Chapter 33: Next step in the judgment

At 10am on the 27th of May, a Buick sedan pulled up to Fenway District Court. Zhou Ming and his lawyer Alan got out of the car and walked over to an improvised room with only the judge, clerk, and defendant's bench inside. This was actually an improvised courtroom used to judge cases that did not require complicated trials. In fact, many simple civil or criminal cases were judged in this type of courtroom.

Zhou Ming was not here today because he had been sued, but because of a public prosecution ruling, a ruling on the dumping behaviour of Wharton.

Just yesterday afternoon, Zhou Ming received a court summons, explaining the situation and requesting him to attend the judgment at 10 o'clock sharp this morning. So early this morning, Zhou Ming called lawyer Alan over to accompany him to the court hearing.

In fact, to Zhou Ming, it was not surprising that there would be such a judgment, because his dumping behaviour did indeed seem very speculative. What surprised Zhou Ming was that the judgment came a bit too late, as if it were a bit too late to notice. Could it be that Old Brooke was busy with something and therefore got the news a day late?

Zhou Ming thought to himself.

'Mr. Zhou Ming, is that correct? The court found that your Wharton Insurance Company engaged in large-scale selling of stocks and bonds on May 26th. The court believes that such actions may involve speculative behaviour, and therefore the court rules that Wharton Insurance Company immediately cease selling and accept the investigation of the Financial Management Committee. Further rulings will be made after the results of the investigation are in.'

The judge handed Zhou Ming a document and said, 'This is the court's verdict. If you are dissatisfied with this verdict, you may appeal to a higher court afterwards, but no objections will be accepted. Please sign it.'

Zhou Ming took the verdict and handed it to his lawyer, Alan. Alan quickly read it over and then returned it to Zhou Ming, who nodded to him. Zhou Ming then signed the verdict.

The judge took back the judgment, stamped it, and returned a copy to Zhou Ming. He glanced at his watch and said, 'It's now 10:15, the judgment will take effect at 11:30, and the court will give you one hour to stop all selling activities in the company.'

Zhou Ming got up, thanked him, and left the courtroom. He returned to the dormitory a quarter of an hour later. After all, the selling activities continued before the judgment took effect, and the dormitory had more computers than the company, so the finance class students were more used to working in the dormitory.

When the door to the dormitory was opened, all the students in the finance class subconsciously looked towards the door. They all knew that Zhou Ming had gone to court, and they were all waiting for the answer that Zhou Ming would bring back.

Zhou Ming held up the verdict and said, 'The court's verdict is that we must immediately stop all selling activities. However, the verdict will not take effect until 11:30. In other words, from now on, you still have an hour. And no matter what the result is, all selling activities must be stopped after an hour. Have you all heard me clearly?'

With Zhou Ming's words, there was an outburst of cheers in the dormitory. Li Yang smiled and said to Zhou Ming, 'Teacher, there is still an hour, which is enough for us to complete the task!'

Zhou Ming also smiled and said to Li Yang, 'That's easy for you to say. I'll say it in advance. Although the time is pressing, you are not allowed to lower your requirements. You must complete the task on the basis of ensuring a loss rate, understand? No matter what, no more activities will be allowed an hour from now. Do you understand? For this reason, I will personally control all accounts and funds. Li Yang, if you fail to complete it by then, don't blame me for making you a convenience store owner for the rest of your life.'

Zhou Ming's words made Li Yang jump. Obviously, Li Yang was ambitious. His ambition was in the capital market, and he didn't want to be a convenience store owner for the rest of his life.

Seeing that his classmates in the finance class were all busy working, Zhou Ming let out a sigh of relief and sat down on the sofa. Zhou Ming did not mean to scare them when he said that, but he had to do it that way because he was in the United States, a country where the law is supreme. Don't look at a court judgment as just a piece of paper, because every word on it is heavier than Mount Tai.

You can appeal a verdict to a higher court, but you must execute the verdict before a new verdict is issued. If you refuse to execute it, you are in contempt of court, which is a very serious crime in the United States.

You have to know that someone was sentenced to six months in prison for contempt of court just because they yawned while listening to the verdict. Obviously, if you refuse to execute it, it will be even more serious, not to mention that there is an old Brooke pushing you from behind. So it's better for you to be honest. Most importantly, didn't the court give you an hour to prepare? As Li Yang said, this time is more than enough.

Alan also sat down on the sofa. He first gave Zhou Ming a thumbs-up to show his appreciation for Zhou Ming's leadership ability, and then said, 'Mr. Zhou Ming, please forgive me for being blunt, but in order to avoid possible accidents, it is best to end the selling activity at 11:20 or 25 minutes. After all, if it happens to be 11:30, it will easily cause unforeseen consequences. Now that the court's verdict has been reached, it is better not to create any more problems.'

Zhou Ming nodded: 'Don't worry, Alan, I'll control the time.'

However, it actually didn't take an hour at all. It was only twenty minutes before some classmates had already completed the dumping task. Forty minutes later, everyone had completed the dumping task, and Zhou Ming stopped the operation of the accounts and assets. An hour later, Ye Ning quickly calculated with a few classmates and came up with the result that the loss rate of today's dumping was 10.06%.

Upon hearing this result, Alan expressed some surprise. Although Alan is not in finance, he understands that the loss from this temporary sell-off is very high. However, the students in the finance class were a bit disheartened, because their original goal was to keep the loss below 10%.

Seeing the annoyed expressions of his classmates, Zhou Ming laughed: 'What do you think? Usually you are all very good, now you know that doing things is not as simple as talking about them, right?'

All the students lowered their heads, but then Zhou Ming said, 'But overall, your results are still very worthy of recognition. You cashed out 60 million US dollars in two days, and the loss rate was maintained at 10 percentage points. Compared to other financial and non-financial institutions, this is a remarkable achievement. As a reward, I will tell you what I plan to do next.'

Zhou Ming's words instantly attracted the attention of all the students in the finance class. Everyone looked up and stared at Zhou Ming with wide eyes, because this was exactly what they had been hoping for.

However, Zhou Ming did not directly announce the answer, but first asked them, 'Let me ask you a question. Does anyone know about the Gulf? Does anyone follow the situation there?'

In response to this question, Chen Shuyu and Huang Ping raised their hands first. In the end, Chen Shuyu and Huang Ping both indicated that Ye Ning should speak first. Ye Ning, without hesitation, answered, 'Teacher, I know that the Gulf is the Persian Gulf in the Middle East, which is currently the world's most important oil producing region. The current situation there is that Iraq and Kuwait have great differences in oil production and border issues, and negotiations are being conducted under the mediation of the international community.'

Zhou Ming nodded and said, 'It seems that you have really done your research. That is indeed the situation there. So do you know of any investment opportunities there?'

Ye Ning shook his head blankly. Zhou Ming turned to Chen Shu, who replied, 'Teacher, I think the most important investment in the Gulf region is oil. We can invest in oil futures on the international market. However, according to the current situation in the Gulf, unless there is a war, I don't think the price of crude oil futures on the international market will change significantly.'

'So you don't think there will be a war there, right?' Zhou Ming asked.

Chen Shu nodded and said, "Yes, after all, Iraq has just ended the eight-year Iran-Iraq War, owes a large amount of foreign debt, and the international community is actively mediating. Iraq is under a lot of pressure, so I don't think there will be a war.'

As soon as Chen Shu finished speaking, Ye Ning asked, "But your judgment is that there will be a war?'

'Yes, I think Iraq will definitely fight this war, and the time will most likely be between the end of July and the beginning of August,' Zhou Ming said very confidently. 'Of course, I will make this judgment not because I am Saddam Hussein's mind reader, but based on my judgment of the situation.'

'As it is said in the political textbooks of junior high schools in China, war is the best way to transfer internal conflicts. A large amount of foreign debt, internal sectarian and ethnic conflicts, and Saddam's dictatorial rule have all created many internal conflicts in Iraq. To resolve all these conflicts, a war is needed. Now Kuwait is adding fuel to the fire at this time, which may very well backfire.'

Zhou Ming then said to everyone, 'Regardless of whether there will be a war in the end, the Middle East is a powder keg, and oil is also the world's most important strategic resource. Then your next task is to pay close attention to the situation in the Middle East at all times. I will assign each of you a futures account. You can try buying international crude oil futures first to understand the intermediate operating procedures, waiting for the outbreak of war and the big price changes in international crude oil futures.'

All the students in the finance class cheered in delight, and then Zhou Ming let them go about their business freely. Only Ye Ning found Zhou Ming alone and said to him, 'Teacher, go find Teacher Jie La. I'm sure she has important news about the situation in the Gulf.'

Zhou Ming was stunned for a moment. He knew that Ye Ning must have made a very big decision to tell him this, because Ye Ning had always seen Jie La as a rival in love. So now she was asking the person she liked most to go to her rival in love. For a woman, this was undoubtedly the most painful choice.

Zhou Ming thought this and then took Ye Ning's hand and said to her, 'Thank you very much, I'm sorry for putting you through this.'

With these words, Ye Ning's tears immediately flowed uncontrollably from her eyes. It was only because they were in the dormitory hall and there were so many classmates watching that Ye Ning did not immediately throw herself into Zhou Ming's arms and cry her heart out.

After consoling Ye Ning, Zhou Ming returned to his room before dialing Jie La's number. This was out of respect for Ye Ning. Although Ye Ning had agreed on the surface, would it not be foolish to make this call in front of her? Zhou Ming is not so lacking in intelligence as that.

After a few busy signals, the phone was connected. Zhou Ming wasted no time in getting to the point: 'Hello, Ms. Jela, it's me, Zhou Ming. I'd like to know about the Tang Dynasty Bank and the Gulf. Can you tell me now?'

'Zhou Ming, you finally called me. I've been waiting for you for a long time,' Jelala said, her voice sounding a little choked up. She then added, 'But it's not a good idea to talk about it over the phone. I think you'd better come over to my place. There's someone else who also wants to meet you.'

Afterwards, Jelala seemed to be afraid that Zhou Ming would misunderstand and added, "I think this person should be an old friend of yours.'

Zhou Ming felt a little surprised at this remark. After thinking about it for a while, he finally nodded and said, "Okay, no problem.'