After the Divorce, I Could Hear the Voice of the Future

[December 11th, Tesla, $713]

The chime rang out at dawn, and Lu Liang fell silent. If he remembered correctly, the day before yesterday Tesla's stock price was only $368.

Today is September 12th, less than three months, accounting for only 66 trading days, Tesla's market value had more than doubled with an increase of over 40 billion US dollars.

He realized he had neglected Tesla for far too long. The company that could be chosen by the state and supported by the municipal government of Modu, to be thrown into the pond as a catfish, was actually the real hidden big BOSS.

Combining this piece of information, he could reasonably deduce that Tesla's newly released Model 3 could perhaps be a legendary car on par with the Mercedes from back in the day.

"Mr. Lu, what's wrong?"

Wang Chuting was sensitive and quickly noticed the shift in Lu Liang's emotions, stopping her ambiguous advances.

After all, half her body was pressed against him; her 120-pound weight was certainly not light, she thought she was making him uncomfortable.

"It's nothing."

Lu Liang pondered for a moment, then got up to dress: "Let me know when you get to Beijing tomorrow. Once I'm done with my work, I'll introduce you to Luo."

Although he had never met Luo and had even driven Hammer to the brink of bankruptcy, he was Luo's creditor.

Even if Luo was displeased, he had to show him some respect.

Wang Chuting's expression suddenly turned frantic, thinking she had done something wrong: "Are you going to leave now, this late?"

"I've just thought of something, need to go to the office."

Lu Liang's slight smile curled, and he ran his hand over her semi-spherical body, reassuring Wang Chuting it was not about her, yet he didn't say much more.

This left Wang Chuting playfully pouting, secretly relieved.

Lu Liang stepped out of the bedroom and made two phone calls, one to Fang Shiyu and one to Wen Chao.

He asked the former to come by his residence to pick him up and requested the latter to contact Sun Yutao and Zhang Jing to go to the office and await further instructions.

Half an hour later, Fang Shiyu hurried over by car, and when he returned, he had been promoted.

He became the deputy chief of security. Other people would now take care of the security work; he need only concentrate on driving.

"Haven't rested yet?" Lu Liang glanced at the rearview mirror, where a black Mercedes closely followed behind.

The minivan often came with four security personnel. The 12-person security team worked in three shifts.

Fang Shiyu responded with a simple smile: "I was just about to rest."

As Lu Liang looked out at the night view from the window, he suddenly asked, "How's it going with that girl?"

"Which... which girl are you talking about, bro?" Fang Shiyu's face turned embarrassed, suddenly stumbling over his words.

"The one from the internet." Lu Liang said impatiently.

The advancement of communication technology had given countless young men and women a new channel for making friends.

When he first entered society, he himself had an internet romance and naturally could tell the reason behind Fang Shiyu's silly grin while holding his phone.

However, Lu Liang's own online dating experience wasn't particularly pleasant. Although the person was indeed a woman and not a tranny, she was just a woman.

When finally meeting in person, he had been cautious, asking Liu Mingxuan to call no matter what after three minutes.

If the girl was attractive, he would hang up Liu Mingxuan's call. If not, he would say he had an emergency and needed to leave.

"It's alright," Fang Shiyu grumbled in response.

"How long have you been talking?"

"Over three months."

"How far have you progressed?"

"What do you mean, 'how far'?"

"Texts, voice messages, or video?"

"Texts."

"..."

Lu Liang gave a look of disbelief and asked further, "How much have you spent?"

"Not... not much."

"Where did you meet her?"

"Momo."

"..."

Lu Liang knew it must have cost a pretty penny, so he only solemnly reminded, "Since we've known each other for so long, it's about time to take our relationship a step further."

Momo was once again mocked by him and Liu Mingxuan as the "concubine selection menu," where they would open it before deciding on a place to play and pick out a favored red-card technician.

Decent girls seldom appear on it.

Fang Shiyu hummed an acknowledgment and parked the car in front of the building's main entrance, "Brother, go ahead inside. I'll find a parking space."

Lu Liang nodded, without trying to persuade.

Teaching people, if they don't learn, then let events teach them, they'll understand after one occurrence.

Every man must go through a romantic ordeal at least once. If he gets deceived, consider it a tuition fee.

It's better to be cheated when you're younger. At least you don't have much money, the cost is limited, but the lessons last a lifetime.

Even if tormented by love to the point of life and death, he still had his brother here, who would certainly not stand idly by.

At 1 am, the building was brightly lit.

Modu was a financial city, and Lujiazui even more so a financial district. This building housed numerous cross-border enterprises.

There were people on duty around the clock, as well as people coming and going for work.

Lu Liang took the elevator to the company on the 32nd floor, where Wen Chao, Sun Yutao, Zhang Jing, and others had been waiting for some time.

Calling them over at this hour in the early morning, if not unexpected, meant dealing with international markets. Zhang Jing informed him that there were eight people on duty tonight.

If more hands were needed, they could call in people right now.

"No need," Lu Liang shook his head.

They passed through the security gate and headed to the trading room.

Lu Liang glanced at Tesla's stock price, 375 US Dollars, which had risen slightly by 2.42% due to the release of a new car today.

The increase was quite limited, as it seemed the market hadn't yet reacted, thinking that today was just an ordinary product launch.

Lu Liang looked at the Dow Jones Index; after a week of sideways adjustments, it was gradually regaining lost ground and once again challenging the 20,000-point level.

The blue-chip stocks he had bottom-fished and held were all rebounding from their lows and outperforming the broader market, with an average increase of 8% to 12%.

Lu Liang pondered for a moment, then turned to Wen Chao, asking him to pull up all the asset details. The three funds had started with a total of 6.1 billion US Dollars and had now turned into 7.315 billion US Dollars.

Going short on the Dow, short selling, and then going long, they had profited over 1.1 billion US Dollars so far, with 1.237 billion RMB and 1.568 billion US Dollars available in the account.

Lu Liang thought for a long time, looking at Tesla's current market capitalization of only 42.1 billion US Dollars. They held 757 million US Dollars in stock, accounting for about 1.8% of the market's circulating shares.

They were already approaching the top ten of circulating shareholders. If they were to increase their investment significantly, they would unavoidably appear on the prominent shareholders' list.

Once they were on the major shareholder list, they were almost exposed to the institutions on Wall Street.

However, the temptation to double their money in three months made Lu Liang unwilling to give up.

Tesla's trading volume was large enough to accommodate the influx of their capital.

Lu Liang thought for a long time, and then his eyes lit up with an excellent idea.

If he sneaked in, he might be targeted, so he decided to enter the market openly and magnanimously.

If his funds were affected, it would be a resounding slap to the proudly proclaimed free US Stock Market.

It would certainly have repercussions for the enterprises holding shares.

"Buy a large amount of Tesla stock. As soon as we reach 5% of the market's circulating shares, immediately issue a takeover announcement."

The approach Lu Liang had in mind was to increase the investment until they reached the 5% threshold for declaring a stake.

This would be his first stake claim in a company. Once the news spread, Tesla's stock price would definitely surge sharply.

When the news reached China, Tesla's fame would grow even further. After all, if he was staking a claim in the company, what reason was there not to buy the stock?

But for those new forces in domestic car manufacturing, it definitely meant adding insult to injury for families that were not wealthy.

Including in his own heart, Lu Liang actually didn't want to contribute to Tesla's prestige, but to make money, sacrifices were necessary.

Tesla might become a competitor in the future, but at present, it was a tool that could help him make money.

These two points did not conflict, and a rational investor should not be swayed by emotions.

While the benefits of declaring a stake were numerous, the only downside was having to lock up the investment for six months.

Lu Liang decided to take a gamble; in the following three months, Tesla's stock price would continue to soar.

After all, with Modu's super factory phase one completed next year and a significant increase in production capacity, he didn't need a huge rise in stock price, at least, it wouldn't fall too much.