224: Chapter 224 The Investment Bank MD's "Tea Party"

Two days passed in a flash.

The private yacht party in the coastal city was held as scheduled. The atmosphere was gentle and relaxed; it was just a small gathering of acquaintances from the circle chatting, with no deliberate transactional haggling or unnecessary social entanglements. Li Xin attended the whole event, remaining relaxed and indifferent throughout, treating it merely as an ordinary meeting within the circle.

After the party ended, life returned to a quiet and leisurely pace.

The next day, in the afternoon, Chen Jingming sent a message.

At that time, Li Xin was squatting in his courtyard, watching a colony of ants moving house under the banyan tree.

"Mr. Li, I wonder if you have any time this week? Zhang Yuan, the Managing Director (MD) of Deutsche Bank's Asia-Pacific region, would like to pay you a special visit and meet you. What do you think..."

Li Xin finished reading, casually placed his phone on the cold stone bench, and didn't rush to reply.

He just squatted there quietly, watching the entire line of ants finish moving their nest and return to their place.

When the ants completely stopped moving, he picked up his phone and replied with two words.

"Fine, you arrange it."

Two days later, Chen Jingming finalized the arrangements.

It was set for Thursday at 3:00 PM, with Zhang Yuan coming directly to Li Xin's private residence for the visit.

That afternoon.

Traffic in the city was congested, and it wasn't until 3:10 PM that the sound of a vehicle parking was heard outside the courtyard.

Zhang Yuan came in person, accompanied by his personal assistant.

The young man, aged twenty-six or twenty-seven, wore a crisp white shirt, his hair neatly styled. He held a thick stack of PPT documents in his arms, his back straight, exuding the rigorous discipline honed within the investment banking system.

The courtyard gate was open, and the garden was serene and quiet.

The assistant consciously stopped outside to wait, and Zhang Yuan stepped into the courtyard alone.

He was in his early forties, with clean-cut short hair and silver-rimmed glasses. His shirt sleeves were casually rolled up to his forearms, and on his wrist was an old-fashioned Vacheron Constantin—understated yet valuable—exuding the calm aura of someone who has held a high position for many years.

Seeing Li Xin stand up, he immediately walked up quickly, proactively reaching out his hand with a humble demeanor.

"Mr. Li, I have long admired your name. I am Zhang Yuan. I apologize for the intrusion and for disturbing you."

Li Xin raised his hand to shake his, his tone flat and casual.

"Traffic jam on the way?"

"Yes, the roads in the city were congested. I arrived a few minutes late; I am truly sorry," Zhang Yuan said with a respectful attitude.

"It's fine. Please, sit."

There was only a set of stone table and stools in the courtyard, simple and clean. The evening breeze passed through the banyan leaves, quiet and relaxed.

There was none of the tension and oppression of an office building; it was as if it were isolated from the world.

Zhang Yuan sat down, his gaze sweeping over this understated private courtyard, and he understood a bit more clearly—the person in front of him had no need to actively run to any investment bank's office building.

For all negotiations and all paving of the way, they were the ones who took the initiative to come to him to seek connection.

He had just sat down and was about to call his assistant to hand over the materials and broach the main topic.

Unexpectedly, Li Xin moved first.

He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a palm-sized kraft paper bag.

The corners of the bag were slightly wrinkled, stamped with the logo of a street-side roasted nut shop.

He gently placed it on the stone table, and a faint circle of oil seeped from the bottom of the bag, staining a small mark on the dark stone surface.

"I passed by the roadside just now and saw a lot of people queuing, so I bought some on a whim. Try some."

Zhang Yuan was stunned on the spot.

His gaze lingered on Li Xin's face for two or three seconds before falling back onto the warm bag of roasted nuts, feeling a bit dazed.

"...Chestnuts?"

"Mm, just out of the pot, still hot."

Li Xin casually opened the bag, and a puff of sweet, warm steam dissipated, filling the quiet courtyard.

He slowly peeled a chestnut, the slight sound of the shell cracking particularly clear in the quiet courtyard.

Putting the chestnut kernel into his mouth, he chewed gently twice.

"It's quite sweet. You probably rarely eat these when working in the office."

Zhang Yuan's internal rhythm was already disrupted at this moment.

He had spent three full days preparing for this meeting.

An eighty-page complete PPT, three alternative plans for Southeast Asia cross-border business, all core data checked three times—the entire document was full of rigorous, professional project logic involving hundreds of millions of dollars.

He had come with a full set of top-tier industry plans, prepared for a formal report and cooperation negotiation.

As a result, the very first second he sat down, a bag of hot roasted chestnuts was placed on the table.

His fingertips paused slightly, and he hesitated before reaching out to pick one up; the scalding temperature was exceptionally real.

"...Then I'll try some too."

He looked down and peeled the chestnut shell; the golden, plump kernel still held residual heat.

It was very sweet in his mouth, with a simple and clean taste.

But all the opening remarks, reporting logic, and progressive rhythms he had prepared in his heart were instantly wiped blank.

Li Xin, unhurried, peeled another chestnut, gently gathered the shells at the edge of the paper bag, raised his hand to pick up the mineral water sitting on the table, unscrewed it, took a sip, and quietly waited for him to speak about business.

Zhang Yuan steadied himself, quickly regained his state, suppressed the subtle feelings in his heart, straightened his posture, and opened the proposal folder he had brought with him.

"Mr. Li, the main purpose of this special visit is to connect and communicate with you."

"Knowing that Yansheng Bank is preparing to expand its Southeast Asia cross-border business, our Deutsche Bank would like to strive for a cooperation opportunity. I have compiled a complete implementation plan and would like to seek your advice and guidance to see if there is room for advancement."

Li Xin leaned against the back of the stone stool and nodded faintly.

"Go ahead."

Zhang Yuan opened the first page of the proposal and officially began his presentation.

"The core project is in Da Nang, Vietnam, with a total investment of 400 million USD, injected in batches, with an overall cycle of three years. The local political situation is stable, the local government's tax incentives are extremely strong, and the implementation environment is high-quality."

He was clear and organized, unfolding it layer by layer.

Location analysis, financing structure, equity distribution, risk hedging—every page was polished extremely meticulously.

Having held the high position of MD for the Asia-Pacific region for many years, his professional ability was beyond doubt.

His speaking speed was steady and his logic rigorous; he would deliberately pause when speaking about key data, leaving enough space for the other party to digest and think.

The atmosphere in the courtyard was quiet, with wind blowing and leaves falling, leaving only his low, steady voice.

Li Xin leaned against the back of the chair the whole time, his posture relaxed, listening in a leisurely and casual manner.

Occasionally looking up at the pages, occasionally looking down to peel a chestnut.

Until the presentation reached the sixth minute.

Li Xin swallowed the chestnut kernel and asked a question casually.

"How is the weather usually over in Da Nang?"

This sentence completely caught Zhang Yuan off guard.

His fingers turning the page suddenly stopped, and when he looked up, his face was full of astonishment, subconsciously freezing for a few seconds.

"...The weather?"

"Mm." Li Xin took a sip of water, his tone plain and calm.

"It's by the sea, right?"

"Yes, Da Nang is a coastal city."

Zhang Yuan's brain was spinning at high speed.

A 400 million USD heavy-asset port project—he had fully prepared for risk control, policy, capital, and geopolitical risks.

But no one would ever talk about the local weather during a formal report.

He was instantly alert.

This was not small talk.

It was the other party quietly testing him on his grasp of the project's underlying environment and real implementation details.

Testing whether he only knew how to recite reports and didn't understand the actual situation on the ground.

Zhang Yuan suppressed his panic, quickly retrieved the project's supplementary information he had stored in his mind, and replied with a steady tone.

"Da Nang has a tropical monsoon climate, with an average annual temperature of around 25 degrees. The rainy season is concentrated from September to December, but the port's infrastructure standards are very high, the buildings have sufficient wind resistance Rank, and the weather has a very low impact on cargo operations, which can basically be ignored."

The answer was watertight, professional, and comprehensive.

Li Xin nodded gently.

"That's good, not too cold or too hot."

A simple sentence, no evaluation, no praise, just casually responding.

Zhang Yuan composed himself and continued speaking.

After more than ten minutes, the three alternative plans, capital arrangements, risk contingency plans, and complete exit mechanisms were all explained.

By the end, his throat was slightly dry, and he paused slightly, his posture very steady, with a consultative tone.

"Mr. Li, I have finished reporting the entire set of plans. Do you see any direction you relatively approve of or prefer?"

Only then did Li Xin slowly sit up straight.

He raised his hand, swept all the scattered chestnut shells on the table back into the paper bag, and folded the opening tightly.

His gaze fell on that thick stack of printed proposals, not looking at the front page, nor at the core strategy page.

His fingertips flipped, landing directly on the last, most inconspicuous data appendix page.

He pointed to one of the lines of throughput forecast data.

"Have you carefully checked the numbers here?"

Zhang Yuan looked down.

That was the port throughput forecast for the third year.

The report indicated 4.22 million tons.

He understood instantly.

The original precise data in the model was 4.2174 million tons, and for the sake of aesthetics, he had rounded it up.

It looked fine on paper.

But the next second, he realized his oversight.

This year's seasonal fluctuation coefficients for Southeast Asian ports—the industry data had already been updated, but he had used last year's old parameters.

Rounding wasn't wrong, but the underlying parameters of the model were lagging; it was a hidden error.

A layer of fine sweat instantly broke out on his back.

Precise, tricky, hitting the nail on the head.

The other party wasn't just looking casually at all; he had seen through the model's loopholes at a glance.

He immediately looked serious, his tone solemn.

"Mr. Li, it is an oversight in our team's verification; this set of data indeed needs to be recalibrated and corrected."

"Haha, it's fine, I was just confirming; I didn't say your data was wrong."

Li Xin's tone was relaxed, with no hint of blame.

He gently pushed the proposal back in front of Zhang Yuan.

"The overall direction is fine, the approach is feasible, and Yansheng Bank is very happy to cooperate with you. Go back, go through all the details one by one, and then send it to Ms. Li's (Li Jiayi) email. She will handle the connection with you."

"Okay, understood. Thank you for your guidance, Mr. Li."

The conversation basically concluded here.

Zhang Yuan quickly stood up, preparing to take his leave.

Li Xin stood up with him, and before he left, pointed to the kraft paper bag on the table.

"Come, come, let's keep eating chestnuts; don't let them go to waste. They won't taste good when they get cold."

Zhang Yuan was slightly startled, then responded.

"Okay, thank you, Mr. Li."

They chatted for a while. He packed up his materials, picked up the paper bag, bowed slightly with a nod, and turned to exit the courtyard.

The car drove a distance away before he asked the driver to stop and dialed Chen Jingming's phone number.

His voice was very low, carrying a hint of confusion that had yet to subside.

"Mr. Chen, what exactly is this Mr. Li's... style?"

Chen Jingming chuckled on the other end.

"What's wrong? Not satisfied with the plan?"

"No, he approved the plan."

Zhang Yuan frowned.

"But he was too casual the whole time. I was formally reporting the project, and he asked me about the weather in Da Nang. I finished explaining the whole strategy, and he only picked out an extremely subtle data error that almost no one could have discovered."

"I really can't fathom his thoughts."

Chen Jingming was silent for two seconds, his tone clear and indifferent.

"It's very simple."

"Asking about the weather is to see if you are detailed in implementation. Picking out the data is to see if you are steady in your work."

"He didn't reject the plan, which means you passed this time."

Zhang Yuan's Adam's apple bobbed slightly.

"Then... those few comments? Saying nothing, finally just letting us polish the details ourselves?"

"Yes," Chen Jingming said indifferently.

"At his level, he doesn't need to praise you or lecture you. Being able to let you continue to revise and continue to follow up is recognition."

Hanging up the phone.

Zhang Yuan sat in the car, reopened that page of the data appendix, and used a calculator to recalculate line by line.

The final error clearly jumped out—27,000 tons.

It seemed small, not worth mentioning in the annual throughput market.

But in the eyes of top-tier capital's risk control, any inaccuracy is a lack of rigor.

11:00 PM that night.

The investment bank office was still brightly lit.

Zhang Yuan and his team stayed up all night to overturn the old model, update all seasonal coefficients, recalibrate all forecast data, and review dozens of pages of reports line by line.

Before dawn, he sent the latest complete version of the proposal, revised word for word and with zero errors, to the private email addresses of Li Jiayi and Li Xin.

8:00 AM the next morning.

A minimalist reply lay quietly in the inbox.

Only four short words, no salutation, no signature, no punctuation.

"Okay, thank you for your hard work."

Zhang Yuan stared at the screen for a long time.

No praise, no recognition, no encouragement.

But these four words were more reassuring than any praise, and more awe-inspiring than any rejection.

Later, when he and Chen Jingming were eating privately, they talked about this visit and negotiation.

He sighed with emotion.

"With just those simple four words, I felt more at ease than receiving approval for any project."

Chen Jingming shook his head and smiled.

"You still don't completely understand."

Zhang Yuan looked up.

"Understand what?"

"He doesn't care at all how pretty your PPT is."

Chen Jingming raised his cup, his tone understated.

"He looks at the person, the team, and the attitude."

"Because you were steady, detailed, and willing to correct your mistakes this time, he is willing to give you follow-up cooperation opportunities."

Zhang Yuan was silent for a long time, then asked softly.

"Then next time I come to visit, what should I prepare?"

Chen Jingming looked at him and said indifferently.

"You don't need to prepare anything."

"Pass by a roasted nut shop, pick up a bag of chestnuts on the way, and that's enough."

Zhang Yuan heard this and paused for two seconds.

A few seconds later, the corners of his mouth moved slightly, a smile that was not quite a smile.

All the tension and confusion in his heart turned into complete clarity and awe.