Chapter 115 I should be under the bed (revised)...

It happened very suddenly.

On an ordinary workday, during ordinary business hours, when the Far Eastern Development Bank staff opened the heavy iron gate as usual, the surging crowd almost trampled over their faces.

"I need to withdraw money!"

"Take your bankbooks and give me back all my money!"

"I don't care! I can forgo interest, but you have to give me my principal now!"

"What? We have to wait three business days? You guys aren't broke, are you?!"

"Hey kid, stop making excuses. I've lived for sixty years. Even if your boss is a good person, can she always be a good person?"

To everyone's surprise, countless people waved their savings books and rushed into the Far Eastern Development Bank.

Upon learning the news immediately, He Changyi acted decisively, using the reserved savings and withdrawing all the cash from the shops and factories to do everything in her power to withstand the impact.

But that's far from enough.

Individuals may sometimes be rational, but collectives are often irrational.

Like a school of fish in the sea, each fish only follows the direction and speed of the fish in front of it. There are no individual decisions, only collective choices. Either they are lucky enough to avoid being hunted, or they are collectively sent into the stomach of a big fish.

When rumors of Jong-guk's bankruptcy were everywhere, and when long lines formed outside the Far Eastern Development Bank to withdraw money, even those who thought the bank was sound would think, "Maybe I should go and withdraw my money too, just in case..."

Many people panic at the mere sight of the long lines of people withdrawing money.

"Damn it, something must have happened!"

"No, I have to withdraw all the money right now!"

Panic is like a landslide. It starts with a few small stones, then some loose soil, then grass and saplings on the cliff, and finally, with a sudden roar, half the mountain collapses.

He Changyi tried his best to meet all depositors' withdrawal requests, but modern banks usually only reserve 10% of deposits for daily operations, while 90% of deposits are used for investments such as issuing loans and purchasing bonds.

Even though He Changyi set aside 20% of her savings for the sake of safety, it was only a drop in the ocean compared to the waves of depositors pouring in. Her cash disappeared at a visible speed.

But at this point, we absolutely cannot back down; we must grit our teeth and hold on.

If depositors can withdraw their money normally, the panic among the crowd will subside on its own in a short time. With the cooperation of local newspapers to publish news reports refuting the rumors, this sudden bank run crisis can be completely resolved.

But if they withdraw, an even more severe run on the bank will occur.

When depositors are unable to withdraw their money, their last remaining confidence will completely collapse, and the false news of the so-called bankruptcy of the Zhongguo boss will become a real fact.

He Changyi demanded that Roman immediately sell all the US dollars he had been speculating on and convert them all into rubles.

Roman protested weakly, "But...now is not a good time to sell...perhaps, perhaps we can wait a few more days...and sell at a higher price..."

He also actively proposed solutions to the bank run crisis.

“We, no, you… you can disclose the bank’s financial situation… We are operating well, well-funded, and our return on investment exceeds that of our peers… Their money is safe here…”

He Changyi said, "No, it's too late."

At this point, nothing else will help; only sufficient cash can immediately calm people's emotions.

When Roman painfully sold off all the dollars in multiple accounts, it even briefly boosted the ruble's exchange rate in the market.

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, the armored truck carried boxes full of cash into the bank vault. The depositors who were waiting to withdraw their money immediately calmed down and no longer looked like they were about to fight with the tellers.

At the same time, He Changyi requested that the bank open all its windows and set up temporary counters to process withdrawals for depositors as quickly as possible.

This not only reduced queuing time, significantly shortening the long lines outside the bank; it also sent a signal to the outside world—

We are fully capable of processing all withdrawal requests.

I have plenty of money.

Just as He Changyi had predicted, the bank run began to subside, and the extreme panic of "the whole family jumping off a building if they can't get their money" began to return to rationality.

But before completely resolving the bank run crisis, He Changyi must first face a problem.

—She ran out of money.

It wasn't that she was broke in the conventional sense, but rather that she had no working capital.

In response to the bank run, even Friendship Store, the cash cow, was squeezed dry, and they didn't even know where to get next month's wages.

Not to mention the factories that already need external funding.

The dairy factory gradually generated revenue, but still needed crutches to support it; the tractor factory, machine tool factory, and bearing factory were mostly demolished, but still had long-term debts for employee pensions and medical care; the precision machining factory itself was also burdened with huge debts and needed to repay considerable interest to the bank every quarter.

After He Changyi siphoned off all the cash from the books, these factories, while not necessarily on the verge of bankruptcy, were at least on the verge of collapse.

The banks, which have not yet fully resolved the run crisis, are now like black holes where money only goes in and never out. Although there are no longer long lines in front of the doors, people still come every day to ask to withdraw money.

Even with the import of scrap steel, the money was all deposited into domestic accounts. With strict foreign exchange controls, even if she wanted to transfer the money out for emergencies, she wouldn't be able to get past the banks and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange. Unless she went to an underground bank, she would have to pay over 50% in fees—

He Changyi appeared to be the same as always, but in reality, his head had become noticeably larger.

...She can barely afford to fill up the gas tank for her new car.

He Changyi signed his name on the gas expense reimbursement form with a heavy heart. After hesitating for a moment, he asked, "I mean, is there any possibility that we could ride bicycles there?"

Lev was horrified!

"Do you mean cycling through a forest marked by tigers, a hundred kilometers away, in temperatures of minus thirty degrees Celsius?!"

He declared definitively, "It must be that wicked boy Alyoshnika who has bewitched you!"

He Changyi: ...

When the Emirati bodyguards first saw Alexei in a suit in the apartment, they behaved impeccably, staring intently as if they hadn't seen the stranger in the house at all.

Walking a little further away, Lermontov quietly asked, "Is this the boss's new lover?"

He glanced at it quickly, then looked away as if nothing had happened.

"I have to say, he looks much better than Nick; at least he's more like a cultured, respectable person."

Lev also mouthed, "I don't think that's enough."

Lermontov: ?

Lev casually dropped a bombshell: "Too few. A woman as wealthy and beautiful as the boss deserves many more lovers. That Zhong Guo businessman from last time was quite good—rich, young, and most importantly, he was the one paying, not—"

He glanced at the man in the suit not far away and pursed his lips.

"A male prostitute who takes money."

Lermontov thought for a moment and agreed, "You're right. What the Empress needs are brave generals, not pretty-boy nobles who only know how to put on makeup, wear wigs, and high heels."

They were speaking very softly, barely louder than a whisper, but inexplicably, it sounded like someone inside the house chuckled.

Lermontov turned his head sharply and saw the young man in the suit looking up at him, slowly adjusting his gold-rimmed glasses.

Pale skin, a slender figure, delicate and effeminate features, and a strangely familiar look. This guy seems more suited to fashion shows in Paris and Milan than to this place.

The young man in the suit stared at Lermontov without flinching, looking extremely provocative.

Lermontov glared at him fiercely, then turned away resentfully, muttering under his breath, "...Hmph, a spineless coward who relies on a woman's glasses!"

Lev looked at the other person with an inquisitive gaze, and was met with an equally undisguised stare.

...Something seems off about this guy.

At least they didn't look like what a bespectacled kid should look like. You know, these good students learned how to deal with strong boys in school—first, lower your head; second, take a detour; and finally, when there's no escape, obediently hand over all your pocket money. In short, unless they wanted to get beaten up, the bespectacled kids would never raise their heads, much less make a defiant eye contact.

Lev wondered, hadn't this guy been beaten up enough at school?

You can't just think that hiding under a woman's skirt gives you the confidence to fight against these bodyguards. Besides, even if you want to provoke someone, you shouldn't be provoking them. We're not on the same path to advancement!

"Hey, what are you doing?"

The atmosphere was eerie. Nikolai walked over wearing headphones, his loose, old sweater almost reaching his knees, and his posture was equally slouchy.

He glanced at the young man in the suit and scoffed in annoyance, "Why are you still here?"

The young man in the suit pushed up his glasses again—damn it, how many times was he going to push up those glasses!—and then said in an extremely calm tone, "I don't think I'm any less qualified than you to stay here."

He added, "At least my taste in music is much better than yours."

...How can we tolerate this?!

Nikola took off his headphones, put on his Walkman, and rolled up his sleeves, ready to get started.

Lev quickly pulled him over and advised, "Listen to me, stay away from him unless you really want to be fired by the boss."

—This silly boy, he's trying to win favor even from his own lover, he's hopeless.

Nikolai was furious: "Why was I the one who was kicked out and not Alexei? Was it because he was wearing a suit?"

...Wait, is he talking about Alexei?

Lev and Lermontov became stagnant.

The young man in the suit slowly took off his glasses, folded them, and put them in his breast pocket.

“Lev, Lermontov.” He nodded politely to the two men. “I never expected you to think so highly of me…”

Alexei smiled. "Surprising."

Lermontov: ...

He turned around mechanically and said blankly, "I think I just saw Alexei..."

Lev turned around in unison and said calmly, "I must have gotten up too early today."

Watching the two figures move slowly away, Nikolai asked curiously, "Hey, where are you going?"

“They’re probably going to buy suits,” Alexei said. “They must have new career plans.”

He turned to Nikolai and gave him a fake smile: "Just like you."

The two people in front of them stumbled and nearly fell down the stairs, just in time to run into He Changyi as she entered. Her first words were—

"You should have already met Alexei."

Lev, Lermontov: ...

He Changyi, oblivious to the precarious expressions on their faces, reminded them, "Remember to keep it a secret. Don't tell anyone about him being here."

Lev, Lermontov: ...

He Changyi walked up the steps, casually tossed his coat to Alexei, and ordered, "Go to my bedroom."

Lev and Lermontov slowly turned their heads to look at each other.

Help! My missing comrade-in-arms has become the boss's secret lover!

In the bedroom, He Changyi sat in front of the dressing table, removing her statement diamond earrings as she spoke without turning her head:

"Take off your clothes."

Alexei stood behind her, and his figure seemed to freeze for a moment in the dressing mirror.

He Changyi placed the earrings she had taken off into the jewelry box, turned around and asked, "What are you waiting for? I told you, take off your clothes."

She added, "I meant all of them."

Alexei remained still and instead asked, "Can I know the reason?"

He Changyi snapped, "The reason? Of course, it's because I'm going to sell you to a strip club. What other reason could there be? I'll count to three. Are you going to take your clothes off yourself, or am I going to point a gun at you and make you take them off?"

Alexei: ...

Alexei said sincerely, "I'm not teaching you how to use a gun so that one day you can point a gun at me."

He Changyi said with a fake smile, "So now you know that students are often more outstanding than teachers."

The next second, her expression changed.

"Take it off!"

Unlike the narrow beds that are common in Eguo, He Changyi's bed is a standard king size, the kind where you can roll around on it without worry.

Therefore, a 1.9-meter-tall adult male will not feel cramped when lying in bed.

A man and a woman, in a closed space, on a high bed with soft pillows, yet strangely, there was not a trace of ambiguous feelings between them.

"...If I don't ask today, are you planning to develop sepsis before being sent to the hospital?"

He Changyi held hydrogen peroxide in his left hand and a cotton ball with tweezers in his right, and forcefully pressed it against the bloody wound.

Alexei lay face down, his back covered with scattered new and old scars, as if it had been broken and then pieced back together.

As He Changyi moved, the muscles in his back tensed and relaxed at times, and in the warm room, he broke out in beads of sweat from the pain.

No, a hospital is not needed.

Alexei's voice sounded extremely calm, "The weather is cold enough that it won't fester..."

He Changyi slowly rotated a cotton ball soaked in hydrogen peroxide in the wound, and Alexei's unfinished words got stuck in his throat.

"Yes, you can even stand naked outdoors and it won't get infected even by the next spring."

He Changyi discarded the cotton ball, applied a layer of antibiotic ointment to the wound, and then wrapped it with breathable sterile gauze.

She said to Alexei, who had sat up, "Come to my room once a day unless you can change your own back dressing—of course, if you can, then I'll have to consider replacing the strip club with a freak show circus."

Alexei: ...

Alexei asked cautiously, "Has your funding chain completely dried up?"

He Changyi: "...What do you want to say?"

Alexei said, "It's hard to imagine you knowing so much about the market if you hadn't been involved in human trafficking. You seem to have a good understanding of market segmentation, but frankly, why haven't you sold Nikolai to a human zoo yet?"

He Changyi sneered, "Actually, I have more experience with human flesh dishes. You know, there are at least three famous books by Zhong Guo about cooking methods for human flesh, such as human flesh buns, human flesh military rations, and even human flesh ridges—which one do you prefer?"

Alexei stood up, bowed slightly, and looked down at He Changyi.

"I prefer you to eat it raw."

The two were very close, their body heat and breath drawing near, and he couldn't tell if it was because of the drugs, but they smelled bitter.

He Changyi raised his hand, his fingertips slightly cool, and slowly slid them across the surface of his skin, starting from his Adam's apple and moving downwards.

Alexei grasped her wrist, slowly leaning down to her, their breaths mingling.

Perhaps, we're getting too close.

So close that it makes one forget those resentments and grudges, or perhaps, love and hate are two sides of the same coin.

Suddenly, a jumble of footsteps and voices came from outside the door, and both of them paused.

Lev's deliberately raised voice came from outside: "Welcome, Mr. Andrei!...Miss He? Ah, ah, yes, she's here, but... but... she's probably busy right now... Please have a seat, would you like a cup of hot tea? It's too cold outside!"

Another clear male voice said, "Thank you for your hospitality, but no tea. I need to see He now. Is she in the study?"

He Changyi was staying in a suite, with an outer room as a study and an inner room as a bedroom. At this moment, the two rooms were separated only by a door that was half open.

She exchanged a glance with Alexei.

The voices and footsteps outside grew closer.

Lev's voice sounded completely incoherent: "Mr. Andrei, Mr. Andrei, please, please wait, please wait a moment!"

They didn't wait.

The moment the outer door was pushed open, He Changyi swiftly pushed Alexei under the bed, then quickly sat on the edge of the bed, pulled the blanket over herself, and covered Alexei's feet that were sticking out of the bed.

"Andrei, what brings you here?"

He Changyi yawned exaggeratedly and gave him a lazy smile.

"I'm so tired, I was just taking a nap."

Andrei stood politely outside the bedroom door, his gaze fixed on the carpet at his feet.

“I’m sorry, this may be a bit rash, but I think it’s necessary to tell you this as soon as possible,” he said. “It’s about the car bomb case; we’ve found the mastermind.”

He Changyi jumped to her feet, the blanket slipping to the floor, but she didn't care. She asked repeatedly, "Who is it?"

But Andrei reminded her, "Your blanket."

He even seemed inclined to go over and pick up the blanket and put it back on the bed for her.

He Changyi's mind cleared instantly. She hurriedly kicked the blanket off the bed, pounced on Andrei, grabbed his hand, and said sincerely, "Forget about that damn blanket, let's talk about the car bomb!"

Andrei took her hand in return, looking at her tenderly with his blue eyes.

"Don't worry, I told you I would protect you."

He Changyi placed her other hand on the back of his hand, patted it gently with emotion, and said with tears in her eyes:

"...Let's go outside and talk first."

After the bedroom door was closed, Alexei crawled out from under the bed, covered in dust and dirt.

He stood naked in the empty bedroom, a crumpled blanket at his feet, and faint voices could be heard coming from outside the door.

After a long pause, Alexei suddenly let out a cold laugh.

study.

"...So, this wasn't the action of one person, but a collective decision by a group of people?" He Changyi asked.

Andrei nodded firmly, his blue eyes like the coldest depths of the polar sea.

"them."

Andrei paused, then said with unprecedented contempt, "A bunch of greedy fools trying to skin a sheep twice."

Before the alliance disintegrated, these people were already exploiting the industrial and mining enterprises in Vladimir; now, they want to swallow these enterprises whole.

Extremely greedy and lawless, when they can't win the auction, they resort to underhanded tactics and physically eliminate their opponents.

He Changyi was not surprised to learn the real culprit.

After the explosion, Alexei warned her at the hospital to be careful of local police, especially traffic police posing as road checkpoint officers.

He Changyi was driving alone to clear her head when she was stopped by traffic police who asked her to show her driver's license and passport.

Everything seemed normal. However, while the traffic police were dawdling over checking the documents, someone planted a square time bomb under the car in her blind spot.

Alexei, who was following behind, saw all of this.

As a wanted criminal, Alexei could not appear openly in public, nor did he want to show his face, lest he cause trouble for He Changyi, who was in the prime of her career. So he chose to protect her secretly, keeping watch over her from afar.

However, He Changyi was driving too recklessly at the time, and by the time Alexei forced the taxi driver to follow him to the desolate mountains with a knife, there was not much time left before the explosion countdown.

Fortunately, he eventually made it.

Meanwhile, Mikhail was also investigating the case through his own channels, but he was focused on a rival similar to Trotsky, tracing the traffic police's payment records and inadvertently missing the real culprit.

In the end, it was Andrei who uncovered the true culprit.

He Changyi shook her head and said self-deprecatingly, "I thought I had been restrained enough at the auction."

The Poplar Foundation controls over four million warrants, and if she wanted, she could even buy up all the companies at an auction.

To avoid escalating the conflict, He Changyi only bid on the smallest and least profitable precision machining plant, but unexpectedly, it was still not enough.

She complained, "I should have bought all the companies!"

Andrei looked at her gently, but his words were anything but gentle.

"Do you like internal combustion engine factories and motorcycle manufacturing plants? Pick one, and I'll give it to you."

He Changyi looked at him in surprise, but Andrei changed his story.

"No, this shouldn't be considered a gift, but rather compensation you deserve."

He Changyi asked cautiously, "What do you plan to do with those guys?"

—Could it be that it's strapped to a nuclear submarine and sunk a thousand meters below the surface to feed the fish?

—Of course, it could also appear at the next rocket launch site, whether as fuel or as passengers outside the seatless cabin.

Andrei smiled reassuringly at her; his hand was incredibly warm.

"According to legal procedures, corrupt public officials should be prosecuted by federal prosecutors in accordance with the law."

He Changyi felt a sense of relief, thinking, "Ah, this is indeed the real Andrei."

However, this sounds like it's not easy at all. For the interest groups that have been deeply rooted in the city for many years, there is no such thing as surrendering or waiting to die in their dictionary. Even a death struggle can cause considerable damage.

Andrei is excellent; he has a bright future ahead of him, like an Arctic iceberg, pure white and hard, unblemished by any stain.

He Changyi rolled his eyes and thought of a good idea.

Do you know Taras?

Andrei was taken aback at first, but he quickly realized what was happening and couldn't help but smile, his eyes crinkling into a smile.

"Mr. Taras's time in Vladimir was far from pleasant; his great policies were met with severe resistance, and he himself was severely despised."

He Changyi winked happily at Andrei, "I think he would be happy to do his part in promoting reforms in Fuzhou."

Andrei finally couldn't help but laugh out loud.

bedroom.

Alexei sat on the carpet wrapped in a blanket, the only thing he could use to relieve his boredom was the financial statements on his bedside table.

He casually tossed the report aside silently and stared blankly at the door.

...Damn it, when are they ever going to finish talking?!

-----------------------

A note from the author: A song dedicated to Alyosha—