Manhattan Reborn 1978

new York.

After midnight~

Wildfire Bar, 42nd Street, Manhattan.

Alto Sidric of the Sidric family and his "wooden" brother Rosenlow were sitting at a small table in the corner of the bar, toasting and drinking together.

After a while.

Madonna Sigourney, who had been quietly observing the two of them after work, asked Erica for a bottle of good wine and a glass after finishing her work. She mustered up the courage to walk next to the two of them and "slap" the bottle on the table. .

"Uh..." Alto and Rosenlot looked at Madonna, wondering what she wanted to do this time.

Madonna pulled a chair from the side and sat down. She glanced at Rosenlot, who was not interested in her, and looked straight at Alto and asked.

"why?"

Aalto was a little confused by the question, and asked with a smile: "Why?"

"Are you avoiding me?"

"Why am I hiding from you?"

"If I wanted to avoid you, I wouldn't come here to drink."

Madonna was obviously not satisfied with this answer. She opened the bottle and poured herself a glass of wine. She drank it with a hint of resentment after raising her neck.

Rosenlow observed the expressions of the two people, picked up his cup, stood up, walked to the side and sat down, enjoying a moment of silence.

Seeing that "the wooden man" was gone, Alto picked up the wine bottle and filled Madonna with a glass, smiling provocatively.

"Don't you want to drink?"

"Come~ I'll drink with you!"

"..." The resentment and grievances in Madonna's eyes gradually gathered into a "vast ocean", and she reached out to grab the cup and drank the wine in a big gulp.

Alto also readily picked up the full glass of wine, drank it in front of Madonna, and then poured another glass of wine by himself, thus catching up with her "progress."

So, the two of them drank a bottle of wine quickly, one glass at a time.

Alto took out his wallet, waved to Erica, the night shift bartender, and ordered five bottles of wine.

Erica held a tray with an expressionless face, put all the wine bottles on the table, and watched Madonna leave without saying a word.

"If you continue to drink, I won't be able to calculate your wages tonight!"

"..." Madonna paused as she reached for the wine bottle, gritted her teeth, opened it, looked at Alto, and filled herself another glass.

A teasing smile appeared on Alto's lips, with an expression of complete enjoyment. He opened a bottle of wine for himself and drank it down. .

When Madonna saw him drinking so "desperately", she felt anger welling up in her chest, and she picked up the bottle and poured it into her mouth. .

One bottle, two bottles. .

When there was only the last bottle of wine left on the table, Madonna finally couldn't help it anymore. .

She covered her mouth with confusion, stared at Alto for a few seconds, turned around and ran into the bathroom to release all the "pressure". .

Alto seemed to be fine, opened the last bottle of wine, poured himself a glass, and took a pleasant sip.

Rosenlow, who had been paying attention to him silently, turned around and saw his "ugly appearance". He stood up and walked to the bar, took out his wallet, took out a wad of bills, put it in front of Erica and said.

"Please pass it on to Madonna."

"What do you mean?" Erica asked deliberately with her hands on her hips without going to get the money.

Rosenlow said nothing, pointed to the bathroom, turned around and walked out of the bar.

When Alto saw him leaving, he suddenly felt very bored and smacked his lips, got up and walked out of the bar. .

When Madonna came out of the bathroom and found that Aalto had "run away", she instantly felt so broken that she went back into the bathroom and couldn't help crying. .

. . .

In front of the Wildfire Bar.

Rosenlow lit a cigarette and threw the cigarette case to Aalto.

Alto didn't want to smoke, so he put it directly into his pocket, turned up his collar and asked, "Have you decided?"

"Ah."

"Then should we discuss it with Polly?"

"Ah."

"What do you think? How much do you plan to borrow?"

Rosenlow, who usually didn't like smoking, took two puffs of his cigarette and exhaled a cloud of smoke, saying in a muffled voice.

"If David's prediction is accurate, the Federal Reserve will continue to choose to raise interest rates to curb inflation, and there will be no problem no matter how much money our banks borrow."

Alto was not surprised and nodded slowly: "Now that we are on the card table, we must place a bet!"

"But, if the Federal Reserve rejects your invitation to borrow money, or changes the fixed interest rate to a floating interest rate... what will you do?"

"No." Rosenlow shook his head firmly.

"For short- and medium-term loans between banks, a fixed interest rate that is satisfactory to both parties will be agreed upon in advance to ensure that both parties will not be harmed by interest rate fluctuations."

"The overnight lending rate implemented by the Federal Reserve Bank of America this month is 10.62%. I am prepared to offer an annual interest rate of 14%. I can borrow as much as I can from the New York Fed and major banks in New York!"

"14%, can I borrow money?"

“What’s your psychological maximum interest rate?”

“One-year borrowing, 16%!”

"this.."

"All I can say is, give it a try." Aalto did not feel very optimistic about Rosenlow's "radical" decision.

He raised his head and glanced at the narrow sky above his head. After thinking for a moment, he continued to ask.

"Where are you going to spend the money?"

"Buy half of the bonds and keep the other half as a temporary reserve!"

"what?"

"are you crazy?"

"It's impossible for you to earn back the interest like this!"

"I know."

Rosenlow threw away the cigarette butt, looked at Alto and said calmly: "In the past, we didn't know the rules of the game, let alone how to play it."

"Now, it's different~"

“Many people don’t understand that luck is very, very important!”

“Because the biggest role of luck is not to make people lucky and make a lot of money, but to allow us to avoid risks and avoid bad luck!”

“Without risk and misfortune, all that’s left is good luck.”

"This is the key to luck!"

"..." Alto looked at Rosenlow speechlessly. David's smiling face suddenly appeared in his brain that was gradually numbed by alcohol.

Rosenlow seemed to guess what he was thinking by observing his expression, and nodded slowly.

"If we get along for a long time, we will be able to guess a rough idea of ​​each other's thoughts."

"That's right!"

"I'm taking a big gamble!"

"I lost the bet, I admit it!"

"The bet has won, our bank and family..."

"I know!" Alto covered his forehead with his hands, feeling the alcohol rising and his head starting to feel dizzy.

Rosenlow breathed a sigh of relief, turned his head to glance at the darkened window upstairs, and turned to walk into the bar.