Chapter 73: Interests

"Dean, are you at home or at the office?"

"At the office. What kind of trouble are you trying to stir up again?"

"Something good. I'll be at your office in half an hour."

Di Ye parked his newly bought Mitsubishi Space Gear in front of the School of Computer Science office building, then carried a canvas bag, swaggered into Dean Fei's office, placed the bag on the desk, opened it, and said with soaring bravado: "Dean, this is a 200,000 donation, not a cent less. Hurry and call someone to count it."

Dean Fei looked at the stacks of hundred-yuan bills in the canvas bag, stunned into speechlessness, and scolded: "Are you crazy! Why did you bring so much cash here?"

"Donating like this has a shocking effect. If it were a transfer, only you, Dean, would know, and the scene wouldn't be lively enough."

"Donating isn't bribery; what do you mean only I would know? Do you know how much trouble you're causing by doing this? It's Saturday afternoon, and the school and department finance offices aren't working. How do you expect me to record this?"

"Then should I take it back and come again on Monday?"

"Don't even think about it! Since you're already here, there's no reason to take it back."

Dean Fei took the internal school directory from his drawer and made seven or eight phone calls in a row, causing quite a stir. Only after much difficulty were the financial procedures for the 200,000 donation completed. He then lit a cigarette and asked with a smile: "Di Ye, tell me, what do you need me to help you with this time?"

"I'm only doing good deeds today. I'll treat you to dinner tonight."

"If you're being overly attentive without a reason, you must be up to no good. You treating me to dinner is a pretense; you really want me to be a shill, right?"

"Saying that really hurts my feelings. I was just afraid that it would be too lonely with just the two of us, so I invited a few others..."

The place for dinner that night was still Lingyun Hotel. Di Ye tricked Dean Fei into coming to preside over the table, while Zheng Yingyong brought a young man of twenty-five or twenty-six and introduced him: "This is Wang Yi, the 'Yi' made of four fires. He is a student who returned last year after graduating from the Boston University Management College in the United States."

Although Boston University is not as famous as Harvard or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the same city, it still counts as a top-tier university. Dean Fei was very interested and kept pestering Wang Yi with questions. Di Ye watched coldly from the sidelines for a while and felt that this person's academic credentials must be fake, because he didn't even understand some simple professional knowledge and only knew how to show off by interjecting English words while speaking.

However, doing business is not a thesis defense, so Di Ye couldn't be bothered to expose him. After some simple bargaining, the four parties—Yun University School of Computer Science, Di Ye, Zheng Yingyong, and Wang Yi—finally agreed to establish a system integration company, specializing in providing internet access technology solutions for local Post and Telecommunications Bureaus.

Next came the popular naming session. Since Wang Yi held the most shares, Di Ye let him go first. As a result, this guy came up with nothing but inexplicable English abbreviations. Dean Fei had to remind him: "Domestic company registration must use a Chinese name. These abbreviations transliterated into Chinese will be very strange and won't sound good."

Wang Yi was very annoyed and grumbled in a "fixed-body question" style, losing interest in naming. Di Ye then used his bad taste to bring up a classic location from *World of Warcraft* and said: "How about 'Goldshire'? Earning money like lightning. The English name will be 'Goldshire', the Golden County."

As it turned out, this name was highly praised. Dean Fei liked the meaning of the Chinese name, and Wang Yi felt the English name had an English flair, so it was decided.

The English name for Goldshire, "Goldshire", had already appeared in *Warcraft* released in January 1994. It might not be successfully registered abroad, but Di Ye didn't care, because this company was just a tool for raking in money—earning money like lightning, then abandoning it like lightning—and would never develop overseas business.

As the host of the dinner, Di Yan was responsible for livening up the atmosphere the whole time and didn't say anything else. After the party broke up, on the way Di Ye was driving her home, she said with regret: "Little brother, you should have asked for more shares just now. This business is very profitable, but if you didn't provide the technology, they wouldn't be able to do it at all."

The shares of Goldshire were 10% for Zheng Yingyong, 20% each for Yun University School of Computer Science and Di Ye, and the remaining 50% belonged to Wang Yi. As the main technology provider, Di Ye indeed seemed to be at a loss.

"Sister, don't look at how much I was bragging just now. Actually, this business doesn't have much technical content. You only need to buy a set of servers and routers, then grab a few students from the Yun University School of Computer Science to work for free, teach them how to configure the parameters, and install some Open Source Software, and it's basically done. So the main problem isn't the technology, but getting the connections at the Post and Telecommunications Bureau."

"Does that Wang Yi have good connections?"

"If I'm not mistaken, he should be the son of Executive Vice Mayor Wang Beilin."

Di Yan had once helped Di Ye check Zheng Yingyong's communication records, but she didn't know exactly what she had found. She was startled and asked: "How did you know?"

"I saw Mayor Wang's photo in the newspaper. Their facial features are somewhat similar."

"Now that you mention it, I finally understand why that Zheng could get me transferred to the Data Communications Bureau within a few days. Our Bureau Chief Ma at the Post and Telecommunications Bureau is a die-hard confidant of Mayor Wang."

"Sister, don't worry about who is whose confidant. Just make the process of opening the internet in Yuncheng open and transparent so that no one can criticize it."

"You don't need to remind me of this; I know what to do."

After dropping Di Yan off at home, Di Ye drove the Space Gear toward his rented house, preparing to challenge the two female bosses again. As a result, he received a call from Tang Renrong on the way. Because the Big Brother was too bulky and it was inconvenient to talk while driving, he had to pull over to the side of the road to listen intently.

"Your article is too long. *Pujiang Securities News* has limited space and plans to publish it in two parts, upper and lower. So I would like to invite you to come to Pujiang again to hold a seminar with several financial experts to adjust and enrich the structure and some content of the article."

Di Ye was just a gossip expert and didn't want to show his ignorance, so he refused immediately and prevaricated: "Manager Tang, I look at problems from the perspective of information science and can't talk on the same level as financial experts. Besides, everything that needs to be said has already been said in the article. Let the editors of *Pujiang Securities News* adjust it themselves, as long as the general meaning remains unchanged."

Tang Renrong was just helping to pass a message. After persuading him a few times and seeing that Di Ye insisted on not going, he stopped mentioning it and turned to talk about his idea of suggesting that the stock exchange suspend treasury bond futures trading, asking what he thought.

"Manager Tang, I agree with your point of view. Internet construction cannot be completed overnight. Suspending treasury bond trading is indeed the safest method at present."

Di Ye first praised Tang Renrong a few times, then changed the subject and said: "On the afternoon of February 23rd, after I left your Haitong Securities, I went to take a photo in front of the Pujiang Securities Exchange with my girlfriend, and it just so happened that I captured two people. Does Manager Tang know who they are?"

"Who?"

"Geng Liang, Director of the Futures Department of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, and Deputy Director Yao Gang."

Tang Renrong knew Geng Liang and had discussed Di Ye's article with him this afternoon. He was surprised to hear this and said with a smile: "That's really a coincidence. It seems you and Director Geng are fated."

"There's an even more coincidental thing. According to information I heard later, Director Geng went to notify Wei Wenyuan that day that the regulatory power over treasury bond futures was about to be transferred from the Ministry of Finance to the China Securities Regulatory Commission."

This was the first time Tang Renrong had heard this news, and he pondered: "What do you mean?"

"The China Securities Regulatory Commission has been wrangling with the Ministry of Finance since 1993, and it took a lot of effort to get the regulatory power over treasury bond futures. Now that they haven't done a single thing yet, you suggest they suspend trading and 'cripple their own martial arts'. Do you think Director Geng will agree? Even if Director Geng agrees, will the leaders of the China Securities Regulatory Commission agree?"

Tang Renrong was an insider in the system and of course knew that the China Securities Regulatory Commission would definitely not agree. He sighed and said: "If it's not suspended, I'm afraid that before long, an incident similar to the 327 incident will happen again."

Di Ye admired Tang Renrong's keenness, because history proved his prediction was correct. A few months later, the 319 incident would happen again, causing the higher-ups to make a painful decision to close the treasury bond futures market for more than a decade, until it was reopened in 2013.

"Manager Tang, the key to the problem is not treasury bond futures, but hot money. If hot money cannot be regulated, even if you suspend treasury bond futures, in a few days, stocks, postage stamps, commemorative coins, Telephone Magnetic Cards, and everything else that can be speculated on will skyrocket one after another. The harm caused by then might be even greater."

Mentioning hot money, Tang Renrong also admired Di Ye very much and said: "In your article, this is the point I appreciate the most. Without a grand vision, one would never think of it. Even Chairman Li of the China Securities Regulatory Commission praised it highly, saying it hit the nail on the head and pointed directly to the crux, and then personally called to recommend it to the editor-in-chief of *Pujiang Securities News*."

Di Ye laughed loudly and asked: "Manager Tang, do you think if the state wants to regulate hot money, which institution would be the first choice?"

Tang Renrong was stunned for a moment, then couldn't help but laugh as well, and asked back: "The China Securities Regulatory Commission?"

"You guessed it."

"It's a pity you don't go into government!"