Chapter 9

◎Temporary Worker Turned Professional◎

Fan Qi followed Liao Jiqing into the office. Liao Jiqing sat behind a large desk while she sat across from him, where she could also see the trading floor through the window.

“Miss Fan, you’re completely different from how you appear in the movies,” Liao Jiqing started with this opening line.

“Acting is acting, and life is life. It’s important to distinguish between the two,” Fan Qi replied.

She knew he was referring to her appearance and attire. She admired women who could look beautiful and put together every day. However, even when she worked in investment banking during her previous life, she was content with just applying lipstick. Later, when she fully transitioned to stock trading, she became even lazier. Once she became famous and started attending social events, she didn’t bother to dress up. At her level, dressing formally was considered sophisticated, while dressing casually was seen as chic and carefree.

Of course, she couldn’t admit she was simply lazy. She needed to find a more presentable excuse.

Liao Jiqing smiled. “That’s true.”

Fan Qi jumped straight to the point, her face showing barely contained excitement. “I heard from Miss He that you’re willing to meet with small clients like me, and I’m so happy I could almost jump up!”

“Really?”

“Yes! Isn’t it something I never even dared to dream of?”

Liao Jiqing looked out the window. “In March this year, four exchanges merged into what is now the Hong Kong Exchanges. Since last year, the Hong Kong stock market has started to recover from its slump and trading has become more active. However, brokerage firms haven’t improved their services for clients, especially for small investors. There has been quite a bit of dissatisfaction among stockholders. I hope to use this opportunity—not to say we’ll revolutionize the industry’s service—but at least our brokerage firm can lead the way in improving service.”

Fan Qi’s analysis had been correct. Hong Kong’s stockbrokerages were similar to mainland securities firms. When the securities market was booming, firms tried everything to attract clients, opening accounts and fighting for market share. The merger of four exchanges into the Hong Kong Exchanges was a huge opportunity. Liao Jiqing clearly saw the potential of retail investors and wanted to expand Yaohua by focusing on them.

He had made his purpose clear, so Fan Qi followed up. “Not everyone is as lucky as I am to catch your attention. Most retail investors are still standing at the counter, looking at outdated news. The information they get when they buy is often out of sync with real-time updates, which leads to buying and selling mistakes.”

She lowered her head and took out her notebook and pen.

“What’s this?” Liao Jiqing asked.

“I’m just trying to record the valuable insights from speaking with an industry expert. I want to make sure I don’t miss any key points and can review them later,” Fan Qi explained modestly.

“There’s no need for that,” Liao Jiqing said, thinking she was flattering him.

Fan Qi smiled and opened her notebook, handing it to him. “Mr. Liao, please don’t laugh at me. I’m still new to this and want to learn. Even though I spent so long at the counter just yesterday, after taking notes, I went home and organized the information. It’s all about taking small steps. It’s a process to go from not understanding to understanding.”

Liao Jiqing looked down at Fan Qi’s handwriting. He was a little surprised. The handwriting of this actress from mainland China, who had once starred in erotic films, was as graceful and elegant as her appearance.

Looking carefully at the content, the first point she had noted was an analysis of the misalignment between off-market quotes and the trading process due to time delays. Below that, there was an example of an elderly man who placed an order that seemed to go smoothly, but in the middle of the process, Fan Qi had pointed out the repeated delays. From the initial price he saw to the final transaction price, the difference was eight cents.

She wrote the trading rules at the top, then listed several questions below:

1. How can the on-market and off-market prices be updated more quickly?
   
2. When there’s a price difference in phone orders, how can we avoid creating tension and ensure customers don’t make incorrect trades?
   
3. …
   

Looking at the questions one by one, some of them seemed like layman’s concerns, while others were issues they hadn’t even considered—issues that were crucial for clients and seemed easy to resolve.

Liao Jiqing participated in radio programs to create a good impression with retail investors. He saw the potential in the small and medium investors. With the Hong Kong stock market still in its early stages of growth, it was a period of rapid expansion. At this stage, focusing only on high-end clients and avoiding broader reach would lead to being swallowed by larger players in the future.

He criticized the current brokerages for focusing too much on big clients, which was an effort to appease the smaller investors. In reality, when he said he would work with Fan Qi as a stockbroker, he was also positioning her as a topic for discussion. What surprised him was that this young actress from mainland China, who came to Hong Kong to make those types of movies, could actually organize so many thoughtful questions. Some of them were indeed hitting the key points.

His interest piqued, Liao Jiqing said, “Miss Fan, you’re very observant. This doesn’t sound like someone who wants me to be her stockbroker?”

“Mr. Liao, you’re very busy, and you can’t help me forever. I also want to take this opportunity to learn something myself. Most retail investors won’t get your personal service, but if you can approach things from their perspective and solve the issues they’re facing, it’ll be much more helpful than what other brokerages offer.”

“You make a valid point,” Liao Jiqing said, looking over her questions. He realized that half of them could be solved and that resolving them would greatly benefit small and medium investors. He picked up the phone, “Jia Sheng, come to my office.”

A few minutes later, a male employee wearing glasses entered. “Mr. Liao.”

“Miss Fan has raised some very interesting questions. Take a look,” Liao Jiqing handed the notebook to him.

While Fan Qi and Liao Jiqing discussed the questions in the office, in the next room, Liao Yazhe was reclining in his chair, on the phone. “Such scheming, she actually refused your offer of a high price?”

Feng Xueming on the other end of the line laughed. “I know she’s playing hard to get, but I’m still tempted. What do you think I should do?”

“Then just go for it? But chasing after a woman who’s easy to get would be pretty boring!” Liao Yazhe noticed Fan Qi coming out of his father’s office. “She’s out, and your dad’s the one who brought her out. No way?”

Liao Yazhe didn’t care whether his father had any interest in the actress. After all, the current matriarch of the Liao family wasn’t his biological mother—his real mother had passed away years ago.

“If Uncle Liao is interested in her, I’d back off. I wouldn’t dare compete with him for a woman.”

Liao Yazhe looked through the glass and saw his father’s trusted assistant, Ma Jiasheng, leading Fan Qi to Miss Xiang in the administrative office. What was that about?

Fan Qi had just received her Yaohua uniform from Miss Xiang, after asking Liao Jiqing if she could work at Yaohua.

At that moment, Liao Jiqing, holding her notebook, asked Mr. Ma, “How about making her an analysis assistant?”

In the workplace, when the big boss wants to place a beautiful woman in your department—even if he isn’t personally interested—who would dare turn down such a proposal? Fan Qi sensed Ma Jiasheng’s reluctance, but whether he liked it or not, her goal was achieved, and she was happy. She left the building, carrying a bag with the Yaohua uniform inside.

She bought a newspaper, took the subway, and flipped to the entertainment section. There was a small piece about her: “Stock Market Guru Liao Jiqing Makes an Exception for Fan Qi.”

It seemed like the usual gossip, nothing too surprising.

Fan Qi skimmed through the paper for a while. The subway arrived at her stop, and she got off. She was back earlier than usual today, and the night market hadn’t set up yet. Besides, as much as she enjoyed stir-fried rice noodles and roasted meats, eating them every day would get boring. Moreover, China’s vast land offered so many regional cuisines—sticking to just Cantonese food seemed too limiting. Fan Qi was well aware of how fickle taste can be, always craving something new and exploring different options.

A few streets away, there was an open-air market. After walking for about 15 minutes, she reached the street corner, where the bustling noise of vendors filled the air.

One side of the road was lined with dry goods—bird’s nests, abalone, shark fins, and various herbs for soups. On the other side, small vendors were chopping meat with cleavers.

Fan Qi was surprised by the price tags at the meat stalls. It seemed that people’s preferences had changed over time. In her previous life, the most expensive cuts were ribs and pork belly. But here, the rear leg meat was the priciest, and even pork belly without ribs was cheaper than the rear leg. The fan bones were practically given away.

She bought a piece of pork belly, and the vendor gave her two fan bones for free. The pork belly looked so good that Fan Qi thought of making spicy, stir-fried twice-cooked pork, and her mouth started watering.

Next door, a stall was selling live poultry—chickens, ducks, and pigeons. Ducks were the cheapest, and someone bought half of one. The vendor said it was a good deal, so Fan Qi bought the remaining half. She also bought some vegetables and planned to stop by the noodle stall, but the noodles there were either Cantonese-style alkaline noodles or thick, chopstick-sized noodles.

While wonton noodles were delicious, as a Shanghainese, Fan Qi preferred the thinner Su-style noodles. She recalled Taiwan’s beef noodles and Japan’s ramen—weren’t they similar? Didn’t they have something like this?

She wasn’t in a hurry for noodles, but she did need to find Pixian bean paste for her twice-cooked pork. She walked through the entire dry goods section but only found exotic ingredients like bird’s nests and seahorses. There was no sign of Sichuan bean paste. In her previous life, even overseas markets carried this stuff, but the limitations of this era were so frustrating.

When she returned home, she cut the remaining large piece of pork belly into chunks, boiled it along with the fan bones, then placed them in the fridge. Afterward, she took two pieces of pork belly, sliced them, and stir-fried them with tofu and garlic shoots, though without the bean paste. The flavor? Well, it was okay.

She also removed the remaining feathers from the half-duck and marinated it with spices and salt, then put it in the fridge.

Her single-door fridge was mostly empty unless she bought a lot of things; even a little food filled it up quickly.

Fan Qi finished cleaning the stove, then went to the bathroom to take a shower and wash clothes. Before she could finish mopping the floor, she heard the phone ringing outside. She quickly came out to answer the call: “Hello?”

“Fan Qi.”

The voice on the other end was one she immediately recognized, even though they had only spent a short time together. It was Chen Zhiqian. She responded, “Mhm.”

“How have things been the past couple of days?”

Fan Qi was a little puzzled: “What do you mean?”

There was a brief pause before he asked: “Have you gone out looking for a job? No need to rush.”

She smiled happily: “I found one! I’m going to work as an assistant at Yaohua Stock Brokerage tomorrow. It’s a temporary position, paying two thousand Hong Kong dollars a month. You know my contract is about to expire, right? I’m not renewing it with the company. If I do a good job, I might even get a permanent position! I’ll be helping the traders with organizing materials and doing some supporting tasks. Doesn’t that sound great?”

The biggest advantage of this job for Fan Qi was that it allowed her to explain how she got involved in stock trading.

“That’s indeed great.”

Fan Qi didn’t hide her joy: “When will you be back?”

“I’m in Japan now. I was supposed to return the day after tomorrow, but I’m thinking of going to Shanghai for a while. Is there anything you want me to tell your parents and grandmother?”

Fan Qi knew her family was nice, but she wasn’t very close to them, so she couldn’t think of anything to say right away. She replied: “Just tell them I’m doing well here.”

“Anything else?”

Anything else? Fan Qi thought for a moment: “Did you bring any money with you?”

“Yes.”

“How much can you spare? Don’t say it’s from you, just say it’s from me as a way to honor them and make them happy. I’ve also signed an ad for casual wear, and I should make about nine thousand. I’ll pay you back when you get back.”

“Got it.” Chen Zhiqian asked, “Anything else?”

Fan Qi thought about the twice-cooked pork she made earlier, which lacked spice: “Can you bring me a bottle of Pixian bean paste? Also, some fermented red bean curd, some dried radish from Xiaoshan, and pickled mustard greens if possible…”

“Long-distance calls are expensive. I’m hanging up now.” Chen Zhiqian interrupted her list.

It was a bit too much to ask for. Fan Qi hung up the phone, feeling her mouth water as she listed all those items. Why did she have such an insatiable appetite, and why was she stuck in the 1980s, feeling the limitations of her time?

Oh well. No Sichuan food? At least she could have some Nanjing salted duck.

After buying so many vegetables, she spent quite some time organizing them. It was already 11 PM. Fan Qi briefly skimmed through the day’s news. The stock market section had many company announcements. She went through each one to avoid missing any important information. Buying shares in a listed company was so cheap these days—just look at this company, it sold 43% of its shares for only over one million Hong Kong dollars. Back then, Hong Kong’s daily trading volume was in the billions, but now it was only about two billion a day.

Fan Qi set an alarm for 7 AM. The brokerage opened at 8:30 AM, so she had to leave early.