Chapter 115: Who Ignited the Powder Keg?

This was a bundle of resident identity cards from a village in He-dong Province. 17.5 kilograms, 2,800 IDs in total. Added to this was a report by a junior reporter who knew nothing of the current state of the Shenzhen stock market. This report instantly tore a hole in the undercurrents hidden beneath the surface of the city. What followed was like a broken levee!

In fact, rumors had been circulating for a month or two that identity cards were required to purchase Shenzhen stock subscription forms. The clever ones had already been quietly hoarding IDs. Everyone had been tacitly, frantically stockpiling them in the shadows. It was just that this young reporter was oblivious to the situation; he thought the sudden appearance of so many ID cards was a novel curiosity, so he wrote about it in the newspaper.

The result was self-evident: those who had been stealthily collecting IDs no longer felt the need to be discreet. That very evening, a bizarre scene unfolded on the major streets of Shenzhen. On one side, a man roared into a "Big Brother" mobile phone, "Send me IDs immediately! The more the better, it’s the final stretch!" On the other side, an outsider walked with a bag of cash, stopping everyone he saw: "Sir, would you like to rent out your ID?" "Selling is fine, too!"

It even reached a temple in Shenzhen. A pilgrim, after kowtowing to the pantheon of gods within, stared for a long time at a monk striking a wooden fish. With cautious trepidation, he approached and whispered, "Master, would you like to sell your ID?" Facing wave after wave of such inquiries, the abbot finally had to come out to explain himself. Holding a string of prayer beads, he made a gesture and chanted loudly, "Amitabha, dear donors, our IDs were borrowed by others long ago..."

The topic of identity cards was everywhere. Meanwhile, all major road entrances to Shenzhen were completely gridlocked. Wave after wave of outsiders poured into the city like a rising tide. Overnight, guesthouses tripled their prices! Fast-food restaurants switched to "market prices"! When the city's homeless returned to their usual spots under overpasses and in parks, they found their "homes" entirely occupied by outsiders.

The Shenzhen authorities sensed the gravity of the situation. They held an emergency meeting overnight and announced strict control measures for the migrant population on August 6th. It was a scene identical to what Chai Jin remembered from his past life. All city entrances were sealed off; only those with special zone permits could pass through the checkpoints.

But could they contain the tide of people chasing wealth? Of course not! Many Shenzhen villagers began finding alternative ways to make money, charging forty yuan a head to lead people through holes in the wire fences!

Others used every vehicle they owned—bicycles, motorcycles, ox carts—anything with wheels was mobilized at the city outskirts to ferry people into town.

...

While everyone else was fretting over identity cards and how to enter the city, Chai Jin had already completed his layout amidst the chaos. He vaguely recalled that in his previous life, there had been over three hundred points in Shenzhen selling subscription forms—banks, securities brokerages, and the like. He had dispersed his eleven thousand people and stationed them near these three hundred locations. Minivans loaded with the hundred thousand IDs they had hoarded shuttled back and forth, delivering them to these points.

Chai Jin had organized his army under many "team leaders." To ensure that no one would buy the forms and vanish with the money, he appointed over two hundred leaders, all recruited through Dragon Lord. Each leader oversaw fifty people and operated on a partnership basis. Fifty people would buy a total of five hundred subscription forms. At one hundred yuan per form, it required fifty thousand in capital. Chai Jin would only provide each leader with forty thousand in cash, leaving the remaining ten thousand for the leader to front themselves. The reward for fronting this capital was a five-thousand-yuan "hardship fee" once the forms were collected!

Fronting ten thousand for just two days—if things went smoothly, the task could be finished in a single day, yielding a five-thousand-yuan profit. How could the leaders not work hard? Chai Jin was doing this to guard against bad actors.

On August 6th, Chai Jin gathered the two hundred leaders in his courtyard. Each took forty thousand from him. Afterward, Chai Jin pointed to the yard and said, "In a few days, I will have the cash waiting here to welcome you back! Go back and tell your people that I won't short them a single cent of their queuing pay, and I’ll even throw in extra red envelopes! Good luck to you all!"

The eyes of these leaders were filled with the fanaticism of wealth. Each of them wondered who this boss really was. How could he be so generous, and why had they never heard of him? But then, thinking of the arrangements made by Dragon Lord, they felt they had their answer. Could anyone in Dragon Lord’s circle be a mere ordinary businessman?

The two hundred men scattered to every corner of Shenzhen. That night, every bank point in the city capable of selling securities had dozens of people queuing up. Each of these people wore a strange red string tied around their arm.

No one knew who they were.

At 10:00 PM on August 7th, Shenzhen officially announced the purchase details for the subscription forms through newspapers like the *Special Zone Daily* and the *Economic Daily*. They would issue 500 million shares to the public and release 5 million lottery forms for new stock subscriptions. At the appropriate time, 500,000 valid forms would be drawn at once. One ID card could purchase one lottery form for one hundred yuan. One person could purchase a maximum of ten.

...

What did this mean? It was a declaration to the entire nation: "The probability of winning the subscription lottery is ten percent!"

One form for one hundred yuan! One person could buy ten; theoretically, if one bought ten, at least one or more would win! And winning a single form meant the right to buy one thousand new shares! Even a fool could see that this was a path to overnight riches!

In an instant, the outsiders and various factions gathered in Shenzhen were whipped into a frenzy! Around two o'clock that afternoon, those sleeping in parks and under bridges began heading to the sales points to queue. But when they arrived, they discovered that no matter how early they had come, there were already fifty people ahead of them.

These fifty people all had red strings tied around their arms, and a fierce-looking guard was maintaining order nearby. Everyone understood these were people hired by some boss to hold their spots. No one dared to provoke such a group, and no one dared to cut in line. The noise and bustle of the guesthouses and fast-food shops from the previous days suddenly turned quiet. Countless more outsiders were still pouring into the city through various channels.

With tens of thousands of people queuing, Chai Jin felt the tension. He set aside everything else, keeping his "Big Brother" phone on the table in the courtyard. From time to time, people would come to report the situation. The small courtyard felt like a temporary command post, and the atmosphere was suffocating.

Late that night, past eleven, Cai Weiqiang walked in carrying some braised snacks. As soon as he entered, he shouted, "It’s insane, they’ve all gone mad! I’ve been in the stock market for years, and I’ve never seen such a crazy scene! If this isn't controlled, something terrible is going to happen!"