Chapter 558 Prelude to the Age of Madness
No sooner had Huang Sheng left the office than his secretary, Jian Ning, gently knocked on the door and led a middle-aged man in.
"Chairman Song, President Liu has arrived."
Song Ci's gaze swept over the newcomer's impeccably tailored dark suit, and she quipped:
"Uncle, you're definitely different now that you've been promoted to a leadership position at the head office. You're even wearing a suit and tie in the middle of summer, you look so impressive."
In front of her nephew, Liu Xiaochen relaxed a bit and loosened her tie:
"There's no way around it. The bank manager has dress requirements, and as a subordinate, you have to follow them. Otherwise, in this awful weather, who wants to be wrapped up like a dumpling? I'm about to get heat rash."
Hearing her uncle's complaints, Song Ci smiled knowingly and instructed her secretary, "Bring me an iced Americano, with extra ice."
"New Year's Day is the most thoughtful; with this weather, we need ice to keep us going."
A moment later, Jian Ning carried a tray and placed a cup of iced coffee with condensation on it on the coffee table in front of the guest. Then she quietly left and closed the door behind her.
Liu Xiaochen was sweating profusely from the heat. She picked up her cup and took a big gulp. The cool liquid slid down her throat, dispelling the heat from her body.
He let out a long sigh and exclaimed sincerely, "That feels so good!"
"Uncle, if you're not busy today, you can steal half a day to relax here."
"You can't sit still, can you?" Liu Xiaochen waved her hand, put down her cup, and her expression showed a touch of familiar concern. "On New Year's Day, about the twenty million you gave Yuqing..."
Song Ci interrupted him with a smile, her tone gentle yet her correction clear:
“Uncle, that 20 million is an investment to support my little sister’s business, it’s not a free gift. We need to sign an agreement and discuss the returns.”
Liu Xiaochen looked unconvinced, clearly having reservations about her daughter's entrepreneurial abilities.
"She's been pampered since childhood and has never experienced hardship. What kind of achievements can she possibly make? I'll be grateful if she doesn't just throw the money away."
“Uncle, what you’re saying is biased.” Song Ci shook his head, his eyes encouraging. “How can we know how much potential she has if we don’t let her try? Yuqing has a lot of ideas, and I have high hopes for her.”
"Alright, alright, you can help me out more." Liu Xiaochen waved her hand, skipping over the topic. "If that girl can learn even a little bit from you, it'll be enough for her to benefit for a lifetime."
"Of course, I will take care of her."
After discussing family matters, Liu Xiaochen's relaxed expression instantly vanished, and she said in a deep voice, "On New Year's Day, I don't come here unless it's important. I have serious business to discuss."
Song Ci seemed to have foreseen this: "Is it for...?"
"You predicted everything!" Liu Xiaochen nodded solemnly, her tone heavy.
A sense of powerlessness welled up in Song Ci's heart.
"I'm here today hoping that more funds from my WeChat Wallet account can be transferred to ICBC to alleviate our immediate crisis."
“Sure,” Song Ci readily agreed. “I can allocate 200 billion yuan from the cooperation quotas of the other three major banks to ICBC.”
"Good nephew! You're still the one I can rely on in this crucial moment!" Liu Xiaochen smiled with relief and picked up his coffee cup again.
The head office set a bottom line of 100 billion for him, and he has already exceeded that target.
"Don't worry, ICBC will step in to coordinate and bear the pressure of adjusting the quotas from the three banks: CCB, ABC, and BOC."
Seeing her uncle's smug expression, Song Ci smiled and changed the subject: "Two hundred billion is no problem. However, I have one additional condition."
Liu Xiaochen paused, the cup she was about to bring to her lips, and looked up to ask, "What are the conditions?"
With a focused gaze, Song Ci solemnly declared, "I hope that ICBC and Tenda Technology will cooperate deeply to develop blockchain technology applications!"
“Blockchain?!” Liu Xiaochen instinctively objected. “No way! Absolutely not!”
Song Ci calmly explained, "Uncle, don't be nervous. Tengda Blockchain Technology's main focus is not cryptocurrency, but trust technology!"
His previous categorical rejection of the institute's proposal to establish a cryptocurrency trading platform does not mean he will relinquish his say in the next generation of internet technology architecture.
We will partner with ICBC, the "universal bank," to focus on specific business opportunities that can create real value.
Only by verifying the feasibility of the technology can the entire financial industry see Tenda Technology's strength in the blockchain field.
"Trust Technology?" Liu Xiaochen breathed a sigh of relief. "Tell me more about it. If it's beneficial to ICBC and we can control the technology, I'll definitely do my best to make it happen."
Song Ci eloquently recounted: "I hope that Tenda and ICBC will jointly develop a blockchain-based supply chain finance platform, 'Chain-on-the-Go'."
After a core enterprise connects to the platform, its upstream suppliers can generate a 'digital credit certificate' that is divisible, transferable, and fully traceable based on the accounts receivable confirmed online.
Suppliers holding this certificate can obtain financing loans from ICBC in the shortest possible time.
"Digital credit certificate?" Liu Xiaochen caught the key term.
Song Ci paused briefly to organize his thoughts, thinking of using an example to illustrate his point in a way that would be easy to understand: "I'll give you an example and you'll understand."
Liu Xiaochen adjusted her posture, showing a high level of concentration.
"Let's say BYD is an important customer of ICBC, and it purchases 10 million yuan worth of auto parts from its Tier 1 supplier, Huawi Parts Factory."
After receiving the goods, BYD does not pay cash directly.
Instead, on the ICBC-Tengda Chain Connect platform, a digital credit certificate with a face value of 10 million yuan was issued to Huwei Factory, with a payment agreed upon after six months.
At this time, Huawai Factory itself also owed five million yuan to its secondary supplier, High-Quality Steel Factory.
Under the traditional model, Huawi Factory faced financial difficulties and payment problems.
But now, it can directly split the ten million yuan BYD digital voucher in its hand into vouchers with a limit of five million yuan and transfer them to high-quality steel mills.
Now, this high-quality steel mill, which may not be a large enterprise, holds a digital certificate worth five million yuan, backed by BYD's credit.
If it urgently needs cash, it can immediately use this certificate to apply for financing from ICBC.
The ICBC system automatically and in real-time verifies the authenticity, uniqueness, ownership, and circulation path of this certificate through blockchain nodes.
Song Ci made a gesture, "After everything was confirmed to be correct, ICBC transferred 4.8 million yuan directly to the account of the high-quality steel mill within a few minutes."
Six months later, the certificate expired, and ICBC directly transferred five million yuan from BYD's account to complete the settlement. The risk was extremely low, and the efficiency was extremely high.
Liu Xiaochen seemed to understand something, and murmured, "Trust Technology... I understand!"
What ICBC truly trusts is not the steel mill, but BYD, the ultimate unconditional payer of the voucher!
If technology can truly ensure the authenticity and immutability of the chain, that would be incredibly convenient!
"This is precisely where the core value of blockchain technology lies!" Song Ci said confidently, "Distributed ledger, encryption algorithms, and smart contracts."
This ensures that every step from the issuance of certificates by BYD—including splitting, transferring, financing, and redemption—is clearly traceable and cannot be tampered with.
This is equivalent to transmitting the core enterprise's excellent credit, like ripples on water, layer by layer, seamlessly to the small and micro enterprises at the very end of the industrial chain.
This perfectly solves banks' concerns about the difficulty in verifying the authenticity of trade backgrounds!
"On-chain connectivity! On-chain connectivity!" Liu Xiaochen repeated, sighing, "If everything you've said can truly be achieved technically, then it will indeed be of extraordinary significance!"
This is the direction fintech should truly be heading.
"Technically, Tenda has absolute confidence and reserves! Trust technology and cryptocurrency are two sides of the same coin, sharing the same underlying logic."
Song Ci assured that "if ICBC has any concerns, it can send technical experts to jointly develop 'ChainPass' with Tenda, and the whole process will be completely transparent to ICBC."
Liu Xiaochen knew her nephew well; he would never make such a boast if he wasn't sure.
After a moment's thought, he immediately made a decision: "Great thing! This is a great thing for promoting financial technology innovation and serving the real economy!"
Both for public and private reasons, I fully support it!
Upon returning, I immediately gave a special report to the head office leadership team and pledged my full support for this project!
After asking a few follow-up questions about the implementation details of "Chain Connect," Liu Xiaochen humbly sought guidance:
"On New Year's Day, besides digital credit certificates, where else can blockchain trust technology truly shine in the financial industry?"
"There are many application scenarios, and it can be said that it can reshape many traditional business processes."
"for example?"
With a deep gaze, Song Ci slowly uttered four words: "Cross-border payment."
He watched as his uncle's expression changed drastically, then said in a calm tone: "Blockchain technology has the characteristics of peer-to-peer transmission and disintermediation, which can realize 'payment is settlement'."
In theory, it is possible to build a completely new and efficient global clearing channel, directly bypassing the existing SWIFT system.
Upon hearing this, Liu Xiaochen's pupils contracted sharply, and her tone became extremely serious, even carrying a hint of warning:
"New Year's Day! Your idea... is extremely dangerous! It touches not only on technical issues, but also on the very foundation of the international financial order!"
Song Ci smiled calmly, a smile that contained profound meaning and foresight: "The technology itself is not the problem; the key lies in who controls it and when it is used."
I hope it will always remain just an alternative, a last resort.
But we must have it, just in case. I also don't want to see a day in the future when we are actually forced to use this technology.
Liu Xiaochen remained silent. He certainly understood the deeper meaning behind his nephew's words, which concerned strategic security and preparedness.
After a long pause, he sighed softly, his tone complex: "It would be best... never to have to wait until that day."
After speaking, he glanced at his watch, then stood up, straightened the hem of his suit jacket, and his face regained its previous sharp and capable expression.
"It's almost noon. Today's mission has been successfully completed. I need to hurry back to the bank to report."
"Uncle, have lunch before you leave. I'll have the cafeteria prepare some." Song Ci stood up and tried to persuade him to stay.
"No, no, I still have a lot of things to take care of at the bank." Liu Xiaochen waved her hand with a gentle smile. "When Shishi comes back, your uncle will treat you two to a nice meal."
Upon hearing this, Song Ci abandoned all formalities and rose to see him off.
The two walked side by side toward the office door. Song Ci solemnly instructed, "Uncle, you are the Chief Risk Officer of ICBC. Nowadays, online lending is emerging, and there is a lot of mixed quality."
Please be extra careful in this matter and carefully manage the risks.
Liu Xiaochen paused, her expression serious, and nodded heavily: "I know what's important! Don't worry, it's my duty. You go ahead with your work, no need to see me off."
(End of this chapter)
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