CHAPTER 78: CHAPTER 74: SCHEMING BOY

In the following period, Han Lie’s life became increasingly fulfilled.

Watching the market, simulated trading, and writing. On average, he studied and worked for 14 hours every day.

It was exhausting, but with a clear vision of the future to strive for, he relished it.

In the eyes of his classmates, Han Lie had almost vanished.

It just so happened that in October, the A-shares plummeted again. On the 29th, the Shanghai Composite Index even momentarily broke below the 2,100-point mark, leading many people to joke that Han Lie had been bamboozled by the A-share tumble.

Among them, Duan Xiaoyi, Lou Zhi, and others were the most vociferous.

They didn’t dare to mock him too excessively and merely pretended to show concern in a joking manner.

But in reality, Han Lie’s simulated trades were profitable.

Although not by much, his pacing was quite good.

Han Lie couldn’t remember any high-flyer stocks in the market at the end of 2013 and the beginning of 2014, since he hadn’t participated at that time and had only come across them a few times during post-event analyses.

In fact, the only thing he could be sure of was that the index had started to rise in September 2014 and continued until around June or July 2015.

The peak was just over 5,000 points; he couldn’t recall the exact number.

Knowing next to nothing, how could he make money?

Actually, it was simple.

The market bottomed out around January 2014. From then until September 2014, the index maintained narrow fluctuations.

This stage wasn’t a bull market, but the market was actually quite active.

The index didn’t rise, large-cap stocks on the main board kept falling, and the financial sector approached historic lows. Yet, small-cap stocks in Shenzhen and on the Growth Enterprise Market saw high-flyer stocks appearing frequently, their explosive power frightening.

From a future perspective, this was a classic market divergence.

The logic behind the surge was actually the economic growth driven by new models, primarily mobile internet.

Knowing the fundamental logic behind the rise and where the profit-making effects were concentrated, the rest was just to dive in headfirst.

The Small and Medium Enterprise Board and the Growth Enterprise Market combined had only a few hundred stocks. By reviewing them every day, it wouldn’t take a month to know all of them like the back of his hand.

By then, the short-term trading alert system would pop up: "XYZ stock is accelerating its rise."

A quick glance would tell Han Lie: Oh, the Apple concept stocks are collectively pushing upwards. Yushun is the leader in this wave, with Changxin following.

With that level of proficiency, it was hard to even lose money.

So, even though the profit rate from his simulated trades wasn’t high, Han Lie was in no rush.

He committed himself every day to training, thinking, and summarizing. His stock trading skill experience points were skyrocketing.

[Stock Trading: Level 3, 71,523/200,000]

When it came to knowledge and skills, Level 4 was a watershed.

Level 3 was roughly equivalent to skilled application; Level 4 was professional grade.

What did that mean? It meant he was good enough to make a living with it.

The proficiency level of an excellent graduate from a 985 university should be at the start of Level 4, a master’s student in the middle of Level 4, and a doctoral student at the peak of Level 4.

The main difference lay in the amount of experience points—Level 4 required a total of 10,000,000 experience points, which roughly covered the span from an undergraduate to a Ph.D.

Level 5 was expert level, exceedingly rare, and something a typical Ph.D. couldn’t match.

In the stock market, Level 5 would correspond to top-tier fund managers, consistently winning individual investors, and major hot money players. It was debatable whether there were even a hundred such individuals in total.

But then again, the stock market was genuinely a fascinating place.

Theoretically, one needed at least Level 4 stock trading skills to profit consistently.

Yet, some people with only Level 1 stock trading skills still made a fortune, seemingly blindly.

Take, for example, the neighborhood committee auntie from the high-tech zone in C-Spring City. She joined the crowd and invested 50,000 yuan in C-Spring High-Tech, then promptly forgot her account password.

Years later, when the bull market arrived and friends and colleagues were all clamoring to trade stocks, she suddenly remembered, "Hey, I bought stocks before!"

When she recovered her account password and checked, her stocks were worth 5,000,000 yuan.

Oh my, that’s way too much! It’s frightening!

She shakily sold her stocks and bought an apartment for her son, who worked in Magic Capital and had just met the purchasing qualifications.

She specifically chose the Pudong New Area, wanting to bask in the "new area" aura.

That was in 2015. The price of new apartments then was 37,000 yuan per square meter. With a 5% discount for full payment, she bought a 150-square-meter apartment.

Later, around the end of 2018 or the beginning of 2019, her son blindly invested 500,000 yuan in BYD.

At the time, Han Lie had joked with him, "You’re more or less an industry insider. Are you just going to hold on to it stubbornly like that?"

His colleague had just smiled without saying anything.

Later on, the colleague resigned, married a stunningly beautiful woman, and the two of them opened some sort of shop. By 2025, they had a second child.

Han Lie never had the nerve to ask him: Did you really hold BYD from over 30 yuan all the way to several hundred?

Recalling these past follies, Han Lie no longer harbored any jealousy or resentment.

He simply understood deeply that technique wasn’t everything.

Finding a long-term certainty and having faith in it could make one rich without relying on techniques.

The 13th Five-Year Plan had clarified the development direction for new energy vehicles. Just follow the national policy; how hard could that be? If I were to shy away from this perceived difficulty now, it would just mean my mindset is too impetuous.

Similarly, a Level 3 skill, in the right environment and within a defined framework, was sufficient.

The most important things were mindset and discipline.

Once his mindset stabilized and he strictly adhered to discipline, allowing compound interest to work its magic, he too could create miracles.

There was still a month and a half until mid-January, and Han Lie’s short-term goals were already crystal clear:

First, refine his trading model.

Second, upgrade his stock trading skill to Level 4.

Third, save up more initial capital.

The first two tasks required painstaking effort and couldn’t be rushed, but his progress had already far exceeded expectations.

So, Han Lie resolved to pour all his remaining experience points into his writing skill.

[Writing: Level 4, 12,507/10,000,000]

A whopping 170,000 experience points were spent in a flash.

The effect, however, was truly remarkable.

When Brother Ham (Han Lie’s writing persona) looked back at the drafts he held, he found many flaws in the structure, rhythm, arrangement of exciting moments, and the emotional impact of the words.

Well, time to revise!

When Brother Ham sent the revised drafts to Little Cucumber (Xi Luting’s nickname/persona) for polishing, Xi Luting was shocked.

Lonely_Cucumber: "Great God, please accept my worship!"

Lonely_Cucumber: "The new version is even more exquisite and exciting! How am I supposed to polish this?"

Ham_for_Cucumber: "Polish it from your female perspective! I’m a guy; no matter how I write, it won’t have that particular flavor."

Indeed, even with Level 4 writing skill, Little Cucumber’s contribution was irreplaceable.

Men and women would never think the same way.

Lonely_Cucumber: "Alright then. The pressure is immense, sigh!"

Feeling pressured? That’s exactly right!

Time trickled by. *The Goddess CEO* successfully advanced on RedTu and subsequently appeared on a natural recommendation list.

On November 1st, its collection count broke the 3,000 mark.

According to the plan, on November 7th, the following Thursday, it would change recommendation lists and be put up for sale.

Xi Luting grew more restless each day, suffering from a severe case of "newbie author pre-launch syndrome."

Every day, she would prattle on with Brother Ham for a while, and then, whenever she had free time, she would go and tease Pan Ge.

Brother Ham deliberately feigned a hint of impatience and then goaded her, "I’m busy! Go find your male god!"

Lonely_Cucumber: "My male god is in seclusion building a trading model. I can’t see him during the day, and it’s inconvenient at night!"

Ham_for_Cucumber: "What about the weekend? There’s no trading on weekends. Ask him out!"

Lonely_Cucumber: "I’ve never asked him out, it’s too embarrassing... Besides, I’m currently pretending to be a Lara, you understand Lara, right?!"

Ham_for_Cucumber: "That’s all the more reason to hurry up and confess!"

You damn dog of a man! You really don’t do anything remotely human! Xi Luting fumed internally.

Even Han Lie felt that ’Ham’ was being too much, but his typing fingers completely disobeyed...

Ham_for_Cucumber: "If you don’t give him some reassurance soon, what if your male god genuinely misunderstands and thinks you’re a Lara?"

Lonely_Cucumber: "⊙o⊙!"

Lonely_Cucumber: "Huh? You’re right..."

Lonely_Cucumber: "Then... should I try to ask him out tomorrow morning?"

Ham_for_Cucumber: "Sounds good. Tomorrow is Saturday. GO GO GO!"

Lonely_Cucumber: "But, how do I even start? And if I ask him out, what would we do?"

How can you be so dense?! Or is my [Instigation] skill level too low? Han Lie thought, a bit frustrated by her lack of initiative, but he still patiently offered suggestions.

This round, ah, this is the upgraded, enhanced version of ’I’m teaching the goddess how to pursue me.’

Ham_for_Cucumber: "Just find a secluded and sufficiently dark place, pretend you’re scared, give a little hint, and leave the rest to him!"

Lonely_Cucumber: "Wow! As expected, you guys know best..."

Lonely_Cucumber: "Let’s do it! I’m going to look up strategies right now!"

Little Cucumber replied with a ’fighting!’ emoticon and logged off.

Han Lie snapped his laptop shut, grabbed his phone, keys, and wallet, and dashed downstairs.

He headed straight to the best hair salon outside of campus. "Get me Tony! I need my hair styled!"

Who says I’m not a scheming boy too... Right?