Darkstone Code-Chapter 746 - 0744 Watching TV [This - is sponsored by: ScarletWYZ - Extra Update 7/15]
"What has Lynch been up to these days?"
After finishing his work, the Emperor seemed to relax and casually brought up this topic. In recent days, Lynch has been in the spotlight, and some intelligence he "accidentally" leaked has caught the Emperor’s attention.
The Emperor personally does not like this man. Granting Lynch a title was merely a ploy to upset the Federation, but now he’s found himself upset because of some rumors.
Rumor has it that Lynch will marry Jenia, and Lynch’s baronship was granted by the Emperor to remove the final obstacle in their relationship — nobility.
In the Gafura Empire, a princess must marry a noble; this is an unchangeable rule. But as long as one is a noble, regardless of the rank, they can marry into the Imperial Family.
Directly conferring Lynch a high noble title is unrealistic. Only after he marries Princess Jenia can his rank be elevated by the Imperial Family as a "gift," making him worthy of the princess.
With this, all obstacles would be removed.
The public opinion is vexing the Emperor; he never considered letting Jenia marry Lynch, a foreigner who is not of the Empire!
More importantly, he has no intention of becoming Lynch’s "brother." 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺
If Lynch were a politician from another country, or a king or prince from a small country, this wouldn’t be a problem. The issue is Lynch is merely a "peasant" from the Federation.
No matter how wealthy or outstanding he is, he cannot change his origins; a princess will not marry such a person.
Yet people continue to speculate, thinking this is his doing, how could he not be annoyed?
The question he asked roughly meant "What else does he have unfinished? If he’s done, tell him to hurry up and leave."
The Royal Grand Steward hesitated slightly, thought for a moment, and then shared what he knew, "Lynch has been at the exchange these days."
"Exchange?" The Emperor didn’t immediately react, "What exchange?"
The Grand Steward reminded him, "The Royal Exchange, finance..."
The Emperor slightly raised his head; he understood but quickly furrowed his brows. He had heard about Lynch’s exploits in the Federation and knew he was a cunning fellow. "Is he up to something?"
The Grand Steward nodded again, "He’s shorting the Empire’s financial index."
The Emperor paused slightly, "Has something happened recently?" He said, sounding somewhat displeased, "Send for the Minister of Finance."
Soon, the Minister of Finance appeared in the Emperor’s study, which resembled a small hall.
"I heard Lynch is shorting the Empire’s financial index; has something happened domestically recently?"
The Minister’s smile was composed and confident, "Your Majesty, there’s no need for concern; Baron Lynch only intends to play a joke on us."
The Emperor’s gaze lingered on the Minister’s face for a moment, realizing that he wasn’t trying to dismiss or hide anything. He nodded indifferently, "I want to know exactly what’s going on."
As an emperor, his extraordinary desire for control makes him want to know everything happening in the country.
The Minister then recounted everything he knew. When the Grand Steward called him, he had already been informed of why the Emperor wanted to see him.
Before coming, he had obtained accurate information, understanding everything that had happened recently.
Now, he was merely relaying what he had just learned to the Emperor, albeit slightly embellished.
After listening to the Minister’s account, the Emperor did not think too much about it. This is not his area of expertise; rather than pondering it himself, he’d question a professional.
"Is Lynch’s action certain not to trigger a crash in the financial index?" The Emperor was still a bit uneasy, "I heard Lynch, despite his youth, has some competency in business and finance."
The Minister also thought seriously for a moment and then shook his head, "Your Majesty, we have the world’s most advanced algorithms; the rise and fall of any stock will not cause significant fluctuations in a sector index."
"Based on our calculation formula, unless over a dozen or even dozens of stocks simultaneously experience different degrees of decline, the index won’t trend downward."
"Dynamic factor calculation ensures every change in the index is without pattern; our formula is unbreakable!"
The Minister spoke with confidence, and indeed, it was true. Based on varying stock trading volumes over the past three days to a week, factors float, and ultimately, these factors gather to form Gafura’s sector index.
In other words, the larger the stock, the larger the factor coefficient, and the truly large-cap listed companies in the Empire are very stable.
They’re either banks or industries held by great nobles, backed by abundant resources. It’s even safe to say, if shareholders don’t want to take profit from investors, these stocks rarely fall!
Under such circumstances, attempting to destabilize the Empire’s financial system by targeting a single stock is nothing short of a joke.
"I don’t yet know if Baron Lynch has outstanding capabilities, but he must be an outstanding comedian!"
Seeing the Minister’s confident demeanor, the Emperor also relaxed, making a joke, "You’re right, sometimes he’s quite amusing, but more often he’s annoying."
Neither of them took the matter to heart. As for a company possibly involved in performance fraud?
Such matters don’t warrant the attention of a country’s Emperor or Minister, the people below will handle it beautifully.
As noon approached, His Majesty the Emperor was already considering what the chef should make for him.
However, the stock market was caught in a special situation.
The truth about Yuanrong Capital was extensively revealed by the "Ledu Daily". They used the weekend to ferment this topic, leading some people to think they were running "technical" advertisements.
For example, by quickly catching public attention through false accusations against rising stars or companies, and then suing them for "compensation".
This method was very effective; even if celebrities won the lawsuits, many did not wish to waste time on such matters.
Winning a lawsuit might not bring much compensation, but dragging it out too long leads to slander, ruining one’s reputation. It’s better to pretend not to know.
But this time, it was truly different.
A large amount of detailed and credible evidence was magnified and published over several pages of the newspaper, including the fact that the young reporter who obtained this evidence was nearly silenced!
People began to speculate whether this was a new method by "Ledu Daily" to create a sensation, or if such things had truly happened.
These external changes immediately impacted stock market prices, leading to another plunge in Yuanrong Capital’s stock price, bringing down the Gafura Financial Index slightly as well.
It seemed like these changes... wouldn’t overly affect the financial index, but actually, in several trading days of high trading volume, Yuanrong Capital became a "heavyweight stock" in the financial index.
Its trading volume surpassed other stocks mentioned by the Minister of Finance, even equal to the combined volume of several large-cap stocks.
Being a heavyweight means it has a greater impact on the financial index than other stocks.
In fact, not just the Gafura Empire, the Federation uses a similar calculation method. When a stock’s trading volume consistently increases and maintains a high turnover rate, it can represent the entire sector to some extent.
If a regular stock drops ten dollars and, due to certain factors, the sector index drops a point, then a heavyweight like Yuanrong Capital might only drop a tenth, yet the related sector index would still drop a point.
From morning till now, Yuanrong Capital had plummeted nearly five dollars, and as external influences grew, once panic selling started, Lynch didn’t even need to act; retail investors sold off madly without a second thought.
Prices fell over and over, and with each small drop, Lynch felt a strange thrill.
Because his wealth had increased yet again.
There’s nothing more exciting in the world than increasing wealth for those billionaires and big capitalists.
They always say they’re not interested in money, some even claim they don’t recognize money or understand its purpose, yet why do they continue to earn madly?
Lynch doesn’t like lying, except when necessary.
He feels very pleased right now; he likes the joy money brings, likes the growing numbers, likes everything related to money!
But, it’s still not enough, it needs a little more impact!
At this moment, the television began to crank up.
On every Monday noon before work, there’s a current affairs program mainly focusing on discussing some news hotspots from the past week, featuring some sharp opinions enjoyed by everyone from ordinary people to the Emperor.
Enjoying a delightful lunch and rare midday rest, His Majesty the Emperor sat not far from the TV. After the previous small strategy that gained Gafura some time in military exercises, His Majesty’s wake-up time was slightly pushed back by an hour.
But this time made little difference; the only change being he used to rise before dawn, now he rises at daybreak, that’s all.
What will be discussed at noon today, does it concern me?
The Emperor thought to himself, he hoped people respected him, but clearly, the producers wouldn’t speak of it this way.
"Hello everyone, today’s program is special. Before we start, I hope everyone watches a short edited clip we prepared..."
With the host’s words, the program started with returning to the video footage.
The footage showed everything related to Yuanrong Capital, from its obscure beginnings to recent madness.
Crazy stock prices, crazy investors, crazy shareholders... Everything associated with it seemed to become crazy.
The clip soon ended, followed by the title of this episode’s program appearing——
"The Frenzy of Gold Certificates"
