"Dad, where are you? Are you okay?" Hearing his father's voice from the phone, Ding Xu almost jumped up in excitement.
"Xu, I am in Hangzhou now. I am fine, I just want to take a break. Remember, listen to your mom and don't call the police!" Ding Huai-guang's tired voice came from the phone.
"Have you borrowed high-interest loans to invest in stocks, and now you can't pay? That's why you suddenly ran to Hangzhou and couldn't even turn on your phone? Dad, you have to tell me the truth, otherwise I will call the police right away!" Ding Xu immediately voiced his suspicions.
"Okay, you win!" Ding Huai-guang was silent for a while, then reluctantly answered, "I will tell you the truth. What I am dealing with is even worse than borrowing high-interest loans!"
"What?" Ding Xu was surprised.
Then, from his father's narration, Ding Xu finally knew the truth: In April 2008, the Shanghai Composite Index plummeted from 6124 points to 2990 points, and then began to rebound. At this time, Ding Huai-guang's stocks had suffered heavy losses, edging close to being unable to pay the debt. Ding Huai-guang wanted to replenish the stock to reduce the cost, but he could not borrow any more money, instead he was constantly being chased by the creditors.
Ding Huai-guang felt that life was worse than death, but at that moment, a long-awaited surge of growth occurred in the stock market. On April 24th, 2008, with the favorable news of the stamp duty being reduced from 0.03% to 0.01%, the Shanghai Stock Index rose from 3278 points the previous day to 3583 points, a rise of 304 points, up 9.29%, almost reaching the limit. The media collectively exclaimed that the market had bottomed out and reversed, calling it a historically significant reversal of fortune, proving the government's determination to save the market, and ushering in a new era of the Chinese stock market.
Ding Huai-guang was also inspired by the day's market, believing that the stamp duty increase from 0.01% to 0.03%, back in May 30th of 2007, had now been reversed, proving that the bubble of the Chinese stock market had been squeezed out, marking the turn of the tide. With the market having fallen by more than half, there was a high probability of it reversing upwards; even if it couldn't, there should at least be a strong rebound of more than 30%. Therefore, he decided to fight the last battle, to turn the tide.
Unexpectedly, after the market fell below 3000 points, it only rose for a few more trading days, reaching a peak of 3786 points on May 6th, before resuming its downward trend and falling below 2000 points in September. As a result, the 50,000 units of capital that Ding Huai-guang had diverted from the company was reduced to only 27,000 in less than half a year, not only failing to reduce losses, but further increasing them!
Worse still, during the period from May to September 2008, Ding Huai-guang saw the losses get bigger and bigger, and his mentality was totally ruined. At this point, he was like a red-eyed gambler, continuously using the company's funds to replenish the warehouse, and constantly rising and killing, eventually sinking deeper and deeper into the mud, and eventually misappropriating a total of 1.6 million funds.
And on September 18, 2008, this 1.6 million funds, with the market falling to the lowest point of 1802 points, had only a market value of 600,000!
Seeing the losses getting bigger and bigger, and the creditors pressing for debt more and more frequently, Ding Huai-guang was so regretful that he wanted to jump off the building. Moreover, the amount of funds misappropriated was so large that Tang Beiming, the boss of the Machinery and Electrical Company, began to realize and suspect. Ding Huai-guang finally despaired completely. He thought that the market had crashed, and it was very likely to fall back to the 998 points a few years ago. Instead of letting the losses continue to expand, it was better to clear the warehouse as soon as possible and save some principal.
On September 18, Ding Huai-guang cleared all the stocks. Together with the money sold cheaply for cars and small shops before, a total of 1.1 million were collected, including 500,000 for creditors and 600,000 for the company's account to pay for a project, which solved the financial crisis of the company.
Even so, he still owed the company one million, becoming an undisputed "millionaire debtor"!
Fate seemed to be playing a joke on him. On the second day after he liquidated his stocks, September 19, 2008, the market surged! And on the next trading day, the Shanghai index rose 7.77% again!
In other words, if he had liquidated his stocks two days later, his stocks would have gone up twice and he could have recovered at least 200,000 losses.
At that moment, he felt that fate was blatantly oppressing him!
Ding Huai-guang was not a weak person, but those few days were agonizing. He felt guilty to his company, wife and son. He was too ashamed to go home or to work, so he impulsively bought a train ticket and went out of town to clear his mind.
"How could this happen?" Ding Xu asked, tugging at his hair with distress. "This isn't just a borrowing problem anymore; it's a crime. If the company finds out, he'll be sent to prison! Plus, I just read a similar story the other day. You did this to make a profit and even if you put the money back, it still constitutes a crime!"
"I know," Ding Huai-guang said painfully. "But I had completely lost my mind and all I could think about was that our family was going bankrupt and I had to take one last chance to turn it around..."
Ding Huai-guang's words, without experiencing the bull market, are hard to imagine. 2007 was an unprecedented bull market, and almost everyone who touched the stock market went mad and invested all the money they could borrow into the stock market, even selling houses, cars and blood. But 2008 was an unprecedented bear market. Those who remained in the stock market were unbearable to watch. As the market continued to break through integer gates, those who tried to bottom out and replenish their positions at a lower cost paid a terrible cost, and many people were scattered for stock losses.
"It's because I have sinned that I'm afraid you'll walk the same wrong path one day, so when you get into college this year, I'll let you study law." Ding Huai-guang added, "Son, remember, no matter what you do in the future, you must first understand the rules of the game. The law is the strongest rule of the game in the world. You never try to challenge it, otherwise you'll be like me! "
Ding Xu was speechless for a moment, his heart was in a mess.
Because he suddenly realized another thing, with his college entrance examination results, he could choose a better university, but his father insisted on letting him apply to Wuling University, such a second-rate two-year college. It must be because his father had begun to embezzle funds from his unit to buy stocks, fearing that things would be exposed and sent to prison, so he insisted on letting himself stay in Huai Ren to study, so that his father would be in trouble in case of anything, so he could take care of his mother who was not in good health and suffered several major blows in succession.
"Ten fried stocks nine losses! Son, remember, the stock market is like a big casino, it's a super meat grinder. In the future, you should never fry stocks, let alone borrow money to fry stocks!" Ding Huai-guang sighed heavily and solemnly warned, "Only in this way can you not be hurt by the dealers and the stock market, and not bankrupt like me!"
"Never fry stocks?" Ding Xu repeated the words with some bitterness, and sighed for a while before asking, "Dad, what do you plan to do in the future? Hide forever?"
On the other end of the phone, Ding Huai-guang smiled bitterly with reddish eyes, and he didn't answer his son's question for a long time.
Because this question, like a knife, pierced deeply into his heart.
His right hand tightly held the microphone, and his left hand unconsciously played with a bottle of sleeping pills.
Ever since a huge loss occurred in fried stocks, Ding Huai-guang started to have insomnia and had to take sleeping pills to fall asleep.
Today, in the room of a Hangzhou hotel near West Lake, he had counted three times. There were still 31 sleeping pills in the bottle, one a day, which could guarantee his sleep for a month.
Of course, if he swallowed all at once, everything would be relieved, no more prison disaster, and no more debt of one million. He had consulted the lawyer in detail. Because the money he misappropriated was used to fry stocks and not for family life, the mechanical and electrical company had no right to ask the court to enforce the property of his wife afterwards. And in order to prevent this day from coming, he had made preparations secretly, a month ago, he had secretly divorced his wife and transferred the house to his wife's name. In this way, the only property he left to his wife and children can be preserved...
Now other creditors have paid off their debts, only Tang Beiming's one million remains. He apologized for his death, which should appease most of Tang Beiming's anger?
Up in the heavens is paradise, while here down below is Suzhou and Hangzhou. With no regrets, Ding Huai-guang left this world behind him to journey to the heavens.
At this thought, Ding Huai-guang took a deep breath and smiled as he said, "Son, I won't shirk my responsibility; I'm a man after all! Remember, take care of yourself and also... take care of your mother!"
After finishing his sentence, Ding Huai-guang leaned against his bed and, his hands trembling slightly, opened the lid of the pill bottle.
Before making the call, Ding Huai-guang had already planned out all of his actions for the day and carried out each detail calmly - first, he wrote a suicide note declaring his failure in stock trading and loss of savings, leaving it on the table for the police to find. Then, he sent an email to his boss, Tang Beiming, titled "Beiming, I'm Sorry, Goodbye". In this letter-like email, he elaborated on the details of the incident and declared that the responsibility falls solely on him and his family are in no way involved. He also included the stock trading account and password, asking Tang Beiming to verify it by viewing the trade settlement statement. At the end of the email, he pleaded with Tang Beiming not to bother his family after his death or to reveal the truth to the public, to spare his son from the reputation of having a criminal father.
Ding Huai-guang sent a text message to Tang Beiming, reminding him to check the email and then turn off the phone again. He picked up the room phone that had been opened for long distance calls, and prepared to make a long-distance call to his wife and son respectively. During this time, he swallowed a sleeping pill that could relieve his family and himself from now on. Finally, he fell asleep in the sound of his family's voice.
So far, everything was going on as planned, and only the last step was needed, to swallow the pills with force into the stomach. The busy and tired life of this life can be over...
But why, after the determination, are there still some unwillingness and some resentment?
At the moment when the last moment of life is about to come, this unwillingness and resentment, like the smoke of the Gobi Desert, suddenly rises, making his fists so tight.
"Blinded by desires, I indeed deserve it! But those stock commentators and merchants who collude with each other to harm others, you will eventually be punished and will be helpless like me!" Ding Huai-guang muttered in his heart, cursing, and opened the lid of a bottle of mineral water and lifted the medicine bottle, ready to send it to his mouth.
But at this most critical moment, he suddenly heard a word from the microphone, and suddenly shivered, and the medicine bottle in his hand fell on the bed, and the sleeping pills were scattered everywhere.
But Ding Huai-guang couldn't care about the pills at this time. He opened his eyes and stared at the white ceiling, and then he reacted, and with all his strength, he shouted at the microphone: "What? What did you say?"