Chapter 174: A financial story for adults

Nanzhuang Farmers' Market is located at the west gate of the National People's Congress. It is a very ordinary farmers' market, where every day agricultural and sideline products from Daxing District or neighbouring provinces and cities are transported here to supply the capital's food needs. However, this era's Third Ring Road was not the Third Ring Road of twenty years later, not as prosperous to that extent, and there were not yet various large shopping supermarkets, so there was still a need for this kind of farmers' market to meet people's needs for buying morning provisions.

In the past, most of the people who came here to buy food were local residents, mostly middle-aged and elderly people, but today there is suddenly a group of young people in their early twenties.

These young people, full of energy or dressed fashionably or carrying textbooks, it's not that these people can't come to the farmers' market to buy food, it's just that they are obviously out of place with the food and necessities of life. It's normal for one or two to come occasionally, but today suddenly so many people have come at once, which is surprising.

Is this some kind of research project? Or have these students been brainwashed by foreign spies and are here to spread rumours? Although the arrests of foreign spies didn't make the headlines, the older residents of the capital had heard about it and sensed that something was unusual. Could it be that these students have also been brainwashed?

Many people stared at these unexpected students, with all kinds of thoughts racing through their minds. The discussion was all the more surprising and bizarre because these people were all middle-aged women, old men and old women, the most nosy and interested in gossip.

Compared to the surprise of these people, these students themselves were also very surprised. They never expected that they would come to a place like the farmers' market, and they could not figure out why they actually came here to take classes. Faced with the old men and women who came to buy food, these students felt very uncomfortable, restless and uneasy.

'What do you think of this farmers' market?'

Zhou Ming's sudden question made all the students pause for a moment. They obviously did not expect Zhou Ming to ask such a question.

The students looked at each other, and in the end, Chen Shu, the monitor, stood up and said, 'Teacher, we really don't understand why we have to come here. This is a farmers' market, and we are finance students. Our responsibility should be to study hard to build up advanced financial knowledge and defend the domestic financial system from invasion by Western countries, not to watch them bargain over the buying and selling of vegetables here in the farmers' market.'

Chen Shu started off very carefully, but as Zhou Ming gave him the nod, his tone became more assertive, as if he were vindicating himself.

After listening to him finish, Zhou Ming didn't rush to speak, but thought about it for a moment before asking in return, 'Do you think it's embarrassing to come to the farmers' market and be with these people buying food and those vegetable vendors?'

Zhou Ming's rhetorical question left his classmates flummoxed. Chen Shu, who had just been talking with conviction, could only reply in a flustered manner, 'Teacher, that's not what I think. These people are all great working people. I respect them all. I don't look down on them, and I don't think they're bad...'

Zhou Ming didn't wait for Chen Shu to finish speaking before continuing, 'So you look down on the farmers market as a place, and don't think it befits your status?'

After this question, the students in the finance class never answered again. However, even though they didn't speak, their proud expressions already gave a good answer.

Zhou Ming shook his head helplessly in his heart. In fact, he had seen the performance of these students just now, so even if they didn't say anything now, Zhou Ming understood their answer very well. However, Zhou Ming still continued to ask, 'Do you really think that the farmers' market has nothing to do with you at all? If that's the case, then I can only say that I'm very disappointed, or that I've overestimated you.'

As soon as Zhou Ming finished speaking, there was an uproar among the students, as if he had not just said a sentence, but had struck a thunderbolt.

'What's going on? Why did the teacher say that? Is there some mystery hidden in the farmers' market? Or is there a financial tycoon from before the liberation living in this farmers' market? Or is it that some foreign expert in finance has secretly come to China, and the teacher just happens to know him, so they happened to make an appointment to meet here today, or maybe that financial expert just happens to live here?'

The students spoke one after the other, saying, 'If someone else said this to them, the students would definitely sneer and say that he was pretending to be smart. But since this person is their respected and admired homeroom teacher, Zhou Ming, they can only speculate like this.

Facing such behaviour from his students, Zhou Ming really couldn't help but laugh. He actually really wanted to scold them, but these students respected him so much that Zhou Ming really couldn't bring himself to do it.

Finally, Zhou Ming said, 'You don't need to keep guessing. This is just an ordinary farmers' market, and there's no financial expert hiding here.'

His words sent shockwaves through the students. They were smart, and they hadn't ruled out this answer, but none of them wanted to believe it was the case. So the students asked questions one after the other, all with different focuses, but basically all centred on the same point: they didn't understand why it was like this.

'Everyone be quiet, we have to trust the teacher, since he brought us here, he must have his reasons!'

In the end, it was the shout of the group secretary Ye Ning that made the students quiet down. Zhou Ming smiled and said thank you to Ye Ning, and the little girl shyly lowered her head, her pretty face turning red.

This made Zhou Ming a little embarrassed. After all, having experienced women like Su Hanlin Muqing and Tang Ran, Zhou Ming was no longer the same wooden man from his previous life, and he could more or less tell what women were thinking.

Now the young girl is obviously in a state of budding love, but as God is my witness, Zhou Ming can swear that he doesn't have any evil intentions towards her. It's just simple teacher-student care, and that smile just a simple compliment for the student's understanding. Who knew it would make the young girl like this?

Zhou Ming has also heard that many girls when they are studying will have fantasies or secret crushes on good-looking or handsome male teachers, but that is all in legend. Who would have thought that their charm would be so great?

Zhou Ming is not the type to run away from problems. Since it has happened, he just has to figure out a way to solve it later. As for now, he can only pretend to be an ostrich for a while and attend class. He can't openly take a romance class with the young girl here. Even if the young girl doesn't blame him, it's still not good.

Shaking his head, he shook all these thoughts out of his head. Zhou Ming said, 'Classmates, I know that you all don't understand why I brought you to this Nanzhuang Farmers' Market today. Some of you are even a little upset, thinking that I'm being evasive or even difficult. But I want to say that I'm not. Not only am I not being evasive, I still want to take you to understand the essence of finance, just in my own way.'

'Teacher, what do you mean by the essence of finance? We will all study it with the utmost seriousness!'

The students all replied to Zhou Ming in this way, and some even took out pens and notebooks, ready to record the important content of what Zhou Ming would be teaching in class.

Seeing these actions, Zhou Ming immediately said, 'Put away your notebooks. I won't teach you any basic knowledge. All I can give you is a way of thinking. So I don't want you to write down anything I say. I only ask you to think!'

In Zhou Ming's words, the students nodded doubtfully, but instead of putting away their notebooks and pens, more of them took out their pens and notebooks, because they felt that what Zhou Ming was about to say would benefit them for the rest of their lives, and these things could not be heard anywhere else, so they had to write them down.

Zhou Ming reached out and took a circle of the farmers market and asked, 'I don't know what you saw in this farmers market, but I can tell you very clearly that I saw the most basic financial economy.'

The students were surprised again, but this time they were not too excited. They were either thinking thoughtfully or simply recording Zhou Ming's words and thinking about them later.

Zhou Ming did not keep them in suspense this time either. He continued, 'What do you mean by finance? If we understand it literally, gold means gold, and finance means to monetise gold, so put together it means monetising gold? Yes, but the purpose of melting gold is to make it more easily circulated.'

'Of course, nowadays we don't go out and carry a lot of gold after it has been melted to buy things. We all use money to buy things. So I would say this is exactly the situation in the farmers' market. You give me money and I can sell you things. Everyone pays for what they buy and receives what they pay for. Isn't this a transaction? Isn't this the basis of the economy?'

Zhou Ming continued, 'And sometimes a businessman might run into a situation where they can't break a large bill, or a person buying groceries might run out of money. In this case, they can break up the bill, and if they don't have enough, they can borrow from a friend.'

Having said that, Zhou Ming paused deliberately before asking, 'Does this sound familiar to everyone? The situation I just described is not the embryonic form of a bank? And the bank is the most important part of financial activities, because if there is no money, the financial foundation is lost. So do you still think that the farmers' market and finance are completely unrelated?'

Li Yang, the vice monitor, pondered for a moment and said, 'Teacher, you are definitely right, but does that mean we should learn finance based on the situation in the farmers' market, so that we can establish a perfect financial system that is better than that of Western countries?'

As Li Yang spoke, all the students nodded. Zhou Ming sighed and said, 'It seems that you still look down on the farmers' market, but that's normal. Then I can tell you all a story, the story of a man selling pigs and a young widow. Everyone is old enough to hear it.'