037 The High-IQ Dunderhead Group

It was late June, and with no urgent matters at the office, Fang Qingye spent his days drifting through his work hours. Aside from completing his actual duties, he spent most of his time covertly working on his own projects.

He had basically finished the mathematical model describing the relationship between stock market prices and theoretical values, a task assigned by the "Dongguan Girl." He was now in the process of evaluating the model, but there was no rush.

For the past two days, his focus had been on the stock "Yanjing Tourism." According to his memory, with less than two months left before the Olympic Games, this stock was poised to take off.

Although he had made a significant profit on "Longping High-Tech" last time as expected, he had entered the market a bit too early, watching the stock fall for three consecutive days before it finally began to rise. He had even made a bet with Jiang Chen over it, causing the other guy to suffer heavy losses, and now that guy wouldn't even speak to him.

Since he was bored at work anyway, he couldn't just spend his time like Cao Ting, the young married woman across from him, who chatted on QQ all day with an endless stream of internet friends.

Fang Qingye opened the stock trading software, glanced at the market, and then checked the candlestick charts of individual stocks. He discovered that the daily, weekly, and monthly KDJ indicators for Yanjing Tourism were all forming a "golden cross" at a low price level—a signal that the stock was about to launch.

Of course, it wasn't a certainty; it required a comprehensive assessment based on overall market trends, trading volume, and other metrics.

After watching for a while, Fang Qingye decided to buy. However, he didn't intend to execute the trade now; he would wait until he got home that evening to avoid being seen by Liu Meili, who would surely lecture him again.

Lately, whenever Liu Meili saw him reading stock-related news, she would bring up the story of Sun Jiaming, who had jumped to his death after failing in the stock market, urging Fang Qingye to take it as a warning. It made him quite uncomfortable at times.

That was the nature of the workplace, especially in local units; there were always those colleagues who were overly enthusiastic.

Back home that evening, after dinner, Fang Qingye brewed some tea, turned on his computer, and checked the market and the stock again. The closing price of Yanjing Tourism for the day was 12.1 yuan.

His last venture had yielded a total profit of about 1.1 million yuan. He had spent 100,000 on a car, and with his salary, he now had just over 1 million yuan in his account.

Fang Qingye prepared to go all-in.

He bought 833 lots in one go, placing the order at 12.0 yuan to be executed the following trading day. Now, only a few hundred yuan remained in his account.

That was enough; his salary would be coming in a few days anyway.

After finishing the operation, Fang Qingye performed a final debugging and evaluation of his model, then logged into QQ.

The sailor-suit avatar of the Dongguan Girl was flashing incessantly. Fang Qingye usually couldn't be bothered to respond unless there was a specific reason, but today, he clicked on her icon.

He ignored the barrage of "chuunibyou" (delusional) messages and typed directly: "Are you there?"

"I'm here!" she replied instantly.

"My heartbeat—it accelerates because of your appearance. My heart is lost—regarding everything about you..."

Seeing her send more "chuunibyou" nonsense, Fang Qingye felt a headache coming on. He immediately typed back: "Talk normally! Or I’m logging off!"

"OK!" she sent an emoji, followed by: "My dear husband, did you buy Yanjing Tourism?"

"I did," Fang Qingye replied truthfully.

"My husband is so obedient to his wife... Yay!"

Seeing her fall into self-obsession again, Fang Qingye smiled. Whether or not I buy Yanjing Tourism really has nothing to do with you.

He was too lazy to reply, knowing it would only trigger another wall of nonsensical text.

***

Recalling that his mathematical model was ready, Fang Qingye sent another message: "I've finished the model. Want to take a look?"

"Wow... so fast? My husband is the best!"

A string of large exclamation marks followed.

Fang Qingye ignored them and sent over the document. After quite a while, the Dongguan Girl finally typed back:

"OK, I've received it! Did my husband use the integral model I suggested? What a good boy... hehe."

Looking at the string of smiley faces, Fang Qingye didn't hesitate to type two words: "Pay up!"

"Don't be so impatient... How could I ever owe my husband? Let me add you to a group first." She quickly sent over a group ID.

Fang Qingye was curious and searched for the ID on QQ. The group name was absurdly "chuunibyou": "IQ Over 150 Group."

What the hell?

Why not call it "IQ 250"?

Fang Qingye grumbled to himself but applied to join anyway. The request was quickly approved. After entering the group, he saw there were only 15 members, including himself.

"Welcome our new member, East Sea Swordsman, throw some flowers..." The Dongguan Girl posted in the group, and someone immediately responded.

"Fast Enough to Lag the Internet": "Welcome the newbie, our team grows stronger... But, have you taken an IQ test? Do you have at least 150?"

"Eat Seven and a Half Bowls": "Male? Female? Trap?"

"Listening to Men Talk Nonsense": "The newbie must report their measurements or post a nude photo, pick one."

...

Looking at these ridiculous QQ names and remarks, Fang Qingye was dumbfounded. Had he stumbled into a group of idiots?

The Dongguan Girl stepped in to smooth things over.

"Don't scare my husband, he's very shy."

Shy my foot...

Fang Qingye was about to fire back a retort when another series of messages flooded in.

"What? He's your husband? Ahhh... my pure little heart has suffered a great blow."

"I want to duel him! In the name of Hestia!"

...

Oh my...

It seemed this Dongguan Girl was quite popular; was this whole group just her fan club?

But there were so few people—only 13.

The Dongguan Girl seemed to ignore the chatter and @-ed Fang Qingye.

"Husband, let me introduce them to you."

"Fast Enough to Lag the Internet: Master's student at Renmin University's School of Finance, second year."

"Eat Seven and a Half Bowls: Master's student at MIT's Schwarzman College of Computing, first year, specializing in software programming."

"Listening to Men Talk Nonsense: PhD in Information and Computational Science at Peking University, and she's a beauty."

...

Hearing the introductions, Fang Qingye was secretly shocked.

If what she said was true, this really was a high-IQ group. Each one was a master or doctoral student from a prestigious university. Compared to his own undergraduate degree from a 211 school in Shencheng, his standing seemed much lower.

Once the introductions were finished, someone @-ed her.

"Pretty girl, who is this East Sea Swordsman? What merit does he have to be your husband?!"

"Don't be impatient, I'm introducing him now," the Dongguan Girl typed quickly, adding a smiley face.

"East Sea Swordsman, graduated with a degree in finance from Shencai University, currently working at a bank in Su Province."

"Confirmed in Su Province? Why not join an investment bank in Shencheng?" someone immediately asked.

"What could an undergraduate like him even do in Shencheng?" The contempt in the message was undisguised.

Fang Qingye looked at the sender: Q-name: "Eat Seven and a Half Bowls," the very same MIT master's student.

Before he could reply, the Dongguan Girl typed rapidly: "Seven and a Half Bowls, don't look down on my husband. The mathematical model I mentioned regarding the relationship between stock market prices and theoretical values? He built the whole thing in less than a month."

Huh?

She's defending me?

Fang Qingye was surprised.

At that moment, "Eat Seven and a Half Bowls" sent another message to the public chat: "Took a month? That is far below my expectations. I thought it would only take three days."

This guy is really looking down on people.

Fang Qingye thought to himself.