038 A Provocation from 250

Still, he remained silent.

What was the point of a pointless war of words with someone like Jiang Chen? Besides, how could you be sure that the person typing on the other side of the screen was a top-tier student from MIT? For all he knew, it could just be some middle-schooler going through a rebellious phase.

Or even a dog?

However, the "Dongguan Girl" seemed genuinely annoyed. A line of text appeared rapidly on the screen: "Seven Bowls and a Half, you actually look down on my husband! In the name of Itachi Uchiha, I issue a formal challenge on his behalf—I demand a duel!"

"Oh... and how shall we duel?"

"Modeling! I’m going to pose a problem right now. Let’s see who can write the most efficient and practical mathematical model in the shortest amount of time to win! Of course, it’s not just for you two; everyone in the group can participate!"

"OK! I accept the challenge!"

"Count me in!"

"How could you leave me out? Fight on! Young warrior!"

The Dongguan Girl quickly typed out a long string of text. Fang Qingye looked closely; it was actually a model regarding credit risk assessment!

He had to calculate the probability of loss caused by changes in the market value of debt resulting from fluctuations in a borrower's credit rating and their ability to perform on the contract.

Holy crap!

This difficult?

But... wait.

Fang Qingye suddenly remembered something and immediately messaged the Dongguan Girl privately: "Dongguan Girl, for a problem this difficult, what’s the prize if I win?"

"Husband, winning means you’ve triumphed in the duel. It proves your intellect and knowledge are superior, causing the fire of your inner universe to burn bright and conquer all!"

"That’s it? No tangible benefit?" Fang Qingye asked, still skeptical.

"Could there possibly be anything more meaningful than winning a duel?!"

Seeing this reply, Fang Qingye paused, then followed up: "Do they all think that?"

"Yes, we play these games in the group all the time, and we never tire of them. Though this one is a bit harder than usual... Husband, are you afraid? Are you going to back down? You must grip your sword tightly—victory lies just ahead!"

Reading this, Fang Qingye’s temper flared. "Afraid of what? Am I sick in the head? What the hell is the point of this meaningless squabbling? I’m out!"

With that, he logged off immediately.

A bunch of morons, complete lunatics!

Fang Qingye cursed, picked up his teacup for a sip, and suddenly recalled something.

That Dongguan Girl still hadn't paid him for the 350,000-yuan modeling job!

He quickly logged back into QQ. The group chat was still buzzing, but he blocked it without a second glance and messaged the Dongguan Girl directly: "Pay up, now!"

***

"Sigh... Husband, they’re mocking you in the group," she replied.

Mocking my ass...

Fang Qingye highly suspected this was a scheme by the Dongguan Girl to get these idiots to do her modeling work for free while she sat back and reaped the benefits without spending a dime.

Their IQs must be 250!

He cursed under his breath but typed: "Pay up!" followed by several bloody knife emojis.

"OK!"

She replied. A few minutes later, Fang Qingye received a text notification: 350,000 yuan had been deposited.

Hmm...

The Dongguan Girl might be a bit unhinged, but she kept her word. Fang Qingye was satisfied with that.

With an extra 350,000, he didn't hesitate to increase his position, pre-purchasing another 291 lots. He now held a total of 1,124 pre-purchased lots.

Time to wait... wait for the returns to double.

He closed the trading software and opened World of Warcraft...

The next day at work, Fang Qingye continued to slack off. He wasn't watching the stock market, but he still had to finish the two books he’d asked Xia He to buy.

He had finished *Benchmark Analysis Methods in Mathematical Finance* and was now moving on to *Financial Stochastic Analysis*. Both volumes were dense and complex, but Fang Qingye wasn't in a hurry.

He had plenty of time to squander.

Youth is a wonderful thing, he thought, poured himself a fresh cup of tea, and began to read carefully.

Only he and Cao Ting, who sat across from him, were in the office. The other two were out on business. One was playing on their phone, the other reading—the office was very quiet.

Suddenly, his phone on the desk chimed with a "ding-ding-ding" sound, and a window popped up.

"Universe’s Most Invincible Beautiful Girl" is requesting a video chat!

The sound was loud enough to startle Cao Ting. She looked curiously at his phone.

Fang Qingye immediately clicked the 'X' to decline.

The other party requested a video chat again!

Fang Qingye declined once more.

Cao Ting smiled. "Xiao Fang, a netizen wants to video chat with you; why aren't you answering? The avatar looks like a girl—is it inconvenient? I can step out." She stood up, ready to leave.

"Sister Cao, it's nothing. This person is crazy; don't mind her," Fang Qingye said hastily.

In his heart, he wondered: What’s going on?

Ever since he’d rejected her video call last time, the Dongguan Girl had never initiated one again. Why twice in a row today?

***

He picked up his phone and opened the chat with her.

"Are you sick? Don't you know I'm at work?!" he snapped.

"I know, Husband, but you weren't responding to my texts," she replied quickly, adding several crying emojis.

Fang Qingye remained unmoved and typed: "What is it? Speak!"

"You should really look at the main group. Look at the models they built."

Curiosity piqued, Fang Qingye wondered what kind of models these self-proclaimed geniuses had actually come up with.

He opened the group, ignoring the pile of useless chatter, including the insults from the user "Seven Bowls and a Half."

It wasn't worth arguing with them.

There were two documents uploaded to the group files. Fang Qingye opened them—they were indeed models based on the credit risk assessment problem the Dongguan Girl had posed.

He studied them carefully. One used a KMV model, the other was an MTM model.

But the output quality...

After studying them for a while, he found them unsatisfactory.

Was the Dongguan Girl unhappy with them too?

Thinking this, he typed to her: "I’ve looked at the models. So what?"

"What do you think, Husband?" she asked.

"Very mediocre."

"Is that so? Tell me why."

"The one by 'Listening to a Man's Lies' is based on the KMV model. Its biggest flaw is focusing solely on default prediction while ignoring changes in corporate credit ratings. It only evaluates credit asset risk directly linked to corporate asset value—in simpler terms, just the loan aspect."

"And that bucket-head, the one named 'Seven Bowls and a Half,' his model is even worse. While the MTM model aligns with the management philosophy of our state-owned commercial banks, its fatal flaw is that it relies heavily on changes in the borrower's credit rating. Under our current credit environment, the probability of massive losses is likely very high!"

Fang Qingye fired off the long paragraph. The Dongguan Girl, who usually replied in seconds, was silent.

Did she go offline?

Impossible, her avatar was still lit up.

"Hey, did you read that?" he poked her with a nudge notification.

He had no idea that at that very moment, the Dongguan Girl was copy-pasting his entire private message onto the public group screen.