Volume 8 Final Chapter Chapter 1119 The Royal Prince at the Card Game
“Why borrow money?”
"Ruojin wants to hold a debutante ball."
"Something like Queen Charlotte's Ball?"
“It’s closer to the Parisian Debutante Ball.”
"Oh, you lent it to her?"
"Yeah, I booked a yacht and plan to give it to her on her birthday next year."
Nan Yi was relieved in his heart, but he said: "An elder brother is like a father. He should love and discipline her. Don't spoil her too much. How much is the yacht?"
"One hundred million."
"You're putting me in a difficult position."
Nan Ruojin's birthday next year will be the day she becomes an adult. The gift from her "cheap" brother Nan Youqiong is worth 100 million yuan, and as his biological father, it must start at 300 million yuan. It is really difficult to prepare a gift that is unique and not too flashy with this budget.
Nan Youqiong shrugged and pretended to be innocent.
The father and son continued chatting, and about half an hour later, Nan Youqiong received a phone call and hurriedly took a helicopter back to Adler Manor on the other side of Long Island.
Not long after he left, two helicopters landed from the sky.
Scarlett is back.
When I arrived at the dock, I saw the bonfire and the bottles of wine and knew that my son had been there.
"Adler is gone?"
"Just left for a while."
"Come back for dinner?" Scarlett sat in the seat where Nan Youqiong had just sat, picked up a bottle of beer from the ice bucket, opened it and took a sip.
"I have a date."
"So, I'll have dinner alone?"
"I'll watch you eat." Nan Yi chuckled.
This time he flew to New York, he was going to stop by Adler Clinic for a physical examination, one of which was a colonoscopy. He would not eat anything all day so that he could suffer less during the enema tomorrow.
"No, don't show up in the dining room. If I see you, I'll think of that scene and it'll affect my appetite."
Nan Yi shrugged, "No problem, as long as you are happy."
"Lehman Brothers' performance last quarter was very impressive, and its real estate business grew rapidly. This year's financial report will definitely be very impressive."
“How much did we make on the stock?”
"400 million."
"Nice numbers, let's cheers to Lehman Brothers." Nan Yi said, shaking the bottle.
Scarlett raised her bottle and clinked it with Nan Yi's. "When the time comes, I plan to increase my short position on Lehman Brothers."
"Why? Because of Fold?"
Richard Fuld, the helmsman of Lehman Brothers, has a lot of halos around him. He has made great contributions to the growth of Lehman Brothers to its current size. During 9/11, facing danger, he calmly directed employees to evacuate, and was able to decisively and quickly convert a hotel into Lehman's headquarters. This became a legend on Wall Street and the public spoke highly of him.
However, people who had contact with him did not think highly of him. He was too aggressive, arrogant, had a very bad temper, and was very vicious. Once bitten by Lehman Brothers, he would swallow it up, skin and bones, leaving no room for him. Under his leadership, Lehman Brothers made enemies everywhere on Wall Street. It was okay when they were strong, but if they showed signs of decline, they would have to act early to kick them when they were down, otherwise they would not be able to get in line.
"I hate his face. I really want to shoot him in the forehead with Pfeifer Zeliska." Scarlett said bitterly.
"No, it's too powerful. The head will explode, and red and white will fly everywhere. It's bloody and horrible. I suggest you use a gasoline bomb. Hiss, hiss, oil will splash everywhere, and the smell of meat will spread five hundred miles."
"Your words won't affect my appetite." Scarlett glanced at Nan Yi, raised the bottle and said, "Cheers to Heidi."
“May she continue to sing in heaven.”
[Heidi West, the creator of "500 Miles", passed away in 2005. Because of this, a singer who was popular in the 1960s and 1970s has become popular again.]
After the little episode, Nan Yi and the other person continued to talk about investment banks and stocks. Not only Lehman Brothers, Scarlett Fund also invested in stocks of most investment banks on Wall Street that had subprime mortgage businesses. Due to the booming subprime mortgage market, the stocks grew well and Scarlett Fund made a lot of profit from it.
This is just the appetizer. The main course is the subsequent short selling of securities lending. The main target of short selling is Lehman Brothers. The reason for it has little to do with Nan Yi’s memory. It is mainly because Lehman Brothers is unpopular. No one will complain if you step on it. Instead, some people will give it a thumbs up and say it is a good job.
In addition to Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns is also a major target. Its stock price is about to break through $140, and it has good potential. First, we can take advantage of the rising stock price and then do short selling. Once the subprime mortgage crisis breaks out, the stock price will easily fall to single digits, and the profit will be huge.
Unlike Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns has a good reputation on Wall Street. If something happens to it, other investment banks will come forward to help. Although the way of support may not be the one Bear Stearns likes, it is reasonable to speculate that other investment banks will take over the troubled Bear Stearns, and its stock will experience a process of rising, plummeting, and slightly rising, which will give it an extra dessert than Lehman Brothers.
In addition to reaping the dividends from subprime mortgages in the stock market, Scarlett Fund also directly participated in the subprime mortgage business in the previous two years - buying small and medium-sized mortgage companies and packaging mortgage contracts into collateralized debt obligations (CDO) for sale.
Only three months ago, the business was stopped and the unsold securities were packaged and sold along with the mortgage company.
Directly participate in subprime mortgages, be optimistic about the prospects of this business, invest in related stocks, and then become pessimistic and short sell. Nan can suck blood from subprime mortgages, but he must not touch CDOs credit default swap contracts, that is, bet with others that the subprime mortgages will collapse.
The former is just making profits by investing with foresight, which is a normal economic behavior, but the latter is suspected of damaging the US economy, because the ones who will stand up to bet against it must be investment banks that are deeply involved in subprime mortgages. A betting contract may very well be the last straw that breaks the camel's back.
With a result-oriented approach, Nan’s reasonable and legal investment process will be labeled as unjust.
…
The next day.
Nan Yi went to the Adler Clinic for a physical examination. After looking at the indicators, the doctor gave the results on the same day and replied that he was in perfect health, except for the deterioration of various functions caused by aging.
One knows one's own business. After ruling out the possibility of hidden illness, Nan Yi feels that his health is better now than during the golden age of his previous life.
I spent the golden decade of my previous life busy starting a business. Not only did I rarely exercise, but I also had a lot of social engagements. I drank at least 500 kilograms of liquor a year and had to flatter people against my will in various occasions. A lot of negative emotions accumulated in my body, and I had countless sleepless nights trying to figure out where my salary was. It's strange that I'm in good health.
After leaving the clinic and filling his stomach with something to eat, Nan Yi went to the White Dove Flying Club to have some fun.
Nan Wuwei's dream of flying was strong back then, but he was forced to stop halfway. Compared to him, Nan Yi's dream of flying came later, but also more steadily and in one go. After finishing his ground studies, he flew directly into the blue sky.
However, so far, Nan Yi has only flown the CJ-6. Other aircraft such as the P51 Mustang, BF-109, Spitfire, LA-7, P-38 Lightning, Zero, Violent, and Hellcat are all in his hangar, but he just doesn't dare to fly them.
The CJ-6 is stable enough, easy to drive, and has a higher survival rate in the event of a breakdown than driving a car. The seeds of his dream have sprouted, and Nan Yi is no longer in a state of extreme fear of death. He now dares to play some adventurous games.
After the mechanic helped Nan Yi check his "Flying Tiger on Fuji", Nan Yi checked it again by himself and found a clean towel to wipe the "August 1st" logo on the belly of the aircraft.
Everything was ready. Nan Yi sat in the cockpit, repeating to himself "add oil three or five times, give commands loudly, keep the rudder level and brakes tight", and making various movements with his hands. As he moved, the propeller started to turn, and the plane slowly rolled forward, then accelerated. After a while, a military green plane with a hint of red raised its head and rushed towards the blue sky.
Climbing to an altitude of 2,600 meters at a speed of 4 meters per second, Nan Yi then leveled the plane and flew for a while to make sure the flight was normal. Then he freed his hands to turn on the MP3 and selected "Holy War". To the sound of the exciting music, Nan Yi held the joystick and fiddled with it forward, backward, left and right, making the plane perform various movements in the air.
When they were tired of playing, they climbed another 1,000 meters, then released the joystick and the rudder pedals. Listening to "Above the Moon", Liu Ye took over the driving rights and took Nan Yi to the east to watch the horses herding, and then to the west to watch the sheep herding. Nan Yi didn't have to worry about anything, just had to follow the rhythm and shout "Cheke Nao".
While Nan Yi was having fun, Nan Youqiong was sitting at the gambling table in Las Vegas, playing Texas Hold'em with the second generation of two sovereign funds in the Middle East.
It is common knowledge that the Middle East is rich. The sovereign funds in the Middle East are also rich, such as the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, Qatar Investment Authority, UAE Mubadala Investment Company, Bahrain Mumtalakat, Oman Investment Authority, Egypt Sovereign Fund, Sharjah Asset Management, UAE Abu Dhabi Sovereign Fund Mubadala, etc. Each of them has assets calculated in hundreds of billions of dollars and has enormous power in the host country.
Previously, Scarlett Fund withdrew from the subprime mortgage business and gave its clients the reason that the fund wanted to shift its investment focus to the hydropower station business in Southeast Asia. This was both an excuse and a fact.
Shennong Nanliang expanded its investment in Southeast Asia and acquired a large amount of land. The reason why the acquisition was successful was that a large part of the land was in flood-prone areas, and the company had to rely on God's will every year. If there was heavy rainfall in the upper reaches of the river, all the work would be in vain.
Before the land was annexed, various issues such as how to prevent floods, to what extent, and how to achieve the most effective flood control and self-restraint have been discussed and corresponding plans have been made. Building a hydropower station for power generation and flood prevention is one of the plans.
It is unclear how the investment environment in Southeast Asia will change in the future. The investment in hydropower stations is huge. It is not wise for Nan to invest exclusively with its own funds. Bringing in several strategic partners to share risks and increase momentum can effectively reduce political and investment risks.
"Fifty thousand." Muhaili from Dubai World threw out fifty thousand chips and looked at Nan Youqiong, "Adam, do you want to follow?"
At this time, the fourth community card has been dealt and the game enters the turn. The four cards are 5 of Hearts, 5 of Spades, J of Diamonds, and 9 of Hearts. Together with the players' hole cards, the biggest hand that can be formed is a Straight Flush of Hearts, which is unlikely. Instead, three of a kind or a full house of 5 is very likely.
Nan Youqiong's hole cards are the 5 of diamonds and the 9 of spades. His chance of winning this round is at least 85%. If he loses, he can look around to see if there are any cameras. There may be a crew filming a gambling movie, or he can just chop off the dealer's hand with an axe and then slowly make the winner take his place.
This is the casino of Stephen Adelson, the poor and cheap grandfather of the South. He himself is also a small shareholder. The possibility that there is something wrong with the dealer is very small. Therefore, he has calculated that his chances of winning are extremely high.
Frowning, he took the hole cards and took a look at them, then glanced at the public cards. After hesitating for a long time, Nan Youqiong threw out 50,000 chips and said, "I'll follow."
The next player to speak was Mubadala's Mokarab. He did not hesitate like Nan Youqiong and threw out 50,000 chips very readily, and then threw out 100,000 chips, "I raise."
"Good cards?" Muhaili glanced at Mokarab and threw out to follow.
Nan Youqiong hesitated for a while again, and made up his mind to keep up despite the difficulties.
Acting is a required skill for the Nan family. Starting from Nan Yi and below, Scarlett, Fan Hongdou, Nan Ruoyin and so on, all have had experience studying acting. Qidian Orphanage also offers acting classes.
Learning acting is not for the purpose of cheating or deceiving others, but just to increase the thickness of one's inner disguise, so as to avoid having a highway on one's face that leads directly to one's heart and being seen through by others at a glance.
All three players have followed suit, and the dealer deals the fifth community card, bringing the game to the river.
The fifth public card is the King of Hearts. Together with the previous four cards, namely the 5 of Hearts, 5 of Spades, J of Diamonds, 9 of Hearts and the King of Hearts, the full house in Nan Youqiong's hand is already the largest hand that can be formed, and he is already invincible.
Mokarabu flipped open the cards and took a look. Then he threw out two hundred thousand chips expressionlessly and said calmly, "Good cards."
"I don't believe it. Add another 500,000." Mu Haili said as he threw out 700,000 chips.
Nan Youqiong picked up his trump card and took another look at it. After reading it, he said expressionlessly, "All in."
He was hesitant before, but now he is so decisive. This will give the other two people the illusion that he had been gambling before and has won now. Of course, Mokarab and Muhairi may not interpret it this way.
Texas Hold'em is a relatively mature game. There are many professional competitions, which have spawned many professional players. Various strategies have been studied clearly. Nan Youqiong's tricks may not be considered very clever at the Texas Hold'em table, but they are very deceptive at today's table.
The reason is simple. This is a business card game. None of the three people care about the small amount of money represented by the chips. What they care about is the fun and communication brought by winning or losing.
"I only have three of a kind. I won't call." Mokarabu chuckled and covered his hole cards which could only form a pair of Js.
"Mokarab, you are too timid. I follow." Muhaili turned over his own cards. "J and K, two pairs. Adam, show me your cards."
Nan Youqiong revealed his trump card and said with a smile, "Sorry, gourd."
"Aha, I guessed it. Adam, you really are a big shot." As Mokarab spoke, he looked at Muhaili with a hint of teasing.
Mu Haili disagreed. He had already thought that he might lose before the cards were opened, but he still insisted on looking at Nan Youqiong's cards because he needed to summarize Nan Youqiong's playing patterns and then analyze his character.
When screening investment projects dominated by pairs, he will give priority to projects where the helmsmen are very smart, and then select projects where the helmsmen are stupid, and those that are average in all aspects will be directly ignored.
A smart helmsman can ensure a higher success rate for the project, and this investment is very worthwhile; a stupid helmsman can become a project itself, and is also very worthwhile to invest in. By signing a bet agreement, you can get some fat whether it succeeds or not.
In Muhaili's preconceived notion, Adam was most likely a shrewd person. Although this was their first meeting, Adam's family had already invested in Dubai. When his elders were just in the process of transforming from poor to nouveau riche, they simply sent a Japanese woman to manage the investment in Dubai... The word "manage" was not quite accurate, perhaps "supervise" was more appropriate. She would only go to Dubai once or twice a year, and at most she would be there to supervise.
Compared to himself, Adam's family is "Old Money". A glimpse of the tip of the iceberg of Dubai is enough to show the shrewdness of this family. How could Adam, who is obviously the successor of the family, be a fool?
At the beginning of the second deck of cards, the three people's attention shifted from the cards to the conversation. They first talked about women, from Hollywood to Kuwait, and then to Egypt, avoiding each other's sensitive areas, but within the aesthetic range, discussing the beauty of women of all races.
After talking about women, we started talking about food. You talked about camels and sheep, and I talked about birds and wild mushrooms. It was really lively.
As the game continued, the topic shifted from irrelevant matters to the economy, from the international situation to the situation in Southeast Asia, and then to the last economic crisis and the changes in the economic models of Southeast Asian countries after the crisis.
Muhairi: “Adam, which country is your investment focus?”
Nan Youqiong: "Laos."
"Why this? Laos' economy is underdeveloped and the demand for electricity is not great," said Mokarabu.
"This year marks the 20th anniversary of Laos' reform and opening up. Compared with Vietnam, its development speed is not fast, but due to its geographical location, Laos has attracted a lot of investment from China.
Last year, I visited several major cities in Laos, including Vientiane, Pakse, Luang Prabang and Savannakhet, and inspected economic development zones in various places. I gained an in-depth understanding of the electricity consumption situation. Only in the rainy season can the electricity supply of enterprises be guaranteed. Once the dry season comes, power outages may occur at any time.
Stable electricity supply is an issue that Laos urgently needs to solve. If the electricity problem is not solved, Laos' economy will not be able to move forward.
After inspecting the economic development zone, I visited several areas in Laos that are very rich in water resources. On the way, I paid attention to the mountainous and plain areas of Laos and found that Laos has the potential to develop photovoltaic power generation.
Hydropower, photovoltaics, wind power, biogas, if Laos can develop multiple power generation modes, it will only take a few years to go from power shortage to power surplus, especially in the rainy season."
Muhairi asked in surprise: "Why do you mention surplus?"
Nan Youqiong chuckled, picked up 100,000 chips and threw them out, "That's my style. I won't hide the unfavorable factors of the project from my partners. Besides, I mentioned the geography before. Thailand and Vietnam are big electricity users. Cambodia and Myanmar also have high demand for electricity. Laos can not only use its own electricity, but also export it."
As soon as the word "export" came out, Muhaili and Mokarab's minds were opened. The project proposed by Nan Youqiong was definitely a good project.
Mokarabu asked, “Why did you choose to cooperate with us?”
"I don't understand?" Nan Youqiong looked at Muhaili and Mokarabu, half smiling, muttering in his heart: "Why are you pretending to be such a good-for-nothing? Can't you be more sincere?"
Mokarabu calmly picked up the hole cards and looked at them, "I'll follow. I'll raise the bet by two hundred thousand."
Mu Haili picked up the mouthpiece of the water pipe and took a puff, then looked at the public card, pretending to think about whether to follow.
How could the two of them not think of Nan Youqiong's idea? Southeast Asia needs oil supplies from the Middle East. With their participation, Laos will naturally be cautious and the safety of the project will be more guaranteed.
Oil is their bargaining chip. It is not the time to use it yet. When the project enters the critical negotiation stage, everything will be clearly laid out on the table and weighed, and all efforts will be valuable.
The serious conversation ended temporarily, and the three of them focused all their attention on the card game.
When the game had gone on for about half an hour, a short and fat Asian man walked into the private room where the three were, with a big smile on his face, and walked straight towards Mokarabu.
When Mokarabu saw him, he introduced him to Muhaili and Nan Youqiong: "Low, my college classmate, a prince of the Malaysian royal family."
Looking at the fat boy in front of him, Nan Youqiong secretly laughed in his heart, "The fat boy is quite good at bragging."
If you have a little understanding of the situation in Malaysia, you can see that the little fat boy in front of you must have been influenced by the Confucian culture. How did he, with pure Chinese blood, become a descendant of one of the nine royal families?
The fat boy quickly observed Mu Haili and Nan Youqiong, then walked up to them and introduced himself: "Hello, I'm Liu Tegu, from Malaysia."
"Ha, Liu Teju, isn't he Aunt Xu's nephew? Interesting, really interesting."
Nan Wuwei was secretly happy again.
Nan Yi is a man of deep affection and sense of friendship. He values relationships very much. He will remain friendly even with people who are far away from him. What's more, he will embrace Xu Qian, his confidante who he once had an ambiguous relationship with, as long as he relaxes his principles.
Although the two seldom met, as they had some unpleasantness due to her husband's investment issues, they had always kept in touch. After Nan Youqiong went to internship, Nan Yi naturally had to explain to him the various relationships. Aunt Xu was one of the relationships explained. Nan Yi once said - if you encounter any problems in Malaysia, you can look for Aunt Xu. Even if there is nothing important, you will visit her when you arrive in Malaysia.
Although Nan Youqiong had never been to Malaysia, he had spoken with Xu Qian and had read her relevant information. Liu Tegu's name was in the information.
