ZS | Chapter 25

《Same role, can't beat him, want to top, what do I do?》

There were plenty of helpful netizens slacking off at work on weekdays, and the post got over a thousand likes in minutes. The pinned comments were: Believe me, lie down and you'll open the door to a new world (*▽*); RUSH; Mount Song Shaolin Temple 2025 enrollment plan【image】.

Gu Zheng searched for RUSH and felt this thing was unreliable; he looked at the Shaolin Temple enrollment brochure again, and his age had already passed the limit; then he could only…… Impossible, absolutely impossible!

No, wait, that wasn't right. I hadn't even agreed to be with Zhuo Hang yet, thinking about this now was a bit too hasty.

But if Zhuo Hang confessed, should I accept?

If he confessed and I just accepted, how cheap would that be, unless he was willing to compromise and take the bottom position, I would agree.

Didn't that solve the problem.

Gu Zheng deleted the post, feeling that he had come up with a solution that hundreds of netizens couldn't think of. He really was a genius.

The loft was small but had everything it needed, with a storage cabinet and a semi-open kitchen as soon as you entered, and a spacious living room farther in. Gu Zheng drew the curtains, moved the coffee table aside, flattened the folding sofa, and rolled around on it twice.

Very good, fitting two men lying down was no problem.

Zhuo Hang said he'd arrive at 6, and there were still 5 minutes left. Since he had been pressed for time in the morning and hadn't washed his hair, Gu Zheng hurriedly turned on the water heater and went into the bathroom to shower before the water had even warmed up.

Just after he finished showering, the doorbell rang.

Gu Zheng didn't dry his hair, deliberately leaving the water droplets hanging. He picked up a thin shirt, buttoned only two buttons, and opened the door.

Zhuo Hang froze at the door. Gu Zheng thought he had already dazzled him, and kept preening, but Zhuo Hang asked, "Got slippers?"

Gu Zheng: “……”

Zhuo Hang changed his shoes and came in to sit on the sofa. His straight back leaned slightly back, both hands resting casually on the armrests. The spread-out sofa seemed specially designed for those long legs, neither filling the space completely nor feeling cramped.

There was no water dispenser at home, so Gu Zheng took two cans of Coke and sat beside Zhuo Hang. Zhuo Hang reached out to take them, Gu Zheng pulled his hand back, Zhuo Hang raised an eyebrow, as if asking: What do you mean?

Gu Zheng tucked his wet hair behind his ear, his clothes not properly worn and one shoulder half exposed. It was plain: I was seducing you.

Zhuo Hang moved a little farther away and said with a cold face, "The heating in this apartment isn't very good. You'd better put your clothes on first, then blow-dry your hair, so you don't catch a cold."

Gu Zheng: “……”

Gu Zheng dried his hair, took a hair dryer and blasted it, his cheeks puffed up with anger.

Seeing him like a blower was rather amusing, and Zhuo Hang took the initiative to start a topic for the first time. "This apartment's layout is不错."

"Right? I thought so too." Gu Zheng never learned his lesson, and as soon as someone gave him a way down, he took it, soothed by a single sentence. "My dad said that if you rent, you still have to pay rent, so you might as well buy it outright. When the day comes that I no longer work in Lanhai, the house can still be sold for cash; but my mom said the real estate market in Yucheng wasn't doing well, and renting was more cost-effective than buying."

"You say, should I rent this apartment or buy it?"

Zhuo Hang modestly said, "I haven't studied the property investment sector much, but just from analyzing this apartment, I can still give some investment advice."

Gu Zheng sat over and listened attentively.

Zhuo Hang said, "From the location and supporting facilities, this place is in Yucheng's core area, with relatively large room for appreciation, and the supporting facilities in the white-collar business district are complete, transportation is convenient, and it can improve the living experience. But the apartment's property rights term is relatively short, its appreciation potential is relatively low, and the developer's strength is average. The community is dense and the greenery rate is low. So in the Yucheng real estate market, this apartment has no advantage compared with other developments."

"From an asset-allocation perspective, the room for housing prices to rise is limited, the liquidity is poor, and the holding cost is high…… Compared with other channels, it has almost no advantage. For example, if I held stocks with 10 million, my investment return rate could reach 10 to 20 percent, and after 3 years I would at least have 13.3 million; but if I used 10 million to buy property, the yearly appreciation rate generally wouldn't exceed 10 percent, and there would also be property fees, depreciation fees, transfer fees, and other costs, so after 3 years the discounted value would be at most 13 million."

"So, Auntie was right, renting really was more cost-effective than buying now."

Gu Zheng took a sip of Coke and said, "Though what you said makes some sense, this money was given by my parents, and if I can have it for nothing, why not. Honestly, I quite want to have a place of my own."

Zhuo Hang: “……”

Back when they were talking about gold, Gu Zheng asked 163 questions, and in the end said he had 250,000; now they were talking about property, Gu Zheng asked and asked, and in the end said it was money from his parents.

No matter how formidable the business dealmaker was, he couldn't use professional knowledge to interfere with a layman whose subjective will was extremely strong.

Zhuo Hang decided he wouldn't talk to Gu Zheng about investing anymore.

"I just asked my uncle, the actual controlling shareholder of Longwan Commerce is Bi Haonan." Zhuo Hang got back to the point.

"Bi Haonan, CEO of Haonan Industrial?"

"Yes."

"Fuck, is this news accurate?"

Last time at the bid, the two had been at each other's throats, and Cheng Shun favored his nephew, so it was understandable that he wouldn't tell Gu Zheng the truth. But saying the controlling person behind Longwan Commerce was the CEO of Haonan Industrial was as unreliable as saying Ant Lishen was controlled by Alibaba's Ma Yun.

Haonan Industrial was the largest property developer in North China, with a market value of over 10 billion, and Bi Haonan's two garden estates were worth over 100 million. How could such a well-known entrepreneur throw away a bright, legitimate future and go do money-laundering business?

Zhuo Hang said, "My uncle had no reason to lie to me."

Shorting a stock meant betting on a drop, and short sellers could short with capital, and of course shareholders could also inject capital to fight back. Compared with Haonan Industrial's assets worth over 10 billion, the little money the two of them had was just a drop in the bucket; short sellers could write reports and use public opinion to pressure them, and of course Haonan Industrial could also carry out a public-opinion counterattack. Compared with a public relations department of dozens of people, Zhuo Hang, alone and outnumbered, was hard-pressed to match them.

In the face of powerful capital, the short sellers had no chance to show what they could do at all.

Gu Zheng puffed up with anger. "A chance finally came, and I still can't do it."

Zhuo Hang thought about it and said, "Not necessarily."

Since they had already asked about Longwan Commerce, if there was no solution, Zhuo Hang had no need to come here.

Gu Zheng asked, "How do you mean?"

Zhuo Hang said, "Father originally thought someone would take over the mall in Xiangcheng and the shopping center in Beishi, so he applied for Zhuoshi bankruptcy restructuring, but he didn't expect it was Bi Haonan's setup. In order to buy out Zhuoshi at a low price, Haonan Industrial secretly worked with investors, and no capital was willing to take over Zhuoshi's mall in the court auction. Last week, Bi Haonan talked to Father about a low-price buyout, Father didn't agree, and because of this he even argued with Mother."

"These past few days I've been checking Haonan Industrial, and I found that in order to get Rongyuan Group to acquire its subsidiary Nueteng Wood Industry, they were shorting another wood industry company."

Gu Zheng cursed angrily, "Bi Haonan launders money, slanders competitors, and even does hostile takeovers. He's a fuck scumbag, a disgrace, a beast!"

There was temptation in Zhuo Hang's low voice. "Then does Hero Gu want to join me in punishing the wicked and eradicating evil this time?"

Lust was a knife hanging over one's head. Gu Zheng had learned his lesson the hard way, and he moved a little farther away to block out the temptation, coughed, and said with forced calm, "What do you want to do?"

Zhuo Hang said, "Haonan Industrial is shorting Zongxing Wood Industry. Come with me to Beishi on Saturday. We'll first inspect Zongxing Wood Industry's operations, then it's not too late to work out a strategy."

Last time, the investigation into Baiyuan New Materials had gone wrong and almost caused a huge disaster. Bringing Gu Zheng along this time was to make responsibilities clear. With assets worth over 100 million at stake, Zhuo Hang couldn't afford the consequences if the ship sank, so it was better to make things clear beforehand.

Gu Zheng nodded, then suddenly thought of something. "Buffett said, ‘History will definitely stand on the side of long-term investors,’ short-term trading is riskier, why don't you do long-term?"

Zhuo Hang said, "Long-term investment has lower risk, but it emphasizes the compound interest effect and reacts more slowly to market fluctuations. Hot money is high-risk, but it can reap huge speculative profits in the short term."

"Zhuoshi has to complete its asset restructuring by the end of June. Now that neither of the two malls has any capital to take them over, I need to get 300 million within half a year."

"Long-term investment isn't realistic, I can only do short-term trades."

Gu Zheng asked, "What if you crash doing short-term trades?"

Zhuo Hang admitted, "If small-cap stocks don't work, switch to hot stocks; if hot stocks don't work, switch to newly listed stocks; if stocks don't work, speculate in futures; if one investment doesn't work, switch to the next. As long as the right decisions outnumber the wrong ones, I can survive."

It had to be said, Zhuo Hang dared to think, dared to do, dared to fight, dared to push forward. He was a man with real guts and charisma. Gu Zheng admired his courage, but investing wasn't something guts alone could make successful.

"Your investment method is too aggressive. The cost of trial and error is too high."

Zhuo Hang stated the facts, "High returns will always come with high risk. You fear losing money, I fear it even more. If the investment fails, Father will go to prison for unpaid debts."

"Trust me, and work with me."

There was a craving for money flashing in Zhuo Hang's eyes, and that intense craving forced Gu Zheng to think: money was the prerequisite for their cooperation.

In every negotiation, Zhuo Hang was too rational. At this moment, Gu Zheng finally realized that perhaps the only one who had fallen was himself.

Gu Zheng was impatient. Just a moment ago he had been thinking about keeping Zhuo Hang hanging, and now he wanted nothing more than to force Zhuo Hang to confess to him.

He had already asked twice, "Do you like me?" Asking again was meaningless.

Gu Zheng stiffly changed the subject and, in a more roundabout way, probed, "Do you have someone you like?"

*

Before, in the Japanese restaurant, Zhuo Hang had uncontrollably reacted to a man, then fled after getting the money; on a snowy night in Xiangcheng, Zhuo Hang's desire was ignited again, and while smoking on the balcony and watching the snow, he had fallen for Gu Zheng; just after coming in and seeing Gu Zheng, who wasn't properly dressed, he had almost reacted again, and in order not to be discovered, he could only coldly tell him to dry his hair.

Zhuo Hang knew Gu Zheng had feelings for him. Before, he had used his looks to seduce him because there were no feelings involved; now he kept his distance because he himself was also in disarray.

Because Gu Zheng had always held an irreplaceable place in his heart, but it wasn't pure, Zhuo Hang had reduced this feeling to: caring too much, and thus producing an illusion similar to love.

Gu Zheng asking him "Do you have someone you like" was obviously an attempt to push the relationship forward. If it had been before, he might have given a vague answer, and kept dangling Gu Zheng for the sake of profit; but now, he didn't want to brush Gu Zheng off, because the debt on his shoulders was already heavy enough, and he had neither the time nor the energy to manage a relationship, nor could he afford to invest in Gu Zheng, this variable.

In his world, there was only not wanting it, or giving it everything, no middle option.

Zhuo Hang paused only a second before saying, "No."

Gu Zheng's Adam's apple rolled, as if he were a little nervous, and when he spoke, he was halting. "Then……"

Zhuo Hang was afraid that if he opened his mouth any later, Gu Zheng would ask, "Then do you want to date me?" so he preemptively said the cold words, "Gu Zheng, we are in a cooperative relationship. If there are other feelings mixed into the partnership, it will be very hard to keep cooperating. I think you should understand that."

Gu Zheng first widened his eyes, then knitted his brows tightly, and for several seconds he couldn't say a word.

Zhuo Hang kept emphasizing, "Gu Zheng, I need money, I need a partner."

These days, he had repeatedly told himself that he and Gu Zheng were only in a cooperative relationship.

They had been entangled for so long because he needed a partner.

In order to repay the debt in the short term, he had to temporarily set aside personal feelings.

Gu Zheng turned his head away and said, pretending to be relaxed, "I was just asking, why are you explaining so much."

His tone was very relaxed, but his voice was not very steady.

Before, every time he looked over, his eyes had been bright.

At this moment, Zhuo Hang could clearly see that there was no light in Gu Zheng's eyes.

In the apartment, only the sound of the water heater working could be heard.

No one knew how long had passed before Gu Zheng broke the silence. "I read the financial news. Baiyuan New Materials was doing new-type fireproof materials, the business was legal and compliant, and it didn't involve fraud or falsification."

Paper could not wrap fire. The facts hidden by lies would eventually be exposed.

Gu Zheng's eyes burned with intensity. "You made a mistake in business investigation. Why didn't you tell me the truth, and still drag me into this?"

"You knew it was still in time to stop then. If Zhongwei injected 300 million and we still failed to short, my loss would be far more than 10 million!"

"You keep saying you need a partner, but the premise of cooperation is trust. I trust you, but there isn't a single truthful word in your mouth, and all you want is to talk profit with me!"

Once one side lost credibility, the cooperation was doomed to continue.

Gu Zheng had read the news and already knew what he had done. After he came here, Gu Zheng had given him a chance, but it was he who didn't talk about feelings and only talked about interests, insisting on turning the cooperation into a dead end.

All explanations were sophistry, better to keep silent.

Zhuo Hang placed both hands behind his back, his fists clenched.

Since they couldn't cooperate, there was no need for him to stay here.

Zhuo Hang stood up and walked to the door, putting on his shoes very, very slowly.

So slowly that he wanted to become the storage cabinet by the door and stay here.

The loft had a 5-meter-high ceiling, but Zhuo Hang felt as if the high ceiling was pressing down on him until he was almost out of breath.

His emotions were completely controlled by Gu Zheng, in heaven one second, and in hell the next.

The illusion of love made him want to roll back into the room and hold Gu Zheng, and say, "I think I like you."

But fate gave him no chance to regret it, he had already overdrawn his credibility.

Zhuo Hang rose with difficulty, slowly stepped out of the apartment, and before closing the door he heard Gu Zheng say, "I'll go to Beishi on Saturday."

Gu Zheng's eyes were blank, his voice very soft. Zhuo Hang didn't know whether he was saying it for him to hear, or saying it to himself. "You want money, I want it too. Who doesn't like money, nothing is more important than money, why go against money……"