Chapter 32: News from the Tang Bank and the Gulf (Part 2)

'I also know the news from the Tang Bank and the Gulf? Zhou Ming, what do you mean by asking this question? Did someone else tell you as well?'

On the other end of the line, Katerina was also surprised, but Zhou Ming's surprise was no less than hers. After all, the Gulf was the next place Zhou Ming was preparing to make money.

According to Zhou Ming's memory, on August 1st of this year, negotiations between Iraq and Kuwait on the oil issue broke down, and the next day Iraq brazenly sent troops to Kuwait, and the Gulf War broke out. And since the Gulf region is the world's most important oil-producing region, the Gulf War subsequently affected global oil prices. Zhou Ming was just about to use this event to make another fortune in the international oil futures market, just like on Black Monday in Hong Kong three years ago.

For this reason, Zhou Ming didn't even tell his classmates in the finance class, but now two outsiders have mentioned it to him first. What's going on? He himself is a reincarnation and can predict the future, but how come they all know?

Now Katerina continues to be in charge of the Dota Project in Northern Russia, and she cooperates with all the business oligarchs in Northern Russia. Even the newly-installed Northern Russian government sometimes asks for her opinion, so her sources of information may be even more numerous than his own. But no matter what, she can't be a prophet, right? He must remember that the sudden invasion of Iraq shocked the whole world.

Thinking about this, in order to be on the safe side, Zhou Ming did not promise anything first, but said, 'It is true that someone mentioned it to me, but I was in a special situation at the time and did not ask in detail. So what about you, Kareina? What information do you have? Let's talk about the news from the Gulf first.'

'It seems that you really don't know, because these two pieces of news can be considered one piece of news, they are both a continuation of the Dota Project,' said Kareina.

'A continuation of the Dagger Tower Project? What do you mean by that, Katerina?' Zhou Ming asked, very surprised.

'Because that's the information that Mr. Meta received,' Katerina said. 'Just yesterday, Mr. Meta suddenly received a pager message saying that there was a mission related to the Tang Dynasty Bank and the Gulf, and that he should immediately go to the designated safe deposit box at the Swiss Bank to get the materials. Mr. Meta told me about the message, and I immediately took someone to the Swiss Bank and found the safe deposit box specified in the message.'

Zhou Ming asked, 'So what happened? What did you find?'

'A file on the Tangren Bank and a newspaper,' Karelina replied.

This answer surprised Zhou Ming very much: 'And a newspaper?'

'Yes, a newspaper. It was an international news paper from last week, and the front page headline was about the situation in the Gulf. It was about Iraq beginning negotiations with Kuwait over oil production...'

Before Katerina could finish, Zhou Ming interrupted her, saying, 'I know this situation. Iraq and Kuwait are both the most important oil-producing countries in the Middle East. Iraq wants Kuwait to reduce its oil production to raise the price of oil, so that it can repay the debt it owes from the Iran-Iraq War through oil exports. However, Kuwait wants to use its oil production as a bargaining chip to force Iraq to resolve the border issue between them. Both sides held fast to their own arguments and were very stubborn. Even though other countries tried to mediate between them, their negotiations were likely to break down and eventually lead to war.

This time, it was Kalina's turn to be surprised: 'Zhou Ming, you really have been paying attention to the situation in the Gulf. My goodness, Zhou Ming, you have such a keen sense of smell. You really are a super businessman!'

'Okay, you don't have to praise me. I just want to know what Mr. Mata said, and how this incident is related to Project Dota again?' Zhou Ming asked.

Kalelina sorted out her thoughts and continued, 'The reason is very simple. Mr. Mata was once an American financial warfare expert and the planner and executor of the Dota Project. Therefore, every step of the Dota Project would send him information. Since in the Dota Project, in order to avoid exposure, only a single line of contact was used, no one above had thought that Mr. Mata, the soul of the Dota Project, would defect, so the information was still sent to him.'

'This does explain why he received the message and the materials and newspapers in the safe,' Zhou Ming said.

'The Tower Project was not simply a financial warfare plan to overthrow the former Soviet Union, but a very large conspiracy. However, who the specific target was and why it was done, Mr. Mata did not know. He was only responsible for the person in charge of the former Soviet Union, and he did not know anything else. He only knew that the Tower Project would be transferred to the Middle East next.'

Katerina continued, 'Mr. Mata also told me that according to the information he received, the consortium behind the Tang Dynasty Bank has invested a lot of oil fields in Iraq and will have a major investment plan this year. Therefore, this plan is most likely aimed at these oil fields, and they will even go so far as to plan a war to achieve their goal. Since the Middle East is not like the former Soviet Union, they do not have such a huge nuclear arsenal, and they can be even more reckless.'

Zhou Ming took a breath. He had originally only wanted to use the Gulf War to cause fluctuations in the price of oil futures on the international market to make money, but he didn't realise that there was so much unknown information behind it. At the same time, Zhou Ming also noticed an important point in the middle: 'Who are they?'

'The real mastermind behind Project Dota, Mr. Meta, doesn't know who it is either, but what is certain is that they all control enormous wealth, so powerful that they make the superpowers serve them,' said Katerina.

'They are just some powerful consortia. These consortia are either a family or a consortium of several families, controlling many companies that are vital to the national economy. They control everything they need to control through money.'

Zhou Ming muttered these words, and finally let out a long breath and said, 'I understand. It seems that this is the reason why they deliberately leaked the information to you.'

Kaleena was very surprised: 'Zhou Ming, you mean it wasn't an accident?'

'Of course it wasn't an accident. How could such important news be mistakenly sent to someone who has already betrayed you? You all knew when I took over the inheritance of Tao Guoling. Tao Guoling was only a peripheral participant, not to mention Mr. Meta, who is the soul of the Dota Project. Do you still think that the contacts of the Dota Project are blind and deaf? You don't even know if Mr. Meta is still alive?'

Zhou Ming thought for a moment and then said, 'And if it really was an accident, why did you only get incomplete information, just a document and a newspaper? Isn't Mr. Meta a very important decision-maker in the Dota Project?'

Katerina suddenly understood: 'Yes, I always felt that this matter was really strange, so I hesitated for a day before calling you. I never expected that the news was really used to mislead us, but what is their purpose?'

Zhou Ming, however, disagreed with Katerina's view: 'The fact that they deliberately let the news reach Mr. Mata may not be a misdirection. I guess they may be conveying some kind of message.'

'Conveying what kind of message?' Katerina was a little confused.

'You shouldn't ask me this question, you should ask you first,' Zhou Ming said. 'In the end, you only found those two things, right? Did Mr. Mata come up with anything else based on those two things?'

Katerina pondered for a while before saying, 'No, because the information provided was too little, and Mr. Maita is not in charge of this area, so he is not sure either.'

'That's right. If I'm not wrong, they hope that I will be involved too, just like last time when they would send Katerina to guide me and take me to Northern Russia,' said Zhou Ming, 'This time is the same. Just now I said that someone had also told me similar news before, I'm afraid this is the purpose.'

'My God, if that's really the case, then this must be a huge conspiracy!' Karelina muttered, and then hurriedly asked Zhou Ming, 'So what should we do?'

Zhou Ming replied with a smile, 'What else can we do? Since someone has so sincerely invited us to join the game, we'll come in and play along with them. Karolina, get ready on your end, transfer all of my funds to be on standby, and if possible, contact Irbeldov and the others for me as well. I've missed them quite a bit since we last met in Krisco.'

Kareina also laughed: 'Zhou Ming, don't worry, I will definitely help you contact them.'

After saying this, Kareina's voice suddenly softened: 'Zhou Ming, I have missed you since we last met in Krisco.'

...

After hanging up the phone, Zhou Ming's mind could not calm down for a long time. First was the last sentence that Karolina said. After all, even heroes are unable to resist beautiful women. Zhou Ming does not consider himself a hero, but Karolina is a beauty. Now that Karolina is so enthusiastic and actively telling him that she misses him, how can Zhou Ming not be at a loss for what to do? Sometimes Zhou Ming really wonders if his charm has increased after being reborn this time. How is it that such a beautiful girl is so devoted to him?

Fortunately, Katerina did not continue, otherwise Zhou Ming really did not know what to do.

In addition, it was the news that Katerina told him, because originally Zhou Ming just wanted to take advantage of the fact that he still had the memories of being reborn and knew what major economic events would happen in the future, and wanted to use his ability to predict the future to speculate and make a little money. But now he discovered that the Gulf War did not seem to be a whim of Saddam the war maniac, and there were actually so many secrets behind it.

It was all so complicated: Project Babylon, the big financial groups, the Tang Dynasty Bank, the Iraqi oil fields, and finally it had come back to him.

Zhou Ming lay on the bed, looking up at the ceiling, thinking: Should I get involved? Or should I just stick to my original plan and take advantage of the Gulf War to speculate on oil futures on the international market?

...

Meanwhile, in his villa, old Brock shouted at Anthony, 'We absolutely cannot let this guy Zhou Ming get involved! Although I'm not sure if he knows the news, his sudden and massive selling of bonds and bills is definitely suspicious.'

'Indeed, with Zhou Ming's current selling behaviour, he has suffered losses of at least 8-10 percentage points. Unless he is hedging against risks or urgently needs a large amount of capital to invest in a more profitable project, this kind of loss-making selling simply doesn't make sense,' Anthony also said, 'But the news about Tangren Bank and the Gulf is top secret, so he shouldn't have known about it. Could it be Hoover? Someone told me that Hoover went to see Zhou Ming today.'

'No matter who told him, I will never let him get involved!' Lao Brook hatedly slammed the table, 'This damned guy, I wish he would die immediately!'