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Jiang Chijing saw Wu Peng’s photo on the news before. He looked like a university professor, gentle and refined, unlike an old fox that had been entrenched in the financial world for many years.

He once stood on the side of retail investors as well, analysing the prospects of listed companies on forums and leading retail investors in a battle against institutions. But less than a few years into it, he established his own company and took the side of leek harvesters.

Wu Peng, whose legendary feats were many, had gradually withdrawn to hide behind the scenes. Despite having been in the financial circle for so many years, he had never run into a tight spot; he was obviously a very careful man.

“The biggest shortcoming of retail investors is that it is easy to have a herd mentality. You should never follow trends when trading stocks. You must have your own thoughts and learn to study the various industry reports. Reports like those released by HX Management are professional enough to provide guidance and direction for retail investors.”

In the short ten-minute video clip, Wu Peng stressed to trust HX Management’s reports multiple times.

Ever since Zheng Mingyi instructed retail investors to buy into Old Timepiece’s stocks, its stock price had hit the daily cap for several consecutive days.

Wu Peng, naturally, wouldn’t wait idly like a sitting duck. He accepted many interviews with financial news outlets, slamming the retail investors for behaving irrationally.

“He’s bullshitting.” Jiang Chijing crossed his arms in front of his chest, watching the video feed of the interview on the screen. “Why is it that when people listen to you, they’re being sheep, but when they listen to him, it’s considered having their own thoughts?”

Classic double-standard behaviour.

Many people had blind faith in authorities. Even authorities themselves believe that they spoke the absolute truth.

“Not everyone is as incisive as you are.” Zheng Mingyi folded his arms behind his neck, lazily lounging against the back of the chair, as if the troublemaker that Wu Peng was criticising wasn’t him. “The traction that Old Timepiece has should slow.”

After all, Wu Peng was an industry expert. His words carried weight.

There were many so-called great stock-trading gods in the financial market. Some had actual knowledge, whereas some were full of crap. It was difficult for retail investors to tell apart who was more credible.

In addition, articles from a few major media outlets were fanning the flames, digging up dirt from thin air, smearing the God of Go, prompting some indecisive people to start to dump the stocks in their hands.

“Is this enough to make HX Management bleed out?” Jiang Chijing couldn’t help but ask.

“No,” Zheng Mingyi said. “But there’s no hurry.”

After saying that, Zheng Mingyi shifted his gaze from the screen, pointing to the board game on the office desk with his chin. “Aren’t you going to make a move, Jiang Jiang?”

A game was in progress on the wooden weiqi board. People who knew how to play weiqi could immediately tell that black was at an absolute advantage, forcing white into a dead end.

Jiang Chijing held a white stone in his hand, flipping it about between his thumb and index finger, not making a move for a long time.

He had called this pain onto himself.

He thought that after crunching through the Fundamentals of Weiqi, he’d minimally have some entertainment playing weiqi with Zheng Mingyi. But was this entertainment? It was practically a one-sided massacre.

And this guy seriously didn’t know how to appreciate it; didn’t Zheng Mingyi have any self-awareness of what his IQ was? Jiang Chijing had learnt to play the game for him, and this was how his kindness was repaid.

“Do you want me to give you a stone?” Zheng Mingyi tilted his head, looking at Jiang Chijing, asking.

“No,” Jiang Chijing said, expressionless.

He confessed that he wasn’t as brainy as Zheng Mingyi, but this wasn’t a reason for him to admit defeat so easily.

Five minutes later, Jiang Chijing awkwardly coughed, pointing to a pivotal black stone on the board, saying, “When did you make this move? Why don’t I remember it?”

Before Zheng Mingyi could answer, Jiang Chijing flung that black piece back into the bowl next to Zheng Mingyi’s hand, without batting an eyelid, saying, “You must have accidentally dropped it on the board, right?”

Zheng Mingyi looked at the bowl, then at Jiang Chijing, as if he’d never before seen such a shameless person in his life. He asked, amused, “What is this playing style?”

“It’s called ‘stealing the sky and putting up a sham sun‘.” Jiang Chijing bragged unblushingly, placing the white stone in the spot that the black stone previously occupied. (idiom for cheating audaciously)

Zheng Mingyi laughed softly and didn’t take it up with Jiang Chijing. He picked up another black stone, leaning over and whispering in his ear, “The way I see it, you’re missing a sun.” (asking to be fucked.)

Jiang Chijing naturally wouldn’t lose in a verbal contest. He airily replied, “Then why don’t you give me a sun.” (come and fuck me.)

Zheng Mingyi’s hand, in the midst of putting down the stone, paused. He placed the stone on the board and said, “Why, is Officer Jiang switching to a come-hither playing style now?”

Huh, this did remind Jiang Chijing; there was this play that he could use.

He observed the situation on the board. Even if he used the ‘steal-sky-sham-sun’ tactic, white was unable to defeat black. So, he rested his left hand on the root of Zheng Mingyi’s thigh, absently asking, “Where should I go next?”

His hand, of course, wasn’t resting there idly. His fingertips casually skipped over the orange fabric, causing the fabric at that area to rise and fall with his actions.

Zheng Mingyi bowed his head, watching Jiang Chijing’s hand. His entire person quieted down for a moment. Then, a short while later, he raised his head again, clasping Jiang Chijing’s left wrist, bringing him to set the stone down on a perfect strategic spot.

A hopeless game suddenly turned bright and optimistic. Jiang Chijing seemed to be able to see the black stones on the board collectively wailing in anguish, accusing their lord of being an incompetent ruler.

Now, it was Zheng Mingyi’s turn.

He picked up a black stone, eyeing a position on the board.

Jiang Chijing could immediately tell that this was another strong offensive step. With his left hand perched on the root of Zheng Mingyi’s thigh, he shifted over to breathe into his ear, “Are you sure you want to go there?”

His fingertips were slowly sliding upwards, and his exhale lingered, curling around Zheng Mingyi’s ear.

Jiang Chijing was clearly able to see Zheng Mingyi’s jawline tense as he clenched his molars. His hand adjusted its trajectory, placing the black stone on a painless spot.

“Jiang Jiang,” Zheng Mingyi said as he withdrew his hand, looking towards Jiang Chijing.

“Hm?” Jiang Chijing found that the difficulty of this board game seemed to fallen, and began to consider his next move.

“You know I can multitask,” Zheng Mingyi said.

“Mm-hmm,” Jiang Chijing continued to think.

“In my head, I’ve already torn off your uniform upwards of a thousand times over,” Zheng Mingyi said.

“What?” Jiang Chijing finally shifted his gaze away from the board, focusing his attention on Zheng Mingyi.

“The very moment you placed your hand on my thigh,” Zheng Mingyi said, tapping his head with his index finger. “I’d already pulled off your pants in here, leaving only your shirt. I cuffed you to the chair and punished you with the baton, daring you to continue being naughty.”

Zheng Mingyi’s tone when he said this was very flat, like he was merely reciting dishes from a menu.

It wasn’t as though Jiang Chijing hadn’t divested Zheng Mingyi of his shirt in his head, but there were never such specific steps.

Also, what on earth did this guy have to say it out for? Didn’t he know that Jiang Chijing’s head would follow along and visualise this as well?!

“You’re already distracting me just by sitting next to me,” Zheng Mingyi said unhurriedly, “if you keep on teasing me unfairly, then I cannot be sure that I won’t turn the thoughts in my head into reality.”

It was strange. Jiang Chijing’s first reaction should have been to warn Zheng Mingyi, but he was actually, seriously thinking about how these steps would turn out when brought into reality.

He would inexplicably feel that inmates had taken all the seats in the library. Everyone had their heads buried in their books, turning a blind eye to Zheng Mingyi violating him. He wanted to call for help, but he didn’t want to plead with the inmates, so his only hope was the security camera located at the library door.

The camera was only able to capture Zheng Mingyi’s position. In order not to be exposed, Zheng Mingyi would look at the computer screen with a serious look on his face, pretending that nothing whatsoever was happening. But under the office desk, his hand would be holding the baton, and then he would, in Jiang Chijing’s private part…

Stop.

Suddenly, Jiang Chijing discovered there was a very big difference between him and Zheng Mingyi.

Zheng Mingyi’s imagination was very specific; one was one, and two was two. Conversely, Jiang Chijing’s imagination would disperse to outer space; even in the backdrop of the control room, his colleagues leisurely drinking tea would appear on the scene.

Jiang Chijing swallowed his saliva, waving away the visual in his head, posturing, “You wouldn’t dare.”

Zheng Mingyi lowered his gaze without responding, as though earnestly considering what were the consequences if he really did it.

Jiang Chijing’s confidence abruptly wavered as Zheng Mingyi’s brain structure was different from normal people. Afraid that Zheng Mingyi would do something that would give him a heart attack, he hurriedly said, “It’s your turn now.”

Zheng Mingyi swept a look over the board and rapidly set down a black stone, immersing back into his thoughts.

The landscape of the board changed drastically. In the blink of an eye, white was once again being driven to a dead end. Jiang Chijing only realised at this time that Zheng Mingyi had actually been going easy on him before, but in actuality could have ended this game long ago.

However, that wasn’t the point.

Seeing that Zheng Mingyi’s thoughts were heading down a dangerous path, Jiang Chijing hurriedly caught his chin, forcing the other to look at him, saying, “Don’t get any wild ideas. Wait until you get out of prison, everything will be on the table.”

Zheng Mingyi looked straight at Jiang Chijing and said, “I just thought of a new play. I’ll be the prison guard, and you’ll be the inmate; how about that?”

Oh? Seems a little interesting.

Unknowingly, Jiang Chijing was brought off track.

“Your charge was indecent assault on a police officer and stealing the officer’s underwear. After being caught, you refused to confess and the officer could only use some unconventional methods.”

“What unconventional methods?” Jiang Chijing said. “I don’t care for cheap tricks.”

“Well,” Zheng Mingyi said thoughtfully, “depending on your performance, the officer will decide what action to take.”

“You can tie me up.” Jiang Chijing completely forgot that, just a moment ago, he was still trying to stop Zheng Mingyi’s imagination from running rampant. “But you ended up accidentally slipping up and I immediately took the chance to escape. Then, I tied you up and now you have to beg the inmate to let you off.”

Really, not too bad at all.

Jiang Chijing was very satisfied with this script.

“You even want to tie me up?” Zheng Mingyi arched his brow.

“And cuff you up,” Jiang Chijing said.

Both were well-aware of each other’s thoughts as they indulged in this wicked fantasy, but right at this time, a shout of “Idol” ripped across the vast sky, interrupting the eyes that they were making at each other.

“Idol, I checked it. HX Management has to return the stocks next Friday!” Yu Guang said, rushing up to the office desk.

“Is that so.” Zheng Mingyi restored an indifferent expression. “Then it’s about time to start the short squeeze.”

Here, Zheng Mingyi looked at Jiang Chijing again and extended an open palm towards him. “Jiang Jiang, lend me your watch for a moment.”

Jiang Chijing was baffled. “My… watch?”