sovbooks Chapter 13 | To Buy or Not to Buy, That Is the Question
Chapter 13 | To Buy or Not to Buy, That Is the Question
After finishing dinner, Cao Yisen tidied up the kimchi soup takeout box and put it aside. He then returned to his room, closed the door, and sat down at his desk.
He turned on the computer almost instinctively.
The screen lit up, and Cao Yisen habitually opened the homepage of a financial website. The interface was all too familiar; indices, futures, and exchange rates, displayed in red and green, looked like some old friend.
He then casually took out a notebook and a pen from the drawer.
This is a habit left over from the past.
No matter how late it is, whenever I have a spare moment, I'll glance at the market, scan the news, and observe the changing sentiment on forums, making a few notes as I go. It's not for immediate action, but to make sure I haven't missed any signals.
I scrolled down through the news articles on the finance page.
Macroeconomic data.
Technology sector.
Sentiment indicators.
Some people argued in the forum, some made confident predictions about the market trend, and some kept their mouths shut while losing money.
He looked at it very carefully, and his pen moved unconsciously on the paper, writing down a few keywords and drawing a simple arrow.
Then, the movement suddenly stopped.
Cao Yisen stared at those lines of text for two seconds, as if he suddenly realized something.
The next second, he raised his hand and slapped his forehead.
"Ashi."
He leaned back in his chair, looked up at the ceiling, and couldn't help but smirk slightly.
"We don't need to manage the trading anymore."
He was stunned for a moment when he said those words.
It's not regret, nor is it disappointment.
It's more like a...
The relief of being suddenly reminded.
He glanced down at the notebook on the table. The few lines written there were neat and even a little forceful. That was his former self, always tense, always focused on the next step. But now, that step no longer needed to be taken. At least, not now.
He had already closed his laptop and leaned back in his chair, ready to relax. But then he paused, unable to resist sitting up a little straighter.
"...Never mind, I'll take a look anyway."
He himself found it funny.
The page reopened, and this time he didn't click on those tech stocks he knew all too well. Instead, he scrolled down from his memory and found a few very marginal companies that nobody usually talked about seriously.
A company that retails physical games.
A company that operates offline cinemas.
The name was slightly different from his previous life, with an added suffix or a different way of addressing him, but he could recognize it almost instantly. When he opened the trend chart, he already had a clear idea of what was going on.
Let's move the timeline forward.
The lines are arranged one by one, seemingly without any fluctuations. Prices are at a low level, but the trading volume is starting to look a bit off.
He stared at the screen for a few seconds and couldn't help but chuckle.
"That's really true."
The atmosphere on the forum was similar to what I remembered: some people were criticizing the management, some were saying the company should have gone bankrupt long ago, and others were just watching the show, thinking that this kind of vote wasn't even worth discussing.
It's so familiar that it makes you want to sigh.
He didn't even need to flip through the pages to know what would happen next. It wasn't that the company suddenly improved, nor was it some fundamental miracle; it was simply that emotions had reached their limit and would eventually rebound.
He clicked on another one, in the same old industry, also left behind by the times, and also considered hopeless.
The trend almost perfectly mirrors history.
Cao Yisen leaned back in his chair and slowly exhaled.
It wasn't excitement, nor was it exhilaration; it was more like a confirmation of something deep within me. The world didn't fall apart because he got a second chance.
The name changed slightly, and there were some differences in the details, but the general direction remained the same. He didn't write down the code or take screenshots; he simply closed the page.
It's not the right time yet.
He pushed the notebook aside, turned off the light, lay down on the bed, and stared at the ceiling for a while.
The first pot of gold.
He hadn't thought about that word in a long time.
But he knew very well that those opportunities hadn't disappeared; they were just waiting in the same place, waiting for him to act when he really wanted to. And now, he turned over, suppressing those thoughts as well.
He lay there for a while, tossing and turning, but Zhou Gong (the Duke of Zhou in Chinese mythology) still hadn't come to him. So he simply turned over and sat up again.
Once a person becomes too clear-headed, it becomes difficult for them to truly stop thinking about anything.
Cao Yisen reached out and pulled the notebook back, opened it with a snap, twirled the pen in his hand, and his mind automatically entered "planning mode".
"Then let's make a simple plan."
He muttered to himself, "Just lie down little by little."
The pen tip touches down.
The first line has just been written—
Short-term goal: stable cash flow, financial freedom?
He stopped.
Looking at those words, his brows slowly furrowed.
"……wrong."
He shook his head. "I don't need money for food right now."
So I crossed that line out.
Rewritten:
Short-term goal: To successfully start the job and avoid being laid off.
This one looks much better.
He nodded and added another line below.
Mid-term goal: Don't be too conspicuous.
He chuckled as soon as he finished writing.
"What kind of goal is that?"
He thought for a moment, then continued writing.
Long-term goal:
The pen stopped.
He stared at those three words for a few seconds, and various images automatically began to pop into his mind—market, capital, opportunities, rhythm, and those things he had clearly decided not to touch.
My finger loosened its grip, and the pen rolled across the paper.
"Depend on."
He sighed. "Didn't we agree to just give up?"
"To buy or not to buy, that is the question."
"This is so hard, damn it!"
He simply drew a big question mark after "long-term goal," and after thinking about it again, he felt it wasn't enough, so he wrote four words next to it.
Let it go.
This looks much better now.
He took another look at what he had written, "Let it be," and nodded in satisfaction.
"right."
He affirmed to himself, "This is the attitude I should have now."
The next second, another thought uncontrollably popped into my head—
Or should we check Seoul housing prices beforehand?
He paused for a moment, then immediately raised his hand and slapped his forehead.
"stop."
"Stop."
"Cao Yisen, you've already tried your best to slack off today."
He shoved the notebook back into the drawer with a swift motion, as if bidding a formal farewell to some old habit. Then he lay back down on the bed, pulled the covers over himself, and wrapped himself in them.
My phone vibrated.
It was a message from Cao Rou who got her hair cut.
— Have you finished eating the fruit?
He replied very quickly.
— [He ate it and is still alive]
A few seconds later, another message appeared.
— [The ramen pot doesn't count]
He laughed and replied, "Okay."
Once the phone was put down, the room became quiet again.
Occasionally, some restless thoughts would flash through his mind, but he quickly suppressed them.
"We'll talk about it tomorrow."
He mumbled something indistinctly.
This time, he really didn't intend to think about anything.
The first day of "playing dumb" went fairly well.
He had just pulled the blanket up to his chest when there was a very soft knock on the door.
"Are you asleep?"
Cao Rouli's voice came through the door, her tone relaxed.
"Not yet."
Cao Yisen sat up and said to the door, "Come in."
The door opened, and she peeked in, as if to make sure he wasn't asleep, before walking in with a glass of ice water in her hand. She sat down on the edge of the bed, her movements natural, as if it were something she did every day.
"I'm thinking about something."
She asked, "If you were to live in Seoul in the future, where do you think would be most suitable?"
Cao Yisen paused for a moment, then smiled.
"So they're already researching settlements?"
"Not settling down."
She immediately denied it, saying, "It was just a casual chat, something I thought about beforehand."
She leaned against the headboard, crossed her legs, and spoke in a relaxed tone, as if she were really just having a casual chat.
"Commuting to and from Jiangnan is convenient."
She said, "But rent is ridiculously expensive."
"Then let's go to a place with a good subway line."
He responded smoothly, "It doesn't necessarily have to be Jiangnan."
"That's what I think too."
She nodded. "It's best to keep it quiet, not too noisy."
"Then let's go with an apartment complex."
He said, "Don't stay near the main road, so you can sleep at night."
She glanced at him and smiled.
"Why are you talking like you have so much life experience?"
"I've been brutally beaten down by society."
He was very serious.
"Come on."
She gave a soft hum, "You weren't like this before."
People change.
He said, "Especially after being allowed to slack off."
She was amused and nudged him lightly with her shoulder.
"Once you've settled on a job, you'll also need to consider your commute distance."
"My current goal is not to be late."
He said.
The two chatted back and forth, not trying to reach a conclusion, but rather slowly laying out their future lives and thinking about it.
Just then, a notification sound came from the desk.
It was very light, yet exceptionally clear in the quiet room.
Cao Yisen subconsciously turned his head.
The computer screen was lit up, and a new email popped up with a very straightforward title.
Big Hit Entertainment – Offer Letter
He stood up, walked over, opened the email, and quickly glanced at its contents. The position, department, and start date were clearly stated without any unnecessary words.
Cao Rouli was already standing next to him and had seen it too.
"This means... I've been accepted?"
She asked.
"Um."
He nodded. "It seems so."
"So fast?"
She was visibly taken aback for a moment, then laughed. "Didn't you just say you were going to give up?"
"Sigh... my attempt to give up failed."
He sighed. "Reality has dragged me back."
She couldn't help but laugh out loud and reached out to pat his back.
"That's good too."
She said, "At least I don't have to worry about where to work anymore."
He closed the email, sat back on the bed, but his expression didn't change much.
"I originally thought I could stay a few more days."
"You've been around long enough."
She joked, "Seoul welcomes you."
She handed him the water glass, and he took a sip; the temperature was just right.
The room fell silent again.
The night view of Busan outside the window was soft and reassuring, though the lights weren't bright. Emails lay quietly in the inbox, unannounced, but they all knew that things were slowly moving forward.