Chapter 199: Black fission (part two)
In June 2004, Shanghai was about to enter its rainy season. It lacked the bleakness of swirling winds and snow in the north, and the oppressive gloom of wind and rain in the far west. It still possessed the South's distinctive, closely woven softness, like a graceful young lady in an aristocratic residence in a Jiangnan town, her delicate hands and silken robes, three parts flowing water and two parts dust, embroidering away her youth as time slipped past, a heartache for those parted from her.
Every day in Shanghai's financial center, people who held sway over the Yangtze River Delta's financial circles still commanded the armies of finance and economics. Their various maneuvers formed the fluctuating figures on the screens of the Shenzhen and Shanghai stock exchanges, figures that tugged at millions of heartbeats.
High in towering skyscrapers, countless members of the middle and upper classes and industry titans, holding Starbucks bought downstairs or fragrant coffee brewed in expensive company machines, occasionally saw rumors in newspapers, magazines, or the news about the reassignment of Facebook Chinese's chief executive.
Those with connections to Facebook China or business dealings with it sent Qiao Shuxin messages to confirm the news or offer consolation.
But in the eyes of most senior officials and economic titans in China's financial center, this seemed like another rumor they could identify with, one that stirred their enthusiasm and drew their attention, just like the hair-raising conflicts in their own fields and the bloody histories of their struggles to the top. It was a drama worth discussing over a round-table tea gathering with two or three friends at a business clubhouse or golf club.
Too many eyes were now focused on the social network that had risen overseas as a new form