Chapter 355: Let’s Drink Ourselves to Death!

“Who are you planning to sell my gold to?” Chairman Xi Jinping asked Minister He Lifen impatiently.

“There is a Chairman Zhen Weiliang in Hong Kong who is heavily involved in the jewelry business.”

“Chairman Xi, I also know Chairman Zhen,” Bank President Lin Jialun cut in, picking up where Minister He Lifen had left off.

“Really? What kind of person is he? Tell me.”

“He has an excellent reputation, enormous financial resources, and from what I’ve heard, he knows how to keep his mouth shut. However, when it comes to transactions, he’s extremely meticulous and insists on following every procedure to the letter.”

“And what’s wrong with that?”

“Since Bongard Investment Group has withdrawn from the gold futures market, gold prices have nowhere to go but down. If Chairman Zhen starts nitpicking, the gold sale will be delayed. In that situation, we risk being unable to sell it at the price we want.”

“Hmm...” Chairman Xi Jinping drawled ambiguously, as though pondering something.

Fortunately, he did not think for long.

“Director Lin, what if we sell the gold to someone other than Chairman Zhen?”

“In our country, he is the only person capable of raising such an enormous amount of money all at once.”

“Hmm, is that so?”

“Wouldn’t it be better to sell the gold to a buyer from another country?”

Minister He Lifen had received special instructions from Vice Chairman Tang Guochang: he was to make absolutely certain that Chairman Xi Jinping sold the gold specifically to Chairman Zhen Weiliang. However, Bank President Lin Jialun was pushing him toward foreign buyers. He could not allow that to happen, so he hurriedly intervened.

“Chairman Xi, we need to approach that option with extreme caution.”

“Explain why.”

“As Director Lin just said, gold prices have nowhere to go but down. And selling the gold to a buyer from another country would require going through far too many formal procedures.”

“That makes sense. If we compare a foreign buyer with Chairman Zhen, how long would each transaction take?”

“A foreign buyer would take at least ten days. As for Chairman Zhen, we would have to ask him.”

“What are you waiting for?”

Chairman Xi Jinping’s question could mean only one thing: call Chairman Zhen Weiliang immediately. Without delay, Minister He Lifen dialed his number. After several rings, Zhen Weiliang’s voice came through.

[Minister He, allow me to sincerely congratulate you on your appointment as head of the Ministry of State Security!]

Minister He Lifen had already spoken with Chairman Zhen Weiliang the previous evening at his meeting with Vice Chairman Tang Guochang. Tang had deliberately introduced the two of them. Nevertheless, if Zhen Weiliang was bringing up the appointment now, it meant he was taking Chairman Xi Jinping’s presence into consideration. Failing to recognize his intention and pretending not to understand would have been negligence.

“Thank you. Are you able to talk right now?”

[Of course. Anytime.]

“I can’t tell you exactly who it is, but an acquaintance of mine urgently needs cash.”

[I’m sorry, but I’m not in the business of lending money.]

“This isn’t about a loan. My acquaintance wants to sell you thirty tons of gold.”

[Oh, that’s quite a substantial amount. And by what deadline does Minister He’s acquaintance need the money?]

“Immediately.”

[Immediately, you say...]

Chairman Zhen Weiliang hesitated as though considering the offer. Minister He Lifen silently waited, giving him time to think. After a while, his voice sounded again, this time with a decision made.

[Do I absolutely have to meet your acquaintance today?]

“I ask for your understanding. There is no time to spare.”

[Well, then there’s nothing to be done. If I fly to Beijing right now, I’ll arrive late tonight.]

“Let me know your arrival time, and I’ll meet you at the airport.”

[Agreed. I’ll contact you before departure.]

Click.

The moment Minister He Lifen hung up, Chairman Xi Jinping immediately blurted out,

“Minister He, well?”

“We’ve arranged to meet tonight.”

“Excellent work.”

“No thanks are necessary. Chairman Xi, wouldn’t it be better if Chief Zhang handled the negotiations with Chairman Zhen on your behalf?”

Chairman Xi Jinping turned toward Zhang Hui, Chief of the Central Committee Secretariat. As though immediately grasping the Chairman’s intention, Zhang Hui replied without hesitation,

“I will carry out your instructions, Chairman.”

At the same time.

***

Vice President Cho Myeongsu was reporting the results of the gold futures investments to Chairman Park Yeongil and the others.

“We sold the gold futures at an average price of 1.39 million dollars.”

“Excellent work. What was the return?”

“In the first phase, we bought the futures at 885,000 dollars. In the second, at 1.22 million dollars. The return on the first batch was 57%, while the second was 14%. Incidentally, the return from the short positions was 20%.”

“Ha-ha-ha-ha!”

Chairman Park Yeongil burst into booming laughter, genuinely delighted. Naturally, the rest of us also broke into broad smiles, making no attempt to hide our satisfaction. Once the laughter died down, Chairman Yoon Jongu turned to me curiously.

“Chief Cha, how much did Chairman Xi lose?”

“Considering that most of the major trades went through when futures were around 1.21 million dollars and were closed around 1.11 million, his losses came to roughly 12%.”

“Less than I expected,” Chairman Yoon Jongu replied, obvious disappointment in his voice.

“The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China injected fifty billion dollars when futures were at around 1.15 million. If you exclude that fifty billion, the losses are roughly 20%.”

“Well, considering the scale involved, even 20% is an enormous loss.”

At that moment, having waited for a pause in our conversation, Chief of Staff Lee Jihun spoke up.

“Chief Cha, then how does Chairman Xi intend to get himself out of this situation?”

“First, he needs to return the money he extorted from those eleven banks.”

“But didn’t Vice Chairman Tang Guochang clean out his secret fund completely?”

“He still has thirty tons of gold that Vice Chairman Tang presented to him.”

In other words, Chairman Xi Jinping intended to sell those thirty tons of gold in order to repay the money he had taken.

“I see what you mean. And what happens after that?”

“To refill his emptied slush fund, Chairman Xi will go to any lengths. But no matter how much he struggles, he won’t achieve his goal.”

“You mean you’ll stop him, Chief Cha?”

“No. I mean that by then, Vice Chairman Tang will already have carried out his coup.”

“But isn’t the coup he’s planning scheduled for the end of the year?”

“Four months will pass in the blink of an eye.”

“That’s true... Now that I think about it, you’re right. All right, let’s talk about something else. Do you think Chairman Xi will really destroy North Korea’s nuclear weapons storage facilities?”

So that was the real reason Chief of Staff Lee Jihun had come to see me.

“Chairman Xi is convinced that Kim Jonghun stole his secret funds. Out of sheer desire for revenge, he’ll try to destroy them.”

“But will he actually succeed?”

“Chairman Xi is highly skeptical of the MSS’s capabilities. And since Minister He Lifen has been tasked with restoring the agency’s prestige, he has no choice but to see it through.”

“When should we expect visible results?”

“For MSS agents, infiltrating and demolishing nuclear facilities would carry far too much risk. So instead, they’ll try to recruit high-ranking officers stationed at those facilities...”

Bzzz-bzzz—

At the most interesting moment, the phone lying on the table began to vibrate. A quick glance at the screen showed Chairman Zhen Weiliang’s name. The reason for his call was obvious, so after apologizing to Chief of Staff Lee Jihun, I answered.

“Chairman Zhen, I’m listening.”

[Chief Cha, Minister He Lifen just called me.]

“So Chairman Xi decided to sell the gold?”

[You were absolutely right. Minister He asked me to come to Beijing today. I wanted to ask you what exactly is going on.]

After thinking over my answer for a moment, I said,

“Chairman Xi suffered enormous losses from his gold futures investments. At the moment, gold prices are continuing to plummet.”

[So that bastard wants to dump the gold on me as quickly as possible?]

“I won’t deny it.”

[And how are we supposed to ruin his clever little scheme?]

“I think buying the gold quickly isn’t such a bad idea.”

[You’re telling me to buy his gold at a high price?] Chairman Zhen’s voice sharpened with displeasure.

Of course, I was confident I could persuade him, so I was not worried in the slightest.

“Right now, gold has fallen below 950,000 dollars per kilogram. If the trend continues, it should fall to 850,000 by tomorrow morning at the latest. If you negotiate a discount of around 5%, you’ll effectively be buying the gold at roughly 800,000 dollars.”

[But with the trend like this, couldn’t the price fall below 850,000 as well?]

“Just a week ago, gold was holding steady at around 850,000 dollars per kilogram. Taking that into account, the probability of it falling below 850,000 is practically zero.”

[If Chief Cha says so, then I’ll trust your judgment. But will Chairman Xi agree to my terms?]

“There are no SKR certificates for his gold. I don’t think I need to say anything more.”

[Ha-ha. Of course not.]

At that moment, Vice Chairman Tang Guochang’s number appeared on the screen. The reason for his call was equally obvious, so after asking Chairman Zhen to wait, I accepted the second call.

“Vice Chairman Tang, I’m listening.”

[Minister He just called me. Chairman Xi suffered investment losses totaling 30.7 billion dollars.]

“I see.”

[Judging by how calm you sound, Chief Cha, did you already know the extent of his losses?]

I had estimated myself that Chairman Xi Jinping would lose somewhere around thirty billion dollars. Since the actual figure matched my calculations, I had answered in a completely calm tone. Vice Chairman Tang Guochang, however, sounded surprised that I was not shocked.

“Yes. I had expected his losses to come to around thirty billion dollars.”

[As expected... Chairman Xi has decided to sell the gold to Chairman Zhen.]

“I know.”

Without hiding anything, I recounted my conversation with Zhen Weiliang to Vice Chairman Tang.

“...I advised him to buy the gold at 800,000 dollars per kilogram.”

[Understood. But how does Chairman Xi intend to cover the shortfall?]

Chairman Xi Jinping had suffered losses of 30.7 billion dollars. Chairman Zhen Weiliang intended to buy his thirty tons of gold for twenty-four billion dollars. A simple calculation showed that Chairman Xi would still be 6.7 billion dollars short of the 250 billion he needed to repay the eleven banks.

“There’s a very high chance that Chairman Xi will shift all the responsibility onto Bank President Lin Jialun.”

[Does he have sufficient grounds to do that?]

“Most likely, Director Lin was the one who persuaded Chairman Xi to invest in gold futures in the first place.”

[Ah, now I understand.]

After speaking with Vice Chairman Tang for a little longer, I ended the call. Then I explained the details of my conversations with Chairman Zhen and Vice Chairman Tang to Chairman Park Yeongil and the others.

“...The gold transaction should be completed by tomorrow.”

“Good grief! That’s not merely rushing anymore. It’s a full-blown race.”

“I completely agree with Chairman Yoon on that.”

“Chairman Park, you owe us a lavish dinner to celebrate the fact that you made more money than I did!”

Chairman Park Yeongil was struck speechless by such shamelessness. He and Chairman Yoon Jongu had invested exactly the same amount in gold futures, which meant they had earned exactly the same profit. Yet Yoon Jongu was brazenly claiming that Park Yeongil had made more.

“Are you serious right now? Or has your brain gone soft?”

“Chief Song, why don’t you explain to Chairman Park just how much more he earned than I did?”

“Ha-ha-ha, certainly,” Chief Secretary Song Dosok replied with a light chuckle. “Chairman Park, KBH Investment invested forty-eight billion dollars in gold futures and made approximately 27.5 billion dollars in profit.”

“So what?”

“The shares in KBH Investment are divided as follows: 40% belongs to Korea Investment, 35% to Bongard Investment Group, and 25% to our company. Therefore, Korea Investment’s net profit came to eleven billion dollars, while our company’s came to 6.9 billion. So Chairman Park really does owe us dinner.”

“Ha-ha, so that’s how it turned out? Fine! Let’s drink ourselves to death tonight!”

“Oh, what a disaster!” Chief of Staff Lee Jihun muttered with an exaggerated groan as he rose from the sofa.