Chapter Eleven: The Hainan Conversation (Part Two)

Wen Lu had not intended to interrupt Zhang Maolin, but seeing the latter’s gestures becoming increasingly animated and fearing a further escalation, he grew concerned. His only worry was that if Vice President Yin Sen were to stir up trouble at this moment, it would inevitably lead to friction with this stubborn Secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission. Should things reach that point, he would find himself in an impossible position.

Wen Lu quickly cut in: "Uncle, please don't overthink this. This joint inspection tour between the bank and the enterprises is a predetermined element of our Songyang Xing Shang Bank's overall marketing strategy. It has already been approved and signed off by the provincial branch; it is by no means a personal endeavor. Besides, earlier this year, higher authorities issued clear regulations stating that any 'bank-enterprise' joint activity at the municipal branch level or above must be attended by a Discipline Inspection Secretary of equal rank, who bears full responsibility for the standardization and compliance of the entire event. Therefore, your supervision of this tour is entirely legitimate and appropriate..."

Wen Lu continued to soothe him.

"Hmph, you’ve got a good memory, kid. But that’s all just empty ink on paper! What I don't understand is this: if the provincial branch is always so suspicious of those below them, why not just ban such activities altogether? Why force grassroots units into such a dilemma? I’ve seen through it all these years—the provincial branch loves to make noise without substance. They have demands without plans, plans without implementation, implementation without inspections, and inspections without results! Their slogans soar higher than the clouds at the Southern Heavenly Gate, but their actual progress is slower than a snail crawling on a cabbage leaf. To call these current marketing projects 'all bark and no bite' would be the most fitting description."

Zhang Maolin finished the banana Wen Lu had handed him and continued, "Take the province-wide 'Front-Line Service Etiquette Training' from earlier this year. The concept itself was actually quite creative and good. But our execution was bizarre beyond belief! To be blunt, the front-line branches of our secondary branches serve local customers. This service model, rich with local character, has no need for such convoluted, pretentious novelties. All our young women at the counters need to do is keep their hair clean, apply a little light powder to their faces and necks, and provide service with a pleasant, attentive, and sincere attitude. That would be enough. But the higher-ups insisted on making a mountain out of this molehill. Our Songyang branch spent over sixty thousand in official funds hiring so-called lecturers from an etiquette firm to put our front-line staff through some damn training! Uniform expressions, uniform smiles, uniform posture. Think about it: when a woman in her forties covers her face in thick powder, and then tries to smile, doesn't it look like a white-washed wall cracking? What kind of nonsense is this? It’s an utter waste!"

Zhang Maolin puffed heavily, his voice sounding muffled and strained.

"Heh, you're right, you're right..." Wen Lu couldn't help but giggle at Zhang Maolin's vivid, albeit slightly exaggerated, assessment. Seeing that Zhang Maolin still looked furious, he quickly changed his tone.

"Indeed. We shout slogans about various forms of work daily, only to use them to oppose yet another form of formalism—it’s truly a dark comedy! Beyond wasting resources, it ruthlessly destroys the last remnants of truth in everyone’s heart. These days, the mountains of documents and seas of meetings leave people with little time or energy to consider real issues. Once this 'pressure' transforms into the bureaucratic inertia of office staff, it becomes like an addiction to opium; even knowing it’s wrong, one can only revel in it. Controlled by a long-standing habit, people become irreversibly immersed in this tedious game.

"Take this so-called 'Gold' client expansion tour. The entire evaluation process was riddled with loopholes; there were no fixed or objective criteria for access, either in terms of standards or scope. Most of the participating companies were hand-picked by the bosses at the provincial branch. Before the municipal branch’s evaluation meeting had even officially convened, those arrogant bosses were already privately booking their flight tickets. Can you imagine how absurd that is?

"By contrast, the clients with projects that actually had real marketing potential were all left in the dust! But then again, this phenomenon is already commonplace here at Xing Shang Bank; we’re long past being surprised. Regardless of the opportunity, whenever an activity involves even a hint of profit, those 'fat cat' clients are always the ones to take the prize! What can you do? They have 'daddies' at the provincial branch! How could we at the municipal level ever hope to have a say? Honestly, I despise their behavior. It’s just a bit of dirty money, isn't it? Especially since it’s obtained through deceit and foul play. If it weren't for the sake of business marketing, who would ever willingly associate with those 'parasites'?"

Wen Lu gazed up at the starry sky, as if he weren't speaking to Zhang Maolin at all.

"Wait? Aside from those untouchable moneybags, weren't the other shortlisted clients determined by our own municipal branch’s credit review committee? Could it be—" Zhang Maolin asked, puzzled.

Wen Lu replied, "Determined by us?! Hmph, in the days before the evaluation meeting, the phones of President Wang and Vice President Yin were nearly blown up by people asking for favors! Most of the callers were bigwigs from the city party committee and government offices. Who in Xing Shang Bank dares to offend them? Anyone who calls to intervene is either a 'daddy' or a 'granddaddy'! There’s really no choice!

"Don't be fooled by the high-and-mighty attitude the presidents project in front of the staff; when faced with leaders from the government offices, they have to agree to every demand! As a result, the original ten-person inspection team was expanded to nearly twenty...

"I’m certain that if not for instructions from above or the need to save face for local leaders, these fat cats would never have made the list. There are plenty of excellent enterprises in the Songyang area; our bank’s credit lending shouldn't be so desperate that we have to scrape the bottom of the barrel, right?

"You know, Songyang suffers from drought nine years out of ten, and we only have one inland river—the Song River. Among the seventeen processing companies participating in this tour, ten are located along the banks of the Song River. Especially the aluminum and copper processing plants and the three paper mills—they are all desperately waiting for loans to expand their production scales. Just imagine, once these companies begin large-scale production, they will inevitably cause a rapid increase in sewage discharge. When that happens, will they pass the environmental protection inspection? Will they pass the municipal government’s scrutiny? Even if they use underhanded means to smooth things over, will they pass the test of the common people? The Song River is our mother river; once it suffers large-scale pollution, the consequences will be dire! I’ll bet that due to the many restrictive clauses, these companies have no real prospects for operation. Once they collapse, the negative impact will be immense, and the first to suffer will be the security of the bank’s loans. By the time they go bankrupt, according to the legal order of liquidation, I’m afraid there won't even be a scrap left for the bank to recover!..."