November 11th. A date not yet branded as Singles' Day or a massive shopping carnival. It was just an ordinary trading day in the A-share market, and on the surface, everything seemed perfectly calm.
The helmsman of the Shen family, Chairman of Qiming Electric, Shen Yanchang, was instructing his second and third sons to continue secretly accumulating the company's floating shares according to their original plan.
During this period, they had quietly swallowed up another 4.3% of the shares, bringing the family's total holding to over 23%. Their ultimate goal was to acquire over 30%.
Once they gathered enough chips to reach their target, they planned to release a stellar earnings report to completely detonate the stock price, sending it skyrocketing.
However, shortly after the market opened on Tuesday, a hint of something unusual appeared on Qiming Electric's trading board.
Several massive buy orders, each worth tens of millions, flooded in without warning. They instantly broke the balance between the bulls and the bears, forcibly straightening the stock's curve and sending it surging upward.
This situation was quickly noticed by the Shen family.
"Dad, some big money is sweeping up shares!" Shen Rui, the second son in charge of market operations, rushed into the office to report.
Shen Yanchang frowned slightly, clearly a bit displeased with his son's lack of composure. "What are you panicking for? It's just some hot money sniffing out an opportunity and trying to make a quick buck. Stick to the plan and smash them right back down."
Shen Rui took the order and immediately mobilized their affiliated funds and hidden accounts to sell off frantically. Sell orders poured down like a waterfall. The newly rising stock price was forcefully suppressed back to its original position, even dropping into negative territory.
Before long, Shen Yanchang looked at the intraday chart recovering its lost ground, a cold sneer playing at the corners of his mouth. It seemed his judgment was correct; it was just a few small fries.
Last month, his good-for-nothing eldest son had done something similar, ending up wasting hundreds of millions for nothing.
He just couldn't figure out where his eldest son had gotten so much money, as his allowance from the family was nowhere near that amount.
Unable to make sense of it, he didn't dwell on it. Time was tight right now, and their top priority was to acquire enough shares at a low price.
Perhaps because of the sudden large orders today, even though Shen Yanchang didn't care much, he still personally monitored the market until the closing bell just in case. Seeing that there were indeed no more fluctuations, he finally relaxed.
However, his peace of mind didn't last long. When the market opened on Wednesday, the exact same drama played out again.
And this time, the buying was even more ferocious and persistent. No matter how many chips the Shen family threw out, the other side swallowed them all. The stock price seemed nailed to a 5% gain, projecting an aura of absolute unmovable dominance regardless of what the market threw at it.
"Something's wrong. This doesn't look like retail investors, nor does it look like standard hot money."
"The depth of this buyer's pockets is unfathomable!"
Shen Rui, who was managing the trades, broke into a slight sweat on his forehead when he saw the massive buy-ins today.
He originally planned to report to his father immediately, but his body had barely left the seat before he sat back down. He remembered what his father had told him yesterday: he needed to stay composed and not run to him over every little fluctuation, as it made him look incompetent and prone to making a fuss over nothing.
Shen Rui checked the time. There wasn't much left until the market closed. He decided to test the bottom line of these buyers once more, so he ordered his team to continue dumping shares in heavy volumes.
Sure enough, after his maneuvers, the stock's upward momentum was temporarily halted, and the curve began to bend downward. With only a few minutes left until the closing bell...
Shen Rui breathed a sigh of relief and wiped the fine sweat from his forehead, thinking it was just a false alarm.
Unfortunately, before he could completely relax, the situation on the board abruptly changed again!
The seemingly suppressed buying pressure hadn't retreated at all; it had merely been gathering strength. Just as the stock price dipped, an astronomical buy order, like a giant whale that had been lying in wait, suddenly opened its massive jaws and swallowed every single sell order Shen Rui had thrown out. A staggering ten-thousand-lot order flashed on the transaction ledger, yanking the stock straight up from its slight dip. It instantly smashed through the 5% gain threshold and, with undiminished momentum, charged straight toward the daily limit up.
"How is this possible! How is this even possible!"
Shen Rui sprang up from his seat, his eyes glued to the screen, seemingly unable to believe what was happening right in front of him.
By the time he snapped out of it and checked the time, it was too late. The market had closed.
Meanwhile.
Shortly after the A-share market closed, a secretary burst frantically into the chairman's office.
"Ch-Chairman, bad news! A statement of changes in equity!"
Shen Yanchang snatched the document. With just one glance, his face turned livid.
"Simplified Report on Changes in Equity of Qiming Electric Co., Ltd."
Information Disclosure Obligor: Pearl Capital Investment Consulting Co., Ltd.
As of today's close, Pearl Capital has increased its holdings through the secondary market and now holds 5.01% of Qiming Electric's total share capital!
"Pearl Capital? Who are they?!" Shen Yanchang roared in anger.
In just two days, the opposing party had swallowed 5% of the shares, causing the percentage of shares he held to drop by 3.01%, from 23.44% to 20.43%.
That final massive order had been released by their family. The volume was huge, yet it was instantly snapped up by the other party. This proved that they had come fully prepared.
At this thought, Shen Yanchang's eyes filled with murderous intent.
He would show no mercy to anyone who dared to ruin his plans, especially since he still held the trump card of a poison pill defense.
However, even though he guessed that this Pearl Capital came with ill intentions, he decided to have his secretary investigate their background first and wait and see. If the other party just wanted a piece of the pie, he could let it slide. But if they dared to harbor any inappropriate designs on the company's controlling rights, he would undoubtedly strike back without hesitation!
Pearl Capital's sudden triggering of the disclosure threshold on Qiming Electric caused quite a stir in the market, drawing the attention of many investors, especially retail investors who discussed it the most.
A blue-chip stock forgotten by the market had actually been targeted for a major stake acquisition for the first time during a stock market crash?
What did this mean? A massive value depression!
Although the market was closed for the day, many people looked at the final stock price trend and judged that there was a high probability it would continue to rise tomorrow, preparing to enter the market then. After all, Pearl Capital had shown immense ambition by crossing the 5% threshold right out of the gate; it was impossible for them to stop so quickly.
Even though it had taken a dip today, they imagined it would definitely turn positive tomorrow, perhaps even hitting the daily limit up.
As the saying goes, ideals are beautiful, but reality is cruel.
They perfectly illustrated what it meant to be dumb money waiting to be harvested. Over the next few trading days, the dark horse Pearl Capital, upon which they had placed such high hopes, showed absolutely no movement, falling completely silent. Instead, someone in the market began frantically dumping shares, leaving many retail investors seeing stars.
By the time the next few trading days rolled around the following week, many retail investors still saw no large buy orders. With the stock price dropping lower and lower, they couldn't hold on any longer and chose to cut their losses and exit the market.
Seeing this, the Shen family completely relaxed, believing that the other party was merely an investor with a slightly larger appetite who posed no real threat to them.
However, to avoid any unforeseen complications from a long delay, the Shen family planned to finish accumulating their target shares before the end of the month.
Otherwise, there won't be enough time.
