Chapter 353: They Definitely Won’t Pull Out Today

Director He Lifen frowned in confusion as he monitored the latest gold futures figures.

Two hours earlier, Bank President Lin Jialun had opened a short position on the direct orders of Chairman Xi Jinping.

From that moment on, gold prices had plunged rapidly and relentlessly.

But ten minutes ago, after touching 1.05 million dollars, the decline had stopped.

He Lifen turned to Lin Jialun to ask why.

“Do you understand why prices have stopped falling?”

“Investors remember that the last upward reversal began exactly at 1.05 million dollars. It seems everyone believes the price won’t fall below this level.”

“So that’s why such an enormous volume of buy orders has piled up at 1.05 million?”

“Exactly, Director He.”

“In that case, wouldn’t it be better for us to close our short position at 1.05 million dollars too?”

President Lin Jialun shifted his gaze toward Chairman Xi Jinping.

As though he had read his thoughts, Xi Jinping spoke with obvious irritation in his voice.

“What makes you think that?”

“There’s far too much volume sitting at 1.05 million.”

“How much?”

“By rough estimates, more than 100 billion dollars.”

“More than I expected. But now that the trend has turned downward, that volume will soon be completely overwhelmed.”

At that moment, the situation changed abruptly.

Director He Lifen suddenly stared hard at his laptop monitor.

Noticing his strange reaction, Chairman Xi Jinping asked in surprise,

“He, what happened now?”

“The volume at 1.05 million was bought up in an instant... Huh, what?!”

“What the hell is happening?!”

“It’s... gold prices are shooting upward!”

“Whaaat?!”

Chairman Xi Jinping roared at the top of his lungs and practically glued himself to the laptop screen.

The moment he saw the numbers, he nearly fainted.

In less than a minute, the gold futures price broke through 1.15 million dollars.

Stunned, he turned toward President Lin Jialun and shouted,

“Why did they shoot up so sharply?!”

“It looks like Bongard Group has entered the market.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Only Bongard Investment Group could buy up such an enormous volume at 1.05 million dollars in one stroke.”

“Hmm... So that’s what happened?”

“Chairman, we need to close the short position immediately!”

“Why?”

Xi Jinping’s question made it obvious that he did not want to do so.

Lin Jialun thought for a moment, searching for convincing arguments, then continued.

“Bongard Group poured an enormous amount of money into the market when gold was at 1.05 million, then added another major amount at 1.20 million. Given their aggressive style, there’s a very high chance they’ll inject another enormous sum into the market. If that happens, we’ll suffer massive losses.”

“Surely not...”

“‘Surely not’ won’t save us. Please make a decision quickly!”

“Hmm...”

Chairman Xi Jinping hesitated, clearly deep in thought.

Lin Jialun and the others stared at him impatiently.

After several agonizing seconds, he finally made up his mind and gave the order.

“Close the short position. Right now.”

“Yes, understood.”

After answering briefly, Lin Jialun immediately dialed a number, gave a concise instruction, and ended the call.

At that very moment, Zhang Hui, Chief of the Central Committee Secretariat, quietly reported to the Chairman,

“Chairman, the gold price just broke through 1.25 million dollars.”

Xi Jinping lit a cigarette, trying to suppress his growing frustration and irritation.

Zhang Hui and the others silently stared at the monitor, careful not to add fuel to the fire.

Exhaling a cloud of smoke, Xi Jinping asked Lin Jialun in a tense voice,

“President Lin, we didn’t take a loss, did we?”

“Given the size of our short position, I can’t guarantee that.”

“Haa... This is enough to drive a man insane.”

Bzzzt! Bzzzt!

As the nerve-racking wait dragged on, the phone in Lin Jialun’s hand vibrated.

Recognizing the number, he answered with lightning speed.

“Well?”

[We just completely closed the short position at an average price of 1.28 million dollars.]

“Can we say we got out without a loss?”

[Our average short entry price was 1.27 million dollars, so we realized a loss of roughly 200 million dollars.]

“Well, we got off lightly.”

[The gold price just exceeded 1.30 million dollars. Should we go long?]

“I’ll ask the Chairman and call you back.”

Click.

After ending the call, Lin Jialun reported the results of the position closure to Xi Jinping without embellishment.

“...If we had closed a little earlier, we could have avoided the loss.”

“Nothing can be done about it. We’ll consider a 200-million-dollar loss a fortunate outcome.”

“Understood. What should we do about buying gold?”

“President Lin, what do you think?”

The meaning behind Xi Jinping’s words was obvious: buy gold immediately.

Lin Jialun made another short call, issued the order, and put his phone away.

“Chairman, we’ve begun buying gold futures.”

“Good. Still, at what price does Bongard Group intend to take profits?”

As though he had been waiting for this very moment, Zhang Hui joined the conversation.

“Why not have Director He find out?”

“Me?” He Lifen asked, pointing at himself in surprise.

“Didn’t you say yourself that one of Bongard Group’s top executives is our MSS spy?”

He Lifen’s breath caught.

That “top executive” was completely fictional!

He had invented the person solely to verify whether Xi Jinping had used Industrial and Commercial Bank of China funds to buy gold.

But admitting the deception now would be tantamount to suicide.

“It’s the middle of the night in America right now. I’m not sure I’ll be able to reach him...”

“It won’t hurt to try. Why not give it a shot?”

“All right. I’ll make the call.”

“While you’re at it, find out whether Bongard plans to inject additional funds into the market,” Xi Jinping added.

“Understood. I’ll step outside and call.”

***

“Director Cho, what was our return on the short position?”

Cho Myeongsu, Acting Director of Korea Investment’s venture fund, answered Chairman Park Yeongil’s question without hesitation.

“Our company, Korea Investment, and Hangang Group opened short positions at an average price of 1.28 million dollars and closed them at 1.065 million. Our return was approximately 20%.”

“Ha-ha-ha!”

Chairman Park Yeongil burst into loud, satisfied laughter at the excellent result.

Once he had finished laughing, he asked Cho Myeongsu,

“What was Bongard Group’s return?”

“Louis Williams contacted me about five minutes ago. They made around 19.7%.”

“Not bad at all. What about Xi Jinping? Has he closed his short already?”

Everyone present immediately turned their eyes toward me.

Their gazes silently urged me to hurry up and call Vice Chairman Tang Guochang.

Understanding the unspoken hint, I wasted no time. I picked up my phone from the table and dialed the number.

As always, he answered immediately.

[I was just about to call you myself, Chief Cha. Perfect timing.]

“Is something urgent going on?”

[Director He just contacted me. Xi Jinping is very interested in knowing at what price Bongard Group intends to sell its gold.]

After thinking for a couple of seconds about how to answer, I replied to Tang Guochang.

“Tell him that Chairman Bongard personally makes all pricing decisions, so we don’t know.”

[Understood. One more thing. Xi really wants to know whether it was actually Bongard that crashed the price and then drove it back up.]

In truth, I was the one behind the price surge, not Bongard Group.

But revealing my hand would amount to nothing more than bragging, so I decided to keep quiet.

“Chairman Xi is absolutely right.”

[That’s what I thought. Do you have any questions for me?]

“I’m curious how Xi Jinping’s short position ended.”

[They realized a loss of roughly 200 million dollars.]

I had expected Xi Jinping to lose around 5%, but contrary to my expectations, his loss amounted to only 0.1%. Apparently, he had acted fairly quickly.

“That’s disappointing.”

[Tell me about it. But we’ll still get another chance to teach him a lesson, won’t we?]

“I’ll take care of it, so don’t worry.”

[I’m counting on you, Chief Cha.]

“Agreed. Now, regarding the instructions for Director He Lifen.”

[I’m listening carefully.]

“Chairman Bongard hates sharing profits with anyone.”

I explained in detail to Vice Chairman Tang Guochang exactly how He Lifen should behave.

“...He needs to report it with an extremely grim expression so Xi won’t have even the slightest suspicion.”

[I understand perfectly.]

After discussing a couple more details with Tang Guochang, I ended the call.

The moment I lowered my phone, Chairman Park Yeongil immediately leaned closer.

“Jiham, did Xi somehow manage to wriggle his way out and make a profit?”

“Why would he? He lost around 200 million dollars.”

“Only 200 million? Didn’t he get off far too easily?”

“I completely agree, Chairman.”

“Still, why did you give He Lifen those instructions?”

“To end this war with a lightning strike.”

“Aah, so that’s what you’re planning! I didn’t catch on right away.”

“Director Cho, pass the details of Xi Jinping’s losses to the Bongard side.”

***

“Director He, did you contact the spy?” Xi Jinping asked impatiently the moment He Lifen returned to the office.

“Yes, Chairman. Clark Bongard personally makes all pricing decisions, so our man doesn’t know anything about that.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

“But while speaking with him, I managed to learn something else important.”

“Hurry up and tell me. What is it?”

“Clark Bongard suspects that an outsider tried to short the market and drive prices down.”

“Hopefully our man didn’t expose us?”

“Absolutely not! Bongard is extremely irritated that some small fry is interfering with his plays in the gold market.”

“How dare that old bastard...”

Xi Jinping suddenly erupted in fury.

Unable to understand the reason for such an intense reaction, He Lifen and the others froze in silence.

A few moments later, after barely suppressing his anger, the Chairman gritted his teeth and ordered,

“He, find a way to punish Bongard.”

“Excuse me? What do you mean...?”

“That senile old bastard just called me ‘small fry’!”

He Lifen barely managed to suppress an ironic smirk. The situation was becoming absurd. Xi Jinping had misunderstood everything again.

“Chairman, Clark Bongard doesn’t even know that you were the one who opened the short position.”

“Ahem! Ah... Yes, that’s true. I hadn’t thought of that. Continue your report.”

“Bongard absolutely cannot stand it when someone tries to latch onto his profits. Because of that, Bongard Group may pull out of the market early and dump its positions at any moment.”

“Why should we care whether his company pulls out or not?”

Before He Lifen could answer, Bank President Lin Jialun stepped in.

“Chairman, allow me to explain.”

“Go ahead.”

“For gold prices to continue rising, we need the mass participation of major players. If a giant like Bongard leaves the market, the price simply won’t be able to rise to the level we want.”

“Hmm... So that’s the problem. Then what should we do?”

“I believe the best solution would be to lower our target return.”

“You mean... gold won’t reach 1.5 million dollars?”

“That depends entirely on when Bongard Group decides to pull out.”

“Well, no matter how much of a hurry they’re in, they definitely won’t pull out today.”

Chairman Xi Jinping continued to believe, with absolute confidence, in the correctness of his own assumptions.