Chapter 197: Pure Gold!

Cha Jiham had expressed concern that rumors might spread while the golden Buddha statue that had belonged to Politburo member Liu Peiqi was being transferred to Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission Tang Guochang.

At the same time, he proposed melting it down, adding another 500 kilograms of gold, and making a new 1.7-meter-tall Buddha statue.

Triad Vice Chairman Wei Chen accepted his proposal and was merely waiting for the right moment to bring up the matter with BYG Auto CEO Du Zhiguo.

However, CEO Du Zhiguo brought it up before he could.

Considering this a tremendous stroke of luck, Wei Chen continued negotiating with Du Zhiguo.

“I can accept your proposal, CEO Du, but there’s something that concerns me.”

“Tell me what it is.”

“Vice Chairman Tang Guochang may refuse.”

“I’ll handle that myself, so you have nothing to worry about, Vice Chairman Wei.”

“In that case, I’ll leave everything in your hands, CEO Du.”

“Excellent. I’d like to pay only the deposit today and hand over the remainder when I receive the finished statue.”

“That’s perfectly reasonable. I accept your terms, CEO Du.”

“Wonderful. It’s a pleasure doing business with someone decisive. Shall we draw up the contract?”

Vice Chairman Wei Chen, CEO Du Zhiguo, and Director Pan Kai headed into the study to draw up the contract.

As though he had been waiting for exactly that, Chief Secretary Kang Inhan approached me.

“Chief Cha, couldn’t Vice Chairman Tang Guochang consider this a bribe and refuse to accept the golden Buddha statue?”

“Vice Chairman Wei Chen and CEO Du Zhiguo know perfectly well what kind of man he is. Since neither of them raised that concern, it means he’ll accept the gift. Besides, Politburo member Liu Peiqi and CIA Director Eddie Griffin both mentioned that he’s extremely greedy.”

“Ah, I see. Then how much will Vice Chairman Wei make by reselling the statue and five hundred kilograms of gold to CEO Du?”

“If we assume the cost of melting and recasting is 0.5%, he’ll make roughly 4.5% on the statue and 6.5% on the five hundred kilograms of gold.”

Chief Secretary Kang Inhan spent a while calculating something on his phone before saying,

“Making 120 million dollars... I envy Vice Chairman Wei.”

“We stand to make as much as 1.85 billion dollars, so there’s nothing to envy.”

“Ah! The golden statue originally belonged to us, didn’t it?”

“Haha, thanks to your persistence, Mr. Kang.”

“Still, will Vice Chairman Wei be able to earn his bonus?”

North Korea maintained hacker groups in ten major Chinese cities to conduct cyberwarfare.

I had asked Vice Chairman Wei Chen to confirm the existence of those hacker organizations by three o’clock in the afternoon.

To speed up the verification process, I had promised him a bonus.

“One percent is roughly twenty million dollars. Vice Chairman Wei is greedier for money than ever, so he’ll bend over backward to earn that bonus.”

“Assuming those hacker groups really exist, how do you plan to eliminate them?”

I had one idea, but the chances of actually pulling it off were extremely slim.

Even as a last resort, it was better to keep my mouth shut for now.

“I haven’t thought about that yet.”

“What if we ask Director Griffin for help?”

“Our country is the target of those hacker groups’ cyberwarfare. Because of that, he won’t agree to our request.”

At that moment, Director Lee Menghong joined the conversation, apparently having something to add.

“Chief Cha, three years ago, the servers of several key U.S. government agencies went down. After an investigation that lasted an entire year, the FBI determined that North Korea was responsible.”

“You mean the United States is also a target of their cyberwarfare?”

Click!

At that exact moment, the study door flew open, and Vice Chairman Wei Chen, CEO Du Zhiguo, and Director Pan Kai rushed out.

Realizing that something urgent had happened, we sprang up from the sofa.

“Vice Chairman Wei, what happened?”

“Vice Chairman Tang Guochang will be here in five minutes.”

We hurried out of the villa and waited for Vice Chairman Tang Guochang to arrive.

“CEO Du, weren’t you supposed to have lunch with Vice Chairman Tang?”

CEO Du Zhiguo had arranged to meet Tang Guochang at 11:30 a.m.

But Tang was coming two hours ahead of schedule, so Cha Jiham asked in confusion.

“That’s right.”

“Did you ask Vice Chairman Tang why he was coming so early?”

“Of course I did, but he didn’t answer.”

“I see. What about the deal for the golden Buddha statue and the five hundred kilograms of gold?”

“We ran out of time, so we agreed to sign the contract later.”

At that moment, an ominous thought flashed through my mind.

This was bad.

We had planned to move the golden Buddha statue somewhere else before Vice Chairman Tang Guochang arrived.

If he saw the statue, there was no telling how things might unfold.

I cautiously asked Vice Chairman Wei Chen how we should deal with the problem, only to hear a heavy sigh.

“Haa...”

Vice Chairman Wei let out a deep sigh, making it clear that he had no ideas either.

Before long, a luxury limousine came into view as it passed through the villa’s main gate.

We straightened ourselves up to greet Vice Chairman Tang Guochang.

Meanwhile, the limousine pulled up in front of us and stopped.

A waiting Triad member opened the door, and a man with sharp, penetrating features stepped out.

“Vice Chairman Tang, it’s been a long time.”

CEO Du Zhiguo greeted Tang Guochang and extended his hand.

Shaking his right hand, Vice Chairman Tang Guochang replied with a broad smile.

“It certainly has. You have a wonderful view from your villa, CEO Du.”

“Haha. Is that so? Allow me to introduce everyone here to greet you. This is Mr. Pan Kai. He owns hotels in Macau and other major cities throughout our country...”

Everything went smoothly as CEO Du Zhiguo introduced Director Pan Kai to Tang Guochang.

However, when it was my turn, things hit a snag.

Vice Chairman Tang Guochang addressed me in an overly cordial tone.

“It’s a great honor to meet you, Chief Cha Jiham.”

“Excuse me, what do you mean...?”

“I know just how extraordinary a man you are, Chief Cha.”

I decided that Vice Chairman Tang Guochang was under some kind of misconception.

Vice Chairman Wei Chen had told CEO Du Zhiguo that I was on close terms with President Douglas.

CEO Du Zhiguo had obviously repeated what he had heard to Vice Chairman Tang Guochang word for word.

I needed to clear up that misunderstanding.

“I’ve never even seen President Douglas in person.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“I’m not quite sure what you mean, Vice Chairman Tang.”

“I’ll explain the whole situation to you later. Let’s finish the introductions first.”

“Very well. This is a representative from Korea Investment...”

After the rather lengthy round of introductions was finally over, we moved into the living room.

Once we had settled down with refreshments and tea served by the Triad members, we began talking.

“Chief Cha, would you like to know why I’ve been so warm toward you?”

“I’m listening.”

“Two years ago, I visited the United States as part of the Chinese President’s entourage. At the time, I had the opportunity to meet Advisor Graff. After hearing about you from CEO Du, I personally called Advisor Graff to find out whether everything I’d heard was true.”

Vice Chairman Tang Guochang took a sip of tea to wet his throat before continuing.

“Advisor Graff spent more than ten minutes praising you nonstop, Chief Cha.”

‘I wonder how much Advisor Graff exaggerated about me.’

“It seems Advisor Graff went a little overboard.”

“Oh, no. He’s an extremely logical and level-headed man.”

In other words, ‘Don’t try to feed me that nonsense.’

“If you say so, then I have nothing to argue with.”

“That’s precisely why I dropped everything and rushed here. I wanted to meet you as soon as possible, Chief Cha.”

At that moment, the true reason for Vice Chairman Tang Guochang’s unexpectedly early visit was finally revealed.

“I’m no different from anyone else.”

“But I was told that your brain surpasses even a supercomputer.”

“I completely agree with Vice Chairman Tang on that point.”

Vice Chairman Wei Chen hurriedly backed up Tang Guochang’s words.

“It sounds like you’ve received quite a bit of help from Chief Cha, Vice Chairman Wei?”

“I had a sworn enemy, and with Chief Cha’s help, I utterly crushed him.”

“Is that so? Would you mind telling me how you dealt with him?”

“This isn’t really the right time to talk about it.”

Since he had made it clear that he didn’t want to share the details, asking any further would have been the height of tactlessness.

Vice Chairman Tang Guochang shifted his gaze toward the golden Buddha statue standing in the corner of the living room and asked CEO Du Zhiguo,

“CEO Du, are you a Buddhist as well?”

At last, Vice Chairman Tang Guochang had shown interest in the statue.

CEO Du Zhiguo mentally went over his recent conversation with Cha Jiham before answering.

“No.”

“Then what is that statue?”

“There’s someone I wanted to give a gift to, so I asked Vice Chairman Wei Chen to obtain it for me. However, it turned out to be smaller than I expected, so I’m planning to melt it down and make a new one, 1.7 meters tall.”

“It looks like a gilded bronze statue. Is it really worth melting down and remaking?”

“This statue isn’t gilded. It’s made of pure gold.”

“Pure gold?!”

Genuinely astonished, Vice Chairman Tang Guochang’s eyes widened as he repeated the words.

“Yes, that’s right. It took 2,520 kilograms of pure gold to make this statue.”

“That’s an incredible amount.”

“Exactly. To make a statue 1.7 meters tall, we’ll need roughly three tons of gold.”

“Wow. Now I’m truly curious who such an expensive gift is intended for.”

“Haha, none other than you, Vice Chairman Tang.”

“Me?!”

Having never expected such a turn of events, Vice Chairman Tang Guochang pointed at himself in surprise.

“If you grant one request of mine, I’ll present this golden Buddha statue to you as a gift.”

“Let’s hear the request first.”

“I heard that, in order to stimulate the stagnant automobile industry, there are plans to replace military vehicles with electric vehicles. Please use your influence, Vice Chairman Tang, to ensure that our company, BYG Auto, is selected for this project.”

“Hmm...”

Tang Guochang left the sentence unfinished and rose from his seat to walk over to the window, apparently gathering his thoughts.

Folding his arms across his chest, he stared at the scenery outside and sank into deep thought.

Deciding the moment was right, I quietly addressed CEO Du Zhiguo.

“Weren’t you a little too direct in bringing it up?”

“Vice Chairman Tang is a military man. He doesn’t like beating around the bush.”

“Ah, now I understand.”

After quite a long while, Vice Chairman Tang Guochang finally seemed to reach a decision and returned to his seat.

“CEO Du, if the entire military EV project is handed exclusively to BYG Auto, there’s a high chance that unpleasant rumors will start circulating. So let me ask you this: how about a 50% share?”

CEO Du Zhiguo considered Vice Chairman Tang Guochang’s proposal perfectly reasonable.

Naturally so, considering there were dozens of electric vehicle manufacturers operating in China.

However, he intended to give Tang a 2.4-billion-dollar golden Buddha statue as a bribe.

That was why he couldn’t agree to those terms.

“Vice Chairman Tang, how about 70%?”

“Seventy percent is too much. How about 60%?”

“Phew... I suppose there’s no helping it. I accept your proposal, Vice Chairman Tang.”

“Thank you for understanding my position.”

“Don’t mention it. When is the military EV project scheduled to begin?”

“According to the plan, no later than the second half of the year.”

At that moment, Vice Chairman Wei Chen joined the conversation, having something to say as well.

“Vice Chairman Tang, what form would you like us to use for the 1.7-meter statue?”

“I think a 1.5-meter-tall seated Buddha would be perfect.”

“If you send us a photograph or image of the seated Buddha, we’ll make it exactly like that.”

“I’ll send it as soon as possible. By the way, how long will it take to make?”

“I can’t say for certain, but...”

Vice Chairman Tang Guochang understood perfectly well why Vice Chairman Wei Chen was hesitating to answer.

“My father turns eighty-eight on the twentieth of next month. I’d like to present it to him for his birthday.”

“I understand. We’ll try to finish it as quickly as possible.”

Ring, ring, ring!

At that moment, Vice Chairman Tang Guochang’s phone, which was lying on the table, began to ring.

After glancing at the caller’s name, he frowned and pressed the answer button.

“What happened this time?”