The control center on the top floor of Shanghai Center Tower—time seemed compressed into a singularity of infinite density; each passing second was accompanied by a choking sensation, as if an invisible hand gripped the heart. The air carried the scorched odor of overloaded equipment, the cold metallic scent of coolant, and the adrenaline aroma tinged with rust secreted under extreme human pressure—mingling into a unique, dangerous smell belonging to the final stranglehold phase of a financial war. On the huge curved main screen, global capital‑market data streams still twitched violently like epileptic seizures; red and orange warning flares stubbornly embedded themselves in the trend charts of major asset sectors, recording the devastating wounds brought by this protracted war of attrition.
Mozi stood like an ice‑cold sculpture at the very eye of the storm. He had found that fulcrum—the adversary's fatal weakness of over‑reliance on leverage, and that seemingly inconspicuous yet crucial node in its collateral chain: the BXJ corporate‑bond ETF. He had also made all tactical preparations to launch the lethal strike. The "Flow‑Cut" protocol code was in place; attack paths and timing had undergone tens of thousands of simulation runs by the "anti‑fragile" model. Yet his finger, resting on the virtual control panel, seemed frozen, hesitating to deliver that final confirmation command.
In his mind, two voices were engaged in a final, silent, fierce contest.
One voice, calm, precise, devoid of any emotion, belonged to the absolute rationalist who mastered capital: "The moment has come. The adversary's cash flow is stretched to its limit; market‑panic sentiment has reached a critical point. Executing the 'Flow‑Cut' protocol, detonating BXJ, triggering the collateral‑depreciation spiral—this is the most efficient, indeed the only viable solution to end this war. Hesitation is giving the adversary breathing room; it is placing 'XianGuang' and everything it protects into eternal damnation."
The other voice came from that Mozi who sought to inject moral blood into capital, constructing the "moral algorithm": "Once this strike lands, the triggered chain liquidations will be like toppling dominoes, sweeping up not just your enemies. Those ordinary funds holding similar assets as pension reserves, those small enterprises relying on stable market environments, countless families bearing you no grudge—their wealth will silently evaporate in this financial tsunami you unleash. This isn't combat; this is indiscriminate destruction. Your 'victory' will be built upon the suffering of countless people."
The electric currents of moral struggle collided fiercely in his profound eyes; the fingertip above the confirm button trembled slightly from intense inner conflict. He recalled Yue'er's eyes pursuing pure reason, Xiuxiu's stubbornness in creating rather than destroying in the lab. The "XianGuang" system he attempted to build was meant to be a force driving progress, not a source of disaster.
Yet reality's cold logic, like arctic wind, instantly blew away this brief warmth. On the screen, the adversary's attack showed not the slightest weakening due to his hesitation; instead, growing impatient from prolonged lack of success, it seemed more frantic and brutal—a new wave of intense selling was gathering over Hong Kong's stock market, attempting to completely breach XianGuang's last line of defense. He could almost hear the icy, triumphant laughter from the capital behemoths in the adversary camp seeing the glimmer of victory.
There was no retreat left. Guarding and destruction formed a cruel paradox at this moment. Without destroying the adversary's attacking force, he could not guard what he cherished.
The final ripple of humanity in his eyes was forcibly suppressed, replaced by an almost inhuman, absolute calm and resolve. To guard, one must destroy.
His finger, bearing immense weight, finally pressed down on that glowing blue dot marking "execute."
"Flow‑Cut protocol, initiate." His voice transmitted through the internal communication system—calm, without a single ripple—yet sounded like a silent thunderclap exploding in every heart within the control center.
The "Flow‑Cut" protocol, as the name implied, aimed not at directly attacking asset prices, but at something more insidious, more lethal—**draining the US‑dollar liquidity in a specific market**.
The instant the protocol launched, XianGuang Capital's globally distributed account clusters—exquisitely disguised—began synchronized action across major trading venues worldwide. They did not conduct large‑scale selling (which would directly suppress prices, but also easily expose intent and provoke resistance). Instead, they adopted a far more covert and efficient approach, executing a series of operations complex to the utmost in the world's primary dollar‑funding markets—especially the offshore‑dollar market and the repo‑agreement market.
The core of these operations: simultaneously borrowing massive amounts of short‑term dollars, then immediately "freezing" or transferring these borrowed dollars through various means into accounts and instruments that could not be immediately accessed—for instance, via intricate cross‑currency swaps, purchasing extremely short‑term, illiquid special notes, or directly depositing into specific custodial accounts with complex clearing processes and slow withdrawal times—thereby artificially, violently creating a sudden **dollar‑liquidity drought** at critical nodes.
It was like suddenly closing several main‑pipe valves in a city dependent on a central water‑supply system while using pumps to drain large volumes of water from nearby reservoirs. Water (dollars) still existed in the system, but water available for immediate use—liquidity—instantly vanished.
The effect was immediate!
First hit was the locked‑in target—the BXJ corporate‑bond ETF market. This market itself had limited capacity; participants were mostly hedge funds and institutional investors engaging in leveraged carry trades. They routinely needed to borrow dollars to maintain their long bond positions. When dollar liquidity suddenly dried up, short‑term dollar‑borrowing rates (like LIBOR) spiked instantly; borrowing costs soared sharply. More terrifyingly, many institutions found they suddenly **couldn't borrow** enough dollars to roll over maturing debt!
Unable to refinance dollars meant they had to immediately sell assets to repay debt. And the most convenient, relatively liquid assets in their hands were precisely instruments like BXJ ETF.
Panic selling began like an avalanche!
BXJ ETF's price plummeted like a kite with cut string. Because liquidity itself had been drained, there were almost no buyers in the market; sell orders piled up like mountains. Within minutes the price crashed through several critical technical‑support levels, triggering more program‑trading stop‑loss sell orders.
This was exactly the effect Mozi wanted.
BXJ's price plunge, like the first toppled domino, began to trigger a terrifying chain reaction. Those institutions that had pledged BXJ ETF or its constituent bonds as **collateral** to banks to obtain leverage funding (including members of the adversary alliance sniping Mozi) immediately received cold **margin calls**. Their collateral value had sharply shrunk; banks demanded they immediately supplement cash or equivalent collateral.
Yet in this moment when dollar liquidity was nearly dried up, how could raising cash be easy? Sell other assets? The whole market was steeped in panic; selling would only cause further asset‑price declines, triggering more collateral depreciation.
Despair spread like plague within the adversary camp.
The first hedge fund to collapse appeared. Unable to meet margin‑call requirements, its prime broker began forcibly liquidating its positions. This triggered larger‑scale selling—not just BXJ‑related assets, but also its other holdings, including… part of its short positions in Hong Kong stock, foreign‑exchange, and gold markets!
Forced liquidation of short positions meant they had to **buy** corresponding assets to close previous short contracts.
This subtle change was like injecting a reverse, albeit weak yet crucially vital force into the surging tide of decline.
Mozi's "anti‑fragile" model keenly captured this change. No longer passively defending, it launched preset counterattack programs like a shark scenting blood. The model guided XianGuang's funds to begin precise, small‑scale "hunting" in these markets undergoing forced liquidation. It no longer provided liquidity to ease panic; instead it began **absorbing** those chips being recklessly dumped at any cost due to panic and forced liquidation—especially in Hong Kong's stock market and offshore‑RMB market, those "XianGuang"‑linked assets that had been frantically shorted earlier.
A self‑reinforcing **death spiral** formed within the adversary camp: collateral depreciation → margin calls → inability to meet → forced liquidation → asset selling (including short positions) → asset‑price decline/short‑covering pushing prices up (favorable to XianGuang) → more collateral depreciation…
Collapse had begun.
On the screen, one after another, icons representing well‑known hedge funds—their status shifted from red (active attack) to deep purple (approaching collapse), then one by one dimmed into the lifeless grey marking **blow‑up and elimination**. The adversary alliance's attack firepower, as if its fuel supply were cut, visibly rapidly attenuated and disintegrated.
In Hong Kong's stock market, the deluge‑like wave of sell orders began to weaken; even sustained buy orders emerged. The free‑fall momentum of offshore‑RMB exchange rates was checked, stabilizing, even slightly rebounding. Abnormal selling pressure in gold markets vanished.
Within the control center, deathly silence was replaced by an unbelievable, massive shock akin to surviving a disaster. Young analysts watched the dramatic reversal on the screen—watching those once‑almighty capital‑behemoth logos turn grey one by one—mouths agape, unable to utter any sound. Some began soft sobbing—a physiological response after total stress release.
Victory.
They had withstood unprecedented multidimensional financial sniping, and through a textbook‑level, exceedingly cruel **liquidity‑snipe** and **collateral‑strangulation** tactic, achieved a stunning reversal, destroying the powerful adversary alliance.
Yet Mozi, supreme commander of this battle, the one who personally pressed the button initiating the "strangulation"—his face showed no joy. He still stood there, his figure under the glow of screen data streams gradually turning green (indicating recovery or rise), appearing exceptionally lonely and… heavy.
His gaze did not look at the data changes representing victory; instead it looked farther, deeper. He saw the devastation in the BXJ market and its related derivatives markets; he saw the brief chaos in other innocent markets caused by sudden dollar‑liquidity drought; he saw those investors and institutions he didn't know, possibly suffering severe losses overnight due to chain liquidations.
He deeply knew the **price** of this victory—the silent evaporation of countless families' and individuals' wealth; another heavy blow to market confidence; a deep, glaring crack on the boundary of that "moral algorithm" just beginning to form in his innermost heart.
He felt no thrill of victory, only a cold, bone‑deep weariness, and an indescribable, heavy sense of guilt. He had wielded capital's power to its extreme, and also witnessed its destructive side.
Slowly he turned, ignoring the gradually rising, suppressed cheers and celebration within the control room, and silently walked toward his private office.
He closed the door, shutting out all external sounds. No lights were on in the office; only city neon outside cast flickering light‑and‑shadow across his face through the floor‑to‑ceiling window.
He didn't sit, just walked to the window, gazing at the city beneath—still thriving, yet utterly unaware of the brutal "slaughter" that had just occurred at the financial level. He stood like this, like a statue that had lost all motive power, motionless.
**Victory in financial war brought not glory, but heavy reflection and silent torment.** Alone, he immersed himself in the immense void and price brought by this victory.
…
XianGuang Research Institute—Yue'er's study and Xiuxiu's lab rest area.
Almost simultaneously, through their respective information channels, they vaguely learned of the dramatic reversal in financial markets. Specific details eluded them, but keywords like "crisis resolved," "adversary routed" were enough to let their hearts, suspended for days, finally settle back.
Yet both, as if by agreement, did not immediately contact Mozi.
Yue'er looked at her quiet personal terminal. She could imagine that man who habitually buried all pressure and complex emotion deep within—perhaps what he needed now wasn't congratulations, but absolute quiet. She could sense that capital‑game at that level—its victory's backside must bear unimaginable cruelty and moral dilemmas.
Xiuxiu in the lab, looking at the quietly running High NA EUV prototype, just took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled. She knew Mozi—knew he wasn't the type to gloat over a victory. Especially such a brutal one.
They simply, silently, in different spaces, through an indescribabletacit understanding, **kept him company**. They knew he was there, knew he was alone digesting the heavy price brought by this victory. They didn't disturb with words, only transformed their care and understanding into silent vigil within this night.
Yue'er buried herself again in her mathematical world; Xiuxiu resumed checking the prototype's operational data. In their focused ways, they told that man who had just undergone a soul‑searing baptism on the financial battlefield: No matter the storms or smoke outside—here remained a quiet, solid harbor he could always return to.
Mozi stood alone in the darkness the entire night. When the eastern horizon showed its first hint of dawn‑grey, weariness still weighed heavily in his eyes. Yet something deep within seemed to have undergone tempering—grown deeper, more complex. He had won the battle, but also understood more deeply the weight and price of capital. This understanding would accompany him toward the longer journey ahead.