The following days saw Cao Cheng with more money but also busier than ever.
Aside from his usual routine, he now frequented the stock exchange.
He gradually entered the stock market, building his positions in batches, specifically targeting those volatile "demon stocks."
Fortunately, many of these high-flying stocks had made headlines, and Cao Cheng could recall them from memory.
Some had already been suspended from trading—like Renhe, which halted in April. The news he remembered suggested it would be suspended for a year before relisting, only to skyrocket by 1,600% the following year!
Too bad he missed that ride.
But it didn’t stop Cao Cheng from strategizing. After all, he still had stockings to fall back on, right?
Langsha!
Can’t blame men for loving stockings—they’re not just for looking and playing with; they can even be used for robbery when you’re down on your luck.
And in the stock market? They make for perfect demon stocks.
Buying in at 4 yuan now, by early next year, it would take just one week to hit a peak of 84!
Now that’s demonic.
No wonder it made the news.
And honestly,
there were way too many of these headline-grabbing demon stocks and bull stocks.
Cao Cheng’s dilemma wasn’t whether to buy but which to buy first and which later to maximize profits.
Of course,
strictly speaking, Cao Cheng knew nothing about finance, so he avoided leveraging loans, margin trading, or other fancy instruments.
Even without those, if he could just roll his 5 million in the market once, it’d come out as an astronomical sum. Why bother with leverage?
One misstep could alter the details, leaving him not just empty-handed but potentially trapped in a scheme, losing everything.
Even if he blew up his account, it wouldn’t crush Cao Cheng—he’d bounce back eventually—but it’d be a massive waste of time.
So,
after careful consideration, Young Master Cao decided to play it safe.
No leverage meant the worst-case scenario was getting stuck in a position. But with the 2006 bull market looming and the indices so low, who could trap him?
...
A month later,
he was down to less than 50,000 in cash.
On the bright side, his "emotional value" had surpassed 900!
Just under 100 more points, and he could do a 10-draw.
Life was looking up.
“Xiao Cao, your dad still not back?”
Early one morning, he ran into Aunt Wang at the neighborhood gate. She was always concerned about the Cao family.
Cao Cheng smiled. “Aunt Wang, has your youngest son decided whether to retake the college entrance exams?”
Aunt Wang scowled. “You little brat, I’m just showing concern. Don’t be ungrateful.”
Cao Cheng replied, “I know you care, but I care about your son too. Why assume I’m ungrateful? Could it be you’re projecting?”
“I—I—I—”
“What? Speechless? Is it because you don’t understand what ‘projecting’ means?”
“You—”
“Then have your son come talk to me. He’s a high schooler—even if he didn’t get into college, he should at least be able to argue with me.”
“My son got into college!” Aunt Wang’s face flushed as she shouted.
“Sure, sure, absolutely—technically, vocational college counts. Can’t argue with that!” (No offense—Old Cao only finished middle school. No disrespect to vocational colleges—just trying to survive here!)
“Pfft—”
This round?
Cao Cheng dominated.
Eight wins in a row now.
This time, he harvested 25 emotional points.
He’d noticed that repeatedly provoking the same person yielded increasing returns, as their rage stacked daily like a buff.
The more layers, the more negative emotions erupted.
Cao Cheng walked off, swinging his thermos with a swagger, while Aunt Wang kept feeding him negativity.
Lately, she’d been his top contributor.
The reigning queen of salt.
Without her, he’d never have hit 900 points—700 would’ve been the ceiling.
Thanks, Aunt Wang.
May your son retake the exams and get into a great... vocational college!
“What’s there to be proud of? Pah!” Aunt Wang spat once Cao Cheng was out of earshot.
A neighbor tried to console her. “Honestly, why provoke him every day? Young folks are quick-witted. You’ll never win an argument.”
“No way, absolutely no way!”
Aunt Wang refused to believe it. “Just wait—I’ll put that brat in his place sooner or later.”
She’d never lost a fight in her life, especially against youngsters. Who could last three rounds against her?
Only the older widows stood a chance.
Yet here she was,
humiliated by some greenhorn.
It left her fuming, replaying imaginary arguments in her head, always winning in her mind.
The infuriating part?
She kept losing in reality.
Just seeing his face threw her off her game.
Her household had been gloomy lately, her son trembling under her constant scolding.
Such motherly love.
Indirectly, her son contributed 10 emotional points to Cao Cheng.
...
“Stop him!”
Just as he reached the square,
a chase unfolded before him—a classic “you can run but you can’t hide” scenario.
A man in a baseball cap, clutching a woman’s purse, sprinted frantically.
Close behind, another man shouted, “Thief! Stop!”
Trailing even farther was a woman, struggling to keep up.
A robbery!
Cao Cheng instantly grasped the situation.
See?
This was the luck of the chosen one.
Do ordinary people stumble into things like this?
Only a protagonist like him could.
That said,
let’s be real—
things were pretty chaotic back then.
Twenty years later, such incidents would be rare, making headlines if a bunch of kids on scooters caused trouble.
But now? At night, the streets teemed with punks.
In his dreams, Cao Cheng had worked at a tech firm in Pengcheng. In 2007, living outside the city’s core, he’d had three phones snatched in broad daylight.
Veteran colleagues told him, “If you haven’t been robbed in Pengcheng’s outskirts, you haven’t truly been here!”
Inside the city proper? “If you haven’t been pickpocketed, you haven’t lived here.”
That’s how bad it was.
Sanjiang City wasn’t much better, especially around the train station—pure chaos.
A major transit hub, flooded with migrants.
...
“Get outta my way!”
“Move, damn it! Everyone, scram!”
The robber, waving a knife, charged straight toward Cao Cheng.
Naturally—Cao Cheng had just arrived at the square’s exit.
Perfect timing.
And with the robber’s demeanor and threats, it felt straight out of a novel.
The protagonist’s moment had arrived!
Whoosh—
His thermos flew through the air.
Cao Cheng had skills, but he wasn’t reckless enough to try disarming a knife-wielding man.
This wasn’t a movie.
In real life, if someone had a blade, you ran.
Throwing the thermos was already bold.
Thud—
It smashed into the robber’s face.
The impact sent him sprawling.
Cao Cheng stepped forward and executed a masterful martial arts move, pinning the robber down with his knee on the thief's neck...
In an instant, the robber was subdued.
[Ding~ Negative emotions +2]
[Ding~ Negative emotions +2]
[Ding~ Negative emotions +2]
[...]
The robber was completely dazed.
He could barely catch his breath, unable to utter a single threat—only waves of negative emotions kept surging.
Screaming inwardly: Can't breathe, can't breathe!
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
nto another world, I bought a slave for the first time, never expecting the silver wolf girl to be so cute... Lin Feng: I know it's cold, but you don't have to sneak into my bed! Yuna: Just sharing body warmth, if you dare do anything naughty, I'll definitely...
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
tions: attribute allocation, analysis, proficiency, and simulation. Specializing in mechanical alchemy, from crafting sorcerous battle armor to handcrafting mechanical maidens, his mechanical legion conquers endless realms... Relying on his wits, he begins with a student-teacher romance, wins over a female director, enslaves a female assassin and a underworld queen, becoming the husband of a Grand Duchess... He enslaves the Goddess of Magic from the divine realm, developing his power simultaneously in both the Wizard World and the Realm of Gods...
