Chapter Fifteen: Undercurrents (Part Three)

As far as I know, Liu Dong himself worked in the financial sector for many years early on. Last New Year’s Day, the provincial branch’s credit department specially organized a reception for the province's 'gold' clients. As a prominent representative of these 'gold' clients, Liu Dong delivered a brilliant speech at the event: from the perspective of an enterprise manager, he discussed his understanding of the current status and rules and regulations of our Xingshang Bank's credit business, and frankly offered several insightful proposals regarding our current 'window' services. This truly shocked me! Especially when he talked about how a client views our level of credit management—to be honest, I blushed just listening to it!

Do you know, in a setting like that, Liu Dong actually bluntly pointed out numerous loopholes in Xingshang Bank's management, and he described them so vividly and with such profound insight? Wasn't that equivalent to a direct slap in the face?

On second thought, someone as omnipotent as Liu Dong is enough to terrify us! He is like a roundworm that has burrowed inside Xingshang Bank! I dare assert that if in the future—and I mean in the future—Kanghong Group encounters even the slightest ripple or bad situation in its operations, it will inevitably lead to a batch of people in the relevant regulatory departments being implicated! I know that many people in your Songyang City branch are on very cozy terms with this billionaire Liu Dong, especially yourself. Therefore, it is necessary for me to warn you to conduct yourself well on this issue and make sure you do not bring trouble upon your own head. Money is indeed a good thing, but an excessive pursuit of this good thing often leads a person to become a bad thing. Once things reach an irremediable point, a person will ultimately become rotten to the core! If things ever reach that uncontrollable stage, not even your uncle will be able to save you! Understand?!

"Yes, yes, yes, I understand this logic. Please rest assured, I have my principles and will not be dragged into the water by those clients with ulterior motives! Moreover, I will strictly demand of my subordinates and will never cause trouble for the provincial branch or for you personally, rest assured!"

Yin Sen said, half-bowing and nodding subserviently.

Teng Deming looked at Yin Sen before him and remained silent for a moment. He slowly walked over, gently patted the other's shoulder, and said:

"It wouldn't matter if it were just a little trouble. I have never been the kind of person to demand perfection from my subordinates, especially you. Of course, this has a lot to do with saving face for your uncle; one must show mutual consideration! Today's society is just like this: swimming with the current is unsafe, but blindly pursuing so-called aloofness is utterly unviable! The so-called 'staying untainted out of the mud' is nothing more than the sour, pretentious nonsense of 'paupers pretending to be starving ghosts.'

From ancient times to the present, are there few such examples? The reason Qu Yuan cast himself into the river was because he had no other way out! Just as he chanted: The whole world is muddy while I alone am sober! Everyone else is passed out drunk while you alone stand there showing off your solitary brilliance. How can that work? That is equivalent to treating the entire world as your adversary. The result is that you ruin yourself first and are inevitably eliminated by society!

In the current cultural and social environment, being clear-headed in your heart while feigning drunkenness on the surface—and acting the part so well that you seem thoroughly drunk—that is what is considered a master! Take Zhao Gao for instance; he knew better than anyone which was a stag and which was a horse, yet he deliberately called a stag a horse. As a result, a few seemingly clever fools stepped out to correct him, and in the end? Heh heh, these are all lessons left to us by the ancients at the cost of their lives!"

Yin Sen nearby hastily bowed his head and chimed in:

"Yes, yes, yes, I will melt your teachings into my blood, engrave them in my marrow, and put them into action!"

Teng Deming waved his hand:

"Hmph hmph! Don't play clever with me. I dare not accept credit for teachings; if we talk about the origin of this theory, I'm afraid it still has to be credited to your uncle's copyright!

I remember when I first started working at the provincial branch, he was still a section-level officer in the General Office of the Provincial Government. Perhaps by a twist of fate, some of the special topic materials I was responsible for daily were all submitted to the department where he worked. Because we were fellow townsmen, every time we met, we chatted very happily and hit it off. Although we were not in the same system, his genuine insights into Xingshang Bank's operations and management left me utterly amazed. In just four or five years, he rocketed from a minor section-level staff member to the position of deputy厅-level (deputy bureau-level). To be honest, in a massive provincial capital, a deputy bureau-level cadre is not particularly conspicuous, but he was able to push the energy of this level of position to the absolute extreme. That truly commands my admiration.

Through him, I got to know and befriended many people from all walks of life in the provincial capital. My daily interactions with these people allowed me to accumulate a lot of insights. I gradually realized that being a section-chief-level cadre serving in provincial departments versus serving in prefecture-level cities feels like a difference as vast as heaven and earth. It precisely validates that saying: the broader the platform, the further your vision!

Therefore, you must remember: given your current position, there is far too much you need to learn and accumulate. What does it mean to be as open-minded as a valley? What does it mean to build up deep knowledge and apply it broadly? Songyang is merely a tiny place; when you consider yourself omnipotent and capable of calling the wind and summoning the rain in this territory, it precisely proves that you are nothing at all! You haven't even reached the starting point for a leap. Precisely because you do not yet know who you are, you can only be yourself; only when you truly know who you are can you transcend yourself! Doesn't this sentence sound particularly tongue-twisting? But if you ponder it carefully, it is full of philosophy. In private, you should properly savor its meaning.

There is a thought-provoking saying nowadays: 'Do not follow existing paths!'

Take some time to properly savor the meaning within it. Young man, do not make yourself too worldly. If you always like to rely on other people's so-called experience, even if you can gain a little harvest, you will never stand out as yourself! Understand?

The ugly duckling becomes a white swan, the native chicken becomes a colorful phoenix! Without a considerable accumulation of quantity, how can there be a qualitative leap in the future?!

From the current perspective, if you are placed in the macro-pool of cadres in the province's Xingshang Bank system or on a larger platform, you are nothing more than a frog at the bottom of a well! You don't even reach the energy of a frog, because with your strength you can't even jump to the edge of the well to take a glance at the world, so you are merely a tadpole! You always want to ascend to heaven in a single bound—how could such a thing happen?"

Yin Sen replied deferentially:

"I know, I know! Before towering trees like you, I am merely a tender green seedling! President Teng, what I admire most about you is that you can always maintain this unique clarity of mind, always analyze the surrounding environment logically and thoroughly, and carve out your own world through these complex paths. Over the past few years, I have truly benefited immensely from you. My uncle often talks to me about you, and more than once he has instructed me that if I can learn even one or two parts of your boundless erudition, I won't have to worry about getting by on the stage of Xingshang Bank!"

Teng Deming stroked his slicked-back hair and said complacently:

"Heh heh, here you go again! What great achievement could come from learning from me? Actually, we should all be learning from your uncle. To go from a teenage herd boy all the way to such a high position, and still maintain such a steady and upward momentum—that is truly difficult to achieve in today's bizarre and shifting cultural environment. This alone is enough to make us aspiring people in officialdom submit wholeheartedly!"