Chapter 861: Who’s in the Trap

After looking through all the information, Yagawa Masaru felt that… ‘Perhaps, this is just a diversion. Or perhaps, Su Yang isn’t the one who did this at all.’

Therefore, he temporarily placed the document under the table and started to look through the recent domestic intelligence. He wanted to see if there were any clues about Su Yang’s actions.

Of course, the most important thing was that as the leader of the entire corporation, he could not place all his attention on Su Yang since he also had a lot of work to do.

Especially since Yagawa Masaru was closer to the national cabinet this time, there were more issues.

This cabinet took office just last year. It was austerity monetary policy. It was not very effective to bring hot money back home and raise employment. So, as one of the cabinet’s’ investors’, he needed to share the burden.

He read through the information one by one, but he did not find any useful clues. He did not have a good solution for the cabinet’s current predicament.

On the other hand, because he had been reading the information for too long, his already poor mental state had worsened.

Finally, he sighed deeply and put down the document.

Looking at the darkening sky outside the window, Yagawa Masaru had to admit that time was the fairest thing in the world. Even with his wealth, he could not escape the passage of time.

‘I… Am far less energetic than when I was young.’

At the thought of his own age, Yagawa Masaru could not help but think of Su Yang.

‘He’s only 20 years old, which is the prime of his life.

‘Compared to him, who’s a rising sun, I’m a setting sun that was about to fall into the valley.

‘I’m seriously a little jealous!

‘However, on second thought, this morning sun is about to fall into my hands and be defeated by me, so there’s nothing for me to feel pity about.

‘So what if the sun was rising? He’s still a young child after all.

‘After all…

‘The older, the wiser, as the saying goes.’

…

Over the next few days, Zhao Licheng started negotiating on behalf of Su Yang and the three automobile companies. Even though both parties had their guards up, none of them held back when it came to cooperation.

Therefore, one after another, several companies reached a preliminary oral agreement: Jiadian Group would cooperate with several companies to provide efficient graphene batteries to produce electric vehicles.

Moreover, each battery would cost 300,000 yuan.

This price was actually slightly higher than normal new energy batteries, but it was not considered to be ridiculously high. For example, the world’s most advanced batteries for Tesla cost about 250,000 yuan.

After all, batteries were the most expensive thing in a new energy vehicle. Hence, Su Yang’s price was already considered a reasonable price.

In order not to be eliminated, several automobile companies had to buy or… Force themselves to buy.

They had thought it through. At most, they would apply this battery to high-end electric vehicles.

Additionally, in order to develop clean energy, every country had subsidies for electric vehicles and batteries. The subsidies were very high, up to 70-80%. Therefore, these companies that could influence the country’s policies felt that they could just request for their country to pay…

Of course, the details of the price would not affect the cooperation between the two companies. On the contrary, Su Yang did not add any additional conditions, which made the companies uneasy and suspicious.

That’s right. In this collaboration, Su Yang only insisted on wanting that particular price. However, he did not request for the other party to purchase batteries in large bulks, build car models, or any other excessive requests.

The executives of the three companies could not help but feel suspicious. ‘Could Yagawa-kun have said something wrong? Does Su-kun really want to cooperate with us and isn’t planning to trick us? Otherwise, why didn’t he mention any additional conditions?

‘If there are no additional conditions, how would we be tricked then?

‘Just the price of the batteries alone?

‘But, it isn’t very expensive though.’

While these companies were still confused, the Japanese stock market, a few private accounts, and a few financial companies started to secretly sweep the shares of the four automobile companies.

The momentum was about to increase as much as it could, so the popularity of the four companies rose.

At the same time, after the negotiations with the four companies ended, Su Yang went to look for Yagawa Masaru.

The second time he saw Su Yang, Yagawa Masaru no longer looked down on him. In less than a month, this young man had shown his true colors as a business tycoon. With a few simple moves, he could manipulate several automobile companies.

Even though he was still young and Yagawa Masaru himself had already seen through his tricks, such a person was already enough to be his opponent. Even if they had met when they were young, Yagawa Masaru would still be cautious and even more cautious of him.

The venue was still in that familiar courtyard under the cherry blossom tree. However, the people there had changed to being Su Yang and Yagawa Masaru.

The old man was not there, and the girl in the kimono was left to serve and translate their conversation.

When the girl poured tea for the two of them, Yagawa Masaru gestured to Su Yang and said, “Su-kun, have a taste of Japan’s tea culture.”

Su Yang smiled as he picked up his cup and downed it.

‘Tea culture? You’ve just learned it from China.’ Hence, Su Yang did not care about this at all.

Finishing his tea, Su Yang said to Yagawa Masaru, “Yagawa-kun, I’m here today in hopes of entering the Japanese market.”

“Oh?” Yagawa Masaru asked even though he already knew the answer. “Aren’t you already considered to have entered the Japanese market already, Su-kun?”

Su Yang smiled. “I am, but my money can’t enter. I have too little money on me, and I can’t develop it at all. You know that our country has a foreign exchange system, so I don’t have much foreign exchange in my hands. All that I have are those that’s been invested in the stock market.”

Yagawa Masaru recalled the information he had received about the rise in the stock prices of the three automobile companies in the afternoon and nodded.

Su Yang said, “So… I want to exchange a batch of foreign currency with Yagawa-kun.”

Yagawa Masaru asked, “USD?”

Su Yang shook his head. “Yuan.”

Yagawa Masaru’s eyes narrowed.

Although both are foreign currency for Japan, the concept is completely different.

USD was the world’s toughest currency, and all major transactions between countries can be settled using that. The world’s foreign-exchange reserves were mainly in USD as well.

Because in international transactions, USD was the most useful!

If you have USD with you, you could use it around the world.

However, yuan is different. While China has been pushing for the yuan to be globalized, to be honest, the process has not been smooth because of factors like national power, influence, and financial policy.

In the past, America had been suppressing this development, there were countries that were uncooperative. Later, it was China itself that refused to let go of financial controls, so yuan was not used internationally most of the time. And there were even fewer countries with foreign-exchange reserves.

Japan, for example, does not list yuan as part of the foreign-exchange reserves.

Essentially, money was not precious metal. Hence, if it could not be used, it was useless.

Therefore, when he heard that Su Yang wanted to exchange a pile of “waste paper” for yen, Yagawa Masaru wanted to reject him immediately.

He hesitated for a moment before saying, “Su-kun, I’m sure you understand the status of yuan internationally, it’s not easy to have it exchanged.”

Su Yang replied nonchalantly, “Yagawa-kun, if you’re not willing to exchange it, then forget I asked. It’s fine, I was just mentioning it. If it really doesn’t work out, I’ll try it at the local bank.”

After that, Su Yang stopped talking about it and continued drinking tea with Yagawa Masaru.

Initially, Yagawa Masaru thought that Su Yang was merely taking a step back in order to advance. He would definitely bring this up again later on. However, the strange thing was that Su Yang did not say a single word throughout the entire afternoon as if this had never happened.

At night, Su Yang left Yagawa Masaru’s house after dinner and returned to the hotel.

Yagawa Masaru’s etiquette was quite thorough. He personally sent him out of his courtyard.

As he watched Su Yang’s car leave, Yagawa Masaru’s expression turned complicated.

At that moment, the old man who had been standing beside him said softly, “Yagawa-kun, his condition…”

Yagawa Masaru shook his head. “Let’s talk when we get back.”

This time, the two did not sit down in the courtyard. Instead, they went to a quiet room.

As they drank tea, the two looked at each other in silence.

After a while, Yagawa Masaru said, “Do you think we should agree to him?”

The old man seemed to consider this question for a long time. He said without hesitation, “I believe we should…”

Yagawa Masaru asked softly, “Why?”

The old man said, “Because exchanging yuan with him is also beneficial for us.”

The old man took out a stack of documents and handed it to Yagawa Masaru. He said, “This is the data from the company that I got someone to retrieve this afternoon.”

“Swift Marketing Group is the largest clothing group in the whole of Asia. Ever since we entered the Chinese market in 2002, our sales volume and profits have increased by several folds every year. Especially with Uniqlo, this brand has become a household name after several promotions.

“From the beginning of the year, our profits and sales started to fall. However, the Chinese market continued to grow. They have already surpassed our country and have become the biggest market for the group. Furthermore, it’s a huge market that hasn’t reached peak maturity yet.

“We need… Yuan to develop. But China has started limiting foreign exchange access in recent years. Every company has only been granted a certain amount of foreign exchange in China.

“That’s why we don’t have enough money to expand.

“But… Su Yang does.”

Yagawa Masaru probably already knew about this data and information long ago, so he was not surprised when he heard it. Instead, he said, “Yes, you’re right.

“China has been becoming more and more open these years. As long as foreign companies pay their income tax, they can exchange all the money they earn at the exchange rate for their own currency and return to China.

“At first, many companies would exchange, but gradually, they all stopped.

“There are many reasons for this. One is that the yuan is expected to appreciate. If we delay the return, we can use the same yuan to exchange for more domestic currency.

“Secondly, the Chinese market is getting bigger and bigger. There are more opportunities to earn money, and the profit margin is higher. If we leave more money in China, we can earn more money.

“Thirdly, like you said it yourself, China is the largest country in the world of foreign exchange reserves. It has a lot of foreign exchange reserves, and the yuan is under a lot of pressure, so it has adopted a strict restriction on foreign investment entering the country. Therefore, it will be harder for profits to come in after it leaves

“Meanwhile, we might be making a lot of money but we’re spending a lot as well. So, we do lack money in the Chinese market.”

As he said that, his eyes turned blank. As if he had thought of something, he mumbled, “Do you think… Su Yang has already expected this? That’s why he made that condition.”

The old man thought for a while and said hesitantly, “I think so? That’s why he stopped mentioning it after you probingly rejected him. He knew that we would most likely agree later on.”

At this point, the old man paused and asked carefully, “Now then, should we agree to his request?”

Yagawa Masaru did not answer the question directly. Instead, he looked out the window of the room. Outside the window was the garden, and the cherry blossom trees in the courtyard could be seen.

Even at night, the cherry blossom trees were still beautiful because of the light.

This cherry blossom tree was planted by Yagawa Masaru’s wife when she was still alive. Several decades had passed, and his wife had passed away, but the cherry blossom tree was still there. Therefore, whenever he needed to calm his mind, Yoshikawa Masahiko would stay under this tree. It was like the woman who had accompanied him for his entire life was still by his side whenever he did so.

His gaze lingered on the cherry blossom tree. After a moment, he said, “Have you thought about our previous plan?”

The old man asked in confusion, “The plan to take over Jiadian Group?”

Yagawa Masaru nodded.

“If we allow Su Yang’s money to enter Japan, then most of his company’s cash will be in Japan. If we lock down his escape route and shut down his cooperation, do you think we can succeed?”

The old man thought for a moment. “Probably.”

Yagawa Masaru chuckled. “Then, do you think that he has guessed our plan since he proposed such a condition that suits our plan?”

“Would he have any backup plan to counter us?”

The old man was stunned.

After a while, Yagawa Masaru sighed and said, “The future generation aren’t people to mess around with.”

After saying that, he waved his hand dejectedly. “Go and contact Su-kun. Just say that we’ve agreed to it. However, you have to be mentally prepared. Now that we’re looking for him to cooperate, the price is not negotiable anymore. So… As long as it’s not too outrageous, just accept it.”

The old man nodded heavily.

Yagawa Masaru stood up unsteadily and walked out of the room with his back hunched. “He was the one who came to us for help, but now he’s acting like we’re begging him. Sigh, the younger generation will surpass us in time.”

Outside the door, the girl in the kimono reached out to support Yagawa Masaru as he walked forward. Just like that, the richest man in Japan slowly disappeared into the corridor, leaving the old man in the quiet room alone…

…

After Yagawa Masaru made his decision, Su Yang’s progress was much faster. Very soon, the two corporations made use of some special connections to exchange foreign currency.

In this important project, Su Yang and Yagawa Masaru were there as well. The two departments opened their doors and quickly settled everything.

Right after that, Su Yang found the five presidents from the major banks that he had worked with before and proposed a collaboration. Su Yang would use the profits from Jiadian Technology over the next 10 years as collateral in exchange for borrowing yen. The more the better…