Claw and Heart

4.

The whole room was set up in classical European style with an enormous round table placed in the center. Visually it gave the impression of walking into the world of 'King Arthur' and his 'Knights of the Round Table'. Around the table sat two dozen men, all dressed formally in ties and suits; all the seats were full, all except for one. It was just around the appointed time, Mr. Wu burst into the room, beads of sweat gleaming on his forehead.

"I am very sorry that I am late." Mr. Wu gulped as all the eyes turned to him. Words met with silence, he cowered as a tall lean figure stood up and spoke:

"There is no need to apologize, you are on time." Mr. Di said.

"Mr. Di it's an honor to meet you. You are much younger then I heard." Mr. Wu smiled shaking Mr. Di hand.

"No, the honor is mine. Please have a seat." Mr. Di smiled, gesturing Mr. Wu politely to a seat across from himself.

Born in China, 25 years old Di Guo-Jun was given the title 'Dragon' and is the current Chairman of Tian-Tan Enterprise; a multibillion real estate company that is spread out across the globe, and is currently ranked one of the world's top 500 industries. Not only are his achievements and age shocking, but even more striking is his appearance. Company owners who have tons and tons of money usually spend it on food, drugs, women...etc. But compared to them Mr. Di was like a saint: his body fit and lean, shiny black hair, fearsome brown eyes and overall very handsome appearance. He never did any drugs in his life; in fact he ran a campaign and established treatment camp for drug users in North America, though it has not achieved success on a large scale. As for women, there were some rumours about him having affairs, which he all denied and there wasn't sufficient evidence but he still is a bachelor, 30 years old and unmarried to this day.

"Forgive me for being so blunt; shall we drive straight into business?"

"Of course." Mr. Wu answered with courtesy.

"Thank you." Mr. Di said as he set both of his hand forward onto the table, then wiggled his fingers as if he was shuffling an invisible deck of cards, a deck that he cannot lose with.

"From what I have seen from the database, yesterday you purchased ten million dollars worth of stocks, am I correct, Mr. Wu?"

"Yes." Mr. Wu replied.

"I have no interest in your intention of buying such quantities, but what I am interested is your actions..."

"...Sorry I don't quite catch your meaning." Mr. Wu whimpered.

"No worries, I will explain it to you in a fairly simple way. My stocks are in decline, and my experts predict that they will go into further decline over the course of the next three months. Your company, Sunflower Machinery Ltd. hasn't gone into the market, nor does it look like you are going to push it into the market any time soon. But when you do, your market value will go up by an astronomical amount. So it's certainly irrational to use your company money to purchase any stocks before it goes into market. And that can only mean you used your own money to purchase my stocks, am I right?"

"Yes." Mr. Wu looked like a desperate mouse cornered by a group of cats.

"And from what I know the entire value of your company. Not market value, together is barely hundred million dollars...do you know what this means? It means that this is your entire company wealth, not your own personally wealth..." Mr. Di paused for a moment, as Mr. Wu looked up at him in fear.

"But I have to admit, this is some fancy way to launder money, or perhaps the creative way of black mailing...but then there's the problem of the CIA, they like to stick their nose everywhere. And with a hundred million dollar purchase in one day they will be all over you like flies! And I am willing to bet ten billion that more than half of that money was borrowed from the bank and believe me regardless of the investment plan you are going with, the interest alone is enough to bankrupt you. Do you even understand what you are doing? And do you know how much inconvenience that your purchase will bring to my company? DO YOU UNDERSTAND!" Mr. Di slammed both his hands on his table, and at this point, Mr. Wu didn't even dare to breathe and his face even paled snow by comparison.