There is a famous quote in <Fortress Besieged>, marriage is like a siege, people want to go outside, people want to come inside. The same word would apply to the stock market without it being the slightest bit unfit.
Five years ago, Zheng Hongjie was only an ordinary taxi driver. Because of chatting with a passenger once, he heard about the food processing industry.
The slight drunk boosted to him how processing food made money, and at that time he was tempted. Being only twenty, he didn’t want to be a taxi driver for his entire life. From that point on, he started to learn about the unfamiliar industry.
With the family saving as well as borrowings from relatives, he successfully purchased a poorly operated small processing plant.
Although he didn’t go to university before, because of his hard work and desire to learn, he used his learned-on-the-spot operation knowledge to expand the small facility to a large plant.
Contracts flew to him like snowflakes. The canned food and instant noodles he produced were not only high in quality, but the price was also superior compared to his competitors. The plant was getting more and more profitable, buying land, purchasing production lines, hiring more employees… Even the famous Master Kung sent them a contract for food processing.
Within five years, Boss Zheng’s name spread throughout his hometown. His former friends began calling him Boss Zheng, Brother Zheng.
From nothing to starting his plant in Wanghai city. Being able to buy a car, buy a house, and returning to his hometown in glory. From a taxi driver to a boss, his experience in the five years could be written into a book.
But everything changed at the end of last year.
The stock market sunk to the bottom, rumors of the index striking 6124 finally faded. The stock market was averaging around 3000 at the time. One of his business friends told him once when they were drinking that stock markets were a good place to make money, and if he had money, he should give it a try.
Although he was a bit drunk, Zheng Hongjie’s head was still sober. His consciousness told him that this zero sum game was not right. How could a market without producing any goods create value?
Zheng Hongjie didn’t listen to his friend, but rather he told his friend not to be so drawn into tricky things. But his friend only laughed and didn’t bother with him.
Four months later, his friend bought two apartments in the city. His previous car was upgraded to a BMW. When they were drinking again, the friend gloated on the fact that he used one million to make a stunning return of five million.
Seeing his friend was now wealthy, Zheng Hongjie felt regret. If he listened to his friend’s words, it wouldn’t just be two apartments, he would probably be living in a mansion by now. He worked hard for four months, and in the end didn’t even make as much as his friend made in a few days.
After a few more rounds, perhaps due to envy, Zheng Hongjie casually asked, “Is it too late to get in now?”
When he heard those words, his friend was immediately drawn to the conservation. He constantly boosted at how “the economic condition is superb,” “it is only going to go up,” “there is no backing down this time!”
After a passion-filled conversation, Zheng Hongjie was tempted. With only the food processing plant, it would take ten years before he could become a millionaire, but he could with only a few days in the stock market.
When he returned home, he hesitantly opened an account. Under the guidance of his friend, he tested the water by putting in twenty thousand. He didn’t pay too much attention to the account as he was busy with his business until one month later when he remembered that he bought stock.
He only opened the account out of curiosity and wanted to see how much money that twenty thousand turned into. If it were a small amount, even if he lost it all, it would be okay.
It would have been better if he didn’t look, he immediately jumped up when he saw the number. The twenty thousand turned into fifty thousand.
He felt the world dazzling around him. It was not excitement, but regret.
That’s right, it was regret.
If he put in two million, it would’ve become five million! If he borrowed some money to buy ten million, he would be a millionaire already…
Human’s greed was infinite, the piercing 5000 red number, he remembered Renren Newspaper; “The bull market is only halfway to the top.” He immediately put all two million from his account into the stock market. Out of the two million, there was a one million loan used for the plant’s expansion.
“Renren Newspaper would not trick its citizens right?” “xxx can’t be lying?” “If the stock market crashed then xxx would be the first one to react!”
Mhmm. It’s hard to believe, but they did the trick, what can you do?
In the start, he did feel excited as a 2% increase was forty thousand. By just looking at that red line, he felt his entire body shake with excitement. He was starting to day dream about the life of a millionaire and forgot the caution he had before.
With just half a month, he experienced the feeling of dropping down from heaven to hell.
The index headed straight down, thousands of stocks with 10% decreases became the norm, but the media kept pushing it up.
“The right opportunity to get into the bull market.”
“Short term adjustments for higher adjustment.”
“Stock hits rock bottom, now is the time to buy.”
“The index can’t drop anymore The central government is discussing interest rate drop.”
“80% of organizations think the stock market is at the bottom.”
“Pension plan is in discussion to enter the market.”
He continued to buy in only to continue to lose. The friend that promised him that it wouldn’t drop below 4000 points was nowhere to be seen. It was rumored that he borrowed money he shouldn’t have, left his wife and children and escaped to the south.
Zheng Hongjie wanted to die, but he couldn’t. He has a wife that loved him dearly, and a daughter that idolized him.
The plant expansion was a no go.
Because he used the loan for other purposes, to avoid legal consequences, as well as being forced by the bank to sell assets to repay debt, Zheng Hongjie decided to borrow elsewhere to fill the hole. He borrowed money from his business friends and repaid the bank loan. Then he put the rest of the money into the plant, hoping he could slowly repay the debt.
However, another unfortunate event occurred.
Within less than a month, the high rising pork price increased the price of other foods which directly increased the cost of producing canned foods and slammed the food processing industry. But to repay this debt, he practically accepted all orders and used the guarantee fee to maintain production and repay debt.
With the price from the previous month, based on the high rising cost of production, for every canned food he produced, he lost 1 RMB. But he had to keep producing, or else he would have to pay for breach of contract.
If it was before, he could have easily handled this crisis with the cash on hand, but now…
After debating, he chose to breach the contract and lost every single cent. He lost all opportunities to start up again. The bank would not loan him money, and he could no longer pay for the workers, so he had to let go of all employees.
The five years was like a dream.
Because of a legal Ponzi Scheme, he went from high up in the clouds to hell.
“The stock market was like <Inception>, people on the outside were afraid, people on the inside couldn’t escape.”
He left a sentence worth thinking about. Then he blew the last smoke ring before stepping on the cigarette butt.
If he knew what would happen today, he wouldn’t have done it from the beginning. To be honest, Jiang Chen also followed the stock market before, but before this July, he had no money in his pocket. He was quite lucky that he was always an “outsider.”
Silently listening till he finished, Jiang Chen let out a sigh.
“Your experience could be written into a book. Do you have any plans?”
“Probably driving. Selling the factory should be enough to pay off the debt, and the missing salaries. Although I am not a boss anymore, I still have to maintain my morale as a person.” He laughed self-mockingly as he shook his head.
Morale is a bright spot, Jiang Chen secretly nodded his head as he heard Hongjie’s words. He didn’t know how to operate a plant, rather than going to a headhunter to find a manager, it would be better to hire this expert right away.
“I am talking about your future plans, not your plan for tomorrow.” Jiang Chen smiled, he looked at the wry face, unfitting for his age, as he spoke lightly.
Zheng Hongjie paused for a moment.
“Me? Probably driving-”
“A waste of talent. I personally look highly of people with ability,” Jiang Chen waved his hand and interrupted him, and he continued with a smile, “What about this? Do you have any interest in working in my factory? Xinlong Food Processing Plant is still called Xinlong. You are still the head.”
Finishing his words, Jiang Chen extended his right hand and looked at him with a bright smile.
Shocked, the aged faced suddenly regained some liveliness. From the initial shock to the final excitement, Zheng Hongjie extended his hand out, trembling, and held onto Jiang Chen’s hand.
He never imagined that the new owner of the factory would risk the bad luck and hire a failure. Regardless, the plant went down because of him.
“The closure of the factory was not because of your operational mistake. I think Xinlong would only be able to generate maximum value in your hands. I trust that you won’t easily just let go of so many years of hard work, what do you think?”
“I do!”
An answer without hesitation.
He put Jiang Chen’s hand down as Zheng Hongjie picked up the cigarette bud he threw on the ground.
“What are you doing?” Jiang Chen was bewildered.
“Hehe, sanitation is critical in a food processing plant. When I was the head, without exaggerating, there was not a single bud in the entire plant!” As if the spring breeze just blew by, all of the sudden, the rigid face returned to its former day liveliness.
Jiang Chen shrugged, extinguished the bud, and followed him to the trashcan to throw it in the bin.
“Now that I have purchased the company, I will inject one million into it. I demand you to restart production within half a month. I just want to ask one thing, are you confident!”
“Yes!”
Seeing Zheng Hongjie shout out at the top of his lungs, Jiang Chen laughed and patted him on the shoulder.
“That’s the attitude! I trust you. Now go with me to the bureau to finish the process.”
“Hehe, boss, could I invite you to lunch after the process? I don’t have a lot of money, so I can’t treat you at a restaurant.” The thirty something man forced a laugh.
Regardless, he wanted to invite the person that gave him a second chance for a meal to express his sincere gratitude. It was the tradition of his hometown, and his insistence throughout his life.
Slightly unexpecting it, Jiang Chen immediately laughed.
“No problem!”
He noticed out of a sudden that the abjected man’s chest finally rose up.
As if he received a new life.