Chapter 161: Interview

Working at a foreign company was simply too sought-after. Just as Li Wensheng finished joining the queue, more people arrived successively to line up behind him.

By nine o'clock, three long lines had formed in the lobby of Stone Company. At that moment, three foreigners walked in from outside.

The three foreign devils went up to the second floor. Soon, a young and beautiful woman came down from the second floor and called the first four people in line to go upstairs for their interviews.

The interviewing process was extremely fast. In less than ten minutes, those four people came back down; some wore downcast expressions, while others looked excited.

Before long, it was Li Wensheng's turn, and he was called up to the second floor along with the three people ahead of him.

Arriving at the first room on the left side of the second-floor hallway, the woman told the last three people to wait and only let the first person enter.

As soon as that person stepped inside, the woman closed the door, leaving the two who wanted to eavesdrop on the interview deeply disappointed.

Though they could not hear a thing, Li Wensheng heard everything clearly.

Yet, after listening for a few sentences, Li Wensheng stopped paying attention.

That person was being interviewed for the position of deputy manager, whereas he was applying for an ordinary staff position.

The first person came out quickly with a dejected expression. The second person also finished quickly, looking excited.

The third person took a bit longer—five minutes passed before he emerged, though his expression was also dejected.

"Mr. Li Yanqi."

Hearing the pseudonym he had provided, Li Wensheng walked toward the door.

Entering the room, he sat down on the chair in the middle. Behind the long table opposite him, the man seated in the middle among the three foreign devils asked in French, "Sir, what is the current price of cotton in the securities market?"

Li Wensheng instantly grew vigilant, his eyes quietly scanning the room.

He had overheard fragments of the previous three interviews. Although their applied positions differed—deputy manager, accountant, and supervisor—the beginnings of their interviews were identical: first asking about the applied position, then the educational background, then experience, and finally posing different questions tailored to the specific role.

Yet, in his case, the very first question was about the price of cotton. It was utterly bizarre.

Seeing that Li Wensheng remained silent, the bearded foreign devil in the middle furrowed his brow and asked, "Sir, you... do not understand... French?"

The foreign devil asked this sentence in Chinese, his delivery stuttering and halting.

Having already surveyed the room without spotting anyone else or hearing any other movement, Li Wensheng immediately replied in French:

"Pardon me, I was just spacing out. I am not familiar with the price of cotton in the securities market. Sir, I am merely here to apply for an ordinary staff position."

Li Wensheng's fluent French, entirely devoid of any Chinese accent, pleased the foreign devil, but Li Wensheng's answer made him somewhat uneasy.

"Even ordinary staff must handle trading. If you understand nothing about it at all, you are not qualified for the job."

Originally, this interview could be considered over, but Li Wensheng's fluent French made the foreign devil reluctant to let him go.

"How would you suggest reducing the risks of trading in the securities market?"

For this question, the foreign devil did not expect any surprising answers from Li Wensheng. As long as Li Wensheng could offer a simple response—such as understanding and analyzing the market from multiple perspectives—the foreign devil would keep him.

"Manipulate the market."

Li Wensheng's blurting out of this answer stunned the foreign devil in the middle, while the other two foreign devils looked at Li Wensheng with intense interest.

In the current financial markets, both domestically and abroad, systems and regulations in many areas remained imperfect, and the ways to make money were simple: buy if you thought it was undervalued, or short it if you thought it was overvalued.

Li Wensheng's method of making money—the kind employed by major institutions in the scam markets of the twenty-first century from his past life—filled these three foreign devils with immense curiosity.

On the left, a young woman whose skin was as white as jade and who looked like an elf uncrossed her legs and inquired, "Why manipulate the market?"

Faced with the woman's curious gaze, Li Wensheng felt a pang of regret for blurting that out just now. He was merely interviewing for an ordinary staff position; there was no need to stand out so conspicuously.

Having felt the regret, Li Wensheng had no other choice. He had already aroused the interest of these foreign devils; if he failed to continue, their suspicions would only grow stronger.

With the words on the tip of his tongue, Li Wensheng suddenly thought that since he had already captured their interest, he might as well reshape the persona of 'Li Yanqi'.

A flash crossed his eyes, and Li Wensheng leaned back into his chair, crossing his legs and radiating an air of utter arrogance.

"In securities trading, no matter how much preliminary research one does, it only reduces risk by a fraction. Fate is fickle, and no one can predict if a drastic shift will suddenly occur. To drastically reduce risk, one can only manipulate the market. Manipulation implies control. If you can achieve absolute control, it means: I want the stocks to rise, and they rise; I want them to fall, and they fall."

The three foreign devils seemed to take the woman as their leader, and seeing her begin to question him, the other two remained silent.

The woman continued to ask, "Specifically, how does one manipulate it?"

"Nowadays, the public's only channel for receiving information relies entirely on newspapers. As long as you cooperate with a few newspaper offices, you can manipulate stock prices. You buy a stock, then find a financial expert to write a fake news article arguing from various angles that the stock is undervalued, and have several newspaper offices publish it. At that point, a certain portion of investors will inevitably follow the newspaper reports and buy the stock. Their purchases will drive up the stock price, which in turn will attract even more people to buy it, driving it up further. Once it reaches an appropriate price point, we sell off. Then, we find another financial expert to write an article refuting the previous expert's arguments. When those investors mass-sell, we can then execute a short position. A few newspaper offices can only induce a portion of investors; if we can cooperate with all the newspapers in the Concession, we can guide every single investor. At that moment, the money in their pockets will effectively be ours."

The woman's face was filled with astonishment, and then she immediately shook her head.

"It is impossible for all the newspapers in the French Concession to cooperate with us."

"A few newspaper offices will suffice. Profiting from a portion of the investors is already a considerable sum."

"But they will only fall for it once. Newspapers can only fool them temporarily; market feedback will eventually wake them up," the woman immediately countered.

"Naturally, you cannot keep fooling them forever. You must mix the true with the false—slip in one fake story among several true ones so that the public will simply assume we made a mistake rather than doing it on purpose."

Recalling the woman's earlier question about manipulating the market, Li Wensheng paused, smiled with disdain, and said, "My dear lady, it seems you do not understand finance. Even someone like me who has never studied finance knows that finance yields far more exorbitant profits than war."

Li Wensheng held up a single finger. "As long as you pull off one major profit, the company's annual profit statement will look exceptionally glorious."

The woman truly did not understand finance; her comprehension of the subject was even more naive than Li Wensheng's.

She turned to look at the two foreign devils beside her, and seeing them nod slightly, she shifted her gaze back to Li Wensheng.