As the lights began to glow, Duan Jun let out a burp and walked into a high-end foot bath center.
Originally, he was someone who wouldn’t come to such a consumer venue, but today is Friday, and the stock market has risen for three consecutive days, putting him in a good mood; he dined alone and ordered a table full of good dishes. After drinking half a jin of white liquor, feeling unsatisfied, he came to the foot bath city for a massage to sober up.
Buying right, now I've embarked on the main upward trend. Duan Jun kept repeating this phrase in his mind all day, ecstatic beyond measure, unable to hide his joy during meals, occasionally stepping back to press a button on the computer to calculate.
No problem, this is a main upward trend; there should still be a significant rise for at least another week or two. There will be a small pullback in between to lure the inexperienced to exit, just hold firm, but unfortunately, I don’t have money to increase my position. Duan Jun thought to himself, occasionally taking out his phone to calculate his future earnings.
In no time, Duan Jun was lying on the sofa in the foot bath shop, but his mind was still on stocks. The girl who brought fruits asked him what kind of tea he wanted, and he casually responded without engaging.
"I’m happy to serve you; I’m technician No. 88."
Out of instinct, Duan Jun looked up at the girl. She was in her early twenties, not exceptionally beautiful but had a charming demeanor, and importantly, she wore a warm and sweet smile that made people feel comfortable.
A proactive and enthusiastic attitude is something men appreciate in women.
The girl squatted down, "Please raise your foot; let me help you take off your shoes."
"Oh" At that moment, someone in the WeChat stock trading group sent him a message. After acknowledging, Duan Jun busily replied and didn’t lift his foot.
The girl gently lifted Duan Jun's foot with one hand and carefully helped him take off his shoes and socks with the other. Gentle and considerate, the second point that attracts men.
The girl filled the bucket with water and asked Duan Jun to test the water temperature. "Ah! This is too hot!" She quickly added cold water. "This is too cold!" She hurried to add hot water again, adjusting the temperature several times until it was just right. She maintained a sweet smile throughout, showing no impatience. Although not very clever, she was gentle, obedient, and compliant, which was the third point that gave men a good impression.
After testing the water temperature, the girl saw the man typing on his phone, busily focused on washing his feet without saying a word. Twenty minutes passed, and the group chat quieted down for a bit. Duan Jun, feeling tired, finally put down his phone. Being quiet and not interrupting when a man is in high spirits is the fourth point that men appreciate.
"Brother, I saw you looking at your phone since you arrived. What’s so interesting?"
"It’s nothing, just casually looking at the news," Duan Jun said dismissively.
"Oh, what news is this? So interesting!"
"Just casually looking, financial news and the like."
"Is it stock trading?"
"Ah? How did you know I was trading stocks?"
"Stocks are bought by wealthy people managing their finances. I see you as mature and stable; you must be a successful person in financial management, so I guessed this."
"No, I just buy a bit to play around," but despite saying that, pride was already uncontrollably showing on Duan Jun's face. Complimenting him is the fifth point that makes women like men.
Just as Duan Jun was getting interested, the woman became silent, as if something was stuck in her throat, prompting her to take the initiative to ask questions.
"Do you also buy stocks?"
"Sigh"
"What are you sighing about?"
The woman seemed lost in thought and didn’t respond. When the man's expression became a bit impatient, she took the initiative to share her story.
It turns out the woman is named Xiao Yu, her family is in business, and they are reasonably well-off. However, her parents divorced when she was in middle school and both remarried, causing her to lose focus on her studies despite being an excellent student, eventually graduating from a junior college. Fortunately, her parents treated her well, leaving her two apartments and arranging a relaxed job at a state-owned enterprise. During this time, Xiao Yu met a boyfriend who was sunny, handsome, and caring, but he loved to boast, often telling stories of becoming wealthy overnight through investment and cryptocurrency. Before long, he suggested that Xiao Yu take the idle money in her hands and let him buy stocks, confidently guaranteeing profits. In love, Xiao Yu agreed without thinking. Her boyfriend's mood fluctuated wildly; sometimes he was very happy, other times he was downcast, and whenever he felt bad, he often lost his temper over trivial matters. Xiao Yu felt overwhelmed and wanted to break up several times, but her boyfriend would sweet-talk her back. At one point, when her boyfriend was particularly good to her, she learned that his stocks were skyrocketing, and everything was going well. Naturally, Xiao Yu was happy too, and the two spent their days sweetly planning a beautiful future together. During this time, the boyfriend was full of confidence, constantly asking Xiao Yu for money to increase his investment, claiming it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Xiao Yu took out all the money she could, even borrowing from friends and maxing out online loans. Each time, her boyfriend swore that many profits were already on the way, and he could cash out at a high point soon. Until a friend was getting married and asked her to pay back 50,000 yuan, she sought her boyfriend for help. At this point, the boyfriend, who had previously taken 800,000 yuan from Xiao Yu to invest in stocks, hesitated and refused to take out 50,000 yuan to repay the debt. After pressing him, he finally revealed the truth: he had used Xiao Yu’s money to buy stocks, chasing after high-risk, volatile stocks. After a period of ups and downs, he hadn’t made money and was even losing. In a panic, he went all in on a speculative stock. Unexpectedly, right after buying, the stock price plummeted, with consecutive trading halts. The brokerage soon called to require additional margin or face forced liquidation. So all those claims of already having a million in profits were lies, merely used to deceive Xiao Yu into continuing to fund the gambling. Hearing this, Xiao Yu felt the world spinning and couldn’t believe that her trusted boyfriend would deceive her like this. It wasn’t until she opened her boyfriend's stock account and saw that her 800,000 had dwindled to almost nothing that she realized she had truly been cheated. Xiao Yu went wild and had a huge fight with her boyfriend, who desperately apologized, promising to take responsibility and find a way out. But soon, he disappeared. When Xiao Yu found his home, his family completely denied it, saying that Xiao Yu had incited their son. Xiao Yu felt disheartened and, not wanting to let others find out, mortgaged one of her apartments to the bank to pay off the debt, telling outsiders that she had broken up due to personality clashes. However, the bank loan always needed to be repaid, and her meager salary wasn’t enough. Not wanting to let her money just disappear, she yearned to understand how her boyfriend had lost everything. She taught herself a lot about stock trading online and learned that her boyfriend had bought high-risk, volatile stocks. She discovered that stock trading isn’t gambling; there is a type of investment called value investing, which involves investing in high-quality blue-chip stocks that provide stable, albeit lower, returns. After learning this, Xiao Yu mortgaged her other apartment and invested the money in several of the market's most stable blue-chip stocks, which, according to value investing, meant she would gradually become rich. Xiao Yu didn’t seek to get rich; she only wanted to earn enough to repay her loans and put this matter behind her. Sure enough, unexpectedly, these stocks, which were praised by countless big V accounts as safe, fell just as hard as those speculative stocks, with prices halving or lower within a year. As Xiao Yu struggled to repay the bank’s loans while watching the stock account balance plummet, she finally had no choice but to sell the houses and liquidate her stocks after holding on for half a year. The houses and stocks did not sell well, and after a final tally, Xiao Yu not only lost two apartments but also accrued tens of thousands in debt. Strong-willed, Xiao Yu never told her parents about any of this. Although her previous job was relaxed, the income was very low. In her desperate moments, she even considered going to a bar to work, but she couldn't break through her mental barriers. Ultimately, she chose to work at the foot bath center, which was tougher but offered better pay, and hoped to slowly repay her previous debts.
"Brother, you don’t look down on me, do you?" Xiao Yu said, looking at Duan Jun with a face full of sorrow after sharing her story.
"How could it be? Life inevitably has ups and downs. You can face problems and support yourself. I really admire you," igniting a man's protective instincts, the fifth point of how women attract men.
"Really? Thank you! This is the warmest thing I've heard this year."
"By the way, what stock did you buy to lose so much?"
"All are well-known blue-chip stocks, including Ping An Insurance, SANY Heavy Industry, Heng Rui Medicine, Hikvision, and Kweichow Moutai."
"The stocks are good stocks, but you shouldn’t buy during such an obvious downward cycle."
"Ah, what is a downward cycle? How can it be identified?" Xiao Yu asked, looking at the man in front of her with a puzzled expression.
At this moment, the timer went off, and Xiao Yu reluctantly started to tidy up her tools.
"Don’t clean up; I’ll add another hour."
"Really? Thank you so much, brother! Please tell me what a downward cycle is and how to identify it!" Xiao Yu said excitedly, pressing on his foot as she spoke.
"Sister, don’t press anymore; sit beside me and let me talk to you properly."
For the next half hour, Duan Jun shared his stock trading insights with Xiao Yu, pouring out like bamboo shoots; Xiao Yu listened intently, nodding in agreement, occasionally exclaiming, "Really?" "Is that so?" "You’re amazing!" "That’s incredible!" The admiration of women is the sixth point that attracts men.
Duan Jun spoke with great confidence, completely immersed in his own world, having forgotten that he had lost most of his savings in three years of stock trading.
Just as Duan Jun was getting excited, Xiao Yu's phone rang. Xiao Yu stuck her tongue out at Duan Jun and answered the phone without hesitation. If someone had just arrived and seen this scene, they would have thought the two had been friends for many years.
"How can this be? This is cheating; obviously, I am the first place. Isn’t this bullying?" Xiao Yu said angrily and hung up the phone.
"What’s wrong?" Duan Jun asked with concern.
"Our store has a recharge activity. The staff who gets the most recharge this month can receive an additional 2000 yuan reward and a day off. I was definitely going to take first place. I’ve been suffering from a toothache lately, so I was going to use that day off to see the dentist, and I’ve already made an appointment. But someone in the store recharged 5000 for themselves, and their performance surpassed mine. Isn’t that infuriating?"
"Recharging for yourself? Isn’t that a loss?"
"No, brother. In the future, customers can use their own cards to make payments on behalf of others, and the money can be refunded. Moreover, this recharge has discounts: recharge 5000 to get 500 back, recharge 10000 to get 1200 back, which is very cost-effective. Like you, if you recharge 10000 now, the amount you get back just offsets today’s consumption, effectively making today’s consumption free, and every time you spend afterwards, you also get a fruit platter. Unfortunately, I just paid back my Huabei yesterday, and I’ve been borrowing money for meals these days. Otherwise, I could also recharge myself," Xiao Yu said, tears welling up in her eyes.
"This is simple; follow me," Duan Jun said, handsomely pulling Xiao Yu’s hand toward the counter.
"I’ll recharge ten thousand for Xiao Yu."
Xiao Yu looked surprised, gazing at the man in front of her with boundless admiration. Treating you like a hero is the seventh point of how women attract men.
After recharging, Duan Jun didn’t give Xiao Yu the chance to thank him, turning around handsomely and disappearing into the crowd of the night.
Tea Room
"Sister Xiao Yu, you are amazing! This is the third person today who has given you ten thousand!" said Xiao Yu, the girl who initially brought a fruit platter to Duan Jun.
"What’s the big deal? In the future, just occasionally ask them some small questions about stocks. As long as you schedule a meeting with them during a market rebound, they will come. Then just keep flattering them, everything they say is right, concoct some stories about making a little money under their guidance, and give them some worthless gifts saying you made them yourself, and they will keep recharging for you. Times have changed, you need to keep up with the times. Don’t come up with stories about sick family members or funding younger siblings’ education; no one will pay for that, got it?" Xiao Yu said, taking a deep puff of smoke and exhaling, then took out 200 yuan in cash. "This 200 is your bonus. By the way, today there are still customers looking at stocks on their phones that need to be reserved for me, understood?"
"Got it," Xiao Yu replied happily as she collected the money, then curiously asked, "Why didn’t you care when I told you someone was looking at stocks a few days ago?"
"Are you silly? The stock market fell sharply a few days ago; no matter how eloquently you speak, it won't help."
"Sister Xiao Yu, how did you come up with such a clever method?"
"It was given to me by my new godfather."
"Does your godfather trade stocks too?"
"That’s not the case. He helps others trade stocks; he is a fund manager and has even won the annual top ten fund managers by Xueqiu."
"Then he must be very skilled at stock trading, right?"
"No, most of the time he’s losing; this year his fund should have lost almost half."
"Isn’t that a huge loss?"
"What’s there to lose? The losses are all other people’s money; they collect management fees and have a guaranteed income."
"Then who would give them their money to manage? Isn’t that unlovable?"
"It’s very simple. No matter how much you lose, if the fund is hard to sell, just collaborate with peers to raise it for a couple of days, and immediately you will have a line of people waiting to buy your fund. Then find a group of hired guns to hype yourself up, paint a grand picture, and launch a new fund, and you will have another stable management fee. This is how people make real big money, and they chase after you to give you money, unlike me, who just listened to that greasy fat guy brag for half a day about this little money, and his spit was all over my face; it was disgusting."
"This is too funny. Who are these people? How can there be such a large group of lovable people in the world? Hahaha"
"Why are you laughing? This is called harvesting leeks. They cut their own, we cut ours, hahaha," Xiao Yu said, unable to hold back her laughter.