Chapter 624
: Killing
Chapter 624: Killing
The wind picked up.
The clouds are moving in the sky.
Lightning tore through the leaden sky.
Thunder roared in, and torrential rain poured down.
It was early evening in early July. Yue Wangtai, located on Furong Middle Road in Lijin City, was bathed in a cold, blizzard-swept atmosphere. But inside the Yongxin Trust office on the 18th floor of Dingwangtai, a bustling scene was in full swing.
Nearly a hundred elderly men and women cornered Zhao Mingxuan, the general manager of Yongxin Trust Company, in a large conference room. They all spoke with a strong Tianjin accent, acting extremely aggressively, and their spittle almost drowned Zhao Mingxuan!
The most vocal among them was Ma Rulong's biological mother, Wang Xiufen. She jumped onto the conference table, her finger almost poking Zhao Mingxuan's forehead, tearfully accusing Yongxin Trust of robbery: "You bunch of bastards! That's the money I scraped together for my son's medical treatment! You said it was a sure thing, a guaranteed return, so why did you specify in small print in the contract that you didn't guarantee the principal and interest? Now we can't even sell it! My son is still lying in the hospital waiting for money for surgery! You beasts, if you don't pay me back tonight, I'll jump off this 18th floor!"
Her cries were extremely shrill and particularly jarring in the noisy conference room.
Reporters from over ten major media outlets, having received prior notice from Wang Guibing, were now bombarding Zhao Mingxuan with questions: What exactly is Yongxin Trust's "Xinyu·Fumin Wealth Management Plan"? Why does it offer a 20% annualized rate? How is guaranteed repayment ensured? What are your company's profit-making methods? It's rumored that your company bribes mid-level bank managers to use unauthorized sales tactics to attract clients, misleading them into believing the wealth management product belongs to the bank. How does your company explain this?
Zhao Mingxuan had a sullen face, his mouth was sealed shut, and he didn't say a word.
He could certainly explain these questions, but it was clear these people weren't there for a weak explanation! Even Zhang Yunqi, the chairman of United Times, had come to watch the spectacle, so things weren't just about silencing these people.
The Yongxin Trust he works for wasn't established for very long; it started in northern Hunan and grew rapidly in just two years. Last November, it expanded its business to southern Hunan.
Currently, Yongxin Trust has two main businesses.
First, it accepts the entrustment of state-owned enterprises with idle funds to lend the funds to private enterprises with financing difficulties, or provides loan services and equity investment for commercial real estate development projects; second, it issues collective fund trust plans to raise funds from the public, with professional teams investing in stocks and bonds, promising a return rate far higher than bank savings.
The most crucial aspect here is how to attract and retain deposits.
With money, the entire trust business can operate normally.
However, in the 90s, most state-owned enterprises were struggling, and the amount of idle funds available for trust was very limited. Therefore, the real main source of funds was the savings of ordinary people. In the 90s, ordinary people had extremely limited investment channels, and Yongxin Trust could take advantage of this market gap and information asymmetry to frantically attract deposits through high-interest deposit-taking, bank off-the-books transactions, and targeted marketing.
These actions are, of course, against the rules.
Taking the "Xinyu·Fumin Wealth Management Plan" purchased by Ma Rulong's mother as an example, this wealth management product boasts an annualized return of 15%-20%, far exceeding bank fixed deposit interest rates. After designing this product, Yongxin Trust distributed it through various bank branches, bribing loan officers or tellers to recommend it to depositors using their positions. Secondly, they employed a large number of salespeople to set up booths in popular areas, department stores, and senior citizen activity centers to attract customers. The customers were mostly elderly people with stable savings but limited financial knowledge, such as state-owned enterprise employees and retired teachers.
These products are uniformly marketed under the guise of supporting national development and sharing the benefits of reform. Their promotional materials promise guaranteed principal and interest, and rigid redemption. Salespeople verbally assure customers that there are absolutely no problems. However, in the trust contracts, they exploit the financial ignorance of wealthy elderly people, setting traps by using fine print to state "no guarantee of principal and interest" and "investment involves risk." Once these ordinary people sign the contract, if subsequent payments fail, Yongxin Trust will be invincible in court.
In short, Yongxin Trust's business model is a money pooling game, using high interest rates as bait, bank off-the-books transactions, and street deposit-taking to frantically absorb the hard-earned money of ordinary people.
In fact, anyone with basic financial knowledge can see through this trick at a glance. If an annualized rate of return of 20% could be guaranteed with a rigid redemption, if such a good thing existed in the world, Buffett would have been out of a job long ago, and the old retail investors would still be speculating on stocks.
Is it childish?
How naive! But such scams have permeated the entirety of human history, enduring and resurfacing time and again, destroying countless lives and families. Because the allure of money is simply too strong.
In most financial scams, many participants know it's a trap, but they still want to gamble, hoping to be the lucky one who leaves safely with a sack full of RMB before the dominoes fall.
Zhang Yunqi didn't know how much hard-earned money Yongxin Trust had absorbed from elderly women, but he had already obtained the list of people on the "Xinyu·Fumin Wealth Management Plan" issued by Yongxin Trust at Lijin Rural Commercial Bank through his aunt Zhang Jing. This one product alone, in a regional bank, had fooled more than a thousand ordinary people, with each person's investment ranging from 50,000 to 200,000 yuan, and the total investment amounting to nearly 100 million yuan.
This is 100 million in 1996!
The power of financial leverage is truly terrifying.
Currently, the issue of unauthorized transactions at Lijin Rural Commercial Bank has affected Zhang Jing. She immediately reported it to the police and had the loan managers and tellers who accepted bribes from Yongxin Trust arrested. At the same time, she arranged for people to call each of the people who purchased the "Xinyu·Fumin Wealth Management Plan" to clearly inform them of the true situation of this wealth management product: it was not issued by the rural commercial bank, the issuer Yongxin Trust is suspected of illegal and irregular operations, it cannot guarantee repayment, and the 20% interest promise is extremely risky.
This caused an uproar among the elderly people.
Ma Rulong's mother, Wang Xiufen, contacted a group of determined elderly men and women who were insisting on getting their principal back. Together, they went to the Yongxin Trust office and put on a show of crying, making a scene, and threatening suicide in front of reporters.
Zhang Yunqi also came.
He wasn't there to watch the spectacle.
He was waiting for Lu Yuanzhou.
As expected, Lu Yuanzhou arrived as night fell.
Lu Yuanzhou arrived in a hurry, soaked to the bone and looking disheveled. He didn't even acknowledge Zhang Yunqi's greetings. As soon as he saw him, he turned to leave, but the tall and burly Ma Shi immediately blocked his way.
Zhang Yunqi said, "President Lu, you want to leave as soon as you arrive?"
Lu Yuanzhou said, "I was just passing by."
Zhang Yunqi said, "It just so happens that I was just passing by. But I'd really like to watch Yongxin Trust's show today with President Lu."
Lu Yuanzhou turned his head: "Let's be frank."
Zhang Yunqi smiled and said, "With so many reporters here today, if I were to speak frankly, Mr. Lu, you might be in a lot of trouble."
Lu Yuanzhou's face froze: "You..."
Zhang Yunqi stubbed out his cigarette: "Please invite President Lu in."
Just as Ma Shi was about to step forward, Lu Yuanzhou waved his hand and walked straight in.
The two sat down facing each other in Zhao Mingxuan's office. Zhang Yunqi took a sip of tea, held a document in his hand, and said, "President Lu, I've calculated that Xiangtai Pharmaceutical's stock price is currently above 43 yuan. The shares I borrowed from major institutional investors will mature in five days. If you hold on for another five days, my short position will definitely lose more than one billion yuan, generating a huge amount of debt and leading to my inevitable defeat. You can then take over my businesses without any problem."
Lu Yuanzhou chuckled dryly, "I will." Zhang Yun nodded, "Since President Lu is so confident, should I take stock of the pile of junk I have so you can choose? Liansheng, Lianzhong, Aihua, Zhangji Catering—which one do you want? Rationally speaking, you're definitely determined to get Aihua Electronics; it's a promising emerging electronics industry that's also connected to the provincial state-owned assets platform. But emotionally, perhaps President Lu is more interested in Liansheng Group, after all, it's a chance to curry favor with the Li family. You're already Xie Jing's ideal son-in-law; once you win over Li Jilin, it's only a matter of time before the beauty is in your arms."
Lu Yuanzhou chuckled dryly, "President Zhang is indeed a magnanimous person with a broad mind."
Zhang Yunqi waved his hand: "No, I'm always very particular about every little thing. Maybe you just didn't realize I was being sarcastic."
Lu Yuanzhou's fake smile froze. Zhang Yunqi's presence here, with his confident demeanor, made him extremely uneasy. He tentatively asked, "How much do you know?"
Zhang Yunqi smiled and said, "Not much, but even if you were shot a hundred times, it wouldn't be enough to appease public anger."
Lu Yuanzhou's face turned deathly pale.
Since Zhang Yunqi was here, he knew this statement wasn't baseless; this mortal enemy must have some fatal weakness against him. Perhaps panicking, he instinctively asked, "Do you have any evidence?"
Zhang Yunqi said, "Guess?"
Lu Yuanzhou was almost going crazy. He glared at Zhang Yunqi, but his tone was surprisingly soft: "Mr. Zhang, I know we've had a lot of misunderstandings before, but that's all in the past. In business, harmony is the most important thing. How about we make a deal?"
Zhang Yunqi said, "President Lu, we've known each other for a long time, you don't need to be so humble."
“I mean it from the bottom of my heart.”
"But I still prefer the way you were defiant in my office that day."
"That was a moment of impulse..."
"No, it's just a momentary impulse for you to beg me now."
"Mr. Zhang! Here's what I'll do: I'll find a way to resolve the hundreds of millions of yuan in debt incurred from shorting Xiangtai, ensuring the safety of your assets!"
"Great! But it seems unnecessary to go through all that trouble. I can just take you out directly, and Xiangtai Pharmaceutical's stock price will drop from 43 yuan to 4.3 yuan in just a few days. Not only can I wipe out more than a billion yuan in short positions, but I can also make several hundred million yuan into my pocket. So do you think your offer is sincere? Is it attractive?"
"you……"
"I'm fine, but you're not."
"Don't go too far!"
"Is this going too far? What if I have to offer incense to you next year during Qingming Festival?"
At this point, Zhang Yunqi shook the roll of materials in his hand and suddenly slammed it into Lu Yuanzhou's face: "I've racked my brains for many days, connected with many people, and dug up many clues before I finally realized why I could never break through the stock price of Xiangtai that you manipulated. It's because you are the actual controller behind Yongxin Trust!"
Zhang Yunqi stood up: "Perhaps this news is useless to others and can't do anything to you, Young Master Lu, but it's priceless to me. Is that why you're so afraid of me here today? Through a complex equity structure, you hid behind layers of legal entities at Yongxin Trust, establishing an unregulated shadow banking system to seize the hard-earned money of tens of thousands of ordinary people! You used unlimited ammunition to wreak havoc in the capital market, plundering state-owned assets, social wealth, and even the city's commercial lifeline! You're amazing, I admire you. But when you were doing all this, did you even bother to read the Criminal Law?"
Lu Yuanzhou's face turned deathly pale.
His lips moved a few times, but no sound came out.
Zhang Yunqi sat back down in his chair, picked up another document, and pushed it in front of Lu Yuanzhou: "President Lu's offer lacks sincerity and is not attractive enough. Let me offer my own offer."
Lu Yuanzhou's bloodshot eyes glanced at a document. It was an equity transfer agreement for Jinzhao Industrial Company, exactly the same as the one Liu Mingde had signed, requiring him to transfer the remaining 50% of the equity for 0 yuan.
Zhang Yunqi looked at Lu Yuanzhou, whose face was ashen: "My condition is that you must make this choice now. There are two options. Option one: sign this equity transfer agreement of Jinzhao Industrial."
"What about two?"
"Secondly, I will submit the materials on how you manipulated Yongxin Trust. Do you think what you've done is serious enough to warrant immediate execution? If not, I will definitely find a way to add more to your list."
"you!"
"Of course, I know that the Lu family has a deep network of connections. Otherwise, how could you have helped Xie Yun resolve the audit issues of Xiangtai's restructuring so easily? You were jumping around in front of me before because what you did had no legal loopholes. I don't have your guts to do such outrageous things. I have to abide by the law. If I lose, I lose. But now, we can test whether the Lu family's fist in Xiangnan is stronger, or whether my Zhang Yunqi's stomp is more powerful."
Upon hearing this, Lu Yuanzhou's fingers trembled, his heart filled with extreme struggle and pain. This young man had lived for over twenty years and had never felt so humiliated, but his remaining rationality forced him to submit: "If I sign this agreement, can you guarantee that you will keep quiet?"
Zhang Yunqi said, "You still want to bargain?"
Lu Yuanzhou's Adam's apple bobbed, his heart bleeding. He had no choice. He grabbed a pen and scribbled his name at the end of the agreement, the pen tip almost tearing through the paper: "I hope you keep your word! If you let me off the hook, I can completely withdraw from the Qingwu Street project!"
Zhang Yunqi reached out and picked up the agreement, glanced at it twice, and said, "By the way, I'd like to ask you, did I coerce you into signing this agreement?"
"no!"
"That's good. You'd better not say this agreement is invalid later. The law won't listen to your words." Zhang Yunqi reached for his teacup, drank it all in one gulp, took the agreement, turned and left, leaving Lu Yuanzhou looking ashen-faced.
A moment later, Zhang Yunqi's voice came from the corridor and lingered in Lu Yuanzhou's ears: "President Lu, rest assured, I will keep my word. But I forgot to tell you, this is a multiple-choice question. I will still burn incense for you next year on Qingming Festival."
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A series of climaxes immediately followed!
Asking for a monthly ticket!
(End of this chapter)