National Tide 1980.

If Ginza is Tokyo's most expensive commercial district, then Toranomon is its most expensive business district.

The area is known for its upscale, international business atmosphere and modern urban landscape. It is easily accessible, with Kamiyacho Station just a 4-minute walk away, connecting to major areas of Tokyo.

This area attracts a large number of foreign business people and high-net-worth individuals, and almost all well-known international brands set up their headquarters here for their business operations in Japan.

This is arguably Japan's most famous CBD, and only companies that can secure a place here truly have prestige.

However, at that time, Toranomon did not have any buildings exceeding 200 meters in height.

The tallest building in the area is currently the Lingkong Tower, which stands 166 meters tall and has 33 floors.

The EIE headquarters is located here.

Half of the 27th floor of the building was rented by Harunori Takahashi two years ago.

Their current neighbor sharing this floor is Motorola, the American company located across the street.

This reveals how Harunori Takahashi positioned his business empire after he rose to prominence.

Needless to say, in the half-floor of this building that belongs to EIE, the room located at the corner has the best lighting, and that is Harunori Takahashi's president's office.

On the afternoon of October 26, 1989, Mr. Iwasawa, the department head in charge of financial assets and wealth management at EIE, rushed to Takahashi Harunori's office with a fax in hand.

Unfortunately, the president's secretary wasn't at her desk.

As a result, Supervisor Iwasawa, who was familiar with Takahashi's style of doing things, had a premonition. He dared not knock on the door without permission and could only keep looking at his watch, waiting anxiously outside the office door.

Fortunately, his luck wasn't too bad; he only waited for about twenty minutes before the door to the president's office finally opened.

A young woman with a slender figure, dressed in a business suit, walked out from inside with her head down.

This is the female secretary that EIE's president hired last month, a girl named Xia Shu.

Although she didn't graduate from a prestigious university, her looks and figure are impeccable.

In particular, she fits the president's recent new aesthetic – a mixed-race person with Western European ancestry, which explains why she receives a monthly salary comparable to that of a department head.

Rather than calling this secretary a capable assistant to the president, it would be more accurate to say that she is the president's new toy; her strengths have never been her work abilities.

So Iwasawa never expected the secretary to greet him first.

"Ms. Natsuki, I request to see the president. Could you please inform him?"

The secretary seemed startled by him, letting out a surprised "Huh?"

But it was this startled look up that allowed Iwazawa to see more clues on her face.

Those exquisitely sculpted, delicate lips had their lipstick removed.

Her chestnut-colored eyes seemed to be covered by a thin film.

When she turned and walked back into the room, her long legs wobbled like a colt with an injured leg.

It seems that this secretarial job is never easy.

It took at least five more minutes for the secretary who was supposed to make the announcement to finally come out from inside.

"Alright, please come in. The president invites you in."

As she said this, the secretary lowered her head even further.

Seemingly aware that her behavior was unusual, she couldn't help but glance at Iwasawa guiltily, her eyes filled with a shyness that she couldn't avoid.

Thus, Iwasawa was even more certain of what had just happened in the room.

However, as a competent subordinate, turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the president's certain hobbies is a basic quality.

So he didn't show anything unusual, just gave the other party a polite thank you without any expression, and then walked into the office.

Sure enough, both the faint scent permeating the room and the fact that Takahashi Harunori was taking special pills behind the table further confirmed his judgment.

It's obvious that the president had just had an "in-depth conversation" with his secretary, and those five minutes were probably just to cover up the many traces in the room.

But this also made Iwasawa more cautious, paying extra attention to his words and actions, lest he unintentionally offend the president and bring trouble upon himself.

He didn't dare to move his eyes at all, bowed solemnly, and focused solely on the purpose of his trip.

"President, there's a special situation at Nomura Securities that I'd like to report to you."

Harunori Takahashi was clearly a little surprised. "Nomura Securities? What do they want with me? The year-end shareholders' meeting is still more than a month away."

Iwasawa then placed the materials in front of Takahashi and began to report the details. It turned out that Nomura Securities was inherently greedy and utterly devoid of professional ethics.

Ning Weimin's application for securities lending has just been approved by Nomura Securities.

The executive who approved the matter immediately called EIE's headquarters and informed Department Head Iwasawa, who was in charge of EIE Group's financial assets, about it.

The executive director at Nomura Securities had a very clear purpose: nothing more than profit.

Nomura Securities needs to earn Ning Weimin's commission, but it also needs to maintain its relationship with Japanese upstart Harunori Takahashi.

Although Takahashi currently entrusts other securities firms to handle EIE business, it doesn't matter. Who says there's no possibility of cooperation?

At least for now, Ning Weimin is seen as a fat sheep by Nomura Securities. His speculative behavior against the trend is considered incredibly stupid and completely overestimating his abilities by Nomura Securities.

Nomura Securities made no secret of its intention to profit from this situation. Their plan was to join forces with EIE and have them help Takahashi defeat Ning Weimin.

Their plan was to take advantage of Ning Weimin's sell-off to buy at a low price, and then help Gaoqiao release some positive news about the company's operations in real time to drive up EIE's stock price.

In this way, they can gain Takahashi's friendship, profit from the stock price increase, and at the same time, make a fortune off Ning Weimin's misfortune, swallowing both the principal and interest. What a perfect plan!

Their only concern was that Harunori Takahashi wouldn't become suspicious or misunderstand them because they had acquired more than 5% of the shares.

When Harunori Takahashi reviewed the documents and learned about Nomura Securities' plans, he was overjoyed.

He broke into a rare smile, laughing for a while before saying, "Great! I caught him! Haha, unbelievable. He was hiding so carefully; I thought he'd stay abroad forever. I never expected him to walk right into my trap, and he even dared to try and short my company! What a fool! Isn't he hilarious? He probably never dreamed that Nomura Securities would betray him to me again."

Iwasawa immediately chimed in, trying his best to provide emotional support to his boss.

"Oh, so there are people who seek their own demise like that. What a fool. But perhaps it's precisely because he's a fool that he did such a thing. Otherwise, if someone were even slightly sensible, since he offended you, he should have come to your door, knelt down, and apologized. He doesn't even understand this basic courtesy, yet he still dared to dream of opposing you. It shows how low his IQ is. In that sense, it's understandable that he would do something so stupid. As for Nomura Securities, they certainly know very well who they value more, you or this guy. But those greedy guys don't deserve your favor. They're clearly trying to profit from both sides, taking advantage of the conflict between us and the other party. It's despicable and shameless."

These words clearly pleased Takahashi Harunori, who laughed as if he had been tickled.

Only after he was satisfied did he say to Iwasawa, "Greed is nothing to fear. Only when someone asks for something can I use them, can they be a good servant. What I hate most is this Chinese man's arrogance. I only asked him to hand over a woman and some property; why is he so angry? I've never seen anything in this world that I couldn't have. Since he's so ungrateful and unwilling to bow to me, I'll just take everything from him. I've decided, you'll be in charge of this. You'll contact Nomura Securities later and tell them to proceed according to their plan. I have only one request: make sure this guy goes bankrupt. Let him go back to his impoverished homeland, just like he came here."

Iwasawa quickly agreed, but he was still unsure about Takahashi's last statement because it involved specific implementation.

After some thought, he still suggested, "President, according to the information provided by Nomura Securities, that guy has a considerable amount of funds, approximately over 170 billion yen. Moreover, he has signed a double-leverage short-selling contract with Nomura. He can get all of Nomura's EIE shares onto the market for sale. If he really wants to short our EIE, we would need at least a similar amount of funds to support the stock price. To force him into a margin call, we would probably need double the amount. The problem is, we can't completely trust Nomura Securities. Those profit-driven guys might betray others today and us tomorrow. Therefore, given our group's current financial constraints, we can only allocate about 30 billion yen to this matter. In my opinion, perhaps we should consider our operational security and not take it too seriously. Giving them a lesson is enough. We can raise the stock price; if we make him lose a few hundred billion yen, that should be sufficient..."

However, his proposal failed to gain Takahashi Harunori's approval, even though it was more pragmatic and safer.

But Harunori Takahashi's nature is to love adventure, and he is filled with even more greed than Nomura Securities.

"No, no, no, we must push him to the point of bankruptcy. What's a little money? We have the support of Changxin Bank. We've already borrowed a trillion yen of debt, so another two hundred billion yen won't make a difference. The key is to make an example of him. I want everyone to see what will happen to those who dare to be arrogant and refuse to bow down to me. That way, our group will maintain the prestige of a first-class group."

Iwasawa paused for a moment, then said, "You mean we still need to borrow money from Changxin Bank? But the problem is that interest rates are much higher now than in the past. If that happens, our group will face even greater pressure regarding interest payments..."

Even this reason failed to persuade Harunori Takahashi to restrain himself. He waved his hand and said shamelessly, "It doesn't matter. What's a little interest? In today's society, the most valuable asset is probably debt."

"What? Liabilities...are assets?"

“Yes, you heard me right. Liabilities are assets.” Harunori Takahashi nodded again to confirm. “I know your concerns, but let me tell you the secret to EIE’s growth: it’s because we use money borrowed from banks to buy assets all over the world. You see, haven’t all the assets we bought with borrowed money appreciated in value? That means the more debt we have, the more assets we have, and the more money we make. I don’t even need to care whether the assets we buy are profitable or not; we just buy them. Even if we don’t have the money to pay interest, we can just sell these assets at a higher price to more than cover the interest payments. In fact, this approach is even more recognized in the stock market. The assets we buy increase our valuation, and our stock price rises far more than other companies. What do you think makes our market capitalization exceed 2.5 trillion yen? It’s our continuously increasing liabilities and balance sheet. If we were to stop this approach, it would only disappoint our shareholders…”

At this point, Harunori Takahashi said with no small amount of pride, "Believe me, the traditional business model is too outdated. Mergers and acquisitions are the fastest way for companies to grow. If we want to boost our stock price, all we need to do is announce a debt-financed acquisition. Believe it or not, if we continue operating like this, we can surpass NTT and become the number one company in Japan in fifteen years at most. At that time, even the current richest person in Japan, Nishiura Group, will have to bow down to us."

Takahashi Harunori's economic theories, which were like a "star-absorbing technique," truly shocked Iwasawa. As the department head, this was the first time he had such a clear understanding of Takahashi Harunori's true intentions in business.

For a moment, he felt his worldview was greatly shaken, and he was still somewhat unable to adapt to the beautiful picture that Harunori Takahashi had described in his words.

However, it is clear that Harunori Takahashi is not only good at making empty promises, but also knows how to give his subordinates tangible benefits.

"Iwasawa, are you satisfied with your position as minister? Would you like to have your own toy?"

"What?" Iwasawa was clearly so distracted that he failed to grasp Takahashi Harunori's implication in time.

"I'm sorry, President, I didn't hear what you just said..."

But Harunori Takahashi didn't mind at all; on the contrary, he made the promise even more recklessly.

"Iwasawa, I want to tell you that as our group's assets expand, the number of senior positions in the company will also increase. If you can show me your loyalty and ability and handle this matter well, then EIE will create another executive position for you. Also, you like those female celebrities, right? But what's the point of just looking at them? Don't you want to see them naked and sleeping with you? You should know that EIE has already ventured into the entertainment industry. I also want to tell you something you might not know: that guy I hate, his wife is Matsumoto Keiko. Think about it, what would happen if we defeated them and took over their business? Have you thought about it? From now on, when we drink, those female celebrities will pour our drinks. No matter what kind of woman, whose woman, as long as we want her, she will be our plaything. So, muster up the courage to do it, help me get rid of that guy, no matter how much it costs, I don't care. Don't let me down. As long as you do it and give me what I want, I guarantee you will get what you want too."

For Iwasawa, perhaps nothing could ignite his ambition and aspirations more than such a blatant promise.

His eyes were shining with infatuation with Harunori Takahashi, and he even remembered the secretary's long, white legs that he had just seen.

What a bright future! Yes, he wants to become Executive Director Iwasawa, and he wants his own toys.

Otherwise, wouldn't I be a coward, wouldn't I be wasting such a wonderful era?
Without further hesitation, he bowed respectfully, like a servant before his master.

"President, I understand. Please rest assured and leave it to me. I will certainly live up to your expectations." (End of Chapter)