Chapter 120: Lobbying Weida (Part 2)

'This whole thing is not that complicated. As you yourself just said, Mr. Johnny, no matter what leverage there is, the price of your house will not change. So in the final analysis, these people are just profiting from your loan. Therefore, because of this, as long as this loan suddenly disappears, then these companies will inevitably go bankrupt, right?' Zhou Ming said to Johnny.

'Mr. Zhou Ming, I can understand what you're saying, and I believe that if I go bankrupt, those bastards who live off my interest will also go bust. But there's one thing I don't understand,' said Johnny.

Zhou Ming reached out to indicate that Johnny should speak his mind. Johnny then asked, 'If I really go bankrupt, won't those bastards auction off my house in order to recover their costs? I signed a contract with Brookfield at the time.'

Johnny's tone was full of worry, which made Zhou Ming feel that the United States is truly the empire of the free, and the people here have a very strong sense of the law. Unlike many people in China, they don't even know the law, and they won't honour even contracts they have signed. As for now, in this era when the economy is just taking off, there are even many things that don't have a formal text. Everyone just has a verbal agreement or simply makes up an agreement in their own minds.

But Johnny would not think this way. Even though Brook Investment Company had sold his property mortgage contract to someone else, a contract is a contract, and rights and responsibilities are still inescapable.

Zhou Ming thought about this for a moment and then nodded, saying, 'That's true. My idea is to let him go to auction.'

This answer made Johnny's eyes widen in surprise. He looked at Zhou Ming and asked, 'Mr. Zhou Ming, I don't think you understand. I only have one property. If it is auctioned off, then my wife and I will be homeless.'

'Of course I won't allow that to happen,' Zhou Ming said to Johnny. 'What I mean is that as soon as you declare personal bankruptcy, I will provide you with accommodation, and after everything is over, I will buy your property back for you.'

Johnny was even more puzzled: 'I would like to believe you, Mr. Zhou Ming, but I don't understand why you would do this.'

Zhou Ming did not answer this question, but Omar helped him answer: 'Johnny, I think recently many people on the street have been denouncing a company called Wharton Insurance. You wouldn't know about it, would you? Even in our Vinda community, there are things like this.'

'So that insurance company is Mr. Zhou Ming's? So this was just a conspiracy of commercial retaliation!'

Johnny suddenly understood, but his smile lasted only a moment. In the end, he sighed and said, 'But Mr. Zhou Ming, I can say that I will believe in Omar. I will support you, as long as you don't let my wife suffer. But I can't guarantee that other people will think the same way as me. You know, the most important thing in this world is our family.'

Zhou Ming nodded: 'I understand this, and as a Chinese person who has experienced the Spring Festival travel rush, I understand even better than you.'

Johnny blinked, not understanding what the Spring Festival and Spring Festival travel rush were, but Zhou Ming didn't mind, and continued, 'But one should still try one's best in everything, which is also the reason I asked you to come today, because I will ask Omar to help me organise a community residents' meeting in the future, and I hope that Mr Johnny can help persuade the residents in the community a bit more.'

'I will definitely do that, but I advise Mr Zhou Ming not to get his hopes up,' said Johnny.

Zhou Ming just laughed at this, and then Johnny left because he had other things to do. Worried that someone from the Adams family was really causing trouble in the community, Omar escorted Johnny out the door instead of Zhou Ming.

After returning to the office, Omar also said to Ming Zhou, 'Mr. Ming Zhou, it's not that I'm trying to discourage you, but really, in the absence of anything else, it's really too difficult just relying on you alone, even though I have a lot of confidence in you.'

Ming Zhou nodded and said, 'I understand this, but we can't just shrink back from difficulties, don't you think?'

Omar smiled slightly and said, 'I completely agree, because if it weren't for Mr. Zhou Ming's persistence at the beginning, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to sit in this office today.'

'Then I'll be waiting for the good news you'll give me, Omar.'

After leaving Omar with these words, Zhou Ming and Zhang Lin left. It was only then that Zhou Ming got into his car and opened his pager to see several messages from Lin Muqing. He thought she must be very worried, so Zhou Ming immediately picked up the phone and called her back.

'Zhou Ming, how are things over there? Have you arrived at the Weida community yet? Have you met anyone from the Adams family or anyone else? Nothing major has happened, has it?' As soon as the call connected, Lin Muqing's anxious voice immediately sounded, and she didn't care about anything else, just asking a series of questions about Zhou Ming, which showed how much she cared.

This made Zhou Ming feel very warm in his heart. He said to Lin Muqing, 'Muqing, don't worry, I'm fine. I'm afraid the Adams family didn't expect me to come back.'

Zhou Ming could hear Lin Muqing's obvious relief on the other end. Zhou Ming continued, 'I've just come from the Vidda community. I've already met Omar, and he's also introduced me to Johnny, who is very active here. He said he would help me prepare for a residents' meeting and do more ideological work with the residents.'

This made Lin Muqing's heart rise again after letting go of it: 'Then wouldn't such a big event be dangerous? The Adams family will definitely get wind of it.'

Zhou Ming explained to her: 'My dear Muqing, this is not a representative assembly or campaign. It is just a residents' meeting with no hierarchical record. As long as the Adams family does not have a core member in the Vidda community, it is impossible for them to know.'

Although Lin Muqing was still very worried, now that Zhou Ming had said so, she had to suppress her feelings and ask again: 'I hope so. Then, Zhou Ming, how much confidence do you have in this assembly? Can you convince them to give up their property and support your idea of bankruptcy and not paying back the loan?'

'As I said, we'll do our best and leave the rest to fate,' said Zhou Ming.

Time quickly passed to the third day, the day of the Vinda Community Residents' Assembly. At 9:30 a.m., Zhou Ming arrived at the square in the Vinda Community. By the time he arrived, more than a dozen black people had already gathered there.

This was not the entire Veda community, but it was already pretty good. After all, the purpose of the meeting was not to invite everyone from the community, but only one representative from each household or even each unit, just like the National People's Congress in China. But even so, it was still necessary to coordinate everyone's schedule. After all, everyone had a job, and they could not be asked to give it up, that would not make sense.

In addition, Ming Chow did not invite all the people from the ethnic minorities, only the blacks. This was Omar's suggestion. Due to discrimination, all ethnic minorities are very close-knit, especially the blacks. In addition, Hispanics and Native Americans also discriminate against blacks and each other.

As for the Chinese, Ming Zhou didn't think much about them because during the more than six months he spent in the United States, he had seen clearly that these people were the kind of people who took advantage of any opportunity that came their way and spent all day thinking about enjoying their rights, but were never willing to bear their responsibilities. In particular, they always felt a bit inexplicably superior to their compatriots in the country, as if they had really become white people, but in the eyes of real white people, their status was unknown how low.

These people, if they were really forced to get together, something would inevitably go wrong. So to avoid accidents, Zhou Ming decided to hold a separate meeting. First of all, they are the most clannish, and also the most

'Mr. Zhou Ming, I was just talking about you with them!'

A voice suddenly came from behind. Zhou Ming looked over and saw Johnny, whom he had met last time. However, in the past two days, this guy seemed to have gained a little weight.

Zhou Ming went up to shake hands and say hello to Johnny. Johnny introduced him to the people around him: 'This is Mr. Zhou Ming, whom I've told you about. He's also the one who came to this meeting today. Our brother Omar was able to get that fat pig Bertel out of the community office with his help, so he's also our good brother and we should all support him!'

The black man next to him suddenly understood. It was just that Ming Chow had given Johnny a second look, after all, it took a lot of courage for Johnny to call someone a fat pig like that.

'So you are Mr. Ming Chow? Just now I heard Johnny say something about subprime loans, what is that? Shouldn't we be paying so much interest?' a black woman asked.

'Before answering that question, I think I need to ask you what your interest rate is,' Ming Chow said.

'I'm 7.6%!' the black woman replied, but as soon as she answered, she remembered something and continued, 'This is because my friend works at Brook Investment Company and he helped me get a preferential interest rate that no one else can get.'

Zhou Ming then turned his attention to the others, and their answers between 8:00 and 9:00 proved that the black woman was telling the truth.

Zhou Ming nodded and said, 'Okay, I can tell you, but I hope you're prepared, because as far as I know, the interest rate that Brook Investment Company charges on the mortgage loan you took out with the bank against your property is only around 3 percentage points.'

This answer shocked everyone. All the blacks stared wide-eyed together, and the black woman exclaimed, 'How can it be only this little? The last agent didn't say that. He said that the bank's loan interest rate was also very high, as much as 6 to 7 percentage points. I could avoid a lot of troublesome procedures by getting a loan from him, and he gave me the most favourable interest rate!'

After the black woman, the other blacks also yelled out one after the other, saying that they regretted believing the broker's words and that they should have gone directly to the bank to apply for a loan.

To be honest, the way this group of blacks stared with their eyes wide open was quite intimidating, but Zhou Ming quickly recovered his composure. He said again, 'They are deceiving you, but there is nothing you can do about it, including going to the bank.'

Zhou Ming deliberately said, 'Because the real situation is that they, the guys from Brook Investment, have bribed the bank not to lend you money, using your credit rating as an excuse. So no matter what you do, you can only borrow from them at usury rates.'

As soon as Zhou Ming finished speaking, someone immediately empathised, 'That's right, I've been to the bank, and the people there just said that my credit rating wasn't good enough. So this was all a conspiracy by Brook Investment?'

Zhou Ming put his hands together: 'I'm afraid I don't need to prove this, otherwise you all have very good jobs and income proof, and you are also people who own property. With such good conditions, why is your credit rating so low that you can't even get a mortgage? This is too suspicious.'

After hearing Zhou Ming's words, all the blacks couldn't help but nod, but they didn't say anything, but turned their heads to the other side. Zhou Ming looked over and saw that it was Omar coming over.