Chapter 31: News from the Tangren Bank and the Gulf (Part 1)

'Mr. Zhou Ming, that was great! My signature form was submitted to the election committee within the specified time. I collected a total of more than 350 valid signatures. I think I will definitely be able to run for office this time!' On the other end of the phone, Omar was reporting his situation to Zhou Ming. Zhou Ming congratulated him, and then Omar thought of something and said, 'But how is the situation on your side, Mr. Zhou Ming? Last time I saw you, you were in a hurry, but nothing major happened, right?'

'It's just that my selling behaviour alerted the relevant authorities, and they issued a warning to me. It's no big deal,' said Zhou Ming in a relaxed tone.

'It's just a pity that I'm only a community representative now, so I can't help you,' Omar said with great frustration.

Zhou Ming, however, said with a smile, 'Yes, so I can only make political investments in you, hoping that you can climb up quickly. When you become a state congressman, congressman, or even president, you can do me a big favour!'

'Mr. Zhou Ming, please rest assured, I will do my best,' Omar then said with a bitter smile, 'but as for the president, Mr. Zhou Ming, please don't joke. I'm black, so how can I run for president?'

'Who told you that a black person can't run for president? Is there such a thing in the US Constitution? I don't remember,' asked Zhou Ming, leaving Omar speechless. 'On the contrary, I think your black identity will make it easier for you to run for president, because your opponents will never dare to attack you for being black, and this will in turn tie the hands of your opponents.'

Omar took a breath and said, somewhat incredulously, 'It seems that this is the case. Mr. Zhou Ming, are you saying that I really have the potential to run for president?'

'Of course!' Zhou Ming said with certainty. 'But we'll talk about that later. Right now, you just need to successfully run for the position of community councilor in Vieda. If you can't take this step, there won't be anything else that follows.'

'Mr. Zhou Ming, please rest assured, I will do my best!' Omar solemnly assured Zhou Ming.

At this time, the door to Zhou Ming's room was knocked on, and Omar, who was very sensible, ended the conversation with Zhou Ming: 'Mr. Zhou Ming, please attend to your business first. If you have any requests, you can call me at any time. Goodbye.'

Zhou Ming hung up the phone and went over to open the door. Ye Ning came in with a document in her arms. Zhou Ming asked her to come in and sit down, glanced at the time and then asked, 'The sell-off ended today, right?'

Ye Ning nodded and said, 'Teacher, the selling action today ended an hour ago. In the past half hour, I have analysed and compiled statistics on today's data. Today, we have withdrawn a total of 40 million yuan through selling, and the loss ratio has been controlled at 7.8 percentage points.'

'Very good results!' Zhou Ming sincerely praised, these students in the finance class are worthy of being selected as elite students from all over the country, their abilities are really unrivalled, because the market is never fixed, and they are now selling off on such a large scale, which will definitely cause market shocks, which is why there was a fax warning from the Financial Management Committee.

But they withstood the pressure of the market and perfectly used their trading to reduce the loss to less than 8%. This is already very impressive. Zhou Ming felt that if it were him, he would be very happy to maintain a loss of 10%.

It seems that they really have expertise in their field, and I am suitable for this leadership position. I will just leave things to these professionals.

Zhou Ming thought cheekily, and then he asked, 'What about the Financial Management Committee? Did they send any more faxes, or did any other institutions intervene?'

Ye Ning shook her head and said, 'No. Apart from the fax from the Financial Management Committee in the morning, we didn't receive any more notifications until the market closed in the afternoon, and our transactions were not interfered with by any institutions.'

Zhou Ming raised an eyebrow and said, 'In that case, the fax from the Financial Management Committee was just a normal response. Even so, you cannot let your guard down. You must sell all the bonds as quickly as possible. I know that the rest are the most difficult to deal with, so I allow you to increase your losses to 15 percentage points. You must dispose of them as quickly as possible tomorrow. Any questions?'

'Absolutely no problem!' Ye Ning replied firmly.

'That's good, you can go now. If you have any problems, you can come and find me at any time,' Zhou Ming said to Ye Ning.

Ye Ning nodded and said okay, but when she opened the door, she bumped into the monitor Chen Shu. Chen Shu came in and reported to Zhou Ming, 'Teacher, President Hoover of Tang Dynasty Bank is here to see you, he is in the lobby right now.'

This news surprised Ming a little, but he still immediately stood up and went to the lobby with Chen Shu and Ye Ning.

Hoover was waiting in the lobby. When he saw Ming come down, he took the initiative to shake his hand and said, 'Mr. Ming, I'm sorry for bothering you.'

'It's fine, Mr. Hoover is a very important partner of mine. My Wharton Insurance Company has developed thanks to Mr. Hoover's help, and I was able to get a loan from Tangren Bank. Mr. Hoover is welcome to come at any time.'

Zhou Ming also exchanged pleasantries, then invited Hoover to sit on the sofa before asking, 'Mr. Hoover is the head of the Brighton branch of Tangren Bank, and must be very busy normally. I wonder why you're here today?'

'Of course I didn't come here for nothing,' Hoover smiled embarrassedly, 'I came today to talk to Mr. Zhou Ming about our loan from Tangren Bank.'

Zhou Ming reached out his hand: 'I don't understand, please enlighten me, Mr. Hoover.'

'I hope that Mr. Zhou Ming can repay the loan from Tang Bank early,' Hoover said.

'Repay the loan early?' Zhou Ming asked in surprise.

Hoover immediately explained, 'Mr. Zhou Ming, I know that Tang Bank has signed a loan contract with you, and in theory, it should not be so early to demand repayment. However, due to the current financial difficulties of the bank, there is an urgent need to recover funds. I hope that Mr. Zhou Ming can repay the loan early if possible, and the interest will be calculated up to today.'

After Hoover saw that Zhou Ming did not intend to speak, he immediately said again, 'Mr. Zhou Ming, I also know that you are selling the bonds you hold today. I think you must not be short of cash here. This is also a personal favour you are doing for me. In the future, if you or Wharton Company have any difficulties, I will try my best to help.'

At the end, Hoover added, 'Mr. Zhou Ming, this is definitely a very cost-effective deal.'

'Can I ask a question?' Zhou Ming suddenly asked, "Is there something wrong with the Tang Dynasty Bank? And is it related to the Persian Gulf?'

After asking this question, Zhou Ming could clearly see Hoover's face stiffen for a moment, but in the end Hoover still said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Zhou Ming, this is an internal issue of our Tang Dynasty Bank that should not be disclosed to the public. Can you please stop guessing? I think we should talk more about the repayment of the loan. What do you think?'

'It's just a loan of a few million, and I don't have any problems with it. However, since the bank is requesting an early repayment, can there be some reduction in the interest?' Zhou Ming asked.

'Of course there is no problem with that. I can calculate it for you at the most preferential interest rate,' Hoover said.

Zhou Ming nodded and said, 'That's good. As long as Tangren Bank sends over the bills I owe, and after checking my assets, there are no problems, I will immediately make the remittance.'

Hoover took the initiative to shake Zhou Ming's hand and said, 'Thank you very much for your cooperation, Mr. Zhou Ming. I still have many customers to visit, so goodbye.'

After saying that, Hoover left the dormitory. Ye Ning was very dissatisfied as she watched Hoover's departing back, and muttered, 'This President Hoover is really well informed, isn't he? He came just as we were selling. Teacher, do you think he did it on purpose? Just like before, when we needed the money the most, he cut off our loan due to some pressure.'

Zhou Ming shook his head and said to Ye Ning, 'I don't think so. Ye Ning, I don't know if you remember what our class teacher Jie La once told me about Tangren Bank and the Gulf?'

'Teacher, you went to ask Jie La in private, didn't you?' Ye Ning asked anxiously.

Zhou Ming smiled and patted Ye Ning's little head and said, 'Of course not, why would I do something you dislike so much?'

Ye Ning smiled shyly, 'Actually, if you really want to know the news, it's not that you can't go to her.'

'Really? Then I'll go find out?' Zhou Ming asked deliberately.

'You can't, teacher!' Ye Ning blurted out subconsciously, but when she saw Zhou Ming's expression, she knew that Zhou Ming was deliberately teasing her. So Ye Ning shyly threw a nasty remark and then hurriedly ran back to her room.

As he watched Ye Ning's shy back, Zhou Ming smiled, but his smile quickly froze on his face, because from Hoover's performance just now, there must be a major problem at Tangren Bank, otherwise the branch manager of Brighton would not be in such a hurry to go around urging for loans. He had to know that this was a breach of contract and a loss of credibility, an act of exhausting the resources. If there was no major problem, no bank would be willing to be so stupid as to make such a suicidal move.

Zhou Ming couldn't help but frown as he thought about what Jie La had said to him at the beginning.

News from Tangren Bank and the Gulf?

Zhou Ming knew exactly what was going to happen in the Gulf, and it was precisely for this reason that Zhou Ming was so eager to withdraw all of his funds in order to make a killing in the global oil futures market. But what did this have to do with Tangren Bank? Or was this just a coincidence in timing, and there was actually no direct connection between them?

Plus, with such a large sell-off, Lao Brook actually didn't have any extreme reactions. Could it also be related to Tangren Bank?

These thoughts made Zhou Ming feel a bit headache. After all, there are really too few clues at the moment, and it is difficult to make any decisions.

Or should I just go and ask Teacher Jie La what's going on?

Zhou Ming thought so, and subconsciously glanced at Ye Ning's room. He thought to himself, 'Forget it, don't hurt the heart of this female student who loves you so much. Anyway, if these things are related to me, I will always understand. If they have nothing to do with me, there is no point in me wanting to know.'

At this time, Zhou Ming's phone suddenly rang, and it was someone who made Zhou Ming not expect it.

'Hello, Zhou Ming.'

It was in Chinese, and with that melodious, elegant female voice, Zhou Ming immediately realised who it was: 'Katerina?'

'That's right. I'm very glad you still remember me,' said Katerina, 'but I'm calling to tell you something that I think you'll be very interested in: news about the Tang Dynasty Bank and the Gulf.'

'What? You know about those two things too?' Zhou Ming was surprised.