The Hunt

December 6th, Tuesday night.

Zhao Chen took a screenshot of his 320,000-share Sanjiang Shopping position in his securities account and sent it to the group chat.

The image clearly showed a preset conditional order: sell everything when the price was ≥ 51.00 yuan.

[Zhao Chen: My conditional order is set. I'll liquidate at 51 yuan. Use this price level as a reference for your own trades. Sell when it reaches it—don't hesitate.]

[Zhao Chen: I may be very busy for a while and won't have time to watch the market or reply. Remember what I said: once it reaches the target price, strictly follow discipline.]

After sending those messages, he did not look at the inevitable uproar and questions in the group chat. He simply closed WeChat.

The lights were off in the room, and only the glow of the computer screen illuminated his composed face.

Late at night on December 7th, Wednesday, Central, Hong Kong.

That afternoon, Chen Xi had readily approved his leave.

In her eyes now, Zhao Chen's "personal matters" had clearly been categorized as something that needed to be taken seriously.

A Private Equity Trading Room, with the blue computer screens as its only source of light.

Zhao Chen sat alone before a Six-Screen Setup, numbers jumping across his pupils: Henglong's share price stood at 10.22 Hong Kong dollars, while Trading Volume had shrunk to 30% of Daily Volume—a typical Calm Before the Storm.

He had flown to Hong Kong to personally draw back the curtain on this final act.

Over the past week, the traders had remained still. Zhao Chen's Short Position stayed at 45 Million Shares, like a venomous snake coiled in the shadows.

And now, its fangs had emerged—there were still 13 Million Shares of ammunition waiting in the account.

What he wanted was the final clap of thunder before the storm.

Zhou Xi, 9:30 AM, Market Open.

Zhao Chen did not rush to make a move.

Like a surgeon performing a dissection, he observed the market. The initial Sporadic Trades showed that the Market Defense Funds were still holding the 10.20–10.25 range, but Buy Order Depth had visibly thinned.

At 9:15 AM, the First Wave of Probing began.

He chose the highest-leverage Graystone Capital CFD account through the Xi Family channel and placed an order for 500,000 shares at 10.19, just 0.01 below the best bid. It was a tiny provocation.

The order was filled instantly.

Almost at the same time, an 800,000-share buy order surged in at 10.20, trying to steady the line.

"Fast reaction, but the order size is smaller," Zhao Chen murmured.

During the same probe last week, the opposing side's responding buy orders had usually exceeded 1.5 million shares.

He waited three minutes, allowing the market to digest it.

Then, through the Credit Suisse TRS channel, he placed an order for 800,000 shares at 10.18.

This time, the fill took five seconds longer.

After the market defense buy orders at 10.20 were withdrawn, they reappeared at 10.18—but there were only 500,000 shares.

The opponent had started to skimp on ammunition.

The corner of Zhao Chen's mouth lifted slightly.

He paused the sell-off and let the share price fluctuate within the narrow 10.18–10.20 range.

This brief calm instead allowed some sensitive short-term traders to smell danger, and they began quietly reducing their positions.

At 10:00 AM, Zhao Chen launched Phase Two.

He no longer fought through a single channel, activating three accounts at once instead:

Goldman Sachs TRS: 600,000 shares at 10.17

Morgan Stanley derivatives: 700,000 shares at 10.16

Credit Suisse TRS: 500,000 shares at 10.15

A total of 1.8 million shares, spread across three adjacent price levels, formed a miniature wall of Selling Pressure.

The market reacted violently.

The order at 10.17 was quickly swallowed, but the sell orders at 10.16 and 10.15 began piling up.

The Market Defense Funds were clearly hesitating—if they took all of it, the cost would be too high;

if they only took part of it, the share price would inevitably fall further.

Those thirty seconds of hesitation were fatal.

Some algorithmic trades detected the mounting Selling Pressure and automatically triggered follow-the-trend sell orders.

Sell orders at 10.15 rose to 1.2 million shares.

At last, the Market Defense Funds moved.

A 1.5 million-share buy order swept through 10.15–10.17, forcibly pulling the share price back to 10.18.

The price was roughly 18 million Hong Kong dollars.

Zhao Chen calmly noted, "First large-scale expenditure. Response time delayed by 30 seconds."

He gave his opponents no chance to catch their breath.

At eleven o'clock, when the market briefly calmed, he struck again.

This time, it was Graystone Capital's CFD—one million shares, dumped directly at 10.12, 0.06 below the market price!

It was a signal: he was no longer content to nibble away. He wanted to tear open the defensive line.

The order book broke instantly! Buy orders at 10.12 were as thin as cicada wings and were pierced in a single blow. The stock price fell to 10.10 for the first time!

This time, the Market Defense Funds reacted a full minute too slowly.

By the time buy orders finally appeared at 10.08, the stock had already touched 10.09.

Though it was ultimately pulled back to 10.12, that empty minute was like a crack etched into the eyes of every observer.

The market closed for lunch, and the battlefield temporarily fell silent.

Zhao Chen leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes to rest.

The statistics before him showed that 4.1 million shares had been sold that morning, consuming an estimated more than 50 million of the opponent's funds.

The share price had fallen from 10.22 to 10.12, a drop of 1%.

Not much, but the trend was already like a tilting deck.

When the market opened in the afternoon, Zhao Chen knew the real battle had only just begun.

He pulled up all 8.9 million shares remaining in his quota and divided them into three waves.

Through the Xi Family's channels, he placed orders simultaneously, each for 300,000 to 500,000 shares, with prices gradually lowered from 10.10 to 10.05.

Three million shares in total.

It was psychological warfare: using relentless selling pressure to tell the market that the bears had ample ammunition and were pressing forward step by step.

The Market Defense Funds were still resisting, but they were clearly struggling.

Each attempt to push the price back up took longer and consumed more funds.

By 13:25, the share price had been suppressed to 10.06.

Zhao Chen noticed a critical change: when the price touched 10.05, the response speed of the defensive buy orders had shifted from "within seconds" in the morning to "five to ten seconds."

"The defense line is starting to loosen," he murmured.

At 14:00, a crucial moment as the Hong Kong market reopened in the afternoon.

Zhao Chen threw his heaviest punch: through Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs's dual channels, he simultaneously placed two sell orders of 1.5 million shares each, targeting a price of 9.98 Hong Kong dollars.