Chapter 92: Black gold credit card
Chapter 92: Black gold credit card
Translated by me, edited by drpetro.
When Ye Qing got the call from that so called general manager, he was just taking everyone from the office out for lunch at the nearby Golden Jaguar buffet.
Ever since Ye Qing raised the price of the mechanical engineered chair to 88,000, the group of young customer service girls were all cursed beyond the point of being miserable. Plus, with the just signed cooperation deal with Illusion Corporation, Ye Qing thought to bring everyone to Golden Jaguar to celebrate and relax.
During the call, Wang Zhen very fawningly asked if Owner Ye was free in the afternoon, that he would come pick him up to inspect the pressure press and electric furnace.
“Those are both newly installed pieces of equipment. So there’s definitely no problem with their quality.” Wang Zhen, being good to a fault: “I’ve already contacted the dismantling and transporting people. As long as you say yes, the equipment can arrive at your factory tomorrow.
Ye Qing replied that he had time in the afternoon, and that Wang Zhen could pick him up at the Blue Sky building downtown.
2 o’clock in the afternoon, Wang Zhen arrived in a Audi A4.
Bai Chengan also wanted tag along originally, to see who this Big brother Ye really was.
Very sadly, DouDou didn’t let him go at all, saying that if he went then he was definitely going to ask Ye Qing all those nonsense questions, and with him there, what would Big brother Ye do if he wanted to bargain?
Bai Chengan also thought so too, the Bai lastname was quite rare, so it was very very likely for the other side guess who he really was from just their greetings alone.
Then when it came time to discuss the price, that young man would definitely misunderstand a lot of the hidden things.
While on the road to the bankrupt company, Wang Zhen went poking around by asking which bank he had an account with, and if he had any interest in switching to the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
“I have one open with the Construction Bank. I also have an account at the ICBC, but I rarely use it.”
“Mr. Ye, if I must, for industrial businesses, we the ICBC definitely offer the best comprehensive package.” Wang Zhen using this period of free time, lobbied for his employer. Along the way, he unstoppingly promoted the benefits of the ICBC to Ye Qing. He even said ‘you see our bank even has the word commerce in it; the only within the big 4’.
Seeing the lack of interest from Ye Qing, Wang Zhen didn’t spend too much effort on lobbying, as the main point today was still to get rid of those two pieces of troublesome equipment.
Wang Zhen, who operated with the motto [No investment, no return], to increase Ye Qing’s determination to purchase, he tactfully informed Ye Qing that if he were to successfully purchase the equipment, then he would recommend him to the branch president, who would sign and send the recommendation to headquarters, where they would formally send out the invitation to invite Ye Qing to the [ICBC AE Centurion Black Credit Card] program. [ED: Now that’s a mouthful]
The Centurion credit card was one of the world’s most renowned high end credit cards issued by American Express. However, everyone who was actually able to possess one were all elites of the elites, wealthiest of the wealthy.
That type of card had another name on the internet: The Unlimited Card.
Of course, that was an extreme exaggeration. No bank was literally made up of money. If they were to actually to give out no limit cards, then people would’ve bought the whole universe and then some. But with this card, if you were to show up in any luxury good stores, then the services you would receive would definitely match those received by those middle eastern kings and princes.
This kind of credit cards didn’t take applications, they were only issued by invites to those who meet a certain threshold based off of the bank’s estimate of the client’s net worth and spending level.
In 2012, China Merchant Bank and American Express announced the launch of the CMB AE Centurion Platinum Card.
That type of card had an annual account fee of 18,000, and had an unlimited amount of VIP services. For example, if you wanted to go to Xu Ninggong’s concert, but all the tickets were already sold out. All you needed to do was give them a call, and they would guarantee that before the concert starts, you would personally receive tickets to VIP viewing booths from the local bank’s director.
Even if they had to magically make it appear, they still would do so. Don’t ever doubt the power of banks.
As soon as the announcement was made, all the other banks immediately couldn’t handle it. Who let the small CMB become first with this kind of thing?
Except American Express, being American, only gave 3 other banks in China the qualifications to work with them.
ICBC was the second bank to release the Centurion credit card program in China. Still the same annual fee, and didn’t take applications. Rather, they only give out invites from recommendations given by local branch presidents.
Wang Zhen could be said to really have put in the capital to win over the young, wealthy business owner, moreover to get rid of this troublesome problem once and for all.
Ye Qing was naturally moved by the legendary Centurion card. The card had been heavily debated on and off on the internet for the past several years. And the conclusion was: with it, you would simply have too much face.
However. Being moved was one thing, but if the two pieces of equipment’s quality or price didn’t satisfy Ye Qing’s standards, then Ye Qing would still not buy them.
The good thing was, what the two were worried about didn’t happen at all. When they arrived at the special steels factory, the newly installed 3 piece 4 pillar pressure press immediately sucked in all of Ye Qing’s attention.
Anything, when big beyond a certain point, will naturally attract everyone’s attention.
This man-made industrial monster in front of them, not only did it provide the shock to the sights, it also brought the awe of technical advance and industrialization.
The 50 ton electric furnace was also the same. This huge machine didn’t just come with the tube that could easily fit in 20 to 30 people at the same time, there was also the stuff above it. The even more massive mechanical arms, and the cargo container sized electric arc control system.
Having completed his inspections, Ye Qing decided to: buy buy buy!
Yesterday, buying all the steel used all the money he had. But all the orders today already brought in another 10 some million. Pay half of it up front now, then when they ship all of them tomorrow to the factory, he would pay the rest.
After much discussion, they finally agreed to the total price of 20 million. The price was exactly the same as the second hand ones offered on the market. However these two were much newer, included delivery, so in the end Ye Qing still made off with more.
When Ye Qing directly wired over half of the agreed price in one go, Wang Zhen nearly fainted due to the excitement.
Solving this troublesome problem let him not only escape the angry fires of the director, but let him receive the necessary praise for letting the bank earn all the associated fund attached to these two pieces of industrial equipment.
Bankrupt businesses weren’t scary, what was scary was when the business went bankrupt and no one wanted to buy their equipment during the bank action, thus they could only be sold off as scraps and lose the bank tons of money.
Losing money and earning money was the most basic ability for any manager within a bank. Wang Zhen gave that factory a loan of 18 million at the beginning, now not only did he bring back that amount and its related interests, he also earned a little bit.
Him being able to earn a profit even with a bankrupt business, if that wasn’t his profound ability speaking, then what was?
Wang Zhen guaranteed with his pride on the line, that he would put in the recommendation immediately. Within 10 days, he would personally deliver the ICBC AE Centurion card into Ye Qing’s hands.
……………………
The work efficiency of the bank was just too damn superb. In the afternoon of the next day, 30 some seriously overloaded Steyr heavy duty semi-trailers rumbled through the Dragon Creek beach. Following close behind them were four other 200 ton XCMG wheeled cranes.
The million ton pressure press and 50 ton electric furnace were all disassembled into different components, yet even one of the pressure press’ hydraulic pressure cylinder still weighed over 100 tons.
That was the benefit of being close by. If it was bought from out of the province, then to avoid eating unnecessary traffic tickets, they would have to give the moving job to a large distribution business and let them slowly move the equipment’s pieces with special trucks.
The four 200 ton XCMG wheeled cranes worked almost until sunset before finally clearing away all the pieces of the pressure press and the electric furnace from the semi trailers.
Ye Qing didn’t let them assemble it, saying the site to situate them hadn’t finished renovations yet, so just leave them in the yard.
The truck fleet having discharged their load, rumbled off to into the distance on Huanhai Avenue. When every outsider had disappeared, Ye Qing immediately organized the peons into using the I-beams to create 4 huge, 10 meter long, 2 meter thick levers.
At 1 o’clock in the morning, the barren Dragon Creek beach was as black as calligraphy ink. Four prehistoric sized raging miners, using the cover of the night, crawled out from the deep hidden base into the open surface.
They were truly malevolent, and had beyond imaginatory strength.