Chapter 6: Do No Wrong, Fear No Knock at Midnight
Silence. Utter silence.
Shen Jiannan projected the authority of a teacher, and the chaotic classroom immediately fell quiet.
A wave of guilt washed over the students. They had been caught reading English books and felt deeply disrespectful. Some lowered their heads, while others discreetly closed the textbooks on their desks.
"Ahem… class is now officially in session."
"..."
"...the various changes in equilibrium price and equilibrium quantity caused by shifts in demand and supply are known in economics as the law of supply and demand. Therefore, in theory, supply and demand determine price changes…"
"However, I believe a crucial link is missing from the theorem that supply and demand affect price."
"Take US real estate, for example. As we all know, the United States is a vast country with a relatively sparse population. According to statistics, the total population of the US in 1960 was 198 million. By 1980, it had reached approximately 208 million—a growth rate of only 5%. But during this same period, the average price of real estate in the United States rose by 500 percent.
"Houses are for people to live in. Theoretically, the demand brought on by a 5% population growth should not cause property prices to increase by 500%, but that is exactly what happened.
"The opposite case, yet with a similar outcome, can be seen in Japanese real estate.
"The population of Japan has not changed significantly since 1980. In terms of supply and demand, this means that real estate demand in Japan has not improved compared to 1980. Nevertheless, Japanese real estate prices have risen by 500 percent in the last ten years.
"Why do prices fluctuate so drastically when the supply and demand relationship remains stable?
"One of the most important reasons is that, beginning in 1970, Japanese banks started investing heavily in real estate—houses, land, and other assets. With this injection of bank capital, Japanese real estate prices began to rise rapidly, and demand appeared to rise in lockstep with them.
"Take Tokyo's landmark Lejing Empire Building as an example. Its price surged from 4 billion yen to 20 billion yen in ten years. The reason given by Japanese experts was demand—for instance, Japan's land scarcity, or the fact that Tokyo is the most prosperous city in the country. But in reality, neither the population nor the land area of Tokyo changed in those ten years.
"What does this mean?
"It shows that the main factor that truly determines price is capital. It was the influx of bank capital that drove Japanese real estate prices up fivefold in a decade. Therefore, we can draw a conclusion: capital determines prices, and prices, in turn, determine the relationship between supply and demand."
Shen Jiannan, having transformed from an English teacher into an economics lecturer, spoke freely from the podium.
From supply and demand to capital, from capital to price changes.
It was a pity that the students below the podium were a group of young people who had yet to enter society. If they had been seasoned economic experts, they would have surely pelted this fellow with eggs.
Heresy! All of it was heresy.
That supply and demand were the determining factors of price was a universally accepted principle in economic research. Yet Shen Jiannan had replaced this established logic with the idea that price determines supply and demand.
God only knew what unorthodox ideas this man would instill in these star pupils.
No one knew.
Shen Jiannan himself didn't know.
*Clang, clang, clang…*
At eleven o'clock, the crisp sound of a copper bell echoed across the campus.
It was the end-of-class bell.
As it rang, Shen Jiannan grabbed the books from the lectern and addressed the students.
"Alright, everyone, that's all for today. Class is dismissed."
"Mr. Shen, have you ever been to America?"
"Mr. Shen, have you been to Japan?"
"Mr. Shen, your English is so good! Why didn't you get your visa?"
"Mr. Shen, I heard your girlfriend is going to America after the Chinese New Year. Is that true?"
"..."
Shen Jiannan, who was about to leave with his books, felt his face darken.
Just moments ago, this group of students had been awed by his commanding presence. Why were they so lively all of a sudden?
Shen Jiannan didn't know that, in the past, his predecessor was close in age to the students and would often interact with them as friends after class. Casual chats and banter were normal. Of course, the current Shen Jiannan couldn't possibly know this; he only knew that the fear of being dumped was now permanently etched in his mind.
It felt like he was being forced to wear a green hat.
Ignoring the students' questions, Shen Jiannan quickly fled the classroom, clutching the wrong textbook. He felt that if he didn't sort some things out, he would go mad.
***
January 1st. Heavy snow.
9:30 PM.
In a dormitory in the North District of Huahai University, which had been converted from a storage room.
"I have a girlfriend…"
"ID number: 4001968xxxxxx…"
"Bai Qiuyi is an English teacher, Peng San is a physical education teacher…"
"..."
Attend class, finish class, eat, sleep.
After three days, Shen Jiannan had gradually pieced together many things.
For example, he was 23 years old. He learned his ID number, and that he had a mother and younger siblings back in his hometown in the Central Plains. He also learned that, in the eyes of others, he was actually a genius.
Of course, while observing and learning these things, Shen Jiannan also made some embarrassing blunders.
Like heading to the cafeteria and walking into the toilet by mistake, or setting out for the academic affairs office and ending up at the student dormitories. Fortunately, his quick wits saved him, and luckily, no one in this era had any concept of rebirth or time travel.
"The youngest economics teacher in the school, proud, cheerful, with strong self-esteem…"
In the cramped dormitory, a sleepless Shen Jiannan lay on his bed like a madman, pondering what kind of person he had been. He sometimes truly envied the time-travelers in novels. They inherited memories and skills, allowing them to show off without being seen as fools. But here he was, not even getting a chance to play dumb.
"It's true what they say: comparisons are odious… But if I have someone else's memories, am I still me?"
"I wonder if this guy ever slept with that Song Xiaodan…"
*Tap, tap, tap…*
"What the hell. I obviously don't even know her, yet I'm the one who has to get dumped."
"Fortunately, it's not the entire Hulunbuir Prairie."
*Tap, tap, tap…*
"Ah-choo!"
A moment of silence.
Curled up in a ball on the bed, Shen Jiannan suddenly sneezed. Afterward, he complained quietly.
"Damn it, how is anyone supposed to sleep in this cold?"
In truth, Shen Jiannan desperately wanted to sleep. He didn't want to lie there talking to himself like a lunatic. It was freezing, he was all alone, and there was no nightlife to speak of. He just wanted to sleep.
But he couldn't. It was simply too cold.
The quilt, barely two centimeters thick, was lumpy and full of holes. Covering himself with the tattered bedding was unbearably cold. It had been tolerable the past two days, but a sudden blizzard today had caused the temperature to plummet. At night, the bed was icy, and no matter how he tried to warm it, the chill remained.
Cold. Bone-chillingly cold.
It wasn't that Shen Jiannan had never been to Shanghai before, but back then, he had never realized its winters could be so cold you couldn't sleep—so cold that the water in the washbasin in his room had frozen solid by nine o'clock.
"This is brutal… If only a beautiful woman could come and warm the bed for me right now."
Growing more alert from the cold, Shen Jiannan couldn't help but indulge in a fantasy.
He swore that if God sent him a beautiful woman at this moment, he would only let her warm his bed.
*Knock!*
"Huh?"
Suddenly, a soft knock came from the locked door. The sound was so faint it was almost inaudible. If not for the dead of night, Shen Jiannan wouldn't have been sure he'd heard anything at all.
*Knock!*
This time, the knock was louder. The hollow sound of the rap on the wooden door confirmed that someone was really there.
*Who in the world is knocking at this hour, in this freezing weather?*
Shen Jiannan, pulled from his daydream, called out impatiently.
"Who is it!"
*Knock, knock.*
No one answered, but the door was rapped twice more. Shen Jiannan had no choice but to put on his clothes and get out of bed.
"Who the hell is this? Don't they know how cold it is right now?"