A small round table, surrounded by five elegantly dressed gentlemen, who are engrossed in playing poker.
Gambling has always been an effective way to quickly forge relationships. When Lynch first expressed his desire to hold a small friendship card party at the community event, it quickly caught some people’s attention.
Thanks to Lynch’s recent frequent appearances in the newspapers, even taking down the head of Sabin City’s Tax Bureau investigation team, some people might subconsciously avoid overly close contact with him, but others are willing to get close to him.
The Tax Bureau is the enemy of every high-income group. Having someone who can make the Tax Bureau take a fall is definitely a joyful thing for those racking their brains every month to evade taxes.
Moreover, being able to move into this community means that at least Lynch has the economic capability to have equal conversations with them, and they don’t mind expanding their networks a little.
In such an environment and atmosphere, this first meet-and-greet using poker as a means of friendship was successfully held.
This is a style different from any gameplay Lynch knew in another world. It involves five players, each with ten cards. The rules are simple, the core is exchanging, and after the exchange, compare the cards.
Before the game starts, everyone must decide on a final hand type for themselves. Once the final hand is formed, it must meet their own proposed hand type requirements, scored and deducted based on the size of the hand types.
Besides using "cards" for exchange, there are also points for the match. Everyone took out two hundred bucks before the game, one hundred of which became their baseline score — a hundred points.
The other hundred bucks became the public point pool in the score pool, which is five hundred points left.
After the game ends, everyone can earn money equal to the points in their hands.
This is a very popular gameplay, sweeping the world. Many believe it embodies the core basis of commercial trade, each poker game is a fierce trade war, with each person representing a company, a business association, or even a group, and the score pool represents a bank.
Victory is not just about winning as much as possible because score trading often happens during the card exchange. This is a true game of strategy; sometimes the person who continuously wins ends up losing money, while the one who always loses might win some.
This gameplay is called "Pi Ai Wa," a word with many meanings. It can be seen as the "payment" at the core of the game or the "claim" after victory, its charm is irresistible, sweeping the world.
Not far from these gentlemen, a few ladies are sitting in wicker chairs near the floor-to-ceiling windows, enjoying premium herbal tea while competing with each other.
Of course, their topics never stray far from the fashionable stuff, from fashion shows to new season jewelry design exhibitions, newly released films, and some celebrity political moves.
Sometimes men are surprised to find their wives incredibly well-informed and multi-talented, seemingly knowing a little of everything, completely different from the stupidity and ignorance when alone.
Just like women’s vanity grows when together, men sitting together also talk about things, not just those on the card table but also outside the card table.
"The economic development index for the first half of the year is down eleven percentage points compared to last year, the economic recession is already very obvious. How long do you think this will last?"
The speaker is a gentleman sitting opposite Lynch. He is wearing a shirt with silver threads and now unrefinedly rolls up his sleeves, revealing thick body hair on his arms, giving a strange feeling.
It’s like...there’s a gorilla disguising as a human, blending in among us.
He is a factory owner. Secondary cities with cheap labor and various expenses have become favorite gathering places for factory owners. Opening factories in secondary cities saves a considerable part of various expenses compared to opening in primary cities.
Land use fees, warehouse rental management fees, including the largest expenditure, labor costs.
Another gentleman shook his head, "We all felt that the market is shrinking rapidly, goods don’t sell, profit margins drop, but the financial market is still very prosperous. Bail Industry index reportedly hit a new high again!"
The other gentlemen, including Lynch, couldn’t help but laugh, their laughter filled with mockery. Perhaps they aren’t quite sure why they have such feelings, why they laugh.
They just reflexively feel that these things are abnormal. The stagnation or recession of economic growth hasn’t affected the performance of the financial market, instead, it keeps Creating Miracles, there’s a lot wrong here.
Actually, even before Lynch traveled here, economists had already expressed views, believing the Federation’s economy is about to suffer heavy blows soon, but most people ignored these views in a frenzy like brainwashing.
The worldwide ceasefire has brought long-missed peace to the world. Most people believe the war has receded; people start developing the economy which will just get better and not worse.
Some economists timely proposed the unheard concept of "touch top rebound," successfully becoming the only understanding in the public’s eyes. They believe the current short-term lull is just society digesting economic results, soon the economy will usher in another round of rapid development.
People are always willing to believe things beneficial to themselves. Even if they know deep down that possibly these views aren’t correct, they force themselves to firmly believe this is correct.
The gentleman sitting on Lynch’s left casually takes out a card, lays it on the table. Now his turn to call the card, "One point, I need a Ⅸ—Diamond..." he takes a puff of the plain cigarette resting on the ashtray, slowly exhaling "If the financial market keeps such momentum, it might continue for a long time."
After he finishes the sentence, another gentleman takes out the nine of diamonds, throws it to him, and takes back the exchanged card and a chip representing one point from his hand.
The game proceeds, everyone actually knows, the unexpected prosperity in the financial market represents many people still benefiting, financial market profits compensate their current losses, there’s even ample surplus, thus more money flows from real economy to the financial market.
Because of these hot money rapid inflows, the numerical game market becomes more prosperous, many business owners shrink real businesses in hand, invest money into the financial market to make money with money, easier and more relaxed than waiting for undelivered goods to return money.
The gentlemen in this room almost all have their stock accounts and futures accounts. Apart from socializing everywhere every day, they listen to stock brokers or futures brokers relaying how much money they earned today.
Even though they keep making money, they still worry, this is a phenomenon contradicting common sense, yet they don’t know what to do. They can only silently comply with the era’s development, swept along by the era’s tide rushing towards unknown frontiers.
"By the way, Lynch, can I address you this way?" After getting Lynch’s confirmation, the speaker continues with, "What business are you in?"
Lynch and another gentleman reached an exchange agreement, while tidying the sorting in his hand, Lynch replied, "I have a service company, an auction house. If anyone has good business, you can always come to me."
People are always curious about something unfamiliar, "Auction house? Is this industry profitable?"
Lynch shook his head, "No bank makes easy money, gentlemen, we earn only hard-earned money."
They asked some other questions, like the name of Lynch’s auction house. After knowing that Lynch’s auction house isn’t targeted at the upper society, they lost interest.
Of course, the poker game continues...