Chapter 696 - 397: Sudden Wealth (Part 2)

Pain exists, but the taste of money is sweet, hot, pain-relieving, and can cure when taken.

...

"Ring ring~"

At 7:50 in the morning, Xu Manning’s smartphone alarm went off, but it didn’t wake her up. Instead, it startled Huang Tianxuan, who was closest to the phone, out of her slumber.

They had been chatting late into the night, and she had dozed off without moving to another room, ending up sharing a bed with Wu Wenyue and Xu Manning, which now seemed like a mistake.

"Ring ring... smack!"

Filled with anger inside, she turned off the alarm, and with sleep in her eyes, glanced to the side. It seemed Xu Manning heard the alarm too and, only realizing later, blindly reached towards the phone by the bed, but only ended up grabbing Huang Tianxuan’s chest...

Gripped it once, twice, rubbed it—alright, the alarm stopped!

Miss Xu smacked her lips, not realizing if her hand was on the phone or something else, just knowing the alarm had stopped, she peacefully drifted back to sleep, hand still clutching the ’phone’...

"Haha~"

Just as Huang Tianxuan was about to curse, she heard a soft laugh and looked up to see Wu Wenyue was already awake. She was half-sitting at the head of the bed, aiming her phone’s camera at the two of them, seemingly recording a video?

"What are you doing?!"

With a straight face, Wu Wenyue swiped up on the recording interface to cancel it: "Just scrolling through Douyin."

"Delete it, don’t record!"

Huang Tianxuan warned casually, took Xu Manning’s hand off, and then started getting dressed, making quite some noise, which finally woke Xu Manning up.

She looked around cluelessly for a moment, initially confused as to why Huang Tianxuan was there, then quickly recalled last night’s three-on-one antics and subsequent chatting. Her gaze became clearer, her expression slightly complex: "What time is it?"

"You set the alarm and still don’t know the time? Look for yourself."

Wu Wenyue, stifling a laugh, put her phone in front of Xu Manning, but it didn’t show the time; instead, it was the video from earlier of Miss Xu mistaking a boob for a phone while still half asleep...

"Delete it!" Xu Manning’s face turned crimson instantly upon seeing it. She made a move to snatch the phone, but Wu Wenyue was ready and pulled back quickly, smiling: "It’s interesting, why delete it?"

"Interesting my foot! Is this your idea of fun, seeing me make a fool of myself? Delete it now!"

Xu Manning tried to grab it, Wu Wenyue held it back, and while the two girls were playfully fighting, Huang Tianxuan had already dressed up completely. She heard the faint sound of pots and pans clattering outside the room and frowned slightly: "Did he stay up all night again?"

"Probably. I woke up at 7:30 to go to the bathroom and saw him in the kitchen cooking breakfast."

Just as Wu Wenyue finished speaking, Li Peifeng’s voice rang out: "Breakfast is ready."

The breakfast was quite sumptuous, with two main dishes: sweet potato pancakes and lean meat porridge, and four dishes of meat and vegetarian stir-fry and pickles, all well-balanced with dietary fiber, fat, and protein, making it appetizing just at a glance.

"You all can get your own bowls and chopsticks to eat first. I’ll eat later."

"What about Uncle? Isn’t he coming over to eat?"

"He needs to sleep a bit more. You all eat first, I’ve saved some for him."

The three girls got dressed and left the room one by one, only to find that Li Peifeng was still in his room, not coming out. His eyes were glued to the computer screen with a focused and slightly anxious expression.

"Is the market about to open?"

Huang Tianxuan turned on her heel and walked into the bedroom first, with Wu Wenyue and Xu Manning following. All three of them directed their attention to the screen, where the trading software showed the closing price of crude oil from last Friday at the top left corner; 115.00.

The number was in gray, indicating the market was not yet open...

"Two more minutes to go."

Li Peifeng opened his positions screen, then rubbed his hands together, talking to himself: "The crude oil opening price should be high. From the chart’s trend, bulls thoroughly gained the upper hand during the pre-opening negotiation period, triggering a price limit event, entering a two-minute observation period... because last weekend’s negotiations completely fell apart, a member of the EFA’s delegation was even assassinated, the conflict will escalate, and the battlefront will only keep getting longer."

"And this is just the impact on the war level. There’s also U.S. sanctions causing disruptions in Russia’s oil exports, the nuclear agreement negotiations may be delayed; multiple countries are discussing banning Russian oil imports, the market is worried about further tightening supply... it’s definitely going to open high."

Li Peifeng felt his decision on Friday to not close his positions and take profits but to continue holding and adding to them was the right one.

The weekend was agonizing, but as the international situation continued to grow more tense, with quite a potential to spark a third world war, the market sentiment for crude oil was also growing more excited.

Judging from the hot pre-opening quotes alone, it’s certain to rise, the only question is by how much. But until the opening price is actually released, nothing is set in stone...

The three girls understood only bits and pieces, but what Wu Wenyue cared about most was: "Can it reach 120?"

She remembered Li Peifeng vaguely mentioning before, as long as crude oil hits 120 USD per barrel, he could make nearly 100 million USD in profit.

That would convert to about 630 million Great Eastern Coins, more than enough for the bride price for the four of them, covering expenses like a house, car, wedding, etc., and it would even leave extra for Li Peifeng to take another wife.

That amount of money is truly substantial and sufficient!

Even for the wealthiest, Huang Tianxuan, with her family’s resources, might not be able to produce such a large sum of money quickly.

However, they had discussed last night that men often turn bad when they become rich. All three girls had a conversation on this topic, agreeing it might be best if Li Peifeng didn’t earn too much money from crude oil.

Because his only flaw right now was that he wasn’t materially well-off, if he earnestly made five or six billion and became financially independent, his tail might really go up to the sky, and they might find it difficult to keep him in check. It would be in their best interest if he lost some, instead.