Chapter 246: A Man Who Knows the Times Is a Hero

Li Xiaofan watched the entire process of Netscape's first day of trading last night, because he had invested all his net worth in it. It was really exciting to stay up all night for seven or eight hours, and he was as energetic as if he had been injected with chicken blood.

Even after the market closed and he finished talking to Jerry Yang on the phone and returned to the townhouse dormitory, he was still excited and had trouble falling asleep.

The trading hours of the Nasdaq stock market are from 9:30 to 16:00 Eastern Time, Monday to Friday.

In this way, if the summer time in the United States is 21:30 to 4:00 the next day in Beijing time, the winter time is 22:30 to 5:00 the next day in Beijing time.

The summer time in the United States is from March 11 to November 7, and the winter time is from November 8 to March 11 of the following year.

Li Xiaofan found that the current time in Singapore is not only synchronized with Beijing time, but also Singapore has fully adopted the simplified Chinese characters of mainland China and started to promote the mainland China version of Mandarin.

Singapore and Taiwan used to have very close relations. In the early 1970s, when Senior Minister Lee was the Prime Minister of Singapore, he used traditional Chinese characters on the background board when he gave speeches in Singapore.

In 1979, Singaporeans found that Senior Minister Lee began to call for "speaking more Chinese" and promoting Beijing's "Mandarin" on more and more occasions in Singapore. At that time, simplified Chinese characters began to appear on the background board of his speeches.

Before, when he was working at Westwood Electronics, a local Singaporean co-worker once recalled to Li Xiaofan: When he was studying in Singapore from the first grade to the sixth grade, the Chinese teachers used traditional Chinese characters. However, in the first grade of junior high school, students had already started to learn simplified Chinese characters under the guidance of teachers. It was probably in 1974.

Many Singaporeans said that Mr. Lee may have realized that traditional Chinese characters are difficult to write and remember, just like mainland China, and it is very difficult to promote them. Therefore, he began to gradually promote simplified Chinese characters from mainland China after 1974. By the end of the 1970s, all Singaporeans began to use simplified Chinese characters from mainland China. At the same time, they stopped using Taiwanese phonetic symbols and switched to new Chinese pinyin, completely abandoning the Taiwanese system.

But Li Xiaofan, who was reborn, did not agree with the above statement!

He recalled that there was an important time node when Nixon visited China in 1972, and the two major countries of China and the United States began to ease, which was a huge signal!

It was Nixon's visit to China that made the shrewd and strategically forward-looking Senior Minister Lee realize that the relationship between China and the United States was beginning to thaw, and Singapore had to take action. So in 1974, he began to try to promote Beijing's simplified characters and Mandarin...

After China and the United States officially established diplomatic relations on January 1, 1979, Senior Minister Lee made up his mind to completely abandon Taiwan's traditional characters and adopt mainland China's Mandarin and simplified characters, hoping to let all Singaporeans catch this huge and high-speed "express train" of China's economic development!

It is true that a man who knows the times is a hero! On this point, Li Xiaofan really admires Singapore's former Prime Minister Senior Minister Lee, who knows how to adapt to the situation.

In August, it was daylight saving time in the United States, and the trading hours of Nasdaq were from 9:30 to 4:00 the next morning Beijing time.

After watching the market, Li Xiaofan returned to the row house dormitory at more than 5 o'clock in the morning. He took a shower and went to bed at more than 6 o'clock in the morning.

Just after he fell asleep at 7 o'clock, his cell phone rang. When he got up, he saw that it was Ye Niya calling.

Ye Niya asked on the phone: "Afan, why didn't I see you come to practice today? Are you not feeling well or have you gone abroad?"

Li Xiaofan then remembered that he was too excited last night and forgot to ask for leave from golf coach Brother Hua and Ye Niya.

"Auntie Ye Niya, I'm sorry. I stayed up all night watching a stock listing in the United States. I just went to bed now. Please ask Brother Hua for leave for me. I won't come to practice today..."

"Oh, I'm sorry to disturb you. I know, you can rest at ease, I will tell Brother Hua."

After hanging up Ye Niya's call, Li Xiaofan continued to sleep for less than an hour. At more than eight o'clock in the morning, his cell phone rang again.

He was almost crazy. Who is this?

He opened it and saw that it was Tang Xinyi calling, and he immediately lost his temper.

"Good morning, dear. Have you gotten up to practice golf?" Tang Xinyi, who had just gotten up, asked softly with sleepy eyes.

"Dear, I just went to bed for more than an hour. You have already received two calls. I am going crazy!"

"Haha, dear, what did you do last night?" Tang Xinyi asked curiously.

"I stayed up all night to watch Netscape's listing on NASDAQ. I didn't sleep all night..."

"Fan, don't do this in the future. Staying up all night is the most harmful to your health. Then you should go to bed now. I'm hanging up the phone!"

"Wait, Xinyi, I have good news for you. I bought Netscape stocks yesterday. Guess how much the market value of the Netscape stocks I bought increased in one night?"

"How much did you invest?"

"2 million US dollars."

"Fan, are you crazy? This is almost all your current net worth!" Tang Xinyi screamed on the other end of the phone.

Tang Xinyi said worriedly, "Honey, I'm still waiting for you to make 50 million US dollars and come to my house to propose marriage! You buying stocks recklessly is like gambling. How long will I have to wait?"

"Haha, dear, don't worry. I usually won't do anything unless I'm 80% sure. Let me tell you, the market value of the Netscape stock I bought last night doubled. I bought it at $29 and closed at $100. After the market closed, the market value of my stock account exceeded $4 million!"

"Wow, really? Afan, then wait for the Nasdaq to open tonight and sell it quickly. We'll stop while we're ahead! $4 million is already closer to the goal of $50 million. Come on!"

"Hey, don't worry. I estimate that the stock price of Netscape may be close to $200 by the end of this year!"

"Afan, stocks are really It's unpredictable, and it's hard to say until the end! Dad and big brother once lost millions of Singapore dollars in stocks, you should also be careful. I suggest you stop while you are ahead, don't end up with nothing..."

"Well, dear, thank you for your reminder, I will be careful. Don't worry, I will definitely come to your house to propose marriage next year, no matter if I am worth 50 million US dollars or not!"

"Fan, you suddenly became so confident today, I can't help but look at you with new eyes!"

"Haha, maybe it's because people are in high spirits when they are happy..."

After hanging up Tang Xinyi's phone call, Li Xiaofan couldn't sleep anymore, so he went downstairs to the Orchid Village Market to have breakfast first.

When passing by the 7-11 convenience store, Li Xiaofan bought a copy of the English version of the Straits Times and the Chinese version of the Lianhe Zaobao.

Sitting in the market, eating Singapore's national breakfast of kaya toast and half-boiled eggs, drinking coffee, and browsing these two newspapers, Li Xiaofan found that the financial pages of both newspapers today had extensively reported on the grand listing of Netscape shares on NASDAQ last night.

Suddenly, an in-depth report caught his attention!