dtnovels Chapter 257 They're all smart people
Chapter 257 They're all smart people
(Another long chapter of 6,000 words!)
Early June.
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo. Headquarters of the Daiei Group.
Inside the president's office, the heavy blackout curtains were half-drawn. A dense, oppressive drizzle relentlessly pounded against the large glass curtain wall, the rainwater meandering down and distorting the greyish-white city skyline outside the window into blurry patches of color.
The air was filled with the strong aroma of Cuban cigars, along with a hint of sour black coffee, slowly swirling below the ceiling.
Daiei Group founder Nakanai Isamu stands in front of a huge map of Tokyo.
Following the issuance of the Ministry of Finance's "Total Regulations," coupled with the panic effect of the major conglomerates' previous covert collusion to extract funds, city banks that had previously been lenient with the giants became extremely nervous. They not only completely cut off the extension of real estate bridge loans used by Daiei for offline expansion, but also began to drastically reduce its daily commercial paper credit lines.
Furthermore, Da Rong's original retail foundation had been severely damaged by S-Mart, losing the protection of its massive current cash flow. Every day, Da Rong faced enormous interest expenses of hundreds of millions due to soaring short-term interest rates. Da Rong's financial chain was like a steel wire stretched to its limit, on the verge of snapping at any moment.
(In reality, the Darong Group had another year of prosperity, and 1990 was even their peak. However, in this world, due to the influence of a certain butterfly, a completely different situation was created.)
"Bang."
The heavy oak door to the office was suddenly pushed open.
The head of the market development department strode into the room, his brow beaded with sweat. He didn't even bother to take off his still-dripping coat, clutching a brown paper document bag with rain-soaked edges tightly in his hand.
"President!"
The Minister of Expansion's chest heaved violently as he strode to the marble desk and dumped several stacks of lists from the file folder onto the surface.
"Our key informant in the underground asset trading market bought a top-secret list at a high price from several junior salesmen at Saionji Construction."
The minister swallowed hard and pointed to the pages filled with geographical coordinates.
"This is the list of shops in the Kanto region that the Saionji Group originally planned to acquire. There are a total of two thousand medium-sized shops in excellent locations."
He turned around, wielding his internal energy.
He strode to his desk, cigar in mouth, and grabbed the list with his rough fingers. His eyes scanned it quickly.
These are prime locations near the core subway exits of Shinjuku, Shibuya, and Setagaya wards, serving as hubs for tens of thousands of residents in the surrounding communities.
"The Saionji family would spit out something like this?" Zhong Neigong frowned, his eyes fixed on the coordinates on the list.
"The informant has found out." The expansion manager, panting heavily, quickly reported, "Those intelligence brokers were drunk and complaining at an izakaya. The Saionji family's billion dollars in Manhattan, although unfrozen by Washington, was delayed by the Americans for too long, and their domestic payment system is completely messed up."
The minister wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
"Furthermore, with the Ministry of Finance cutting off loans, infrastructure construction in Odaiba is burning through cash like crazy every day. They simply don't have a large amount of readily available cash in the country. They can't even raise enough advance payments to negotiate with property owners. Since the people below can't get their acquisition commissions, they simply print out the lists and sell them for money."
Zhong Neigong's mind flashed quickly through the overwhelming reports in recent financial news about the implementation of the "total volume regulation" and the transnational storm of the Saionji family being investigated in New York.
The hidden financial damage caused by the billion-dollar freeze. The deep-sea black hole in Odaiba that can't be faked. Even the grievances of the rank-and-file employees are so real.
The logic seems to be a perfect closed loop.
Zhong Neigong stared at the list in his hand, his fingers holding the cigar pausing slightly.
Okay, great, let's go ahead and acquire them according to the list... Just kidding.
He gave a cold laugh.
With a flick of his wrist, he threw the top-secret list, which he had bought at great expense, into the wastepaper basket next to his desk.
The paper bumped against the plastic basket wall with a soft sound.
The expansion manager stood there, stunned, his eyes widening slightly.
"President? That's...!"
"idiot."
Zhong Neigong walked to the leather boss's chair and sat down, placing his cigar on the edge of the crystal ashtray.
"That little girl from the Saionji family is incredibly wicked. How many zaibatsu have died at her hands in the past few years?" The man with internal energy crossed his hands over his abdomen, a hint of mockery flashing in his eyes. "If she really has her eye on these properties, she would sell everything she owns, even all the buildings in Ginza, to keep the information tightly under wraps."
"Anything that could be so easily 'leaked' by a few low-level employees is definitely suspicious."
Zhong Neigong suddenly leaned forward, placed his hands on the table, and stared intently at the Minister of Expansion.
"Daiei will never use information that has been handled by the Saionji family."
"Immediately activate Daiei's own intelligence network. Investigate all major credit unions and bankruptcy courts. Thoroughly investigate all high-quality shops in the Kanto region that have gone bankrupt due to broken cash flow."
He pointed in the direction of the door.
"Also, have someone keep a 24-hour watch on the Saionji family's acquisition team. I need to know exactly which stores they're signing contracts with right now."
The Minister of Expansion was stunned by Zhong Neigong's gaze and shuddered.
"Yes! I'll take care of it right away!"
The minister bowed deeply, then turned and ran out of the office.
...
Four hours later.
The sky outside the window gradually darkened, and the wall lamps in the office were turned on.
The Minister of Expansion pushed open the door again.
This time, his expression was extremely strange, even showing a kind of incredulous astonishment.
He carried two thick cross-reference reports in his hands and walked stiffly to his desk.
"President..." The head of the business development department's voice was strained.
"Have you found out?" Zhong Neigong picked up a cup of black coffee.
"We've got it all figured out." The minister placed the first report flat on the table. "We've identified the total number of bankrupt shops in the best locations and with the highest investment value in the entire Kanto region."
He opened the second report.
"Furthermore, our informants on the front lines have reported back with concrete information. The Yanai Tadashi team from the Saionji family has indeed arrived at the transaction site with a full amount of Daiwa Bank cash drafts."
"But..." the minister said, placing his finger on the paper, "their scope... is extremely limited. They only signed contracts with about 30 percent of the total pool of shops."
Zhong Neigong paused slightly in the hand holding the coffee cup.
"Go on."
"We'll separate the total inventory that Daiei has screened out from the remaining 30% that the Saionji family is currently signing contracts with." The minister took a deep breath and aligned the data charts from the two reports. "The remaining 70% is the batch of premium shops with better locations and larger areas."
"It overlaps with the 'leaked list' you threw away this morning by a whopping 90 percent."
Zhong Neigong looked at the minister and put down his coffee cup.
"Exactly the same?"
"That's basically true." The expansion manager nodded vigorously.
Zhong Neigong's brows furrowed tightly. He grabbed the report on the table and quickly flipped through it.
"Has the Ministry of Justice conducted a thorough investigation of these 70% of shops?" Zhong Neigong's speech quickened. "Why doesn't the Saionji family touch these shops in better locations?"
The Minister of Expansion wiped the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief.
"The Ministry of Justice conducted a covert investigation. In addition to the bank mortgages officially registered with the Ministry of Finance, these listed bankrupt businesses also had some shady, unresolved debts hanging over them."
"Bridge loans from local credit unions. And... private finance companies set up by several yakuza organizations in the Kanto region, holding the secondary mortgage contracts for these shops."
The office fell into dead silence.
The exhaust fan emitted an extremely faint, low-frequency hum.
Zhong Neigong held the report, leaning back in his leather chair. His gaze was fixed on the words "Secondary Mortgage by the Extreme Path Organization".
A billion dollars freeze disrupted payment schedules. A cash black hole in Odaiba infrastructure. Bad debts from yakuza loan sharks. A leaked list. Small-scale cash transactions.
Countless scattered fragments of intelligence collided and pieced together wildly in Zhong Neigong's brain.
Sudden.
A glint of light flashed in Zhong Neigong's eyes.
He sat up abruptly, slamming his rough hands heavily on the marble tabletop.
"I see... I see!"
A low laugh erupted from Zhong Neigong. The laughter grew louder and louder, echoing in the empty office.
"President?" The expansion manager was taken aback by the sudden burst of laughter.
"I should have thought of that sooner!" Zhong Neigong laughed so hard that even the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes smoothed out. He pointed to the report on the table, his eyes full of a sense of superiority that he thought he had seen through everything.
"The Saionji family's billion dollars have been held up by the Americans for too long, coupled with the Ministry of Finance's loan cut-off. Their cash flow has indeed been severely damaged!"
"That young girl simply doesn't have enough readily available cash. So, she can only scrimp and save to buy that small portion of clean assets."
Zhong Neigong picked up the cigar box, took out a brand new cigar, and put it in his mouth.
"As for the remaining 70% of better locations, why did she deliberately leak the list?"
"Because these shops are under the yakuza's high-interest loan sharks! The Saionji family can't come up with the huge sum of cash to pay the yakuza's 'relocation settlement fee.' She's afraid of those local thugs in Kanto!"
"She deliberately released this list of drug-contaminated properties. She wanted to use someone else to do her dirty work. She was trying to use these prime locations as bait to lure foreign capital from Wall Street and Daiei into competing with Kanto Yakuza for territory. She wanted us to waste each other's cash flow in disputes at the bottom."
He struck a match with his internal energy and lit a cigar. The bluish-gray smoke rose, obscuring his bloodshot eyes.
"President," the expansion manager stepped forward anxiously, "Should we still rob these shops that are contaminated with drugs?"
"Grab it! Why don't you grab it!"
Zhong Neigong ripped off his tie and threw it on the sofa.
"That pampered young lady from the old aristocratic family is terrified of Dao. I'm not afraid of internal energy attacks."
He gave a cold laugh.
"She has no idea about the rules of the underworld. Does she think a few loan sharks can stop the expansion of a large conglomerate?"
Zhong Neigong grabbed the internal telephone on the table.
How much reserve fund do we have left?
"There's about 40 billion yen left. That's for settling the remaining payments to suppliers in the Kansai region next week..."
"Bring it all out." Zhong Neigong stared at the Tokyo map on the wall. "Avoid the 30% of clean shops that the Saionji family is currently signing contracts for. Otherwise, we'll waste cash fighting a price war with them."
"Take Da Rong's reserve funds. Go and sweep up all 70% of those prime locations that she can't afford or dare to touch!"
The expansion manager gasped.
"But... what if the yakuza organizations in Kanto forcibly obstruct the construction..."
"All those yakuza want is money and face." Zhong Neigong forcefully stubbed out his cigar in the ashtray. "Once we get the property rights, I'll personally call a few of the chiefs in Kansai. I'll have them put in a good word with these local bullies in Kanto. A little travel expenses will be enough to settle all these messy debts."
"We must not let Wall Street beat us to it."
Zhong Neigong slammed both hands heavily on the desk.
"Go quickly!"
"yes!"
The expansion manager grabbed the report from the table, turned around, and ran out of the office.
Zhong Neigong turned his head and looked at the drizzle outside the window.
A haughty smile curved his lips.
They perfectly avoided competition and acquired the most promising plots of land at extremely low prices.
In this game, Da Rong won the future.
……
At the same time.
Minato Ward, Hotel Okura. Top floor luxury suite.
In front of the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, two senior partners from a "Special Opportunities Fund" on Wall Street were slumped in a soft leather sofa.
Soothing blues jazz filled the room. On the coffee table sat a freshly opened bottle of bourbon whiskey, ice cubes slowly melting in the glass, making a very slight cracking sound.
The blond partner crossed his legs and held a half-full glass of whiskey in his hand.
Standing opposite them were three highly paid, senior local lawyers. They all came from Nishimura Sogo, one of the "Big Four" top law firms in Japan's corporate law field.
Wall Street spent exorbitant amounts on consulting fees for this asset acquisition.
But these legal elites, who usually wield great influence in Marunouchi and wear strict dark suits, had a fine layer of cold sweat on their foreheads at this moment.
The lead lawyer, Watanabe, held a thick, over one-hundred-page due diligence report written entirely in English in both hands, bowing slightly.
"Mr. Smith, Mr. Davis."
The Japanese lawyer's English pronunciation was extremely standard, but his tone carried a clear hint of anxiety.
"Our legal team conducted a thorough, bottom-level analysis of this asset list. The official files from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Justice are very clean, containing only primary collateral from legitimate commercial banks. However…"
The lawyer took a deep breath and handed over several photos taken secretly at the scene.
"During our on-site investigation, we discovered that the interiors of these shops had already been occupied by others."
The blond partner, Smith, glanced at the photo. In it, a dilapidated shop had a broken wooden table, around which several tattooed men were playing cards.
"Continue," Smith said with a hint of nonchalance.
"This is a gray industry derived from Japanese yakuza organizations. It's called 'occupied houses.'" The lawyer pointed to the man in the photo, speaking faster, "In addition to the official mortgage, they possess private second mortgage contracts signed by the original shop owners."
"Sir, this is not just a simple case of thuggish land grabbing."
The Japanese lawyer meticulously opened the legal analysis section of the due diligence report, pointing to a bolded clause.
"Japan's Land and House Leasing Law contains special provisions that are extremely biased towards the actual tenant. These yakuza members are posing as legitimate tenants with historical lease disputes."
"Once we purchase the property, when we apply for an eviction order at the Tokyo District Court, the judge, out of consideration for social stability, will definitely not issue an enforcement order immediately. Instead, they will initiate round after round of mandatory pre-trial mediation."
The lawyer's intuition told him that things were definitely not that simple, and he tried his best to make the two arrogant employers understand the danger involved.
"The scheduling of mediation hearings is extremely long, and these yakuza organizations don't even need to use force. They just need to drag things out in court indefinitely. This tug-of-war usually lasts three to five years."
"Until a final settlement is reached and an exorbitant relocation fee is paid, these assets will be frozen, and we will have no right to carry out any development. This will completely cripple the fund's internal rate of return (IRR) model."
The suite was silent for a few seconds.
Only a female voice singing blues jazz was softly chanting.
Smith held his whiskey glass. He looked at the Japanese lawyer in front of him, whose voice was trembling with nervousness, but showed no sign of backing down or fear.
in contrast.
"Ha ha ha ha……"
Smith suddenly burst into laughter, the sound echoing through the spacious suite.
Davis, the brown-haired partner next to him, chuckled softly, shook his head, and took a sip of his drink.
The Japanese lawyers looked at each other, frozen in place.
Smith stopped laughing. He placed the whiskey glass he was holding steadily on the marble coaster.
"Lawyer."
Smith leaned forward slightly, placing his hands crossed on his knees.
"Your due diligence was excellent. This precisely explains why the current asking price for these assets is 40% below their historical low. Because of their flaws, they're cheap. This is our favorite prey."
"But sir, the time cost of judicial mediation..." the Japanese lawyer eagerly tried to add.
Smith rudely raised his hand, abruptly interrupting the lawyer's rambling on about "human relationships and judicial efficiency in Japanese society."
"Sir. In New York, we can even clear out union territory controlled by the Italian Mafia within a week with a court injunction."
Smith's voice was filled with confidence.
"Those tattooed thugs sitting at broken tables are no different from rats in the sewers in the face of absolute capital and top-notch litigation teams."
He stood up, walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, and looked down at the vast city shrouded in the plum rains.
"You think mediation is lengthy because your past clients didn't pay enough expensive legal fees to push the courts to be more efficient."
Smith turned around, his gaze fixed intently on the Japanese lawyers.
"Listen. There's nothing the dollar can't do. If there is, then use more dollars."
He walked to the coffee table, picked up the due diligence report, and casually closed it.
"We'll utilize our dollar reserve account at Citibank. We'll hire the most expensive and aggressive legal team in all of Tokyo."
"Go out there and grab the land. Squeeze out all those local retailers who are looking at land. Once you have the legal title, the rest of the obstacles can be left to the courts for eviction."
"Go and carry it out."
Looking at the employer's unquestionable face, the Japanese lawyers knew that further persuasion would be futile.
"...Yes, sir."
The lawyers bowed deeply, picked up their briefcases, and quickly left the suite.
……
3 PM.
Tokyo District Court, Bankruptcy Liquidation Center.
The benches on both sides of the corridor were filled with small and medium-sized business owners who looked distressed and faced bankruptcy liquidation.
Miyamoto, the head of the legal department of Daiei Group, hurried down the corridor carrying a black briefcase. He had just precisely avoided the list of companies signing contracts with the Saionji family at the third liquidation window, following President Nakanai Kō's "reverse avoidance" instructions.
At this moment, his briefcase was filled with property ownership certificates for 70% of the prime commercial properties.
When passing the corner.
Miyamoto and the group passed each other by.
Leading the group was a foreign-related lawyer dressed in an expensive, custom-made suit, with a cold and aloof demeanor. Behind him followed several assistants, each carrying a thick stack of photocopies of US dollar promissory notes bearing the Citibank seal.
Both slowed their pace simultaneously in the narrow corridor.
Miyamoto adjusted his glasses. His gaze quickly swept over the accounting documents with English headings in the assistant's hand, and he immediately guessed the assistant's identity.
Agents for distressed asset funds on Wall Street.
The foreign lawyers also keenly noticed the Daiei Group logo printed on the outside of Miyamoto's briefcase.
Their gazes met for an extremely brief moment in the murky air.
A mocking glint flashed in Miyamoto's eyes.
These Americans, who have no idea how deep the waters run in the lower strata of Japanese society, actually dare to blindly step into the minefield of yakuza. When they are dragged into endless courtroom mediations by those "occupied houses," they won't even know how they died.
The foreign lawyer's lips curled into a barely perceptible smirk.
These local traditional retailers are ridiculously rigid in their thinking. They actually handed over top-quality assets with prices plummeting just to avoid some minor physical disputes. Once Wall Street issues its eviction order, these country bumpkins who've never seen the world will learn what the efficiency of capital truly means.
No one spoke.
The two passed each other in the corridor, each harboring a disdain for the other, whom they considered a sucker.
We are all smart people.