"Congratulations!"
Su Yi watched Chu Wan walk off the stage with her trophy, smiling as he handed her the bouquet he had just bought at the venue entrance.
"You sang beautifully, I knew you would win an award."
Chu Wan inhaled the fragrance of the flowers in her hands, a brilliant smile blooming on her face:
"Thank you, Xiao Yi Ge."
"You're welcome."
Su Yi continued with a smile,
"What do you want to eat later? To celebrate your win, it's my treat today."
Chu Wan thought for a moment and said,
"I want to eat the stir-fried rice cakes from Waipoqiao."
"Stir-fried rice cakes from Waipoqiao?"
Su Yi was momentarily stunned and asked,
"What's that?"
Father Chu smiled and explained, and only then did Su Yi understand that 'Waipoqiao' was a Chinese restaurant specializing in home-style dishes, and 'stir-fried rice cakes' was one of its signature dishes.
"Alright,"
Su Yi responded after Father Chu's explanation,
"You can eat as much as you like."
With that, the three left the venue and headed straight to the 'Waipoqiao' restaurant Chu Wan had mentioned, ordering the 'stir-fried rice cakes' she had been craving.
"It's still the same taste,"
Chu Wan took a bite of the rice cake and said,
"Exactly like the ones Mom made when I was little, during the New Year."
Upon hearing his daughter's words, a hint of sadness clearly appeared on Father Chu's face.
Su Yi lightly coughed and quickly changed the subject:
"I heard they also have another famous dish, would you like to try it?"
"No need, we can't eat that much,"
Father Chu answered for his daughter.
"It's fine, it's not much."
Su Yi responded with a smile, then called the waiter and ordered a few more dishes.
Afterward, once the dishes were ordered, to prevent Father Chu from fighting him for the bill later, Su Yi used the excuse of going to the restroom and paid at the service desk in advance.
By the time the three finished their meal and returned home, it was already around 3:30 PM.
The weather outside was still scorching hot.
Su Yi turned on the air conditioner, dozed off for a while, and woke up at 6:00 PM.
He checked the time, just about to make dinner, but the Chu father and daughter next door had already prepared a sumptuous dinner during their busy afternoon and invited him to join them.
Su Yi thought to himself that Father Chu was truly 'calculating,' always believing in reciprocity.
However, since they invited him with good intentions and enthusiasm, he had no reason to refuse.
When he stepped into the room next door, he realized that the house where the Chu father and daughter lived was not much larger than the one he rented.
The layout was a small two-bedroom apartment, with a floor area of roughly sixty square meters.
Although the house was small, it was warmly decorated and very neat and clean.
It felt very lived-in.
From the room's decor and the girl's demeanor, he could tell that Father Chu was a very competent father, and… he was also a good cook.
During dinner, Su Yi shared a little wine with Father Chu.
As a result, their conversation gradually became more expansive.
After a deeper understanding, Su Yi learned that Father Chu was not a native of Modu, but had been working there for almost twenty years.
After twenty years of living away from his hometown, the only asset he had managed to acquire was this apartment.
And because he had been away for so long, after his parents passed away, he had completely drifted apart from his relatives back home.
Additionally, his wife had passed away many years ago, and his in-laws were also gone, so contact with his wife's relatives had essentially ceased.
Only he and his daughter were left, dependent on each other in this city that was both familiar and strange.
However, as long as his daughter could grow up healthy and happy, Father Chu felt that no matter how much he sacrificed or how hard he worked, it would all be worth it.
Listening to Father Chu recount his past after a few drinks, Su Yi sometimes felt that the other man's fate was rough and unfortunate.
But when his gaze caught Chu Wan sitting quietly on the sofa not far away, immersed in the sound of music, and the guide dog at Chu Wan's feet, staring intently at him, still barking at him occasionally, he suddenly felt that the other man was, in fact, also happy.
They drank two more cups.
Su Yi felt it was enough, so he stopped talking, stood up, and took his leave.
After returning home and taking a quick shower, Su Yi realized that the wine he drank that evening seemed to have gone to his head.
He fell into a deep sleep and didn't wake up until close to noon the next day.
It was the last day of the Dragon Boat Festival holiday.
Su Yi had no plans.
After lunch, he simply went to the supermarket near the residential area to stock up on some daily necessities, vegetables, and fruits.
When he returned home, carrying a large bag of supplies under the scorching sun, Su Yi couldn't help but miss the intense competition among online supermarkets a few years later, where several fresh produce platforms would go head-to-head, fiercely cutting prices, and offering home delivery services.
Having grown accustomed to convenient consumer services years later, he now found himself back in a time when the mobile internet was still a battleground, and many business sectors had not yet deeply impacted people's living and consumption habits.
Even after living there for nearly half a month, he was still somewhat unaccustomed to it.
After purchasing the supplies needed for the next few days and cleaning the house, Su Yi had a simple dinner, then began to synthesize various market information from the holiday, review the market trends, and formulate his trading plan for tomorrow.
According to various information released by domestic and international markets during the holiday, there were both positive and negative factors.
However, among them, there was no positive or negative news that Su Yi felt warranted significant attention.
Regarding the market's sharp decline last Friday, and the 'cleanup of off-exchange margin lending' issue that was fiercely debated by the vast majority of investors during the holiday, the regulatory authorities made no statement, nor did they publicly comment to explain the 'cleanup of off-exchange margin lending' matter.
This was consistent with Su Yi's previous predictions.
Based on his past memories, he knew that at this time, the regulatory authorities definitely still believed the market was in a bull run, and that last Friday's sharp drop was a normal market correction.
They thought the market did not need any positive intervention to complete its self-repair of the trend.
Moreover, Su Yi guessed that the internal policy stance of the regulatory authorities at this time had definitely not shifted from their previous strategy of curbing overly rapid market growth and preventing market valuation bubbles.
Otherwise, they would not have aggressively moved to clean up off-exchange margin lending when the market had already shown signs of slowing momentum and growing divergence between bulls and bears.
Therefore, before their internal policy stance was adjusted, it was basically unrealistic to expect the regulatory authorities to introduce positive measures to further stimulate the stock market.
Of course, when the market subsequently plunged further, leading to a widespread liquidity crisis and serious systemic risks, various positive measures would naturally… arrive.
However, by that time, the effectiveness of those positive measures might not be as useful.
Throughout the entire three-day holiday, the regulatory authorities' indifference to the market's sharp decline completely dashed the hopes of countless bulls still holding positions, and also led to an unprecedented surge in market pessimism and the desire to sell among various leveraged funds.
Thus, this extreme deterioration of market bullish sentiment directly led to another significant market gap down on Tuesday, June 23rd, after the Dragon Boat Festival holiday.
Su Yi watched as the Shanghai Composite Index once again opened sharply lower by 1.42%, while the CSI 500 Index plunged even more severely by 2.63%, with many individual stocks directly opening at their daily limit down.
Even though he had experienced it once before in his memory, he still felt a shock to his heart.
(End of this chapter)
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