We agreed on the twelve zodiac animals, but you've transformed into the Monkey King?

The fifth day, early morning.

As dawn broke, an unseen storm had already erupted in the lower strata of Shanghai.

City God Temple, Shiliupu, French Concession. Hundreds and thousands of beggars, rickshaw pullers, and newspaper boys, clutching the loose coins Chen Jinbiao had distributed on the black market, frantically weaved through the streets and alleys.

"Newspapers for sale! Newspapers for sale! Earthquake strikes in the Kanto region of Japan! Hundreds of thousands dead and injured!"

"Japanese-owned money shops are running low on cash! It's being loaded onto ships overnight and transported back to Japan for disaster relief!"

"The money exchange at Shiliupu is about to go bankrupt! If you're late, you won't be able to exchange your silver dollars!"

……

The Bund, the top floor executive room of Jardine Matheson.

Lord Cavendish held the pure brass telephone receiver, listening to Matsuda's exasperated voice on the other end of the line, a calm smile playing on his lips.

"Rest assured, Mr. Matsuda," Cavendish said in fluent English. "I informed you of the Shelly funds freeze early yesterday morning for the sake of cooperation between the British Empire and the Japanese Empire in the Far East. The current rumors about the Shiliupu area are just low-level gossip. Jardine Matheson will immediately borrow two million silver dollars from Zhengqian Bank to help you stabilize the market."

"Click." The call ended.

Just then, the double walnut doors of the office were pushed open without warning.

Shelly walked in wearing a minimalist black tailored suit and high heels.

"You can't get the money, Lord."

Shelly walked to the desk and slammed a thick asset liquidation document down in front of Cavendish.

Cavendish frowned: "Shelly, you've been stripped of your signing privileges. Get out of here immediately..."

"Yes, you cut off my foreign exchange and leaked information to the Japanese." Shelly placed her hands on the table, staring intently at the old zombie. "But have you forgotten that besides being Jardine Matheson's comprador, I also have the surname Xue?"

Cavendish's gaze swept over the documents on the table, and his face instantly turned deathly pale.

That was an asset freeze order jointly issued by the Shanghai Chinese Merchants Money Industry Association.

"The Xue family's eight cotton mills and four flour mills, along with the entire industrial assets of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang conglomerate, had already used cross-collateralization to buy up all the short-term lending positions on the market in the early hours of last night." Shelly's voice was calm. "If Jardine Matheson wants to open its treasury to save the Japanese at this critical juncture, it must first go through the asset liquidation of the Jianghai Customs and Huafeng Bank. The liquidation period is forty-eight hours."

Shelly straightened up, adjusted his suit cuffs, and coldly looked down at Cavendish:

"I've welded the vault doors shut. Today, not a single foreign firm on the Bund can offer the Japanese even a single silver dollar."

"Do you think Japan doesn't have a cash flow problem?" Cavendish grasped at the last straw.

Shelly scoffed, "Ha, didn't Matsuda tell you that Japan is experiencing an economic panic?"

"His English... I don't quite understand it." Cavendish's eyes darted around. "You... you're insane! This is gambling with the Xi family's lifeline to that thug!" His hands trembled uncontrollably.

"It's not gambling." Shelly turned and walked towards the door. "It's hunting."

……

At 8:00 AM, at the border between the Chinese-controlled area and the foreign concessions, in the Shiliupu commercial district.

The rumors that exploded at the crack of dawn have now led to utter destruction.

In this era of war and chaos, the fear of money shops collapsing was deeply ingrained in the hearts of ordinary people.

The news caused an uproar throughout the Chinese-controlled area and the foreign concessions. Countless merchants, compradors, ordinary people, and even dancers who had just finished their night shifts rushed to the Shiliupu commercial district like madmen, clutching their Japanese banknotes.

A piece of solid wood door from Dafeng Money Shop has just been removed.

The person squeezed at the very front, even buttoning his long gown incorrectly, was none other than Zhao Degui, the vice president of the chamber of commerce.

"Withdraw the cash! Withdraw the cash now! The Chamber of Commerce's 200,000 in the books, and my personal 100,000! Exchange them all for cash!" Zhao Degui practically flipped half his body over the counter, hysterically roaring at the accountant inside.

The commoners at the back of the line stared in disbelief.

"Holy crap, even Zhao Degui, who used to eat shit for the Japanese, is packing his bags?!"

"Hey, who the hell are you cursing?"

"Go to hell!" A shirtless laborer kicked Zhao Degui in the backside. "Even a dog knows to jump ship, so everyone rush in and get it yourselves!"

The crowd surged forth like a burst dam, instantly breaching the bank's gates. The sounds of shattering glass, women's screams, and men's roars mingled together, a death knell for financial collapse.

"Exchange money! Give me cash!"

"My precious coins! If I'd been a step too late, they would have been gone!"

In the inner room on the second floor, Matsuda looked at the out-of-control scene downstairs and heard the "loan cannot be disbursed" message coming from Cavendish's side. His legs went weak, and he gripped the edge of the windowsill tightly.

"Manager! We're broke!" The accountant scrambled upstairs, drenched in sweat. "Hundreds of laborers showed up this morning, frantically trying to cash out promissory notes worth three million! Our cash reserves were completely drained yesterday by Wen Xiao's one big move!"

Matsuda's pupils contracted sharply.

"Don't panic..." Matsuda gritted his teeth, forcing himself to calm down. "Call the money brokers' association immediately! Call HSBC and Mercantile Bank! Even at 3% or 4% interest, borrow two million in cash from them to save the day! As long as the cash arrives and morale is stabilized, this situation will be resolved!"

However, what Matsuda didn't know was that the three million and the run on the bank were merely a laughingstock.

What truly sealed their fate was the woman who had been stripped of power.

……

The VIP box at the Cathay Hotel in the former International Settlement.

Shelly had changed into a well-tailored Suzhou-embroidered cheongsam and elegantly picked up a cup of Longjing tea. Inside the private room sat seven or eight elderly Chinese men in long gowns—they were the real behind-the-scenes bosses of the Shanghai-based "Money Industry Guild" and the most loyal vassals of the Xue family.

"Miss Xue, Matsuda from Dafeng Money Shop just called, offering to lend cash from several of our local money shops at a 4% interest rate to help with an emergency." An elderly man with a goatee put down his teacup and hesitantly inquired about the details.

Shelly put down her teacup, the porcelain clinking together with a crisp, cold sound.

She turned her head and looked out the window at the chaotic streets in the direction of Shiliupu.

"Completely shut down. Not a single copper coin is allowed to be played."

The goatee-wearing old man looked troubled: "Miss Xue, business is business. If we take a 40% cut,..."

"Don't ask such stupid questions anymore."

Shelly's voice suddenly turned cold, her gaze sweeping over the bankers present like a knife. "Did you all think that I risked the entire Xue family's fortune, risked my life to weld the Bund's vault shut, just to haggle with the Japanese for a pittance of interest?"

The private room was completely silent.

"It's to keep jackals out!"

Shelly stood up, placed her hands on the round rosewood table, and stared sharply at the group of elderly people:

"Gentlemen, you've been eating Chinese rice in Shanghai for decades. Do you expect a mixed-race girl like me to teach you how to write the word 'backbone'?!"

……

"Bang!"

A blue brick shattered the second-floor window. Japanese banknotes flew everywhere, drifting like waste paper on the streets of Shiliupu.

Matsuda collapsed to the ground. The financial fortress that the Japanese Chamber of Commerce had built in Shanghai for ten years crumbled amidst the sounds of vandalism.