The Shadow Tycoon
Copyright© 2026 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 73
The gentlemen seated here did not care much about William’s business. As for an auction room, the only ones that truly made money were auction rooms aimed at the upper class.
Ten thousand ordinary people together could not create the astonishing returns of one rich man. Ordinary people thought for a very long time before buying anything. The moment the price rose even slightly beyond what they could bear, they would give it up decisively.
The rich were different. They spoke only of whether they liked something or disliked it, and never considered the actual value of an auction item. For things they liked, most of them would say there was no ceiling.
The topic soon moved away from William’s business, or anyone else’s business, and returned to the Financial markets. Everyone exchanged little pieces of inside news, reliable or otherwise.
In reality, none of it was reliable, because the truly reliable inside news would never circulate. It would be confined to a handful of people, not spread so widely that people far from the Federation’s financial center could trade it back and forth until all the world knew.
From another angle, the information they spoke of was all information they could not verify for themselves. Most of it came from their Stock brokers, and those brokers ... were not, in truth, all good men.
A social card game ended amid everyone’s idle conversation. William’s luck was not very good. He lost a little over ten dollars. The others each had their wins and losses, but none of the figures were large.
That was what a social card gathering was. No one was there for gambling itself. It was merely to get acquainted, deepen understanding, grasp one another’s political positions, commercial attitudes, and so on, in order to judge whether they could become good friends.
After the card game ended, two gentlemen lingered behind. They warmly invited William to attend the small gatherings they held, attended by residents of the community and some friends from society.
This was the core of middle-class community culture. But this kind of community culture would soon grow colder with the development of the times. After experiencing certain social changes and epochal events, people would begin refusing to share opportunities.
This might not be the best age, but it was absolutely not the worst.
Watching the others leave, William made a phone call and had the community’s supporting Service Company come over to clean up the aftermath for him...
For several days, William passed his time in various social events. He also began paying attention to the Financial markets. He discovered that, across the three social events he had attended over the past few days, the core of people’s conversations was always how much money they had earned lying down in the Financial markets.
When everyone was making money, it meant risk was growing greater and disaster was drawing near. The reason was simple. If someone was making money, then someone else had to be losing money. Profit could not be born from nothing, though that loss might not happen immediately. It might be delayed.
One morning, William was watching television. On the screen, the politicians were still boasting of the astonishing achievements of the Federation’s economic development, as if all of it had been the result of His Excellency the President’s and their own brilliant strategizing. Just then, the telephone suddenly rang.
William lowered the television volume while picking up the receiver. “It’s me...”
Sometimes these seemingly unrelated celebrity interviews and talk shows also revealed details people failed to notice. For example, when this politician talked about his own achievements, he mentioned a few things that interested William.
“William, my friend, it’s me, Fox. Can you come to my place? We need to talk!”
This call came a little later than William had expected. He had thought Fox would run into trouble earlier, but now was not too late either. He agreed, tidied himself up briefly, and went out.
He was considering buying a better car. A luxury car would make him look more like a successful man. In the little room, he had once encountered just such a fellow.
That man himself could be said to have had no money at all. He had taken the money from selling his house and rented a top-tier luxury car, put together a decent outfit, and used a few little tools to composite himself into photos with certain leaders. Somehow, he had successfully swindled quite a lot of money.
What was even more interesting was that the man was caught because he turned himself in. If he had not surrendered, he would never have appeared before anyone again for the rest of his life.
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