Chapter 438: Want AIG to go down with me? Then let's tear it apart!

The phone was gently hung up.

That faint "click" sounded like a death knell, shattering everyone's last sliver of hope in the top‑floor suite of Saint Remo Apartment.

"It's over…"

David Cohen collapsed on the floor like a puddle of sludge, his eyes hollowly staring at the ceiling, his lips trembling, unable to utter a single full complaint.

"All over… we're all done…"

Li Junjie's complexion was as pale as paper; he clutched his hair tightly, the eyes that once glittered with genius from complex model simulations now held only pure fear and despair.

"Counterparty risk… our biggest oversight is counterparty risk…" he muttered, his voice warped by fear, "A credit default swap is basically an insurance contract! We bet others would default, AIG underwrote it! Now… now the insurer itself is going bankrupt! The policies we hold are just a pile of worthless paper! Absolutely worthless paper!"

Zhang Qianru also completely lost her composure, gripping the table as her body swayed as if about to collapse.

"Legally, once AIG files for bankruptcy protection, all debts are frozen and enter a lengthy liquidation process. As creditors, how much we can recover and when will be unknown. Worse, the US Government can invoke Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code to force a debt restructuring, and then… we can only take whatever they decide to give us!"

A profit of $113.7 billion.

A massive fund of $300 billion.

Facing this earth‑shattering trap set by the top predators of Wall Street working together, it could be wiped out in an instant!

That is even more cruel than a direct loss.

It is watching, eyes wide open, the wealth already in our hands—enough to buy the whole world—turn into bubbles between our fingers.

Lu Qingjun stood aside, feeling his limbs ice‑cold, a chill shooting from the soles of his feet straight up to his crown.

He watched his elite team, who had just been cheering for victory, turn in an instant into condemned prisoners awaiting judgment, while his older brother remained calmly standing by the window, as if that phone call had been just an inconsequential nuisance.

"Brother…" Lu Qingjun's voice trembled, "This… this isn't a joke… they're trying to drag us all to death!"

Lu Qingshan did not look back.

He simply stared at the neon‑lit city outside, at the towering headquarters symbolizing the American International Group (AIG), then suddenly asked an unrelated question.

"Tell me, when a giant elephant falls, who rushes in first?"

The apartment fell into dead silence.

No one could answer, and no one had the mood to contemplate it.

"Hyenas, vultures, any scavenger that smells blood," Lu Qingshan answered his own question; his voice was low, yet like a scalpel it precisely cut through the tumor of fear in everyone's hearts.

"Bowen, Belankfan, John Mc, they think they're hunters, believing that sacrificing AIG—the giant elephant they raised—will crush the tiger that has broken in, together."

He turned, his calm gaze sweeping over each desperate face.

"But they miscalculated one thing."

"AIG, this giant elephant, didn't die in the wilderness; it died at the very center of the whole zoo. The chains bound to it are the locks to every cage."

"When it falls, it shatters the doors of all cages."

Li Junjie jerked his head up, and in those fear‑filled eyes a faint glimmer began to reconvene.

"Cage… chain…" he muttered, repeating the two words as his brain began to race in overload.

Lu Qingshan stepped in front of him, extended a finger, and gently tapped his forehead.

"They can make AIG die, they can."

"But who gets to feast on the corpse of this giant elephant? What chaos its death will bring to the whole forest? Those aren't decisions the three of them can make."

"They think this is a duel between them and me. I'll turn this duel into a world‑spanning… gluttonous feast."

As his words faded, the atmosphere in the entire apartment began to shift subtly.

The suffocating despair was quietly receding, replaced by a more frantic, hotter hope named "Breakthrough."

"Boss, you mean…" Li Junjie's voice remained hoarse, but no longer trembled.

"It's simple." Lu Qingshan returned to the command center's main seat, his strategic commanding aura once again enveloping the whole room.

"If they want to detonate AIG, we'll help them crank the bomb's power to the maximum!"

"Zhang Qianru!"

"Here! Mr. Lu!" Zhang Qianru sprang upright, like a soldier awaiting a general's order.

"Immediately, now! Compile a list for me! I need to know, besides us, every institution worldwide that bought AIG credit default swaps or holds AIG corporate bonds! Including the German Bank in Europe, the Paris Bank of France, Barclays of the United Kingdom, Nomura Securities of Asia, Mizuho Bank, and the sovereign wealth funds of the Middle East! I want a detailed list precise to each counter‑party!"

"Understood!" A fire instantly ignited in Zhang Qianru's eyes as she rushed back to the computer, her fingers clacking on the keyboard.

"Li Junjie!"

"Boss!"

"Deploy the Asia‑Pacific business framework we just obtained from Morgan Stanley! I want you to use every channel to contact each person on the list! Tell Bowen and AIG their plan, word for word!"

Lu Qingshan's voice suddenly turned cold.

"I will make the whole world know that the US Government and Wall Street, to crush a Chinese investor, are willing to sacrifice global interests! Their so‑called financial hegemony is merely a powder keg that can be detonated for private gain at any moment!"

"Yes!" A pathological exhilaration flashed across Li Junjie's face; he felt his blood burning.

This is no longer short selling.

This is inciting a worldwide financial uprising!

"David!"

"Boss! I'm here! Ready to sacrifice for the gods!" David Cohen sprang up from the floor, the fear on his face already replaced by frenzy.

"Close all our short positions, except those of Lehman and Bear Stearns, completely!"

"What?!" David shouted, "Close… close everything? Boss, that's all money!"

"Gather all the capital, concentrate it!" Lu Qingshan gave the second order without explanation, "I want you, at the fastest speed, go to the market and buy for me! Not short, but purchase!"

"Buy… what?"

Lu Qingshan stared at him, spitting out each word that nearly made David faint again.

"Buy, the stock of American International Group (AIG)."

"Thump!"

David really didn't stand steady this time; he fell back onto the carpet in one piece.

"Buy... buy AIG? Boss, are you out of your mind? Weren't we supposed to tear it down? Why are you buying its stock? That's like sending ammunition to the enemy!"

"Who said I'm going to save it?" Lu Qingshan's mouth curved into a faint, eerie smile.

"I just want, before it falls, to become one of its biggest... shareholders."

"Then, in the name of a shareholder, attend its funeral and, incidentally, claim its inheritance as a matter of course."

Those words made the entire apartment fall completely silent.

Everyone stared at Lu Qingshan with expressions as if looking at a madman.

He was simultaneously rallying creditors worldwide to collect debts while buying its stock on the market, preparing to become its shareholder.

What a kind of madness, what a schizophrenic operation!

Yet it is precisely this madness that transcends everyone's comprehension, yet carries a deadly, compelling allure that forces belief.

"Stop standing there stunned!" Lu Qingshan's voice snapped the crowd out of their petrified state.

"Butchers, it's time to prepare the tools for dismembering the giant elephant!"

"Yes!"

The whole team, like a war machine re‑fueled with nuclear power, roared back to life with astonishing efficiency.

At that moment, the red encrypted phone rang again.

This time, Lu Qingshan himself picked it up.

Ye Ning and Lu Qingjun saw him press the redial button and dial the number from Capital City that had just called.

The call was answered almost instantly.

"Got it?" On the other end, the voice of a man surnamed Wang remained steady.

"I'd like to ask you for a favor," Lu Qingshan said bluntly.

"Speak."

"I need a list," Lu Qingshan said, looking out the window, his voice calm yet weighty. "A list of every institution in our country that holds AIG‑related assets, from foreign‑exchange reserves to major state banks, and even the China Investment Corporation."

There was a brief silence on the other end.

"And then?"

Lu Qingshan inhaled deeply and uttered a sentence that plunged the entire apartment back into deathly silence.

"Then, I hope you can arrange a conference call for me."

"Let me, together with all of them, hold a meeting."

"Tonight."