At President Li's words, Zeng Shen inwardly rejoiced.
The apocalypse would be here in a year.
He immediately confirmed again, "Are you sure I can repay the principal and interest a year from now?"
"Yes."
A smile tugged at Zeng Shen's lips. "Then, President Li, I'd like to send some business your way and borrow a few hundred million."
"How many hundred million are we talking about?"
"Seven hundred million."
"What! Seven hundred million?" President Li blurted out.
"What's wrong? Is that not possible?"
"Mm, no. Under this risk agreement, we can only lend up to ninety percent of the value, which would be..." The bank president picked up the risk agreement and opened the detailed asset list, about to calculate the exact amount.
"No need to calculate. Five hundred million should be fine, right?" Zeng Shen said.
President Li hesitated before saying, "Five hundred million should be fine, based on all of Shi Mingqiang's assets."
"Then let's do that. Put all the principal and interest for the five hundred million under my name, and transfer one hundred million of it into her account. Is that okay?" Zeng Shen said.
"Ah!"
Liu Miao had been stunned when Zeng Shen opened by asking for seven hundred million. Just as she recovered, she heard that he wanted to lend her one hundred million interest-free, leaving her gasping in astonishment.
"No, Zeng Shen. Lending me money is already an enormous help. How can I let you cover the interest too?"
"Enough fussing. I'm not short of that little bit of interest money," Zeng Shen said with a wave, while inwardly calculating.
In a year, money won't be worth anything. Why would I pay interest?
Better to have you owe me a few more favors before you become that future third-tier water deity.
Things went exactly as Zeng Shen had expected.
Hearing his words, Liu Miao felt even more moved. She silently committed this kindness to memory, while planning to pay him interest in another form.
She gently rested her hand on her closed legs and stroked the silky black stockings covering them.
Once the paperwork was complete, President Li warmly escorted Zeng Shen and Liu Miao out of the bank.
Liu Miao followed Zeng Shen to his RV, bowed slightly, and thanked him. "Thank you, Zeng Shen. You've helped me so much that I don't even know how to repay you."
"If you don't know, just owe me for now. I'll tell you when I need something," Zeng Shen said with a smile.
"All right. Jinhai Wharf up ahead belongs to me. Are you headed somewhere for work? If not, why don't you come take a look?"
"Jinhai Wharf belongs to you?"
"Yes."
Zeng Shen was a little surprised.
When he had triggered the alert at Jinhai Wharf two days earlier, it had said that a third-tier water deity had established a territory here with several second-tier water deities.
Could that third-tier water deity have been Liu Miao?
That would be wonderful.
At the time, Zeng Shen had wanted to go inside and see whether he could encounter those second-tier water deities and earn more first-encounter points, but outsiders weren't allowed into the wharf.
At that thought, Zeng Shen nodded at Liu Miao, whose eyes were full of anticipation. "Sure. I passed by two days ago and wanted to look around inside, but the guard wouldn't let outsiders in. Since that area belongs to your company, you can show me around."
"Of course."
As Zeng Shen opened the door, he asked curiously, "By the way, Sister Liu, with such a huge wharf, why does it seem like you're supporting it all alone? Isn't anyone helping you manage it?"
"Ah." Liu Miao sat down in the passenger seat and sighed softly. As though recalling unpleasant memories, she began recounting her story in a melancholy voice:
"Who would help me now?
"My parents divorced and went abroad when I was little. My grandfather raised me, and I helped him run this wharf."
"The year before last, my grandfather developed health problems, so he arranged a blind date for me with the Ye family's second son over in Yinhai. If we liked each other, we would get married, and he would give us this wharf to run together.
"The blind date went smoothly. I wouldn't say I liked the man, but I didn't dislike him either. I thought that I was already twenty-five and still hadn't met my supposed Mr. Right, so I convinced myself to just find a man and start a family."
"Things moved quickly. We registered our marriage that same day and started arranging the wedding the next day. On our wedding night, I wanted to give myself to him, but he turned out to be a scumbag who had long since worn himself out in private and become completely impotent. He took a lot of pills that night, but none of them worked. Instead, he poisoned himself to death."
"Then his family started making trouble. The Ye family's eldest son, Ye Li, went even further, constantly targeting my grandfather's wharf and aquaculture farm and stealing our business.
"Because of all this, the shareholders even started pressuring my grandfather to hand his position in the company over to someone they chose. He became so angry that he ended up recuperating in the hospital, and now I'm practically all alone."
Zeng Shen drove while quietly listening to the woman beside him pour out her troubles. Gradually, he sensed the resilience deep in her heart and understood how she could survive three years amid the catastrophe and become a third-tier water deity.
Soon, a guard stopped the vehicle at the entrance to Jinhai Wharf.
"Why are you here again? This is a freight port. Unauthorized personnel can't..." Recognizing the RV, the middle-aged guard stepped out of the security booth and shouted at Zeng Shen inside.
But a second later, when he saw Liu Miao in the passenger seat, his voice abruptly stopped.
"Miss."
"Qin Wei, this man is our company's benefactor. From now on, he can enter our wharf whenever he likes."
"Understood, miss."
As he spoke, the guard immediately signaled to his colleague in the security booth to raise the barrier and let them through.
[Warning! The host is about to intrude into a territory jointly established by one third-tier water deity and several second-tier water deities. Given the host's combat strength, escape will be difficult if discovered. Please leave immediately.]
Hearing the notification in his ears, Zeng Shen frowned slightly.
Something about the notification felt a little off. Why had the system said "intrude into" rather than "be dragged into"?
Although he felt a little puzzled,
he didn't dwell on it, as everything inside Jinhai Wharf soon captured his attention.
Jinhai Wharf was the city's largest freight port. Its grounds were vast, with shipping containers everywhere and forklifts constantly moving back and forth.
"...The types of cargo handled at the port are also closely tied to the surrounding industries. We mainly import and export rubber, logs, hardware products, electrical components, and so on."
After the RV entered the wharf, Liu Miao began introducing Jinhai Wharf to Zeng Shen.
"Why won't the bank lend you money when you have such a large wharf?"
"Ah, last year, Ye Li, the Ye family's eldest son from neighboring Yinhai City, expanded a little wharf on the outskirts of Jinhai City that had barely been operating into a secondary port with a tonnage capacity of fifteen hundred tons. Then he used low prices to lure away more than half the businesses that used to work with our port."
"I see. The wharf looks big, but with the Ye family disrupting things, you're already operating at a loss, right?"
Liu Miao shook her head. "What's actually losing money isn't the wharf, but the clam and mussel farm my grandfather invested heavily in establishing three years ago."
Zeng Shen drove the RV around the entire wharf while chatting with Liu Miao. Having received no notifications about encountering second-tier water deities, he went to look around her office building as well.
But it was the same there.
He still hadn't triggered any warnings or other notifications.
That left Zeng Shen rather puzzled.
Could those second-tier water deities be somewhere else?
Or was there somewhere he hadn't checked?