National Tide 1980.

Ning Weimin's appearance in such a frank and blunt manner is bound to provoke a strong backlash.

Even though he'd wanted to do this for a long time! He felt really good about it!
The other party was so startled by the sudden intrusion that they almost had a heart attack, and were bound to be furious.

Especially since several important figures in the room knew Ning Weimin and his background.

Seeing that the person responsible for all of this was actually a young man from China, everyone felt utterly humiliated and their self-esteem was severely offended.

Soon after they came to their senses, the angry shouts and demands for accountability erupted without any restraint.

"How did you get here? Are you crazy?"

"What? It's you? What are you up to?"

President Hidehiro Hasegawa remained seated without saying a word.

The old man simply adopted a superior posture, stroking his desk and expressing his anger solely through a furious glare.

However, his only two remaining key figures—Executive Director Fukuda Sakae and Managing Director Sekiguchi Osamu—were very agitated, barking like two ferocious dogs, almost swearing.

Even after they became collaborators with Ning Weimin, they couldn't help but blame Gu Kou, the one who "invited the wolf into the house."

"Taniguchi, it was you who brought these people here! You bastard, have you lost your mind?!"

"So it was you who did this! Don't you think we're having enough of a headache already? You idiot, take him away right now! Or you'll regret it!"

After being thoroughly scolded, Gu Gukou immediately broke out in a cold sweat and repeatedly bowed in apology.

But that doesn't matter, because as the old saying goes, a barking dog doesn't bite.

This was the first time Ning Weimin had ever seen Fukuda Sakae and Sekiguchi Osamu so irritable and completely out of control.

Think about it, why would they be so uncouth and lose control of their emotions?

It's only because the company is on the verge of bankruptcy that they're so desperate they can't care about anything else.

Ning Weimin still enjoys watching these people who are all bark and no bite, barking and acting fiercely.

Anyway, he has enough cards to play, and the more the other party acts like this, the easier it will be for him to handle things later.

Moreover, he gets more and more pleasure from slapping the other person's face.

Sure enough, when he signaled his lawyer to produce Pierre Carton's power of attorney and had him publicly explain his purpose for being there that day—primarily to take control of the company, inventory assets, and restructure debts—the atmosphere in the entire company immediately changed dramatically.

The entire room fell silent again, no one dared to be disrespectful to Ning Weimin, and no one dared to speak recklessly or give him a hard time.

This scene is actually quite similar to a scene in an ancient costume drama, where the whole family of a duke's or marquis's mansion is fighting fiercely over the title and property, when suddenly someone from the palace comes and reads out the emperor's decree in public, making the final decision.

So, Fukuda Sakae and Sekiguchi Osamu, their faces plastered with awkward smiles, came to Ning Weimin to "explain the misunderstanding" and apologize for their poor attitude earlier.

The two debt collectors inside the room immediately sensed the difference in their demeanor and stepped forward to offer their business cards, bowing and greeting Ning Weimin.

That's just the nature of businessmen; they're greedy for money and they treat people differently based on their status.

As long as Ning Weimin displays sufficient power and prestige, he will become the object of their flattery, and at least they will have a good chance of getting back the money that is rightfully theirs, right?

Even the employees who were watching the spectacle calmed down as a result.

The scene, which had just been as chaotic as a vegetable market, was now quiet, with no one shouting or yelling anymore.

It completely eliminates the situation of pushing, shoving, pulling, and arguing.

Even if someone is curious about what is happening and can't help but discuss it, it's just whispering among themselves.

In an instant, everyone seemed to regain their senses and become gentle and restrained.

For no other reason than for the same reasons as the two service providers.

Everyone felt that although the company's future was not clear, it was still hard to say whether it could resolve the crisis.

But with Ning Weimin's appearance, at least someone is taking responsibility, so there's definitely hope of getting my salary next month.

In this way, Ning Weimin easily stabilized the chaotic and precarious situation.

If we were to pinpoint who is currently emotionally unstable, who is the most destabilizing factor, and who looks the worst, it would probably be Hidehiro Hasegawa.

After all, for him, the actual controller of the company, Ning Weimin's appearance meant that he had to give up the position of president, and might even lose the company.

To put it simply, it's like Ning Weimin is here to get the emperor fired; no wonder Hasegawa wouldn't be happy.

For an emperor, if he doesn't care about being remembered in history, he would not be willing to relinquish the throne even if the country were destroyed, the empire fell, and all his subjects were buried with him.

As the saying goes, "I would rather betray the world than let the world betray me." As the number one person, of course, I only care about myself.

Therefore, at this moment, the only person who still showed unfriendly eyes to Ning Weimin was Hasegawa Hidehiro.

Although he was still sitting, his hands were already on the armrests, and the nerves on his face were twitching uncontrollably. Anyone could see the wariness in his body movements and expression.

Even so, it's still irrelevant.

Because Ning Weimin not only came with an imperial edict and a sword of authority, but he also had a vast amount of money to support his army.

Just like the saying "political power grows out of the barrel of a gun".

For a company that has suddenly defaulted on its debts and is being pressured by creditors to the brink of collapse, nothing else matters; even equity is meaningless.

Money is the only real factor that determines everything.

So it doesn't matter what Hidehiro Hasegawa thinks or feels.

Next, Ning Weimin demanded that he hand over his shares, relinquish his position as president, and even kick him out of the company; he had no choice but to comply.

He had to sign whatever documents Ning Weimin asked him to sign.

If he dared to say "no," Ning Weimin wouldn't even need to say anything; the employees who didn't want to lose their jobs, and the two creditors waiting for their money, would tear him apart.

This is what they call being forced to accept the situation; he can't argue with it.

In fact, even from a purely self-interested perspective, Hidehiro Hasegawa had no reason to refuse.

After all, the company's accounts are currently showing a huge financial deficit, which he is unable to cover on his own.

Although the company's net assets currently outweigh its liabilities, with a ratio of approximately 3:2, it hasn't reached the point of complete insolvency. However, if it were to sell assets to fill the debt gap, given the current liquidity situation in society, the assets would have to be reduced by at least 30%, making bankruptcy an inevitable outcome.

At that point, he would not only lose everything, but he would also become a laughing stock in the clothing industry, and the French headquarters would hold him accountable, causing all the company's employees to lose their jobs.

They will inevitably face criticism both in public and in private, and will continue to live in the shadow of this incident for the rest of their lives, suffering its negative impact.

At least Ning Weimin has offered him a share transfer fee of 150 million yen, so he didn't leave empty-handed.

It was at least his lifeline.

Although this money was nothing short of profiteering relative to the company's value.

According to normal transaction prices, this amount is less than a quarter of what he is entitled to.

But as long as he doesn't live too extravagantly, he can at least live a slightly better life than ordinary people in his later years.

So, what's the question of where to go from here?
Either you become penniless and bankrupt, or you compromise and live a mundane life.

Anyone with a sound mind knows how to choose.

Hidehiro Hasegawa quickly weighed the pros and cons, and then, suppressing his emotional breakdown in the face of failure, he signed multiple documents with a stern face and stamped them with his company president's seal.

Although during this process, he was actually very frustrated and wanted to vent his anger by cursing.

But reason told him that he neither could nor had any reason to curse.

Young people are hot-tempered. He cursed Ning Weimin, and Ning Weimin really just walked away, leaving him to go bankrupt and bear everything. What should he do?
His losses will only be greater, and it's questionable whether he can even get out of here today.

Besides, this matter isn't Ning Weimin's fault. After all, he caused everything himself; it's his fault for trusting that scoundrel Ishikawa too much.

Moreover, he was greedy and could not resist the temptation of stock speculation and concealing speculative profits from the French headquarters.

He was greedy and wanted to use public funds to profit himself, which is why he went to Ishikawa and asked that this action be kept secret from others.

Little did he know that Ishikawa and Takada, two key figures in the company, had the same idea and had already colluded in private to use company funds to speculate on stocks for themselves.

These two bastards can still act flawlessly in front of him, keeping him completely in the dark.

In doing so, he inadvertently opened the door wide for the other party's insider trading.

It wasn't until the stock market crash actually happened that he was surprised to discover that Ishikawa, as a supervisor, had raised funds outside and increased leverage, and that Takada, the vice president in charge of the shopping mall business, had concealed most of the collected payments, resulting in a huge financial loss for the company of nearly 10 billion yen, and even all of its working capital was exhausted.

Who can he blame?
Whom could he possibly hate?

Isn't he himself the most despicable idiot?
Hidehiro Hasegawa finally finished signing all the required signatures and stamping all the required seals.

This means that Pierre Cardin Ltd. of Japan has no further connection with him.

He immediately dropped the pen, forcefully tossing aside the expensive, gold-plated brand-name fountain pen that he had used for over a decade.

Now that he has no use for this thing, he hates that it made him lose the company's pen, so he naturally wants to throw it far away and wish he could smash it to pieces.

He also disliked Ning Weimin, not only because the other party had taken everything from him today, but also because the other party was a young and inexperienced Chinese man.

From the moment he first met this young man, he treated him like livestock.

He's just a Chinese person, nothing more than a cat, dog, cow, or horse.

He was just a lowly commoner who used to serve in the Northeast, whom he could be ordered around, punished at will, or even shot on the spot.

What gives them the right to come and go in front of him, and even the audacity to demand fair cooperation and mutual exchange?

It's ridiculous, their status is completely unequal, isn't it?
But at this moment, he had no choice but to look at the person he hated to the core, and he also had to accept a kind of inequality that he had never thought of and dared not believe.

At this moment, everyone in the room except Hasegawa Hidehiro was surrounding Ning Weimin, vying to express their loyalty and willingness to serve him.

This included not only the two service providers who had come to collect the debt, but also Fukuda Sakae and Sekiguchi Osamu, who had been acting as confidants and had been surrounding Hasegawa Hidehiro.

Everyone followed Ning Weimin's lead; wherever he looked, the people there would involuntarily straighten their backs.

As soon as he opens his mouth, the room falls silent, and everyone listens intently.

He deserves it; he is the sole victor today.

But he still smiled gently, appearing as warm and refined as jade. Even after winning the entire company, he showed no sign of excitement...

He's probably not even thirty years old yet; he still seems very energetic.

It's truly enviable that someone so young could gain such trust from the master Pierre Carton and achieve such success in his career.

Hidehiro Hasegawa looked at Ning Weimin, who was more than twice his age, and grew angrier the more he looked.

The bitterness and resentment in his heart made not only his throat feel sweet, but also his vision blur.

He's not someone who can't handle setbacks, but this one was just really big.

Not only did he lose the foundation of his career, with the Chinese man he looked down upon taking the credit, but more importantly, all his life's efforts came to naught, and he couldn't help but begin to completely deny himself.

From now on, will the Japanese employees, his old buddies, have to bow down and submit to the Chinese?

Yes, this young Chinese man has taken control of the company. Given his reckless behavior, he'll definitely turn the Japanese branch into a vassal of the Chinese branch.

Everything he had protected in the past—technology, talent, factories, warehouses, and market channels—would fall into the hands of Huaxia Company.

He couldn't imagine a Japanese employee being directed by a Chinese person.

This tragic outcome is simply unbearable!
The script shouldn't have been like this. Although mutual devouring was inevitable, it should have been his side that won. How could such a variable have occurred?
The feeling he has now is like that in 1945, when he hadn't yet recovered from the joy of the successful attack on Pearl Harbor, and then suddenly heard on the radio that Hiroshima and Nagasaki had been bombed with atomic bombs and that the Emperor had decided to surrender unconditionally!
He suffered two complete setbacks in his career during his life, which must have been incredibly difficult for him!
And this last time, he will most likely never be able to stand up again...

Hidehiro Hasegawa's vision grew increasingly dark, and things became more and more blurry.

It was as if they could foresee the company's tragic future, with all the Japanese employees becoming economic slaves of the Chinese.

His body involuntarily tilted to one side.

Fortunately, with a cry of "President!", his old subordinate Fukuda Sakae noticed in time that something was wrong with him and helped him up.

Needless to say, this action finally caused a small commotion, drawing everyone's attention back to Hidehiro Hasegawa. (End of Chapter)