Persephone
Chapter 6/15
We did it! The 100+ comments yesterday were simply overwhelming. It's the first time for a chapter to occupy less than half of the space in a page. Thank you everyone for taking the time. =)
Stephen, the President of Union Bank of Switzerland, was British. More accurately, he was an inheritor of an old British clan.
Other than his competence, he had become the president of UBS in China because he had a slight Chinese bloodline, not to mention he had taken an interest to the eastern culture since young. He even graduated from a university in Hong Kong.
Thus, Stephen could speak Mandarin better than he could in English, which as a result made a lot of people find him weird.
“It’s such an unexpected morning. You must be Boss Lin from Yu Lei, am I right?” Stephen asked as he made the gesture of a gentleman to welcome Lin Ruoxi, instead of shaking her hand like what others would do. With grey hair and a slender face, he looked surprisingly energetic.
In fact, when a man first meets a woman, the female was to initiate the hand shaking, but it was rude if the male took action instead. It was a cheap act that could represent the intention to take advantage. However, when it came to such a western etiquette, most people in the country only understood half of it.
Born in a royal family, Stephen naturally had a grasp on etiquettes.
Lin Ruoxi actually didn’t pay much attention to his behavior. She was still thinking contemplating about the situation before her.
She followed Stephen to the old sofa made of redwood before putting down her handbag. She revealed the smile of a professional, but still appeared cold as ever.
“Mr Stephen, do you know me?” It was her first time meeting this man, so she asked out of curiosity to break the ice.
Embarrassed, Stephen smiled and said, “I feel rather guilty mentioning this. I attended the banquet held by Yu Lei at the Imperial Tower last year. At that time, I only managed to see Boss Lin from afar. I swear I only held the look of admiration. Boss Lin is a really attractive lady, so I managed to remember you after only a glance.”
Stephen talked really calmly, but Lin Ruoxi still couldn’t refrain from blushing. It should be mentioned that the British man was at least fifty years old. When she was ‘admired’ by a man who was old enough to be a father, she felt rather uncomfortable.
“Really? Since the banquet is organized by our public relations department, I don’t usually memorize the guest list. I apologize on my part,” Lin Ruoxi said. Since she had a favor to ask, she had to speak respectfully. “I presume Mr Stephen was informed about my objective of coming here today.”
Stephen’s smile remained as he said, “I had a look at your company earlier when you were coming up. I know that Boss Lin now requires a huge sum of cash. But I believe Boss Lin is aware that we don’t provide loans at UBS. Also, being one of the Fortune 500 companies, why don’t you use the name of Yu Lei International to borrow money with your partner banks?”
Stephen used so many words to actually only mean one thing—you’re Lin Ruoxi, but you’re also not an exception.
“Yes, I’m very well aware of your policies,” Lin Ruoxi said as she rubbed the ring on her right hand finger. “I have no reason to lie to you. Mr Stephen, possibly due to the number of enemies I have, the people I’m facing this time are so powerful that they have an influence in the government, so all of the major banks we’re partnered with have chosen to avoid this battle.”
Stephen remained quiet for a while. Frowning, he asked, “But what has made Boss Lin come here? Whether or not we’re afraid of your enemy isn’t the problem here. It’s impossible for us to provide loans. Boss Lin should be aware of our rule.”
Lin Ruoxi gathered her courage before slowly raising her right hand, displaying the ink-colored ring on her middle finger.
“Someone told me that, with this ring, UBS will make an exception for me and provide me with the funds.”
Stephen was shocked. Having lowered his head for a while in contemplation, Stephen stood up from the sofa and said, “Will you allow me to closely analyse your ring?”
“Of course.” Lin Ruoxi removed the ring and passed it to Stephen.
“Boss Lin, I need to verify certain data with our headquarters. Please wait a moment,” Stephen said before walking to his office with the ring.
Lin Ruoxi felt rather strange. Stephen said he had to verify some information. In other words, if the verification was successful, UBS did provide loans! However, this would also mean that this information was not something that was common knowledge to the banks customers. Also, there might also be many hidden meanings.
Can Yang Chen possibly be right? As Lin Ruoxi found hope, the figure in his heart became more and more foggy.
Stephen looked extremely strict and solemn when he returned to his office table.
Using his mouse and keyboard, he opened the software of UBS. Stephen keyed in his information to access the internal operations.
After briefly reading through the page, Stephen clicked on the option ‘Unconventional Clients’.
Then, Stephen took out an electronic scanner equipment from the safe box behind and connected it to the computer, before conducting iris, voice, and fingerprint tests.
Lin Ruoxi was surprised to see Stephen undergo the series of tests. What information is he trying to access? Why would it need to be so complicated?! she thought.
Stephen raised his head and let out an apologetic smile. “Boss Lin, the situation you have bestowed unto me is a rather unique one. Please wait for a while more.”
Stephen had entered the next page as he finished speaking. It was a silver page filled with words of Ancient Rome.
In the entire Union Bank of Switzerland, there were less than ten people who could understand these series of words, while Stephen happened to be one of them.
He murmured something as he dragged the alphabets on the screen to rearrange them. Having spent around three minutes, the alphabets formed a poem… “Whew, I have to look into having a replacement for my position in a few years time. I won’t be able to remember these for long.”
As Stephen muttered to himself, there were changes on his computer screen.
The screen had turned dark completely. After three seconds, a white line appeared at the center. Soon, the page opened from the center, displaying the true information inside.
There were three and a half pages of pictures and descriptions. Each picture was a delicate item. There were necklaces, rings, bracelets, and a few weird items like a golden signboard, an old tobacco pipe, etc.
Stephen started reading from the third page. There were around ten minutes in that page. After looking through the page, he shook his head before going to the second page.
There were only five items on the second page. Stephen carefully looked at the two pictures containing a ring, then at the ring placed on his table before once again shaking his head.
Taking a deep breath, Stephen turned to the first page. There were a total of two items on this page… At that exact instant, Stephen’s pupils shrank violently.
Even if he knew that this was going to happen eventually, he refused to believe what he observed. Currently, he was stunned to see the picture on the screen displaying the exact same ring!
This… is really that thing?!
Lin Ruoxi couldn’t help but feel worried to see Stephen’s expressions of astonishment and agitation. There were only so many things in the world that could have shocked this old man into silence.
Stephen used around five minutes to analyze the ring he was holding and the one in the picture. He had read through the description again and again, amounting to more than ten times in total.
Finally, he had made sure the the inner side of the ring had the exact same alphabets ‘PLUTO’. Drawing a cross in front of his chest, he prayed before closing the system on his computer.
“Mr Stephen, what have you found out from your testings?” Lin Ruoxi didn’t usually ask someone for results as she had a calm personality, but she really couldn’t hold herself back anymore.
Solemnly, Stephen held the ring with both of his hands as he walked toward Lin Ruoxi slowly before showing it to her. “May I ask who the person who gave Madam Lin this ring is?”
Stephen had already ignored Lin Ruoxi’s identity as a CEO.
Lin Ruoxi bit her lips. Although she was rather shy, she still looked at Stephen right into his eyes. Clearly, she said, “He’s my husband.”
Stephen’s body shivered before staggering backward and kneeling on the ground!
“Madam Persephone, it’s an honour to have been able to serve you.” Stephen’s eyes were filled with awe.
Persephone? Lin Ruoxi felt a headache. What is that?
Before she could think of something, Stephen had stood up, while he appeared to be getting on Lin Ruoxi’s good side, looking completely different from his gentleman’s smile earlier.
“Madam, may I ask how much cash you need now? I’ll obtain it for you immediately,” Stephen said while he bowed down partially.
“Wait.” Lin Ruoxi found it weird that she was now referred as ‘Madam’. “Mr Stephen, who is Persephone? Why are you… calling me this way?”
Stephen was stunned at her question, but soon thought of something. Gently smiling, he answered, “Madam, since you husband, the respected being has not yet explained it to you, I have no right to say anything. Please give me your order. You’re now the holder of the Ring of Pluto. You may obtain 100 billion euros of cash anytime you want. May I ask how much is it you’re looking for?”
Lin Ruoxi could no longer process the situation. Her eyes widened to their max. There was only one thing in her mind. What?! 100 billion… euros?!