I'm in the county town, and you say I'm a big shot?

Chapter 379, Chapter 378: "It might really become the second Haifa."

The dinner was held in a private room on the second floor of the Chundu Hotel. When Fang Qingye arrived at six o'clock in the afternoon, the room was already occupied.

Xia He sat in the head seat, next to Su Ming. Zhang Qunying was naturally there as well; she was now the vice president and had been promoted by Xia He.

There were also Wu Shengli and Chen Meimei, who were people Xia He trusted at the Nanxin branch. To Fang Qingye's surprise, there was also a very beautiful young woman sitting next to her.

Cao Ting.

Cao Ting used to work in the same office as Fang Qingye. Her father-in-law was a leader in the county, her husband's uncle was the deputy director of the Jinghai branch of Dongfang Bank, and her husband had recently been promoted to deputy director of the Urban Construction Bureau.

She came from a very well-off family, but she had no interest in a career in politics. She did some easy work at her workplace and was a very detached person.

When Cao Ting saw Fang Qingye come in, she was very friendly: "Xiao Fang, come sit next to me." She also said in a slightly reproachful tone: "Xiao Fang, since you left the company, you have never gone back to the company, and you never even come to see us."

"I know everyone is busy, so I don't want to bother you," Fang Qingye said with a smile.

"They're busy, but I'm not. Come visit often in the future," Cao Ting said with a smile.

Fang Qingye smiled and agreed.

Of course, they were just being polite to each other.

Fang Qingye greeted the others, and everyone called him Xiao Fang, including Xia He. Since leaving the bank, few people had called him that, so it sounded quite friendly now.

However, the main character today is not him but Xia He. Everyone basically talked about her while eating.

Of course, we also had to serve alcohol, specifically Dream Blue.

Don't be fooled by the large number of women at the banquet; they all work in banks, and none of them can't drink alcohol.
Apart from Fang Qingye.

After having a few drinks, people tend to speak more freely, and the conversation eventually turned to the current investigation.

Apart from Fang Qingye, the rest of them were from the Nanxin branch. They all had a deep understanding of the issues within the banking system, and since they all stayed in Nanxin, even though Xia He spoke somewhat vaguely, they all knew a little bit about the inside story.

"I think it'll be tough for President Zhao. Those people in the investigation team are a bit twisted; they'll dig deep. We've been through similar situations before," Su Ming said with a smile.

After saying that, he remembered something and quickly said to Xia He next to him, "Minister Xia, I wasn't talking about you."

"It's alright," Xia He said, putting down her chopsticks, unconcerned.

"It's true what you said. This investigation team did a very thorough job. To be honest, there are quite a few problems with rural banks, and President Zhao is in a very difficult situation."

"Actually, we're all in this line of work. To outsiders, it looks glamorous, but there are actually a lot of risks involved."

The speaker was Wu Shengli, who was flushed and had drunk a bit too much. "He might really become the next Haifa."

Hainan Development Bank was one of the financial institutions that suffered from the collapse of the Hainan real estate market in the 90s, which led to a large number of non-performing assets in financial institutions, including credit unions. Hainan Development Bank unfortunately became a "victim" of this real estate bubble crisis and declared bankruptcy in 1998.

Hearing Wu Shengli's words, Su Ming frowned: "Old Wu, this is something you can only say behind closed doors."

“I know, Minister Xia isn’t an outsider,” Wu Shengli retorted.

"It's alright, this is a private gathering today, and it's limited to the dinner table." Xia He appeared very relaxed.
“But I don’t want that to happen. Most of the deposits in village banks are from individual people. If that’s the case,” he said, “it would be a real problem.” “Yes, yes, nobody wants that to happen. We hope Director Zhao can get through this.”

After dinner, Su Ming warmly invited everyone to go to a karaoke bar. Business was booming in those days, and luxury hotels all had their own karaoke bars, mainly to provide entertainment for hotel guests. The Chundu Hotel was no exception.

Fang Qingye didn't want to go at first, but since everyone else was going, she couldn't refuse, so she went upstairs and ordered a medium-sized private room.

Naturally, they didn't want any princesses; they just ordered some drinks and started singing karaoke.

It was mostly women singing. Xia He sang a popular campus folk song from the 1990s called "My Deskmate," which drew applause.

She sings quite well; she even organized a band and played keyboards back in school, showing she has the heart of an artistic young woman.

Fang Qingye mostly sat down and chatted with Wu Shengli, who was getting old and not very interested in this kind of thing.

At this moment, Cao Ting walked over and sat down next to Fang Qingye: "Xiao Fang, why don't you go sing?"

"I'll pass," Fang Qingye said with a smile. "When have you ever seen me sing at work?"

Indeed.

Cao Ting didn't press the issue, picked up a glass of beer, took a sip, and said, "I heard you opened an investment company in Shanghai that specializes in stock trading?"

Fang Qingye didn't hide anything, knowing that her business in Shanghai must have reached Nanxincheng. "Yes, I used to trade stocks on my own, but it was too tiring, so I wanted to start a company to make things easier for myself."

After hearing Fang Qingye's words, Cao Ting smiled and said, "I really didn't expect you to be so good at making money. I originally thought you would work your way up in our banking system."

Fang Qingye understood what she meant.

When Dongfangxing set up the position of assistant branch manager in each branch of the Jinghai branch system, before it was made public, Cao Ting told him early on and even encouraged him to try for the position.

Hearing Cao Ting bring this up, he laughed and said, "Working at a bank isn't easy. Look at President Zhao Wenjun, he's having a lot of troubles right now, it's enough to annoy him."

When Zhao Wenjun was mentioned, Cao Ting curled her lip: "He is ambitious and capable, but unfortunately he has no background or connections."

"He argued with Minister Xia in our unit, but he couldn't win. He went away for a while and then came back to be the head of this rural bank. Logically, he should be the top leader now, right? I heard he's still feeling very frustrated in his job."

"Why? It's because he has no background and no connections! Forget about his background; he's just a country boy, all his relatives are in the countryside. As for connections, it's not about knowing a lot of people in Nanxin City; you need to know people at higher levels! Our banking system is relatively independent. If you don't have connections at the top, to paraphrase a Hong Kong movie, if something goes wrong, who will protect you?!"

"And these rural banks are different from our state-owned banks. Those are all played by capital, big and small! You may be the bank manager but you don't have any capital. You're just a high-level employee. How can you not be bullied?!"

"He deals with those shareholders with the mindset of a state-owned bank, no wonder he feels frustrated."

"Sister Cao, your analysis is very insightful," Fang Qingye said with a smile. "It's a waste of your talents for you to stay in the General Office. You would definitely be a great manager of a rural bank! You have the connections and background." Fang Qingye joked at the end.

"Me?" Cao Ting giggled. "I'm just an unambitious woman who wants to live my life peacefully. Why bother?"

“But you,” Cao Ting looked at Fang Qingye, “are capable of taking on this position.”

(End of this chapter)