Chapter 20: The Hidden Card (Part III)

Faced with Zhang Maolin’s patently absurd question, a surge of irritation welled up in Teng Deming’s heart! He instantly concluded that the other man was deliberately provoking him, or even showing him disrespect. Teng Deming knew full well that, given Zhang Maolin’s intelligence, he could easily guess the real purpose of this visit, yet such completely off-the-wall banter was indeed hard to stomach!

Teng Deming replied coldly:

"There’s no need. When the time comes for the actual implementation stage, I expect the provincial branch will handle it through the proper channels."

Teng Deming took a sip of tea and continued:

"I am not entirely clear about the current overall work arrangement and progress of your city branch. However, before the Spring Festival, there are two matters you must thoroughly implement—or at least your leadership team must come up with mature solutions and results: First, the credit self-inspection process of the Songyang City Branch and the substantive problems discovered; second, the final disposition of the Wen Lu incident. Neither of these two issues is allowed to cross over into the New Year. Neither President Tan nor I want to have our moods ruined by these two headaches amidst the firecrackers of New Year's Eve! Well? Do you have the confidence, my old friend?"

"This—"

Zhang Maolin stammered. At that moment, he had no idea how to give a direct response to Teng Deming's inquiry.

With a sudden flash of inspiration, Zhang Maolin seized the moment to turn the tables and counter-question:

"The progress of the bank-wide credit inspection has just passed the halfway mark. According to the comrades on the inspection team, some problems have already been uncovered, and their nature is quite grave. The preliminary opinion of our city branch Party committee is that as soon as the final consolidated results come out, we should immediately report to the provincial branch. If we were to prematurely terminate the inspection now, wouldn't it seem rather inappropriate?!"

Teng Deming quickly retorted:

"What's inappropriate about it? Even if the headquarters inspection team were to come down, their work wouldn't be all-encompassing, let alone the fact that they might not necessarily come to Songyang. Why on earth are you all losing your minds over nothing? Songyang isn't paved with landmines and pitfall traps everywhere. The higher-ups haven't even officially notified us which tier-two branch will be inspected, yet your own household is the first to fall into disarray. Why bother scaring yourselves? Besides, President Tan is a towering figure who takes in all directions with eyes and ears on every side; he surely has his own sense of proportion regarding the gravity and urgency of the matter. Just think about it—carefully consider whether he, as the helmsman, would easily hand over the Songyang City Branch to be scrutinized?!

Generally speaking, next year's work will involve a myriad of tangled threads. It is best not to let your leadership team be bogged down and distracted by preparing for this so-called credit inspection from above. It is neither worthwhile nor necessary, understand?

Your leadership team has just been formed. It must be said that you haven't safely weathered the 'honeymoon period' yet, and to a large extent, you cannot withstand too severe a test. Therefore, you must focus on 'rallying the collective will and pooling the team's strength,' and steadfastly look ahead. The mind of the 'top leader' must at all times embrace the grand strategy, grasp the overarching direction, and keep a close eye on the macro climate!

For the Songyang City Branch, the single most important thing right now is how to pioneer 'highlights' in every professional sector, and dedicate yourselves to forging and establishing 'brilliant spots' of branch-wide scale. That is the core of the core and the priority of priorities in all your work!

You have just stepped into a new leadership position, and your mind might still be entangled with the working methods, behavioral habits, and mindset formed during your past tenure in the discipline inspection and supervision line. While this is somewhat understandable, it should by no means serve as an excuse for stagnation in your work. If you fail to completely complete the ideological 'helm-shifting' in the shortest possible time to actively adapt to practical work requirements, and instead remain obsessed with those old-fashioned disciplinary routines of fault-finding and rectification, then you will be making a catastrophic mistake!

We are already past fifty, people who know the Mandate of Heaven. What is the Mandate of Heaven? There may be various interpretations, but it should at least encompass one core meaning: a person's words and deeds must conform to the heavenly Dao. As the saying goes, Heaven commands man, and man commands affairs—never the other way around! Before objective laws and circumstances, humanity's subjective conjectures are utterly insignificant and negligible, not to mention that the things we subjectively imagine are pale and impotent most of the time."

With an exaggerated gesture, Teng Deming extended his left arm and stared intently at the Omega watch on his wrist, as if calculating the time required for this conversation.

Teng Deming went on to say:

"No matter when or where, if you are always keen on touching that ugly scar of the past, it is definitely neither a wise nor a pleasant move. Is everyone not clear about what the credit quality of the Songyang Branch is like? If you want to dredge up those moth-eaten, dust-covered past events from ' sesame and millet seeds of yesteryear,' it is tantamount to holding a knife in your left hand and slicing open the long-healed scab on your right hand—not only excruciatingly painful, but supremely foolish. You must realize that the scabs on certain 'scars' must never be touched; otherwise, they will ooze 'pus and blood,' leading to massive chaos!

Right now, the New Year's Day and Spring Festival holidays are fast approaching, which is a critical period urgently requiring a smooth transition. No so-called important matter can ever surpass the weight of the word 'stability.' Whether you can tangibly reflect this link in your subjective understanding relates directly to the political stance of every leading cadre! Maolin, I trust you understand the current trend of the situation, so don't do anything foolish! Those 'non-performing' loans caused by historical reasons are, to our Xingxang Bank, merely a 'recapitulation' in the course of development. Fortunately, everything is already in the past; as long as we manage our future credit fund deployment well, it will all be OK!

I can responsibly share a piece of news with you: after the final accounting at the end of next year, our Xingxiang Bank headquarters will complete a comprehensive bad-debt stripping by transferring these loans to a specialized agency established by the government to handle non-performing assets of commercial banks. From then on, all collection of these non-performing assets will be handled by that specialized institution. By that time, operating branches like ours can completely cast off our burdens and focus exclusively on our own business operations! Therefore, for us to be sitting here now, making a big fuss and chattering endlessly about checking non-performing loans—when we look back on these past fixations a few years from now, how childish and ridiculous will we feel?! Heh-heh..."

"Ah? What? There's such a good thing under the sun?!"

Zhang Maolin utterly disbelieved the other party's rhetoric, feeling that Vice President Teng's words were sheer nonsense. He argued back:

"However, this credit inspection was personally deployed and arranged by President Tan himself, and he repeatedly emphasized adopting a 'carpet-style' inspection approach. I'm afraid that if we hastily wrap it up now, the inspection results will not withstand scrutiny from the provincial branch leaders! Once President Tan places the blame, we probably—"

Zhang Maolin knew that directly rejecting Teng Deming's opinion right now was utterly impossible; only by bringing up Tan Yiwu could he achieve any effect. In fact, Zhang Maolin knew all too well that playing this trump card at this very moment was indeed too rash and abrupt, but he had no other choice.

Zhang Maolin waited for the other party's reaction.