"Well, you never transferred it to your name. I was written as your nominee, and the trading account fetched something, I think." Qian Meng was confused.
"I am sure I didn't have any money in that account." She had wasted it on stocks that weren't supposed to make it anywhere and thought it a foregone conclusion. She hadn't wanted her mother's money, so she did some reckless things, okay?
"You did. The purchases were attached to that account and some financial analysts were asking about one of your purchases, I think?" Qian Meng blinked.
"Okay?" she was unsure how to reply.
"Well, I will forward you the information. Can you update the account details? I don't want to get any calls." Qian Meng pressed her lips together.
"Understood, mother. Send me the details and the number of your financial advisor, I will take care of it." She had a bad habit of talking these things through herself. She hung up the call without greeting.
"Did she want money?" Mo Qingchen asked, his voice tight.
"No, she wanted to discard some bank account under my name." She shrugged. "She set it up when I was ten or so. I started officially trading with it about ten years ago to spite her." She rolled her eyes at the memory. "I remember analyzing investments and picking the ones that would make no money."
"With the pocket money she gave you? Why didn't you use it for good investments?" he asked. He crossed his foot over another and waited for her response.
"Because she didn't spend a minute with me and tried to use the money to get rid of me. I was spiteful, okay?" She chuckled. "I will have to see what this is about, though." By then the information was already sent to her cellphone.
Qian Meng walked over to his side. "Mind if I use your laptop and wifi?" she asked.
"Go ahead." He pushed the laptop to her. She took a seat beside him and set up an internet banking account. She called the advisor and put the phone on speakerphone.
"Miss Yun, I have been waiting for your call," the man sounded scared.
"Yes, I am looking at the bank account right now. There haven't been any transactions of dividends paid for the stocks I bought. What is the problem?" She looked at the lack of activity, confused.
"No, most of the stocks you bought were for companies that closed or yielded little profit. But you made a huge purchase that had excellent returns." Qian Meng squinted.
"And how do you know about that? I don't see it reflected in my account." Mo Qingchen was looking at the account intently as well. Something in his expression was wrong.
"I have some analysts calling the bank about the purchases, that is how I came to know. As your mother, Sun Li was the co-signer, I found out. The account was changed automatically when you turned eighteen, so we didn't find anything until recently."
"Okay, can you be quick about this? Which purchase are we talking about?"
Mo Qingchen leaned over and placed his hand on the touchpad. "This one," he said with astonishment. His eyes were wide. Yun Qian Meng followed his eyes and saw the cursor paused over a purchase.
"I thought I sold these." She frowned. The purchase was made in July 2010.
"No, ma'am. You didn't." The man laughed nervously. "The analysts got the news because they need to map the growth of the cryptocurrency, ma'am."
She squinted at it. "What are these selling at right now?" she asked, bewildered. She knew it had been in the news a couple of years ago and not paid any attention to it. She didn't want to mourn over her losses.
Mo Qingchen turned the laptop towards him and searched on the internet.
40,862 dollars was the closing price that day.
"You didn't know about this?" Mo Qingchen's voice was raised in excitement. "Are you stupid? You didn't remember holding on to these?"
"No!" Qian Meng replied, flabbergasted. "How many coins do I have?" she asked, panicked. She had probably not paid her tax on it. She didn't even know the tax code for these things!
"You bought them for 0.08 dollars in 2010. You invested 4000 dollars at the time." Mo Qingchen calculated in his head.
"That's two billion forty-three million dollars in current value," he groaned. He turned to glare at Yun Qian Meng. "God, you are stupid and irresponsible with your money." He shook his head. He looked so pissed off, too.
The advisor was silent. "Miss Yun, you're a billionaire," he said finally.
"Yes, I have been a billionaire for years now." She stared at the screen. "Uh, can I call you back? I'll have to look at the procedure." She almost stopped breathing. She hung up the call.
"You're upset," she said, confused.
"You had all this money sitting there and you didn't even know."
"It was an account she set up," Qian Meng defended.
"Billions of dollars, Qian Meng!" he gritted through his teeth. "Why are you this careless?"
"Why are you so upset?" she grilled. "Upset that I am closer to your net worth now? Upset you didn't invest in it before?" She wanted to strangle him for his behavior.
"You wouldn't have known it existed if not for this call, Qian Meng. If something happened to you..." he frowned. "Stupid."
"So, should I sell it?" She didn't know much about it, actually.
"No!" he yelled in response. She startled and moved away from him. "Pretend it doesn't exist and don't let anyone know."
"Why?"
"Disclose it in your taxes and nothing else. Don't let analysts know. Remain the mysterious buyer." He shot up from his chair and paced the room. "Don't be a fool and throw away this money. You were young and tried to discard your mother's money. You are old enough now to know that money can compensate for the time she didn't spend on you."
I wrote this around Christmas when bitcoin was at its peak. No, it's not bitcoin as I will not follow the growth trajectory it is on right now. I just took inspiration for it.
But what do you think? Is Mo Qingchen right? Can money compensate for lost time and love?
Only two days to enter the giveaway. Make sure to comment and share your favorite quote/why you like the story (tagging me) to join!
Oh! Smash that vote button for the algorithm, won't you?