Chapter 118: The cute and shameless Meita and the president

Il'yadov's words shocked everyone, including Li Chengtong and the wealthy Northern Russian people like Boltarsky. They were stunned, staring at Il'yadov, and one by one they muttered, 'This can't be true? You brought back the agreement with the Kremlin. Are you joking? But today is not April Fools' Day!'

'Of course I'm not joking,' Irbedov said, looking at Zhou Ming first and then carefully, "just now the Mulin Palace armoured truck came by. My United Bank...'

'Isn't that great? The money has already been transported over, doesn't that mean that Mulin Palace is fulfilling the deal? Why are you still saying that we've been cheated?'

Facing everyone's doubts, Irbedov said, "That's because the money Mulin Palace transported over wasn't any new rubles, but old rubles!'

Irbeldov's words caused an uproar at the scene. No one expected this outcome. You have to understand that old rubles are a currency that has been expressly abolished by the Kremlin. To put it bluntly, they are worthless. Now the Kremlin is sending old rubles to fulfil the deal, isn't that obviously cheating people?

'Then could it be that the Kremlin made a mistake? Or perhaps the bank didn't ask clearly enough. Maybe this batch of old rubles isn't to fulfil the deal?'

Someone else, still not giving up, tentatively asked, obviously wanting to hear an answer that matched his own expectations, but unfortunately Irbedov did not give him what he wanted. He said with a wry smile, 'I wish it were as you say, but unfortunately it isn't. Those armoured trucks were escorted here by an official from the Kremlin, together with a police car. The official in charge of the escort said that these are the new rubles that fulfil the terms of the deal.'

Il's words were like magic, and the atmosphere suddenly froze. Everyone didn't know what to say, and their last illusions were shattered, because the Mulin Palace was deliberately cheating them.

If it was a little money, it would be fine, because they were all rich anyway, and it wasn't the first time they had been cheated by the Mulin Palace. They would just consider it charity. But this was half of the deal, and it was worth 1.1 billion new rubles!

At this time, Boltarsky suddenly remembered something. He stood up and asked Zhou Ming, 'Mr. Zhou Ming, can you show me the agreement you have in your hand?'

'Of course,'

Zhou Ming said and handed him the agreement document. Boltarsky didn't care about anything else. He quickly found the column he was looking for after getting the agreement, and then took out his mobile phone in front of Zhou Ming and made a phone call.

Everyone knew what Boltarsky was thinking. He was currently the second richest man in Northern Russia. Like the richest man, Irbedov, he owned not only the largest private bank, but also several large metallurgical and petroleum companies. So he was now calling people to investigate the situation of the new oil field in Siberia in the agreement.

Zhou Ming still didn't say anything, and everyone waited silently for news. The atmosphere suddenly became very oppressive, but fortunately, everyone was extraordinary, and no one said anything more.

After about half an hour, Bortas's phone finally rang again. Everyone immediately gathered around, and even Du Peng, Su Han and Li Chengtong listened with bated breath.

Bortaszky quickly answered the phone, his face immediately becoming rigid. In the end, he hung up the phone silently and said the result that everyone least wanted to hear: 'The oil fields stipulated in the agreement are all newly discovered oil fields in Siberia with great potential, but these oil fields are to be sold to an American family, and there is no plan to compensate anyone else.'

Before anyone could react, Bortaszky immediately said to Zhou Ming, 'Mr. Zhou Ming, this is a very big problem, and we need to immediately verify it with the Kremlin!'

With Bortaszki setting the pace, everyone else also immediately turned their attention to Zhou Ming, asking him to quickly contact the Kremlin to verify the situation.

Faced with everyone's demands, Zhou Ming could not help but dial the number of the Kremlin. However, after a busy signal, the person who answered the phone was not President Nikolic or the director of the President's Office, Kasia, but a secretary in the office. He said, 'I'm very sorry, Mr. Zhou Ming, but the director is currently engaged in very important work. If you have something to say, you can tell me and I will pass it on for you.'

Zhou Ming's call was connected to the broadcast, so the secretary's words reached everyone's ears at the first opportunity, causing their nerves to explode instantly.

The reason was simple: Zhou Ming had dialed the president's number, but it had been forwarded to an ordinary secretary. This was obviously intentional and meant to be a slap in the face. Of course, it was also possible that they really had something to deal with, after all, one of them was the president of the country and the other was the director of the president's office, but how could they believe this possibility? After the agreement was signed, the scene immediately erupted.

Some let out desperate cries: 'Why is this happening? The promised money is all worthless old rubles, and the promised oil fields are all lies. There is no such thing. The Kremlin is just toying with us!'

Some blamed Zhou Ming: 'Mr Zhou Ming, why didn't you check things out properly before signing the agreement? Why did you rush to give out the cheque? Did you not suspect that there might be problems with this deal? We really trusted you wrongly. Mr Boltarsky clearly warned you long ago, but why didn't you pay attention? It was your blind confidence that led to this result!'

Others also made demands on Zhou Ming: 'Mr. Zhou Ming, this is the result of your mistakes. We trusted you, but this is how you work. Now that this has happened, you must find a way to compensate us for our losses, whether it's 10 million or 100 million, you must compensate!'

Facing the angry words of everyone, Zhou Ming was unmoved. He just reached out to indicate for everyone to quiet down before saying, 'Please be assured that there is nothing wrong with this transaction. Please give me some time, and I will put this transaction back on track.'

Zhou Ming's words, however, set off a powder keg, immediately attracting even more fierce accusations: 'Mr Zhou Ming, are you telling us a mythical story? Or do you have some kind of magic that can turn old rubles into new rubles, and secretly transfer oil fields that were going to be sold to the Americans to us?'

At this point, Li Cheng stood up to help Zhou Ming: 'Please calm down, everyone. No one wants this to happen. We have also invested a lot of money in this, and we also hope that the transaction will be successful. But there are always some unavoidable accidents. Everyone needs to give us some time to understand the situation.'

After saying this, Li Cheng paused for a moment and then said, 'Of course, if there is really an unexpected situation at the end, we will compensate you for your losses. At most, it will be tens of millions of dollars, which we can still come up with.'

Ilbedov also stood up and said, 'I completely agree with Mr Li Cheng. I also think that since we have chosen to trust Mr Zhou Ming and leave this matter in his hands, we cannot doubt him at this time. I think that instead of wasting time here, we should give Mr Zhou Ming time to verify the ins and outs of the matter and make plans.'

Bortaszki looked around at Zhou Ming, Li Cheng and Irbedov, and finally stood up and said, 'Everyone, listen to me for a moment. I think we are all Northern Russian men, and we must take some responsibility. We cannot blame others for every little problem. Since Mr. Li Cheng and Mr. Irbedov have said this, I think that since we are partners, we can only choose to believe, because it is not useful to point fingers here, is it?'

Li Cheng's words helped Zhou Ming out of a difficult situation, and Irbedov's words calmed everyone down. In the end, even Boltarsky said this, so anyone who spoke would seem petty.

When the atmosphere eased, Zhou Ming said to everyone, 'I can only say I'm sorry for what happened. Please go home first. I will definitely inform everyone as soon as I have news.'

No one here is stupid, and they can all understand the situation. After hearing Zhou Ming say this, everyone took their leave one after the other, except for Irbeldov and media mogul Kolhod.

As he watched the cars drive out of the villa, Zhou Ming let out a breath and sat back in his chair, exclaiming, 'I thought that Mr. Meta and Mr. Nikolic, as prominent figures around the world, could produce something that would blow my mind. I never expected that they would actually do such shameless things. It really came as a complete surprise!'

Zhou Ming shook his head as he spoke, expressing his great disappointment in their actions.

Du Peng and Su Han were used to Zhou Ming's exclamations, while Tong Gang and Li Cheng looked at each other, not knowing whether to say that he was thick-skinned or that he had the bearing of a great general.

At this time, Irbeldov returned and heard Zhou Ming's exclamations. He then said to Zhou Ming, 'Mr. Zhou Ming, in fact, you clearly already guessed that they would tamper with the results and you had already thought of a countermeasure, so why didn't you just say so?'

'Because there was no need,' explained Zhou Ming. 'These people are temporary partners. If they can be trusted, then they will understand even if I don't say anything. On the contrary, if they can't accept it and don't trust me, then even if I explain it as well as I can, I'm afraid it will be a waste of breath.'

Ilbeidov wanted to say something else, but Zhou Ming patted him on the shoulder and said, 'Okay, let's not worry about the details. We should think about how to deal with our lovely and shameless Mr. Maita and Mr. Nikolic next.'

Zhou Ming then turned to Kolkhodoy and asked, "Is everything ready?'

Seeing Kolkhodoy nod, Zhou Ming added, "Then pass it to our president as soon as possible through the special channel. I'm sure he'll be happy to see it as soon as possible.'