Red blood, and white…
Sheng Xuan screamed in terror. The smell of blood made her nauseous. She vomited violently by the roadside until her limbs went weak. Forcing herself to look, she saw that the person who had jumped was overweight.
It wasn’t Zhu Suizhou!
This wasn’t the first suicide jump on Qiong Island, but it was the first time Sheng Xuan had witnessed one firsthand.
She had come looking for Zhu Suizhou, and someone jumping from the same building wasn’t exactly a good omen.
Good omen? The once-bustling Ye City was now filled with abandoned construction sites. Property developers’ staff who hadn’t managed to escape were being cornered by investors. No matter how much abuse the investors hurled at them, the employees remained emotionally numb.
“We can’t refund the properties.”
“There’s no money.”
“We don’t know where the boss went.”
These phrases had been repeated countless times. Even a suicide jump couldn’t draw much of a crowd anymore. Who had time to gather around a dead body when everyone was contemplating jumping themselves if they couldn’t recover their money?
Sheng Xuan climbed the stairs unsteadily. The elevator in Yangfan Real Estate’s office building had stopped working. During its peak, Yangfan Real Estate had over twenty employees, many of whom Zhu Suizhou had brought from Shangdu. They were all capable, well-paid, and had helped him build his empire… All twenty-plus employees were dismissed overnight, dividing among themselves the last bit of liquid capital in Yangfan Real Estate’s accounts.
Zhu Suizhou had said they couldn’t mistreat others.
Sheng Xuan smiled bitterly – so they could only mistreat themselves.
When she finally reached Zhu Suizhou’s office, she found him standing by the window with his back to the door, seemingly contemplating something. The window was open, and he could easily climb onto the waist-high wall—
“Suizhou!”
Sheng Xuan screamed with all her might.
“Don’t do anything foolish, don’t!”
She rushed forward to embrace him. Zhu Suizhou slowly turned around:
“…You thought I would jump?”
Sheng Xuan didn’t answer.
She had just witnessed someone jump to their death; she couldn’t help but fear the worst.
“If suicide would solve anything, I might do it. But it won’t help – even if I die, the debts would still fall on your shoulders.”
I am meant for great things!
Zhu Suizhou had never doubted this.
The current success of the Asia Department Store in Shangdu proved his vision and judgment – the retail business was profitable in Shangdu.
From 1988 to 1991, the real estate boom on Qiong Island had also proven his foresight.
But he had lacked luck.
By the time he realized something was wrong, it was too late to withdraw from Qiong Island.
Before the “Sixteen Regulations” were implemented, Yangfan Real Estate had accumulated over a thousand mu of land, with a total market value of over one billion yuan. If they had sold all the land, Yangfan Real Estate could have profited several hundred million… Several hundred million yuan in 1991! With such liquid capital, they could have implemented Du Zhaoqi’s earlier plan to transform Asia into a chain of department stores, without needing outside investment – Yangfan Real Estate’s funds alone would have sufficed.
Why hadn’t he done that then?
Because speculating on the land on Qiong Island was too easy and too profitable – Zhu Suizhou lost interest in the retail business.
The “Sixteen Regulations” came too suddenly, and Qiong Island’s real estate industry cooled just as quickly. The market collapse was like an avalanche, happening too fast for Zhu Suizhou to sell the land.
Tang Yuanyue planned to shift from short-term to long-term investment. Since Yuhua had already recovered its costs, it could hold onto unsold land and develop it when the market recovered.
But Zhu Suizhou couldn’t do that.
Because all of Yangfan Real Estate’s land purchases had been funded by bank loans!
Following national policy, banks stopped lending to Qiong Island’s real estate companies while trying to recover existing loans. Upon investigation, several state-owned banks were shocked to discover how much they had unknowingly lent to Qiong Island. The island’s real estate market was like a game of musical chairs, with land prices inflated to over a million yuan per mu, and banks were left holding the bag.
Take Yangfan Real Estate – once their mortgaged land lost its buyers, it lost its collateral value.
The banks held too much-mortgaged land, with Yangfan Real Estate being one of the companies with the largest amount of land collateral.
With land becoming worthless, banks wanted to minimize losses by having Yangfan Real Estate repay with valuable assets… but for Zhu Suizhou, whose billion-yuan land holdings had become worthless overnight, what could he use to repay the loans?
He could only let the banks seize the mortgaged land.
The banks weren’t satisfied, but Zhu Suizhou couldn’t repay more – with such large loans, even the interest was enormous. What could he use to repay?
Before dismissing all Yangfan Real Estate employees, the banks had already seized all assets under Zhu Suizhou’s name, including residential properties and several cars. The nouveau riche couple, worth over a hundred million, had fallen below even ordinary status – Zhu Suizhou was left with nothing and still owed the banks huge sums.
Even though Sheng Xuan worked at the bank, she couldn’t stop the deteriorating situation. The seized assets included Zhu Suizhou’s 20% stake in Chaoyang Real Estate.
As Chaoyang Real Estate’s major shareholder, Xia Xiaolan wouldn’t allow this situation. When Zhu Suizhou’s 20% stake was seized by the banks, Xia Xiaolan bought it back from them.
During this transfer, Chaoyang Real Estate remained unaffected, and Asia Department Store wasn’t touched, but Zhu Suizhou was kicked out of the shareholders’ circle. Asia had nothing to do with him anymore.
To make matters worse, with Yangfan Real Estate’s massive debt, Sheng Xuan came under attack, accused of irregular loan procedures… She lost her banking job as a result.
This was the best outcome – Sheng Xuan had nearly faced imprisonment!
But this undoubtedly cut off Zhu Suizhou’s path to recovery. Without Sheng Xuan’s professional advantages, it would be extremely difficult for him to make a comeback.
Thinking about how their fortunes had reversed in just two months, Sheng Xuan held Zhu Suizhou and wept uncontrollably.
Who should she blame?
Xia Xiaolan’s research report hadn’t been made public, so Sheng Xuan didn’t know that the “Sixteen Regulations” were directly related to Xia Xiaolan. She only believed that Xia Xiaolan had profited enormously and escaped unscathed from Qiong Island because of insider information.
But speaking of insider information, they had their sources too.
Last year, Second Madam Song had warned her to quickly withdraw from Qiong Island, but neither she nor Zhu Suizhou had listened!
The couple wasn’t satisfied with just making a few million.
Their judgment of the market hadn’t been wrong – land prices had indeed doubled again… but it was all paper wealth, never realized, and one catastrophe had turned it all to nothing!
Sheng Xuan held Zhu Suizhou and murmured:
“Suizhou, we’ve experienced great ups and downs. The state cracked down on land speculation, and we can only accept our bad luck… But why are we the only ones suffering? Why can Xia Xiaolan and others who got insider information and ran first escape unscathed? I don’t believe it!”