Release that Man

The paper bag in question was the kind that was could be found anywhere with two holes for his eyes. Ol’ K had the bag over his head. Not only was Qin Chu confused, even when Ye Shuang saw that, she was quite speechless. “…Ol’ K, wouldn’t it be better for you to just invest in a mask?”

Ol’ K was a technical worker, and it was understandable that he did not want to show his true face before many people. However, there were many ways to do that. Why would he pick a method that was so crazy?

Ye Shuang suddenly felt like he had greatly lowered the standard of her team. With a teammate like that, would Qin Chu place his trust in her, and would he be interested in what she wanted to say?

Thankfully, later Ol’ K used his own ability to pull up his impression.

“I’m not going to talk about the details on Xia Cheng’s resume. Instead, I’ll let Mr. Qin see something else.” Ol’ K’s vibrant laugh filtered through the paper bag. He lowered his head to type on the keyboard, and the screen dwindled and fixed itself at the center. Then, eight different screens with data popped up around it.

“Take a look at this first.” As Ol’ K spoke, the top left screen expanded. Qin Chu subconsciously looked around him. He thought that they were there to discuss something, so he chose a semi-open seat that was rather secluded. No one was paying them any attention.

“Here, use this.” Ye Shuang dropped a set of ear-buds with three outputs on the table. Then she put one on and gave Su Zheng another. Qin Chu heard that and grabbed the last one. As Ye Shuang pressed the button on screen, the sound went from the speaker to the ear-buds. The familiar character on screen also attracted Qin Chu’s attention. Xia Cheng, in different outfit, at different office and unit, was quite a surprise.

“Xia Cheng used many different identities to infiltrate many different companies. All these identities could be traced, and they have complete files and history, similar to the one use by ‘Xia Cheng’.” Ol’ K clicked on these different screens, and the resumes and histories of these characters appeared on screen. Other than that, there was an introduction that stated that these companies were bigger than they were.

“We don’t know why Xia Cheng picked these companies to work at, but we can confirm a few things. One, no matter how Xia Cheng first entered the company, in the end, he rose to one of the core characters of the companies with incredible speed. Two, after Xia Cheng joined these companies, their scale would expand to a certain degree after a fixed amount of time. Thus far, the company that benefited the most had expanded three times its original size.”

Qin Chu asked Ye Shuang for permission to control the computer and looked through Xia Cheng’s employment records had at those companies. Based on those documents and evidence, the real ‘resume’ of this Xia Cheng was indeed scary.

The pictures not only had the working photos and files of Xia Cheng working at these companies, they also had photocopies of the identity cards and various certificates that Xia Cheng had used when he applied to those companies.

Whether it was Zhang San, the scientist, or Lee Si, the manager for an import company, the many certificates and identity cards did belong to the current Xia Cheng. The only difference was the graduation picture from the primary school and secondary school… Comparing the two, other than the gender, there were few similarities to these pictures. Most likely, these were the real owners of these identities. Disappeared people, those who had died without anyone completing a death certificate, cooperation with an orphanage, problems with the national registry department. As long as there was money, to find or cultivate a legal ‘identity’ was not that difficult.

Even Qin Chu knew how to do that. After all, there were quite a number of stowaways that arrived at Xiang Jiang, and some of them were valuable talents.

“Mr. Qin should notice that Xia Cheng is actually quite a capable person.” Since their ear buds were connected, it was easy to communicate. After waiting for Qin Chu to digest the information, Ye Shuang pointed on the files on screen and smiled. “His purpose and whether those companies were cooperating with him aside, we only focus on the result… Whenever Xia Cheng joins the company, the company will grow to become the leader of the industry within the area. Does Mr. Qin admit that fact or not?”

Qin Chu looked at the examples and data and also used his phone to search the internet. He was quiet for a while before nodding. “If all this is true, then your conclusion is correct.”

“Xia Cheng never once announced to an outsider the scope of his job, and he rarely shows himself. He only shows up when there is a cooperation, so there are not many industry rumors about him.” Ye Shuang continued slowly. “However, since we already know the companies that he has worked for earlier, if you want to, Mr. Qin, you can just take Xia Cheng’s picture to ask the old workers at these companies. You should be able to get the answer easily.

“So, we can assume that Mr. Qin has already verified that and agreed with our investigation result.”

Ye Shuang nodded, giving no chance to the other person to steal the speaking right away from her. “With that conclusion, Xia Cheng now poses a big threat to you. After all… he is currently working for your competition.”

Following that, Ol’ K helpfully pulled up the details on the current situation of these companies. The many contracts, the doubled and tripled investment, the opening of branches, and so on…

It was as if they had opened a cheat, and these companies expanded smoothly and without errors. Examples of failed investments or losses were non-existent, and the profit margin kept going up and up and up. Whatever they invested in, they would gain. Whatever they designed, they would profit…

Well, such was money-laundering. The most important thing was ‘profit’, or else how were they going to turn the illegal money into legal money?

Of course, Ye Shuang did not think that this was all that surprising, but in Qin Chu’s eyes, these were impossible phenomena. “These accounts… Could it be that there is someone behind Xia Cheng who stayed back to help these companies after he left?”

Without a powerful background, such a profitable situation was impossible.

Ye Shuang smiled mysteriously. “For now, we cannot provide further explanation, but if you are willing, we can talk about the possibility of cooperation and further investigation…”

…

After they left the café, Ye Shuang drank a lot but ate little. After all, it was difficult to talk business with Qin Chu; the man was a real successful businessman. He left no stone unturned and focused on every detail. She barely had enough time to come up with the answers, so how was she able to order things to eat?

However, other than the hungry stomach, Ye Shuang still managed to leave with a cheque of 2,000,000 Hong Kong dollars in her pocket. That might not have looked like much, but if combined with the money from Lin Yu, it would be quite a large sum.

“Looks like that Qin Chu’s curiosity is not that strong after all. In the end, he still came to us to help him complete the investigation, right?” Su Zheng got into the passenger seat and grumbled after she put on the seatbelt.

“That is my mistake. After all, he has more experience than we do in this field. If he was curious about everything, then he wouldn’t be a good businessman.” Ye Shuang sighed and explained, “But he is curious to a certain degree, and it is related to the suspicion that he had for our relationship with Xia Cheng… I feel like even though he has not yet guessed the truth, he knows that we have something to settle with Xia Cheng.”

In the end, Qin Chu was willing to fork out the money, and it was due to the threat that came directly from Xia Cheng. Even though Xia Cheng was not working at Qin Chu’s Huan Chen, the companies that Xia Cheng worked at before all had a huge expansion. That was a reality.

Even though these ‘expansion’ was merely on paper and did not have much actual influence, the standard taken by businessmen was actually based on that data. Based on the current situation at Xiang Jiang, the market was only so big. Huan Chen and Tian Wang were currently situated in a delicate balance; every small step would be able to topple the other. Therefore, if Tian Wang really expanded, it was obvious that the expansion would come from the consumption of Huan Chen’s territory.

Just for this possibility, Qin Chu was willing to pay the money to buy some insurance. Su Zheng turned around, and she asked with a giggle, “Are we going to lie to Mr. Lin with the same method?”

“It’s not really lying. We’re merely helping them clean up their working environment.” Ye Shuang insisted that she was doing a good thing and not doing something that was morally questionable.

After correcting Su Zheng, as Ye Shuang drove away from the café, she said thoughtfully, “We could reveal a bit more to Lin Yu. It’s true that those companies have grown on the surface, but in reality, they’ve become someone else’s puppet. These companies became tools for the organization behind Xia Cheng to launder money. I feel like Lin Yu should know how to choose.”

“Actually, there’s a simpler method.” Su Zheng gripped her hands. After Ye Shuang turned around, she said, “We’ll trick Xiao Xia; Xiao Xia is the most easily tricked! Then, we’ll get Xiao Xia to talk to Lin Yu. I’m sure he’ll be willing to cough out the money then!”

“…Good idea.”