Chapter 73: 072

Fang Qingye was deeply immersed in his Warcraft game when his phone on the desk rang—it was Xia He calling.

With both hands occupied, he couldn’t answer, so he quickly turned on speakerphone and asked while still gaming: “Senior, why are you calling so late?”

“Xiao Fang, do you have relatives holding high positions at the People’s Bank?”

“What nonsense? If I really had relatives like that, would I still be stuck at the Nanxin branch?” Fang Qingye kept his eyes on the screen, clicking his mouse rapidly, speaking casually.

“Then how did you predict it so accurately—almost perfectly?”

“You mean that? … I guessed!”

“Then why couldn’t Director Qin and the others guess right?”

“Because they’re bad at guessing!”

Hearing this, Xia He was left speechless.

Guessing requires skill?

“Xiao Fang, I have a serious question for you,” Xia He asked, reclining on the sofa and shifting into a more comfortable position.

“Go ahead.”

“Why was the PBOC’s recent cut to the two rates so minimal? It completely surprised everyone.”

“Imagine a man who ate too much at first—you give him diarrhea medicine, then suddenly realize he’s too weak from over-purging, so you want to give him tonic pills—you’ve got to go slow, right?”

“First give him a few IV bags of saline to stabilize him, then give him the tonic pills later? If you just dump the tonic pills on him right away, the patient will be worked to death.” Fang Qingye said, still staring at the screen.

“Oh… so that’s your reasoning? I get it! You mean the two rates will be cut again later?” Xia He asked again.

“Of course! I said it’s just saline—the tonic pills are still coming! … I’m gaming right now, bye…”

Before she could reply, Fang Qingye pressed the pause button and returned to his Warcraft.

Xia He was about to say something when she heard the phone emit a series of beeps—he had hung up.

“This guy…” Xia He couldn’t help shaking her head.

Forget it—asking won’t get me anything anyway.

Xia He tossed her phone aside and half-lay on the sofa.

This Fang Qingye is truly a prodigy…

Meanwhile, Fang Qingye, disturbed by Xia He’s call, had lost the match. Unwilling to accept defeat, he immediately started a new one. Just as he entered battle, his bedroom door opened—his mother, Zhang Meili, walked in holding a bowl of sunflower seeds.

“I just heard you talking to a senior on the phone, mentioning tonic pills—what senior was that?”

“Our branch manager, Xia He,” Fang Qingye replied without looking up, eyes fixed on the screen.

“It’s so late, and she’s still calling you? Asking if you have relatives in the PBOC? What were you two even talking about?” Zhang Meili asked, cracking seeds.

“Mom… stop being paranoid,” Fang Qingye explained while gaming: “Didn’t we go to Jinghai a while back? We had dinner with some alumni and talked about the bank’s rate cuts—today the PBOC officially announced them.”

Fang Qingye briefly recounted the whole story.

“Oh, so that’s how it is… Xiao Ye, we actually do have a relative holding a high position at the PBOC headquarters!”

Hearing his mother say this with complete seriousness, Fang Qingye froze, dropped his mouse, and turned to look at Zhang Meili: “Mom? Really?!”

“Fake! Just kidding you!”

Zhang Meili burst out laughing. “The highest-ranking person in our family right now is your second uncle. You’re the one we’re counting on from now on… Alright, I’m going to sleep. You should rest too—don’t stay up gaming!” She finished, cracked another seed, and walked out, closing his door behind her.

I @#￥%…

Fang Qingye was left speechless.

When did his mom become this funny?

This delay caused him to lose again.

Fang Qingye was annoyed.

One more match.

Fang Qingye started another Warcraft match, but barely minutes into the battle, his QQ pinged again—the Dongguan girl’s avatar was flashing.

Ignore it, keep gaming.

The avatar kept flashing, then suddenly a pop-up window appeared: “The Invincible Youthful Beauty requests a voice chat!”

Ignore it, keep fighting.

The voice request kept ringing. Finally, the system automatically disconnected. Fang Qingye sighed in relief and focused back on the game—when another voice window popped up again!

What the hell!

Is this never-ending?!

Fang Qingye couldn’t take it anymore. He pressed answer and yelled into the phone: “What the fuck, are you crazy?!”

“I don’t have a sister, and I’m not crazy—why are you so angry?” came a strange girl’s voice.

Huh?

The Dongguan girl’s voice was actually quite pleasant.

But Fang Qingye was already furious—his game had been interrupted repeatedly. How could he tolerate this?

He hung up immediately. The world became quiet again.

But he lost this match too.

Forget it—no fun anymore.

Time to shower and sleep.

Fang Qingye stood up, stretched, noticed the Dongguan girl’s QQ avatar still flashing, and opened it.

“Husband, sorry for interrupting your game.”

“You predicted it so accurately—they all suspect you have relatives holding high positions at the PBOC.”

“Do you really have any?”

Have you got a sister…

Fang Qingye muttered under his breath, tossed his phone down, and walked out the door.

The next day at work, Fang Qingye received another call—from Deputy Director Mei Shuwei of the Municipal Finance Bureau. His first words: “Xiao Fang, I’m impressed—truly impressed!”

Fang Qingye knew he was referring to the bank’s rate cuts, so he replied: “Director Mei, it was our Branch Manager Xia He who predicted it—I just echoed her.”

“Hahaha, Xiao Fang, you can fool others, but not me,” came Mei Shuwei’s hearty laugh over the phone.

“I remember when Xia He made her prediction, her QQ pinged—wasn’t that you sending her a message?”

“No such thing…” Fang Qingye flatly denied it.

“Honestly, Xia He’s a branch manager—her head is full of trivial work matters… just like mine now. Who has the mental bandwidth to think about national macroeconomic issues?”

“But I’m just a junior employee at a branch too,” Fang Qingye countered.

“But you’ve only been out of school for a year—you still have passion, still enjoy debating grand policies. Wait a few years in the field, and you’ll drown in these trivialities too.”

That… made sense?

“Last time we had dinner, everyone made predictions—yours was the most accurate. Yu Yang’s was the worst,” Mei Shuwei said with great enthusiasm.

“Logically, Yu Yang works at the provincial level and specializes in financial policy—he should’ve predicted best. But he missed by a mile… This kid’s career’s been too smooth. That’s not necessarily good.”

Fang Qingye didn’t particularly like Yu Yang, but he said nothing now—just listened quietly.

“Alright, enough. If you come to the city for business, let’s chat—I’m very interested in you.”

“Of course, I will. Bye.” Fang Qingye hung up.

Go to the city to chat with him?

Fang Qingye wasn’t the type to enjoy socializing. Why would he go out of his way to bother the Finance Bureau with no reason?

But he didn’t expect to have a reason to seek him out just a few days later.