Journey 1995:Non-Stop

Chapter 392 Disaster

In April 2007, New Century Financial Corporation went bankrupt, triggering the subprime mortgage crisis, which continued until the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, marking the full-blown global financial crisis.

In November of the same year, the government released a 4 trillion yuan investment plan, marking the start of a major infrastructure construction project in China.

It was early May 2008. Most people in China had no idea what the subprime mortgage crisis was. Even Yan Hui was unfamiliar with it, only occasionally hearing similar terms when chatting with people in Brazil.

However, banks were already aware of the term "subprime crisis" and some of its specific causes. The subprime crisis was related to many factors, including excessive lending and lax regulation, so domestic banks were relatively cautious during this period.

The banks' overly cautious attitude is not good for economic development, but the 4 trillion yuan investment launched in November has completely reversed this situation.

Against this backdrop, the period from the beginning to the end of 2008 was the time when banks faced the greatest conflict between risk control and business operations. After the end of the year, the banks' performance improved significantly, and it became almost impossible for bank employees to be poached in the following years.

At this point, Yan Hui had no idea what would happen in the future. He simply had a lot of contact with banks and knew about the conflict between bank risk control and business operations. At this time, he did need a risk control manager, so he considered poaching someone.

Besides the Agricultural Bank of China, Yan Hui also contacted several other banks with which they had partnerships. Among them, an executive from Quancheng Bank was genuinely interested in coming over. Yan Hui had already had a brief discussion with them and felt the situation was acceptable, but he wasn't entirely satisfied.

The most important thing right now is the construction of the East Workshop, the canteen, and the dormitory.

Because of the construction of dormitories, all middle and senior managers in the company, including workshop directors and business supervisors, attach great importance to it, as middle managers can also get an independent one-bedroom apartment!
Yan Hui knew that the company would expand in the future, and he had previously wanted to build a larger dormitory building, but the planning bureau had not approved it. He didn't have enough employees and needed to recruit a certain number more before he could get approval to build a new dormitory building.

On the 12th, Yan Hui had just finished a meeting with the security department when Qing Lan from the office came to him.

"Brother! I just heard some big news, something happened in Sichuan Province." Qinglan's tone was a little urgent. "Come with me right now to see the news."

"Let's go." Yan Hui immediately followed.

It was around 3 p.m. when I turned on the TV. Almost all the channels were reporting on and following the incident, but what was happening inside the disaster area was still unknown.

"Is it that serious?" Yan Hui's perspective was beyond that of ordinary people; he knew very well what it meant to have no communication in this area.

Yan Hui's first collaboration was with a car company in Suining, Sichuan Province, and he himself has visited Sichuan Province many times.

"Brother, what's going on over there? It looks terrifying."

"I'm going to call General Manager Liu of the Suining Automobile Factory. Wait a moment." Yan Hui's face was ashen as he picked up the phone and made the call.

There should still be a signal on the other end of the phone, but it rang several times without anyone answering. After hanging up, Yan Hui called the car factory's landline again, but still no one answered.

After thinking for a moment, he called Manager Wang again. After a few rings, someone finally answered.

The other end of the phone was clearly very noisy: "Mr. Yan? Mr. Yan, what can I do for you?"

"How are things over there? That's all I wanted to ask." Yan Hui suddenly realized he shouldn't have made that call. "We're fine! I'm on my way back from work! Our building is all steel structure, the factory buildings are okay, only the canteen collapsed. Luckily, no one was in the canteen. I'll let you know about the road conditions later!" Manager Wang's voice was hurried, and he hung up the phone after a few words.

The call lasted less than 20 seconds, but Yan Hui had already obtained a lot of information from the other end's status.

He opened the map on the wall and looked at it carefully: "Suining is about 200 kilometers from the epicenter, my God!"

Since Yan Hui was born, he had never seen or even heard of such a severe disaster. If the area 200 kilometers from the center was like this, what was the core area like?

"Brother, what happened?" Qinglan asked with a worried expression.

Although it didn't happen locally, as a Chinese person, I must be extremely anxious at this moment.

“The problem is bigger than I thought. Wait a moment, I’m going to the district government to see if I can help.” Yan Hui said, then left the house, called his driver, and set off.

As an entrepreneur, he can certainly offer some assistance, but he shouldn't offer help indiscriminately.

"I'm going too!" Qinglan immediately followed.

On the way, Yan Hui received several phone calls, all related to the situation in Sichuan Province. Yan Hui didn't have any cooperative projects in the city where the epicenter was located; the biggest impact was likely on Suining, so his losses were minimal. At most, it would just mean that car factories near Suining would temporarily halt production and stop purchasing polyurethane. That was nothing to worry about.

“Ten years ago, when I was in Jianye, the Yangtze River was flooded,” Yan Hui told his sister after hanging up a few phone calls. “At that time, I went directly to the district government and donated several train cars of timber.”

"Brother, weren't you considered very rich back then?" Qinglan asked.

"I already felt very rich back then, that's the truth. But whether we were rich or not didn't matter. We did these things to bring blessings to the clan, and we didn't think too much about gains or losses." Yan Hui sighed softly.

He has his own information channels, and after just a few phone calls, he already knows more.

In Suining, the car factory first conducted a self-inspection, and then immediately asked employees whose families lived locally to go home and check on their relatives. The factory was completely shut down. Some employees whose families lived elsewhere stayed at the company and called home to let their families know they were safe.

Several employees live in areas closer to the epicenter and have lost contact with their families. The factory is currently trying to organize resources to assist in the rescue efforts.

Manager Wang's family lives locally, and he had already returned home because he was worried that something might have happened there. He arranged for someone to call Yan Hui.

Our partners in Chongqing have also called, and the factory is preparing to suspend operations for self-inspection for a period of time, though the exact duration is unclear. Compared to Suining, the situation in Chongqing is slightly less severe, but everyone is still terrified, with a strong sense of panic.

"Brother, I feel relieved to hear you say that." Qinglan clenched her fist. "I want to donate when the company makes donations later."

“They might not need the money that much over there right now. We have plenty of logistics channels here, so let’s see if we can donate some supplies. Besides, the company’s construction can be suspended. We can spend several times the cost to send all the rented machinery over to help. I’ll discuss this with the district leaders later. Before that, I’ll contact Mr. Ma; after all, these are his assets.” Yan Hui already had a plan in mind.

(End of this chapter)