Chapter 175: The Parable of the Pig and the Little Widow

Stories with colour are often more appealing, and this has been the case since ancient times. Otherwise, there would be no certain book by Lanling Xiaoxiao that can rival the Four Great Classical Novels.

In the Nanzhuang Farmers' Market, when Zhou Ming told the story that adults would listen to, it immediately made the students restless. The male students' eyes lit up, and some of the more outgoing ones howled. The girls blushed in shame, and some of them covered their eyes.

'Okay, although I'm not a proper university teacher, I'm not one of those dance hall thugs either, and I won't tell you anything unhealthy,'

Zhou Ming said that ever since he had set up the first nightclub in Nanjiang, nightclubs and dance halls had sprung up all over the place. As the capital, it naturally was no exception, as it gathered the most resources in the country. Dance halls were also places with the most delinquents and hooligans, especially the cheaper and more irregular black dance halls. His classmates sometimes went to dance halls to have fun, and of course understood this.

'In fact, the story I want to tell is very simple. One day, a man selling pigs hurriedly drove twenty pigs to the market to sell them, but it suddenly rained halfway, and the market closed. The man's pigs were not sold, so he had to find a farmhouse to stay for the night and go to the market again the next day. When he opened the door, was a woman. She told the man that it was inconvenient for her to be alone at home, and the man begged her, 'Please, young lady, look, it's raining so heavily outside, I really can't go find somewhere else. How about this, if you let me stay here tonight, I'll give you a pig.'

'The young widow thought about it for a moment and nodded. 'Okay, but there's only one bed in the house, so you'll have to sleep on the floor.' The man refused at once, and negotiated with the young widow again: 'Why don't you come to bed with me, and I'll give you another pig?' The young widow nodded in agreement when she heard what the man said.

'So the two of them got into bed together, and the man made another request, saying that he wanted to sleep with the young widow. The young widow refused, and the man said, 'I'll give you two more pigs.' The young widow said, 'You can sleep with me, but you can't move.' The man agreed, but after a while he begged to be allowed to move a little. The young widow refused, so the man had to say that he would give her two more pigs if she let him move. The young widow happily agreed, and the man started moving. But after only eight movements, he stopped.

'The young widow asked him why he had stopped, and the man replied that there were no more pigs. The young widow said that he could still move even if there were no pigs, and the man moved a few more times, saying that he wasn't taking advantage of her. The young widow whispered, 'If you like, I can give you the pigs...' And so it was that the next day, the man went to the market happily, herding thirty pigs.'

As soon as Zhou Ming finished speaking, a classmate immediately clapped happily, saying, 'This man is amazing, he actually came up with such a solution!'

However, immediately a female classmate blushed and despised him, saying, 'What's so good about it? It's all you disgusting men who think about these things all day long, and instead of being ashamed, you take pride in it!'

Of course, there were also female classmates who complained to Zhou Ming, 'Teacher, why did you tell such a disgusting story? Is it because we are here at the market? But you could have told a more meaningful story!'

Before Zhou Ming could say anything, Ye Ning immediately retorted to them, 'Do you really think that what the teacher said was just a story? Before telling the story, the teacher already said that we are here today to attend class. Why don't you use your brains to think about the moral behind this story? All you know is that this is disgusting and that is awesome. Is that all you have in your heads?'

In fact, not only Ye Ning, but also many people, including class president Chen Shu, vice president Li Yang, and Huang Ping, had already thought of something when they had heard less than half of the story. However, although Ye Ning had lectured the others sternly, the innocent girl's own pretty face was also flushed, and she was obviously also embarrassed by such a story.

Zhou Ming gestured for silence and continued, 'I don't think it matters whether the story itself has much to do with the farmers' market. I just want you to be able to hear the meaning behind the story about finance and the economy.'

Afterwards, Zhou Ming looked at Chen Shu. He understood what Zhou Ming meant and replied after a moment's thought, 'If I understand correctly, teacher, the story is about the meaning of an initial investment, the purpose of which is to get the customer into a trap and ultimately keep the customer in your hands and generate profits.'

Zhou Ming did not comment on Chen Shu's answer. He then looked at Li Yang, who also expressed his thoughts: 'Teacher, I agree with the monitor's opinion. This is definitely a trap. However, what I think differently from the monitor is that I think this trap will be like a stock market manipulator. When promoting the development of the stock market, the manipulator will always throw out some benefits first to lure retail investors to follow in his footsteps, until he finally controls the situation and makes retail investors have to follow his plan.'

Zhou Ming still did not comment on Li Yang's answer, and then turned his attention back to Ye Ning.

Compared to Chen Shu and Li Yang, Ye Ning did not give a direct answer. She thought about it for a while before saying, 'I think what this man is doing can be called being good at discovering the potential needs of customers. However, this need requires a certain degree of guidance. To borrow Li Yang's words, it is like the market maker luring retail investors to follow by throwing out benefits. As long as they can benefit in the end, this guidance is in line with the law of development.'

As Ye Ning finished speaking, all the students in the finance class held their breath, staring blankly at Zhou Ming, waiting for him to give an answer.

Facing the students' performance, Zhou Ming smiled and said, 'You've all forgotten what I said at the beginning. I've already said from the start that I'm not here to teach you any theoretical knowledge. All I can give you is a way of thinking about problems.'

After saying this, Zhou Ming paused for a moment and then continued, 'So what you have said is all correct. Whether it is Chen Shu's initial investment and the game, or Li Yang's description of the dealer and the retail investor, or Ye Ning's final summary that it is a kind of guidance, none of these statements are wrong. In fact, there is no need for any standard answer to these kinds of questions. As long as you can think about them seriously, that is the answer.'

A single stone stirs up a thousand ripples. Zhou Ming's words surprised all the students because they had always taken tests seriously. They had to mark their answers as right or wrong, whether in textbooks or on test papers. This was a concept they had long been accustomed to, and now suddenly hearing Zhou Ming say this, they were really a little at a loss.

Zhou Ming expected his classmates to look confused, and continued, 'Well, let's not dwell on the answer. I'll give you a chance to be the writer. What do you think will happen next?'

The students all shook their heads, so Zhou Ming had to start the story himself: 'It's impossible to keep a secret. This first man who sold pigs got an advantage with the young widow, and there will definitely be others who follow suit.'

The students nodded in agreement with Zhou Ming's statement. After all, it is human nature to seek profit. Zhou Ming continued, 'So a few days later, another man came to the market with a pig to sell. It also rained. This pig seller also followed the same method and came to the little widow to stay. It was still the same that it was inconvenient for men, and this pig seller also said the same thing that he could give the pig.'

'It went on like this until the pig seller moved. However, unlike the previous pig seller, this one only moved seven times and then stopped. The young widow asked him why he had stopped, and he replied that he was done. So the next day, he had to drive the remaining two pigs on his own and went away in disgrace.'

Zhou Ming stopped talking after saying this. This time, the students all understood what Zhou Ming meant. Li Yang, the vice monitor, who was the quickest to respond, said, 'Teacher, this is the result of typical blind investment without considering one's own ability to bear the risk.'

'Yes, what Li Yang said is very good, that's exactly what I meant!' Zhou Ming praised.

Hearing Zhou Ming praise Li Yang, Ye Ning became anxious. The little girl hurriedly said, 'Teacher, I think after the failure of the second person, the people after them should be able to figure it out, right?'

'Ye Ning is very good, she can even continue the story herself!'

Zhou Ming praised Ye Ning first, and although it was just a sentence, it already made the little girl's heart bloom with joy, and she clenched her little pink fists.

'Indeed, as Ye Ning said, if we compare this story to financial investment, then after the failure of the second person, the subsequent investors will be much more careful.

Zhou Ming continued, 'They can first trade a pig for a pill, and then spend the night at the young widow's house. This is the countermeasure they take after getting the exact news. After calculation, it can stably increase the chance of benefiting.'

'But teacher, if the third person does this, then surely the fourth and fifth people will do the same, and as more and more people do this, I'm afraid the person selling the medicine will get rich, too?' Chen Shu, the monitor, said.

'Of course they will,' Zhou Ming said matter-of-factly. "If there are a lot of people selling pigs, the medicine will still be in short supply, and in the end, the price of the medicine will have to be raised. This is inflation.'

As soon as Zhou Ming finished speaking, someone else asked, "Teacher, what if someone doesn't have a pig and wants to spend the night with a woman? Can they find another man selling pigs to borrow a pig, and then return it after they've earned a pig by spending the night?'

'Why not? But in order to ensure that he can reliably earn the pig, this person would probably have to go to the medicine seller and borrow medicine, promising to return it once he has earned the pig.' Zhou Ming spread out his hands, 'I believe this plot is familiar to everyone. Spending tomorrow's money today, this is a loan.'

'Teacher, teacher,' another student raised his hand and said, 'But if there are many people taking out loans like this, but there is only one little widow, what if the little widow runs out of pigs, or the little widow's family can't take the pigs with them when they move?'

Zhou Ming replied, 'If we compare the pig to money, then when many people think about spending the night with the young widow on credit, they won't be able to pay back the loan. And since the price of medicine has been pushed up to an artificially high level, what will happen if the young widow suddenly leaves? If this were the stock market, what do you think will happen?'

Faced with this question from Zhou Ming, the only two words that came to everyone's mind were: crash!

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