The Credit Department was on the sixth floor. It was much busier here than the Deposit Department. The ringing of phones and the voices of Director Yang and others filled the entire floor.

The credit department is a large department with many people. When Li Cheng appeared in front of them, they happily shouted "Li Cheng is here, Li Cheng is here------"

Director Yang and the others already knew that Li Cheng was coming to help, and they also knew that Li Cheng was helping Meng Jianghong complete the deposit task. Therefore, Li Cheng's arrival gave them hope.

Moreover, Li Cheng arrived a day earlier than planned, which made them extremely happy.

There are a lot of things going on at this critical juncture, so having one more person is very important.

However, although the credit department was very busy at this time, they were well treated. Customers had already sent them fruits, melon seeds, various drinks, and cans of coffee.

A loan officer pushed Li Cheng onto the sofa and pointed at the snacks on the coffee table. "Eat them yourself. Director Yang will be here soon."

Li Cheng smiled and said, "Okay, I'll do it myself, you go ahead and do your work."

The man smiled and sat down in front of a computer to work again.

Li Cheng looked at the fruits in front of him, which almost filled up the entire coffee table, and thought to himself, this credit department is awesome!

The deposit department is completely deserted, but here it's like Chinese New Year, which is a world of difference.

Li Cheng picked up an orange and slowly tore it apart. A credit officer saw this and took a fruit knife from the table.

After Li Cheng thanked him, he used a fruit knife to cut the orange into four parts and started eating.

You know what, these oranges are really sweet. Li Cheng saw that there were still a lot of oranges on the table, so he simply took a few more, thinking that he would go downstairs and deliver them to Ai Yi in the sales department later.

At this moment, Director Yang arrived. Seeing the oranges in Li Cheng's hand, he said, "Put them down! I left a basket for you over there, waiting for you to eat them!"

Upon hearing this, Li Cheng quickly put down the orange in his hand, stood up and followed Director Yang to his office.

After entering Director Yang's office, Li Cheng was stunned. He saw not only a whole basket of oranges, but also some less common southern fruits.

"It's yours, all yours. I'll have someone put them in your car later------" Director Yang said, pointing at the fruits.

Li Cheng smiled and said, "Director Yang, so generous! It seems I came at the right time!"

After Director Yang sat down, he said, "Please sit down first."

After Li Cheng sat down in the chair opposite him, Director Yang handed him a report. Li Cheng took a look at the report and found it was a report on the interest receivable and interest actually collected by the credit department.

Li Cheng looked at the two numbers at the bottom and found that the difference was extremely large.

Li Cheng returned the report to Director Yang and said, "The difference is quite large!"

Director Yang placed the report on the table, then leaned over and said, "Brother, how about we start from here?"

Li Cheng shook his head and said, "It's difficult!"

Upon hearing this, Director Yang felt a little discouraged. He leaned back in his chair and said, "I know it's difficult, but President Hou has issued a death order, insisting on charging an additional 10 million in interest. But you also know that most of our branch's clients are half-dead businesses. What do you want me to do?"

Li Cheng knew that these half-dead companies would go bankrupt, be restructured, merged, or sold in the next few years.

At this time, these companies find it difficult to pay their workers' wages, let alone repay the loan interest.

"The main reason our branch can't collect interest is that we used to be the exclusive lending bank for all state-owned enterprises in the city. This is a historical issue, not a problem of you, the head of the credit department, being unable to collect interest."

After hearing this, Director Yang's expression brightened slightly. He felt that what Li Cheng said was reasonable. But President Hou was different. For various indicators and for her own reputation, she only knew how to force him to pay interest.

She didn't even think about it, why would so many people have to work overtime day and night when she could just lie at home and collect interest?

"Li Cheng, what do you think we should do? President Hou insists on the 10 million yuan in interest, otherwise, she and the city branch will have no way to explain it."

Li Cheng thought for a moment and said, "Can't you find a company that can use this?"

Director Yang searched through a stack of reports on the table, then pressed one into Li Cheng's hand and said, "Look around. If you can find a company that can use this, I'll lend it money right away."

The "useful" enterprises the two men mentioned were those with decent operating returns. Thus, by disbursing a loan to this enterprise before the end of the year and subsequently collecting the interest, the interest collection target could be completed by the end of the year.

Of course, this is strictly speaking illegal, but it's not a big deal, as many banks use this tactic when they can't complete a task.

Li Cheng looked at the companies listed on the report and thought that except for the few companies related to him, the others did not seem to be "useful" companies.

We absolutely dare not lend to businesses that don't need the money, or are not performing well. Once we lend them money, they will become bad debts, and we will have to clean up the mess sooner or later.

For example, the light bulb factory mentioned above said it was already in debt of 27 million, and as of last month, they owed 11.23 million in interest.

In other words, this light bulb factory has barely paid back any interest since taking out the loan. They're essentially living off the bank's operating loan!

If they were given a loan at this point, they would probably be overjoyed. However, the interest would take forever to come.

Although the work in the credit department seems glamorous, it seems to be much more difficult than that in the deposit department.

Li Cheng put the report back on the table, then pointed at the name of the tape recorder factory and said, "Let's go with this one."

When Director Yang saw that it was the tape recorder factory, he shook his head and said, "I can't make things worse for you!"

When Li Cheng took over the tape recorder factory, he also took over its debts. If he extended another loan to the factory, Li Cheng's debts would increase.

In this way, although Li Cheng can pay the interest to the branch on time, Director Yang is worried that if Li Cheng's supermarket is not managed well, bankruptcy and liquidation will be waiting for Li Cheng.

Director Yang looked at Li Cheng with a worried look on his face. Li Cheng smiled and said, "What do you mean by adding insult to injury? If you grant the tape recorder factory a loan now, it would be like providing timely assistance."

Director Yang smiled and said, "I've seen your supermarket. The main construction is now complete, and it's expected to open before the New Year. However, you're not big enough to take on such a large loan."

Upon hearing this, Li Chengchu smiled and said, "Who said I'm going to put the money in the supermarket? Can't I use it to build a house?"