Those Classmates who Suddenly Disappeared
Chapter 1111: Fight to the End

Chapter 1111: Chapter 1111: Fight to the End

Gu Fan walked down the street, hands buried in his coat pockets, looking indifferently at the bustling crowd, his mind consumed with thoughts about how bad things could get in three days, if X Fund really did cause many companies to go bankrupt.

As he watched the news on a large screen in a commercial square, which was reporting how prosperous the city was and how happy and joyful everyone’s life in this city was, he couldn’t help but sigh.

Sighing, Gu Fan knew that chaos was about to ensue and many people’s lives would be affected, though most were unaware that the trouble was coming for him, Gu Fan.

"I can’t be blamed for this, can I? It was those people who decided to do this," Gu Fan tried to convince himself that it wasn’t his fault, as if an enemy, knowing they couldn’t defeat you, attacked an innocent bystander instead and then told the bystander to blame you, holding you accountable.

Now, Organization X was targeting Gu Fan but was holding the entire city hostage—threatening tens of thousands of jobs, and the income of hundreds of thousands of families—to coerce him into submission.

Gu Fan really wanted to tell them to come at him directly, but obviously, Organization X wouldn’t listen.

In the name of the city and all its people, should Gu Fan give up the old house? He asked himself and felt he couldn’t do it, because he wasn’t that noble. The idea of sacrificing the individual for the greater good was too lofty and unsuitable for him.

So, Gu Fan steeled his heart, thinking it wouldn’t matter to most people in the city whether he was doing well or not; hence, he also didn’t want to care whether most people were doing well or not.

Gu Fan thought, maybe by showing indifference toward the city, X Fund might just spare it. But it was a huge gamble.

As Gu Fan struggled internally, he suddenly passed a father and daughter. The girl was very young, around seven years old, excitedly telling her father how many points she scored, then looked up at him with hopeful eyes.

Her father was delighted, his smile impossible to hide. He lifted her up and held her in his arms, promising to buy her nice things when he got his bonus.

Watching the father and daughter walk away laughing, their laughter filled with happiness and contentment, Gu Fan felt life could indeed be wonderful.

Finally, Gu Fan made up his mind to fight to the end. This was the city he loved, his home, and more importantly, he wished for his future children to be born in a beautiful city.

Gu Fan took a deep breath and quickened his pace. He knew time was short, only three days left, but with all-out effort, a turnaround might be possible.

As he hurried home, Gu Fan sent messages to Boss Lei, Luo Jingrong, and Du Jun, asking for information.

Du Jun, trusting Gu Fan wouldn’t ask without reason, readily agreed without asking why, though he needed some time.

Boss Lei and Luo Jingrong, a bit pretentious, were not willing to divulge information so easily, saying it was their business partners’ confidential information and couldn’t be shared with Gu Fan on a whim.

Gu Fan repeatedly stressed the severity of the situation, warning of a potential financial disaster, and although he couldn’t explain now, he hoped Boss Lei and Boss Luo would trust him this time.

After much thought, Boss Lei and Boss Ding eventually agreed to Gu Fan’s request and sent over the information he needed.

To counterattack, Gu Fan needed sufficient intelligence. Gathering the information provided by the three men, he returned home and began writing on the whiteboard, scribbling as quickly as possible. Soon, the board was filled.

The first group included entrepreneurs led by Du Changhui, who had bought a nearly identical type of stock.

The second group consisted of businessmen led by Boss Lei; they too had purchased a similar number of the same class of stocks.

The third group, Luo Jingrong and his business partners, had bought stocks close in type and amount.

Gu Fan compiled this information and began to analyze it, noting two important points—the enterprises and bosses in these three groups were all different, and the stocks purchased by these groups were also different.

To be more specific, X Fund approached Du Changhui and a group of others to form the first group and then bought type A stocks.

Then X Fund found Boss Lei and others, creating a second group, and purchased type B stocks.

Similarly, X Fund colluded with Luo Jingrong, found another group of people to form the third group, and bought type C stocks.

That is to say, apart from X Fund, there was no overlap in the members of these three groups, and the stocks they purchased were all different.

Gu Fan pondered, if it were his X Fund, how could he extricate himself from this situation? Given the current circumstances, X Fund, owning the most shares among these groups, would find it the hardest to withdraw.

After much thought, Gu Fan felt it would be extremely difficult for X Fund to cash out and exit without finding a bunch of naive investors to take over, unless X Fund did not care about the losses.

But Gu Fan believed that there would always be fools, always someone beguiled by X Fund’s honeyed words, ready to buy the stocks X Fund held. But who would this fool be?

Now, so many bosses believed in X Fund, following it in stock trading. Whatever X Fund advised to buy, surely many would follow suit.

Gu Fan knew there were still many companies wanting to get in on stock trading with X Fund, hoping to make a quick profit. If X Fund wanted, they could probably use these enterprises to take over and facilitate their cash-out.

"No, it’s very difficult," Gu Fan reaffirmed his view. Given the amount of stock X Fund had, if they tried to leave the market, it was impossible for it to go unnoticed.

Therefore, X Fund had only two options in front of them: how to cash out quickly and discreetly—that was the key.

"What are you guys up to?" Gu Fan wondered long and hard but couldn’t come up with any clues. How could X Fund persuade a group of people to act simultaneously and buy the stock it held? And these people weren’t even aware of each other’s existence because if they knew about the involvement of many companies and bosses, they would guess that X Fund was withdrawing.

To simulate better, Gu Fan created three characters, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma, while X Fund held stocks of types A, B, and C. X Fund’s task was to persuade Alpha, Beta, and Gamma to buy stocks of types A, B, and C, respectively, while making sure Alpha was unaware of Beta and Gamma, still believing they were the only one, following X Fund in stock trading to get rich, unaware they were actually taking over for X Fund.

X Fund first collaborated with group one to purchase type A stocks, then found Alpha to buy type A stocks from X Fund, allowing it to cash out first and then abandon the members of group one to their fate.