Chapter 513: Turtle in a Jar (asking for monthly ticket subscription)

The nights come especially early in the cold winter.

Around six o'clock in the evening, the lush white bamboo slope was already shrouded in dusk, the cold wind was howling, and faintly one could hear the sound of snow hitting the window.

Zhang Yunqi chatted with Ji Ling for a while, and the meal was soon ready. He and Ji Ling's family sat around the dining table. There was plasma duck, steamed sea bass, sweet and sour pork ribs, old hen stewed with chestnuts, and stir-fried spinach, all of which were steaming and fragrant. The French-style restaurant and living room were connected and had a large area. It was exquisite and elegant. "The Return of the Condor Heroes" was playing on TV, which was full of a homely feeling.

Zhang Jing picked up a piece of pork ribs for Zhang Yunqi and said, "Have you been busy lately? Why do you look thinner?"

Zhang Yunqi was not used to the sudden concern from his cheap aunt. "Fortunately, I basically don't participate in the specific operation of the company now, otherwise I wouldn't be able to manage it even if I had three heads."

Zhang Jing nodded: "What about academics?"

Zhang Yunqi was embarrassed to mention this matter. He would basically not miss classes if he had time, but the prerequisite was that he had to have time.

Compared to high school, the operating system of United Times is now larger and more complex. Even if he doesn't care about anything else, he has to take out a certain amount of time every day to sign various approvals and financial statements, unless he gives up the core power to control the company. However, he is still young and has not yet retired, so being late and absent from class is commonplace. Fortunately, Xiangda University basically doesn't care about him, and it's no problem for him to review for the final exam. Facing Zhang Jing's question, he rolled his eyes and said, "Fortunately, the final exam is coming soon, and I've been reviewing for the exam recently."

Zhang Jing picked up a piece of spinach and ate it while saying, "I heard from your uncle that you have been working with Secretary Hu Xianxun to carry out investment and financing reforms throughout the province recently?"

Zhang Yunqi was unwilling to put such a big hat on himself, and explained: "It can't be said that I cooperated. I just made a few suggestions. The main thing is that Secretary Hu recognized the 'Jiangchuan Model' of state-owned enterprise reform and promoted it in the province. However, the platform company of the local government has been built. How to use it? How to use it is very critical. Otherwise, it will be an empty shell. So many bad state-owned assets in the local area cannot be effectively revitalized, industrial land cannot be used, and redundant staff cannot be quickly disposed of. Over time, problems will easily arise in society. So my idea is to deepen the reform of investment and financing based on the reform of state-owned enterprise property rights."

Zhang Jing nodded and asked, "What do you think of the current asset operations of local banks?"

Zhang Yunqi was stunned.

He knew that the central bank had issued a notice this year to stop the establishment of new urban credit cooperatives and required that urban credit cooperatives should establish urban cooperative banks on the basis of restructuring. The urban commercial cooperative bank in Lijin City was the fastest to complete restructuring among all provincial capitals. And Zhang Jing was the first president. In a sense, Lijin has already walked ahead of history, but it seems that Zhang Jing is under great pressure, otherwise he would not have asked him questions in this regard.

Ji Zhong took a sip of wine and continued, "Your aunt's unit has completed the merger and reorganization, combining more than a dozen credit unions into a bank. There are many problems and contradictions, such as establishing a new leadership team, selecting new management positions, eliminating a large number of unprofessional and unsuitable bank accounts, breaking the big pot salary assessment system, and trying to retain capable core backbones. Each task will affect the vested interests of a large number of people. Internal reforms are difficult to implement and the pressure is also very high."

Zhang Jing put down his chopsticks and rubbed his brows. "The issue of personnel relations and vested interests is a problem of modern corporate governance structure and internal control system. We have to take it slowly. The most serious problem right now is the asset quality and historical ambition of the city commercial bank. Before the reorganization, the extensive management of the credit union period left a heavy asset quality burden for the reorganized Lijin City Commercial Bank. Now the bank's non-performing loan ratio has reached 16.53%."

This seems to be the most difficult problem facing the new bank president Zhang Jing right now.

The situation of Lizhen City Commercial Bank is very serious. It is beyond Zhang Jing's ability to get rid of the historical baggage of the city credit union period and start anew. However, she told Zhang Yunqi about it at such a family gathering. Ji Ling was also present, and Zhang Yunqi was a little surprised.

Zhang Jing is an intellectual woman. Like Zhang Guoxiang, she is also the first generation of golden phoenixes that flew out of Yunxi after the country resumed the college entrance examination. He still remembers that many years ago, when he was still an innocent little kid, he saw the beautiful and elegant Zhang Jing bringing the porcelain doll-like Ji Ling back to her hometown in the village, while he stood far away and watched in tattered clothes. He would feel a sense of unattainable awe from the bottom of his heart.

Now that he has entered the Ji family, he is treated like a family member.

The world is full of unpredictable things.

Zhang Yunqi saw Zhang Jing's inquiring gaze sweeping over him. Ji Zhong also put down his wine glass and remained silent. The atmosphere became a little quiet.

In fact, facing this kind of problem, Zhang Yunqi would never stand idly by. In a sense, if something happened to the Ji family, it was Zhang Yunqi's problem. It was just that over the years, Ji Zhong and Zhang Jing had never asked him for anything, so he felt a little uncomfortable.

Zhang Yunqi thought for a moment and said, "Auntie, if you want to divest the non-performing assets of the city commercial bank before the restructuring and reduce the non-performing asset ratio, you can adopt a loan replacement model."

Zhang Jing was stunned and asked, "What do you mean?"

Zhang Yunqi put down his chopsticks and explained, "Under the leadership of the Lijin Municipal Government, the Lijin City Commercial Bank first lent money to the financing platform company of the Lijin Municipal Government. The platform company used the loan to purchase the non-performing assets of the city commercial bank. Finally, the city platform company repaid the loan with the disposal of non-performing assets, municipal financial support and tax refunds. Through such operations, it is relatively easy to reduce the non-performing rate of Lijin City Commercial Bank by 10 to 20 percentage points, which can completely make up for the losses of the credit union before the reorganization and gradually achieve profitability."

Zhang Jing thought about it and said with a smile: "This is a good way. No wonder the leaders in both the city and the province value your ideas. You really have a way to operate asset capital."

Zhang Yunqi thought that the leaders only paid lip service to his ideas. Be it the Jiangchuan model, the Yunxi experience, or even the construction of the investment and financing model of the platform company in southern Hunan proposed this time, if he could not fully implement the logic of these capital operations through projects and thoroughly run the front-end and back-end industrial chains and present tangible results, then neither Yang Jiarong nor Hu Xianxun would ever nod their heads.

Zhang Yunqi said: "In fact, the key to the successful disposal of this asset lies in the support of the Lijin Municipal Government and the ability of the municipal state-owned asset platform company to revitalize non-performing assets. In essence, it is to exchange time for space. It is not difficult to operate, but it requires strong support from the municipal government. Auntie, give me the materials of the municipal city commercial bank later, and I will help you make a draft of this plan."

At this point, Zhang Yunqi thought for a moment and said, "Of course, this is just one of the ways. Another way is that if the city commercial banks do not have government help, if you want to rely on your own profits to gradually write off bad debts, you must pay attention to cultivating the sustainable profitability and risk management capabilities of the city commercial banks. In addition to modern corporate governance structures and internal control systems, it is very important to cultivate effective capital replenishment mechanisms and market-oriented operation capabilities. You understand this better than I do. To put it bluntly, it is about lending and absorbing private deposits, so this is a question of cultivating financial scenarios."

Zhang Yunqi said: "My company can have in-depth cooperation with you in this area. In addition to large-amount credit, Liansheng Group can help city commercial banks build four-level financial service outlets while promoting the reform of the separation of three rights and building the city's agricultural exchange center. It can also jointly promote customized financial loan products with relevant district and county units. For example, I can transfer land transfer deposits, risk funds, land funds, and regular land dividends to your bank. This is a hard binding, and there are many such hard-bound financial service scenarios. The farmers involved will inevitably open bank accounts and deposit loans in city commercial banks, thereby replenishing the capital and profitability of city commercial banks and writing off bad debts."

Zhang Jing's brows completely relaxed after hearing these words.

Ji Ling stuffed a piece of pork ribs into his mouth: "Student Zhang has so many ideas."

"Yunxi is a small and poor place, but it produces many talented people."

"Comrade Zhang Jing, it seems like you are praising yourself in disguise." Ji Zhong rarely smiled and said something to his wife Zhang Jing in front of Zhang Yunqi.

Zhang Yunqi smiled and said, "After New Year's Day, Auntie, I'll ask Liansheng's General Manager Li Jilin to contact you."

Zhang Jing nodded and said, "Go home with Ji Ling for dinner when you have nothing to do. Your uncle and I don't usually cook, but the nanny is a good cook. She came from my hometown."

Ji Ling took a few grains of rice and stuffed them into her mouth: "Mom, you really think too much. Classmate Zhang eats delicious food and drinks spicy drinks every day."

Zhang Yunqi was not happy to hear this and said, "You think I eat delicious food and drink spicy drinks every day, but that's because I did when you were here."

Zhang Jing smiled and shook her head.

She could sense that Zhang Yunqi only showed his childish side when he was chatting with her daughter Ji Ling. However, now that the problems of the city commercial bank had been solved, she was naturally in a better mood as the president of the bank. She talked to Zhang Yunqi about the construction of the villa in Yunxi, her hometown, and how Chu Jian was doing in Peking University. Later, the family also talked about whether to go back to her parents' home for the New Year this year.

After dinner, Ji Zhong called Zhang Yunqi into the study.

Ji Zhong and Zhang Yunqi never waste words. After Zhang Yunqi sat down, he said directly: "In the Su De incident, someone reported you, saying that you leaked Su De's hiding place, which led to his being beaten to death."

There is no doubt that Winston Chao reported him.

This was Zhang Yunqi’s first reaction, but so what?

Zhao Wenxuan can bring him down with just his mouth, so he has wasted all these years.

The reason is simple. If the police in Lijin City really want to make a big fuss about this matter, how could Ji Zhong call him to the study alone to discuss this matter? Even if the police want to make a fuss, do they have evidence? Taking a step back, what if the police have evidence to prove that he leaked the information? Because who can prove that he did it intentionally or leaked it unintentionally? Can a crime without evidence be called a crime?
He was just passing by.

That is the whole truth.

Facing Ji Zhong's question, Zhang Yunqi scratched his head and said in surprise, "Is that true? I don't know. I do know Su De, but I've only met him once. Recently, I've been busy with the land acquisition for Aihua Electronics and Qiaokou Town projects."

Ji Zhong looked at Zhang Yunqi, and after a while, he asked, "You didn't participate in Su De's affairs?"

Zhang Yunqi said something from the heart: "Actually, I really want to participate."

Ji Zhong asked, "What does this mean?"

Zhang Yunqi smiled and said, "During that time, I saw people of my age standing on the streets, holding national flags and shouting loudly in the rain. I didn't think there was anything childish or ridiculous about this behavior. Instead, I was somewhat moved. Maybe I just felt that sometimes people should live like this and should have a little bit of this kind of pursuit."

Ji Zhong said: "This pursuit will never succeed."

Zhang Yunqi said, "Uncle, your words suddenly reminded me of the hundreds of millions of farmers in China. Their pursuit is very simple, that is, to live a prosperous life, but in a broad sense, this pursuit will never be realized, because the social structure of mankind is a pyramid structure, so the five thousand years of Chinese history is a history of suffering for farmers. Of course, suffering is never worth praising, but at least the process of fighting against suffering is worthy of admiration, and the process of those students' pursuit is also worthy of admiration. It's not the superficial kind."

Ji Zhong looked up at Zhang Yunqi without saying anything. After a long while, he suddenly asked, "How is the large-scale lotus shrimp breeding project in Qiaokou Town going?"

Zhang Yunqi said: "Construction will definitely start in the spring of next year."

Ji Zhong stood up and lit a cigarette. He walked to the window and looked at the dense snow outside. He said slowly, "Qiao Zhiwu has deep-rooted connections in Lijin City. I know you are sure that Yang Jiarong will be transferred to Lijin soon. That's right. But be careful that he may jump over the wall in desperation. As I said before, don't be too aggressive. At least at the moment, the surname of Lijin is Song."

Zhang Yunqi nodded: "I know, thank you for reminding me, uncle."

Ji Zhong said nothing more.

It was already nine o'clock in the evening when Zhang Yunqi left Baizhupo.

Ji Ling stood at the door. When Zhang Yunqi got into the car, he said to the girl who was waving at him on tiptoe, "I'm going to Dongting Lake tomorrow. I'll pick you up in the evening and go back to my hometown to celebrate New Year's Day. It may be late, so remember to go to bed early and get enough rest."

Ji Ling smiled and said yes loudly.

Xiao Wu, who was driving, started the engine and drove out of Baizhupo. After passing Tujia Chong, the snow gradually became heavier, fluttering in the dim street lights on both sides. A layer of white gauze was soon covered on the road. There were two children in cotton-padded jackets making a snowman, jumping and laughing, bringing some warmth to this cold world.

Zhang Yunqi will accompany Hu Xianxun to Dongting Lake tomorrow, and he has already dozed off in the passenger seat. Xiao Wu is driving, and he seems to sense something, always glancing at the rearview mirror from time to time. When they arrive at Houhu Road, he suddenly says, "Boss, I feel like someone is following us."

Zhang Yunqi opened his eyes and glanced sideways at the rearview mirror. There were indeed a few off-road vehicles following behind him, but it was too dark to make out the license plates clearly.

Xiao Wu is very alert.

He immediately took out his cell phone and called Ma Shi, told him the route, and asked Ma Shi to call someone over.

After hanging up the phone, Xiao Wu increased the speed of the car and the Mercedes quickly crossed Xiangjiang North Road, but the cars behind were following closely, which made him a little nervous. He stepped on the accelerator and accelerated again, speeding all the way to Lijin City in the snowy night.

When they arrived at the Orange Island Bridge, both sides of the Xiangjiang River were brightly lit. Heavy snow fell on the river without leaving any trace. Some citizens cheered when they saw the first snow. At this time, they were getting closer and closer to the East Gate Villa. Xiao Wu's vigilance relaxed a little. As long as he maintained speed and distance to prevent the other party from overtaking, Ma Shi should be able to bring his men here soon.

Just at this moment, several Passat cars suddenly appeared on the opposite lane at full speed. Before Xiao Wu could react, they suddenly changed lanes and blocked the road. Xiao Wu looked at the cars swaying in front of him, and his heart suddenly rose to his throat. He braked hard, and the tires and the road made a fierce friction sound that made his teeth ache. Then, he turned the steering wheel to the limit and wanted to turn around, but the cars behind had caught up and directly sandwiched the Mercedes-Benz in the middle.

Zhang Yunqi was trapped in a jar.

It was already 9:30 in the evening. The ever-flowing traffic on the Juzizhou Bridge was cut off. For a moment, car horns rang out one after another. Some drivers got out of their cars and banged on their doors, cursing at the people stuck in the traffic. Suddenly, a dozen young men jumped out of the seven or eight cars that were stuck in the traffic, each holding an iron bar, and beat the drivers who were cursing, causing them to flee in panic.

The first snow was still falling like rain, flashing pale light under the neon lights. Through the car window, the light was scattered on Xiao Wu's tense face. His voice was a little hoarse when he spoke: "Boss, the front and back are blocked."

Zhang Yunqi said nothing.

He turned his head to look at Passat who was blocking the Mercedes Benz.

The Passat's car window slid down, and in the heavy snow, Qiao Zhiwu's face appeared in the passenger seat. He had a smile on his face and a gun in his hand. He was fiddling with it carefreely on the busy Orange Island Bridge. "Boss Zhang, how are you?"

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(End of this chapter)