Chapter 71: The Unmasked Plot

'Mr. Zhou Ming, everything is as you expected. Just now, the futures prices of both light crude oil and heavy crude oil began to fall. Although the specific process has some fluctuations, overall it is still continuing to fall!'

Sun Wei's excited voice came through the headphones of everyone in the Wharton conference room. Although everyone here knew that Zhou Ming was not the type to speak off the cuff, when they heard the news from the exchange, it still came as a bit of a surprise to the three men, Tong Gang, Li Cheng and Irbekov, because the news was truly unexpected.

No one sitting here today doesn't know about financial futures. Needless to say, Lin Muqing and Tong Gang Li Cheng, and Gangcheng as the financial centre of the East, no matter what their main business is, if they want to become bigger and stronger there, it is definitely impossible not to understand finance and not get involved in it. After all, if you simply rely on products to make money and then expand, it is too cumbersome and you can't keep up with the trends of the capitalistic economy era.

Even Irbidev, who came from Northern Russia, is a banker and a Jew, so doing business is almost like second nature to him. Coupled with the capitalist transformation of Northern Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union, there is no reason for the richest man in Northern Russia to not understand what futures are.

But precisely because they understand, they are all the more puzzled. Because with the breakdown of negotiations between Iraq and Kuwait, the situation in the Middle East is deteriorating, and the market will worry about future crude oil production in the Middle East. Under such preconditions, as investors, they should hoard goods and keep pushing up prices, so why would they sell for no reason?

But you have to understand that this is not stock, where you can sell as soon as you see that a company is in a bad situation. This is oil, which you can sell at any time! It seems that the more worried you are, the more you should buy.

Tong Gang, Li Chenghe and Yerbedov were all very confused. Tong Gang asked, holding the headset, 'Manager Sun, did the exchange receive any special news?'

Sun Wei of course understood the meaning of Tong Gang's question, and he replied, 'Mr. Tong Gang, the exchange has not received any special news. The reason for the fall in crude oil prices is that twenty minutes ago, many investment companies simultaneously sold short crude oil. The contracts they sold short were very large, amounting to one billion U.S. dollars, which caused panic in the market. Later, many investment companies followed suit, causing the price to continue to fall.'

'What company or consortium is selling short crude oil? And they used so much capital,' Tong Gang immediately asked.

'Mr. Tong Gang, due to time constraints, I cannot verify the affiliation of each company, but based on my findings so far, five of them are affiliated with the Brighton Consortium, and I think the others are also closely related to the Brighton Consortium,' Sun Wei guessed.

'What? The Brighton Consortium is also constantly short selling crude oil?'

Tong Gang and Li Cheng Yierbeiduo were both a little surprised by this, and they coincidentally looked at Zhou Ming.

Facing the astonished looks of the three men, Zhou Ming just gave a slight smile and said to Sun Wei, 'Okay, I understand. Thank you, Manager Sun. If there is any new information from the exchange, be sure to get in touch with me immediately.'

Sun Wei replied with a 'yes' and then hung up with Zhou Ming's permission. After Sun Wei hung up, Zhou Ming said to the three men, Tong Gang, Li Cheng and Yier Bieduofu, 'I told you they wouldn't be indifferent. If we don't try to suppress the price of crude oil as much as possible before the plan, then the subsequent benefits will also be much less. It seems that you chose to believe in Lin Muqing, and she chose to believe in me, which was the most correct choice.'

Tong Gang, Li Cheng and Yilbedov nodded in silence. Li Cheng suddenly thought of a question and asked Zhou Ming, 'Just one thing, why is it only the Brighton consortium? Wasn't the Gulf Project jointly initiated by the Brighton and Rockefeller families? I think even if Sun Wei's information channels are insufficient, with so many companies short selling, he should be able to find out which companies belong to the Rockefeller consortium, right?'

'This is indeed a problem, but it is also easy to explain,' Zhou Ming said, "Either there is some agreement between the Brighton and Rockefeller consortia that we don't know about; or it is targeted at me.'

'Targeted at you? Mr. Zhou Ming, why do you say that?" Irbedov asked anxiously, and Tong Gang and Li Cheng also cast doubting glances at Zhou Ming.

If it were anyone else, they would definitely say that he was a bit too arrogant, but for Zhou Ming, they believed that it was very possible. Their current doubts were simply because they simply wanted to know why.

'It's very simple, because I offended Robert Adams, that's all,'

Zhou Ming said, and then retold what Caitlin had come to him for. 'That's it, in fact, I don't really trust this Princess Caitlin, so I need to first determine just what kind of influence that Mr Robert has.'

Il'yadov nodded in understanding, saying, 'I see. If that Mr. Robert is really targeting you, then when you start selling short, he will definitely be desperately buying, right?'

Zhou Ming, however, shook his head and said, "No, quite the opposite. I would think that he will definitely be selling short.'

'Why is that?" Il'yadov was very surprised. Not only him, but also Tong Gang and Li Cheng all looked at Zhou Ming with puzzled expressions, hoping to get an answer.

'The reason is not complicated, because this Mr. Robert is not yet the head of the Adams family,' said Ming.

Everyone there was a smart person, and although Ming's answer only gave an introduction, they understood the whole thing.

Because Robert was not the head of the Adams family, he could not control the overall situation in real time, and could only make arrangements in advance.

Then he knew clearly that Zhou Ming was here for the Gulf Project, so when the situation in the Middle East changed, he thought that Zhou Ming would definitely enter the market first to increase the price. So he did the opposite, creating market panic by constantly short selling, causing the price to fall. This would not only cause Zhou Ming direct losses, but also make him doubt his judgment of the situation. By the time Iraq and Kuwait actually fought, the opportunity would be missed, and that would be even better!

In addition, his actions are beneficial to the Gulf project, and the family's executor will not oppose them. This way, he can take revenge on his opponent without any obstacles, so of course he will do it.

It cannot be said that Robert's thinking is problematic; his only mistake is picking the wrong opponent.

Zhou Ming has completely seen through all of this and made temporary adjustments, as a result of which Robert's arrangement has instead allowed Zhou Ming to make even more money.

If Robert knew about all this, I'm afraid he would be so angry that he would jump off a building. But what's even more frightening is how Zhou Ming could calculate all this so clearly. This idea made Tong Gang, Li Cheng, and Yerbedov subconsciously swallow a mouthful of saliva.

Zhou Ming looked at the expressions of Tong Gang, Li Cheng and Ier Biedorf and knew that they had all understood and were shocked by his meticulous planning. But in fact, as Zhou Ming had said before, he was just testing the water. He didn't know if Robert would or wouldn't, and he didn't know Robert's abilities. He could only throw in more than 10 million to test the water first. Who knew that it would be so coincidental and really happen to him? Zhou Ming was also very helpless.

This time, Li Cheng stepped forward and said, 'But no matter what, this is always a good start. So, Zhou Ming, now that we know Robert's thoughts, do we continue?'

'Of course we have to continue. It would be stupid not to take advantage of the opportunity,' Zhou Ming said. 'And I think there should be even more good news coming.'

As if it were a prophecy, as soon as Zhou Ming's words had finished, the phone on the conference table rang again. Lin Muqing answered it first.

'Mr Zhou Ming, the news just received is that Kuwait has announced that in accordance with the OPEC resolution, they will increase production by 100,000 barrels of crude oil per day starting tomorrow,' Sun Wei said on the other end of the phone.

This news surprised Tong Gang, Li Cheng, and Irbekov, but they did not express their opinions. Instead, they all looked at Zhou Ming, waiting to hear his thoughts. This made Zhou Ming feel very helpless. They really took him as their leader. Although this feeling was very good, the pressure was also very great.

Zhou Ming thought this and then asked, 'So what's the market reaction like?'

'The market reaction is very positive. It seems that there are even more short sellers, and it is estimated that the price of crude oil will continue to fall in the future,' Sun Wei said.

'What about the current price?' Zhou Ming asked again.

'The current price of light crude oil is 16.59 US dollars per barrel, and the price of heavy crude oil is 15.16 US dollars per barrel,' Sun Wei replied.

After hearing this answer, Zhou Ming did some mental arithmetic and then said, 'In that case, as soon as the price of light crude oil falls below 15 US dollars per barrel and the price of heavy crude oil falls below 14.4 US dollars per barrel, regardless of the market situation at that time, immediately clear my positions, all of them, and then complete all the orders before 4:30 pm, understood?'

Sun Wei could hear the seriousness in Zhou Ming's tone, and he became nervous as well: 'Please rest assured, Mr. Zhou Ming, I promise to complete the task!'

After hanging up the phone with Sun Wei, Zhou Ming looked up and said, 'Everyone must be waiting impatiently, right? The real show is about to begin.'

...

Meanwhile, at the castle villa of the Adams family in the north, Robert also heard the market quotation on the stock exchange, and he was so happy that he almost jumped up.

'This is really exciting news! I can't believe how cooperative Kuwait is, and they're even increasing production by 100,000 barrels of crude oil per day. I think it's certain that the price will fall below 14 US dollars before the end of today's auction. With such a big drop, I think the Chinese will definitely lose a lot of money!'

Robert laughed out loud, while Caitlin said nothing, just looking at him coldly.

Robert didn't want to argue with Caitlin, but then an accountant who was close to him said something that made him angry again. The accountant said, 'I'm afraid that's not the case, Mr. Robert. If the information you gave me is correct, the Chinese are not buying today, they're selling crude oil just like us.'

This made Robert's eyes widen. He directed his angry gaze at Caitlin, who was still sitting in the VIP seat, and questioned her, 'Did you know about this?'

Caitlin nodded coldly and said yes. Robert then asked, almost growling, "Then why didn't you tell me?'

Caitlin still replied coldly, "Because you didn't ask me.'

Robert suddenly stood up from his seat and walked towards Caitlin, but was stopped by Caitlin's black bodyguard. Robert then remembered that Caitlin was now surrounded by people. He glared at Caitlin and said to her with clenched teeth, 'You Harrodsburg bitch, you fucking dare to play with me like this. You make me very angry. Don't think that Harrodsburg and your brain can protect you for long.'

Robert finished by saying, 'You just wait, one day, I'll strip you naked and make you serve me in the most humiliating position, just like I told you the first day you came to the Addams Family. No, it'll be even more fun than that.'

Facing Robert's threats, Catelyn still sat there, just looking at him with her head held high in defiance, showing that she would never give in!