March went quickly.

Xu Ye’s days ran between four points — classroom, company, canteen, dorm. It was dull, but life is like that; nobody gets color and variety every day.

The good news was that the market had risen astonishingly over these weeks. The index had shot up to 3,800 — and when Xu Ye first came into the market last year it had been barely over 2,000. It had nearly doubled.

Most of the stocks on his watchlist had gone limit-up day after day, and in the single month since the New Year his brokerage account had passed three and a half million.

But Xu Ye knew this bull run wasn’t over. The A-share index should reach about 5,400 at its high this year, so there was a great deal of room left in it.

On the last night of the month, a Tuesday, Xu Ye called Chen Hansong himself.

Chen Hansong was surprised to see who it was. He picked up the phone and said to the floor manager in his office, “Give us a minute.”

“Of course.”

The bank’s floor manager left, and only then did Chen Hansong take the call.

Xu Ye opened with a laugh. “Uncle, are you busy?”

When they first met, Xu Ye had called him Uncle Chen.

At some point after that it had shortened.

And now it was simply Uncle.

Give this little bastard an inch and he takes a mile. He’s first-rate at it.

Chen Hansong said sourly, “If you’ve got something to say, say it. I don’t have time to listen to you ramble.”

“All right.”

Xu Ye laughed. “I want to try trading stocks on leverage, but I hear there are conditions you have to meet. I don’t really understand it, so I wanted to ask you.”

Chen Hansong was exasperated. “Don’t forget you still owe money. Leveraged trading carries a lot of risk. If you don’t understand it, don’t touch it.”

“I know it’s risky. But there’s a saying — the bigger the storm, the bigger the fish. So I’d still like to have a go.”

“You’re not going to listen, are you? Have you even thought about what happens to you if you lose? Put it out of your head.”

Seeing how firm Chen Hansong was, Xu Ye changed tack at once. “Uncle, if you won’t help me, I’ll tell my mother-in-law about that meal you had with a very pretty lady.”

“You—”

That left Chen Hansong reeling. “Are you threatening me?!”

Xu Ye laughed again. “Uncle, just help me this once. Whatever the risk, it’s on me. I’ll do it for a month or two at the most, and the moment the market drops I’ll sell.”

“People who play the market think exactly like gamblers. Up a little and they want more; down a little and they want it back.”

“I mean it. I’ll keep my word. Uncle, keep an eye on the market in the coming weeks — the moment the index falls, I sell.”

Chen Hansong went quiet.

As a bank president he had of course been following the market. From last summer to now it was clearly a bull run, and a great many people were coming into the bank to ask about stocks. In the short term, A-share valuations probably had further to climb.

After some thought, Chen Hansong said, “The most I can do for you through a margin account is two-to-one.”

On the principle that something beats nothing.

Xu Ye agreed at once. “That’s fine. Thank you, Uncle.”

…

The first of April. April Fool’s Day.

Xu Ye didn’t pay much attention to the day, and got caught first thing in the morning by Yang Fei telling him his underwear was on backwards.

Zhang Xinzhou had to point it out before Xu Ye registered that March was over.

After two classes they set off for the canteen together, and the four of them had barely got out of the car when they saw Li Lulu from the student union’s external liaison department handing out flyers at the canteen door with several others.

As Xu Ye came over, Li Lulu spotted him at once. She came forward, handed a flyer to each of the four of them and said, smiling, “Sign-ups for the campus singing competition open today. If any of you are interested, do have a go.”

Xu Ye took his flyer, put an arm across Yang Fei’s shoulders and said, “Yang Fei wants to sign up. He does a beautiful Ai by the Little Tigers, and Aaron Kwok’s Endless Love for You as well.”

Zhang Xinzhou and Li Tongwen were both close to laughing out loud.

Yang Fei went red holding it in.

His musical gift was precisely zero — he was born tone-deaf — and he knew perfectly well Xu Ye was making fun of him.

Li Lulu pretended not to have followed. She laughed. “Do come and try, then. You only have to scan the QR code on the flyer to sign up.”

Yang Fei said, red-faced, “Don’t listen to him, senior. He’s talking nonsense. He’s joking.”

“Suit yourself, then.”

“You get on. We’re going to eat.”

“Sure~”

Once they were inside the canteen Yang Fei shoved Xu Ye off him and said furiously, “Christ. Can you not say things like that?”

“I was helping you.”

“I don’t need your help.”

Yang Fei went off to get his food in a temper, and Zhang Xinzhou said, laughing at him, “He’s a coward, that’s all. In the dorm he has a whole theory of it, and the moment he’s face to face he goes as red as a monkey’s ass.”

Xu Ye ordered minced pork and eggplant over rice, and once the other three had their food they sat down with him.

“How’s the singing competition sponsorship coming?”

“The banner’s done. The advertising fans and the glow bracelets you had made came this morning. You can drive me over to pick them up in a bit.”

Xu Ye had already seen the wording and the design on the fans. Thirty thousand had been made, with the fruit shop’s promotion on the front and the franchise terms for the vending machines on the back. The supplier had sent a sample over and the quality was decent.

This promotion was entirely Xu Ye’s own.

It was called Buy Together.

The mechanics were simple: several people shop for fruit as a group, and once a single transaction goes over a set amount, they get so many chances to draw money-off vouchers — with a small chance at the grand prize, the whole bill free.

Put plainly, it was Pinduoduo’s playbook.

Xu Ye was confident this promotion would drain every customer Kangyuan Fruit Shop had.

…

While Xu Ye was drifting through his days at university, Pei Youwei’s factory in Jiangzhou finally started work.

Most of the workers had been at the factory before it changed hands, because Pei Youwei had promised each of them two hundred yuan a month on top of what they had been earning.

Better pay, and lingerie is fairly simple to make — so when Pei Youwei had someone get in touch with them, most of the workers came in perfectly happily.

Pei Youwei was at the factory every day overseeing the workers’ progress, and when the first finished pieces came off the line she could hardly wait. She put them on mannequins, photographed them and sent the pictures to Xu Ye.

He opened the pictures first, then the voice message underneath.

“Xu Ye, the first batch is finished. Can we get someone to put them up in the Taobao shop now?”

Xu Ye answered quickly. “Absolutely not.”

Pei Youwei: Why not?

Xu Ye: You need to find some models and a proper photographer, and get the models to wear these for the photographs. If you put them on a mannequin, is that going to show what’s special about them?

Pei Youwei: Real people, as well?

Pei Youwei: Clothes this revealing — will anyone be willing?

Xu Ye: There are plenty of lingerie models. Pay enough and you’ll find someone.

Pei Youwei: And then?

Xu Ye: Once the listings are up you can start driving traffic with Zhitongche. Best to get some good reviews on there too, and after that it’s do what you can and leave the rest to heaven.

Pei Youwei: All right. Understood.

Xu Ye: And… once the photographs are done, send them to me first thing.

Pei Youwei: Is it the people you want to look at, or the clothes?

Xu Ye: Boss, what sort of man do you take me for? I’ve told you before — I’m as pure as they come.

Xu Ye: Where’d you go?

Xu Ye: Hello?

(End of Chapter 220)