This Is Not Your Fault

A few minutes later, Mr. Fox's assistant brought over two newspapers. One was from four months ago, and the other was from this week.

Finance Companies like Mr. Fox's paid close attention to financial trends across the country and even within the International Community. They dealt with money every day and understood very well what these things represented.

Beyond that, they were also deeply concerned with changes in social conditions, such as employment rates, unemployment rates, and public security.

If unemployment kept rising, they needed to lower interest rates while reducing large loans to minimize risk. That would also make their business more attractive.

When the national economy clearly improved, they would raise interest rates somewhat while encouraging people to borrow more, because people could afford to repay it.

Every day, Mr. Fox's assistant had to read a great number of newspapers to analyze the country's coming developments, then decide whether certain businesses should be ended early or whether they should pretend to have forgotten about them.

This was by no means a simple or straightforward business. Those people could not grow it large, nor could they keep doing it for long. Only people like Mr. Fox could operate such a business over the long term.

That was also why he had spent heavily to hire a college student to assist him. He regarded it as a career, not a way to make quick money.

After opening the newspapers, Lin Qi browsed through them for roughly ten minutes. Mr. Fox did not disturb him at all and even had someone bring him coffee and cigarettes.

Deep down, he felt a faint sense of anticipation. This ordinary man named Lin Qi would surely surprise him.

This was not an unfounded guess. It was something he had observed.

An ordinary person like Lin Qi could not possibly remain calm after being invited here, much less maintain eye contact after Mr. Fox had revealed his killing intent.

He was not an ordinary kid—at Mr. Fox's age, Lin Qi truly was just a kid. He was only twenty.

More than ten minutes later, Lin Qi used the pen in his hand to mark several lines, then placed both newspapers before Mr. Fox at once. "I underlined the parts you need to read, so you can see them more directly."

Mr. Fox and his assistant both studied them carefully. After reading back and forth several times, neither had the slightest clue. They were all real estate listings, and they could not find anything unusual at all.

Mr. Fox was somewhat puzzled. "I don't know what these represent. Do they have some special meaning?"

Lin Qi was not irritated in the slightest. He was very patient. After all, when faced with an excellent client and the money in his pocket, anyone who needed money could be patient.

He walked over to Mr. Fox's side. One of Mr. Fox's men tried to stop him, but Mr. Fox held him back. That meant Lin Qi had earned Mr. Fox's temporary trust.

If he could accomplish what he had said earlier, that trust would last for a very long time.

"This newspaper lists two street-facing apartments for rent. The rent for this one is..." Lin Qi pointed to the underlined spot and did not continue.

Mr. Fox instinctively supplied the answer. "One hundred and thirty-five dollars."

Lin Qi nodded in affirmation. "Yes, one hundred and thirty-five dollars. Let's ignore everything else for now and look at how much the apartment beside it costs..."

Mr. Fox cooperatively moved his gaze to the underlined listing in the other newspaper and continued just as cooperatively, "One hundred and seventy-two dollars!"

"These two apartments are on opposite sides of the road, and the straight-line distance between them is less than one hundred meters. From this change in price, Mr. Fox, what have you noticed?"

After pondering for a moment, Mr. Fox began thinking seriously and said, "The monthly rent increased by thirty-seven dollars!"

In Lin Qi's past mature and successful cases, he had always believed one thing: getting participants more deeply involved in the matter could save a great deal of time and avoid problems that even they themselves might not have anticipated.

They would persuade themselves and firmly believe that the conclusions they reached were correct. This was especially obvious in math problems.

Before anyone clearly pointed out that the answer to a math problem was wrong, every solver firmly believed their own answer was correct and everyone else's was wrong.

Through a simple "equation," Mr. Fox had completed the process of deep participation. The feeling began to surround him with a false illusion, a false sense of security that he himself had created.

He would not think Lin Qi was a fraud, because Lin Qi had not told him these things. He had reached the conclusion himself through serious thought with his own clever mind. He believed in his own conclusion.

"Rising rent means it costs more money to buy these houses. In four months..." Lin Qi paused. "No, in fact, it has been rising every day. It rises a little at a time, and you might not notice it, but it truly is changing. Do you admit that, Mr. Fox?"

Mr. Fox nodded. "Then what does this have to do with our previous business?"

"Of course it does, Mr. Fox. These houses are there. They will not change as time passes, such as gaining a few bricks or losing a few tiles."

"They were one way when they were built, and they are still the same way now. They have not changed. They are constant. But their price has changed. What does that mean?"

Before Mr. Fox could think about it, Lin Qi gave him the answer, because Mr. Fox's mind could not have figured it out.

What he did was guide people, at the right moment, toward the corner where he needed them to find something, rather than encourage them to think freely!

"If the value of something has not changed, but there is a change in the process of 'payment,' then it can only mean that the value of what is being used as the measure has changed."

"In other words, over the past four months, the currency in our hands..." At some point, Lin Qi had taken a coin from his pocket and held it between the joints of his thumb and index finger.

With a light flick, a faint but audible metallic tremor drew everyone's attention. Mr. Fox, his assistant, and the bodyguard nearby all watched the coin rise into the air.

Lin Qi said confidently, "It has been depreciating, and over four months, it has depreciated by roughly twenty-two to twenty-five percent, Mr. Fox."

Mr. Fox pulled his attention away from the Five Cents coin lying motionless on the newspaper. He began seriously considering Lin Qi's words, then looked at his assistant beside him.

The assistant was somewhat embarrassed. He had not studied finance; he had studied management. If Mr. Fox had not paid better wages, and if Mr. Fox had not been his father, he would not have been here.

He felt there was something wrong with Lin Qi's words, yet he could not find any obvious flaw. During this process, Lin Qi used gold for a second round of examples and instilled in everyone in the room the concepts of "depreciation" and "currency is also a commodity."

He was not lying, because all of it was true. There was nothing wrong with his examples. He even brought up how, ten years ago, people could buy a newspaper for Five Cents, while now it took fifty cents.

A newspaper was still a newspaper. Whether it was the ink or the paper, the production methods and processes had not changed much. Newspapers had not become more expensive; money had depreciated.

As Mr. Fox gradually understood, he suddenly felt a chill run through him. He shifted his sitting posture and said stiffly, "But our interest rates are very high. Some are even compound interest!"

He wanted to use that to give himself some sense of security, but those fragile feelings of security were shattered seconds later by Lin Qi's laughter.

"I know, Mr. Fox. The problem is that the currency being depreciated is not merely the money you can put out in front of people. It is all of your assets!"

"All your assets are depreciating at a rate of five percent per month, and that is also a form of 'compound interest.' If you cannot send all your money to the Federal Revenue Service as soon as possible to complete the final procedures..."

Lin Qi returned to the chair across the table and sat down. He shrugged and spread his hands. "The wealth you are so proud of now may not even be worth a fart in a few years!"

"Do you still care about that insignificant ten percent now?"