Chapter 239

On the tower of the Saint Naye Cathedral, standing here and looking around gives one a very strange feeling.

There is a small piece of tranquility in a modern city; perhaps this is why some people always love to go to church on weekends.

They can find some spiritual peace here, which in turn makes them believe that this peace is a gift bestowed upon them by God.

Mr. Qiaobafu leaned on the railing, looking into the distance; when Lanse came up the stairs, he looked at Lanse with something difficult to describe hidden in his expression.

Envy, jealousy, all kinds of emotions were surging.

It's just that he used to hide these emotions well, but now, it was already very difficult for him to hide them.

"I heard you wanted to talk to me," Mr. Qiaobafu glanced at Hiram, who was discussing with Ethan downstairs why people don't need to wear clothes when they ascend to heaven—did the priest actually not stop these blasphemers from entering?

From Hiram's remarks full of dissatisfaction with heaven, it was clear that he lacked reverence for God.

However, his attention quickly returned to Lanse, and he turned around, "There have been some rumors outside recently, which have caused me a lot of trouble."

Lanse walked to the window; in fact, the tower was not high, only about five or six stories tall, but it was already possible to see some of the surrounding scenery.

He nodded, "About what, roughly?"

Mr. Qiaobafu said, "About my bank not being safe; I heard their views from some people in the Imperial Chamber of Commerce, which led some people to start withdrawing money, and this has caused me trouble."

"What made them become so irrational?"

"Irrational?" Lanse repeated, using an upward inflection at the end, "No, in my opinion, this is precisely the most rational choice."

"People are not fools, Mr. Qiaobafu."

"If you hadn't made them feel a sense of crisis, rumors would have no room to survive, but if they discover that you are making them feel endangered, then the rumors will become increasingly terrifying."

"If you want to know what led to all this, you might as well think about what you have actually done to make people stop trusting you."

Mr. Qiaobafu looked at Lanse, "Just because I defected to the mayor and intend to run for Imperial District Councilor?"

Lanse did not deny it, "That is one of the reasons."

"Then what about the others?" Mr. Qiaobafu felt a trace of curiosity; he wanted to know what other reasons there were, even carrying some anger—he felt that Lanse was lying.

He was trying to use an unreliable, lame excuse to cover up the fact that he did this just to make William win!

Lanse didn't answer his question immediately, but instead smiled and said, "Have you noticed that you've become a bit... I'm not sure how to describe it, if you know what 'overbearing' means."

"It roughly means you've become less willing to allow others to offend you; you've become more majestic."

Mr. Qiaobafu was just about to say something, but Lanse's next sentence made him fall into silence—"Because you feel that your class is already different from others."

Watching him think, Lanse smiled, "Look, that's class."

"When you stood with everyone, you were the respected Mr. Qiaobafu; you helped them keep their funds, gave them appropriate interest, and would also lend money to the poor to help them get through difficulties."

"But now, when you try to stand above everyone and demand they do as you say, it's hard for them to respect and love you anymore, isn't that right?"

"It was you who abandoned them first, not them who abandoned you."

Mr. Qiaobafu lowered his voice a little, and his hands clenched into fists, "I did not!"

Lanse laughed as if he had heard something funny, "If you think you didn't, then you didn't."

Mr. Qiaobafu took a few deep breaths to stabilize his emotions again, "I am an Imperial person, and also an old immigrant; I know what the people here need..."

This time Lanse didn't let him finish, interrupting him directly, "No, you don't."

"I do!" Mr. Qiaobafu reaffirmed his point again and increased his tone and volume; in fact, people often show this situation most of the time.

When they want to persuade those who are not easily persuaded, they will subconsciously increase their tone and volume.

Hiram, who was discussing with Ethan downstairs whether the Imperial God and the Federal God are the same God and whether the two would fight, and Ethan, both looked up at the same time.

Lanse raised his hand, signaling them to stay downstairs.

Mr. Qiaobafu's tone finally pulled back, and he looked at Lanse, "They want to become wealthier, want more work, more food, better living environments, want more opportunities for schooling; I have always known what they want, they..."

He said a lot, and Lanse just looked at him with a smile, his eyes looking as if he were watching a fool giving a speech!

Mr. Qiaobafu was a bit angry; he didn't know why, but recently he had suddenly become fond of getting angry; perhaps as Lanse said, he already felt that he was standing in another class, standing... above the people.

So his temper was not as good as it used to be.

You would be polite to a homeless person because that is what you want to show as your cultivation.

But if a homeless person does something that makes you unhappy, you will be very angry and lose your temper—it's not that you lack cultivation, it's just that you feel you have been offended.

Mr. Qiaobafu was just like that; the reason he was angry was not that he lacked cultivation, but that he felt that since everyone's class levels were different, you shouldn't offend him.

He took a deep breath and stopped, looking at Lanse, "Am I not right?"

Lanse shook his head, which made him even angrier, "What's wrong?"

Lanse looked at him as if he were looking at a poor wretch, "You think you understand the people here, but in fact, you don't understand them at all; in the past, you just felt that they could bring you wealth, so what you respected was not them, but the benefits they brought you."

"Now, you just treat them as a resource, as underclass people, so you will understand even less what they want."

"In fact, what they want is very simple."

"You have to respect them!"

Lanse shook his head and sighed, "I have other things to do; I don't have time to stay here and talk to you about this."

"You won't understand; perhaps this is ridiculous to the gentlemen of the upper class, but for the people at the bottom, dignity and personality are their last bottom line, a bottom line that cannot be lost, but you cannot give it to them."

"Also, I have to remind you that those three or five dollars you might have looked down upon long ago once achieved you, but now they can also destroy you."

Mr. Qiaobafu took a step forward, "You said, if I want to live well, I must first learn to be a bitch!"

"That's your fucking original words!" He even grabbed Lanse's collar.

Ethan and Hiram leaped up, but Lanse stopped them.

He used his own hand to pry Mr. Qiaobafu's fingers open one by one, while answering his question, "I told you to be a bitch, but I didn't tell you to be a dog!"

He pried off the last finger and patted his collar, which was a bit wrinkled from being grabbed, "You have been blinded by power and desire, Mr. Qiaobafu, if you still can't calm down."

"Those ordinary people who once made you will eventually become the tidal wave that drowns you!"

After saying this, he left the tower without looking back, leaving Mr. Qiaobafu alone, disheveled in the wind.

"Don't you want to teach him a lesson?" Hiram asked while going down the stairs.

In his view, being disrespectful to Lanse was reason enough to kill him, let alone the fact that the old man had grabbed Lanse's collar.

Lanse shook his head, "If he still can't figure out what gave him his status and everything today, soon, without us having to do anything, the people will abandon him."

"Moreover, he still has some foundation after so many years; even if we eventually have to take action, it won't be us doing it."

"Those federal politicians are more cold-blooded and ruthless than you imagine; they won't have much tolerance for a tool that has already been scrapped."

"What's more, he's not even a local."

Lanse had already realized the terror of the term "local"; even a guy like the mayor appeared very "helpless" when facing local forces.

However, this is normal; the federal system keeps every region independent to a certain degree; not being a local but wanting to destroy the interests of the locals is simply ridiculous!

Even if the mayor's proposal to establish the New Port District is essentially the correct choice, and the Jingang Terminal will definitely be overloaded in the future, it just won't work.

At least not at this stage, and even if it really had to be done, the people responsible for decision-making, the people implementing it, and the people who ultimately benefit can only be locals.

In fact, it's not just Jingang City; other cities and regions are almost the same; factionalism is not a feature of any one city; it is a problem and feature that exists in almost all political systems.

It's just that some places are relatively backward in economic development, so there will be fewer conflicts arising from economic interests.

In some regions, like Jingang City, the economic development is better, and there will be more friction and contradictions than in other places.

So no matter where you are, locals and outsiders are two eternal worlds.

Hiram opened the car door; Lanse stood outside the carriage, one foot already stepping into the carriage; he looked back at Mr. Qiaobafu on the tower, and Mr. Qiaobafu happened to look at him.

The two looked at each other for a few seconds; Lanse turned into the car, Hiram closed the door and went to the passenger seat, and soon the motorcade left.

Mr. Qiaobafu looked at the motorcade in the distance and slammed the windowsill.

He felt he had been toyed with by Lanse; he had even given up his dignity and personality to squeeze into the upper class, but now Lanse told him that what people needed was precisely what he had discarded.

This gave him an indescribable emotion; these emotions lingered, circled, and flowed in his chest, making him finally unable to help but curse "fuck"—you know, he rarely used profanity, even when he was alone.

Not long after, Mr. Qiaobafu also returned to Jin Da Bank, where there were still long lines of people waiting to withdraw money.

The people withdrawing money saw Mr. Qiaobafu get out of the car and showed some awkward expressions, but they had no intention of leaving.

The way people judge "capable people" during this period is whether they can make money.

The Imperial Chamber of Commerce, which doubled its funds in a very short time, became rich people in their eyes, so they believed the words of rich people.

Qiaobafu looked at the long line, feeling a bit worried; his assistant walked out of the bank at this time; he was now the vice president.

"Master."

After not seeing each other for a while, he felt there was some estrangement between him and his assistant, but he didn't know how to resolve this suffocating sense of strangeness.

He nodded and looked at the long line; he knew he had to do something.

After they went to the office, Mr. Qiaobafu said, "I talked to Lanse; it must be him who spread the rumors; he hopes William can become an Imperial District Councilor."

The assistant said, "Since he wants this position so strongly, why not give it to him?"

Mr. Qiaobafu shook his head and said, "This is the closest I've ever been to entering the upper class; perhaps if I miss this time, I won't have such an opportunity in my life."

"Lanse is a person with strong opinions and is also very aggressive; if we cooperate with him, we will only be playing house in a bank tucked away in a corner for the rest of our lives, and it's impossible to become real bankers."

The assistant had great kindness and favor for Lanse because Lanse let him get revenge; he personally tortured Jimmy to death, allowing his nephew to get peace in heaven.

So he stood on Lanse's side, "But at least he is an Imperial person; if he can go very high, we can also benefit from it."

Mr. Qiaobafu felt irritable whenever he heard Lanse's name now; he raised his hand, "Alright, let's not talk about him; let's think of a way to solve the problem we are facing now."

"How much capital do we have that we can mobilize?"

The assistant knew these numbers by heart, "That depends on whether we want to move those bonds or something; if we liquidate the bonds, we have about one million in funds that can be mobilized."

"But if we don't use the bonds, the funds we can mobilize are only over three hundred thousand."

Mr. Qiaobafu couldn't help but exclaim when he heard this number, "So little?"

The assistant looked helpless, "People withdrawing funds is one part; besides... you are also withdrawing a large amount of funds from the bank; our situation now is not only unhealthy but also dangerous."

"Once there is a larger-scale run and impact, we will soon go bankrupt."

Mr. Qiaobafu finally felt that pressure; he couldn't sit still anymore and walked to the window to look at the people who were still queuing to withdraw money, "Must think of a way."

After his brain was fully stirred for a few minutes, he finally came up with a method.

"Using rumors to fight rumors is the best way."

"Find a way to spread some rumors, telling people that the run on Jin Da Bank is a conspiracy by other large federal banks; they want to master the wealth of Imperial immigrants and have a comprehensive understanding of their property situation."

"So we are the last wall standing between Imperial immigrants and federal capitalists; if we fall, then they will have to face federal banks and vampires directly."

"Supporting Jin Da Bank is not just helping me personally, but also helping themselves."

The assistant nodded after hearing this, "I will arrange for people to spread it."

Mr. Qiaobafu nodded, but was not very satisfied, just sighed, "Go do it."

There was still more than half a year until the final vote, and he was very worried about whether he could hold on until then.

At this time, he remembered a business he could always do but never did: money laundering.

Some funds in the Empire wanted to come out, become legal funds, and enter certain federal accounts; someone had already contacted him, hoping to cooperate with him to launder money.

Bank money laundering is actually a very easy thing; he only needs to fabricate some accounts to wash the money clean.

But he never agreed because there were great risks involved.

The federal government and the IRS pay great attention to money laundering and tax evasion; once it is known that Jin Da Bank is involved in money laundering, even the mayor cannot save him.

Secondly, Imperial nobles might not be reliable; they might leak some news, and once the capital flow is too large, he will definitely be noticed by the federal government.

But if the bank's subsequent development gets worse and worse, he might have to try doing these businesses.

The assistant spent some money to make the rumors spread faster, and at the same time, Mr. Qiaobafu also processed a batch of bonds to deal with the current sudden run.

His handling was timely; although it didn't stop everyone from stopping the exchange, the situation of the run improved significantly.

Some people had already started to elevate withdrawing money from Jin Da Bank to the height of "assisting federal bankers in persecuting Imperial immigrants"!

For such topics with obvious opposition, people's participation is always high.

Fortunately, this is not in the Empire; otherwise, they might elevate this matter to the level of patriotism, saying things like "only depositing money in Jin Da Bank is patriotism."

Although these things didn't cause Mr. Qiaobafu to encounter a major crisis, it also made him feel nervous and further forced the rift in his relationship with Lanse.

After the mayor learned about this, he gave Mr. Qiaobafu great encouragement and praise, and said that if necessary, he could say a few words for Mr. Qiaobafu when receiving press interviews.

This made Mr. Qiaobafu believe that everything he paid was worth it!

Seeing that it was about to be May, Lanse took the opportunity to go to Jonny's bakery.

It was only a month apart, but Jonny looked like he had lost at least twenty or thirty pounds; he had become a fat man with a less exaggerated figure.

Although he was still a fat man, he looked much healthier!

Perhaps... this was a good thing for him; although he lost all his wealth and house, at least he gained health!