Andy stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window of Lehman's office like a magpie nest, looking at the dark and gloomy night sky, looking down at the square of reporters from various TV stations and major media around the world on the street opposite downstairs.

"Ah, do you like this?"

"not bad……"

Andy turned around and smiled and looked at Al who was drinking coffee on the side and said, "Then, this building will be the headquarters of Gaia Company in the future."...

At 8 p.m. on September 14, 2008, Lehman was finally pushed to the cliff of bankruptcy. The directors waiting in the conference room of Lehman headquarters were now in silence with a pale face. Ford, who was sitting on the main seat, looked around with a depressed look on his face.

"I have done everything I should do. I put down all my self-esteem and called everyone who might be a life-saving benefactor. Haha, do you believe it? Almost no one is willing to answer my phone..."

"Damn it! He's a robber! Shameless robber..." One of the board members cursed angrily with a dark face.

"I agree with Andy Smith's acquisition. Don't look at me like this. At this point, is there any other way? It's more important to recover the losses than anything else. Everyone, look outside. Almost everyone is waiting for us to fall down and then flock to share our wealth. What are you still hesitating about..."

"Dingling"

At this moment, the telephone in the middle of the conference table rang, and everyone, including Ford, changed their faces suddenly. The atmosphere in the conference room became even more depressing. A ferocious expression appeared on Ford's pale face, and he stretched out his trembling fingers and pressed it on the hands-free.

"Good evening, Mr. Fold, I am Christopher Cox, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission..."

At this time, the US Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox's face was also extremely ugly, and he cursed the US Treasury Secretary who forced him to make the call with almost the most vicious curse in his heart.

Originally, according to the US regulatory framework, the SEC was the main regulator of Lehman, a listed company. However, the SEC obviously did not fulfill its regulatory responsibilities for the accumulated risks of Lehman. Paulson was very dissatisfied with Cox, and in the subsequent government intervention, he was marginalized by Paulson and Bernanke.

Cox was very reluctant to make this call because Lehman was not a private enterprise after all. If he couldn't continue to operate, he would automatically declare bankruptcy according to normal procedures. The government regulatory authorities took the initiative to put pressure on a certain enterprise to go bankrupt. This situation is very rare.

Thinking of his request to Paulson and New York Fed President Geithner to announce it together, but Paulson refused it. It really happened that the saying was that the senior official was crushed to death. Under Paulson's high pressure, Cox had to announce the bad news alone.

His phone call was from the New York Fed, and the sound quality was a bit noisy.

Cox's voice was a little hoarse, and his tone was helpless to announce to Lehman Brothers' board of directors: "I won't tell you what to do, I can only tell you that you must make a decision quickly."

Lehman's conference room was silent, with only heavy breathing left, when Cox's voice continued to come from the phone: "This is a grim moment, and the board of directors is facing a major choice."

At this time, someone in the conference room finally couldn't hold back his anger and let out a sneer like a night owl. John, director of Lehman Brothers, asked knowingly: "Are you instructing us to file a bankruptcy application?"

Cox fell into silence, and both ends of the phone fell into silence.

After a while, Cox's voice came from the phone: "You have a great responsibility for the current situation, and you need to act according to the opportunity."

Beep...

There was only a harsh busy voice in the dead conference room. The directors of Lehman Brothers leaned on the chair in a daze. I didn't know what to say. The resolution of the Lehman Brothers board of directors below had no practical significance. The exhausted Ford leaned on the chair and said in frustration: "I think this is a farewell."

Bang!

"Sell! Sell to Andy Smith! Sell everything he wants to! The vultures on Wall Street have begun to hover over our heads. They will laugh at us while dividing the bodies of Lehman Brothers Shang Wenyou Wen. Even if they die, they will not let them succeed!"

"agree!"

"I agree!"...

The whole conference room was filled with excitement, almost everyone gritted their teeth and roared with ferocious faces.

Click

The eO offices were pushed away suddenly. Andy, who was sitting on the sofa, looked at a large group of board members led by Ford, and Andy stood up and started shaking hands with Al and greeted each other.

"You won!" Ford looked at Andy with a complicated expression and said hoarsely.

"No, we are a win-win situation! You can get the money and keep going..." Andy smiled and comforted her as she said something she didn't believe.

"There is no future anymore. They ask us... to say that these are meaningless. Today, all the directors are here. Then, let the transaction begin!" Ford shook his head and said in a sad tone.

call

Andy exhaled a heavy breath in his heart, looked back at Al with some excitement, suppressed his excited expression and said, "Let us come up!"

Al's eyes emitted a sharp and dazzling light, he nodded slightly, took out his cell phone and dialed it out...

The gloom over Wall Street. At 10:30 in the middle of the night, at the entrance of the Lehman Brothers Corporation in Manhattan, some employees walked out of the building with cartons, large handbags and even trolley boxes, and some people carried umbrellas and handicrafts with the words Lehman Brothers. The police used isolation rails to maintain order and traffic around the surrounding area. Opposite the building was lined up with reporters from major American TV stations that were broadcasting live.

"Look, someone came out... it was Chadford..."

"Oh my God, who did I see? That's Andy Smith..."

"God, they are coming here. Have you turned around..."

The reporter group on the roadside opposite suddenly started to move, and the flashing light immediately dispelled the night. Andy and Ford, who were walking side by side to the reporter group, were covered with a light curtain. The police, Lehman security, and bodyguards were as if they were facing a great enemy and began to isolate the entire area. Passersby watching the fun and the devastated Lehman employees were surrounded.

In the night, the area in front of Lehman Building was illuminated as if it was daytime, crowded with people, and the scene was extremely quiet. Even the reporters who liked to speak randomly kept quiet at this moment, focusing their attention on Andy and Ford on the scene.

"Two hours ago, we successfully reached a deal with Mr. Smith. Lehman's New York headquarters behind us, two data centers in the United States and North America, and the core European business units were sold to Gaia Investment Consulting...."

Buzz

The audience was in an uproar. The reporters widened their eyes, excitedly looking forward to poking the microphone on the faces of the two of them. They struggled to restrain the questions they wanted to ask, waiting for the two to continue to disclose more information.

Andy glanced at Ford, who didn't want to say anything more, and knew it was time to appear on his own. With a calm smile on his face, he took a small step forward and spoke calmly in front of everyone on the scene and all the Americans in front of the TV that were paying attention to Lehman's bankruptcy news.

"When I learned about 1pm this afternoon that the British gave up the acquisition of Lehman at the last moment and kept asking 'What will the US government do if Lehman Brothers collapse?'...

As I left the Fed, I saw the despair on everyone's face. They were fighting to the death all weekend and I felt sorry for them.

When I got home, I couldn't calm down. Thinking of the upcoming storms, a wave of fear suddenly surged into my heart. If Lehman was in name only, Wall Street's problems might be out of control.

As the United States gets deeper and deeper in the quagmire of recession, the collapse of any large financial institution will trigger a chain reaction of disasters. This is far from what we can... I told myself that I must do something, even if I do something within my ability, to try to stop a terrible disaster from coming later. Although it is just a drop in the bucket, I tried my best."

Andy said with emotion, ignoring the strange expression that Ford was about to spit out, but looking at him and said, "Chad, don't thank me. Finally, I wish you good luck, God bless you, God bless America!"

As he said that, he didn't care about Ford's expression that wanted to bite him to death, gave him a hug, then turned around and left quickly, ignoring the group of reporters behind him that were already in full swing. Noisy sounds resounded throughout the scene.
Chapter completed!