The Shopkeeper of All Worlds in the British Wizarding World

Chapter 688 Bank
In the lounge upstairs in the Weasley Joke Shop, Ryan, Hermione and two pandas sat on two large sofas. On the coffee table in front of the sofa were freshly brewed green tea and several plates of Chinese-style snacks, which he had gotten from Uncle Nine before.

"This traditional flavor is rare even in the wizarding world of the Celestial Empire, especially the lotus crisps. It is not easy to make them fragrant and non-greasy, after all, they need to be fried during the production process. I have only eaten them in a teahouse in my hometown of Shu in the Celestial Empire before." said the leading panda named Xiong Duosu.

"And this Biluochun is the same." Another panda man, Xiong Guangcai, nimbly grabbed the small teacup with his claws, tasted the tea, and praised. "I have only had top-grade Suzhou Taihu Dongting Mountain Xishan Biluochun a few times."

After tasting the tea and snacks, the two pandas finally started talking about the reason for looking for Ryan and the others today. "It's nice to meet you in faraway England. We heard about what you have been doing recently before we came here, especially you, Mr. Liang. Your growth in strength surprised us. That's why we came to find you. We originally planned to send you an owl letter after we came out of Hogwarts."

"So what exactly is going on?" Hermione asked curiously. "Actually, after we saw you just now, we were very curious about why you were here. After all, this place is very far away from your hometown, and no one from your Pixiu clan has ever appeared here before."

"Then I think you will see us many times in the future, because I got a promotion. Now I am the president of the Hogsmeade branch of the Celestial Alchemist Bank." Xiong Duosu raised his head slightly and said with some pride.

"Well, congratulations!" Ryan and Hermione clasped their hands together to express their congratulations, and then Ryan asked, "By the way, where is your bank now? Why didn't I see it in Hogsmeade before?"

"It's under renovation, and it hasn't opened yet." Xiong Duosu said in the panda's unique baby voice. "It's where the Fengya brand wizard clothing store used to be, but we have something to do before it opens."

After saying that, Xiong Duosu smiled brightly at Ryan and the others. After seeing this smile, Ryan immediately raised his vigilance. He still remembered that when he went to the Celestial Empire last time, the alchemists there warned him that although the Pixiu was a kind creature, it had a strong obsession with money, so he must be careful of their sales pitch.

Although as a kind and intelligent creature, the products sold by the pandas are genuine, but they will do their best to empty your wallet and make you buy a lot of things that you don't really need to take home.

As expected, Xiong Duosu proposed a very attractive investment project. "You know, we came here from the Celestial Empire to open a bank to make money. And to make money, we need to build good relationships with local people. Therefore, our Celestial Empire Alchemist Bank only holds 50% of the shares of the Hogsmeade branch of the Celestial Empire Alchemist Bank, and the rest will be distributed to you."

"Just now in the negotiation in Hogwarts Castle, we reached an agreement with Headmaster Dumbledore and Minister Bones: the Hogsmeade Ministry of Magic took 22% of the shares in exchange for land, labor and a series of preferential policies, and Hogwarts also took 22% of the shares in exchange for gold and a series of other guarantees. The remaining shares will be publicly recruited." Xiong Guangcai took out several contracts and showed them to Ryan.

"Then why did you come to me?" Ryan asked, "I know there is no bank here, and everyone needs a bank. Under the current circumstances, if you open a bank here, there should be countless people willing to invest. Why did you come to me specifically?"

"You're right, there are countless people willing to invest, but they are just willing." Xiong Duosu shrugged and spread his bear paw. "But the problem is that the people who choose to support Hogsmeade here basically don't have much money to invest! And because of our internal ban, I can't go to London to raise funds."

Xiong Duosu was talking about a very realistic situation. Although the British wizarding world is now divided into two factions and the two sides seem to be evenly matched, it is undeniable that the wealth in the British wizarding world is mainly concentrated in the hands of the pure-blood families who support the Ministry of Magic in London. Especially after the Ministry of Magic in London sealed off Gringotts, there really is not much money left in Hogsmeade.

If Ryan had not taken out a large sum of gold after becoming a Hogwarts director, and the headmaster had used his channels to exchange the gold for gold galleons to promote production and economic circulation through orders, the economy here would probably have collapsed. It seems that there are not many people in this place who can take out a large amount of hard currency, so Xiong Duosu probably came to Ryan because of Professor Dumbledore's advice. After all, Dumbledore knew that Ryan had a large amount of hard currency, and as an alchemist with the Philosopher's Stone, it was impossible for him to be short of money in the true sense.

In addition, there are two reasons why Xiong Duosu came to Ryan for financing. One of them is that as a new bank, it will inevitably be rejected by the old banks. As the only bank in the Western world, Gringotts in various countries was forced to split up by wizards and maintain its independence after several goblin rebellions, but Gringotts in each country is not easy to deal with.

Fortunately, there is a basic principle in the magic world that power is respected, so if the Tianchao Alchemist Bank wants to operate successfully in the UK, it must have sufficient power to back it up. And Ryan, a wizard who can confront Voldemort head-on, is naturally their first choice, just like their other partners are Hogwarts School and the Ministry of Magic in Hogsmeade.

In Xiong Duosu's opinion, one Voldemort could make the whole of Europe silent. So if there were two wizards of Voldemort's level behind his bank, then he wouldn't have to worry about the group of Gringotts goblins who were harmed by the interests doing something shady.

Another reason was Ryan himself. The Celestial Alchemist Bank certainly hoped that its partners would be kind to Celestial wizards. Ryan could be considered a friendly person in terms of his bloodline and previous deeds.

"So how many shares can you sell me?" Ryan asked the pandas in front of him. It was obvious that this group of pandas had already sold the bank shares they had in other places before.

"If you have money, we can sell you up to 5% of the shares." Xiong Guangcai said a surprising number.

"5%!" Hermione opened her eyes wide in surprise. Because her parents were both dentists, Hermione had a certain understanding of economic matters. She knew that as an individual shareholder, 5% of the shares in such a bank was already a very high proportion.

"Yes, 5%." Xiong Guangcai said helplessly. "Because in the previous IPO, all wizards didn't have much hard currency, and we met with more than a dozen people to raise 1% of the shares."

"Then let's invest the remaining money." Ryan discussed with Hermione through the Phoenix Mark and made a decision immediately. Then he stood up, went downstairs and entered the Wanjie Grocery Store in an empty place. A few minutes later, he came out with a space bag.

"Do you think this money is enough?" After returning to the lounge, he handed the space bag to Xiong Duosu and asked. "If it's not enough, I can add more."

"This is not only enough, it's even too much." Xiong Duosu stretched out his claws to open the bag and took a careful look. Ryan had put five cubic meters of gold in it before. In addition, he also put hundreds of soybean-sized gems of various colors in a transparent plastic box.

"It's okay. If there's more money, it can be counted as our savings." Ryan said, "Anyway, I'm not short of money now."

(End of this chapter)