Chapter 98: No chance?

On the Harvard campus, many radical students surrounded the dormitory, holding banners in their hands and shouting all kinds of obscene insults.

'Cheap Chinese people, please get out of Harvard. This is a sacred campus, not a sacred place for fraud. We need elites, not people who cheat the lunch money of the elderly, women and children! You are the bastards of the world, you are a kind of pollution here, and you will bring the worst diseases. You can only leave to give us peace!'

While these radical students were hurling insults, some even threw flaming bottles at the dormitory. When the bottle exploded on the wall, these people let out excited howls: 'Get out, Chinese people, you dirty trash, you don't belong here!'

...

At the intersection below the Tian Ti building, many people were handing out flyers in an organised manner, while also saying to all those passing by, 'Wodun Insurance Company is a very evil company. In the name of insurance, they cheat us out of premiums, which they then use to fund the red culture and try to come over here and subvert our freedom. They want to take away our homes and savings, leaving our families to sleep in the streets! This is intolerable in any way, so for the sake of our families and freedom, we must resist everything from Wharton Insurance Company. If you have ever purchased a product from Wharton Insurance Company, please sell it immediately!'

Encouraged by such agitation, many people came to Wharton to demand a refund of their insured funds. Many lawyers also sent letters demanding refunds for their clients, or they would see them in court.

'Due to the fraudulent acts in the agreement, this insurance contract does not have any legal effect. My client has the right to terminate the contract at any time and exercise his legitimate rights to get back all the money he has been defrauded of. If Wharton refuses to do so, my client has the right to choose to file a lawsuit and join forces with other victims to file a lawsuit.'

Manager Ram of the Sky Ladder Building also called Zhou Ming: 'Mr Zhou Ming, I'm sorry to inform you that you and your Wharton Insurance Company must move out of the Sky Ladder Building within three days, or the building will take all necessary enforcement measures. The building can assist you with the removal, but will not pay any compensation, because the existence of Wharton has seriously affected the reputation of the building and caused an impact on other companies. The building will choose to conduct an investigation and require Wharton to make certain financial compensation.'

'Mr. Zhou Ming, it's not that I don't want to help you, but the fact is that you have now become the target of everyone's criticism. If you want to blame someone, blame yourself for not going the right way and having to commit financial fraud! You say that's slander? I'm sorry, I don't have the obligation to distinguish, and it has nothing to do with me. I only know that you should pay me the money and compensation that you owe me, not a single cent less!' Ram said to Zhou Ming.

...

Zhou Ming opened his eyes and realised that he was in his hotel room. It had just been a dream.

Suddenly the room door opened and Lin Muqing walked in. Seeing that Zhou Ming was awake, she said to him, 'As you requested, I have just settled Chen Shu and the others in this hotel. It is a very powerful hotel, so no one should cause trouble.'

Zhou Ming nodded silently. In fact, the dream he had just had was something he had experienced before. As the news of the Wharton Insurance fraud continued to heat up, and coupled with the fact that someone was fanning the flames behind the scenes, even at Harvard University, many people were organised to cause trouble for them. They surrounded their student dormitories, constantly hurling insults, and in the end, they even developed to the point of throwing and burning bottles.

The students in the finance class were each a treasure. For their safety, Zhou Ming had to take them all out of the dormitory at night and arrange for them to stay with him at Lin Muqing's hotel.

'The students in the finance class are still very united and are all good people. None of them complained in the face of the current situation, and they all support you, Zhou Ming,' Lin Muqing said.

Zhou Ming smiled, because no one knew better than him the support and trust of his classmates in the finance class. However, this was not the time to talk about that. Zhou Ming thought for a moment and asked, 'Sister Muqing, what about the situation at the bank?'

Upon hearing this question, Lin Muqing's face immediately fell. 'The situation at the bank is deliberate.'

Although this answer did not surprise Zhou Ming, he still asked, 'Why?'

'After Chen Shu told us that our stock account had been frozen, I immediately contacted the brokerage company. They said that there were problems with the procedures related to the offshore account and the exchange rate conversion. But when I followed up the problem and contacted the offshore bank, they said that there were no problems with my procedures. Later, I asked my stockbroker again, and he told me with hesitation that it was the meaning of the leaders above,' Lin Muqing said.

Having said that, the meaning is more than obvious. What the stockbroker meant by 'the meaning from above' was nothing more than that Kristal had found a way to convince the department head of the broker or directly bribe the brokerage firm to deliberately cause trouble for Ming.

'It's just that the brokerage firm I chose is after all a very powerful securities company in New York, how could they do such a thing?' Lin Muqing said angrily.

'Powerful or not, it depends on who you're comparing it to,' Zhou Ming said. 'Didn't we also think Allen's law firm was the most powerful in Brighton? But as soon as the Adams family made a move, it was immediately eliminated. It was also sold for a pittance of $100,000. So Muqing, the brokerage firm you chose may have hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars in assets, but in front of the Adams family, it's nothing.'

Lin Muqing understood Zhou Ming's words like a mirror. As a family that controls Brighton Bank, Massachusetts Insurance Company, Bell Aircraft Company, and Phoenix Optical Missile Company, and has a history of more than 300 years, it is difficult for ordinary people to imagine its wealth. It is important to know that the world's richest man, Warren Buffett, only has assets of tens of billions of dollars, but the Adams family's holding companies have assets of over a trillion dollars, so it is clear who is richer.

'Zhou Ming, so what should we do? Is the Adams family really that powerful?' Lin Muqing asked in a low voice.

Zhou Ming was about to say something when his phone on the table rang. Zhou Ming answered, and it was Omar's voice. His tone seemed very hesitant: 'Mr. Zhou Ming, I hope this call doesn't disturb you. I'm sorry to call you so late, but I have something I have to tell you, about the Adams family.'

Upon hearing this name, Zhou Ming immediately responded, 'Someone has been looking for you, hasn't he? Omar.'

Omar nodded and said, "Yes, this morning the Fenway District Councilor came to see me. He asked me if I had received any fraudulent payments from Wharton Insurance. He demanded that Wharton and I must keep our distance, or else it would affect my political future. I said I would think about it.'

As soon as Omar finished speaking, Zhou Ming told him, "You should tell him yes.'

'Why? Mr Zhou Ming, I am not the kind of person who is ungrateful. I can do without this kind of dirty political future!' Omar said.

'Omar, you misunderstood what I meant,' Zhou Ming explained to him, 'because I am in a difficult situation right now, so you can distance yourself from me first. After I get through this difficult time, we can cooperate again. And your speaker should have promised you some good benefits, right?'

'The speaker of the council said that I can run for city council in the future, and that he can recommend me to join a political party and introduce me to sponsors,' Omar said.

'So, don't be a fool! Take what you can get your hands on first, and we'll talk about the rest later,' Zhou Ming said.

Omar suddenly realised something, and he immediately asked, 'Mr. Zhou Ming, do you mean that you will soon be able to solve your current predicament?'

'That's a given. Don't you have any confidence in me?' Zhou Ming said.

As Zhou Ming's partner and the future president of the company he invested in, Omar of course understood Zhou Ming's current situation. If it were anyone else in Zhou Ming's shoes, Omar would definitely not have any confidence, but this was Zhou Ming, so it was hard to say.

'Well, since you've said so, Mr. Zhou Ming, I can only hope that you can settle those sons of bitches as soon as possible,' said Omar.

Before Zhou Ming could respond, he heard the door to his room being knocked on, so he had to end the call with Omar in a hurry. Lin Muqing went to open the door for Zhou Ming, but she didn't expect to welcome a Chinese person in.

'Consul Cheng, why have you come over?' Zhou Ming said in surprise.

The man laughed and said, 'With all the big things that have happened here, even the finance class has been expelled from Harvard, how could I not know to come here?'

The man who came in was Cheng Jun, the Consul General of the Chinese Consulate in New York. When Zhou Ming first arrived in the United States, it was Cheng Jun who greeted him at the airport and helped him with all the formalities, so Zhou Ming remembered him.

Facing Cheng Jun's words, Zhou Ming scratched his head embarrassedly and said, 'I know the current situation is very bad, and it is all because of me. I am very sorry about this, because I also did not expect the Adams family to be so serious. Not only did they corner my Wharton company into a dead end, they even went after my classmates in the finance class. I didn't expect that.'

Cheng Jun patted Zhou Ming on the shoulder and said, 'In fact, you don't need to blame yourself at all, because this has nothing to do with you. You don't want this either, but you just happened to meet someone like Robert, which made the Adams family too unforgiving.'

Zhou Ming waved his hand and said, "Consul Cheng, you don't need to comfort me, I understand. But Consul Cheng, you didn't come here just to comfort me, did you?'

'Of course not, I came here to convey the task that the ambassador assigned to me," said Cheng Jun.

Hearing the word 'ambassador', both Zhou Ming and Lin Muqing involuntarily drew in a breath, because abroad, the ambassador often represents the country, so the news that Cheng Jun is referring to is most likely news from the central government.

'The ambassador said that he now understands your situation, and he has also negotiated with the Adams family. The Adams family is willing to let this go, but their request is for you to leave Brighton,' Cheng Jun said.

'So, Consul Cheng, you've come here today to take me away?' Zhou Ming asked.

Cheng Jun nodded and said yes, then he looked at Zhou Ming's gloomy face and continued, 'Zhou Ming, you have to understand that the ambassador is doing this for your own good. In fact, you haven't done anything wrong. The ambassador has seen everything you've done. You were able to create the dormitory convenience store and Wharton Insurance, which are already very remarkable miracles. What you've done is already very impressive. All you have to do now is just temporarily avoid the limelight.

'So what you're saying, Consul Cheng, is that neither the ambassador nor the country thinks I have any chance of turning things around, right?' Zhou Ming asked.

'Zhou Ming, I know you're a young man who doesn't like to admit defeat, but there are some things that require a certain approach...'

Zhou Ming interrupted Cheng Jun, 'Consul Cheng, I think you've misunderstood. I'm not being stubborn or acting on impulse. Since you want to take someone with you, in fact, that's what I want too, but it's not me who's leaving, it's her.'

Zhou Ming said, pointing his finger at Lin Muqing.