Chapter 6

The more Chen Lingyun spoke, the angrier she became, until tears nearly fell. Her palm slapped the dining table again and again, making the bowls and chopsticks tremble.

Cheng Kaiyun took his wife's hand, both distressed and amused. "Why are you getting angry with your child? Besides, he's sick."

"I'm sick too!" Chen Lingyun cried. "I'm going through menopause! Why doesn't he know to give me some leeway? Does he only feel satisfied if I bow my head to him? Is he my son, or is he my father?"

"Enough!" Seeing his daughter becoming more outrageous by the second, Chen Simiao stopped her with a headache. "You're such an adult already, yet you're still crying and making a scene. Aren't you ashamed?"

Before he finished speaking, the doorbell rang. The housekeeper welcomed the guest in and announced loudly, "President Zhao from Zhao Textile is here."

As she spoke, a round figure came rushing in, wailing miserably, "Brother Cheng, Sister Chen, you have to save me!"

Chapter 6

"Brother Cheng, Sister Chen, whether I can get through this crisis depends entirely on you two. You can't just leave me alone!"

Zhao Jinchui sat on the sofa, sobbing with tears and snot streaming down his face. "If you don't help me, Zhao Light Textiles will go bankrupt. Over a thousand employees will lose their jobs, and my wife and children will have to pack up and go back to our hometown with me. Brother Cheng, Sister Chen, for the sake of the decades we've known each other, please pull me through this."

"Stop crying first. Speak properly if you have something to say." Chen Lingyun frowned in obvious disgust. "At your age, you're still this unsteady when something happens. Can crying solve anything?"

"Right!" Zhao Jinchui answered obediently. He wiped away his tears, took the tissue Cheng Kaiyun handed him, blew his nose, and only then began to mutter, "You know that since last year, because of that Subprime Mortgage Crisis overseas, the economy has been especially sluggish. The domestic textile industry has been affected as well. Export orders have plummeted. Quite a few of our factory's overseas orders have been canceled too. Our cash flow can't keep up, and the workers haven't been paid for nearly half a year. Now the banks are pressing us to repay our loans..."

As he spoke, Zhao Jinchui began howling again. "Brother Cheng, Sister-in-law, you have to help me this time. Otherwise, I really can't hold on anymore."

"Enough, stop crying." Zhao Jinchui's sobbing made Chen Lingyun's head throb. Rubbing her temples, she asked, "How do you want us to help?"

Zhao Jinchui's eyes lit up. "Could you lend me eighty million?"

Chen Lingyun's eyes widened. "Eighty million? Where am I supposed to get eighty million to give you?"

Zhao Jinchui forced a smile. "Bridge financing, just bridge financing. Once those overseas payments come through at the end of the year, I'll repay it right away."

Before Chen Lingyun could object, he turned to Cheng Kaiyun with a mournful expression and pleaded, "Brother Cheng, Sister-in-law, you have to help me. I know this puts you in a difficult position, but I've gone to everyone I could possibly ask. I only came to beg at your door because I truly had no other choice. Half a year, just half a year. I'll definitely repay the money with interest. Ten percent interest, how about it?"

Cheng Kaiyun frowned deeply. Eighty million in working capital was no small sum for any operating company. What was more, as Zhao Jinchui had said, the economic climate had been poor these past two years, and policy changes had been significant. Although the domestic jewelry industry did not seem to have been affected yet, if they lent out those eighty million and something happened to the company...

Cheng Kaiyun instinctively looked at Chen Lingyun. Her thoughts were much the same. In such uncertain times, everyone in business wanted to be more cautious. If they rashly put up eighty million for bridge financing and the company ran into operational trouble, the two of them would have a hard time explaining it to the other shareholders.

Seeing that Cheng Kaiyun and his wife remained silent, Zhao Jinchui immediately panicked. His legs gave way, his knees hit the floor, and he knelt directly before Cheng Kaiyun and Chen Lingyun. "Brother Cheng, Sister-in-law, save me. If even you refuse to lend me a hand, Zhao Light Textiles really will go bankrupt."

"What are you doing? Get up!" Cheng Kaiyun had not expected Zhao Jinchui to do something like this and hurriedly stood to stop him. Chen Lingyun sighed and urged, "Why put yourself through this?"

"I have no other choice." Cheng Kaiyun grabbed Zhao Jinchui by the arm and pulled him back to his feet, and Zhao Jinchui took the opportunity to sit back on the sofa. "I'm already over forty. Do you think I don't find this humiliating? But what else can I do? There are still a thousand people in the factory waiting for me to save them with money. To be honest, before coming here, I tried every possible method. I've borrowed from everyone I could. But you know what the market is like right now. More than thirty percent of the weaving factories in Suzhou have already shut down. Those are state-owned enterprises, too. I'm just a small private workshop. I really can't hold on."

As he spoke, Zhao Jinchui tightly gripped Cheng Kaiyun's wrist again, as though clutching his last lifeline. "Brother Cheng, help me?"

Cheng Kaiyun sighed. Before he could speak, a voice came from behind him, coldly demanding, "Why should we?"

Everyone turned toward the voice and saw Cheng Yu, who had just gone upstairs in anger after arguing with Chen Lingyun, standing expressionlessly on the spiral staircase. His fair, slender fingers tapped carelessly against the mahogany railing as he looked down at the three people in the living room.

Zhao Jinchui raised his head and blinked in confusion. He clearly had not understood what Cheng Yu meant.

Chen Lingyun was the first to react. Frowning, she reprimanded him, "Children shouldn't interrupt when adults are talking."

Cheng Yu tilted his head and shot back without hesitation, "I'm afraid you're not thinking clearly and will act on impulse, leaving trouble behind."

After saying that, Cheng Yu ignored Chen Lingyun's murderous glare, which was practically ready to explode with rage, and strolled downstairs. As he walked, he analyzed, "Everyone knows this global economic crisis has spread widely and hit hard. It isn't just your textile industry—the entire foreign trade sector is struggling across the board. I saw financial reports a few days ago saying that global stock markets lost seven trillion U.S. dollars in market value within a week, the foreign exchange market was undergoing violent turbulence, and global liquidity was drying up."

Zhao Jinchui gave an awkward laugh. "I didn't expect you, nephew, to pay such close attention to international financial news. As expected of the son Brother Cheng and Sister-in-law raised so carefully. Your perspective really is different."