Darkstone Code
Chapter 190 - 0188 Black October [Part 3]

Chapter 190: 0188 Black October [Part 3]

"Evan recently got a new girlfriend. I’ve met her, and she’s different from the previous ones. She seems like a ’bookworm.’ This time, I won’t oppose it!"

The investor standing by the phone was having a quite ordinary conversation with his wife, "We should focus our attention on our little candy and make sure she doesn’t turn into the type we don’t like..."

He kept talking to his wife about usual family matters, his voice very gentle.

Even though his wife didn’t understand why her usually impatient husband, who was often annoyed with her and their two kids, suddenly changed his attitude and started to care about their lives and the family, she thought it was a good thing.

The Lord has said, if someone suddenly realizes and begins to correct past mistakes, then he is a good person.

Being a bad person for even a minute is too much, but being a good person, one minute earlier is not too soon.

His wife listened to him and finally told him she had prepared a sumptuous dinner waiting for him, including steak, chicken fillet, and some fruits.

The investor said nothing, just listened, and after saying goodbye, hung up the phone, then lit a cigarette and headed to the rooftop.

After a long staircase and corridor, when he stepped from the dark hallway into the bright openness of the Yikou Exchange Building’s rooftop, the wide view gave him a sense of relief and ease.

For a brief moment, he didn’t want to die.

Yes, he was there to jump.

But he quickly convinced himself. He lit another cigarette, walked toward the edge while saying, "There’s no going back!"

There’s no going back. A simple phrase yet it severed his hope to continue living. As a financial investor, he, like most financial investors, possessed the same nature: daring and adventurous.

Making money with his own money, it’s hard to earn more in a day than the principal; that’s the threshold, the upper limit.

But using leverage through financing, the money he could earn in minutes could surpass his own principal.

Moreover, he was dealing with futures contracts—go big or go home. This is almost all financial investors’ craziest idea.

Many often hide this thought deep within, never letting it out because they know they can’t be sure whether it will bring construction or destruction.

Yet, the Federation’s financial market had risen continuously for six years, every stock climbing, just more or less. Except for the unlucky few who bought falling stocks or stocks that didn’t rise much, almost everyone was making money.

When friends around used a lasso to secure their necks and got better returns, when all the friends around used a lasso to elevate themselves higher, he wavered.

From ten times, fifty times, a hundred times, to the current two hundred times futures contracts, the enormous momentum from the snowball effect made it impossible to stop and impossible to return.

The incident more than half a month ago turned his years of efforts into nothing, and this time, it directly sentenced him to death.

He sat down at the edge of the rooftop and glanced down. Waves of dizziness made him nauseous, wanting to vomit, with the fear of death also playing a part.

The last contemplation was whether there could be a way to resolve these issues without dying. Then, in less than a second, he told himself it was impossible.

Debts of tens of millions were enough to crush him, his family, and his kids, suffocating them for this lifetime, maybe even for generations, as their creditors were banks.

The only solution now is suicide. Suicide can resolve these issues.

The funds he applied for from the bank were financing for financial investment activities, meaning leveraged funds. This money was for his personal investments, and his family didn’t get to enjoy the benefits, so naturally, they didn’t have to bear the consequences.

The lawyer would help them get rid of these problems. To make sure his wife and kids knew what to do, he specially wrote a will, wrapped it well in waterproof gloves, and placed it in his jacket pocket.

At this moment, with a cigarette in his mouth, he looked up at the sky. The azure sky seemed to have a magical power capable of purifying the soul.

He gently leaped forward, turning in the air, his gaze filled with nostalgia, fixated on the sky. He had a feeling he would melt into that blue sky.

Ten seconds later, with a loud thud, a life departed from this filthy and sinful world, piercing through the most fragile defenses in people’s hearts!

The three major trading houses and investors simultaneously learned of the incident. Immediately, the panic-driven sell-off that had just halted due to the President’s address resumed, and this time it was evident some people did it intentionally.

Remember, futures contracts allow you not only to bet on the rise but also on the fall.

Some institutions began short selling, openly and secretly. Some investors quickly closed their positions and reversed course. In an instant, a disaster born from despair turned into another kind of bloody plunder!

The defensive line was breached under the trend of various forces.

Half an hour later, the President’s Mansion issued another formal presidential order requesting the suspension of trading once more. The three major exchanges immediately respected the President’s wishes and stopped open market trading.

But this couldn’t stop after-hours trading. Even though people couldn’t see the prices fluctuating on the public screens, they were still frantically selling, trading, and matching.

The entire street went mad!

The next day, Tuesday, was also the last day of October. At the opening moment, the prices of all stocks shrank by at least thirty percent, with more than twenty stocks being delisted because their price fell below the minimum holding price standard. The real stock market crash was just beginning.

In a cafe on the second floor of Financial Street, Lynch and Vera’s gaze was briefly drawn to a corpse on the sidewalk opposite.

Vera quickly turned her face away to look somewhere else. This was the fourth jumping incident they had witnessed, and this street had already gone crazy!

The entire cafe was empty except for these two guests, making it feel as if they had the whole place to themselves.

"I’m feeling a bit uncomfortable, I need some time to process..." Vera lowered her head, looking at the coffee and pastry in front of her. What she actually thought about was her investments with Gap.

They had also invested heavily in stocks. All their continuous investments over the years had gone into them. The miserable scene here gave her a suffocating feeling as if someone was strangling her neck.

These stocks had always been managed by Gap. Ristone was a publicly listed company, and he was a financial inspector, able to get some insider information.

He would always just tell Vera how much they had earned, but never mentioned whether they had leveraged any capital. Vera felt it necessary to clarify this—it was her excuse for feeling unwell, but in truth, she wanted to make a phone call.

Lynch nodded slightly as Vera quickly left, moving so fast that her shoes almost couldn’t keep up with her. It looked like her ankle seemed injured, yet she didn’t stop, forcing herself out of Lynch’s sight.

Lynch picked up his coffee, watching those desperate people outside. Just then, something suddenly flashed past his eyes, followed by a loud "thud" at his feet. Some blood spurted onto the second-floor glass due to a massive pressure differential.

The thick blood slowly flowed down the glass, and Lynch craned his neck to look at the sidewalk—another figure still slightly twitching.

His mood didn’t change much; he was well aware that all those who jumped were essentially gamblers.

They utilized bank loans to invest, used company funds to invest, and even leveraged hundreds of times of capital to invest.

Facing the stock market crash, they didn’t even have the chance for forced liquidation, missing countless indexes.

They were betting—hundreds of times the returns if they won, and just a life lost if they didn’t.

Before today, people might not care about ten yuan or five yuan, but after today, even one yuan would be considered a blessing.

Lynch needed a local to help him, and he immediately thought of Jogriman.

He must have good friends in Bupen, and of course, Johnson the Director could work too. After all, now with the financial tsunami coming, everyone’s days are tough; he couldn’t support two families unless Lynch helped him a bit.

Mutual assistance is a duty of friends; there’s no reason for Lynch just to help him without him doing anything.

Thinking about some matters, Vera returned from the washroom. Her expression was a bit more relaxed, though her brows knitted slightly with each step. But it was clear that she’s in a better state now than she was before.

Got a clear answer from Gap, their investments hadn’t used loans or leveraged funds, their savings could support their investment activities, which brought Vera some relief.

Though losing quite heavily this time, at least they wouldn’t be burdened with a lifetime of unpayable debts.

The two sat for a while, watching the cruel street special performance for some time. Vera quickly adapted from discomfort, becoming somewhat numb to it.

Because there were too many, in the half an hour they sat, they had witnessed at least seven jumping incidents, with the entire city surrounded by various sirens, everywhere were jumping people.

"Such a tragedy!"—a woman, being emotional, couldn’t help but exclaim.

Lynch nodded, "This is actually a human-made disaster..." and Vera across him looked curiously, but Lynch didn’t plan to say more on this topic, he pivoted, eyed Vera’s already somewhat swollen ankle, "Compared to this, maybe we have some other things that are more important."

He stood from the chair, squatting halfway, patting his thigh, and smiled at Vera, "Come, let me see your ankle!"

Instantly, Vera’s face flushed red like she had just downed a big glass of strong liquor—red as can be!

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