I met my whole family through Baidu Tieba.

Seeing that the two were arguing about whether nuclear power plants emit smoke, Shen Kang was too lazy to interrupt and slowed down, falling behind by a step.

Walking at the very back of their group were the driver, Xiao Yang, and Yang Lin.

Besides being a driver, this young man, a former special forces soldier, is also Zhou Man's bodyguard, accompanying her on many occasions. Zhou Man brought him along for this meal, where he trailed at the back of the group.

Shen Kang was an old acquaintance of his. He lagged a step behind, came to Yang Lin's side, and glanced at him: "Brother Yang, you seem to have gotten a bit fairer?"

Yang Lin smiled.

In their previous interactions, he could sense that Shen Kang treated him as a friend, and he also had a good impression of Shen Kang. "Yes, Young Master Shen. Following President Zhou, I don't have to be exposed to the wind and sun anymore, so I've gradually become fairer. If it weren't for the consistent exercise, I'm afraid my belly would be showing."

"Are you dating anyone?"

"what?"

"Haha, sorry, lately it's probably because of work, I keep thinking about this stuff without even realizing it..."

The group hadn't walked far, and before they even reached the private room, a man in a suit rushed over, greeting Zhou Man with a big smile.

From their pleasantries, it was clear he was the restaurant's manager, who must have received a tip and rushed over. He then took over the duties of a waiter and personally led them to a private room.

Everyone took their seats, with Zhou Man at the head of the table, flanked by He Qiuzhu and Shen Kang, her two henchmen. The others followed suit. After ordering, the manager left.

After leaving the private room, the manager, Zou Shutao, personally went to the kitchen and took a look around.

There are already some customers in the store, and everyone in the kitchen is getting busy. Some are chopping, some are cooking, and only one man with a thick neck is sitting in the corner playing on his phone.

Zou Shutao cursed inwardly, but dared not reprimand the veteran chef. He simply called out, "Old Xu, we have a distinguished guest. As the head chef, you will personally prepare the dishes for their table."

Head Chef Xu looked up. "How expensive?"

Zou Shutao emphasized again: "The top-of-the-line, expensive kind."

Old Xu then became serious, nodded, put away his phone, and went to the window to get the form.

After giving instructions to the kitchen staff, Zou Shutao left. He originally wanted to go back to his office to rest and have a drink of water, but then he remembered something and turned around and walked in another direction. Soon he arrived at the door of another private room.

Just as he was about to knock on the door, Zou Shutao had already raised his hand, ready to strike.

But it stopped before it fell.

Zou Shutao recalled the group of people at Zhou Man's table earlier. They all looked like students, and two of them, who were sitting next to Zhou Man, seemed to have a close relationship with her.

This did not appear to be a business banquet, but rather a private family dinner.

Under these circumstances, Zhou Man probably wouldn't want to be disturbed...

Zou Shutao thought for a moment, then withdrew his hand from the door and turned to leave.

In the room right in front of us, a banquet was underway. There were only four people at the large round table, and all the dishes had been served.

The man sitting in the main seat was a middle-aged man with a Mediterranean hairstyle, wearing gold-rimmed glasses. He was somewhat thin and not very tall.

Accompanying him was a burly middle-aged man, who was all smiles, holding a wine glass, and said to the bespectacled man, "I was planning to go over these past couple of days, but I didn't expect that Director Shi would happen to be in Linshui District on business. What a coincidence! Enough said, to celebrate this coincidence, I'll drink to that!"

As the burly man spoke, he tilted his head back and downed the wine in his small cup in one gulp.

After finishing his drink, the man poured himself another and, under some pretext, toasted the director in the main seat—of course, he drank it all himself, leaving the director to drink.

The person sitting in the main seat is Director Shi, whose name is Shi Qingxiang. He is the director of the credit department of a branch of China Construction Bank.

The man who kept finding excuses to toast and then drank the wine himself was named Li Yaheng, and he was a businessman.

Seeing Li Yaheng's attitude, Shi Qingxiang smiled and knew very well what Li Yaheng wanted to do—Li Yaheng wanted to get a loan from the Construction Bank.

In fact, Li Yaheng had already applied for a loan from Shi Qingxiang once, but it was not approved.

It's not that Li Yaheng is incompetent; the main issue is the stringent policies imposed on China Construction Bank (CCB): these policies impose strict constraints on CCB's loan-to-deposit ratio, interbank lending ratio, medium- and long-term loan ratio, and capital adequacy ratio.

Under these strict constraints, China Construction Bank has a lot of money, but the amount of funds it can use for lending is very small.

For example, the funds of China Construction Bank are like a large reservoir, but due to strict constraints, they can only release water from a small pond of the reservoir for lending.

The number of companies seeking loans far exceeds the capacity of this small pond.

Under such circumstances, it's impossible for every company to obtain a loan.

China Construction Bank is therefore more willing to lend funds to state-owned enterprises and large companies because they pose a lower risk.

Small businesses like Li Yaheng's company naturally cannot obtain it.

However, the policy has now changed.

The four trillion yuan stimulus plan has been launched.

One of the ten major policies outlined in the four trillion yuan stimulus plan was to "remove credit restrictions on commercial banks." The central bank has reiterated this policy twice, and two days ago it explicitly stated that it would eliminate hard constraints.

This is equivalent to the Construction Bank receiving instructions to open the floodgates and release water. Under this floodgate release, the small pond becomes a large pond, capable of feeding more people and allowing more people to obtain loans.

Li Yaheng's company was already standing by the small pond, but because the pond only had so much water, they couldn't get any and could only watch longingly as the water source was right in front of them.

Now the small pond has become a large pond, encompassing Li Yaheng's company and allowing it to have water as well.

Shi Qingxiang is here today to discuss lending money to Li Yaheng's company.

Normally, this kind of thing wouldn't require Director Shi Qingxiang to personally handle it. However, with the relaxation of credit restrictions and the four trillion yuan stimulus plan, they had a new task: to cooperate with the four trillion yuan plan, channeling funds to various sectors to promote economic growth. In terms of credit limits, this meant that loans needed to increase, and increase dramatically.

Time was tight and the task was heavy, so everyone was mobilized and no one was idle, including Director Shi Qingxiang, who personally went out to help.

There's no rush right now, let's eat and drink first...

After several rounds of drinks and dishes, Li Yaheng's face turned red from drinking, and Shi Qingxiang also felt a bit tipsy. However, he felt a slight urge to urinate, so he went to the toilet in the private room to relieve himself.

Seeing that Shi Qingxiang had gone to the restroom, Li Yaheng, who had been toasting everyone, also stopped, wiped the sweat from his brow, took out a cigarette, lit it, and rested for a while.

He was a little dizzy, but he was still trying to think: Shi Qingxiang had said he had business in Linshui District today, but then suddenly called him… The signal seemed clear; there should be hope for the company's loan, right? Of course, he couldn't skip any of the necessary steps. Otherwise, things might slip away even if it seemed like a sure thing.

"Old Lin,"

Li Yaheng turned to look at a man at the table, "Is everything arranged later?"

The man called Lao Lin nodded. "Don't worry, Mr. Li, everything is arranged."

Li Yaheng nodded silently, turned back, and continued smoking, the red glow of the cigarette tip flickering with each puff.

In the private room's restroom, Shi Qingxiang relieved himself and washed his hands at the sink. He also took the opportunity to adjust the little hair he had left in front of the mirror.

Just as he was about to leave, Shi Qingxiang thought of something else and stopped in his tracks.

He seems to be in Beilu District, right next door? I still have a lot of work to do, so I'll just get it all done now and avoid having to make another trip... Shi Qingxiang thought to himself, and then took out his phone, found a number in his contacts, and dialed it.

After the call connected, Shi Qingxiang spoke first: "Is this President Shen Kang?... This is Shi Qingxiang. We met at the Construction Bank before... I happen to be in Linshui District on business today. I remember you were a student at Yangke University, in Beilu District, right?... You're in Linshui District?... You're here too?"

Shi Qingxiang was very surprised.

He hadn't expected that Shen Kang would be in this restaurant; what a coincidence!

But this is even better, it saves me the trouble of running around myself.

After telling Shen Kang about his private room, Shi Qingxiang put away his phone and left.

Li Yaheng hadn't finished his cigarette when he saw Shi Qingxiang return, so he stopped smoking and stubbed it out in the ashtray. After Shi Qingxiang sat down, he subtly mentioned that he had other matters to attend to later and hoped that Director Shi would do him the honor of attending.

Upon hearing this, Shi Qingxiang thought, "What a coincidence!" He had originally planned to go find Shen Kang after finishing this, but Shen Kang was here too. There was no need to go looking for him; he could just wait for Shen Kang to come and talk to him, and nothing would be delayed...

In the private room at the other end

Ding Ling led the conversation, chatting about anecdotes and interesting stories. Everyone laughed and talked, and the atmosphere at the table was quite pleasant.

Shen Kang hung up the phone and put it away.

Zhou Man, standing beside him, looked at him with amusement: "You can't even eat in peace. And what kind of director are you? You seem busier than me!"

"There's nothing I can do, I'm destined to be a workaholic," Shen Kang sighed, and said, "They happen to be here too, I'll go over and offer them a toast."

He had met Director Shi when he went to the Construction Bank with Kang Zhengyang to apply for a loan. Now, Director Shi suddenly called, and the implication was that he wanted to meet, as if the Construction Bank had suddenly opened up its loan channels?

This gave Shen Kang a reason to consider it.

Although he had already contacted Yangcheng Bank, he didn't know if Song Zhengping would ultimately refuse the loan due to personal matters, so it would be better to have a backup plan.

So Shen Kang prepared to go over and offer Shi Qingxiang a toast.

Zhou Man, however, was concerned about something else: "You've been drinking, what will you do if you drive later?"

"Ask them if they have any cars left that can drive."

As Shen Kang spoke, he asked Guo Pinyan and the others, and they quickly responded that Liu Jing had a driver's license and could drive.

So the plan was devised: Liu Jing would drive Shen Kang's car to take them back.

After finalizing the plan, Shen Kang went out, intending to first get a bottle of wine from the front desk before going to find Shi Qingxiang—the three boys at their table all had to drive, so they hadn't ordered any wine.

No sooner had he stepped out than Zhou Man followed him out.

Shen Kang turned to look at her, somewhat puzzled: "President Zhou, what's going on?"

Zhou Man remained unfazed. "We're all in business. Having more friends means having more options. I'll go and get to know them."

Shen Kang didn't believe her statement at all, but he didn't ask any more questions, and the two of them walked towards the front desk.

Zhou Man did have other thoughts: the thought of Shen Kang, a child, going to other private rooms to toast and chat with business partners just like adults made her laugh. She found it quite interesting and good, and she wanted to see it.

In addition, although she knew that Shen Kang was not an ordinary college student, she was still a little worried that Shen Kang would not be able to handle these kinds of situations.

I went along with him because I was hoping that if Shen Kang had any problems, I could help him deal with them.

After the two of them got a bottle of wine and some glasses from the front desk, Shen Kang led the way to the private room that Shi Qingxiang had mentioned.

Zhou Man offered to take the bottle of wine, saying it wouldn't look good for Shen Kang to be holding a wine bottle while discussing business, so she would take it. Shen Kang let her have it.

Upon arriving at the private room, Shen Kang knocked on the door and heard "Come in" from inside, so he pushed the door open and went in.

When Shen Kang pushed the door open and came in, Shi Qingxiang was talking to Li Yaheng about him: "...This young man is something else. He's still a college student, yet he's managed to build an Anjia business. Coincidentally, he's having dinner here today too. Isn't that a coincidence? You two can get to know each other."

Li Yaheng's cheeks were flushed, and she looked surprised. "If Director Shi hadn't told me, I really wouldn't have known that the owner of the An family is actually a college student!"

Shi Qingxiang shook his head: "Don't even mention you, I didn't expect it either. Who could have predicted it?"

Li Yaheng nodded repeatedly, "Indeed, indeed... In that case, shall we invite President Shen over later, and we can all go out for drinks together?"

Shi Qingxiang nodded: "I think it's a good idea."

So Li Yaheng turned his head and gave Lao Lin a look. Lao Lin immediately understood, silently lowered his head, and started sending text messages.

Just then, Shen Kang knocked on the door and came in.

"Director Shi."

Shen Kang walked over with a smile.

Shi Qingxiang, who was also smiling, slowly stood up. He glanced at the girl holding the wine bottle next to Shen Kang and his first thought was that the girl was very beautiful. This President Shen was really a charming young man.

But the next moment, Shi Qingxiang's eyes paused.

This younger sister seems to be a bit older than Shen Kang, like his older sister. But that's not the point; liking older women isn't unusual. The key thing is, why does this older sister holding the wine bottle next to Shen Kang look so familiar? It's like I've seen her somewhere before…

The next second, Shi Qingxiang's pupils dilated as he remembered who this younger sister was.

"President Zhou!?"

Shi Qingxiang was very surprised.

Zhou Man also recognized Shi Qingxiang. "So it's Director Shi." She knew Shi Qingxiang because of some business dealings.

Shi Qingxiang glanced at Zhou Man, then at her current posture as a mere wine-serving attendant, and his mind went blank—wait, what's going on here?...