatted about mundane daily matters, such as learning that Su Wanyu didn't have a boyfriend, and that her low spirits last time were due to an argument with her best friend.
...

At 2:00 PM, the sun was bright and the weather clear.

Meng Changkun's deep-sea fishing equipment was fully prepared, whereas Lu Liang arrived empty-handed with nothing at all except himself.

Consequently, the two decided to visit a fishing gear shop first, where Lu Liang spent around 100,000 RMB on a complete set of gear.

Buying only the expensive, never the right,

epitomizing the poor student whose stationery is both excessive and top-tier.

Before heading to the dock, Lu Liang even wondered if a group of beauties might be invited, the kind where you had to hand over your phones upon boarding.

Playing Russian roulette or partaking in human banquet feasts—a massive silver party where fishing was merely an excuse.

As it turned out, he had overthought it.

On the two-and-a-half-deck small yacht, there was only one woman on board, an auntie responsible for cooking.

According to Meng Changkun, women on boats only vomited, and there was no need for them to help chum the water; with long, gloomy faces, they were just annoying to look at. Today was a serious, genuine fishing trip.

Lu Liang instantly felt his enthusiasm wane.

Yet, since he had already come, he couldn't just turn around and leave.

Setting sail at 3:00 PM and cruising for an hour and a half, they successfully arrived at the first fishing spot.

They first caught sardines and yellow croaker to use as bait, heading out to the distant open sea at night to fish for barracuda and tuna.

A massive sea fish weighing dozens of pounds would unleash over a hundred pounds of force in the water, requiring tens of minutes to play and exhaust—providing a workout no less intense than hitting the gym.

Late at night, they headed to the habitat of cutlassfish. Fish shining like stainless steel were hauled up, immediately sliced, and pan-fried, yielding an extremely delicious flavor.

From initial indifference to final reluctance to leave, Lu Liang had fallen in love with deep-sea fishing, right after picking up tennis.

It wasn't until the early hours of the next morning, under the cover of night, that they returned to Shanghai.

The two headed to the Sheshan Clubhouse to enjoy a sauna and a massage, thoroughly relieving the fatigue of the entire day.

Over the next three trading days, TeleA broke below the 8 RMB mark, and Li Jianlin and Wu Junle became fully convinced that Lu Liang had been shaken out.

At the end of June, they began executing their plan, utilizing a total of 24 trading accounts across both parties to start gathering market shares.

Their purchases on the 7th accounted for half of the total trading volume; however much retail investors dumped, they absorbed.

By July 5th, the combined shares held by their accounts accounted for 9.5% of the market's circulating shares, sitting right below the threshold for a mandatory public disclosure.

As long as the major shareholders didn't step forward, the market was theirs to command, allowing them to effectively control the rise and fall of the share price.

Through multiple accounts under their control, they traded back and forth with themselves to create the illusion of fervent market activity.

Between July 5th and July 12th,

over five trading days, the average trading volume exceeded 500 million.

The share price climbed step by step, gaining seven or eight points in a single day.

It wasn't a locked limit-up, yet it felt even better than one.

For several consecutive days, it made the top-gainer list,

attracting a massive influx of admiring retail investors, which further propelled the upward climb of the share price.