Chapter 357: Who the Hell Is This God?

The next day.

As soon as I arrived at work, I immediately summoned Vice President Cho Myeongsu to my office.

I asked him why the price of gold futures had suddenly crashed to 700,000 dollars.

“That... That happened because of my mistake.”

“Tell me, Vice President Cho. What exactly did you do wrong?”

“The reason this happened is none other than Tracy.”

I thought I already understood what had happened the previous evening.

I had instructed Vice President Cho Myeongsu to drive gold futures down to 800,000 dollars.

To carry out my order, he must have hastily assembled an operations team.

Naturally, Tracy would have been part of that team as well.

And she must have passed on what she heard from Cho Myeongsu to her grandfather, Chairman Bongard.

He must have decided that something was going on and joined the short-selling play.

As a result, a major mishap occurred, with gold futures plunging far below the intended target—to 700,000 dollars.

To confirm my guess, I asked him directly.

“Your assumptions are absolutely correct, Chief. How do we solve this problem now?”

“Hmm... What would be the best way out of this?”

The moment I sank into thought, a brilliant idea flashed through my mind.

After quickly turning it into a concrete plan, I answered Vice President Cho Myeongsu’s question.

“Let’s simply let Chairman Xi Jinping raise the price of gold futures himself.”

Vice President Cho Myeongsu seemed to understand Cha Jiham’s idea.

The price of physical gold tends to move directly in response to fluctuations in the futures market.

To return the money he had extorted from the eleven banks, Chairman Xi Jinping needed to sell the gold.

And in order to sell it to Chairman Zhen Weiliang at a more favorable and higher price, he would inevitably have to push futures prices upward.

That was exactly the point Cha Jiham was making.

“Ah, I see what you mean.”

“Chairman Xi will try to drive futures as high as possible.”

“You mean we should prevent prices from rising above 800,000 dollars?”

“You understood me perfectly.”

Brrr—

At that moment, the phone lying on the desk buzzed.

I picked it up and glanced at the screen. Chairman Zhen Weiliang’s name was displayed.

After excusing myself to Vice President Cho Myeongsu, I answered the call.

“I’m listening, Chairman Zhen.”

[Chief Cha, haven’t gold futures fallen a little too far?]

“That’s just how things turned out.”

[So there’s something I don’t know?]

“Ha-ha. I won’t deny it.”

[Then what should I do? Buy the gold at 700,000 dollars?]

“No. As I told you last night, you need to buy the gold at 800,000 dollars.”

[I don’t understand your logic at all, Chief Cha.]

“To sell the gold to you at a high price, Chairman Xi will have to raise the futures price.”

[That makes it sound like the bastard plans to interfere in the futures market. But doesn’t he have no money?]

“Out of the 250 billion dollars he squeezed out of the eleven banks, he still has 220 billion in his hands.”

[What a piece of work... That man behaves worse than the lowest kind of gangster...]

After talking with Chairman Zhen Weiliang about various matters for a while, I ended the call.

After relaying the contents of the conversation to Vice President Cho Myeongsu, I made my request.

“...Set up a system that allows us to exchange information with Bongard Investment Group in real time.”

“I understand your instructions, but there is one thing that worries me.”

“Tell me what it is.”

“If Chairman Xi throws 220 billion dollars into the futures market, prices are guaranteed to rise.”

“Of course.”

“If we assume they buy futures at 700,000 and sell at 800,000, their investment profit will be thirty-one billion dollars.”

Fortunately, I already had a solution to that problem.

“We simply need to make sure that we and Bongard Investment Group hold futures strictly at the 800,000-dollar mark.”

“Ahh, I see. Understood.”

“I’m counting on your abilities, Vice President Cho.”

“I’ll do everything I can. Work is waiting, so I’ll be going.”

The moment Vice President Cho Myeongsu left the office, I dialed Chairman Bongard.

After several rings, his guilty voice came through the phone.

[Chief Cha, did our company put you in a difficult position?]

“Not particularly.”

[I was worried you might scold Tracy. Thank God.]

“Tracy was only carrying out the task she was given.”

[Hearing that takes a huge weight off my shoulders.]

“Now, to the reason I called. Chairman Xi is going to raise gold futures prices...”

***

“Whaaat?!”

Chairman Xi Jinping shouted so loudly that members of the secretariat immediately rushed into the office.

He gestured for them to leave and asked Zhang Hui, Chief of the Central Committee Secretariat,

“They really crashed to 700,000 dollars?”

“I just checked again.”

“Haaah...”

Chairman Xi Jinping let out a heavy, whistling sigh and lit a cigarette.

After blowing a cloud of smoke into the air, he asked Zhang Hui whether he had any suggestions.

“Perhaps we should wait until the price of gold starts rising again?”

“Didn’t you yourself say Bongard Investment Group had left the futures market?”

The doubt in Chairman Xi Jinping’s question was obvious: why would prices rise?

“Gold futures have fallen almost fifty percent from their peak. It’s the perfect time for a technical rebound.”

“And how far do you think they’ll rise?”

At that moment, Bank President Lin Jialun asked to speak, clearly showing that he had an idea.

“Chairman, what if we raise the price of futures ourselves?”

“Explain.”

“With Bongard Investment Group gone, all that remains in the market are small fry. If we throw in a large amount of money, we’ll easily be able to dictate the terms.”

“But that would require an enormous amount of capital.”

“We have the 219.3 billion dollars taken from the eleven banks.”

“You’re suggesting we put everything on the line? Are you serious?”

“Look at it another way. The larger the amount, the higher our chances of success.”

Chairman Xi Jinping sank into gloomy thought.

He hurriedly stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray and turned toward Lin Jialun.

“If we enter the futures market, how high can we push the price?”

“There’s an old saying: only God knows where stocks and futures will go, or where a frog will jump.”

“That may be true, but we can still make an estimate, can’t we?”

“When futures were at 1.05 million dollars, Bongard Investment Group injected 200 billion. As a result, the price rose to 1.2 million.”

Chairman Xi Jinping shifted his gaze toward Zhang Hui.

Understanding the Chairman’s train of thought, Zhang Hui spent some time calculating something on his phone before saying,

“Bongard Investment Group raised the price by 14.2%. Considering that we’ll be injecting 19.7 billion dollars more, the increase should be at least 15%.”

“And what number does that give us?”

“Futures are currently at 700,000 dollars, so they should rise to at least 800,000. In that case, our investment profit would be thirty-one billion dollars.”

“Ha-ha-ha!”

Earlier, Xi Jinping had lost 30.7 billion dollars on futures.

If he could now earn thirty-one billion, it would wipe out all his losses in one stroke.

That was why he burst into booming laughter.

Zhang Hui waited until the Chairman finished laughing, then continued.

“In that case, we don’t need to sell the gold to Chairman Zhen at all.”

“Why do you say that?”

“You only planned to sell him the gold in order to repay the debt to the eleven banks. But if we can earn thirty-one billion dollars on futures, why take a loss and sell the gold now?”

“Hmm... That makes sense. Tell Zhen the deal is off.”

Meanwhile, Minister He Lifen was panicking internally.

His task was to make sure Xi Jinping sold the gold to Zhen Weiliang.

But contrary to expectations, Xi had now decided to withdraw from the deal.

Realizing that if he kept sitting there doing nothing, everything would be ruined, He Lifen hurriedly inserted himself into the conversation.

“Chairman, this matter requires extremely careful consideration.”

“And why is that?” Irritation was clearly audible in Xi Jinping’s voice.

He Lifen had his own reasons, so he ignored it and replied,

“As President Lin said, the futures market is unpredictable. If the worst happens and we fail to earn the thirty-one billion in profit, we’ll still have to sell the gold.”

“Then we’ll sell it to Zhen afterward. What’s the problem?”

“He flew here late at night at your request. If we send him away without a compelling reason, he may dig in his heels and refuse to buy the gold altogether.”

“Hmm... That’s true.”

“I think it would be better if Chief Zhang and I visited him personally, offered a polite apology, and only then sent him back.”

“Do it.”

“It would be improper to show up unannounced, so I’ll call and apologize first.”

After leaving the office, Minister He Lifen immediately called Zhen Weiliang and relayed Chairman Xi Jinping’s decision in detail.

“...What should we do in this situation?”

[Minister He, I need to correct you on one point. Gold futures have just broken through the 780,000-dollar mark.]

“What?! Is that true?”

[If you don’t believe me, check the quotes yourself.]

Zhen Weiliang’s voice carried obvious irritation.

He Lifen realized that he urgently needed to calm the angry man.

“Chairman Zhen, don’t misunderstand me. I’m simply shocked.”

[Fine, I understand. Incidentally, futures will get stuck at exactly 800,000 dollars.]

“How can you be so sure?”

[Minister He, what I’m about to tell you must remain a secret until the day you die.]

“Even if they put a knife to my throat, I’ll keep silent.”

[God himself is controlling the futures price.]

He Lifen frowned in confusion.

As far as he knew, Bongard Investment Group had withdrawn from the market.

“Chairman Zhen, has Bongard Investment Group entered the game again?”

[I think you’re misunderstanding something, Minister He. Bongard Investment Group is not God.]

“Then who do you mean?”

[I can’t tell you his name. I’ll give you only one hint: even Chairman Bongard walks on eggshells around him.]

“Someone Chairman Bongard walks on eggshells around?.. Do you mean President Douglas?”

[Ha-ha-ha. Interpret it however you like.]

In other words, the God Zhen Weiliang was talking about had nothing to do with President Douglas.

“Then who the hell is this God?”

[No comment. I’ll simply remain in Beijing until Chairman Xi waves the white flag.]

“Do that. I’ll contact you later.”

Click.

After hanging up, Minister He Lifen returned to the office where Xi Jinping was waiting.

The moment he sat down on an empty sofa, the Chairman addressed him.

“Minister He, did you settle things with Zhen?”

“Yes, Chairman. He said there’s no need for a personal apology.”

“Was he very angry?”

“I believe so.”

“Fine. Let’s not talk about him anymore.”

Answering in a curt, displeased tone, Xi Jinping gave Bank President Lin Jialun an order.

“Start buying futures right now.”

“Yes, Chairman.”

After giving a short reply, Lin Jialun immediately made a call and passed along the Chairman’s order.

However, the reaction from the other end of the line was extremely strange.

“Why are you saying that?”

[Half an hour ago, astronomical sums were injected into the futures market.]

“Is that true?!”

[Yes. As a result, the price has just passed 800,000 dollars.]

“Whaaat?!” Lin Jialun barked in genuine shock.

Xi Jinping, who had been watching him, asked in surprise,

“President Lin, what is it now?”

“Th-this... They say Bongard Investment Group has returned to the futures market.”

“Ughhh!” Chairman Xi Jinping groaned, clutching his forehead in a wave of helplessness.