A $50 million margin call? I'll short Wall Street.

Lu Ze looked at Evan.

A senior SEC lawyer is sent to investigate a short seller.

He investigated for months but found nothing wrong with the short sellers; instead, he discovered serious misconduct within Goldman Sachs. Then his supervisor told him the case was closed.

It wasn't "continue investigating Goldman Sachs," but rather "closed the case."

So you came today,

Lu Ze's voice was extremely calm.

"You're not here to investigate me?"

"no."

"You're here to confirm something."

Evan looked up and met Lu Ze's eyes.

In that instant, Lu Ze saw something in the young man's eyes that he rarely saw on Wall Street.

It wasn't greed, it wasn't fear, it wasn't the kind of shrewdness that comes from years of being molded by the system.

It's anger.

An anger that was suppressed deeply and intensely, but had not yet been completely extinguished.

This surprised him slightly; such simple-minded people were as rare as pandas on Wall Street.

"Mr. Walker,"

Evan's voice softened. "You know better than I what Goldman Sachs did in that deal. Kleiman falsified your credentials, dumped toxic CDO assets on you, and tried to drain your company dry with fifty times leverage."

"Then you fought back and killed him. I can understand that. In the rules of the market, it's legitimate self-defense."

But what I can't understand is—

Evan drew a heavy circle next to a line of text on the notebook with his finger.

"Later, you reached a settlement with Goldman Sachs for over $700 million. As part of the settlement, all evidence regarding Kleiman's data tampering was destroyed. Emilia Walker took hush money and left Goldman Sachs. The whole thing was completely buried."

"If that evidence still exists, if Emilia is willing to testify—"

A tremor appeared in Evan's voice that he himself might not have been aware of:

"This will be one of the most powerful enforcement actions the SEC has been able to take against Goldman Sachs since 2008."

The office fell silent.

Outside the window, the July sun in Manhattan made the floor-to-ceiling windows feel quite hot. The hum of the air conditioner became exceptionally clear in the quiet.

Lu Ze looked at the young SEC lawyer in front of him.

He is too young.

So young that he still believed justice could be achieved through institutional channels. So young that he hadn't yet learned that on Wall Street, there was a wall more solid than any legal provision between "the right thing to do" and "what can be done."

"Mr. Miller."

Lu Ze's voice softened a little.

Can I ask you a question?

"Please speak."

"How many years have you worked at the SEC?"

Five years.

"In the past five years, how many times have you seen the SEC successfully launch a truly meaningful enforcement action against an institution of Goldman Sachs' caliber?"

Evan fell silent.

"You don't need to answer," Lu Ze said, "because the answer is zero."

He stood up, walked to the French windows, and turned his back to Evan.

"You want me to help you, right? You want me to tell you what was in those destroyed pieces of evidence. Or you want me to publicly accuse Goldman Sachs, giving you a reason to reopen the investigation."

Lu Ze turned around and looked at Evan.

"Mr. Miller, I won't do that."

Why?

"Because that evidence no longer exists. That's a fact. The settlement agreement between me and Goldman Sachs was a legally binding document signed in the presence of both parties' lawyers. I have neither the obligation nor the motivation to tear up an agreement that has already been executed."

Lu Ze walked back to his desk, but didn't sit down. He stood beside the desk, looking down at Evan.

"But the more important reason is,"

His voice became even lower.

"If you take anything I gave you to Hobbes now, he won't investigate Goldman Sachs. He'll just remove you from your position and lock the materials you gave him in a safe, never to see the light of day again."

"Don't you understand your boss? He closed the case not because Farstar was problem-free, but because Goldman Sachs was problematic. And Goldman Sachs's problems are something he doesn't want to get involved in."

Evan's face turned extremely pale after Lu Ze finished speaking.

He knew that every word Lu Ze said was true.

During his investigation over the past few months, he had vaguely sensed that invisible wall.

In the SEC's system, Goldman Sachs' name is like an administrator account with the highest privileges—you can see its existence, but you don't have permission to open it.

"What should I do?"

When Evan asked the question, the official, professional control in his voice had completely vanished. He sounded like a lost young man asking someone he shouldn't be asking.

Lu Ze looked at him.

After a while, he said something.

"Go back to your work. Don't clash with Hobbes. Don't tell anyone what you've found out."

Evan looked up.

"But don't delete those things either."

Lu Ze's eyes became extremely deep at this moment, like a bottomless well.

"Keep them. Keep them in a safe place."

"One day, something will happen in this market that will cause those walls that seem unshakeable now to crack open on their own."

"By then, what you have will be more useful than any summons."

Evan stared at Lu Ze for a long time.

"...I understand," Evan finally said.

He closed the notebook and put the ballpoint pen back into the side pocket of his briefcase.

He stood up, hesitated for a moment, and then reached out his hand.

Lu Ze shook hands with him.

Evan's palms were slightly sweaty.

"Mr. Walker, thank you for your time."

"You're welcome," Lu Ze said.

After Evan left, Lu Ze leaned back in his chair and pondered quietly.

Evan might serve as a sharp weapon against Goldman Sachs—certainly not now. Whether he'll ever need it is unknown, but keeping him around is never a bad thing.

Evan's arrival made him think of other things.

The SEC. Or Congress, those lawmakers who got a severe dressing-down after the crisis.

They will find scapegoats, trying to shift the blame onto a few people—not Wall Street CEOs, but short sellers like Lu Ze. They will call short sellers "vultures," "executioners," or even "deliberately sabotaging the American financial system."

That's what they've done historically.

A thought suddenly popped into Lu Ze's mind. He picked up his pen and wrote it down.

[Open Letter. Systemic Risk Warning.]

There's no need to do this just to show off.

But if he had pointed out the disaster sometime before the crisis, he could have thrown the open letter in the other party's face at the hearing.

This was also a market maneuver. He wasn't sure if Lehman Brothers would fail, nor was he sure if the collapse of the financial system would be delayed.

Given Farstar's reputation, shorting the market would accelerate this process. This is a common tactic used by short sellers: the self-fulfilling prophecy.

accelerate...

Reputation...

Lu Ze leaned back in his chair, lost in thought. Then he opened the calendar and looked at it for a long time before circling a certain date.