If You Don’t Go To Hell, Who Will? - Chapter 49
Since signing up for and being registered for that financial trading competition, no one in our team except Zhong Yuan has paid any attention to it. We just carried on with our daily tasks.
Over two months later, I received a notification saying that I would have to speak at the concluding conference of the competition along with Zhong Yuan.
Honestly, I was a bit nervous. Among the members of our team, the more elite ones were Zhong Yuan and the team leader. They were the best speakers. Even our ordinary team member, although not knowledgeable about finance, had a quick and agile mind, could adapt to unexpected situations, and could pretend to be an industry expert without much difficulty.
As for me…
Initially, I thought that even though Zhong Yuan had over a decade of experience in the stock market, there was only one winning team in the entire country, so winning first place didn’t seem easy. Therefore, the idea of giving a serious speech on stage was just a product of my boredom and not something I took seriously.
Moreover, Zhong Yuan had been pretty quiet in the month leading up to the competition, making only five trades in total. This made me even more certain that he didn’t have much confidence, and he might have even given up.
But what I didn’t anticipate was that starting in the fifth week, he began to fight back, constantly checking his phone throughout the day. It was also during the fifth week that our team’s profit rate started to skyrocket, and in the final week, it surged to the position of champions in a breathtaking manner.
On the last day of the competition, Little Second was in our dormitory, tears streaming down her face as she pounded the keyboard while looking at the profit rankings on the competition’s official website. She exclaimed, “This is insane, truly insane! It’s unbelievable!”
Looking at the profit rate next to Zhong Yuan’s name, which kept increasing, I was also excited. If all of this could be converted into real money…
In summary, I didn’t predict the process or the outcome of this competition. It was something I had casually imagined and daydreamed about, and suddenly it became reality. This left me feeling completely unprepared.
I held the script that Zhong Yuan had prepared for me in advance and hesitated as I said, “Um… can we switch places?”
Zhong Yuan replied straightforwardly, “No.”
“But… I…” I felt helpless. Although I had thick skin, I couldn’t afford to embarrass myself. I heard that there would be live interactions with the audience! Especially since this conference seemed to be broadcast by a certain television station. If I embarrassed myself on live TV…
Zhong Yuan patted my head and coaxed me, “Don’t worry, I’m here.”
I still wasn’t entirely at ease, but I realized that our team leader and Little Second had probably already been won over by Zhong Yuan. So, resisting alone wouldn’t make much of a difference at this point.
Well, the die was cast, and I had to leave it to fate.
The concluding conference of the competition was held at our university, with award-winning participants from all over the country and some industry experts joining in the festivities.
The conference started at 7 p.m. That afternoon, the eldest and the fourth pinned me down in the dormitory for two hours and, after numerous attempts, finally managed to do my makeup properly.
Looking at my transformed self in the mirror, I felt a bit embarrassed. My eyeliner had been extended, and the corners of my eyes were slightly raised, making my eyelashes appear thicker and my eyes larger. In addition, the upward-slanting corners of my eyes and the slender, slanting eyebrows created a mature and restrained charm. My hair had grown long enough to be styled into an updo, giving me a poised and confident appearance.
A mature and poised woman—that’s exactly what I looked like.
Hmm, I really liked this look.
I was wearing a formal outfit and black high heels, and I stood in front of Zhong Yuan like a treasure.
Zhong Yuan looked at me without saying a word, his expression somewhat blank.
I raised my hand and waved it in front of him. “How do I look?”
Zhong Yuan grabbed my hand, smiled, and said, “You look great.”
I was a little happy and a little embarrassed, so I lowered my head. But when I looked at the script in my hand, my brow furrowed again.
Zhong Yuan reached out, took the crumpled script from my hand, balled it up, and effortlessly tossed it into a distant trash can. The trash can was several meters away from him, but the paper ball landed right in the middle.
“You…” I was speechless, not knowing what he was up to.
After committing his mischief, Zhong Yuan looked at me calmly and said, “Tie my tie for me.”
I was a bit puzzled and annoyed as I grabbed the tie and forcefully put it around Zhong Yuan’s neck.
Zhong Yuan leaned in, letting me do as I pleased. After a while, he suddenly said, “Later, Little Second and the others will bring over some folders with our official scripts. They’re no different from that crumpled one.”
I furrowed my brow. “I know, but what do I do now? There’s still over half an hour until the official start of the conference, and I could use this time to review.”
Zhong Yuan smiled and gently kissed my forehead. He replied, “Let’s tell jokes now.”
Me: “…”
So I got irritated. Seriously! In thirty-eight minutes and forty-six seconds, I would be on the chopping block, and he wanted to tell jokes now?
Zhong Yuan completely ignored my discontent, took my hand, and sat me down in a corner of the study room. He began to softly tell me corny jokes.
For half an hour, a whole half an hour, our genius Zhong just kept a straight face and told me jokes for a whole half hour. Like, “Why does someone laugh nonstop while watching an IV drip in the hospital? Because they have a low sense of humor.” Or, “There was a hide-and-seek club where the leader has been missing since the beginning.” And, “A little white rabbit went out to play and met the big bad wolf. The big bad wolf said, ‘I’m going to eat you,’ and then the little white rabbit got eaten…”
Okay, I admit I’m a bit of a pushover. Even though I didn’t find these jokes funny, I thought Zhong Yuan telling jokes was a joke in itself, and on top of that, they were corny jokes… So I burst out laughing, clutching my stomach, my mouth wide open, and convulsing. I didn’t dare to laugh too loudly, though; it was painful. I laughed so hard that tears streamed down my face.
Zhong Yuan, with an expressionless face, used a tissue to wipe my tears, saying, “Now let’s tell another one. Once upon a time…”
Zhong Yuan talked for half an hour, and I laughed for half an hour. By the end, I was out of breath, and Zhong Yuan briskly took me to attend the concluding conference.
Sitting in the serious atmosphere of the venue, Zhong Yuan asked if I was still nervous. I shook my head lazily, leaning on his shoulder. I couldn’t help but laugh again. After being tormented by him today, the nerve in my brain that controlled nervousness had completely snapped; I wasn’t nervous about anything.
When it was our turn to speak on stage, he held my hand and confidently walked up. I felt that, in this situation, we shouldn’t display too much of our JQ (intimate relationship). I tried to break free, but I couldn’t…
The main content of our speech was displayed on the PowerPoint presentation. There were a total of fifteen substantial pages in the presentation, with Zhong Yuan handling ten pages and me taking care of five. After Zhong Yuan finished his part, I followed the script and smoothly presented the remaining five pages of the PowerPoint… even though I didn’t understand any of it; it was all rehearsed. >_<
The part that made me the most nervous was the live interaction that followed…
But the situation was better than I had imagined. The audience didn’t specifically ask me to answer questions, so all the questions were fielded by Zhong Yuan. I couldn’t understand much, but Zhong Yuan’s confident demeanor was enough to make me swoon.
As I stood on the stage, gazing at Zhong Yuan with starry eyes, lost in admiration, he suddenly handed the microphone to me.
I was dumbfounded and didn’t know what to do.
At this moment, a guest in the audience cleared their throat and repeated the previous question, “I’d like to ask this young lady: What do you think was the key factor to your success?”
I hadn’t considered such a self-conceited question, and neither had anyone else. I held the microphone, nervously glanced at Zhong Yuan, and didn’t know how to answer.
Zhong Yuan discreetly squeezed my hand, gave me a slight smile, and I cleared my throat. I gathered my thoughts and scrambled for suitable words in my mind. Suddenly, a sentence uttered by Little Second came to mind: “When he was trading stocks, I was still watching cartoons…”
So, I politely smiled at the audience and replied, “Hard work pays off; practice makes perfect. He has over a decade of experience in the stock market, and he’s nothing special, except that he spent all the time others used to watch cartoons on stock trading.”
Laughter erupted from the audience, and that question was smoothly passed over. Although my response wasn’t the most accurate, it might have been the most appropriate with its inspirational message about hard work and dedication.
After stepping down from the stage, my palms were sweaty, and my fingers were icy. Zhong Yuan took out a tissue and delicately wiped my hands. When I wasn’t paying attention, he lightly kissed my fingertips and then raised an eyebrow, smiling at me. “You did well.”
I turned my head, looked around to make sure no one had noticed us, and then let out a relieved sigh, saying, “Thank you.” Even though I appeared composed on the surface, I was secretly quite pleased. Well, let this loser enjoy her moment… >_<
A few days later, I watched the video of the conference online. When the video reached the part where I answered the question, I saw Zhong Yuan tilting his head slightly and smiling at me. That image instantly warmed my heart.
I always felt that Zhong Yuan’s smile, the one he gave me, was a bit different from the smile he wore when facing that campus beauty. But where exactly was the difference?
I took a screenshot of that moment, pulled up the photo that made me jealous, and compared the two.
After observing for a long time, I finally came to a conclusion: when Zhong Yuan faced the campus beauty, his smile was very polite, but when he faced me, he smiled very… ahem…
Thinking about this, I chuckled to myself in a somewhat smug manner.
…
As for that seven-day trip to Singapore, neither Zhong Yuan nor our team leader could go due to other commitments, so only Little Second and the passerby A member went. Those days, little Second kept lamenting in front of me and the team leader, saying she didn’t want to travel alone with a weirdo. However, she eventually couldn’t resist the opportunity to go on the trip and went with very mixed feelings.
Later, when Little Second returned, she told us about her experiences. According to her account, her trip was unexpectedly dangerous, and she even came close to losing her… virtue. But that’s a story for another time.
