"Come, have a seat. I don't have much to do today. Let's have a chat," the consul said to Jiang Fei with a smile.
"Yes, sir! Sir! " Jiang Fei sat on the sofa opposite the consul and tried to be as respectful as possible. However, he was not too formal. After all, he came from the slums. It was normal for him to be a little reserved when sitting opposite the consul. However, if he sat upright and still, it would be a little inappropriate for him to act like an old fox in the officialdom.
"Who else do you have in your family?" the consul asked with a smile.
"My parents died when I was young. I lived on the streets since I was a child," Jiang Fei said. Ralph's life was indeed quite tragic.
"Sigh! What a pitiful person. "The consul sighed and then began to chat with Jiang Fei.
As they chatted, they finished talking about their daily lives. Then, as the consul continued talking, the topic shifted to current affairs.
"What do you think about the robbery in the Life Building?" The consul asked casually. He really did not intend for Jiang Fei to say anything. He was just casually talking about it.
"To be honest, I don't know much about it. Although I was the head of the security department of the Life Building at that time, I only had the layout of the building up to the tenth floor. Moreover, the contents of the tenth floor were hidden, so I didn't know there was an eleventh floor underground." Jiang Fei said.
"And then? I heard that you were there when the robbery happened." The consul asked.
"Yes, I was there at that time. There were many safes on the eleventh floor. I don't know what was stored in them, but they seemed to be very important. About one-third of the safes were opened." Jiang Fei told the truth. These things were too easy to find. If he lied here, he would be asking for trouble.
"You don't know what was in the safes?" The consul asked.
"I don't know … It seems to be very important, but they didn't tell me. They also told me not to tell anyone about the robbery," Jiang Fei said.
"Do you know about the Moon Crystal?" The consul did not know what was on Jiang Fei's mind. Maybe he really trusted Jiang Fei, or maybe he wanted to train Jiang Fei to fight against Colonel Keno, so he actually mentioned the Moon Crystal to Jiang Fei.
"I know. This thing is very valuable. You can exchange it at the bank at any time," Jiang Fei said.
"That's right. Normally, it's like this. Banks rely on a large number of Moon Crystals as their foundation to issue paper money. If they don't have Moon Crystals to back them up, the paper they issue is useless. No one will acknowledge it," the consul said.
"What do you mean?" Jiang Fei feigned ignorance.
"Think about it. If the bank guarantees that you can exchange paper money for Moon Crystals at any time, wouldn't you think that paper money and Moon Crystals are equivalent and that it's more convenient to use paper money? Wouldn't you put the Moon Crystals in the bank and use paper money to spend money?" The Consul also knew that Ralph was born in a poor family and had never gone to school. However, in order to nurture him, he patiently explained everything to Jiang Fei.
"Yeah, it's so inconvenient to buy things with the Moon Crystal. Moreover, if you buy some small things, it'll be troublesome for people to find the change!" Jiang Fei continued to play his role.
"But if the Moon Crystals in the bank suddenly disappear and you can't exchange them anymore, what will you do?" The Consul continued to persuade him.
"Of course I'll go to the bank and exchange as much as I can. Otherwise, what's the point of holding on to paper money?" Jiang Fei said.
"Then why don't you exchange them normally?" The Consul asked.
"Usually, the bank has enough Moon Crystals. They have them whenever I go to the bank. Why would I exchange them then? But if they don't have enough Moon Crystals, and I don't exchange them, won't the others take them? Wouldn't my paper money be useless then? "Jiang Fei said.
"Yeah. So when everyone goes to exchange, won't the bank go bankrupt?" The Consul asked.
"How is that possible? Since the bank guarantees that they can exchange them at any time, it means that they have enough Moon Crystals to exchange for paper money!" Jiang Fei continued to play dumb.
"Sigh, you really need to study more. When banks issue notes, they don't issue notes for one month's worth of Spirit Crystals. They issue notes for two or even three or four times the value of Spirit Crystals per month!" the consul said.
"Isn't that a scam? What if everyone goes to exchange for Moon Crystals? Won't they be exposed? "Jiang Fei deliberately played along.
"What did you say just now? As long as they guarantee that they can exchange them at any time, you won't exchange them! Even if someone is willing to exchange for Moon Crystals, the bank can give them to you. But after a few days, you'll realize that the bank can't fulfill its promise. Then, you'll think that it's troublesome to use Moon Crystals and exchange them for paper money. So, as long as the bank guarantees that they can exchange for a certain amount of Moon Crystals, it's not a problem for them to issue more paper money, "the Consul said.
"If that's the case, why are you afraid now?" Jiang Fei continued to play along.
"Now that one-third of the bank's Moon Crystals have been stolen, if word of this gets out, won't the people go crazy? Everyone is afraid that they won't be able to exchange for Moon Crystals if they're late. So, they'll definitely go to the bank to make a run. Moreover, the bank has already issued more than one-third of the Moon Crystals. Now that they've lost one-third of their Moon Crystals, they won't be able to exchange for Moon Crystals, "the Consul said.
"And then?" Jiang Fei asked.
"Then, the bank only has two choices. First, continue to exchange for Moon Crystals. When all the Moon Crystals have been exchanged, they'll go bankrupt, and the remaining paper money will become waste paper," the Consul said.
"What's the second choice?" Jiang Fei asked again.
"The second choice is to refuse to exchange for Moon Crystals, or to limit the amount of Moon Crystals. Although the paper money won't immediately become waste paper, it'll depreciate crazily. Originally, it could be used to buy something, but now, it might not even be able to buy half or one-third of it!" the Consul said.
"If that's the case, it'll be a mess!" Jiang Fei said.
"Yeah. Now, do you understand why this matter has to be kept a secret?" the Consul asked.
"Yes, I understand. But how do we solve this problem?" Jiang Fei asked.
"The most important thing now is to block the news. However, there's no such thing as an impenetrable wall. The news will spread sooner or later. So, we have to seize this time to catch the robbers and hand over the Moon Crystals. When the news gets out, the people will be relieved. They won't concentrate on making a run on the bank, and the bank will continue to operate," the Consul said.
"Oh! Oh! " Jiang Fei nodded. In fact, other than this method, there were other ways to solve this problem. However, those were all ideas that the financial experts in the three-dimensional world had come up with. The Gamma Space was relatively small. The financial world here was relatively stable, so it had never experienced a crisis. It was already very good that they could come up with these two possibilities.
(End of Chapter)
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