Chapter 1: Margin Call

Chapter 1: Liquidation

It was already the early hours of the morning. Gao Yun sat at his computer desk, his right hand gripping the mouse trembling slightly. He stared at the screen, his face devoid of expression.

The screen displayed the real-time chart of New York crude oil—a chart that had plummeted into an abyss. The price in the upper left corner was nothing short of shocking:

"USOIL -37"

Gao Yun could never fathom how crude oil could drop into negative territory, let alone a negative thirty-seven dollars!

In early March, due to shifts in the international situation and a well-known global crisis, factories and airlines worldwide had suspended operations, and people everywhere had drastically reduced their driving. Demand for crude oil cratered, and prices followed suit. By mid-March, the price of oil, which had been over fifty dollars a barrel, had been slashed in half, falling to twenty-two dollars.

Major official media outlets reported extensively on the drop, while prominent financial influencers clamored that this was the lowest price in eighteen years. They claimed the time to "buy the dip" had arrived, insisting that any oil fund, oil-related stock, or oil futures contract was a guaranteed profit.

Consequently, a massive wave of investors rushed into the market to bottom-fish, and Gao Yun was among them.

Gao Yun had dabbled in stocks before, but this was his first foray into international futures. He consulted friends, chose a reputable platform, and spent some time on a demo account. Once he felt he had found his rhythm, he began depositing funds in batches to go long on crude oil.

Initially, he only invested twenty thousand yuan. With four-hundred-times leverage, however, came both high risk and high reward. Once, in just a single minute, his twenty thousand had quintupled. Although he soon lost the profit and was left with only his principal, the taste of success drove him to increase his stake.

He emptied his one-hundred-thousand-yuan savings and then cashed out an additional two hundred thousand through Alipay’s Jiebei and five different credit cards. In total, he poured three hundred thousand into the oil market in installments.

Take a gamble, and a bicycle becomes a motorcycle. Working a regular job is impossible—only by trading futures can someone like me survive. What kind of future is there in working for someone else? Join me in futures trading!

Three hundred thousand becomes six hundred thousand, six hundred thousand becomes a million, and in two days, that million will round up to a hundred million. From then on, I’ll be financially free!

Credit cards? What’s a little interest? Give me two minutes! I’ll double that three hundred thousand! Super double! Auntie? Auntie? Bring me a cappuccino!

I, Gao Yun, refuse to believe that the price of crude oil can stay at twenty-two dollars a barrel forever! The production cost for oil-producing nations is higher than that.

Besides, what does a barrel to hold the oil cost? Even if it’s cheaper than water, it can't possibly be cheaper than the barrel itself. Twenty-two dollars to buy the barrel and get the oil for free?

If the price of oil drops any further, I, Gao Yun, will eat this barrel! I’ll eat it right here on the spot!

...

"USOIL -37"

A month later, today, that price of negative thirty-seven dollars a barrel appeared before the world like a cruel joke. Gao Yun, who had been holding long positions, had been liquidated.

This meant that not only was his hundred-thousand-yuan savings completely wiped out, but he was now burdened with two hundred thousand in debt.

"Damn it! How did it come to this?"

Gao Yun let out a long sigh, rubbed his stiff face, reached for a cigarette on the desk, lit it, and exhaled a cloud of smoke.

He had quit smoking five years ago when he started working out, but since getting into futures, he had been watching the markets until four in the morning. With tens of thousands of yuan fluctuating every second, the mounting pressure had driven him back to the habit, hoping it would soothe his nerves and clear his mind.

As he smoked, Gao Yun replayed every trade he had made over the past few months. The more he thought about his actions, the clearer things became.

It was predictable that a novice like him would end up in this state. He had been so arrogant at the start, convinced he had ironclad self-discipline and would strictly follow his trading rules. How laughable that was.

He hadn't even followed the very first rule: never trade with borrowed money!

Everything that followed—chasing the rising prices, panic-selling, trading against the trend, and refusing to cut losses—was classic "leek" behavior. It was a miracle he hadn't lost everything sooner.

After pondering for a while and identifying the root of the problem, Gao Yun began to consider how to handle the two-hundred-thousand-yuan debt.

His parents were getting on in years; he certainly couldn't tell them. It would surely make them ill. Besides, they had been retired for five or six years, and those two hundred thousand in savings were their hard-earned emergency funds for retirement. He could never touch that.

Borrowing from relatives or friends wasn't a viable option either. Every industry was suffering this year, and the economic situation was in a freefall; asking anyone for money would only put them in a difficult position.

Gao Yun frowned and stubbed out his cigarette. He would have to shoulder this burden alone. Two hundred thousand wasn't an insurmountable amount, but it wasn't small either. He still had a few credit cards with available limits; he could cycle through them, robbing Peter to pay Paul. The interest wouldn't be too high overall.

He pulled up the calculator on his computer and started doing the math.

His steady job as a cadre for the Communist Youth League Committee paid a little over four thousand a month. With bonuses and subsidies included, his annual take-home pay was sixty thousand.

His part-time job as a gym manager brought in six thousand a month, including commissions, despite the economic downturn. That added another seventy thousand a year.

His final side hustle was modeling. His city was a hub for swimwear manufacturing, and with his handsome face and rugged, muscular physique, he had landed the job through a friend. It was just occasional photography work, not runway shows. However, due to the aforementioned global crisis, demand for swimwear had effectively hit zero. Many factories in the city had closed, and that income had dried up completely.

His three jobs brought in a combined total of one hundred and thirty thousand a year.

"Two years. After subtracting my necessary living expenses, if I don't have any other income, it will take about two years to pay back the principal and interest on this debt."

A wave of melancholy washed over him.

Unlike in first-tier cities, living in a small city in the Northeast where the average housing price was six thousand, his monthly income of thirteen thousand was quite high. Yet, facing a two-hundred-thousand-yuan debt, it still felt daunting.

"Should I pick up another part-time job?"

He reconsidered and dismissed the thought. Setting aside the difficulty of finding work in the current economy, the main issue was that he simply had no more time or energy to spare.

"Move to a big city to work as a trainer?"

Gao Yun had a ruggedly handsome face, a perfectly sculpted physique, masterful professional knowledge, and a silver tongue. No matter who you asked, everyone would agree he was a top-tier fitness coach.

He had often had opportunities to work at clubs in major cities with promises of a monthly salary of at least forty thousand. But the comfort of his small-city life, his friends and family, and the security of his "iron rice bowl" government position were reasons he couldn't leave—even now, with two hundred thousand in debt.

"Money is only missed when it’s gone..."

After thinking for a long time, Gao Yun calmed down. Two years would pass in the blink of an eye. If he was optimistic, and the economy improved in the second half of the year, he might be able to pay it off in less than a year with his three jobs.

"Delete the trading apps, quit smoking, make money, pay off the debt!"

"Tomorrow will be a brand new day, dammit!"

"Just do it! Go!"

Aside from his indecisiveness in futures trading, Gao Yun was usually a man of action. After making up his mind, he tore up the rest of his cigarettes and threw them in the trash. He washed up and headed to bed.

He lay there for a while, still feeling restless and unable to sleep, so he picked up his phone and opened WeChat. He found a meme of a cat with the caption "Life has finally come for me," and added the text: "What do you do when you're in a bad mood?" He posted it to his Moments.

Before long, the night owls began leaving all sorts of strange comments.

Zhou Tian: "Eat! Eat a ton!"

Diao Jun replied to Zhou Tian: "Eat shit, that's the best way to relieve stress, eat big mouthfuls."

Zhou Tian replied to Diao Jun: "(Angry) You unfilial son! I shall banish you! Great Vajra Dragon, World-Honored Ksitigarbha, Prajna Buddhas, Prajna Paramita!"

Rich Woman: "(Laughs) Sleep, you'll feel better after a nap."

Liu Meiyu: "(Heart) Haha, hurry up and fall in love, it'll cure you, you scumbag!"

Daria: "You may be out of my sight, but never out of my mind."

Tattoo Artist Ding Hui: "(Eating popcorn) What can dispel sorrow? Only Du Kang (wine). Want to come out for a drink?"

Jiayin: "(Picking nose) You sea king, not sleeping in the middle of the night? Fishing again?"

Looking at the comments, Gao Yun felt his emotions stabilize. He replied to two of his ex-girlfriends.

Gao Yun replied to Daria: "Me too."

Gao Yun replied to Jiayin: "Ha, yeah. I didn't think you, the one I let go, would come back to bite the bait."

Afterward, he silenced his phone and, as drowsiness finally took hold, drifted off to sleep.