Chapter 495

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Protagonist:

Chen Yi

If Gao Qiu were to draw up a list of "People I Least Want to See This Year," the guy with the Central Bank title attached to his name would undoubtedly sit at the very top.

He really wanted to avoid him, but he couldn't; in the end, he resolutely stepped into the reception room, like a child on the first day of school, a little girl entering a brothel for the first time, a soldier stepping onto the battlefield for the first time.

"Mr. Fan." Before entering the door, Gao Qiu already knew the other party's name.

This was a short, handsome fellow, his face overcast; seen in profile, he looked like a portrait on a banknote. The instant he saw Gao Qiu, his rigid face suddenly came alive, piling on a radiant, sunny smile as he said to Gao Qiu: "I like people to call me Wenbo. You're President Gao, right?"

An openly admitted chameleon!

Gao Qiu knew this type of person was the most troublesome to deal with. He sat back at his desk, expressionless, and said: "Let's just talk business. What is Mr. Fan's scope of work at the Central Bank?"

"Just doing miscellaneous tasks."

"May I see your work ID?" Gao Qiu had not the slightest intention of pulling connections; he was almost dead certain he was going to offend this Central Bank man.

Having the Imperial Envoy's face slapped away, the sunny Fan Wenbo turned overcast again. He fished out his credentials, unfolded them for three seconds, and said: "Take a look."

"Deputy Director of the General Office? You've come to Jiangning — what specifically is your work?" Gao Qiu's tone was unpleasant. In his heart, he cried 'bad news'; a miscellaneous post at Headquarters center often meant a leader's trusted aide, and they were the true executors.

Fan Wenbo was unhappy, but his airs remained as he drank his tea, a small finger lightly supporting the cup bottom, and said slowly: "Before the formal inspection team comes to Jiangning, I had the intention to help Jiangning Bank. President Gao needn't be unhappy either. Once we get familiar, you'll know my temperament; in the end, it's never a disadvantage to you."

Gao Qiu remained unmoved and said: "You say there's an inspection team; what are they going to inspect? I haven't seen any documents yet."

Fan Wenbo didn't answer, but said: "If you can self-inspect and self-correct, eliminating the hidden dangers subject to inspection, even President Gao taking another step up wouldn't be difficult……"

Gao Qiu sneered, thinking: I'm the dignified Head Office President; what significance is there in taking another step up? The good positions were long ago stuffed full of radishes.

"President Gao doesn't believe me?" Fan Wenbo gave a hehe smile and said: "How about adding a position for you at the Banking Regulatory Commission?"

Gao Qiu's heart instantly stirred.

Fan Wenbo hadn't expected him to agree immediately either, and turned to persuade: "Let's speak plainly. Jiangning Bank storing so much gold is of not a single benefit — all harm and no gain. Don't tell me you really want to rely on gold to issue bonds and issue currency? I see it as just holding out for a better price."

"Hmph."

"I know your gold bonds are trending well; we think so too. That's why we're offering this condition: a 10% premium, we take them off your hands?"

Gao Qiu let out a "pu" laugh and said: "The Cao Family did this before, did you know?"

"He's still doing it." Fan Wenbo's eyeballs rolled, and he said: "If we want, a single sentence can take the gold bonds in his hands back. When that time comes, don't blame us for being rude after you refused a toast."

The talk had reached this point; it was the moment of decision.

Gao Qiu pondered briefly, then said: "This matter can be big or small, but I advise you to pull back."

"Your say doesn't count, mine doesn't count either; why hang yourself on a single tree?" Fan Wenbo changed faces several times in a moment; his words had layers within layers.

Gao Qiu understood clearly in his heart: if it really came down to comparing monetary laws, under "bad money drives out good," the gold bonds dying a peaceful death was perfectly normal. If the Central Bank wanted to use forceful means, he also had almost no way out. For now, the only plan was to turn the economic problem back into a political problem, hand it back to the top to fight it out. From his angle, that meant letting Chen Yi and the Chen Family handle the negotiations.

Fan Wenbo, wearing his sunny smile, left silently, just as he had arrived. Like an evil domesticated meat pig, secretly wagging a wild boar's tail.

"Today's mess, ah." Gao Qiu stroked his forehead, feeling like a handful of hair would fall out with a single grab.

Recalling the details, Gao Qiu notified Chen Yi at the first moment, while simultaneously ordering all bank departments to familiarize themselves with the contingency plans, ready to implement them at any time.

He was a banker; he always made the worst-case preparations. In fact, whenever a banker feels self-satisfied, that is precisely when the economic bubble is saturated.

In Jiangning Bank's basic contingency plans regarding gold bonds, Gao Qiu designed four schemes, corresponding to different situations. The gold bonds' true disadvantage lay in them not being national currency; therefore, legal restrictions on redemption could not be used. Otherwise, if strict redemption requirements were imposed alongside massive propaganda, the 200-plus billion USD worth of gold would be sufficient to support currency issuance.

In the era of gold at 35 USD per ounce, the weak Federal Reserve's gold reserves once dropped as low as 70 million USD — equivalent to the current 1 billion USD, the extent of a hundred tons of gold — yet it persisted.

Today, with such enormous gold bond reserves, it is still fraught with danger, leaving Gao Qiu to lament that the Central Bank is something even more terrifying than an economic crisis.

It is a living monster — not only is its appetite enormous, but it also has the greedy habit of killing to make cured meat.

Gao Qiu's worry was verified immediately.

After two days of weekend cold treatment, Cao Yuan began dumping gold bonds in large volumes — not only redeeming gold on the domestic market, but also selling gold, and attempting to stir up trouble on the international market.

Hundreds of billions USD of gold short positions are quite rare; this naturally produced some effect.

However, whether Gao Qiu, Cao Yuan, or Fan Wenbo, none were clear that behind Cao Yuan's Wu Jingjing, the actual power behind her was Chen Yi. In other words, aside from losing a bit of commission, all gold movements belonged to Chen Yi's self-amusement, while also letting the Central Bank feel self-satisfied.

This delayed a not-short period, allowing Chen Yi to prepare fully, but also demonstrated the Central Bank's determination.

At the new week's family "Democratic Life Meeting," Chen Yi felt it necessary to explain the situation. He had properly organized his thoughts and materials, then said: "I've stored some gold. Over the past half year, the quantity has increased quite a lot."

"Specifically how much?" Uncle asked on everyone's behalf. Actually, if the old master hadn't been holding them back, the family would have taken the initiative to ask months ago.

Apart from ancient human treasures, the quantity of gold is basically public and transparent; occasionally finding a few tons counts as impressive. Continuous, unending appearances naturally let everyone's doubts pile deeper and deeper.

The corners of Chen Yi's mouth twitched twice; he told the truth: "2,000 tons."

"2,000 tons!" Even the old master was surprised this time.

"Are the rumors outside all true?" Uncle's hands trembled.

"Worth 500 billion, I earned it." Chen Yi exhaled, looked at Grandpa, and smiled: "Although I really want to introduce you to the money-making process, there's a problem to solve first — the Central Bank wants the gold."

Fang Manyi's brows relaxed as she said: "They don't want to take it for nothing, do they?"

"They'll definitely pay market price, but I have gold bonds and can produce several times, dozens of times the money. Why should I give it to them?" Chen Yi raised his voice and laughed: "Twice 500 billion is 1 trillion. That's not small change anymore."

The numbers are too big, easy to make one lose feeling; the family all looked at the old master, simply waiting for him to speak.

But Chen Zhongguo also felt he couldn't see through Chen Yi.

Ever since his body recovered, his mind was as agile as in his youth; he always had a kind of power that could solve any difficult problem. But when facing this riddle of Chen Yi, he couldn't keep up.

500 billion!

Even when he was in high position, he couldn't figure out how to finish spending this sum.

Thus a new thought extended: What is Chen Yi's target for continuing to make money! This question interested him more than the source.

But no matter how he turned it over in his mind, in the end he had to attribute it to the political arena — the only place that made Chen Zhongguo a bit helpless was that he never felt his return to the political arena needed this much money.

More than a US presidential election.

What use is more, then?

"What do you think?" Chen Zhongguo finally didn't arbitrarily give Chen Yi a conclusion; if it were the other juniors at home, getting the treatment of a conclusion would be considered good.

"I want to keep the gold."

"The state has a policy; collecting your gold isn't wrong either."

"Won't give it." Chen Yi shook his head again, looking like he was welching on a debt.

He knew Grandpa only needed the idea, not the method.

Sure enough, Chen Zhongguo fell into deep thought again, saying: "I need to think, you all chat."

He slowly returned to his room, leaving the family to idle talk.

Chen Yi shrank his neck; he originally wanted to wait for Chen Heng to come back and explain, but who knew the plan wouldn't change as fast as reality.

After dinner, the relentless questioning finally ended; Chen Yi refused the suggestion of a late-night snack and left at the fastest speed.

Uncle Chen Rongjie watched his back from the window, still unable to believe it: "500 billion, isn't that the world's richest man? I remember the world's richest man is only tens of billions of dollars, mostly stocks, not that much more than him; sigh, in the blink of an eye, 25 tons of gold per month became 2000 tons!"

Fang Zhennan instead had a bit of a dangerous feeling, hard to put into words, silently thinking.

The cold wind outside the window and the car air conditioning inside both made one not want to speak.

As Chen Yi walked, he switched to running at a crisscrossed intersection of red and green lights; a tailing SUV involuntarily accelerated, ran a red light, and pursued behind him.

Along Binjiang Road, Chen Yi ran faster and faster.

This place was where he was most familiar; the restaurant that opened latest, the supermarket with the longest business hours, and the most desolate Jiangtan were all places he liked to go since childhood.

The night Jiangtan was pitch-black, stifling, and moreover chaotic.

The SUV chased him all the way to the river water before stopping.

The doors on all four sides opened at once, making click-click mechanical sounds.

Fan Wenbo wore a hat, poked his head out, and laughed in a disrespectful tone: "Chen Yi, right? You truly have audacity, even more than I imagined."

His emotional tone was cold like the river water on a chilly night, saying: "You came out just like that, wasted my good plan, but it's fine too, saves entanglement, saves effort."

Chen Yi stood in the water with a calm face; to others it looked like he was driven to a dead end by the car, but only the sand under his feet knew a thin film isolated foreign invasion.

……(Unfinished. If you like this work, welcome to Qidian (qidian. com) to cast recommendation tickets, monthly tickets; your support is my greatest motivation.)