Chapter 119: Are young people prone to emotional outbursts?

Early the next morning, Zhou Ming dialed Maita's phone. The call was not answered immediately, but after a while. Maita heard it was Zhou Ming calling and asked what was up. Zhou Ming told him everything about the shipment of old rubles from the Murmansk Palace and the Siberian oil fields, still with Katerina interpreting in the middle.

After listening to him, Maita was silent for a while before saying, 'I see. I didn't know about any of this, but it seems that Mr. Nikolayevich is not at ease with your business dealings. Mr. Zhou Ming, you shouldn't have come to me about this. You should have gone directly to Mr. Nikolayevich at the Kremlin. After all, you are the two parties to the transaction. I can at most be considered an intermediary. What do you think?'

'That's true,' said Zhou Ming. 'It was a bit rash of me to come to see Mr. Meta so suddenly. But I've been trying to get in touch with the President since yesterday and I've had no luck. I don't think I can just go to the Kremlin, so I thought I'd come to see you, Mr. Meta.'

'Mr. Zhou Ming, please don't worry. After all, that is a president, and the Mulin Palace is also the central government of this country. It definitely cannot be entered and exited as casually as a department store.' Meita paused for a moment and then said, "But I can also understand Mr. Zhou Ming's eagerness. I can help you communicate with the Mulin Palace, but given your current status, it would be better if I took the lead.'

'What does Mr. Meita mean by that?" Zhou Ming asked with a furrowed brow.

Meita replied, 'Mr. Zhou Ming, don't worry, I just want a little benefit. Because this time I am responsible for helping you communicate with a national president, I don't think this is too much to ask for, is it? Of course, if Mr. Zhou Ming wants to do any business with the Murin Palace in the future, in order to avoid this kind of incident from happening again, it would be better if I take the lead.'

This time, there was a moment of silence on Zhou Ming's end before he said, 'Mr. Meta, if you put it that way, why do I feel that this time, Mr. Meta and the President planned this together?'

Upon hearing this, Maita laughed a little on the other end of the line: 'Mr. Zhou Ming, if I were you, I definitely wouldn't ask such a naive question, because if you play dumb, then at least I will still help you dominate this and future transactions, and at least a large portion of the ten trillion benefits I promised you will also go to you. On the contrary, if you insist on this, I'm afraid you may end up with nothing, whether it's the current 120 million US dollars or a part of the future Dota project.'

'Mr. Meta, I don't think you know me very well. In the past, I was bullied by others and I was never satisfied with anything. So now I want to change. I won't let others walk all over me anymore,' said Zhou Ming.

'That would be a great pity, but I still want to say that this is not letting others walk all over you, but a kind of compromise with reality. Very often, in order to get a big profit, people need to make great concessions. Although I know that you are very young, I think you can still understand, right?'

Meta continued, 'Mr. Zhou Ming, you are very clever. I can give you time to think it over. If you can't figure it out on your own, you can also get together with your collaborators to think about it. I believe the wisdom of many people is always much better than your own "caprice". It's just that the time has to be a bit faster, because once the Dota Project and the deal with the Murin Palace begin, it will be none of your business.'

After Meta finished speaking, he hung up the phone. Zhou Ming on the other end of the line shook his head and smiled bitterly. He was still at the villa in Irbeldorf, surrounded by the same people he had been yesterday.

Irbeldorf and Li Chengtong just glanced at each other, both looking embarrassed. Since the phone call was relayed through Kalelina, who translated it in the middle, everyone heard the entire phone conversation.

Zhou Ming put his hands together and said helplessly, 'Everyone heard it. In fact, I personally really want to make this deal, but unfortunately someone is not willing to give me this opportunity! Even today, when I tried my best to salvage the deal with Mr. Meta, it was still the same. There is nothing I can do.'

Zhou Ming finally said to Irbedov, 'I know Mr. Irbedov will worry about other future transactions, but I want to say that if we can't even guarantee this transaction, what makes you think we can guarantee that this won't happen again? Do you think our ten trillion dollar transaction depends on Mr. Meta's character alone? Then I can only say I'm sorry, because I've never believed in that kind of thing.'

Ilbedov sighed and said, 'Mr. Zhou Ming, you are mistaken. I do worry about what you said, but I am more worried about the entire transaction.'

'Then I can only say that Mr. Ilbedov's worries are completely unnecessary,' Du Peng said confidently to Ilbedov, 'anyway, Mr. Kolhodo's preparations are already in place, so we just have to wait for the result.'

...

Meanwhile, in the courtyard of Villa 8, Davier was playing tennis on the court. Seeing that Maita had put down the phone, he asked curiously, 'Mr. Maita, was that a call from the Kremlin? Could it be that there's been an accident with our 140 billion yuan deal?'

'Of course not, there's no problem with that deal. It was another, unimportant call,'

Meita replied, although Davier was Meita's trusted assistant, he could not say anything about cooperating with Zhou Ming to sabotage the Tower Plan and divide the profits of the plan, because once the news got back to the top, he would be transferred away immediately, or even die suddenly for no reason, which would not be fun. He had to be careful in everything he did and not let anything slip, including the meeting with Zhou Ming.

Meta thought for a moment and said to Davier, 'Follow up on the 140 billion "deal". It must be completed as soon as possible. I'm going out for a while.'

Meta finished speaking and left with his mobile phone, leaving Davier here. Meta got into his own extended Lincoln Town Car and went straight to the Mlini Palace.

After contacting Nikolaevich beforehand, Mata was greeted at the door by the director of the president's office, Kasia, who took Mata directly to the president's office. At this time, Nikolaevich was sitting on the sofa in the office reading the newspaper and relaxing. When he saw Mata come in, he stood up to greet him, invited Mata to sit on the sofa, and offered him a cup of coffee.

'I heard that if you drink a cup of coffee in the morning, it will keep your mind sharp all day.'

Nikolaevich said this as a polite greeting before asking, 'Let me guess, it must be that Chinese Zhou Ming who made you come to the Mlini Palace in such a hurry, right?'

Mata nodded and said, 'Mr. Nikolic is right. It is because of this matter. I think Mr. Zhou Ming must have also come to see you, Mr. Nikolic.'

'Of course, he called me yesterday after he returned, and later wanted to come into the Mulin Palace, but I ignored him, so I guess he could only go to you, Mr. Mata, to cry out. With your abilities, I'm afraid he should have already compromised and given you more benefits.'

Nikolaevic sighed and said, 'But this is also that Chinese Zhou Ming's own stupidity. He obviously knew it was a trap, and it definitely wasn't that simple. He still had to jump into it himself. Although there were some things he couldn't avoid, he could at least find some way to avoid suffering too great a loss. How could he have done nothing to prepare, making me feel a bit sorry for him.'

Facing Nikolaevic's justifications, Maita shook his head regretfully and said, 'I wish it were like that, but he didn't compromise.'

'No compromise? Then what did he do?' Nikolaevich expressed great surprise, so Maita repeated the phone conversation he had with Zhou Ming to Nikolaevich.

After listening, Nikolaevich did not rush to express his opinion, but instead asked Maita seriously if Zhou Ming had made any other moves. Maita replied that he had not.

After hearing this, Nikolaevich let out a relieved laugh: 'I thought he had said something, but I didn't expect him to just act so wilfully. He won't be taken advantage of again. This young man is a young man, he doesn't think before he speaks, I really don't understand how those people could believe in him. Young people are too impulsive.'

Maita, on the other hand, remained calm and said, 'Young people do act impulsively, and they will act on impulse driven by their pride, but Zhou Ming doesn't seem like that kind of person.'

'I completely agree with you, Mr. Maita,' said Nikolic. "If he were dealing with me on behalf of their government, I naturally wouldn't dare do so, but if he were alone, I can hardly imagine what he could do with the money already in my pocket.'

'I hope so," Maita said.

'Mr. Maita, what you said is very inconsistent with your identity,' Nikolic teased.

Maita smiled unnecessarily. In fact, he had a vague feeling of unease in his heart when he came to the Kremlin, because from his knowledge of Zhou Ming, he felt that Zhou Ming was unlikely to be so irrational, especially Zhou Ming's last sentence, in which he said that he had been bullied in the past and therefore wanted to change now.

At first, this sentence didn't sound like a problem, but when Meta thought about it carefully, he always felt very uneasy. Especially after hearing Nikolaevich's earlier words, this strong unease in his heart grew even more intense, and it even made his heart suddenly beat a few times wildly.

Mata knew this feeling very well: it was a sign that things were about to change!

As if to prove him right, as soon as Mata had this feeling, the office door was quickly knocked open and Kasia walked in, looking a little nervous. She whispered something in Nikolaevich's ear, which made the president jump: 'What? The 100 million dollars on the cheque has not arrived in our account?'