Chapter 54 – Financial Crisis 13: Go on Strike

After moving the supplies, the four people fell asleep in an empty room on the third floor.

The construction site’s rooms were rough with no beds but Yu Hanjiang had prepared sleeping bags in advance. It was much better than sleeping in the corridors in the 3 of Hearts secret room.

At seven in the morning, Xiao Lou’s biological clock naturally woke up him. Then he heard a rustling sound and looked in the next room, seeing Xie Qi eating a packet of milk and cookies.

Perhaps due to his terrible experience in the Nightmare Room but Xie Qi really cherished food. He didn’t leave the slightest bit of milk behind and he also ate all the cookies, not letting cookie crumbs drop to the ground.

The teenager sat in the corner and looked like a hungry little squirrel.

Xiao Lou remembered this person’s experience and couldn’t help softening. He turned to his materials box and grabbed a box of chocolates, bread, a pack of cream sandwiches, cracks and a bag of dried fruit, handing them to the boy with a smile. “Eat more.”

Xie Qi saw these foods and was slightly surprised. In order to save money, he had only bought the cheapest milk and cookies for breakfast. Then he ate instant noodles for lunch and dinner…

He didn’t expect Professor Xiao to prepare such abundant materials.

This was actually a very expensive bag of dried fruits which contained his favourite pine nuts and dried walnuts.

Xie Qi couldn’t help saying, “Professor Xiao, you bought such expensive things?”

Xiao Lou sat down next to him and smiled. “These are too expensive to buy a lot but I am worried that people can’t eat biscuits and instant noodles every day. Therefore, I bought some snacks to switch.”

Xie Qi asked curiously, “What other snacks?”

Xiao Lou listed them, “For example, canned fruit, pickled chicken feet, canned fish, beef jerky, dried bean curd, plums…”

Xie Qi was shocked.

He was in the 3 of Spades room to survive. Was Professor Xiao here to travel?

Xiao Lou stared at the teenager before patting him on the shoulder with a smile. “Follow us and you can eat enough. You no longer have to worry about a hungry stomach.”

Xie Qi’s eyes were hot and he suddenly had the feeling of holding a golden thigh. He immediately nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, I’ll listen to you!”

Meanwhile, Yu Hanjiang and Shao Qingge also came over.

Shao Qingge’s eyes were narrowed and he stretched out lazily, apparently not fully awake.

Yu Hanjiang had washed his face and he was full of energy. He glanced at Xiao Lou and said, “I still don’t feel comfortable with you staying here. Once you finish eating breakfast, use the compass to draw more metal rings. I will help you lay down a trap.”

Xiao Lou nodded. “Okay.”

The four people ate breakfast together. Then Xiao Lou followed Yu Hanjiang’s advice and drew hundreds of large and small rings.

Shao Qingge looked at the rings constantly appearing on teh ground and sighed. “This compass card is really strong. You can draw weapons any time and anywhere.”

Xiao Lou asked, “What good cards have you drawn?”

Shao Qingge openly took out a card. “I drew only one S-grade card, God of Wealth. It has one skill called Aura of Wealth. If used when gambling with gold coins, it can improve my luck but the use is restricted to one time a day. The second skill hasn’t been unlocked.”

Xie Qi’s eyes brightened. “Is the God of Wealth aura like the transfer bead in 2 of Clubs?”

Shao Qingge nodded. “Almost, although I haven’t practiced it yet.”

Xiao Lou laughed. “Previously, I heard the taxi driver say that the City of the Moon has the most professional casinos. Holding this card can improve your hand. You can always go to the City of the Moon to obtain gold.”

Shao Qingge smiled and touched his chin. “I think so as well. I will first accumulate some funds and then go to the casino to make more.”

Chief Shao was good at making money and the card he drew was God of Wealth. Xiao Lou thought they would no longer be afraid of poverty.

Xie Qi suddenly found that the team he joined… didn’t seem so bad?

Moments later, Yu Hanjiang took out a piece of paper and drew the map of the entire building and the distribution of the traps. He circled the traps covering almost all the corners and passages in the building.

Yu Hanjiang stated, “Arrange the rings according to my map, cover them with soil and tie a line to control them to your hands. If someone hastily breaks into this building and pulls the corresponding area line then you can immediately trap the other side.”

This was a technique commonly used by hunters in the forest and now it was utilized by Yu Hanjiang. The entire building was full of traps and anyone who broke into this building would be Xiao Lou’s prey.

Xiao Lou smiled and nodded. “I understand. Group Leader Yu, rest assured, Xie Qi and I will arrange it later.”

Yu Hanjiang and Shao Qingge left at 8 o’clock.

Xie Qi’s teleportation and eavesdropping cards were temporarily handed to Yu Hanjiang.

[Bug]. This card was an S-grade tool card with only one skill, but it was very easy to use. It could release three bugs at the same time and placed on the body of any targets within 100 metres. The length of each eavesdropping was three hours. After three hours, the eavesdropping was recovered and needed to be recharged for 60 minutes before being released again.

[Teleport] A rare S-grade special effects card. This card had two skills. The first skill ‘Come and Go Like the Wind’. Immediately after being used, they could teleport to any designated position within 50 metres. The second skill ‘Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way’. Any objects weighing less than 100kg could be teleported to the designated location within 100 metres. The increase in growth could increase the weight of the moved object and this increase went up to 200kg.

Yu Hanjiang looked at Shao Qingge. “How much do you weigh?”

Shao Qingge smiled. “Group Leader Yu, do you want to take me to do experiments? I’m 70kg.”

Yu Hanjiang nodded and experimented with the second skill ‘Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way.’ The next moment, he saw Shao Qingge appear in the designated place 50 metres away.

Sure enough, as long as the weight was less than 100kg, people could be teleported. After the card rose to the full level of 200kg, two adult males or three relatively thin women could be moved at the same time.

Yu Hanjiang used the first skill to teleport over and asked Shao Qingge, “How does it feel?”

Shao Qingge felt it was very magical. “The skill effect time is less than one second. I just felt there was a gust of wind blowing and then I appeared at the site entrance in the blink of an eye.”

Yu Hanjiang commented, “It truly is an S-grade card.”

When necessary, they could take their teammate to escape or move a close enemy 50 metres away with Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way.

Shao Qingge stated, “Xie Qi, this guy, he seemed to have perfectly cleared many secret rooms if he could draw two S-grade cards.”

“Xie Qi looks very thin and like he isn’t a threat but he is very strong and smart. Professor Xiao wants him to join the team. Go to 3 of Hearts with him and look at his performance.” Yu Hanjiang paused before added, “No, his score in Hearts is an S while yours is only a C, you shouldn’t drag his hind legs.”

Shao Qingge touched his nose. “…Group Leader Yu is too direct.”

Yu Hanjiang didn’t say anything else. “Let’s go.”

The streets of the outskirts were empty so they boldly opened the teleportation skill and quickly arrived at the city. There, they saw a terrible scene. It was the morning rush hour and the roads were blocked by cards. The car horns honking were deafening.

Yu Hanjiang and Shao Qingge found a roadside coffee store to log onto the Internet.

The prices were outrageous. A 2,000 gold coins cup of coffee had now become 16,000 gold coins. Fortunately, Shao Qingge had a lot of money. The Internet cafe wasn’t open today so he paid to sit here and surf the Internet.

Yu Hanjiang was worried about Shao Qingge’s safety and sat next to him as a bodyguard.

Shao Qingge quickly logged onto the stock market and his expression changed. “The real estate market has also collapsed.”

Today was Monday and most of the office workers would be rushing to their company. They would soon discover the news.

Yu Hanjiang frowned slightly. “It seems that the real action, the chaos will begin on the third day.”

Shao Qingge quickly bought the real estate stocks at a low price and returned the previous stocks he borrowed. He carefully calculated it and told Yu Hanjiang in a light voice, “I earned a net profit of one million from shorting the stocks. The other stocks are continuing to fall and I can earn more but I fear that there will be power outages and disconnections today.”

Yu Hanjiang nodded. “Okay, don’t be greedy. Let’s just leave it here.”

Shao Qingge opened his mouth. “It was suggested that we can take out the remaining money. This money will be temporarily placed in my account and withdrawn later in a secret room. There might be no cash left in that ATM over there.”

Yu Hanjiang looked up at the self-service ATM that had a long line in front of it. Just then, two young men rushed over and grabbed gold coins out of people’s hands before running.

The robbed auntie was alarmed and screamed while chasing, “Someone stole my money! Help me stop them!”

However, the crowd was feeling anxious. Who would be in the mood to help out?

Some people were worried about their cash being stolen and instantly turned away while the rest of the people were alert as they hurriedly took their money and ran.

Once it was the fifth person’s turn, the man cursed loudly “There is no money in the ATM? What did the bank eat?”

Several people turned around quickly. “Go to the bank to withdraw!”

Yu Hanjiang saw this scene and his expression sank. “IT is estimated that someone will rob the bank. You’re right. The money will be kept in your account and don’t withdraw it.”

Shao Qingge nodded. “Today’s prices continued to normal and it is eight times more than normal. In addition, there is a traffic jam early in the morning and people’s emotions are significantly more agitated than the last two days.”

He followed Xiao Lou’s practice of opening the local forum and found the hot posts high on the front page.

“The price of oil has risen and I can’t afford to drive. I took the bus to work and was blocked in the middle of the road. I must be late today!”

“Last week, I went to refuel and 40,000 gold coins was enough to fill up the tank. Today, I went to the gas station and it took 160,000 gold coins to fill up. Aren’t the oil prices crazy?”

“Don’t talk about the price of oil. The supermarket restocked this morning and I queued up at 6 o’clock. As a result, I didn’t even get a carton of milk…”

“My 24-hour convenience store was smashed last night and things were stolen. There were no police officers!”

The posts were all about the rising prices and the looting of things.

Shao Qingge refreshed the page and quickly saw a post. “The real estate stocks have plummeted. This means the house prices will fall by half!”

The post was a screenshot of today’s stock market and it could be seen that the ‘Tianhong Real Estate’ and other stocks had plummeted 50% at the same time.

The people on the forum were in a panic. Many people who didn’t understand stocks hurriedly made inquiries and some professionals explained.

The streets were still blocked and many people were late for work. Some simply took a leave of absence from work.

Shao Qingge and Yu Hanjiang learned a lot from looking through the forum. Then near noon, the two people headed back to the Shanshui Guesthouse because Xiao Lou had sent them a message. “Xie Qi said that previously, he listened to all challengers and basically determined that the thief is mixed in on the second floor of the Shan. He is surnamed Xu and you should go to check it.”

The two people came to the Shanshui Guesthouse and Yu Hanjiang went to the front desk to find the boss. “I want to ask, is there a guest surnamed Xu? I’m in a hurry to find him.”

The boss spoke in a deadpan earnest manner, “I am a principled boss. How can I casually disclose the information of the guests?”

Shao Qingge directly took out two boxes of chocolates and smiled at him. “Boss, can you help us find the guest’s information?”

The ‘principled’ boss immediately replied, “No problem! I’ll check… the surname Xu… Xu Zhengyang, staying in room 201. He checked out this morning. Are you looking for him?”

Yu Hanjiang frowned. “He checked out and is gone?”

The boss sighed. “He was unable to pay the room rate. Alas, several guests checked out today. All you foreigners, you don’t know how to handle money.”

Shao Qingge rolled his eyes. He also wanted to bring in more money but unfortunately, the keeper didn’t allow him to. All his previous assets were frozen when he entered the secret room.

Yu Hanjiang’s face was cold. “Xu Zhengyang, what does he look like? Do you remember?”

The boss recalled it. “I only know that he is around 40 years old. He is a middle-aged person and mysterious. Every day he wears a hat and it is pressed very low over his head. There is also a mask to cover his face so I didn’t see it.’

Since they were unable to obtain more information, Yu Hanjiang and Shao Qingge had to leave the Shanshui Guesthouse.

The snack bars on the pedestrian street were all closed and there were many old ladies on the street.

“I heard my son say that house prices fell. Isn’t it fake?”

“Strange, prices are rising like crazy. Why isn’t there a rise in housing prices as well?”

“My daughter just bought a house last month. She took out a loan and mortgage to buy it. What should she do if the prices fall?!”

“When will the financial crisis pass? Didn’t Director Liu say that the market would be regulated as soon as possible?”

Just then, an old man pointed angrily at the radio, his beard shaking. “You listen, that bastard Liu Qingming ran away on the earliest train this morning!”

Several old ladies came together to listen.

There was a clear female voice on the radio. “This reporter found that the director of the city’s Market Supervision Bureau, Liu Qingming, has already left on the express train at 6:50 this morning. He said that he is going to the City of the Moon for help but according to witnesses at the scene, he took a few boxes of luggage with him. It is more like running away then asking for help…”

An old lady shouted, “This big liar!”

Another old man was so angry that he hit his thigh and shouted at his companion, “I told you not to listen to Liu Qingming! You actually believed his nonsense! I knew I should’ve gone to my foreign niece’s house for a while. Now the tickets can’t be bought and there is no way to leave!”

Just then, someone shouted from the nearby Shanshui Guesthouse. “Boss, is your air conditioner broken? The room is hot and the air conditioner isn’t responding at all.”

Another person went downstairs and asked, “Is the water stopped? I wanted to wash my clothes but why is there no water?”

The boss’ expression changed and he immediately went to check.

He soon cried out, “The water and power are cut!”

Then the voices of his neighbours were heard. “It is cut?”

“Our house is also stopped!”

“Is there a power outage at our house? Do you still have electricity?”

“No!”

“My house has no power and the wireless network is also down!”

In the din, the refrigerators, air conditioners, electric fans… all electrical appliances stopped working at the same time.

The sun was slowly rising.

The hot sun baked this piece of land and the citizens were emotionally anxious. There was no comfortable environment after the air conditioners stopped. At high temperatures, everyone’s psychological defense would soon collapse completely.

Yu Hanjiang and Shao Qingge glanced at each other and quickly turned away.

Saturday and Sunday were the transition periods and Monday was the day to go to work.

All the streets were blocked and the traffic police didn’t come out to coordinate. Ear-piercing horns rang throughout the city.

Prices continued to surge, house prices fell, tickets were sold out, there were water and power outages and the Internet was cut off…

The real financial doomsday officially began on the third day.