The book has its own beauty within.

  It's been six weeks since Zhang Han has been studying in the special reading room of the city library.

  In the past few weeks, Jiang Zihan roughly divided his day into two parts. The morning and a small part of the afternoon were allocated to the history of science, biographies, and popular science magazines. The remaining half of the time was allocated to economics and financial investment. In finance, Feng Ayi helped him find a university professor to consult with, and he made a very long list of books.

  Of course, Jiang Zhihan didn't have time to read every book, and many city libraries didn't have them either. But anyway, having a starting point was good enough, and Jiang Zhihan only used the list as a reference, continuing to explore on his own and adding some of his own thoughts in the process. Since many investment and finance books didn't have Chinese translations, Jiang Zhihan was forced to start reading some original English versions, which greatly slowed down his pace. Nevertheless, he gritted his teeth and persisted, bringing the original books home to read until very late at night.

  A week ago, Jiang Zhihan excitedly went to find Old Man Yang. He finally managed to hold the standard horse stance for half an hour and felt he had made significant progress in his breathing exercises.

  The old man didn't praise him, but instead taught him a more complex breathing technique and a set of coordination and balance exercises. Jiang Zihan didn't ask much, but carefully memorized the new things he learned.

  The old man told Jiang Zhan, internal family fist, at the beginning must be gradual and progressive, can't be eager for quick success. Practicing Qi is the foundation, just like laying a foundation. It's better to spend more time, the more solid the better. When the accumulated things are many, there will always be a day of sudden enlightenment, at that time it's like building on top of a solid foundation, can go a thousand miles in one day.

  What surprised Jiang Zihan the most was that he met Lin Suo from the police station at Lao Ye's house. The two bid farewell together from Lao Ye's house, and Lin Suo said that he was a nominal disciple of Lao Ye's Shifu's nephew, and his master had moved away from Zhongzhou two years ago, so he came to visit Lao Ye every month on behalf of his master, sometimes also asking for advice on boxing and martial arts.

  Jiang Zhi thought to himself that he had indeed grown a generation older, though his mouth didn't say it, his eyes revealed a hint of amusement.

  Lin patted Jiang Zhan's shoulder heavily: "Don't think I don't know what you're thinking, we're in the same line of work. The old master said, you're not considered a formal disciple, not even a nominal one. So don't try to argue about seniority with me."

  Jiang Zihan naturally asked about the handling of the incident where someone was hacked to death on the playground. Lin said that not a single person was caught at the scene. Originally, he had hoped that someone present would come forward as a witness, but no one cooperated. Moreover, those few young thugs were not often active in the vicinity of No. 7 Middle School. He also asked the victim, who couldn't recall the names of the perpetrators, only remembering some nicknames they called each other while beating him up. As for the victim's injuries, the most severe were several fractures on his legs and wrists, a serious concussion, and some internal bleeding. The doctor said that if he had continued to be hit in the head or if his internal organs had been struck multiple times, it could have been fatal.

  Lin's expression turned serious as he said to Jiang Zhan, "You may have just saved a life. As police officers, we should thank you."

  Lin's words were so solemn that Jiang Zihan felt a bit embarrassed and didn't know what to say.

  Lin asked, did Old Ma or Little Li come to ask Jiang Zhihan later because they were in charge of the case, but now it seems to have been transferred to the criminal police team. Jiang Zhihan shook his head, but he also admitted that he didn't know any of them, so maybe not much help, and Jiang Zhihan did mention it to Little Li.

  "Isn't this matter going to be left hanging like this?"

  "What you don't understand is our situation in handling cases. Currently, the police station is severely understaffed, and the criminal police team is even more short-handed. Except for cases related to social stability, murder, violent robbery, large-scale property loss, or cases that are personally handled by high-level leaders, other cases cannot be investigated thoroughly. It's not just about investigating, it's also difficult to file a case, and many of those that are filed end up being multiple files placed on the side. Cases like this one often rely on luck; sometimes these guys commit another crime, get caught, and might confess everything at once."

  Lin continued: "A case like this can be defined as a serious intentional injury or a fight that resulted in injury. If it's the latter, then it's a minor case that can't get any smaller. One key factor is your school's attitude. If they insist that this incident has seriously affected the normal operation of the school and apply some pressure through relevant channels, it will receive more attention. But I heard that your school leaders and many teachers have all gone on vacation. The one who came to our police station was just the deputy director of your security department, and even the director went on vacation."

  Lin said: "The old man is quite concerned about you, he asked me to think of ways to pay more attention to this case. This matter was originally handled by Old Ma, he's an old comrade, and I didn't want to say much when I first arrived. The good news is that for some reason the criminal police team took the initiative this time, someone specifically came down to care about this case, and also took over the case. I made a call to a former classmate of mine in the criminal police team, asking him to pay more attention."

  Jiang Zhan thought for a moment, then said to Lin: "My intuition is that the leader and his most ruthless subordinate have very violent tempers, and they look like the kind of people who will definitely seek revenge. It's highly likely that they'll come back to take revenge on the victim or even me."

  Lin said: "Your concerns are not unreasonable, if they still want to retaliate and vent their anger, they may have a greater opportunity to find you. According to my analysis, that kid who went to look for people, or the leader of the group, will probably hide out for two days, or even go out of town to avoid the heat. If they understand the general procedure for handling cases, they will know that this kind of case, as long as no one is killed, will pass quickly. At that time, when they come back, it will be much safer for them. As long as they come back and show off again, we will have the opportunity to find them."

  Lin left a phone number for Jiang Zihan and told him to contact him anytime if he needed anything.

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  In the afternoon, Jiang Zhihan came out of the reading room and started his simple lunch, which was just a few slices of bread. He didn't want to waste time on the road back and forth, so he chose not to go home. A few slices of bread, then went to Feng Ayi's office to get some water.

  Madam Qi now has a different view of Jiang Zihan. For someone his age, he can spend over a month every day in the library, arriving first and leaving last. Not to mention anything else, this perseverance is not simple.

  Every day at noon I have time to chat with Jiang Zihan, and I also feel that he is well-informed and articulate, not a bookworm.

  This afternoon, the library just had a meeting to discuss the operation of the special reading room. The start-up funding for the reading room project was allocated by the city government, and in the original plan, it was expected to break even within 6-12 months. However, three months into the trial run, the number of readers is far from expectations. Additionally, every month, a large amount of money needs to be spent on purchasing books, magazines, audio-visual products, many of which are imported from Hong Kong and abroad at high prices. The management team has lost confidence in achieving break-even within several months and has proposed various suggestions, including reducing the membership fee to attract more readers, temporarily canceling subscriptions to some expensive foreign publications, and even terminating the project when the city government's funding ends if it cannot achieve break-even, and merging all collections into the original library system.

  Feng Ayi is one of the three persons in charge of this project, and naturally does not want to see it terminated, as this directly affects her own work performance evaluation.

  Jiang Zihan saw that Feng Auntie looked worried and anxious, so she casually showed some concern. Feng Auntie then briefly explained the situation.

  Jiang Zhan said, "I don't want to see this reading room closed."

  Aunt Feng asked him: "You stay here every day, what's your view on the situation?"

  Jiang Zhan said: "The audio-visual room is quite crowded on weekends, but other places are not very crowded." He continued to say: "In fact, thinking about the special reading room and foreign language reading room, traditionally speaking, a part of them should be high-level intellectuals. These people are mostly in the university system. The university system itself has libraries and reading rooms, plus the concentrated West Jiang District is too far away from here, taking a bus for about 40-50 minutes. This has lost a large number of readers. As for middle school students, now except for you and Uncle Qi who have great foresight, most parents are not willing to let their children spend a lot of time and money reading books other than textbooks, so this is another loss. The remaining ones are people in society who can accept new things, want to understand new things, and some professionals who need them. In the long run, these people will become more and more, and this project should have more prospects. But in the short term, for example, one year, the number of these people may not be enough. After all, it takes time for the spring breeze of reform and opening-up to completely sweep across this inland city."

  Aunt Feng remembers that when she was involved in the launch of this project, the leaders were more concerned with how to establish a reform and opening image for the library, as for discussing whether it is feasible from the potential consumer group, it has never been on the agenda.

  She listened to Jiang Zhihan's analysis and felt very refreshed. "Then do you think there is any possibility of improvement somewhere?"

  Jiang Zhan said: "I haven't done any real market research, so I don't dare to be certain, but basically speaking, I think some suggestions are worth considering. For example, the audio-visual room is obviously the most profitable place, so can we consider opening a special certificate for the audio-visual room? Look at how popular video halls are outside now, people from all walks of life go there, men and women, old and young. The audio-visual room has many films that are not yet available outside, and the projection equipment is also good. Although the library cannot be turned into a video hall, if we think more about this aspect, maybe we can use the income from the audio-visual room to balance the initial losses of the other two places. For example, can we consider cooperating better with the university system, since they have the largest potential consumer group? We can consider renting some things to them or exchanging some collections periodically, which can at least reduce the purchase quantity of the reading room. For example, now young people like fashion, so can we consider setting up a separate reading room that mainly puts out non-academic and fashionable materials, such as military, fashion, music, etc.? If it comes to the issue of membership fees, it's not impossible to consider lowering the fees, and besides monthly tickets, we can set up one-time usage fees or single-reading-room usage fees, or charge for each audio-visual screening. There are still many ways to think about this."

  Feng Auntie didn't expect Jiang Zihan to say so much, and she was quite inspired by it. She smiled and said: "Next time I write a plan, you can also help me refer to it."

  Jiang Zhan smiled and said: "Alright, I'll use it, you just go ahead and say."

  After lunch, Jiang Zhihan returned to the reading room and saw a young man with sword-like eyebrows and starry eyes smoking on the long bench outside the door. He almost saw this person every afternoon, walking with him always being one of the last ones. Jiang Zhihan hadn't spoken to him before, but still politely nodded his head.

  The young man saw him nodding and suddenly asked: "Studying economics? Or finance?"

  The river was cold and numb, and the young man explained: "Look at you these past few days, watching Master Williams' 'Value Investing' with great concentration."

  Jiang Zhan rubbed his nose awkwardly: "I'm in high school."

  The young man raised an eyebrow and said, "Times have indeed changed. When I was in high school, I didn't even know who Williams was."

  Jiang Zhan saw that he was a bit proud of his type, but didn't feel disgusted, and smiled: "I only knew it a month ago too."

  "My name is Ming Fan, a junior at Zhongzhou University, majoring in International Trade."

  "Met a professional! I'm Jiang Zihan, from Zhongzhou No. 7 Middle School, starting high school sophomore year."

  Ming Fan asked: "After reading about value investing, what are your thoughts?"

  "This is a test for me, Jiang Zihan thought for a moment and said: "Forcing me to make a fuss. In fact, his theoretical system is not complicated at all. Of course, as the founder, it's remarkable. Just like when we go learn Newton's three laws, we think they're not complicated, but the first person who came up with them is remarkable. His value system theory and physical theory are different, because economics or investment, rather than saying it's science, it's more like art, or at least a combination of science and art."

  Jiang Zhanchan continued: "For example, one of the seven major standards he proposed for company screening is to have a so-called core competitive product. Such products can have an unreplicable and unparalleled core competitiveness in today's market, more importantly, in future markets. This competitiveness may be a long-established reputation among consumers, or it may be a cutting-edge technology that is difficult to replicate, or it may be a unique cost control system. Because the capital market emphasizes forward-looking, investors and speculators value a product's potential competitive advantage in the future. From a theoretical perspective, this point is simple and easy to understand - we need to find companies with core competitive products. But how can we discover them? How can we have foresight? He didn't say, maybe he couldn't say."

  Ming Fan: "For example?"

  Jiang Zihan: "Take the example of Motorola, a giant and pioneer in the communications industry. When they developed the 'Iridium Plan' years ago, mobile phones were still luxury items. In that plan, they would launch 24 satellites into Earth's orbit to cover the globe. This is an unparalleled core competitive advantage - satellite launches, communication, and phone design form a complete product system, making it extremely difficult for latecomers to enter. Compared to the ground-based transmission network with weak infrastructure at the time, the 'Iridium Plan' had no obvious price disadvantage, and its advantages in communication coverage and quality were unmatched. Isn't this a typical core competitive advantage? But how many people could predict at the time that mobile phone technology based on base stations would lower costs to an extremely low level in a very short period of time, making the 'Iridium Plan' completely lose competitiveness? In fact, this requires extraordinary foresight into technological development to be able to predict. So, this is a typical case of knowing what's easy but doing what's difficult."

  "So Williams' loyal follower, Master Ba, claims to only invest in industries he understands."

  Jiang Zhanchan said: "He is said to have a very deep understanding of personal consumption, insurance and basic energy industries. Moreover, some corporate materials he can access are not available to ordinary investors. This is also a case of information inequality."

  Ming Fan said: "That's right. Do you know? The investment courses in our economics and international trade departments still teach the outdated formula that stock prices are calculated based on dividends. It's hard to imagine they're still tirelessly promoting this stuff that's been out of date for decades."

  Jiang Zihan said: "It's rare to meet a professional, I'll ask for your guidance if I have any questions in the future."

  "No problem."

  The two of them chatted for a few more sentences before returning to the reading room together.

  Three minutes before closing, Jiang Zhihan gathered his things and was the last to leave the reading room. After going down three floors, he saw Ming Fan standing in front of the library entrance with a sweet-looking girl who had a petite figure. The girl wore a T-shirt with a landscape painting on it, paired with capri pants, looking very fashionable.

  "My girlfriend, Shan Shan, works here." He also introduced Jiang Zhi Han: "Jiang Zhi Han, just got to know him, a genius in high school."

  Jiang Zhi's cold and bitter smile.

  Xiang Xiang smiled and said: "You're a familiar face of Director Feng's, right? Everyone in the reading room is praising you for being super diligent."

  Jiang Zihan smiled and said, "No wonder you come here every day on time for work."

  Three people walked together to the bus stop outside the library, Jiang Zhihan pushed his own bicycle and was about to part ways with them.

  Ming Fan suddenly asked: "Do you think China will allow a capital market?"

  "It's not a matter of whether or not, but a matter of when."

  "Why?"

  Jiang Zemin: "Although the capital market has its own defects, it gathers funds and drives funds to promote industrial development with an efficiency that cannot be compared with planned allocation. When China's economy and industry develop to a certain stage, there will inevitably be a need for the emergence of a capital market to accelerate fund circulation."

  "Will there be a good start?"

  Jiang Zhicai: "It's hard to say how it will develop, after all, the capital market has just started and fluctuations are likely to be larger. But it will definitely start."

  Ming Fan smiled and said: "Great minds think alike. When China's capital market starts, I hope we are one of the few who are prepared."

  He patted Jiang Zhihan's shoulder warmly and added: "Work hard, there is a golden house in the book."

  Jiang Zihan glanced at Xiangxiang and replied, "The book itself has a beauty like jade."

  Ming Fan burst out laughing and proudly put his arm around his girlfriend's shoulder.