Return to Singapore 1995

After clearing customs and picking up his luggage, Li Xiaofan took a taxi at Hongqiao Airport and headed straight to Shiliupu Wharf.

At that time, there was a ship departing from Shiliupu Wharf to Mingzhou City every evening, and arrived at Mingzhou Jiangbei Wharf the next morning.

When Li Xiaofan arrived, the tickets for the "Tianfeng Lun" on that day at No. 1 Jinling East Road and the ticket office at Shiliupu Wharf had already been sold out.

Fortunately, there were many "scalpers" at the scene. As the departure time was approaching, the second-, third-, and fourth-class cabin tickets in the hands of the scalpers had already been sold out. Li Xiaofan had to pay 30 yuan to buy a fifth-class cabin ticket on the black market at a high price.

At that time, there were also several trains from Shencheng to Mingzhou. The fastest fast train took more than seven hours, and the slow train took more than ten hours, but many people still liked to take the overnight ship. Because the price of the fourth- and fifth-class cabins of the ship was cheaper than the train ticket.

Because people at that time lacked money and had plenty of time, they saved as much as possible.

Another advantage is that you can bring more luggage. At that time, Minnesota people liked to go to Nanjing Road and Huaihai Road in Shanghai to purchase high-end goods, often carrying bags and backpacks. The ship is obviously much more spacious than the train, and the amount of luggage is not as strictly controlled as on the train. In addition, everyone thinks that taking a ship may be more comfortable. You can sit or lie in the cabin, walk and look on the deck, eat in the restaurant, watch videos in the club, and sometimes catch the spectacular sunrise at sea.

The cabin that Li Xiaofan bought did not have a bed, and he had to spend fifty cents to borrow a straw mat from the shipping company. After boarding the ship, everyone swarmed into the cabin, and the huge cabin became crowded in an instant. The fellow villagers and new friends who were still chatting and laughing when queuing just now suddenly broke up and scrambled for territory.

After getting the straw mat, you can find a place to stay. If you are on the deck, you will shiver in the sea breeze in the middle of the night. If you are in the cabin, it is stuffy and there is the rumbling sound of the engine in the cabin. It was a hard night to sit in the common cabin, but the few dollars saved could cover several days of expenses.

Everyone felt relieved after they had used their luggage to encircle their own "territory" in the bottom cabin. Then someone stayed to look after the luggage, and the rest went to the deck to relax.

Li Xiaofan felt that although the environment in the common cabin was poor, the biggest advantage was that it was lively.

After the ship set sail, some "old wine groups" naturally gathered in the common cabin. Everyone took out the prepared packaged wine and food, sat on the ground, ate and chatted, and it was lively and warm.

Li Xiaofan remembered that in his previous life, he often encountered such a scene: two groups of people ate and chatted, and finally got along well, so they simply merged together to drink. As for meeting classmates and friends who had not seen each other for many years in the cabin, or strange young men and women sleeping next to each other, talking to each other and finding a partner, there were also frequent anecdotes...

This ship also has an unspoken rule: since most of the crew members on the ship are from Shanghai. So every time it goes to Mingzhou, it is always slow, and when it comes back to Shanghai, it drives very fast, and often arrives at the station early. It was still dark in the early morning, and the crew members were all in a hurry to go home, and they could still get into their wives' beds to be warm.

But the passengers from Minzhou to Shanghai suffered, and they could only wander the streets near Shilipu Wharf at four or five in the morning.

These memories are still fresh in Li Xiaofan's memory.

Listening to these passengers chatting together in the steerage cabin was a very interesting thing for Li Xiaofan at the moment. These passengers were basically from Minzhou.

Li Xiaofan listened to what everyone was talking about. In addition to family matters, a hot topic was the return of Iron Hammer Lang Ping to coach the Chinese women's volleyball team in early February. Everyone discussed it very intensely. Another hot topic was stocks...

At more than eight o'clock in the morning, after a night of sailing, the "Tianfeng" arrived at the Jiangbei Ship Terminal in Minzhou.

After getting off the ship, Li Xiaofan deposited his large luggage in the luggage room at the terminal.

After having some breakfast near the terminal, he took a taxi and went straight to the Minzhou Guotu Company. The full name of Mingzhou Guotuo is Mingzhou International Trust and Investment Company, which has securities and futures sales departments.

"Afan, why are you back!" Zhu Junda, who was busy debugging UPS in the computer room of Guotuo Company, was surprised when he saw Li Xiaofan.

Zhu Junda was Li Xiaofan's roommate and best friend when he was in technical secondary school. Now he is a technician in the computer room of the securities trading department of Mingzhou Guotuo Company. Zhu's father is the vice president of a local state-owned enterprise and has a wide network of contacts.

"Come back to see your brother!"

After Zhu Junda finished his work quickly, he came over and put his arm around Li Xiaofan's shoulder affectionately: "Afan, you don't come here for no reason! It is said that the international air tickets to and from Singapore are extremely expensive, which is equivalent to my annual salary! You guys didn't commit a crime in Singapore and were sent back, did you?"

"Haha, brother, you think too bad of me!"

Li Xiaofan laughed and took out two packs of cigarettes from his bag: "Here, this is for you, a little gift!"

"Oh, brother, it's OK, Marlboro! It's blue and green, I haven't seen it much in China!"

"Can I smoke here?"

"Not in the computer room, let's go, we can go to the trading hall outside to smoke!"

When the two of them arrived at the trading hall outside, it was past 9:20, and the stock market was about to open. The hall was already crowded and lively.

The two of them smoked and talked about the mountains for a while. After recalling the past years, Li Xiaofan asked: "Brother, do you have a futures trading account?"

"Yes, yes, I once opened a futures account. After trying to play with a small amount, I was so scared that I never dared to play again. This thing is too risky. Now the account has been idle there. Now I mainly Get some spare money to speculate in stocks..."

"Can you lend it to me?"

"Of course, no problem! What kind do you want to buy?"

"327 national debt..."

"327 treasury bonds? How come you are so concerned about 327 treasury bonds from Singapore? Recently, many large investors in our sales department are paying attention to this variety. It is currently a hot product!" Zhu Junda asked curiously.

“A friend recommended it, so I wanted to give it a try!”

Zhu Junda blew out a few puffs of smoke and said: "Brother, let me remind you, these futures are not as risky as stocks! Do you know the trading rules?"

"You probably know it, you can spread it to me a little bit more!"

"The current trading volume of treasury bond futures is traded on a 'mouth' basis. A futures lot corresponds to a cash bond with a face value of 20,000 yuan. The price is expressed as a cash bond with a face value of 100 yuan, and the futures price is a three-digit number. The margin for each lot is 500 Yuan. In this way, the leverage of Treasury bond futures is 40 times, which is equivalent to investing 1 yuan in futures trading, which can be magnified into buying 40 yuan of cash bonds. Conversely, the 500 margin divided by the 20,000 yuan spot bond equals 2.5%, that is, the margin is 2.5% of the futures. Every 2.5% change in the futures price is the amount of the margin, that is, the Treasury bond futures price is based on the face value of 100 yuan. Every time the price changes by 2.5 yuan, the winning party's deposit will be doubled, and the losing party will lose all their deposits, leaving nothing left..."