“Heh heh, once I get through these next two busy days, I can finally rest.”
Early in the morning, Hui and the two Cai sisters got off the bus, chatting and laughing, as the three of them headed together toward the wholesale shop.
“I’m more curious about how much bonus we’ll get.” Cai Tianmei had been wanting to buy a camera for a while, but she didn’t want to spend her family’s money. That was why she’d come to work at the shop with Cai Tianlan. The wages were fixed at a hundred yuan a month—not much on the surface, but there were bonuses.
“Tianlan, have you heard anything from Brother Ting?” Counting on her fingers how long it would take to afford a camera, Cai Tianmei tugged on Cai Tianlan’s arm beside her.
Cai Tianlan shook her head. “I don’t know. But Sister Tian Tian won’t shortchange us.”
“That’s true. Hey, Tianlan, are Brother Ting and Sister Tian Tian together now?” After asking about the money, Cai Tianmei grew curious about Zhou Haoting and Tian Tian’s relationship.
Cai Tianlan shook her head.
Hui was walking ahead of them. Hearing their conversation, he rubbed his forehead. Girls really were such gossips. He was about to say something when his expression suddenly changed and he quickened his pace toward the shop.
Behind him, the two girls, who had been chatting and laughing, saw Hui react like that and hurried after him out of curiosity. Then both of them shouted in unison, “Which bastard did this?”
There, at the shop entrance that should have been clean, someone had splashed red paint. From a distance, it looked like smeared blood. Up close, there was a foul smell.
It was already past seven in the morning, and people were out walking. Naturally, they all saw the situation. But splashing red paint was usually a sign of someone seeking revenge, so no one dared step forward to say anything.
Hui was furious, looking around, hoping to spot whoever had done it. Unfortunately, there were only a few nearby shop owners standing at their doorways shaking their heads at him.
Just then, the familiar sound of a motorcycle engine sounded.
Hui turned and saw the motorcycle drive right past him until it touched the red paint, only then braking to a stop.
From the back seat, Tian Tian heard Zhou Haoting’s calm voice: “I’ll look into this.”
—
“I really wonder which bastard did this.”
By the time they finished cleaning up all the red paint on the ground, it was already noon. The only good news was that the paint hadn’t been there long, so it could still be cleaned. Otherwise, if it had dried, they’d basically have to scrape off the whole entrance and redo it.
But because of the cleanup, the morning’s wholesale business had been slowed down quite a bit.
Tian Tian looked at Hui, who had been grumbling nonstop since morning, and said calmly, “Stop being angry. Your Brother Ting said he’s already looking into it.”
There were plenty of people around here. If they really asked, they’d definitely get some information. What Tian Tian was more focused on was the other side’s next move.
That’s right—since they dared to splash red paint, and she hadn’t offended anyone, then nine times out of ten it was a business dispute. She had even already tagged Hong Jie next door as a prime suspect. After all, the two shops were competitors, the woman was malicious, and she had ties to the underworld.
She had told Zhou Haoting all of this in the morning. With a specific direction, she believed there would be news soon.
Sure enough, by evening, Zhou Haoting had found out who had done it.
“Business got affected today, didn’t it?”
“It’s alright. New customers were affected—seeing that bright red mess, they were afraid of getting dragged into trouble. Regular customers were fine. Two even expressed concern.”
Today’s business had gone fairly smoothly. In any case, Tian Tian wasn’t anxious.
“That’s good!” Zhou Haoting breathed a sigh of relief. Then he asked if they could close up.
Tian Tian nodded. Business had stabilized recently. She had no intention of keeping the shop open late at night for wholesale either.
“Otherwise, Sister Tian, I won’t go back. I’ll just stay here on watch tonight.” Seeing everyone packing up to leave, Hui couldn’t help speaking up. He was afraid someone might break into the shop tonight to cause trouble.
Tian Tian shook her head. “No. If someone really does cause trouble and there are a lot of them, you’d be in danger alone.”
Zhou Haoting said, “Everyone go. I’ve arranged for people to come tonight.”
At these words, Hui’s eyes lit up. He wanted to say something but held his tongue. The Cai sisters were full of curiosity. They had heard plenty of gangster stories, but this was their first time experiencing something like this firsthand.
Tian Tian didn’t ask more. Seeing Zhou Haoting make the call, she quickly closed up, told Hui to take the two girls back, and got on Zhou Haoting’s motorcycle, leaving directly.
The bustling shop fell silent just like that.
Hong Jie, who had been hiding in her own shop feeling excited all day, finally crept over to Tian Tian’s shop entrance, a smug smile on her face.
Hmph, if she weren’t afraid it would make doing business on the street difficult in the future, she definitely would have jumped out first thing in the morning. But the whole street was full of businesses, and she still needed to maintain a good-person image. Otherwise, she’d be isolated. After all, businesspeople valued harmony bringing wealth.
But Hong Jie felt so excited! Brother Hei’s moves really were no joke.
Just then, Brother Hei drove up in a small car and parked in front of her shop. His cigarette-dangling head poked out of the car window.
Seeing this, Hong Jie immediately remembered what Brother Hei had said last night. Her excited expression slowly faded. She reluctantly walked over.
“Hurry up and get dolled up. Don’t forget what we agreed on last night.” Brother Hei looked thoroughly impatient.
Hong Jie put on a fawning smile. “I know. For Brother Hei, your Ah Hong is willing to do anything.”
Brother Hei reached out and groped Hong Jie’s face, his smile lecherous. “Heh heh heh, hurry up and go. Don’t waste time.” With that, he patted her big rear end.
Inside the shop, Hong Jie’s relative who saw this was about to explode. When she saw Hong Jie come in, she hurried over. “Sister Hong, what did that Brother Hei make you do again?”
Hong Jie impatiently pushed her relative’s hand away. “My business is none of your concern. Hurry up and sell more clothes while next door is closed. If you don’t sell out the clothes this month, your bonus is getting docked.”
With that, she went straight into the small room in the back and came out dressed up glamorously.
Seeing this, the relative knew Hong Jie couldn’t be changed. The other two employees nearby had been watching the two of them interact, but neither said a word. They were all afraid of offending Hong Jie and getting taught a lesson. Even though they hadn’t seen the red paint splashed next door, they all felt Hong Jie had done it.
Because this wasn’t the first time she’d done something like this.
—
“Oh, so this Hong Jie really was that arrogant!”
In a restaurant in the city center, Tian Tian and Zhou Haoting sat in a small private room having dinner. While waiting for the food to arrive, Zhou Haoting laid out everything he had found out today.
With Tian Tian’s reminder, he had directly had someone investigate Hong Jie’s background. Not the surface-level background from before, but starting from the complex web of relationships behind her.
He’d looked into all her lovers, and in the end, it pointed to Brother Hei.
“Interestingly enough, she met this Brother Hei because of the first time she had someone splash red paint—she happened to meet him then.”
Tian Tian: …
So that was why a woman running a clothing store would get connected to a small-time Hong Kong underworld boss. There was a story behind it after all!
“This Hong Jie used to sell clothes in the neighboring district. Back then she did retail. Because she couldn’t outsell the others, she had people splash red paint on several shops. The incident blew up at the time, and one of the splashed shops had some real influence. They quickly found the gangster who did it. It just so happened that this gangster was one of Brother Hei’s men.
Then Brother Hei stepped in to settle things, and Hong Jie got connected to him. After that, she couldn’t make it in that area anymore, so she moved here to do wholesale. And she still relied on this Brother Hei.”
Tian Tian thought to herself, was this true love? Why did Brother Hei show up everywhere?
Zhou Haoting shook his head with a cold laugh. “Just a fleeting fling. Besides, I brought you to this restaurant tonight to watch a good show.”
Just as he said that, they heard a commotion downstairs.
Tian Tian opened the private room window and looked down. Good heavens—she happened to see Brother Hei arriving with Hong Jie and several bleached-blond underlings getting out of a car.
With that kind of entourage, everyone in the ground-floor lobby was staring at them.
Just then, the private room next door opened. After that, she heard someone walk to the stairs and say loudly, “Brother Hei, you came at just the right time. Come, come, come…”
Tian Tian’s face was shocked.
Zhou Haoting had a look that said, “You’ll understand in a bit.”
Half an hour later, Tian Tian felt somewhat thunderstruck.
For no other reason than that the private rooms here weren’t very soundproof. And for some reason, the private room next door hadn’t closed its doors and windows properly. So from time to time, their conversation could be heard.
The content of the conversation was cryptic—almost entirely about eating, drinking, playing, and having fun. Eating meant enjoying the restaurant’s fine food. Drinking, of course, meant drinking alcohol. Playing meant playing mahjong. The “fun” part was what shocked her.
Although she couldn’t see anything, just from the sounds, Tian Tian felt disgusted.
For no other reason than that the “fun” was Hong Jie. Because she couldn’t see, Tian Tian could better imagine, from the lecherous laughter that occasionally came from those middle-aged old men, just how disgusting things were next door.
Zhou Haoting somewhat regretted bringing Tian Tian here. He had only wanted her to know the truth, not to disgust her. So he spoke up. “How about we leave first?”
Tian Tian shook her head. “When you do business, you can’t avoid running into disgusting people like this. Hearing it now is like getting a preventive shot.”
She knew Zhou Haoting meant well. But she had to become strong herself. Just some disgusting perverts—she wasn’t afraid.
Nearly an hour passed before the people in the private room next door finally left, noisy and rowdy. From the sound of it, they were heading to a nightclub to keep partying.
“That director or whatever—is he connected to the machinery factory building you want to buy?”
Zhou Haoting nodded. It was only today, while investigating Hong Jie and then Brother Hei, and then looking into the people Brother Hei had contacted since coming to Shenzhen, that he learned they would be at this restaurant tonight.
“This director is a section chief at the district’s Materials Bureau. He’s in charge of the machinery factory building auction this time. It’s already been confirmed that this auction will be a sealed-bid auction.”
A sealed-bid auction meant that all participants submitted their bids privately, and the highest bid won.
The downside of this kind of auction was that it was hard to set a price. You were afraid of bidding too high and far exceeding your competitors, but also afraid of bidding too low and missing out on the lot entirely.
But if you had someone on the inside, all the bid prices were easy to obtain.
And that was exactly what Brother Hei was scheming.
Using money—and Hong Jie, the woman—to corrupt this director, all so he could get the prices of every bid.
“But wait—he’s a Hong Kong gangster. Why would he come buy a factory in Shenzhen?” Tian Tian couldn’t figure this part out.
She roughly understood He Cheng’s situation. Their business on the mainland was purely gray-area stuff. That kind of person would never go into legitimate industry.
“He has a relative who wants this machinery factory, so they asked him to come smooth things over.”
“Oh…” Tian Tian drew the sound out. She understood now.
“So this time, it’s a blessing in disguise?” If Hong Jie hadn’t pulled her red paint stunt, Zhou Haoting might never have known Lao Hei was scheming behind the scenes. And he might have suffered a loss in the factory auction.
Without this factory, Zhou Haoting’s small home appliance business might not have taken off until later. And a few years’ time was enough for more competitors to emerge. That would have led to major changes in the trajectory of his career.
In business, time was money.
Zhou Haoting reached out and tapped Tian Tian. “Yeah, thanks to you. Otherwise, I really might have missed this.”
“So have you figured out how to handle it?” When it came to official matters, a lot of connections would be needed.
Zhou Haoting suddenly showed a gloating smile. “Let them draw water with a bamboo basket—all in vain.”
Tian Tian let out another long “oh.” Her thoughts synced with Zhou Haoting’s in that moment.
“You want to…” Tian Tian raised an eyebrow at Zhou Haoting.
Zhou Haoting said, “Exactly. Just sit back and wait to see their regretful faces.”
Tian Tian thought of that scene and chuckled out loud.
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