Manhattan Reborn 1978

Houston, Texas.

On a street in the city's downtown business district, a car slowly stopped on the side of the street.

David sat here and turned his head to look out the window, looking in the direction indicated by the driver Mr. Tianniu. After a moment of silence, he nodded and said, "This place is okay. You should find someone to sign a one-year lease first."

"Only one year? Don't you need to go up and take a look?" Mr. Tianniu glanced at Pamela Landy, who was sitting next to David in the back row, and asked casually.

"I don't want to look anymore." David's eyes were fixed on the building not far in front of him on the left. Suddenly, he stretched out his right arm and put it around Miss Randy's shoulders, and said softly.

"Whatever we say now is premature."

"If everything goes well, when the lease expires next year, we can take the money and pick a building nearby and buy it as a whole."

"Oh~Okay, I understand." Mr. Tianniu raised his eyebrows and smiled, looked around, seemed to have quickly selected the target, and smiled.

"Shall we go back?"

"Yeah." David responded, withdrew his gaze from the window, turned to look at Miss Randy beside him, and whispered.

"I never paid attention to what others said about me."

"But I can guess that most of them would say that I'm a very lucky, shameless, greedy and lustful bastard."

"We've had our run-ins a few times in New York and Hawaii, and you should have some idea of ​​my character."

"Now that you have chosen to accept the mission and sit next to me, can I say that you have developed a crush on me?"

"..." Miss Randy placed her hands on her legs properly, looked at David who was right in front of her, her face slowly turned red, she nodded slightly, and offered him a kiss.

This kiss was a little beyond David's expectations.

But since she had taken the initiative, David naturally would not be polite anymore. He put his arms around her and held her in his arms, his hands moving up and down until they were both out of breath and then separated.

"Huh~ Where's your underwear?" David licked the saliva on his lips and asked in surprise with his head tilted.

"Take it off."

"At the airport just now?"

"Yeah." Miss Randy's eyes were rippling. She licked her lips and smiled sweetly, seeming to be unsatisfied.

"Uh..." David felt speechless and tightened his arms. He looked out the window and said to Mr. Tianniu.

“Is there a large shopping mall nearby?”

"Have."

"Come on, let's go walk around the mall."

"Okay." Mr. Tianniu, who had been restraining himself, glanced in the rearview mirror at Miss Randy, who was curled up in David's arms. The smile on his lips gradually turned cold, and his eyes became inexplicably sharper.

----

The other side of the Pacific.

Island country.

Tokyo Haneda Airport.

In the orange-red morning light, a large private plane landed smoothly on the runway.

(Note: Due to geographical location and time difference, Tokyo is about 18 hours ahead of Houston. The "about" here means that the United States adjusts winter time and summer time according to seasonal changes every year.)

. . .

About half an hour later, daybreak came.

In several cars driving out of the airport.

Carnes Rothschild, who had just parted with David a few days ago and went home to "celebrate the holidays", yawned loudly and complained to Bill Gutheran who was sitting next to him.

"What's the matter that requires me to come all the way here? Can't you just tell me over the phone?"

"Hehe~" Bill tilted his head and gave Carnes a particularly fake smile, but his eyes were looking at Mr. Dwight Ryan sitting in the passenger seat, and he said meaningfully.

"If I don't call you over, I might be out of a job in a few days, right?"

"..Ah? What do you mean?" Carnes rubbed his eyes with his hands, looked at Bill, then looked at Mr. Dwight Ryan, whom his uncle sent to help him, and immediately understood and said in surprise.

"Hey Bill, are you competing with him for favor?"

"..Bullshit vying for favor! Are you a pig? Is your head full of damn shit?"

"Uh...hahahaha~" After being scolded by Bill for several consecutive times, Kanes covered his forehead and smiled awkwardly, saying nonchalantly.

"Don't you know me yet? Every time I have jet lag, I get confused for a while, and my mind is still not clear now."

"..FXXX YOU!" Bill raised his middle finger with an indignant look on his face. He glanced at Mr. Ryan who seemed to have heard nothing. He sighed in his heart and changed the subject.

“The crude oil trade between Malat and the commercial port of Nakhodka has been suspended recently.”

"We currently have seven tankers floating in the international waters south of the island nation."

"The remaining crude oil traded through Marat was sold to Vitol and several island companies."

"Seven tankers? How many are that?" When Kanes heard others talking about business, he immediately got himself into the mood and asked.

Bill tilted his head and observed Carnes carefully, with a look of relief in his eyes: "About 730 million barrels."

"Oh, what about the price? How much per barrel?"

"If you add in the holding costs for the next year, it would be around 24 million yuan per barrel."

"This price is quite good!"

"Then you called me here this time, isn't it just for this matter?"

"Of course not." Bill said, taking out a memo from his pocket and handing it to Carnes, deliberately lowering his voice.

"Marat Boyezhnev is a key figure David specially sent to the island country to preside over the crude oil transaction with the Nakhodka Commercial Port."

"But after my investigation, I found that this guy was able to contact the Nakhodka Commercial Port by phone when he was in Hawaii."

"Wait a minute!" Kanes understood the meaning of his words, felt very strange, frowned and stared at him and asked.

"When Marat was in Hawaii, the two of us and David were there too, right?"

"Yes."

"Do you think that he was able to contact the Nakhodka Commercial Port through the ordinary telephone on the island because someone was secretly helping him?"

"Yes."

"Then have you ever doubted his true identity... Is he a spy secretly sent to New York by Xiong Daguo?"

"..You know?"

"No, I know nothing."

“But these are not important at all!”

"What is his identity and does it have anything to do with me?"

"As long as he can help me make money, I don't care who he is or if he's doing some bullshit mission."

"So Bill, if you have anything else to say, don't say it. I don't want to hear it."

"..." Bill was speechless to find that Carnes was not joking. He nodded with a bitter feeling in his mouth and frowned.

"Now that this crude oil trade route has stopped, Marat and Kihara Nobunari, who were in charge of the transaction, came to me for help."

"For this reason, I talked to several people, and none of them admitted to obstructing the transaction. They all said that they hoped we could resume the transaction as soon as possible and sell them some crude oil."

"Did you find the wrong person? Didn't you look for the garrison?"

"They should be the ones who are most convenient for cutting off the maritime trade routes, right?"

"Yes, I approached the garrison, but they denied it, too."

"..." Kanes crossed his legs, rubbed his chin with his hands out of habit, and smiled unconsciously while deep in thought.

He didn't pay attention to Bill's reaction at the moment. He slowly arranged these known factors in his mind and said very confidently.

"Some time ago, I learned a lot about games and the conceptual distinctions of game theory under the guidance of Professor John Nash."

"Game, literally, refers to gambling and chess, etc., and is used to describe competition for interests."

"Games have existed since the beginning of human existence, and games are being played out around us all the time."

"Game theory is a systematic theory and a branch of applied mathematics."

"Therefore, the games that happen around us all the time are the concrete manifestation of game theory in reality."

When Carnes said this, he tilted his head to glance at Bill, then deliberately looked away to look at Mr. Ryan who was sitting in the passenger seat and listening attentively. After a pause of a few seconds, he continued with a smile.

“For example, right now, we are deeply involved in a multi-party dynamic game with incomplete information!”

“And the categories of games can be roughly divided into three, namely negative-sum games, zero-sum games, and positive-sum games.”

"A negative-sum game is one in which the participants gain less than they put in, and neither side gains any advantage. It is a lose-lose game."

“A zero-sum game means that the gains of one participant and the losses of the other participant can be offset to zero.”

“A positive-sum game means that all participants can benefit from the game without affecting the interests of other participants.”

“So the win-win cooperation and win-win game that David often talks about are actually the results of positive-sum games.”

"I... seem to understand what you mean." Bill frowned and thought, then nodded slowly.

"is it?"

"You're very nice, Bill."

“But even though I seem to understand, it’s still not enough, far from enough!”

Kanes felt that the thoughts in his mind were becoming clearer, and his tone became more and more confident.

"If we want to speculate in the international crude oil market after the outbreak of this oil crisis, we will inevitably fall into this large-scale multi-party dynamic game of incomplete information."

“Speculation is a classic zero-sum game.”

“Any speculative gain we make is necessarily a speculative loss for another participant.”

“The essence of speculation is that speculators predict changes in market prices and make money by buying and selling.”

“They don’t care about the actual value or use of the assets they trade, but instead focus solely on short-term market fluctuations and price movements.”

“To put it simply, I decided to speculate in international crude oil spot prices just to make money, and I had no other purpose.”

"But people who share the same ideas as me may only account for a small part of this multi-party dynamic game."

"Most of the rest chose to quietly enter the market before the oil crisis broke out. Their purpose was obviously not as simple as mine."

"They want more than just money, we just want money, so we can try to engage and cooperate with them to achieve a win-win game and get what we need."

"As for competitors who have the same goals as us, they are the opponents we need to defeat in the game."

As Carnes said this, he leaned forward and put his hand on Mr. Ryan's shoulder, but his eyes were fixed on Bill and he smiled.

"Those who intend to stop us from making money are the enemy."

“Those who are willing to cooperate with us to make money are our partners and friends.”

"You all should have your own ways of dealing with the enemy, so I won't waste any more words on this."

Mr. Dwight Ryan turned back, glanced at the hand of Carnes on his shoulder, and asked calmly, "What's next? What should we do?"