"Damn handsome! You earn in Peng City and you spend in Peng City, not a cent do you take home."
The landlord aunt chided as she checked the payment information on her phone.
Wang Ye put away his phone, a wry smile on his face, but he said nothing.
From his recently received salary, apart from paying the landlord aunt a rent of 4500 RMB, his bank account balance was left with a little less than 10,000 RMB.
Don't think this is a lot of money. As a deputy general manager of a small company, his expenses were quite substantial.
Apart from supporting his monthly socializing, dining, fuel, parking fees, etc., he still had to send 5,000 RMB back home.
In order to live a little more decently, he didn't choose to live in a cheaper farmer's house, but opted for an apartment in a relatively good location.
Although this residential area was a bit old and the buildings looked a bit dilapidated.
At the very least, it was a residential district, with a closed courtyard, decent greenery, a parking lot, and even a small kindergarten.
He had long wanted to bring his wife and child to Peng City; his daughter had just started kindergarten, and if she could attend the one in his residential district, it would be very convenient.
But after discussing it with his wife several times, they gave up on this idea.
There was no other reason.
Just one word, poor!
He hadn't bought a house in Peng City yet; without a house, what sort of home could there be? Was he to let his wife and daughter come and stay in a rented house with him?
"Well, little Wang, tonight I'm going out for dinner and karaoke with a few sisters. Come with us, I'll introduce you to some friends. Don't stay home all the time; men need to socialize and get to know more people. Otherwise, how will you ever get ahead?" The landlord aunt looked up at Wang Ye and laughed.
The aunt was a local in Peng City and although she was only in her fifties, she had long stopped working.
She lived off the rent of a dozen houses she owned, and her life was quite dull and tasteless.
Wang Ye immediately shook his head and declined, "No, Sister Li, I have a report to rush tonight. I'll need it for work tomorrow. Next time, I promise!"
"You, young man, you're so handsome; if you could let loose a little, you wouldn't be like this now. Alas, you deserve to struggle!" The landlord aunt grumbled, swung her bucket-size waist, and left confidently.
Leaving Wang Ye behind, smiling bitterly without a word...
...…
In the year 2021, Wang Ye was thirty-eight years old, almost reaching an age of no doubt.
He worked at a foreign trade company as a business vice-president, managing dozens of subordinates.
Don't be fooled by his take-home salary of just more than 10,000 RMB a month now, this was actually due to the impact of the global epidemic, and the company's export business had dramatically reduced.
There was no way around it; as a vice-president, he had to take the lead to "voluntarily" propose a pay cut, and only took the most basic salary.
In previous years, when the foreign trade situation was good, he could earn 200,000 to 300,000 RMB a year.
In his thirties, a man's prime time, with experience and maturity, coupled with his distinguished appearance and gentle demeanor, he was greatly adored by his female subordinates and clients.
Even the landlord aunt had suggested to him several times to stop being stubborn...
However, Wang Ye had quite a bit of pride deep-down and each time he either pretended not to understand or found an excuse to decline the landlord aunt's invitation.
From the outside, Wang Ye seemed to live a good life.
He was a corporate executive, earning several thousand a month, living in an apartment, and had a Lexus ES200, known as the "Gentleman Thug, Beastly Performance, Highway Lightning"...
In Peng City, this was already considered a fairly decent life.
But who would know the hardships behind it?
Wang Ye's wife lived in a small fourth-tier city in Central Plains back at his hometown, living with Wang Ye's parents. Their house was quite spacious, a large suite with four bedrooms and two living rooms.
She had a decent job as a primary school teacher.
The income of teachers in small places naturally couldn't compare with that in large first-tier cities.
In Peng City, public primary school teachers might earn two to three thousand a month, but back in his small hometown city, they were only making three to four thousand a month.
However, the good thing was the two long vacations each year and the work was relatively relaxed, which made it convenient to take care of the children.
The reason why Wang Ye chose to rent an apartment in a residential area was to make it easier for his wife and children to come to Peng City for a family reunion every summer vacation.
If it was just this, then it would not be a big deal; most people's lives are like this, right?
After a few years, there might be a chance for a promotion and a raise, and then there would be an opportunity to bring the wife and kids over.
Wang Ye had already registered as a resident of Peng City, and he originally planned to first buy a house, and then through the policy of direct family registration, his wife and children's household registration could also be transferred, and then the whole family would become "new citizens of Peng City".
The course of life would go on like this, ordinary and uneventful, but also happily and warmly.
But Wang Ye was not content!
Some say that a person will despair three times in their life.
Once is when you realize your parents are just ordinary people;
Once is when you admit to yourself that you are just an ordinary person;
And the last time is when you admit that your child is also just an ordinary person.
Right now, Wang Ye is facing the second despair, but he refuses to admit that he is just an average person. He wants to struggle to change himself and his family's fate!
If you're going to play, then play big!
For this, in 2015, he took out all the savings at home, a total of one million RMB!
This amount was originally planned to be used for buying a house, and all of it was taken out.
He further pulled together one million through channels such as credit cards, JD Gold Bar, WeChat Loan, and entered the stock market with this two million without any hesitation...
In the beginning, because it was a big market, you could make money by buying any stock.
Wang Ye's initial capital of two million quickly became two million and four hundred thousand.
In less than a month's time, he had earned over four hundred thousand!
During that time, Wang Ye felt on cloud nine while walking, as making money seemed to be such an easy thing...
He even considered, should he resign and become a full-time stock investor?
Four hundred thousand per month amounts to more than five million a year!
And this isn't even considering compound interest. If luck is on his side, making tens of millions a year is not a dream!
Unfortunately, just as he finished writing his resignation letter and had not yet submitted it, the stock disaster came...
At first, Wang Ye, like countless stock speculators, believed that it was nothing more than the so-called "pull-back".
Stock market terminology, after plummeting, it would rise again!
As long as he did not sell, the losses on the books were just a number, not an actual loss.
As a result, after another month, the two million four hundred thousand became just over one hundred thousand...
Wang Ye got really scared, even if excluding the initial profits, wasn't that a net loss of one million!
The remaining money was barely enough for him to repay the bank loan, and the other one million completely lost!
This was the money to buy a house, the entire savings of his family
When he was making money before, he would check his phone dozens of times a day, and every time he saw the bright red "today's net profit and loss" figure, he would grin happily.
But in the past month, he looked at the stock APP on his phone less and less each day.
Because he was afraid to see that green "prairie"!
But despite fearing the inevitable, he solemnly unlocked his phone and clicked on the Galaxy Securities APP.
He took one look and then painfully closed his eyes...
There was no fluke, the full position of that stock, it still dropped limit today!
He lost over one hundred thousand again.
By this point, Wang Ye, who had been numbed by the losses, did not care much about the loss of tens or hundreds of thousands a day - it was just a number to him.
He did not think about how to repay this loan.
Because thinking is useless!
He lay down on the sofa, closed his eyes, lost in thoughts, staring blankly up at the ceiling.
...
As the sky darkened, he mechanically got up to boil a pot of water in the kitchen and tore open a bag of instant noodles.
After a few minutes, the noodles were ready, and he took the bowl back to the living room.
He opened the fridge and took out two cans of chilled beer.
Because the room was so small and there were no guests in the house, there wasn't even a dining room or a dining table.
He sat on the sofa, bent over and started eating the instant noodles on the coffee table.
The room was getting quite dark but Wang Ye was too lazy to turn on the lights.
Recently, there have been frequent talks on the stock market forum about people "eating noodles with the lights off," just like Wang Ye's current situation...
He himself felt too stifled and gloomy in the room, so he casually turned on the Tik Tok APP on his phone, intending to watch some short videos to lift his spirits.
Just as he opened TikTok, a low and magnetic voice came on.
"I thought at eighteen, I could carry my dreams, go to places I've never been before, take a chance, complete the big dream of my youth with a pure heart."
"I thought at twenty-five, I would be on top of the world, become someone with a promising future in the eyes of others, be able to take charge of my own direction, make those around me yield, make my parents laugh with joy."
"I thought at thirty, I would join the elites, no longer lose sleep over a few pieces of silver, no longer suffer behind people, no longer retreat embarrassingly."
"But that once fearless spirit was forever lost by me, in the precious year of eighteen..."
Listening to this, Wang Ye sobbed quietly.
He once had many opportunities, he would not have lived like this if he could seize one of them.
Back when he was eighteen, he too had such dreams!
...
After finishing a bowl of instant noodles and two cans of beer, Wang Ye, who usually had a good capacity for alcohol, felt dizzy today.
Perhaps he drank a little too quickly.
His head was spinning, feeling quite uncomfortable.
Without even taking the time to freshen up, he staggered to his feet, pushed open the bedroom door, and fell onto the bed, falling into a deep sleep...