56: Company layoffs

[Today's Intelligence (Level 1): At the lottery station east of Lingnan Subway Station, there is half a book of remaining scratch-off lottery tickets that can yield a total of 1300 yuan.]

Last night, he had barbecue and beer with three brothers, and what with the three-day holiday, he had been working hard until late every night.

After returning to the dormitory, Ye Su fell asleep shortly after lying on the bed, not seeing the refreshed intelligence until he woke up this morning.

"Half a book of remaining scratch-off lottery tickets can yield 1300, so that must be a profit of a thousand yuan. Is this inflation? Even the value of Level 1 intelligence has gone up?"

The barbecue stall at the school gate naturally has more affordable prices; the four of them ate to their heart's content last night and only spent a little over a hundred.

Turning his head, the system refreshed another Level 1 intelligence worth a thousand yuan for him.

Regarding this, Ye Su silently sighed: This money just keeps increasing the more I spend it!

"Holy crap!"

When he took out his phone to check today's gold price, Ye Su instantly threw the thousand-plus yuan from the scratch-off lottery tickets at the lottery station to the back of his mind.

"It dropped to 704 per gram!"

Without paying special attention, Ye Su hadn't felt much.

Now that he was counting on gold to make money and had been paying close attention to the gold price, Ye Su finally had a real feeling:

This market trend is truly a dramatic turn of events.

Half a month ago, the gold price was also 704 yuan.

In just eleven days, it surged to 747.9 yuan.

Then, in just the three days of the Qingming Festival holiday, the gold price fell back to 704 yuan again!

For such a market trend, the word [crazy] is the most accurate summary.

"With this gold price, I can make a killing again!"

...

During the first class in the morning, Ye Su didn't hear a word of what the teacher on stage was saying; his attention was basically all on his phone.

Yesterday, when he was with Chen Xinyi, Ye Su had already borrowed fifty thousand yuan from Old Ma.

As soon as the market opened, Ye Su familiarly deposited 180,000 yuan as a margin into his account and bought two lots of gold futures.

"It's already rising!"

When Ye Su bought it, the price was still 701.8 yuan, just as it had opened.

Seeing that the gold price was still falling after his purchase, Ye Su panicked instantly, ready at any moment to add more margin to the account.

But just as it fell to 701 yuan, the gold price trend began to rise; the change was so fast that even Ye Su was caught off guard.

When the second class ended, the gold price had soared from the lowest point of 701 yuan to 707 yuan!

Two lots of gold futures, totaling 2000 grams, with each gram rising by 6 yuan.

In one class, 45 minutes, Ye Su had earned twelve thousand!

"Before the Qingming Festival, the gold price was already able to rise to 747.9 yuan. This time, with the gold price hitting bottom and rebounding, plus the impact of international tariffs, it will definitely rise even more fiercely than half a month ago!"

After some deliberation, Ye Su boldly set his take-profit point at 9%!

"Nine points, which is 63 yuan. For 2000 grams of gold, I can earn a total of 126,000!"

After calculating this number, Ye Su could even hear himself breathing heavily.

Immediately after, he began to doubt whether he was being too bold. Would the gold price really rise to 764 yuan per gram due to the impact of these tariffs?

"Let's leave it like this for now." Ye Su ultimately felt that it was still worth taking a risk: "From now on, I can only keep a close eye on the gold price, and if anything goes wrong, I will adjust accordingly."

The gold price started to rise, so there was no need to worry about being forced to liquidate. After class, Ye Su finally put his phone away with peace of mind.

"Help me take my books back to the dormitory; I have something to take care of and need to go out."

"Sure." Lin Jingjie didn't think much of it and reached out to take the books.

Ye Su rode his electric scooter and appeared in front of the lottery station mentioned in the intelligence in less than ten minutes.

"Handsome guy, what do you want to play?"

The owner of the lottery station was a middle-aged woman in her fifties. As soon as Ye Su entered the door, she stood up and greeted him enthusiastically.

"I'd like to play some scratch-off lottery tickets."

"The scratch-off lottery tickets are here; feel free to pick some."

"Okay."

Ye Su scanned the area with his eyes and locked onto the half-book of scratch-off lottery tickets in the upper left corner that was glowing slightly.

The system prompted that this half-book of scratch-off lottery tickets could yield a total of 1300. Ye Su didn't bother picking and chose to buy all the remaining scratch-off lottery tickets.

"Fifteen tickets, three hundred in total."

After scanning the code, Ye Su skillfully picked up the scraper, sat down to the side, and started scratching.

15 scratch-off lottery tickets, 10 were "Thank you for playing," and 5 had prizes—a one-third winning probability.

Two tickets for fifty, one for two hundred, and, unprecedentedly, one for a thousand. The five winning scratch-off lottery tickets surprised even the owner.

"Handsome guy, your luck is pretty good. Do you want to keep playing?"

"No, I'll quit while I'm ahead. Please cash these out for me."

"Alright."

The owner didn't insist and efficiently cashed out the prizes for Ye Su.

Easily, another thousand yuan in the bag.

...

Just as Ye Su had pocketed over ten thousand from gold futures and scratch-off lottery tickets early in the morning.

On the 13th floor of a Grade A office building, Chen Xinyi was called into Lin Hongyuan's office by a message popped up by a certain app.

Enduring the discomfort of Lin Hongyuan's gaze sweeping over her body, Chen Xinyi frowned and asked: "Manager, what do you need me for?"

"Sit down first." Lin Hongyuan was not very satisfied with Chen Xinyi's attitude:

"I asked you to come in because I wanted to disclose to you that the company has plans for layoffs in the near future."

"The company is going to have layoffs?" Chen Xinyi didn't quite believe it: "How come no one has heard any news about this before?"

"This was discussed by the company's management in a meeting before the holiday, so it's normal that you didn't receive any news."

"Then did you ask me to come here because I am also on the layoff list?"

Not seeing the worried expression he expected on Chen Xinyi's face, Lin Hongyuan was very dissatisfied.

"I am still considering the layoff list for the finance department."

Lin Hongyuan stared intensely at Chen Xinyi, but found that she remained unmoved:

"Since the layoff list is still being considered, what did you want to say by asking me to come here?"

Chen Xinyi was impervious to his tactics. Lin Hongyuan had no choice but to get straight to the point: "I'll be honest with you. Whether your name appears on the layoff list depends on your own performance."

"My own performance?" Chen Xinyi pretended not to understand Lin Hongyuan's implication: "I have always completed my work on time, and it can be checked on the OA system. What other performance do you want?"

"You are young after all, you can't even understand this. How will you establish yourself in society in the future?" Lin Hongyuan resumed that preachy, condescending manner.

"Manager, just say what you have to say directly, don't beat around the bush."

Chen Xinyi had already guessed what Lin Hongyuan was planning. She even suspected that the so-called company layoffs were something Lin Hongyuan made up to deceive her.

"It's very simple. Stay late and work overtime tonight, and we can have a 'deep conversation.' I guarantee that your name will not appear on the layoff list." Lin Hongyuan coaxed:

"You also know that the current overall environment is not good, and the graduation season is coming soon. There will be over ten million college students graduating and looking for jobs soon; the employment pressure is imaginable.

Plus, our company is considered well-known in Yangcheng. If you have a layoff experience on your resume, I assume it will be very difficult for you to find a job."