Chapter 41: Looking up at the same blue sky

At noon, Zhou Ming took a car to the South Brighton District, the political and economic centre of Brighton City. The most important institutions in Brighton City all have their headquarters here, and the Tangren Bank is naturally no exception.

The Tangren Bank Financial Building is a tall building with relatively classical features. It is located directly opposite the Brighton Bank and is considered to be an iconic building in Brighton City.

This is actually quite an interesting situation, because you have to know that Brighton Bank is the core of the Brighton Consortium, which is one of the top ten consortia controlling the lifeblood of the United States. Although Americans may not care much, the fact that the Tang Bank is located directly opposite Brighton Bank is in itself enough to prove the strength of the Tang Bank. However, when Zhou Ming arrived here, he saw the dilemma of the Tang Bank.

A financial organisation was holding a rally at the entrance of the building. As shown on the news, they were holding up banners, with someone leading the chanting of slogans. They kept handing out promotional materials to passers-by, demanding that the Tang Dynasty Bank disclose its accounts and be accountable to all depositors and investors. Beside them were the Brighton police, who were closely monitoring the situation.

On the other side, many depositors crowded in front of the Tang Dynasty Bank, holding up their deposit receipts and demanding that the bank immediately...return their money.

Zhou Ming saw the whole situation, and he knew very well that this situation was called a bank run. Put simply, it was a situation where depositors rushed to the bank to withdraw cash in order to avoid losses to the money they had deposited in the bank when the bank's credit rating fell.

Generally speaking, this kind of thing would not happen, and once it did, it would deal a fatal blow to the bank.

The reason is simple. When depositors deposit money in the bank, the bank has to pay interest to the depositors, dividends to the shareholders, and at the same time maintain its own operations and expansion. It is inevitable that the funds absorbed from depositors will be invested, and only a very small part of the funds will usually be reserved to deal with cash withdrawals by depositors. And at this time, once a concentrated run on the bank by depositors occurs, it will cause the bank's reserves to be insufficient, making the bank's credit even worse. If the bank has no way to get through this, then the only thing waiting for it is bankruptcy and collapse.

However, this kind of run on the bank either occurs during a financial crisis, when everyone blindly runs to the bank due to the impact of the crisis, or it occurs in some small banks. However, according to Zhou Ming's understanding, Tangren Bank is also considered a large bank with strong capital, so this situation should not occur. It seems that Tangren Bank is really in big trouble.

Zhou Ming thought this in his heart before asking Zhang Lin to restart the car and drive into the underground parking lot of Tangren Bank, and finally went upstairs to find Hoover.

Since Tang Dynasty Bank is in big trouble, Hoover, as the head of the Brighton branch of Tang Dynasty Bank, naturally won't be doing well either. When Zhou Ming arrived at his office, he found that there were quite a few people waiting here as well. Without thinking, the people here must be the same as those downstairs, except that those downstairs are all small depositors, while these are large customers, or have a nicer name, investors.

However, no matter how different the names are, when trouble comes, the result is the same.

Zhou Ming looked around, but suddenly realised that there was actually an acquaintance inside, the chairman of Deep Blue Airlines, Mark.

Mark was also a little embarrassed to see Zhou Ming, and he explained to Zhou Ming, 'I actually want to help Tangren Bank, but the current situation of Deep Blue Airlines is not very good, so to be on the safe side, I still have to withdraw my money.'

'Mr. Mark, you can deposit and withdraw your money as you wish, and you don't need to explain anything to me,' said Zhou Ming. He didn't expect that he would be treated so politely just because he had cooperated with him once. Moreover, as far as he understood, it seemed that he had not cooperated with Tangren Bank before. Could it also be because of his relationship?

Zhou Ming did not know, and of course it did not matter: 'I have other things to discuss with Mr Hoover, let's talk later.'

Zhou Ming said and then walked towards the door, but immediately a tall white man stood up and blocked Zhou Ming's way, saying unkindly, 'Chinese, are you blind? You can't see that so many people are still waiting here, you'd better go back and wait obediently!'

After this white man finished speaking, the others all echoed, 'That's right, damn Chinese, you need to know that this is America, pay attention to your own quality influence!'

Facing this chaotic scene, Zhou Ming had not yet had a chance to speak when he heard Hoover's secretary stand up and shout, 'Excuse me, is Mr. Zhou Ming here? Mr. Hoover would like to invite you to his office for a chat.'

As the secretary's words were spoken, the office outside suddenly fell silent, because this was undoubtedly a heavy slap in the face.

Zhou Ming responded and strode past the office, saying to everyone, 'I'm sorry everyone, it seems that I didn't cut in line, but Mr. Hoover and I have more important things to discuss.'

Afterwards, Zhou Ming followed the secretary into Hoover's office. Outside, the others cursed after hearing Zhou Ming's words. Needless to say, they were also complaining about their own queue-jumping behaviour. However, as the office door closed, what was going on outside was no longer Zhou Ming's concern. In contrast, the situation in front of him surprised Zhou Ming even more.

In front of Zhou Ming, Hoover was sitting in his office chair, next to him stood a nurse, who was helping him change his drip.

'Recently, things have been a bit hectic, and my old problem has just flared up again, so this is what I can do.'

Hoover took the initiative to explain the surprise to Zhou Ming, and then asked, 'But Zhou Ming, you didn't come here today just to withdraw cash, did you? That would really add to our woes.'

'If someone is willing to give me a million dollars, I would like it, but unfortunately no one has done so, and at the same time, my deposits in the Tang Dynasty Bank are not that much.'

Zhou Ming teased Hoover back with a teasing response. Then Zhou Ming sat down in front of Hoover. The secretary brought Zhou Ming a cup of tea, and Zhou Ming thanked her before saying to Hoover, 'But then again, the reason I came today is indeed related to the current situation of the Tangren Bank. If I remember correctly, the Tangren Bank's capital should be at least more than 10 billion U.S. dollars. It is not a small bank, so how could it be subject to such a run?'

'You think it's not scientific, and in fact, not only you, but everyone including the shareholders and the bank's senior management also thinks it's not scientific, but it actually happened for a very simple reason: the capital of Tang Dynasty Bank has shrunk significantly. Since the Black Monday in 1987, many of Tang Dynasty Bank's investments have suffered a huge blow,' Hoover said.

'So that's why last time you, Manager Hu, asked me to repay the loan early, right?' Zhou Ming asked.

Hoover nodded and said, 'Due to the failure of the investment, the Tang Dynasty Bank has been experiencing a shortage of funds. The senior management is worried that someone will take advantage of the situation to spread rumours, or sell the bank's shares and cause a run on the bank. That is why they have asked us managers to persuade our major customers to repay their loans early and withdraw their deposits, and to prepare reserves in advance to deal with the run on the bank.'

'It seems that you have long known that someone is targeting you. Is it a grudge between consortia? Which consortium does Tang Dynasty Bank belong to?' Zhou Ming asked again.

Facing Zhou Ming's question, Hoover looked at Zhou Ming intently for a while and then shook his head helplessly and said, 'Zhou Ming, you have gone around in circles for a long time and finally got to the point. I think that is the main purpose of your visit today, isn't it?'

Zhou Ming nodded without denying it: 'I really want to know, because someone impersonating Mr. Nordleman told me some very interesting things before, including the situation of Gulf and Tang Dynasty Bank.'

Hearing what Ming said, Hoover was first taken aback, then he laughed. 'If I'm not wrong, he must have said that he was from Chicago, and that he said the Gulf War would definitely break out because the Tang Dynasty Bank and the consortium behind it had invested in Iraq and controlled the oil in the Persian Gulf, so the consortium that was hostile to us needed a war to prevent this.'

At the end of his sentence, Hoover looked at Ming and asked, "Am I right?'

Ming asked in return without changing his expression, "Isn't that really what happened?'

Hoover thought for a moment and replied, 'On the surface, it seems that this is indeed the case, but in reality, the situation is far more complicated than you think.'

'How complicated? Is there more than one consortium behind the Tang Dynasty Bank? Or has the consortium itself split?' Zhou Ming asked three questions in one breath.

Hoover did not give a direct answer, but instead asked Zhou Ming back, 'Why are you so obsessed with this question? What makes you think I will definitely answer you? Do you know that there are so many customers waiting for me to attend to outside, and what makes you think I will waste my time on you?'

'I didn't say you had to answer me anything, but I think since you took me to see Uncle Tiger in the first place, and Uncle Tiger also told me that if I had any difficulties, I could come to you, now that I'm here, you can't be that petty, can you?' Zhou Ming said.

'That's because Mr. Tiger valued you at the time, but you later did things that greatly disappointed him. Have you forgotten?' Hoover said.

'It seems that there was something to that,' Zhou Ming said, and then his tone suddenly changed, 'But President Hu, are you sure that your Mr. Tiger is really disappointed in me?'

Hoover was stunned by Zhou Ming's final rhetorical question, and it took him a long time to laugh: 'No wonder Mr Tiger valued you so highly, you really have the qualities that make him value you. Indeed, after you did that, Mr Tiger not only wasn't disappointed in you, but valued you even more, because you were even better than he thought, and he believed that you could definitely do even better than he thought.'

Zhou Ming was relieved by Hoover's answer. Of course, he would never know what Uncle Tiger was thinking, and there was no way for him to know whether his initial act of deliberately showing weakness would really make Uncle Tiger angry, or whether Uncle Tiger would have the same kind of compulsion to control as some other big shots. But in the end, Zhou Ming still believed that since Uncle Tiger was better than Hoover, he would definitely not be a person without vision.

In the end, Zhou Ming was right, and Uncle Hu really understood what he had thought at the beginning and cooperated with him to put on a show.

However, the conversation did not end here. Zhou Ming asked Hoover, 'So now can you answer my question, Mr. Hoover?'

'Of course I can, but I'm just a small person, and I don't know much,' Hoover reminded Zhou Ming.

Zhou Ming nodded in understanding. Perhaps in the eyes of ordinary people, Hoover was already the head of the Brighton branch of Tang Bank, and must be a very powerful big shot, but one must know that above him there was the regional branch and the head office, and behind Tang Bank there was an even bigger consortium, and above the consortium there were even more organisations like the conglomerates that united several major financial groups. Counting it up like this, Hoover was indeed just a small person.

'But a small person is also looking up at the same blue sky as those big people, isn't he?' Zhou Ming said.

Hoover froze for a moment, and with a thumbs-up to Zhou Ming, he said, 'No wonder you are someone Uncle Hu values, you are really domineering.'