The morning sun shone on the brownstone apartment in Queens. Michael quietly left the house without disturbing Robert and Mary who were still sleeping. Last night, his parents' words "Our family will take this one bet" burned his heart like a branding iron. He took out his cell phone and dialed Jason's number.
"Mike? What's up so early?" A sleepy voice came from the other end of the phone - Jason was his roommate at New York University and now works as a credit manager at Chase Bank.
"Jay, help me," Michael went straight to the point, "I want to apply for a mortgage for my parents' house and hardware store. Can it be expedited?"
Jason's voice became clearer: "Mortgage the house? What happened? Short of money?"
"I need money urgently, and the documents are complete," Michael said calmly, "How fast can it be?"
Jason was silent for a moment: "Okay, you bring the property certificate and your uncle and aunt's ID to the bank to find me, I will go through the internal channel."
"Thanks, Jay."
"Why are you being polite to me." Jason paused, "You and Sophia..."
"Divorced." Michael said lightly.
The other end of the phone burst into a swear word: "I know that Elena is a piece of shit! Mike, don't be sad, there are fish in the sea!"
Michael's heart warmed: "Let's not talk about this for now, I'll go there as soon as possible."
After hanging up the phone, he went home to get the documents, and after briefly explaining to Mary who had just woken up, he took a taxi to Chase Bank's Manhattan headquarters. Jason was already waiting in the office and patted him on the shoulder: "Don't think too much. If the old doesn't go, the new won't come."
Michael handed over the documents, and Jason's face was serious: "Mike, this is all the property of my uncle and aunt. The mortgage loan is not a small amount. Are you sure..."
"Sure." Michael interrupted him, "Jay, do it, the sooner the better."
Jason didn't ask any more questions. With his internal connections, the approval was unusually smooth. "According to the appraisal price, the maximum loan is 1.5 million US dollars." Jason handed over the documents, "Sign it if there is no problem."
1.5 million, plus the 200,000 from his parents, a total of 1.7 million. After signing, Michael looked at Jason: "Jay, can you lend me some more? The interest rate is the highest, and the principal and interest will be paid back in ten days."
Jason looked embarrassed: "Mike, it's not that I don't believe you, the money is managed by Amanda (his wife), she just enrolled her daughter in Manhattan School of Music..."
Michael nodded in understanding: "It's okay, I won't embarrass you."
Jason looked at his calm face, suddenly gritted his teeth and opened the mobile bank: "Wait for me!" A few minutes later, 300,000 US dollars were transferred to Michael's account-including this amount, a total of 2 million.
"I'll pay you back in ten days." Michael clenched his mobile phone, the money was as heavy as Mount Tai.
After leaving the bank, he went straight to Morgan Stanley's business department. Opening an account, binding an account, bank-to-securities transfer, in the afternoon, 2 million US dollars were lying in the US stock account. He opened the trading software and found the stock engraved in his mind-Blue Ocean Tech (code: BOT), the current stock price is 10.02 US dollars.
Without any hesitation, Michael chose to buy at the market price.
[Buy 199,600 shares of Blue Ocean Tech, the average transaction price is $10.02. ]
The account balance instantly returned to zero, replaced by nearly 200,000 shares of BOT stock. He stared at the red numbers on the screen, his heart beating like a drum - the system showed that in 48 hours, the AI company will announce a quantum algorithm breakthrough.
At the same time, in the president's office of Vogue Advertising in Midtown Manhattan, Sophia (Sophia) held a photo with Michael - it was taken on the Hampton Beach, when he was still wearing H&M beach pants, and there was a light in his eyes that she couldn't read now.
"Knock, knock, knock." Lily pushed the door open and handed over the afternoon meeting materials: "Mr. Chen, and... you asked me to pay attention to Michael's news. He mortgaged his house and hardware store in Queens to Chase today."
Sophia looked up suddenly: "Mortgage the house? What is he going to do?"
"It seems to be stock speculation," Lily said carefully, "I bought Blue Ocean Tech, all in."
"Blue Ocean Tech?" Sophia immediately opened the Bloomberg terminal. The K-line chart of BOT was green, and funds were fleeing crazily on the time-sharing chart. "Is he crazy?!" She said in a lost voice, "This stock was just shorted by Muddy Waters last week. Why did he buy it all in? That's his parents' house!"
An inexplicable anxiety surged in her heart, making her more irritated than when she was getting divorced. Lily looked at her tense profile and whispered, "Mr. Chen, Michael is actually..."
"Enough!" Sophia interrupted her, "Go out."
The office returned to silence. Sophia stared at the plummeting BOT stock price on the screen, her fingertips tapping the Prada desktop unconsciously. She picked up the encrypted phone and dialed a number: "Help me check the internal information of Blue Ocean Tech, the more detailed the better."
Outside the window, the bronze bull on Wall Street was shining in the sun, and Michael was standing at the door of a hardware store in Queens, watching his father Robert wipe the Husky tools on the shelf. "Dad," he raised his mobile phone, "the money has arrived, and I will return it in a few days."
Robert stopped and pointed to the Casio electronic watch on his wrist - it was the first watch he bought while working part-time in college: "Don't worry, be safe."
Michael nodded and turned to leave. The phone in his pocket vibrated, and the system pushed the second message: "The minutes of the internal meeting of Blue Ocean Tech have been uploaded, the quantum algorithm breakthrough has been confirmed, and the press conference will be held in 48 hours."
He looked up in the direction of Manhattan, and a sneer appeared on the corner of his mouth. At this moment, Elena was in the villa on the Upper East Side, making macarons with the KitchenAid mixer left by Michael, and was completely unaware of the upcoming stock market storm.