Chapter 564: A Different Life, a "Dirty" Deal

Chapter 564 -332: A Different Life, a “Dirty” Deal

Listening to Han Xingmin’s confession, Liu Chenhui’s brow furrowed slightly.

It wasn’t the content of the confession that made him frown, but the fact that the man knew far too little. He was just a small-time lackey.

After a few moments, he received a response from President Gao.

Using big data and facial recognition, they had sent over the man’s personal information.

Han Xingmin, male, thirty-eight, from Seoul. Ex-military, former bodyguard for Cheongwadae. Served two years in prison. After his release, he worked for a corporation and is now employed in the security department of the Seoul Baichuan Pharmaceutical Company. He also has close ties to several gangs in the Seoul area.

He was a figure who operated in the gray areas, something of a fixer for the conglomerates.

After confirming the details, Liu Chenhui licked his lips, his interest waning.

‘He had thought he could dig up some information about “the club” through this man, but he never expected him to be so low on the totem pole.’

‘Judging from his confession and the background check, the man probably didn’t even know “the club” existed.’

Of course, at least one thing was certain for now.

This Jin Bingzou from Seoul Bai Chuan Pharmaceutical was definitely connected to the club. The only question was whether he had already secured a seat or if he was competing with Brother Chu for the final one.

‘And… the club had clearly caught on to the recent changes in his and Brother Chu’s identities.’

Mulling this over, Liu Chenhui asked a few more questions. When it was clear he couldn’t squeeze any more information out of the man, he got up and left the room.

He told two guards to keep an eye on him and headed for the monitoring room himself.

‘I wonder how Brother Chu’s chat with the head of security is going?’

…

Monitoring Room.

Lin Chu sat before the bank of monitors, having already pulled up all the footage that included him. It was a massive undertaking, but with the help of the cruise ship’s security team, they had managed to single out several individuals.

Using the ship’s boarding registration, he had their identities checked one by one.

They had all sorts of covers: some were disguised as tourists, others as company employees, and there was even one married couple.

‘He didn’t know which faction they belonged to, but he was willing to bet they were all connected to the club.’ ℯℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

‘According to Liszt, the club currently had five members, with a sixth seat still open. Several people were competing for it. This dog-eat-dog situation wasn’t what he wanted, but now that he was involved, there was no other way out.’

‘Fortunately, the final “reward” was lucrative enough to make it all worthwhile.’

“I want all these people rounded up.”

Lin Chu said to Leon, his tone resolute.

Leon’s eyes flickered as he weighed his options. He chose his words carefully. “Of the six, five will be easy to handle. The one with United States citizenship, however, could be a problem.”

“Our security team can arrange an opportunity for you to speak with them face-to-face. If you feel coercive measures are necessary, you would have to carry them out yourself. Of course, we will provide any necessary assistance.”

He didn’t want to cause any unnecessary trouble.

The Caribbean Royal Cruise Group was, after all, an American company with its headquarters in Miami. It had its own set of standards for evaluating and handling clients from different countries, which included a de facto international pecking order.

And clearly, American clients were at the top of the “do not offend” list.

As for clients from other countries? They didn’t matter as much.

Hearing this, Lin Chu shot him a look, his brow twitching. ‘So this is the default international order,’ he thought with a sigh. The unwritten rule irritated him, but he didn’t want to create any extra problems right now. After staring at Leon for a few seconds, he nodded. “Fine. Let’s move on the others now.”

“I’ll deal with the last one when I disembark tomorrow.”

Lin Chu decided to handle them in batches.

‘With just him and Ah Hui, they were already stretched thin.’

“Yes, sir.”

…

The night grew late.

Lin Chu had taken over five vacant guest rooms on the cruise ship.

He moved from one room to the next, repeating the same process: interrogation, identity verification, confirmation, screening, and analysis.

Lin Chu found this kind of work surprisingly satisfying.

‘It gave him a sense of ‘wielding power.”

‘The power of money and the power of violence were two completely different sensations. The former was at least cloaked in a veneer of civility; the latter was far more direct.’

Through interrogating these five, Lin Chu managed to reverse-engineer a partial blueprint of “the club’s” structure.

He could now confirm at least three factions.

Seoul, Bai Chuan Pharmaceutical, Jin Bingzou.

India, Reliance Industries Group, Mukesh Ambani.

London, HSBC Bank, Thomas.

Interestingly, none of these individuals or their operations were listed as Liszt’s assets in the email Li Jingxian had sent him. They all had their own independent enterprises.

This sent Lin Chu deep into thought.

‘If the connections were this loose, how did Old Li maintain control?’

‘It’s one thing while he’s alive, but once he’s gone, what’s to guarantee an outsider will carry on his ‘vision’?’

‘This… this might be the club’s core secret.’

‘Of course, he hadn’t passed the ‘test’ yet, so he had no access to this level of information.’

He thought about it until his head began to ache. A glance at the time showed it was already past eleven at night. Lin Chu decided to get some rest.

He had other “entertainment” scheduled for tonight, after all.

‘To be honest, this whole affair was making him feel like he was going completely to the dark side, leaving all his principles behind. But the thought vanished as quickly as it came.’