Chapter 926
The Building Is About to Collapse
Seoul, Gwanghwamun Square.
This place has long since turned into a sea of red.
Tens of thousands of people, draped in banners and holding up signs, roared furiously at the cameras.
"We will take this to the WTO! The island nation must apologize!"
Boycott cherry blossom-themed goods! Let's start with ourselves!
In the crowd, several enthusiastic young people were smashing a case of Sakura beer on the ground, splashing the golden liquid everywhere.
They felt that they were national heroes at this moment, and that they were defending the dignity of the country in this way.
But at the securities company branch not far away, the scene was quite different.
Behind the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, dozens of middle-aged men were staring intently at the large screen.
On the screen, the broken line resembled a cut string on a musical instrument, beginning to vibrate.
“This…” a man murmured in a hoarse voice.
"Withdraw your investment now! Samsung's stock dropped five percent at the opening!"
"Don't be afraid, this is normal fluctuation. Someone is trying to profit from this information!"
The people present had differing opinions; some wanted to run away, while others wanted to take the opportunity to make a fortune.
……
Frog Terrace Conference Room.
The air was so heavy it was suffocating.
The senior staff sat together, each with an urgent report in front of them.
"Leader, the island nation has rejected our request for dialogue. Our hydrogen fluoride inventory is already running low, and Hynix says that if we don't receive the goods by next week, some production lines will face permanent damage."
A long silence.
The man in the main seat rubbed his temples, his tone weary yet firm: "Tell the people that we will never bow down. At the same time, contact neighboring countries and Europe and America. No matter the cost, we must bring in the substitutes."
“But leader, testing the purity of the alternatives takes time, and... currently no company can bypass the island nation’s patents.”
"Then go and beg! Beg in private! But in public, the flag must be raised high!" The man suddenly raised his head, his eyes bloodshot.
Everyone present was well aware of this two-faced behavior.
But it's like a boxer who's bleeding out, and in order to keep his opponent from noticing, he can only grit his teeth and continue swinging his already powerless fists on the stage.
Tokyo, an island nation, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry office building.
The corridor was eerily quiet.
The administrative officer, Sato, pushed open the conference room door and placed a stack of official documents in the center of the table.
The attendants sitting around immediately straightened up.
"The Cabinet has already signed the document regarding the removal from the whitelist." Sato's voice was completely flat, as if he were reading a weather forecast. "Starting from midnight tomorrow, all materials related to exports to South Korea will be subject to a strict licensing system."
One of the attendants hesitated for a moment and asked in a low voice, "Sato-san, if we do this... the semiconductor industry in South Korea might collapse completely, and our suppliers will also suffer."
Sato took off his glasses and slowly wiped them with a silk cloth.
"They always think dignity lies in shouting in the streets, that burning a few cherry blossom cars will make us give in. But in the jungle of finance and technology, only those who control the lifeline have the right to talk about dignity. Cut off these three things, and their proud edifice won't even last a month." Sato sneered, put his glasses back on, and his gaze was as sharp as a falcon's.
He picked up the vermilion seal and slowly pressed it off at the end of the document.
"Click".
The sound was very soft, but in that instant, the shockwaves from the global financial markets emanated from this quiet office and swept across the entire Asia-Pacific region.
into the night.
Seoul's lights still shone brightly, but beneath that brilliance lay a scene of anxiety.
As Director Park emerged from the izakaya and walked along the slightly chilly street, he saw several young men spitting at a Japanese convenience store before smugly walking away.
He staggered over, leaned against the telephone pole, and let out a bitter laugh.
He wanted to tell the children that he had knelt down inside that day.
He knelt down and begged them to sell him a few bottles of medicine, but they didn't even drink the wine.
Those children thought they were winning, but only he knew that the strongest backbone of the Korean nation had been broken.
"Haha, we made so much money today. I can already tell Linxi and Chenxi's expressions." At this moment, a stylishly dressed woman walked over with a group of young men and women.
The woman wasn't speaking Korean, but she was holding a large wad of cash.
The currency comes in all shapes and sizes, including not only Korean currency but also cherry blossom currency and US dollars.
Although he couldn't understand what the other person was saying, Director Park was, after all, a shrewd businessman. He quickly realized why the woman was laughing so happily.
In this situation, the value of the Korean currency will definitely depreciate, and speculators from all over the world will try every means to make a fortune from it.
Perhaps only Koreans will feel bad because their wealth will shrink.
Xu Yun was in a good mood today. After leading her team into the izakaya and sitting down, she ordered a table full of dishes.
“Secretary-General, I can finally understand the thrill that the islanders felt back then. We went to America with our money and bought everything we could. This time it’s our turn to live it up,” a young man said, raising his glass.
"Hey, that's karma. Those Koreans always look down on us, thinking they're so great. I just passed by the square and saw the expressions on their faces, and it made me feel so good. With the Chinese yuan constantly appreciating, it's wise to take the money abroad to make money." Xu Yun smiled smugly.
"Sigh, I wish something like this had happened when I was studying abroad." A girl sighed.
Previously, the Chinese yuan had a very low exchange rate against foreign currencies, making studying abroad extremely expensive. The situation is different now; for the same amount of money, the experience of studying in certain countries is significantly enhanced.
“I don’t think this is a good thing either. According to the purchasing power parity and export competitiveness theories in economics, if the RMB exchange rate keeps rising like this, our domestic factories engaged in foreign trade will suffer. The higher the exchange rate, the more expensive our products will be internationally. Foreigners won’t be able to afford them, and all the orders will go to low-cost countries in Southeast Asia. If factories can’t get orders and start laying off workers and going bankrupt, then we won’t be able to make money domestically, and it’s useless for the RMB to be valuable abroad. It’s like a family where the amount of money they have has become more valuable, but the money-making machine has stopped working. This is called a currency appreciation trap, and it could drag down the lifeline of our entire real economy…” Another bespectacled boy said after a moment of silence.
Everyone present was an international student, so they naturally understood this principle. But since Xu Yun was so happy today, saying this still created a slightly awkward silence.
As expected, Xu Yun was somewhat unhappy after hearing this.
She glanced at the young man, tapped her bowl with her chopsticks, and said, "We came here to make money. Some major events are beyond our control. The money we earn this time will be brought back to China, which is also a contribution to the country. It's our small way of contributing to foreign exchange reserves..."
"The banks made all that money..." the bespectacled man retorted quietly.
"Ahem." Xu Yun glared at him, then immediately changed the subject. "Alright, alright, let's not talk about that anymore. We've made money now, but we don't know how the other two fared. In war, knowing yourself and your enemy is the key to victory!"
“I know that. I have a friend in President Lin’s team. She told me that their results were pretty good, but she didn’t say exactly how many. Since it’s still early, I didn’t ask. But thinking about it, we made so much money this time. They probably won’t let us win, right?” A pretty girl raised her hand and said.
"The vice president went to his new mother-in-law's place, but it seems like they haven't started anything yet. On the first day, I saw on WeChat Moments that someone I know seems to be traveling there..." A burly young man took out his phone and showed it to everyone.
The phone has a photo of Marina Bay at night.
"Hehe, Chen Xi has a lot of tricks up his sleeve. He deliberately released a photo to make us think they're just playing around all the time, trying to lower our guard. They even did that in Stephen Chow's 'King of Destruction,' how petty. But it doesn't matter, the less capable a person is, the more they have to hide it. I'm not the 'Master Broken Water Flow,' I won't be scared by that good-for-nothing guy He Jinyin!" Xu Yun drank a little wine, her face slightly flushed.
She curled her lip in disdain, looking down on Chen Xi's actions.
“Yes, yes, yes, Secretary-General’s description is spot on. They say movies are based on reality, and here we are, living up to that.” The young man who had just taken out his phone laughed and raised his glass to clink with Xu Yun’s.
Among the young men present, quite a few had romantic feelings for Xu Yun, so they would flatter her from time to time.
After all, the title of Princess Heng is very attractive, and Xu Yun is not bad looking either, with a hot figure. How many people wouldn't be tempted?
"Hehe, eat your food, let's keep making money tomorrow!" Xu Yun's tail immediately wagged high after being praised.
HK.
Linxi was still awake at the moment; he was talking to someone in the hotel.
Unlike Chen Xi and Xu Yun, Lin Xi entrusted the money to an agency for management.
He himself doesn't have much talent for making money, but as the president, he has naturally dealt with people of various backgrounds.
As Asia's financial center, Hong Kong has a large number of financial companies. Many overseas students choose to return and develop their careers here, so he has a considerable network of connections.
"President Lin, you can rest assured with the money here."
"That's right. If we can't make money from our operations, then no one else will dare to say they can. We'll see in a few days."
The two men patted their chests and assured him.
"Pleasant to work with."
"Happy cooperation!"
The three shook hands, and Linxi opened the door to see them off. She then turned and went into the house to open another room door.
Several men and women in their twenties and thirties were sitting in the room, dressed fashionably, and a few of them did not appear to be Chinese.
"Sorry to keep you all waiting. Let's continue with what we were just discussing," Linxi apologized and pulled out a chair to sit down.
"President Lin, the goods are all ready now. The regulations in the mainland are very strict now; you need a direct selling license to sell goods and hold meetings," a young man said.
Although he was male, he had light makeup on his face, which looked somewhat incongruous.
If Chen Xi were here, he would definitely widen his eyes in disbelief.
This person was his classmate at Didi University in his previous life, and he used to be a personal shopper.
After returning to China, I switched to selling cosmetics because my wine and baby formula businesses were impacted by overseas stores on Taobao.
The direct selling license he mentioned is, frankly speaking, a special permit that allows one to openly recruit people on the street.
In China, giants like Amway and Perfect need this license to legally recruit salespeople and implement their team-based compensation model.
Without this gold brick to back you up, if your distribution mechanism exceeds three levels, you'll be labeled an illegal pyramid scheme in no time. At that point, forget about making money; you might even end up in jail.
This group plans to move the entire battlefield behind the phone screen.
They first created numerous groups on WeChat, using the guise of the sharing economy and product trials to package the recruited downlines as so-called chief experience officers or sharing ambassadors.
Essentially, it's still the same pyramid scheme of recruiting people for commissions, but once it's cloaked in the guise of internet social networking, its definition becomes much more blurred.
As for the source of goods and logistics, they never intended to set up warehouses in mainland China.
The current conflict between South Korea and Japan is causing quite a stir, and women in China who love cosmetics from both countries have already started panic buying.
They took advantage of this opportunity, stockpiling all the skincare products branded as "Kimchi Country" and "Sakura Country" in a bonded warehouse in Hong Kong, and then operating them through cross-border e-commerce.
As long as someone in mainland China places an order in a WeChat group, the goods are shipped directly from Hong Kong to customs.
It uses the legitimate cross-border direct mail channel for personal parcels, which not only saves a lot of import taxes and fees, but also perfectly avoids the almost stringent entry restrictions on direct selling products in mainland China.
This is how the headcount fee is hidden in the premium of cross-border goods, and how goods are continuously smuggled into the mainland through those invisible WeChat networks.
This tactic is indeed a game-changer in today's world, exploiting policy lags and information gaps to recklessly test the limits of acceptable behavior.
Linxi didn't know much about these things, but these people were also members of the association and were doing quite well in Asia.
Based on the idea that you shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket, he divided the money into two parts for operation.
"President, the secretary-general said they made a lot of money. I have a good friend in her team!" a young man casually remarked while looking at his phone.
"What kind of money can she possibly make? I'm more worried about Chen Xi's side..." Lin Xi pouted.
He knew perfectly well what was going on in Xu Yun's mind.
"Korean currency is fluctuating a lot right now, but I have a different opinion. Both of these countries are America's little brothers, and the conflict between them over WW2 will not only affect their economies but also the situation in Asia, or more accurately, it will affect America's strategic plans. I think it won't be long before their strict father intervenes to stop the two kids from fighting..." A bookish young man sat there, nodding his head as he analyzed international affairs.
He's not the only one thinking this way; many people share the same sentiments. (End of Chapter)