Chapter 39: Financial Strategy

In the three years since his rebirth, Li Yifei had bought a house in his hometown, opened a supermarket for his parents, acquired a courtyard house and a villa in the capital, and gained admission to the Capital University.

His initial goals had been realized step by step, and Li Yifei felt both grounded and content.

In his dormitory at Capital University, the biting chill of early spring outside the window could not dampen his high spirits. His fingertips danced across the keyboard, moving so fast they were almost a blur.

The ghostly blue light of the screen reflected on his young yet preternaturally calm face. The fan of the vintage IBM laptop before him roared desperately, like an overburdened old ox.

"This antique really belongs in a museum!" Li Yifei muttered.

He spoke silently to the computer: "Hang in there a little longer. Once I have the time to get something with better performance, you can retire..." He hit Enter, and a complex trading interface flashed onto the screen, showing several English stock tickers and massive holdings.

Li Yifei’s gaze, however, pierced through the screen, looking toward the eve of the 2008 financial storm. The "Wealth Harvest List" he had arranged chronologically was crystal clear in his mind.

What others saw as a bottomless vortex of panic during the economic crisis, he saw as the entrance to a gold mine with exact coordinates.

Others were fearful? He was greedy. To him, Buffett’s maxim was a prophecy about to be perfectly verified.

The window of opportunity was rapidly narrowing. He took a deep breath, summoned all his memories from his past life, and listed the names destined to skyrocket against the trend before the storm, along with their precise peak points:

Apple (AAPL)—currently hovering under $125, it would ignore the market's decline in the coming months and climb against the current, charging toward the $200 mark!

Google (GOOG)—the search giant’s foundation was rock-solid; the $400 range was an excellent starting point for leverage, with a target set directly at $700!

There was also Amazon (AMZN), Exxon Mobil (XOM)... behind every name was a locked-in, dizzying gain for the coming months. This was not a prediction; it was a script set in stone from the perspective of a man reborn.

The funds were already in place, like an army waiting to charge. The one billion sitting quietly in his account was the fruit of three years of meticulous planning. Now, these funds would all be transformed into the sharpest of spears.

He opened the leverage trading interface on Tiger Brokers and entered the commands with steady fingers. Five-fold leverage! The cold digits instantly magnified the nominal value of his holdings.

The margin line in his account was abruptly compressed, and a glaring red warning flashed on the screen.

Li Yifei remained indifferent. He clearly remembered that in the next three months, the stocks he had selected would turn into rampaging beasts, capable of crushing any risk calculations based on "rationality." This red warning was not danger; it was the inevitable exhaust flame of a wealth engine being supercharged.

In the days that followed, Li Yifei functioned like a precise machine, injecting his vast capital into the selected targets in batches.

Trading orders were quietly placed late at night, in the early morning, or in the gaps between classes.

In the classroom, economics professors analyzed the current market situation and forecasted future economic trends, while the students listened with rapt attention.

Li Yifei knew that the report he had submitted regarding the economic crisis had not been made public by the government, though he suspected they were making preparations in private.

He did not listen to the lecture like the other students. Instead, he slid his finger across the trackpad and pulled up his account overview.

In the corner of the screen, the figure representing his total assets was climbing with an almost aggressive posture, steadily crossing the 4-billion threshold and showing no signs of stopping, firmly pushing toward the 5-billion mark.

The prelude to the doomsday-like crisis in the eyes of others was precisely the foundation ceremony of his wealth empire. This sense of absolute control—being at the center of the storm while dictating its path—caused a silent roar of triumph in his heart every time the figures on his screen refreshed.

In May, the catastrophe finally arrived. Because of Li Yifei’s report, the country had made many preparations. Though there were still significant losses, things were proceeding in an orderly fashion.

Seeing this news, Li Yifei felt a sense of relief wash over him. He had fulfilled the wish he brought with him upon his rebirth: to save what he could from this disaster.

June approached, accompanied by the chirping of cicadas. Li Yifei’s total assets had, as expected, defiantly broken through the 5-billion mark.

He felt no attachment. Like the most cold-blooded harvester, his fingers flew, cleanly and decisively clearing out all his highly profitable long positions. The massive flow of capital instantly withdrew from the market like a receding tide.

But this was merely the beginning of his strategic shift. His gaze turned to the teetering giants of Wall Street across the ocean. Lehman Brothers (LEH), Bear Stearns (BSC), Merrill Lynch (MER)... these once-glorious names were now, in his eyes, bullseyes waiting to be precisely sniped.

The blade of leverage was raised again, this time in the direction of—short selling! Ten-fold leverage! The massive profits just realized, along with his principal, were transformed into a crushing hammer aimed at the heads of these financial crocodiles.

Only when the final short-selling order was confirmed did Li Yifei slowly lean back in his chair and exhale a long breath. Outside, the summer sun of the capital shone intensely, falling on his young face and reflecting a calm, weathered look entirely out of character for his age. The foundation for his road to ten billion had been laid; he was merely waiting for the death knell that was destined to ring throughout the world.

With the financial battlefield temporarily quieted, the rhythm of his life unfolded at a leisurely pace. Li Yifei drove his BMW to the Western Hills.

The newly purchased detached villa stood quietly on the hillside, surrounded by trees with a wide, open view. It took him two days to get everything ready.

A giant Sony LCD TV was unpacked and installed; a top-of-the-line desktop computer was placed in the study; the Italian leather sofa exuded a faint scent of new leather; the double-door refrigerator was stuffed with various drinks... He carefully arranged this "landing spot," his movements unhurried.

When the last item was in place, he poured himself a glass of ice water and stood before the massive floor-to-ceiling window, looking down at the pulse of the city below.

He spun the villa key on his fingertip before sliding it into his pocket. He still spent most of his time in that somewhat dilapidated university dormitory. It was convenient, simple, and allowed him to feel the warmth of the human world more clearly.

Meanwhile, the two-courtyard compound near Shichahai was also experiencing a rebirth. The construction crew had moved in, scaffolding had been erected, and amidst the dust, the old carved beams and painted pillars were being carefully stripped.

The foreman was a man in his fifties named Zhao—lean and capable. He brought a thick renovation budget to Li Yifei, who was supervising the site, his dark face showing a hint of nervousness.

"Boss Li," Foreman Zhao said, rubbing his hands together and handing over the budget, his voice dropping subconsciously. "Please take a look. All materials are the highest standard you requested, and the craftsmanship is top-tier—old techniques mixed with new technology. This cost... preliminarily calculated, it comes to this much." He held up two fingers, then flipped his hand to make an 'eight' gesture.

"Eight million." Li Yifei took the budget, his gaze sweeping calmly over the staggering unit prices: Hainan yellow rosewood, golden nanmu carvings, Suzhou-style handmade mortise-and-tenon joints, imported German smart home systems, underground server room reinforcement... He read quickly, almost without pause, and finally asked one thing coldly: "Has the three-million renovation fund from the agency been settled?"

"Yes, yes! The contract is signed, they’ve audited the plan, and the money will be here soon!" Foreman Zhao nodded repeatedly.

"Fine." Li Yifei handed the budget back, his tone as casual as if discussing the price of groceries. "I’ll transfer the remaining five million this afternoon. Keep a tight watch on the schedule and quality."

He looked up, his gaze sweeping over the busy workers and the old peach tree in the courtyard that needed special protection. "Especially the space and load-bearing of the underground server room, and the cooling ducts—don't cut any corners."

Foreman Zhao held the eight-million-yuan budget, feeling as if it weighed a thousand pounds. He looked at the suspiciously young client before him, whose indifference toward such a massive sum sent a shock through his heart.

Five million! To be transferred this afternoon? He hadn't even haggled! Foreman Zhao had been in the renovation business for thirty years and thought he had seen it all, but now his throat went dry and a thin layer of sweat broke out on his back.

He instinctively straightened his posture, his voice filled with a reverence he hadn't realized was there: "You can rest assured, Boss Li! Old Zhao will be at the site every day. I guarantee I'll make it look absolutely beautiful for you!"

Li Yifei nodded without another word, his gaze turning toward the foundation pit being dug deep in the courtyard for the future server room. The massive outline was already visible, and workers were using the thickest steel bars to reinforce the walls and floor according to the blueprints he had drawn himself.

In his mind, he could hear the low, steady hum of tens of thousands of graphics cards that would soon fill this space—mining rigs prepared for another digital gold mine yet to be born.

The genesis block of Bitcoin would arrive in early 2009. The computing power he needed had to be of a crushing scale from that very moment. This pit of reinforced concrete would be the silent fortress from which he would reap his first bucket of gold from the virtual world.

In September, the autumn wind, carrying the scorched smell of Wall Street, finally blew across the globe. The deafening crash of Lehman Brothers was like a funeral knell for the world.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average began a cliff-like plunge, the VIX volatility index soared, and newspaper headlines were filled with alarming terms like "Financial Tsunami" and "Centennial Crisis."

"Holy crap! This is terrifying!" In the quiet library, a male student pointed at the news on his computer screen, his face pale. "The U.S. stock market collapsed! My dad said several leaders at his company lost everything they earned over the past few years, and they're still in debt! Thank goodness... thank goodness I didn't listen to my mom and use my living expenses to play the market!" He patted his chest, looking terrified.

Another student leaned over, still shaken. "Yeah, who would have thought it would drop this hard? It’s a bottomless pit! I heard people abroad are jumping off buildings! This financial crisis is too horrific!"

"Horrific?" Li Yifei sat at his desk, his tone flat and waveless. On his laptop screen was the same real-time U.S. stock market data, but the cliff-like downward curve appeared to him as a cold and beautiful rhythm.

He had just refreshed his Tiger Brokers account overview. The cold light of the screen reflected in his calm eyes, illuminating a figure so large it was suffocating—Total Assets: 23.27 billion.

The ten-billion goal, achieved. It was even earlier than expected, but the stock market was still falling. Li Yifei was in no hurry to sell; he just watched, as it hadn't hit the bottom yet.

The massive figure in his account lay there silently, announcing a level of wealth unimaginable to a mortal.

Outside the dormitory window was the quiet campus of Capital University in autumn. The leaves of the phoenix trees were turning yellow, the distant library was brightly lit, and students were rushing along the paths with books in their arms, worried and busy about their GPAs, scholarships, and post-graduation jobs.

Li Yifei gently closed his laptop, shutting that ten-billion figure out of sight. He stood up, grabbed the books on his desk, and quickly left the library.

The lights in the corridor elongated his shadow. He walked with a steady gait toward the stairs, his leather shoes making a clear, rhythmic sound on the terrazzo floor.

*Tap... tap... tap...*

The sound of his footsteps echoed in the empty hallway—steady, constant, and possessing a near-metallic quality.

Ahead, the carved beams and painted pillars of the courtyard house waited for his final decision; the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Western Hills villa reflected the city lights; and the deep underground server room waited, ready to swallow the incoming tide of the Bitcoin flood.