Chapter 61: 060

060 "Do I look like someone who's short these thirty thousand yuan?!"

That evening, Fang Qingye met Tian Zhonggu, the owner of Pioneer Stamping Parts Co., Ltd., in a private room on the third floor of the Spring Capital Grand Hotel.

Tian Zhonggu looked about thirty-five or thirty-six, and was extremely warm toward Fang Qingye, calling him "President Fang, President Fang" nonstop.

Fang Qingye corrected him several times, saying he was only an assistant, not a president, but when the other man kept calling him that anyway, he let it go.

Just the three of them; not many dishes, but very refined.

"Ye Zi, following your arrangement, I didn't let Boss Tian order any alcohol," Song Dahai said.

"Sorry, Boss Tian, I've not been feeling well lately," Fang Qingye said.

"President Fang, why stand on ceremony with me? Health comes first—once you're better, we'll drink!" Tian Zhonggu said with a smile.

Since there was business to attend to, after eating for a while they got straight to the point.

Tian Zhonggu went over the matter again, much the same as what he'd told Song Dahai on the phone, only more detailed.

"Actually, I know that recently a lot of companies have been coming to your bank to apply for loans. The Credit Section is very busy, and I hear they're short-staffed, so they require loan applicants to line up for review. But our company urgently needs this loan to buy a batch of equipment and expand production. Right now we have more orders than we can handle, but we can't get the work done—tell me, is that urgent or not?"

Tian Zhonggu let out a deep sigh at the end.

Fang Qingye listened and asked, "Didn't you go to Zhang Kezhang of the Credit Section to explain your company's actual situation?"

"Sigh, I did, but it did no good! President Fang, don't take this the wrong way, but your Zhang Kezhang is a stubborn mule! She insists on queuing strictly by the order loan applications were submitted!" Tian Zhonggu clearly had a bellyful of grievances.

"On top of that, she's a woman—no dinners, no karaoke, nothing works on her, let alone sauna... When President Su was the section chief, was there ever this much trouble?"

"Then why don't you go find President Su?" Fang Qingye asked again.

"I did... President Su said that if it eventually goes to the committee, he'd definitely put in a good word for us, but right now the process is still in the Credit Section, and there's nothing he can do about it. The Credit Section is Vice President Xia's own little turf, and he can't very well meddle."

Oh...

Fang Qingye nodded and picked up a leaf of vegetable with his chopsticks.

To be honest, right now that Zhang Qunying only listens to Xia He; Su Ming's words may not carry much weight.

These words Su Ming probably hadn't told Tian Zhonggu.

"President Fang?" Tian Zhonggu suddenly spoke up again.

"Hmm?" Fang Qingye looked up at him.

"As long as you can get this loan done for me by the end of August, I'll give you a rebate!" Tian Zhonggu said suddenly.

A rebate?

Fang Qingye put down his chopsticks, wiped his mouth with a towel, and looked at him. "Boss Tian, by your industry's rates, the rebate on a loan is 0.8 percentage points, right?"

"Right, I can give you one full point!" Tian Zhonggu said through gritted teeth.

"One point, 1%—on three million that's thirty thousand yuan, right?" Fang Qingye suddenly smiled, staring at the other man. "Boss Tian, do I look like someone who's short these thirty thousand yuan?!"

"Ah, this?" Tian Zhonggu didn't understand what Fang Qingye meant for the moment.

"To be honest, I didn't really want to come, but Dahai said you and he have a decent relationship, and asked me to do this favor... I really don't lack money. Boss Tian, I'm saying this to you, and through you to some of my business friends—other people may like their rebates and whatnot, but I have zero interest in that."

Tian Zhonggu's face immediately turned a bit awkward, not knowing what to say.

At this point Song Dahai cut in: "Boss Tian, President Fang is only here for this dinner as a favor to me. I also know he's not short of money—he likes playing the stock market. He doesn't make a fortune, but two or three million he does have."

Two or three million!

For a company, that really isn't much.

But this is a person's personal assets—besides, he's so young!

"I'm sorry, President Fang, I take back what I just said," Tian Zhonggu quickly said.

"Alright, let's drop that." Fang Qingye leaned back to get more comfortable. "Since Boss Tian, you do have your own difficulties..."

"Here's what I'll do—I'll see if I can move up the on-site review of your company, and try to push things along to speed up your company's review. But whether the review passes, and whether final approval goes through, that's beyond my control."

"Then thank you so much, President Fang. Don't worry—if it's an on-site inspection, we'll absolutely have no problem. All our documents are genuine, nothing falsified."

"Good then, eat up..." Fang Qingye picked up his chopsticks again. "So many dishes, let's not waste them."

After the meal, Tian Zhonggu suggested karaoke and a sauna, but Fang Qingye declined.

He said it was just a meal, nothing else needed.

All three had driven their own cars. As Song Dahai was about to get into his, he said to Fang Qingye again: "Ye Zi, same thing I always say—do it if you can, don't make it hard on yourself."

"I know, I know my limits."

"Alright then, I'm off!"

The next day at work, after making himself a cup of tea, Fang Qingye mulled over Tian Zhonggu's matter.

For him, this matter was not the least bit difficult. He could go straight to Xia He now and explain the situation, and Xia He would certainly tell Zhang Qunying to send someone to do an on-site review of Tian Zhonggu's company ahead of time.

Or he could go straight to Zhang Qunying. Given her dogmatic personality, she'd probably report it to Xia He, but in the end it would still work out.

But he didn't plan to do either.

Because if he did, Xia He would surely know Tian Zhonggu had come to him for help.

Maybe Xia He wouldn't say anything, but over the long run that wouldn't be a good thing.

He needed a more clever approach.

Around lunchtime, Fang Qingye went to the cafeteria and saw Chen Meimei carrying two portions of food she hadn't eaten, heading out. He cracked a joke.

"Chen Meimei, is that for Dahai?"

"I wouldn't bother with him." Chen Meimei replied, "It's for our Zhang Kezhang—she's so busy she doesn't even have time to come down and eat."

"That busy?"

"Fang Qingye, you have no idea—our section's been swamped lately, we often work overtime, but we still can't get through reviewing all the documents. Some business owners have big complaints about us..." Chen Meimei said.

That's Zhang Qunying bringing it on herself!

The heavy load of loan applications was one thing; the other was that Zhang Qunying reviewed things extremely strictly. Back when Su Ming was section chief, some documents passed after a single look, but under Zhang Qunying, different people had to go over them two or three times, and on-site company reviews were done several times too. This invisibly increased the workload.

Of course, the upside was: with stricter document review, the error rate dropped, reducing the likelihood of bad loans—which made Xia He very satisfied.

Fang Qingye suddenly thought of something and said to Chen Meimei, "Then let your Zhang Kezhang tell President Xia — temporarily reassign some people to help you out."

"We thought of that too, and we suggested it to Zhang Kezhang, but she was worried that the reassigned staff wouldn't be skilled enough and would make mistakes, so she didn't want to report it to President Xia." Chen Meimei was also a bit dejected, then suddenly thought of something:

"Hey, Fang Qingye, aren't you the President's Assistant now? You can report our section's situation directly to President Xia."

"Alright, I'll speak to President Xia once I'm at work!" Fang Qingye agreed readily.

"Really, thank you so much." Chen Meimei laughed happily.

"No need for thanks, it's just my duty."

"Then I'll go deliver the meals, bye-bye."

Watching Miss leave, a faint smile appeared on Fang Qingye's face.