234: Chapter 234 Luo Maifa's Complaint

The private group chat exploded.

Luo Maifa's voice messages came in like a barrage. Seven or eight in a row, each over forty seconds long, making one's head ache just looking at them.

Opened the first one, just heard a sound, and the other side burst into profanity: "I f***ing... I'm so pissed off!"

Immediately after, not a single serious word, just heavy sighs, accompanied by the muffled sound of pounding on the table. The background noise of the office air conditioner was mixed in, a buzzing sound that made one feel irritable.

Qiang Zi casually replied with a question mark. Yang Hong followed up with: "What's up?"

A few seconds later, Luo Maifa sent another one. This time the speed was like beans pouring out, without even taking a breath:

"You guys tell me, what is this? I've been running around for three months for that cross-border shipping license! Three months! I went to the approval window every day, submitted pile after pile of Materials, checking every punctuation mark, afraid they'd find a fault.

And the result? They didn't even look at it properly, flipped through a couple of pages, and lightly said 'Industry standards not met,' wouldn't stamp it, and just sent me away!"

Speaking of this, Luo Maifa added another one, his voice cracking:

"Wait for notice? I've f***ing waited for three months! Went to ask today, still the same 'Go back and wait for notice.' These people are deliberately stalling, treating us like monkeys!"

Qiang Zi interjected: "Did you find someone you know or use connections?"

Luo Maifa replied instantly: "I did, I even took a deputy general manager from the Shipping Bureau out for drinks three times. He said it's not up to them, it's the industry Aptitude System that automatically reviews it. If the System says it doesn't meet the standard, it's stuck, and manual changes can't be made."

Yang Hong said slowly: "Then what data exactly isn't meeting the standard?"

"God knows. All my Materials are prepared according to standards: financial records, ship registration, safety Aptitude, personnel configuration—nothing is missing.

The woman at the window told me 'System comprehensive assessment not passed.' When I asked her which specific item, she said the System doesn't show it. I f***ing don't even know what to change."

The group was silent for a few minutes. Luo Maifa sent another one, his tone lower than before.

"Forget it, no use running around. Probably have to wait until the policy loosens at the end of the year to have a chance. The team I built for that route has already started, the ship is rented, just stuck on this one procedure."

Li Xin was in the study flipping through a catalog of a European auction house. Seeing so many messages in the group, he picked up the phone, glanced at the voice messages, and put the phone back. He didn't reply.

The next afternoon, after finishing his work, he sat in the courtyard drinking a cup of tea that had mostly gone cold. Remembering Luo Maifa's voice messages from last night, he tapped them one by one and listened again. After listening, he drank the tea in one gulp and sent a message to Luo Maifa: "Is that shipping license of yours still stuck?"

Luo Maifa replied fast:

"Stuck, stuck tight. I went again today, and the window directly said 'Materials returned, please do not resubmit.' Brother Xin, give me some advice."

Li Xin replied: "Send me the electronic version of the full set of application Materials, I'll take a look for you."

"Okay!"

About ten minutes later, a compressed package popped up on the phone, labeled "Shipping License Application_Luo Maifa_Complete Version," with a size of several dozen megabytes.

Li Xin took the phone upstairs, sat at the desk, and opened it. The Materials were indeed complete: company registration, financial audit report, ship ownership certificate, captain and crew Aptitude, route operation plan... He flipped through it once, no obvious loopholes, no violations.

He closed the file and leaned back in his chair, thinking for a while. Then he picked up the phone, flipped to a number in his contacts without a note, and dialed.

It rang a few times and was answered. A male voice, English with a German accent, not loud: "Mr. Li, good afternoon. Is there anything you need me to do?"

"Help me check if Universe Asset Management Bank has a blank template for partner Aptitude endorsement."

Li Xin continued, "I need an official certificate with the bank's letterhead, issued to a freight logistics company, to support their application for a cross-border shipping license."

The other side didn't ask much, silent for about three or four seconds.

"The standard format requires filling in the endorsed party's full name, registered capital, annual turnover, and past performance records. Do you have the specific data on hand?"

"I'll send it to you in a while. After you fill it out, go through the official signing process, and send me the scanned copy."

"Okay. It can be issued within twenty-four hours."

Li Xin hung up the phone, extracted the key data from Luo Maifa's set of Materials, and sent an email over.

Then he went downstairs to the kitchen to pour a glass of water, stood in the living room for a while, and looked out the window. A cargo ship was slowly heading towards the port on the sea, drawing deep, its hull submerged in the gray-blue water, looking heavy from afar.

The next afternoon, Li Xin received the PDF sent by Universe Asset Management Bank in Switzerland, with a dark blue official letterhead, covered with a bright red electronic seal and the supervisor's signature.

He forwarded this file to Luo Maifa as is, with a sentence: "Try attaching this to your Materials and resubmitting."

Luo Maifa replied after five minutes, his tone skeptical: "What is this? Issued by Universe Asset Management Bank? I thought you found me a connection... What kind of bank is this?"

Li Xin replied with three words: "Just try it."

"Okay."

---

Two days later, morning.

Luo Maifa had just sat down in the office to make a cup of tea when his phone rang. The caller ID was a landline number, the prefix was from the Shipping Bureau.

He answered quickly, and the voice of a female staff member came through, her tone completely different from before, so polite it was almost timid.

"Is this Mr. Luo Maifa? We have reviewed and passed the supplementary Aptitude Materials you submitted.

If it's convenient for you this afternoon, you can come over to sign and collect the license."

Luo Maifa held the phone, stunned for three seconds: "Didn't you say it didn't meet the standard before?"

"Ah... yes, the assessment result displayed in the System before indeed did not pass, but after the supplementary Materials you submitted yesterday were entered into the System, it triggered a re-assessment. There were some new data updates in the Aptitude terms, and the review passed."

"What new data updates?"

The other side was silent for two or three seconds: "I am not very clear about the specific technical details, but the System does show that you have passed. You can just bring your ID card over this afternoon. We will prioritize your processing."

Hanging up the phone, Luo Maifa stared at the phone screen for a long time. Then he called Li Xin back.

"What is the background of that PDF you gave me?" He went straight to the point, speaking quickly.

"I got a call this morning, the woman at the window told me 'System assessment automatically updated.' I submitted for three months and nothing changed, just added this piece of paper you gave me and it passed?"

Li Xin was watering flowers in the courtyard when he answered the phone, the water flowing with a rushing sound. He turned off the water and switched the phone to his other ear.

"It's a credit endorsement certificate from Universe Asset Management Bank. Your Materials themselves were fine, but the industry Aptitude threshold is relatively high, and it requires the partner's Aptitude to be strong enough to pass.

That paper states that Universe Asset Management Bank confirms you are a high-credit partner they recognize, and the System automatically accepted it."

Luo Maifa pressed: "What exactly is the background of this bank? I haven't heard of it before."

"A private bank in Switzerland, considered quite high-ranking in the industry."

"Quite high-ranking?" Luo Maifa's voice rose half an octave, "You just give me a certificate, and something I've been stuck on for three months passed? You call this just quite high-ranking?"

Li Xin turned on the faucet to continue watering, the sound of water filling the background again: "It's just a certificate, no big deal. Go sign for the license this afternoon, and tell me if you need to expand routes later."

Luo Maifa was silent on the other end of the phone for several seconds, finally squeezing out a sentence: "A piece of paper, replaced something I couldn't handle for three months. And you say it's no big deal."

"Yeah, go do it, I'm hanging up."

Li Xin didn't wait for him to reply and hung up directly.

In the afternoon, Luo Maifa went to the Shipping Bureau to sign. The female staff member personally led him to the VIP reception room and poured him a cup of tea, her tone as polite as if she were a different person.

"Mr. Luo, your license is ready, there are two copies, original and duplicate. Please verify if the information is correct."

She handed it over with both hands. Luo Maifa took it and looked at it for a few moments, checking it word by word. After confirming it was correct, he signed. When he walked out, the security guard at the door took the initiative to open the door for him and even said, "Please walk slowly."

He sat in the car for a long time, taking out the license and looking at it again. Dark blue cover, gold-stamped letters, stamped with the Shipping Bureau's steel seal, exactly the same as he had imagined.

He took a photo and sent it to the private group, adding a line: "Passed. Landed."

Qiang Zi replied first: "Holy shit? Didn't you say it was dead yesterday?"

Yang Hong followed: "What trick did you use?"

Luo Maifa stared at the screen, thinking for a moment, typing and deleting, and finally sent: "Brother Xin helped with a favor."

Qiang Zi replied with a "?" again.

Luo Maifa didn't elaborate.

A month later, at an industry cocktail party, Luo Maifa had a bit to drink and was standing on the balcony catching the breeze. Someone came up to him, the deputy general manager from the Shipping Bureau who had drank three times with him before, holding a glass of red wine, taking the initiative to come over and clink glasses.

"Mr. Luo, congratulations, I heard about your license, it was approved smoothly."

Luo Maifa smiled: "Dragged on for so long, finally landed."

The deputy general manager took a sip of wine and lowered his voice to say the truth.

"Actually, in your situation, the System stalling wasn't really because there was a problem with the Materials. It's the System's Aptitude exemption clause, which requires the credit endorsement of a top international asset management institution to trigger. You didn't take that step before, so the System didn't recognize it."

After hearing this, Luo Maifa drank the last of his glass.

Back that night, he lay on the bed thinking for a long time. Then he opened his phone and flipped to the chat record with Li Xin, scrolling up for a long time, finding that "Just try it" and his own irritable voice messages from before. He didn't ask anything else, put the phone face down on the nightstand, and turned off the lights.

In the darkness, he recalled a sentence Li Xin had said before, seemingly mentioned casually during a late-night snack, he couldn't remember exactly how it was said, but the general meaning was: some things don't need to be rushed, we'll talk about it when the time comes. He had always thought it was just polite talk.

Now he knew it wasn't.

Luo Maifa used that license to open three new cross-border gold freight routes, and the company's business volume nearly doubled. In an internal senior management meeting, he took the photocopied copy of the license and said to the team.

"Just this one piece of paper paved the way for us that we couldn't get through for three months."

Someone below asked how exactly he got it, and he thought for a moment and said: "A friend provided the proof, don't ask about anything else."

After the meeting, he stood in front of the office window and looked out for a while. A message popped up on his phone.

Sent by Li Xin, "Are the new routes running smoothly?"

Luo Maifa replied without hesitation: "Brother Xin, extremely smooth. Thanks to you."

"Yeah, that's good." Then no reply.

A few days later, a group of brothers went out for a meal, Luo Maifa and Li Xin sat next to each other. After three rounds of drinks, Luo Maifa turned his head and said casually: "That 'we'll talk about it when the time comes' of yours, I finally understand it now. It really means there's something backing it up."

Li Xin was peeling a shrimp, without raising his head: "It was just a certificate."

Luo Maifa raised his glass and took a sip, not continuing the topic. Others at the table were playing finger-guessing games, heatedly, and no one noticed what the two of them were talking about.