Although Wen Ying was young, she was always reliable in her actions. For a high school student to earn millions and resist the urge to spend recklessly required tremendous self-control.
So Wen Ying’s decision to invest in stocks was definitely not a spur-of-the-moment impulse.
If it had been just Wen Ying, it might not have caught Zou Weijun’s full attention, but when her friend half-jokingly said, “If you’re bored, just dabble in stocks,” Zou Weijun found it hard to ignore.
Zou Weijun knew all too well what this friend was capable of.
“I haven’t dabbled in it before, so let me learn a bit first and then consult you.”
Zou Weijun was straightforward, and her friend could not help but smile. “No problem. You’re cautious in your approach, so with a little guidance from me, you’ll get the hang of it quickly. Stock trading is something you learn best and fastest through practice.”
If Zou Weijun had been a speculator, her friend would never have dared to introduce her to stock trading. It was precisely because the friend understood Zou Weijun’s temperament that she made the suggestion.
Zou Weijun did not expect to get rich quick from stock trading, so her mindset was quite relaxed.
But while Zou Weijun did not harbour illusions of making a fortune from stocks, that was one thing. If she actually made money and had to split it evenly with Xie Jinghu, she was not that naive.
Marital property acquired during marriage was jointly owned. Even if Zou Weijun set up the account under a family member’s name, it would be tricky to handle in the future.
Transferring marital assets to the child was the safest option.
Xie Qian was about to turn eighteen soon.
Zou Weijun decided to start by investing a few million to learn from her friend. Once there were profits, she would transfer them to Xie Qian’s name. It was equally a transfer of marital assets, but giving the money to her son Xie Qian was perfectly legitimate. Xie Jinghu using their joint marital property to support his illegitimate child was truly disgusting.
Xie Jinghu had struck first, so he could not blame Zou Weijun for retaliating.
Zou Weijun did not hide her intention to learn stock trading from Old Madam Xie, who lived under the same roof.
The old lady did not understand the stock market or stocks, but she fully supported Zou Weijun in learning new things.
Old Madam Xie held shares in “Jinhu” and received dividends every year. With no extravagant spending habits, she had saved up a considerable amount of private money over the years.
Xie Jinghu might give his earnings to unsavoury people, but if Zou Weijun made money, she would certainly give it to Xie Qian.
Old Madam Xie’s supportive attitude was expressed very openly. She even took out real cash from her own pocket to fund Zou Weijun’s stock trading.
Of course, Zou Weijun refused. “Mum, I’m a beginner. I can’t take your money. What if I lose it?”
Old Madam Xie was remarkably open-minded. “If you lose it, you lose it. If you don’t pay some tuition fees first, how can you expect to make money? To be honest, and don’t take this the wrong way, I don’t expect you to make a profit from stock trading anyway.”
If that was the case, why support her in trading stocks at all?
Zou Weijun had the words on the tip of her tongue but held them back.
Old Madam Xie’s views had never really changed. Women were better off relying on themselves than on men. Men faced risks in their investments, and women did too. Without experiencing ups and downs to build resilience, how could one compete with men on equal footing?
Back when Xie Jinghu went south to do business, he lost all the several thousand yuan pooled together by the Xie family shortly after starting out. Not a single person in the Xie family, from top to bottom, blamed him. Now that it was Zou Weijun’s turn to try stock trading, Old Madam Xie held the same attitude.
In the end, Zou Weijun accepted the money from her mother-in-law.
If they divorced in the future, Zou Weijun would only sever ties with Xie Jinghu. She was reluctant to cut ties with the rest of the Xie family.
It was reasonable for Old Madam Xie to sponsor Zou Weijun’s “tuition,” but what Zou Weijun did not expect was that the nanny, Xiao Tian, quietly approached her and handed over a passbook, saying she wanted to lend it to her.
“Sister Zou, I don’t know how to trade stocks, but I’ve heard people say you need a big capital to make big profits. I don’t have much money, but this is my way of helping.”
Xiao Tian’s gesture was far from small. Zou Weijun was startled when she looked at the passbook. It was a full fifty thousand yuan.
Fifty thousand yuan was not a large sum for Zou Weijun, but Xiao Tian was a monthly-wage nanny. Even though working for Old Madam Xie paid better than elsewhere, it was not easy for her to save fifty thousand yuan.
“Xiao Tian, I can’t take your money.”
Zou Weijun returned the passbook, but Xiao Tian grew anxious. “Sister Zou, are you thinking it’s too little? I may not have a lot, but I’m willing to lend it to you. Just accept it.”
Zou Weijun was amused and exasperated. She asked Xiao Tian why she insisted on lending her the money, but Xiao Tian stammered without giving a clear reason.
“Fine then, I’ll accept your money. Wait a moment. I’ll write you an IOU.”
Without an IOU, Zou Weijun absolutely refused to take the money, so Xiao Tian had no choice but to agree.
Placing the IOU in the drawer, Xiao Tian punched the air.
Sister Zou must make more money.
Only by earning more could she protect herself and escape this disgusting marriage.
President Xie was too vile. He was the one who cheated and had illegitimate children, yet he suspected Sister Zou of having relations with other men. He inquired openly and covertly, using threats and inducements to extract information, determined to splash dirty water on Sister Zou. It was utterly outrageous.
Zou Weijun accepted the nanny Xiao Tian’s kindness and solemnly wrote the IOU.
“If I lose, I’ll return the principal. If I profit, I’ll give Xiao Tian back the principal plus interest.”
Zou Weijun murmured to herself.
This world was rotten. The person who once shared her pillow would scheme against her and hurt her.
Yet this world was also warm. When she wanted to give up on herself, many people joined forces to pull her out of the abyss.
Relatives helped Zou Weijun, and even unrelated people did too. Zou Weijun felt she had no reason to lose.
…
In the capital, Zou Weijun gathered funds and prepared to charge into the stock market.
In Rong City, Wen Ying was also racking her brain to recall the impending A-share bull market.
After thinking for a long time, she still could not remember which specific stocks would explode. In her previous life, this period coincided with the critical sprint for the college entrance exam, so Wen Ying had no energy to care about the stock market. That was a world far removed from a student’s life.
Although she could not recall specific stocks, she had a general idea of which sectors would rise sharply. By mentioning them casually in conversations, she should be able to influence Chen Ru’s operations.
That was all Wen Ying could do. The actual trading would have to rely on Manager Chen.
On Tuesday afternoon, outside the gates of the provincial key high school, Wen Ying waited for Fang Hui and the others to apologise.
Fang Hui, Yue Shanni, Ma Lingling, Liu Yan… This quartet was Wen Ying’s “friends” from junior high in her previous life.
Fang Hui, after graduating from university, returned to her hometown county town. She worked as a temporary employee for a few years before finally passing the civil service exam and securing the so-called iron rice bowl. However, she had a sharp tongue, stirring up trouble even when in the wrong and unrelenting when in the right. Just look at Old Wen for proof. With such a personality, Fang Hui would never thrive in the system. Wen Ying was convinced she would remain a minor clerk for life, growing increasingly bitter and acerbic. Although Wen Ying had been reborn before seeing Fang Hui’s ultimate fate, she believed her prediction was fairly accurate.
Yue Shanni, the glamorous arts committee member in junior high, went on to an average high school after the entrance exam. In high school, she dated several boyfriends and lost all focus on studies, naturally failing to get into university. After graduation, she worked as a counter clerk in a mall. After two years, finding it too grueling with no prospects, she cashed in on her youth by marrying early. Her first husband was a somewhat affluent company manager who was not much to look at and did not meet Yue Shanni’s aesthetic standards. They divorced after less than two years. It was said she reconciled with a thuggish ex from high school, bringing her child along, and soon had another with him. By the time of Wen Ying’s rebirth, Yue Shanni was on her third husband, a male parent from her child’s kindergarten. They connected over picking up and dropping off the child, quickly divorced their respective spouses, and got together… Lacking any real skills and without Fang Hui’s iron rice bowl, Yue Shanni was dissatisfied with life but powerless to change it, so she kept marrying and divorcing, pinning her hopes for a better life on different men.
Ma Lingling got into a vocational college, but after graduation, she faced repeated setbacks job-hunting in the big city, switching jobs frequently without settling down. Later, she became obsessed with plastic surgery, photo editing, and micro-business, posting daily in her Moments feed with all sorts of flashy displays of wealth, packaging herself as a fair-skinned, rich, and beautiful lady.
Whether she actually made money was debatable, but selling unregulated products through micro-business ruined others’ faces, leading to lawsuits demanding compensation.
Ma Lingling neither wanted to pay nor to hire a lawyer, so she went through various channels to get Wen Ying’s contact information and tried to ask for her help.
Setting aside the “old grudges” from junior high, when Wen Ying saw her desperately invoking past ties without mentioning payment, she immediately blocked this freeloader.
As for Liu Yan… Fate was truly wondrous.
In junior high, Liu Yan could only serve as Yue Shanni’s little sidekick. Her position in the group was actually similar to Wen Ying’s back then, with the difference that Wen Ying, lacking status, tried desperately to please by giving, while Liu Yan “proved her loyalty” to Yue Shanni by bullying Wen Ying. This tactic worked well. Liu Yan started on the fringes of the group but by graduation had become, alongside Fang Hui, Yue Shanni’s right-hand woman.
Such an unremarkable girl ended up, over a decade later, being the most successful in Yue Shanni’s quartet.
Though Liu Yan’s grades were average, she persisted in applying to a university in the capital. During university, she landed a top-tier engineering guy from the second-best school as her husband. They married right after undergraduate graduation. The engineering guy went abroad for graduate studies, and Liu Yan accompanied him. He stayed overseas, and so did she.
With a high-earning husband, one son and one daughter, her Moments feed showed a serene happiness, occasionally flashing a corner of a grand house or a large diamond ring on her hand. Whether her life was truly as blissful as portrayed was unknown to outsiders, but at least materially, she outshone Yue Shanni the hopeless romantic by miles.
The four girls, under pressure from Wen Ying’s parents, had delayed and delayed but finally came to apologise to Wen Ying.
To fit Wen Ying’s schedule, they had even taken half a day off.
All saying “sorry,” Fang Hui did so through gritted teeth, Ma Lingling with evasive eyes, and Liu Yan timidly, almost as if she had been the one bullied by Wen Ying.
Only Yue Shanni seemed a bit different after so long. When she said sorry, her eyes met Wen Ying’s directly.
In Yue Shanni’s eyes, Wen Ying, even in her school uniform, seemed to glow all over.
A writer who earned millions in royalties just from novels, someone Yue Shanni could never catch up to no matter how hard she tried.
It was hard to say if it was jealousy, envy, or admiration. Yue Shanni just wanted to look at Wen Ying a bit more. Outside of occasions like today, if they bumped into Wen Ying on the street, she probably would not even acknowledge them.
Yue Shanni had guessed correctly.
Wen Ying was already quite impatient. She was willing to hear their “apology” not because the four had any pull, but because she did not want to waste Chen Ru and Old Wen’s family’s efforts going door-to-door to “demand satisfaction.”
“Have you all finished? If you’re done, let’s call it a day. I’ll reluctantly accept the apology, but I can’t continue being friends with you afterwards. We’ll just be strangers who keep to our own paths, that’s best.”
Wen Ying waved her hand as if shooing flies, and Fang Hui clenched her teeth.
A male voice rang out, tinged with puzzlement. “Why haven’t you gone home yet?”
It was Xie Qian.
Xie Qian walked over, making Fang Hui and the other two’s eyes light up. Even the acerbic Fang Hui instinctively put on a demure air, while only Yue Shanni stepped back two paces.
If the current Wen Ying was the swan Yue Shanni had to look up to, then Xie Qian was the devilish little brother who haunted her nightmares. It was all fake, all of it. No matter how handsome he looked, it was an illusion.
“I’m heading home now. Let’s go.”
Wen Ying had no intention of introducing Fang Hui and the others to Xie Qian. He had already recognised Yue Shanni but asked no questions. The two boarded the same bus, one after the other.
“Shanni, who was that? Do you know him?”
Fang Hui was the first to ask, with Ma Lingling and Liu Yan perking up their ears.
Yue Shanni gritted her teeth. “Don’t let his good looks fool you into falling for him. I advise you to stay far away. He’s absolutely terrifying.”
Fang Hui paid no heed at all. Ma Lingling’s eyes darted about slyly, and Liu Yan’s gaze sparkled with interest.
How terrifying could someone so handsome be?
Yue Shanni had completely lost her junior high swagger and now seemed so timid.
