Chapter 20#

As soon as the words were spoken, the entire room fell silent. Even Scarface, who was busy groping the student girl, raised his eyelids and looked at the young man sitting on the sofa.

The sharp gaze from across the room was almost tangible. Chen Yuanming lowered his head slightly, took a breath, and reached for the pack of cigarettes on the coffee table.

A light yellow box with gilded letters, a standard pack of ten 555s. Chen Yuanming had smoked them before. He remembered that Director Sun of the Finance Bureau loved American cigarettes, which led him to smoke 555s and Hiltons for a while. He didn’t particularly like them, but the price and status were there. In the next twenty years, smuggled cigarettes from Europe and America would be endless: Marlboro, Camel, Dunhill, Rothmans… Along the entire southeastern coast, countless smuggling ships were carrying thousands of boxes of private cigarettes to be dumped in the mainland, making a fortune.

Compared to color TVs, which were high in cost, large in volume, and low in profit, this was the real money-making business.

Had he never thought of it? Not really. Starting from the third shipment, he and Scarface would also stay for a night in that small courtyard in Chenzhou on their way back. What kind of goods would they unload there? Why were the waterproof measures on the truck he drove getting better and better, while the load was getting lighter and lighter? Even thinking further, China’s land is so vast and there are so many cities, why did they choose the Changsha-Wuhan line…

He had always seen some things, but he had never been interested in thinking about them carefully.

And recently, his dealings with Wang Haitao were completely under control. Scarface’s indulgence in his words, his mind disturbed by that strange nightmare, and the hope within reach made him relax his guard, ignoring the real behind-the-scenes boss of this smuggling group who might “be a character” in the future. He had always wanted to be low-key, to be humble, to use this place as a springboard to easily break away, but what was that saying… a cone in a bag, how can it not break through the bag.

Tapping the cigarette case lightly with his fingertips, Chen Yuanming raised his head. The man opposite him still had a sharp gaze, which was even a bit cold at this time. Taking a deep breath, he smiled.

The cigarette case was placed back on the coffee table. Chen Yuanming shook his head. “Brother Ma, you’ve overestimated me.”

Ma Lei’s eyes narrowed. He picked up the cigarette case on the table and took one out. The beauty beside him immediately took out a lighter and lit it for him. With an inhale and an exhale, a white smoke ring appeared between the two of them and then disappeared.

“Do you know what’s the strangest thing about you?” With a light tap, a wisp of ash fell into the crystal ashtray. Ma Lei’s voice was not loud, and it seemed a bit unpredictable in the lingering smoke. “It’s not that you’re too smart, nor that you’re too good at making money, but sometimes, you seem to be able to see the key to some things with just a glance. What a great ability, but you never show it off, as if it’s a matter of course.”

As he spoke, he pointed meaningfully at the cigarette case on the table and this luxurious and decadent room. “Do you see the trick?”

Chen Yuanming did not answer.

Ma Lei smiled. “You see it.”

Even if he was brainless, if he still couldn’t figure it out at this time, he would have truly lived twice in vain. Cigarette smuggling, official car pick-up, a small building hiding a beauty… Maybe some people were not familiar with these things, but they should have heard of the Xiamen case, right? It was almost the exact same route, except that in his previous life, Ma Lei was already in prison in 1994, while that person only started his smuggling business in 1994.

And the smartest thing about this man in front of him was that he never ran empty. When he transported Japanese color TVs, he would bring back some domestic goods at the dual-track price to ensure that his fleet made a profit on both trips. So what about selling smuggled cigarettes? Baisha from Changsha and Huanghelou from Wuhan were both top choices for smuggling domestic cigarettes. Had he not tried them?

If this continued, what a huge network he would weave, and how would he be swallowed by this huge network…

The expression on Chen Yuanming’s face did not change at all. He just said again, “Brother Ma, you’re mistaken. My plan is not this kind of business.”

“What else can make more money than this? Don’t tell me you want to run the Northeast line…” Ma Lei laughed at himself. “Or did I misjudge you? You’re not actually short of money?”

Chen Yuanming was silent for a moment and also showed a bitter smile. He suddenly found that in the face of such a character, concealment and cover-up would only arouse greater suspicion. It was better to be straightforward. Sighing softly, he shook his head. “Actually, I was planning to resign recently. My goal is in Shanghai.”

As soon as the words “Shanghai” were spoken, Scarface looked up in surprise. “Shanghai? You’re going to drive a car there too? With your thirty thousand and being single?”

Ma Lei did not immediately draw a conclusion, but stared at the other party for a moment and said faintly, “That little capital is not enough for a car, but it might be enough for something else. Shanghai… you want to speculate in stocks?”

In December 1990, the Shanghai Stock Exchange began operations. At that time, there were only eight stocks on the market, known as the “Old Eight Stocks.” These stocks soared several times as soon as they were listed, making some well-informed people target the profits of the stock market early on. In July of this year, a new stock exchange was also opened in Shenzhen. For Zhuhai, which was close at hand, the news spread even faster.

But this thing was too new, and it was purely money against money, with no physical objects to be seen, which was confusing. Ma Lei glanced at the young man opposite him with some surprise. This kind of gambling nature was not like this child’s nature.

“Pfft, is your brain fried?” Scarface also laughed, swallowing the red wine in his hand like a cow drinking water. “Isn’t this stock thing just a kind of lottery? In the end, the winner is still the dealer.”

From a certain perspective, the Chinese stock market in the first few years was indeed a casino, a game between big players, dealers, and thousands of retail investors. Many people became rich overnight here, but more lost their life savings, trapped by one bear market after another, unable to recover. In this era of stock madness, 99% of the stock investors who entered the market were indeed very gambling-oriented, more impulsive and persistent than those lottery players and gamblers. But that was not Chen Yuanming.

He had not experienced the stock market of this era, but he had attended night school and studied finance, and he had personally built his own wealth management company. Although he lost everything in the end, he had indeed read a lot of things, was familiar with everything about the stock market of this era, and was indeed confident that he could obtain his own huge profits in this dangerous area. He really needed money, not a little, not hundreds of thousands or millions, but an incomparably huge number. He wanted this money that was within his grasp.

It was just that this confidence had now put him in a dilemma.

Facing Chen Yuanming’s silence, Ma Lei smiled slightly, sat up straight, and stubbed out the cigarette in the ashtray. “Regardless of whether your words are true or false… are you telling me that this is just a springboard, and you have no interest in getting involved with us at all?”

Scarface also pushed away the student girl beside him, sat up straight, and the usual hint of banter in his small eyes was gone. The ferocious scar on his face twitched, looking fierce. The girls who were laughing coquettishly just now all shut their mouths sensibly and tried to shrink back, as if to avoid the terrifying sharpness of these two men.

Chen Yuanming tensed his back, which was soaked in a cold sweat. He had been forced to the end of the road. Before entering this house, he was just a peripheral shrimp, an insignificant small character. But after entering this house, he became a potential ally, or an enemy. Some things were just a matter of a single thought.

Taking a deep breath, Chen Yuanming clenched his sweaty fists and showed a small smile.

“Brother Ma, are you interested in hearing me tell a story?”