Love letters are not allowed in the exorcism notebook!-Chapter 543 - 121 The Hidden Truth of the Shen Family

(Yesterday’s Chapter 119 was harmonized, affecting the reader’s experience. Today, I am updating with a large Chapter as feedback to the readers, as an apology!)

"The Shen Family has been a glove for the Joshua People from the beginning."

Wang Yunxiao thought to himself that although he would like to spend two thousand words to explain the logic behind this, considering the harmonizing intent of the universal system, it’s better not to.

If he inadvertently hinted at something, even wearing the helmet of the Imperial Stormtroopers wouldn’t save him from a beating.

Just speak with evidence.

"You think the Shen Family lost everything in that financial crisis, but in reality, they made a huge profit."

"Originally, the President wanted to develop the Seaside District to attract foreign investment for the construction of Tianmen. Shen Zhidong volunteered for the important task—This story seems fine on the surface. Building houses was to attract overseas immigrants to settle, with real estate controlled by Shen Zhidong and publicly announced rents being quite cheap, allowing immigrants to stabilize in the shortest time."

"But after the financial crisis erupted, Shen Zhidong’s funding chain broke, and the real estate initially used for mortgages transferred under foreign banks’ names. The banks then sold these properties to the Joshua Consortium at very low prices to cash out."

"According to the ledger I found at the Weimar Chamber of Commerce, they took over twelve hundred subsidized apartments, along with deeds for various other real estate properties, and then reassigned the property management back to Shen Zhidong’s company. Once the market normalized, they increased the prices of purchasing and renting."

"I don’t understand!"

Ito Hidemi scratched his head and said, "What’s the point of this left-hand to right-hand transaction?"

"It’s because ordinary people don’t understand that they have room to make a profit."

Cheng Xuefei, understanding Wang Yunxiao’s implication, explained to him, "Let me give you a more straightforward example, and you’ll understand—Say, the meal standard at your police station’s canteen. In my personal view, it’s quite good and not expensive. A portion of braised belt fish costs three cents. If this were in a proper restaurant outside, a plate of braised belt fish would cost at least a dollar or more..."

"Two dimes and five cents per plate, about three times the quantity of the canteen."

"Well, I’m not sensitive to prices, but that’s not important. The canteen’s food is cheaper than outside because the internal canteen has lower costs, and there’s also a meal subsidy from the bureau, right?"

"Yes."

Cheng Xuefei raised a finger, "At this point, let’s suppose your boss lets his own brother-in-law take over the food..."

"That’s actually the case."

"Okay, suppose he takes advantage of his position to embezzle money..."

"That’s also the case."

"Mr. Ito, have you come to Tianmen and only learned to set up a punchline?"

"Alright, pretend I didn’t say anything. Please continue!"

"What will happen over time? The quality of food in the canteen will deteriorate, because if the prices of the dishes can’t be changed outright, then the only option is to cut back on the kitchen staff’s wages and the purchasing funds. Or perhaps they might substitute inferior goods for good ones, taking kickbacks from the vendors."

Ito Hidemi clenched his fist, restraining his urge to retort.

"The deteriorating quality of canteen food would definitely draw complaints. And the best way to deal with this problem is to fire that brother-in-law and bring in a dependable person to manage the canteen."

"But another method to fool you would be to announce publicly that it’s not the brother-in-law’s fault, but rather that the canteen itself has issues. Now that life has improved, food prices have gone up, costs are higher, and everyone’s tastes have become more discerning, making the past dishes unpalatable. So... simply outsource the canteen to the brother-in-law’s private catering company. This way, everyone gets restaurant-quality braised belt fish, and everyone is happy."

"The Shen Family’s method, frankly, is no different from our supposed canteen outsourcing."

Eldest Miss Cheng, being a Flower Amidst Guests, was very professional when discussing this topic. Her specialty was to excavate these unspeakable secrets from others’ conversations.

"Originally, Tianmen was the President’s stronghold, with her main financial resources including textile factories, mechanical manufacturing bureaus, and international trade. Developing Tianmen to improve the standard of living, ensuring people had money for education, and training more workers to build new factories for expanding production were her long-term strategic goals."

"Developing the Seaside District was meant to create a more stable living environment for overseas immigrants. Whether or not making money from real estate was in the President’s consideration, so in her plan, both housing prices and rents were meant to remain within the range affordable by the working class."

"But after the Shen Family’s left-to-right manipulations, the direction of the entire plan changed."

"You see, first the Shen Family borrowed money to build houses, and because their financial chain broke, they mortgaged the properties to the bank, which didn’t actually result in a loss for the Shen Family."

"The bank sold the mortgaged properties to the Weimar Chamber of Commerce at a low price to cash out, causing certain losses to the bank during this process."

"After obtaining the property deeds, the Weimar Chamber of Commerce entrusted the Shen Family to continue managing them, from which the Weimar Chamber of Commerce profited."

"Since it was the Weimar Chamber of Commerce’s property, even if they raised the housing prices, the President could not intervene."

"The Shen Family made money by managing the properties."

"After the housing prices were raised, ordinary people had to take loans to buy homes, providing the bank with long-term earnings and compensating for their earlier losses."