Chapter Ninety-Seven: The Hacker's Power

“George, put Bruce on the line.”

Chu Dong was a little speechless at George’s usual endless chatter and cut straight past him to the man among his people with the best computer skills, Bruce.

“Right away, boss. The great George will take care of it at once.”

This time George did not ramble. He called Bruce over from nearby at once.

Bruce was a bearded man from India. Like George, he had been Chu Dong’s classmate back in the United States, and the two of them had been with him even before graduation. Each of them possessed striking talent in his own field, and none of them wished to waste any more time in school. Spurred on by Chu Dong, they left early and plunged into real-world combat.

George was chiefly responsible for capital expansion, while Bruce handled the building of online platforms. As for Chu Dong, known as that miraculous young man from the East, he naturally became the boss and the leader of these odd geniuses.

“My dear Chu, what is it this time that you need me to do?”

Bruce’s beard trembled as he spoke, making him look especially amusing.

“Take the addresses I just checked and tamper with their browsers. Link them to our own website and servers. Build, as fast as you can, a stock trading platform that cannot be distinguished from the real thing. I want them to learn a proper lesson.”

Chu Dong did not need to explain himself too clearly. He knew Bruce understood exactly what he wanted.

“My dear, I need time. Quite a lot of it. What you want is not difficult in itself; the hard part is doing it without being discovered. So don’t rush me.”

Bruce naturally knew what the boss wanted. He thought it over and replied.

“I know. I’ll do my best to buy time. But you must also give it your full effort. Don’t let me down. You know I appreciate your abilities.”

Chu Dong knew that the harder the task, the more Bruce liked the challenge. But more often than not, Bruce pursued perfection so relentlessly that he was willing to go against orders, which was rather troublesome.

“I understand. I’ll do it.”

Bruce was a little helpless at the boss’s command as well. What could he do? He was being paid by the man. After hanging up, Bruce clapped his hands to gather the others.

“Ruth, the boss has a new assignment. Karl, come here, there’s work for you.”

Several people came over at his call. Stroking the beard on his chin, Bruce began assigning tasks.

“Ruth, start building a website that looks exactly like the Chinese stock exchange market. Remember, it has to be connected to the network, but it also has to run standalone. And in the end, every transaction must go to the boss’s account.

“Karl, take a few people and keep testing Ruth’s design at all times. Improve it constantly. It has to be identical to the real thing.”

By now, the people in England had completely turned their days and nights upside down. To adapt to the boss’s summons, they had even reversed their time zones. They threw themselves into their work, and Chu Dong, too, began making a series of preparations.

“Strong, send me a few more computers. Good configurations. The higher the better. Contact the telecom company for me; I want a fiber-optic line laid. Money is no issue. Speed is what I need. Don’t forget to bring some liquor too. Last time you people drank up all the good stuff, and I barely got any of it. Also, that car of yours is back in your hands now. I’ve been driving it all the time, and it’s getting a little too conspicuous. Can you get me another one?”

Lying on the bed and staring up at the ceiling, Chu Dong discussed the matter with Strong.

“Brother Dong, I don’t want that car anymore. You can keep it. Last time I checked, even the engine had already been swapped. Other than the body, nothing was original anymore. I’m not planning to invest in it again. If you really think it stands out too much, I can have it repainted and change the plates too.”

Strong wasn’t falling for it at all. He had just gotten himself a BMW, and though it was not the top model, he had no intention of walking into the tiger’s mouth again.

“You brat, next time don’t ask me to find you a matchmaker or anything. Handle that kind of thing yourself.”

Chu Dong tried to threaten him.

“Right now my car is my sweetheart. You already snatched one away from me halfway down the road. This time, no matter what, I’m not giving you the chance.”

Strong agreed to everything without hesitation.

Joking aside, Strong was actually quite efficient. Two hours later, not only had the computers been delivered, but the workers installing the fiber line had been brought up as well.

Li Youlan had gone to the company with Tan Xue, so Chu Dong was alone in the room. Strong looked around for a long while without seeing anyone, and asked Chu Dong curiously,

“Brother Dong, how come none of your wives are here?”

“Cut the nonsense. What wives? I haven’t even settled one yet.”

Seeing that none of them were there, Chu Dong also let out a quiet breath of relief. If so many people were here and Li Youlan came up to make a scene, where would he put his face?

“These drinks should be enough for you for a while. Mouse is out in the outer courtyard chasing girls and never comes back these days. I don’t know how he even met her. Damn it, he won’t even let me see her. Always acting all mysterious. I’d better hurry off and take a look. Maybe I can scoop up something while I’m there and bring one back myself.”

Seeing that Chu Dong was busy, Strong did not stay to bother him. After dropping off the things, he left.

Once the network line had all been installed, Chu Dong set up the computers himself. Strong had brought three, and with the one Chu Dong already had, there were now four laptops in the room, making it look somewhat cluttered.

Time to begin.

Chu Dong quickly logged into the stock trading website and observed the other side’s movements.

Under Wang Dongliang’s direction, a portion of Silver Dragon’s shares were sold off at the appropriate moment, and quite a lot was indeed trapped in the process. Then came a massive wave of sell orders, smashing Silver Dragon’s stock straight into the limit down. This could not help but provoke cries of astonishment. How could Silver Dragon, always so steady, suddenly rise and fall so violently?

That was how stocks were: people bought into strength, not weakness. Some retail investors, afraid of being trapped, immediately followed the trend and dumped their holdings. Silver Dragon’s shares kept falling, over and over again.

Chu Dong was sitting between four laptops now, his fingers striking the keyboard with crisp precision. The sharp tapping sounded like a symphony being played.

Apart from the sell orders Wang Dongliang had thrown out, Chu Dong swept up every retail sell order in sight. That steadied the nerves of the onlookers who had been waiting on the sidelines, and Silver Dragon’s stock price quickly stabilized.

After receiving the report, Wang Dongliang sneered dismissively.

“Keep smashing it. I refuse to believe he has that much money to fight me. Tell the people below that even if they have to buy high and sell low, they must drag Silver Dragon’s share price straight to the bottom. Once it reaches the lowest point, we’ll buy heavily. By then, it won’t be up to him anymore.”

Chu Dong quickly saw through the other side’s tactics. He adjusted his strategy in time, selling while sweeping up, going in and out in a matter of minutes, and making several million in price differences.

“Master, something seems wrong. We’ve already lost several million, but Silver Dragon’s stock is still remarkably strong. I don’t know where all this money is coming from. And now, aside from us, very few people are selling, while buyers are appearing extremely quickly. Most of what we buy comes from just one or two accounts, and the ones receiving it are also only one or two. Could someone be using our operation to make money?”

The man in charge was quite perceptive. As soon as he noticed the problem, he went straight to Wang Dongliang.

“What are you panicking for? How could there be such a coincidence? I refuse to believe anyone could be that precise and find the exact order book we’re dumping into.”

Wang Dongliang was too confident. Since he himself could not do it, he naturally assumed no one else could either.

Chu Dong’s operations were meticulous. He knew that Wang Dongliang was absorbing Silver Dragon’s shares at high prices while dumping the cheap ones, all in order to smash the stock down to the bottom. Once that happened, taking control would be much easier, and Silver Dragon might even end up in his pocket.

Having understood his plan, Chu Dong naturally would not let him succeed. He threw himself into absorbing Wang Dongliang’s sell orders, then marked up the price and sold outward. Every time he sold, it was in large blocks; ordinary retail investors did not have the strength to take them all at once. Only Wang Dongliang bought without hesitation. Even so, Chu Dong controlled things carefully, never allowing the shares Wang Dongliang held to easily exceed the safety line of 3.5 percent.

This made the man under Wang Dongliang’s command extremely uncomfortable. Every time he wanted to buy aggressively, there were no sell orders in the market. Every time he sold, they were quickly bought up. No one could stand such high-buying and low-selling for long.

“Master, perhaps we should pause for now. I feel something is off.”

Wang Dongliang’s man was truly conscientious. Though it was the end of October and the weather was pleasantly cool, he was sweating all over from running about.

“What now?”

Wang Dongliang frowned.

“Silver Dragon’s stock price has already fallen quite a bit, but every time we want to accumulate more, it becomes very difficult to find enough supply to satisfy us. I think…”

“What do you think? Hasn’t the price already dropped? Since it has, keep going. That just means our efforts weren’t in vain. Continue!”

Wang Dongliang cut off his subordinate and fixed his eyes on the glamorous woman on the computer screen.

In the afternoon, Chu Dong received a call from Tan Xue. Her voice was somewhat anxious.

“Have you seen it? Silver Dragon’s stock is already down to eleven yuan. If it falls below ten, the shareholders will definitely explode.”

“I’m handling it right now. If you think you can stop the price from falling, then go do it. If not, stay put and keep quiet. I’m busy here.”

Chu Dong held the phone between his shoulder and ear and spoke with his head tilted, his fingers never leaving the keyboard, his eyes locked on the screen with not a trace of distraction.

“Fine, big-shot.”

Tan Xue did not know what he was doing, but from his tone she could tell he had no time to explain. She tossed out that one sentence and hung up.

Wang Dongliang’s offensive was ferocious, almost regardless of cost. Chu Dong resisted with all his strength, and through the buying and selling alone, he had already made several tens of millions. Yet this still only slowed the stock’s decline; it could not stop it from falling further.

After all, Chu Dong was only one man, while the other side was an entire trading team. Even as a genius, he was busy to the point of near collapse.

“Boss, everything is ready.”

Just when Chu Dong was beginning to lose the fight, Bruce’s call came through. Those few words made Chu Dong collapse backward onto the bed as though all his strength had left him.

After resting for two minutes, Chu Dong climbed back up and answered George’s call.

“Now I’ll clean up the mess here. The rest is yours. Remember, squeeze him dry to the greatest extent possible. Give everyone twenty percent of the profits as a bonus.”

“The boss is wise. Leave it to the great George. Just wait for good news.”

George instantly became extremely excited.