Innocent and Adorable

The reason for inviting Lin Qi over this time is to gather some information. Society is made up of countless such relationships, which are then connected to form a large network.

Lin Qi and Wo Delike talked for about an hour before he left. Standing behind the glass window of the study, watching Lin Qi leave, Wo Delike's expression was very calm.

He walked back to his desk, sat down in a chair, pressed his fingertips together, and lowered his head to think about his conversation with Lin Qi.

Judging from the media and public opinion, the current economic situation in the Federal government seems to be quite good.

The deterioration has stopped, some factories have resumed operations, the economy seems to be recovering, and light is about to tear through the darkness.

That's not actually the case. The media only reports good news, positive news, and encouraging news in these matters, but in reality, the situation is not much better than before.

The dumping of goods from the Free Trade Zone destroyed even more businesses of all sizes, which seemed like a strange, or rather a miracle, thing to the capitalists of the Federal.

The idea that imported goods are sold locally for less than the cost price of locally produced counterparts is something that only exists in the mouths of swindlers, but now it has actually become a reality! The other party also has to bear the costs of transoceanic shipping and various other expenses, yet still maintain a profit. No businessman sets up a factory to produce goods out of charity, so how do they manage to do it? These questions have long plagued the Federal's merchants, and even with adjustments to their production processes, raw materials, and worker wages, they still lack competitiveness.

Some agencies were commissioned to investigate these dumped goods, and they eventually discovered a startling result: the producers of these dumped goods were profiting from subsidies they received from their governments.

They do suffer heavy losses by dumping similar goods at extremely low prices, squeezing out the Federal. However, their government provides them with very generous financial subsidies and various preferential policies, allowing them not only to avoid losses but also to make a large profit from other sources.

This also exacerbated the trend of dumping various goods into the Federal government. Under the impact of cheap goods, a large number of factories that were not able to withstand the risks went bankrupt and closed down. Then these cheap goods began to gradually increase in price until they could ensure that they could recover costs and even make a profit.

Matches and lighters, two ubiquitous small commodities, have become completely dominated by imported goods in the south.

Local factories in the south were unable to compete on price with the dumping of foreign goods and have gone bankrupt. Except for a few that are barely surviving, all the others have collapsed.

Transporting these goods from the central region or other areas would obviously not be cost-effective. The logistics costs would make these already inexpensive items uncompetitive even after being transported there. Therefore, distributors in the south began to import large quantities of these goods from foreign merchants, which were even cheaper than locally produced goods.

However, at the same time, some high-end products from the same brand, with higher specifications, have also achieved good sales.

In fact, it's not just matches and lighters that are facing these problems; many things are facing these problems, including Wo Delike's consortium, which has also begun to be affected by various dumped goods, generating some crisis and a sense of crisis.

There were some thoughts within the conglomerate: everyone is looking for money overseas now, so why doesn't the conglomerate follow this trend and explore the international market as well? This idea wasn't the mainstream opinion within the conglomerate, but Wo Delike also held this view and was even one of the advocates of this trend.

However, there are still many who hold conservative views and are currently pushing for new proposals to change the current situation.

For example, they plan to push for a protection bill that would allow banks to provide businesses with long-term, low-interest or even interest-free loans to help them overcome difficulties.

For example, they are actively planning and pushing for a bill to raise tariffs on dumped goods, artificially increasing the cost of selling these goods within the Federal government, thereby giving all businesses a chance to survive.

But ultimately, all of these things are passive. Once a new situation arises, they will fall into a passive position again. Therefore, some young people, such as Wo Delike, want to fundamentally change this situation by obtaining resources from outside to support domestic conglomerates.

The advantage of using proactive offense instead of passive defense is that even if new situations arise in the future, the impact on the conglomerate will not be significant.

But those gentlemen—yes, Wo Delike was already in his fifties, but he was still a "young man." People in his position within the conglomerate were mostly in their sixties or seventies or even older. He was only in his early fifties, still so young.

These gentlemen, who have lived through many phases of the Federal's history, have conservatism ingrained in their very bones. Compared to methods that are more appropriate and that they are more adept at, Wo Delike and his ilk's ideas are somewhat radical.

They didn't express disagreement, nor did they strongly oppose it; instead, they tried to persuade each other.

This is probably the last bit of "freedom" for conglomerates: they need to campaign at Board of Directors, persuade people from the opposing camp to stand on their side, form a dominant group, and then take the lead in making decisions.

It sounds complicated, but it's actually the same tactic that politicians use—most of them.

By gathering information from Lin Qi and sending out signals, Wo Delike had a better excuse when trying to get others to stand with him. "I've talked to Mr. Lin Qi about these things before."

It sounds a bit unbelievable, when did Lin Qi gain such a great reputation? Actually, this matter cannot be simply explained by concepts such as status, reputation, and power. It's just that Lin Qi happened to be deeply involved in this series of events, and the events themselves and his level of involvement gave his status, reputation, and power a temporary weight.

It's like before Mr. Truman took his current job, people didn't pay much attention to him. Now, the attention he receives isn't because of him as a person, but because of the subjective control he has given him in his position.

So when the people Wo Delike was trying to persuade heard "Mr. Lin Qi," they would seriously consider some of Wo Delike's ideas, but the name "Mr. Lin Qi" would only be used in this context.

If anyone mentions "Mr. Lin Qi" when discussing other matters, people will only scoff, because he doesn't have any influence in those areas, nor does he himself possess such a large influence.

Wo Delike, who had been sitting in his chair thinking for a long time, picked up the phone to arrange the next steps for some people.

Since unrest in the Amelia Region is in the interest of the Federal at this stage, it is obviously very important to cater to Lin Qi, or rather, to Mr. Truman and the President's national policy.

Following Wo Delike's phone call, some Federal businessmen in the Amelia Region, ostensibly on an inspection tour, began to secretly contact the Resistance Organization, possessing everything the Resistance Organization desired.

Weapons, ammunition, medicine, money, and the opportunity to leave the country— Wo Delike, of course, expressed his needs in a very subtle and inconspicuous way: he wanted a big news story!

The negotiations resumed the following morning.

The people sitting on both sides of the negotiating table had stern faces. Lin Qi simply didn't want to give them a pleasant look. These people didn't understand the current situation at all, and they were even less aware that Nagaril didn't actually have the most basic ability to oppose the demands made by the Federal.

They lack the power and strength to negotiate with the Federal. The fact that Lin Qi and his team have made such "concessions" can actually be attributed to the Federal's lack of assertiveness in its foreign policy and approach.

This cannot be blamed on the Federal Government. They also need time to learn how to be tough and make others bow down. Of course, before that, the naval battle must be won. Only by defeating Gefra's navy can the Federal diplomats have the confidence that they have defeated the world's number one.

Compared to Lin Qi's grumpy face, the members of the Nagaril delegation also looked quite unpleasant. Lin Qi's unwavering threat had once again terrified them, and Mr. Truman's unconditional support had also made them somewhat afraid.

Lin Qi is a madman. How can he start a war just because the terms can't be agreed upon?

Is this some kind of diplomatic negotiations?

But the situation is beyond their control, so what can they do but endure it? They discussed these matters with the think tank yesterday afternoon. The think tank simply told them some basic questions, and the decision was left to them.

Whether the monetary system collapses or not is of little value to them. What truly troubles them is that they have to spend real money to acquire Federal Sol, and in substantial amounts at that, which is the demand they are unwilling to accept.

Unfortunately, Lin Qi saw through them early on. This is a fatal flaw brought about by the hereditary system of power: the interests of the ruling family are put above the interests of the country. They only think about themselves, not the future of the entire country and its people.

"Mr. Lin Qi, we discussed the idea you proposed yesterday, and there are a few issues." The Nagaril representative stared intently at Lin Qi, just in case he suddenly lost his temper.

Lin Qi didn't stop the other party from making demands, but nodded and let them continue, saying that it wasn't the right time to turn against them.

"The first question is, could you reduce the figure you proposed? Five hundred billion Sol is roughly equivalent to five trillion Galil. The National Treasury cannot afford that amount of money."

"The second issue is that even if we can reach an agreement on the specific figures, it will be difficult for United Bank to come up with so much money all at once, and ultimately the responsibility will fall to the local banks themselves."

"We discussed whether, if these foreign exchange reserves are acquired, they could be allocated to the reserves of different contributing banks?"

"The third question is that we are also deeply aware of the huge volatility of the Galil in the foreign exchange market. We are considering whether we can take advantage of the acquisition of the Federal Sol to peg the Galil's Exchange Rate to the Federal Reserve's Exchange Rate?"

Lin Qi almost burst out laughing after hearing these three points.

You fucking dream!