Dong Qiangqiang's Story of Leaving Germany

Chapter 1123. Bad Taste

Outside, the shadows of the trees were swaying, and the sky was dark. From time to time, small branches were mercilessly hit against the windows by the strong wind. The slanted windows were often closed and pushed open by the wind, making a dull and monotonous "bang bang" sound. The phone on the table kept spinning on the table due to vibration, and it was about to fall off the table. The ringtones were getting louder and louder. Dong Qiangqiang didn't know whether he was woken up by the phone or the window.

At the moment when the phone was about to fall, Dong Qiangqiang held the phone, unplugged the charging cable, and pressed the "answer" button.

"Good fellow, you finally answered the phone." A resentful male voice came from the other end of the phone, "Why didn't you answer the phone this morning?"

"In the morning?" Dong Qiangqiang was confused for a few seconds before he realized that Duanmu was talking about New York time, which is six hours behind Germany. "At that time, (I) was leading a tour group in Luxembourg, and it rained, so I didn't have time (to answer the phone)."

When he heard Dong Qiangqiang say it was going to rain, Duanmu seemed to calm down:

"I was watching the news here and it said Germany was hit by a once-in-a-century flood. How was it? Did it not affect you?"

"Well, I almost didn't come back."

"Be careful, and ask Wang Shunan to check carefully when she goes to the office to make sure there is no problem. How is she doing recently?"

"Same as always, I'll ask her to check it carefully later."

Dong Qiangqiang walked to the window and raised his hand to close the window that was making the banging noise: "Have you decided when you will be back?"

"Everything went wrong. The SEC's investigation was more tricky and complicated than expected. The company asked me to prepare for a protracted war." Duanmu sighed and asked, "Did I find any results from the investigation I asked you to do?"

"Are you asking about luxury goods?" Dong Qiangqiang immediately told Lao Ding what he saw while leading a tour group to Italy. "I don't know about other places, but luxury goods in Italy are really hot. Chinese people are very good at spending money. They buy luxury goods like buying cabbage. I don't know how they are so rich."

"Don't be sentimental. There are no poor people who have money to travel at this time."

"If SARS does not return in the second half of the year, the important indicators of the luxury goods companies you selected will be very good. But if the exchange rate is also taken into account, is it safer to buy luxury goods companies (stocks) in the eurozone capital market? Of course, the majority of the revenue of those companies must also come from the eurozone."

"Of course. I've sent you the revision suggestions for this month's report and the outline of next month's report. You'd better revise them within three days, and I'll find someone to polish them."

"I'm going to the library to collect it tomorrow. The landlord agreed to let me install the internet, so I can go online at home in the future."

"It's not easy. Congratulations. How did you convince the old lady?" "She is very opinionated. When I first proposed it, she rejected it outright. No matter what I said, it was useless. But she went to travel around China and agreed to it for some unknown reason after she came back. I guess it has something to do with her frequent Internet use in China. She spends a lot of time alone at home and has fainted before. It's not an exaggeration to say that her life is in danger if we don't install surveillance."

"The more I deal with Americans, the more I find that Germans are really lagging behind in many aspects. Take stocks for example. Germans rarely trade stocks, but many Americans like to invest in stocks." Duanmu turned to the main topic, "I visited many financial institutions this time. Most of them are bearish on Volkswagen. Buchan stands out because he is bullish on Volkswagen. Volkswagen's stock price has been rising recently, and the number of institutions that have asked me to talk has increased day by day. The irony is that we are also preparing to go short. It's really fate."

"Since you are bearish, you should act sooner rather than later. The decisions that need to be made must be made sooner or later. There is no need to procrastinate. There is no absolute right or wrong, only the accumulation of experience and reflection on lessons learned."

"You are right, but the stock price is still rising. There is no need to sell everything for the time being. Wait until it falls and then decide whether to sell everything. The good thing about American options is that they can be traded at any time before expiration and you don't have to wait until the expiration date." Duanmu made the final decision.

Dong Qiangqiang asked Duanmu a few more questions about CFA, and Duanmu's explanation with examples was much clearer than what the training teacher said.

He mentioned to Duanmu that Lao Bai wanted to buy Hongshui wine and organize tourists to visit the incomplete "Wine Road". Duanmu praised Lao Bai for his bold thinking. If he were in China, he would most likely sign up to take a look. Watching the excitement is often a source of happiness for people.

As for Hongshui wine, he had actually tasted it in Hamburg. The taste and appearance were not very good. It was more hype than reality. After all, the more expensive the wine, the more storage conditions it required. But it was okay to buy a few bottles for commemoration. At least they were limited edition. He asked Dong Qiangqiang to find out more and buy a few bottles to keep. It would be good to use it as a hype when inviting people to drink later.

Before hanging up the phone, Dong Qiangqiang told Duanmu that Lao Bai hoped to expand the company through mergers and acquisitions, and asked Duanmu if he had ever thought of growing Buchan in the same way. Duanmu flatly refused, believing that such an acquisition would result in a loss in the first year, and he was not mentally prepared for the loss.

Dong Qiangqiang had a dreamless night and was woken up by his cell phone early the next morning. He stuck half of his head out of bed and looked out the window. The rain had stopped, but the sky was still dark. Outside the house, it was all white and the mountain ridge was completely invisible. He turned around and looked at the watch. It was just past seven o'clock. Who would call so early?

He hadn't woken up yet and was still in a daze. Although he wasn't in the mood to get up, he heard the phone ringing louder and louder but didn't want to answer it. He covered his head with the quilt and prayed silently that the person calling would give up.

But the other party was extremely resilient and refused to hang up. Dong Qiangqiang sighed and lazily got up from the bed, only to find that the callers were his parents.

The news of the once-in-a-century flood in Europe was widely reported in China, and the elderly couple were worried about their son's safety. Dong Qiangqiang tried to comfort them with kind words, not only constantly assuring them that they would be extra careful, but also gave various examples, such as how they could fly safely between Germany and China during the SARS period, how they could swim in several different styles, and how the landlord had all kinds of flood prevention facilities. This dispelled the elderly couple's concerns, and then told his parents that the landlord had agreed to let him use the home improvement website, and it was expected to be completed in a week, and it would be more convenient for both parties to send emails by then.

Dong's mother has always been concerned about her son's safety and doesn't care about other things. She wanted to ask more about her son's emotional attachment, but was scolded by Dong's father. Thinking that Dong's father has not yet recovered, Dong's mother was too lazy to argue with the patient. After saying a few words to her son, she impatiently threw the phone to Dong's father and ran to another room to get some quiet time.

Dong's father was more concerned about his son's academic performance. After all, everyone had heard that the German school system was long. Although he had not seen the results yet, Dong Qiangqiang still confidently assured his father that his grades in several subjects last semester would not be lower than good. Dong's father was very pleased after hearing this, and he encouraged his son with a few inspirational golden sentences that would not change for thousands of years and were old-fashioned. After satisfying his desire to talk, he reluctantly ended the call.

He had a lot of things to do today. He had to go to the city to ask for quotes from network operators, go to the university library to check his grades online, buy food and daily necessities, do housekeeping, and maybe even help classmates deal with the flood with Zheng Chunhua. He quickly made a to-do list in his mind while getting dressed, then simply washed up and went downstairs to eat, reading books and newspapers to the landlord.

The landlord was not in the kitchen or in the yard. Her cat and dog were accompanying her in the living room, watching the news reports about the flood attentively.