The next morning!
Unaware of the global gold price surge or that he had tearfully raked in another $200 million, Li Yi woke up early once again.
After sharing a simple yet heartwarming breakfast with his family, he first drove his second sister and her family back to Yaogou Village.
With the autumn harvest about to begin in the village, his second sister and brother-in-law were still busy with their mushroom business and simply couldn’t stay in Nianshan Village for long.
After all, the siblings would all be pursuing careers in Beijing in the future, and their parents would eventually join them there, so there was no rush for a reunion just yet.
After dropping them off in Yaogou Village, Li Yi drove his eldest sister and her husband back to the sugar factory.
Their most important task on this return trip was to resign from their jobs.
Li Yi was the decisive type; once he’d made up his mind, he acted swiftly.
Besides, Old Huang’s security firm was already up and running, and some of his henchmen had already transferred over to the company; now they urgently needed Li Yi to send people over.
As for his brother-in-law’s comrades-in-arms, they were now scattered across the country. His brother-in-law needed to get moving and track them down immediately. Given the current state of domestic transportation, finding all of them was no small undertaking.
Therefore, it’s best to resign as soon as possible so that my brother-in-law can set out to round everyone up!
When Liang Yukui learned that Big Brother-in-Law and his family had come to resign, he wasn’t all that surprised.
In fact, ever since he’d heard from Li Gang and An Hong just how extensive Li Yi’s business operations in Beijing had become, he’d already braced himself for this.
He’d known Li Yi for quite some time and had a good understanding of his character.
He knew Li Yi was the kind of man who placed great importance on loyalty and family ties. Setting aside the fact that he genuinely needed help, simply because Li Yi was now doing well, he would certainly bring his older sister’s family over to enjoy a comfortable life—that was a certainty!
Precisely for this reason, although Liang Yukui was reluctant to lose a talented employee like Yang Wenguang, he did not try to keep him. He promptly instructed the Human Resources Department to process the resignation paperwork for Yang Wenguang and Li Mei, and settled their salaries for the current month as well.
However, while he let Yang Wenguang leave the sugar factory, he had no intention of letting Li Yi off the hook.
In his own words, “Since you’re already here, you’ve got to stay for a meal before you go. Otherwise, what if people back home say Old Liang isn’t a decent guy?”
So, under the pretext of treating him to a meal, he kept Li Yi there.
Li Yi knew that Old Liang wouldn’t let it rest until he’d seen him off today, but he didn’t make any excuses.
Seeing this, Liang Yukuai immediately called Li Gang at the county bureau and Wang Anguo at the municipal bureau, telling them to come over right away.
The two then sat in Liang Yukui’s office drinking tea for a while. At eleven o’clock, Li Gang called to say that Wang Anguo had returned from the Municipal Bureau and was with him.
Upon hearing the news, Liang Yukui put down his tea and immediately took Li Yi to the State-Owned Hotel!
By the time Li Yi and Liang Yuke arrived at the State-Owned Hotel, Wang Anguo and Li Gang were already there.
As old friends meeting up, a round of pleasantries was, of course, inevitable.
Then, naturally, as the appetizers were served and the drinks flowed, they chatted about everything under the sun and caught up on family matters…
…….
Hong Kong Island. Star Investment Company!
While Li Yi and his old friends were clinking glasses, the scene at Star Investment was quite different; everyone there was swamped with work.
Over in the Investment Management Department, Lan Xinyi, who had just finished meeting with a group of clients seeking business advice, immediately called all the investment advisors in the department together for a meeting.
The cramped conference room was suddenly packed with twenty-three or twenty-four investment advisors, each forced to sit shoulder-to-shoulder on small round stools, making the situation particularly uncomfortable.
“Everyone, quiet down. Let’s begin the meeting!”
Once the room had quieted down, Lan Xinyi turned to her assistant and asked, “What is the current international gold price?”
“As of 11 a.m., it has reached $335 per ounce, and the upward trend is very clear!”
Lan Xinyi nodded and said, “Bingyan, have you identified the cause of this sharp rise in international gold prices?”
Cai Bingyan replied immediately, “Based on the information we have so far, this surge in gold prices may be directly related to the extremely high inflation in Thief Eagle!”
“Inflation?”
“Yes. Just this morning, Thief Eagle released a set of federal government statistics showing that its inflation rate in the first half of this year reached its highest level in nearly thirty years. Consumer prices have risen by 4.6% over the past six months, with the energy index rising for six consecutive months!”
Cai Bingyan continued, “Because high inflation has eroded the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar domestically, people in the U.S. are worried that their money will continue to lose value, so they’re flocking to invest in precious metals—which is why international gold prices have skyrocketed!”
After hearing Cai Bingyan’s explanation, Lan Xinyi added, “Everyone, just as the boss predicted, international gold prices have indeed risen. We’ve made the right bet again—this price rebound alone has earned the company over 200 million US dollars!”
“However, will international gold prices continue to rise, or will they fall back in the short term? What are your thoughts?”
No sooner had she finished speaking than a male employee sitting next to Cai Bingyan stood up and said, “Manager Lan, I don’t think this surge in gold prices will last very long. We should sell as soon as the price reaches a certain level!”
“Explain your reasoning!”
“First, the rise in gold prices is due to a fluke, and price hikes caused by such flukes usually don’t last long—ten days to two weeks, or at most a month!”
The male employee continued, “Furthermore, as far as I know, the U.S. government is already formulating strategies to address high inflation. For instance, the Federal Reserve just raised interest rates last week. Based on past patterns, inflation tends to be curbed to some extent after each rate hike.”
“So how long do you think this gold price surge will last?” Lan Xinyi asked again.
“About twenty days, or perhaps when the price reaches $400 per ounce—that should be the peak!”
Lan Xinyi nodded and said, “Does anyone else have any thoughts?”
“Manager, I believe the gold price rally will last at least 15 days, but no more than a month. I have three reasons: first…”
While these investment department elites were engaged in a heated debate over the fluctuations of international gold prices, Yang Qian, sitting in the corner, was struggling with a chubby girl next to her and the thick concrete wall.
Experiencing a company meeting for the first time, Yang Qian felt as if she were riding a green-painted train back home—it was just too crowded.
To be honest, Hong Kong Island is indeed bustling, but it’s also quite small.
Take Star Investment, for example. Despite being a large company with seventy or eighty employees and managing billions in investment funds, the total floor space of all its offices is less than 300 square meters.
Never mind ordinary employees like them—even the department managers each have nothing more than a tiny cubicle of just a few square meters.
This conference room, in particular, is no more than thirty square meters, and with a conference table taking up a third of the space, it’s incredibly cramped.
On top of that, the Investment Management Department has the largest number of employees in the entire company. Having so many people crammed into this tiny conference room for a meeting is truly a nightmare.
What left Yang Qian even more speechless was the heavyset woman sitting to her left, weighing over 180 pounds. The woman’s body kept leaning unconsciously toward her; if it weren’t for the concrete wall on her right, she would likely have been squeezed right into the next room.
To avoid being literally crushed to death during the meeting, Yang Qian had no choice but to nudge the woman from time to time, and her fidgeting naturally caught Lan Xinyi’s attention.
After listening to a female employee’s analysis, Lan Xinyi suddenly turned to Yang Qian and said, “Yang Qian, tell us your take on this sudden surge in gold prices!”
The moment those words were spoken, all eyes in the conference room turned to Yang Qian!