“Xiao Ming…” Zhou Qiaoqiao licked her dry lips. “Why are you at my house at this hour?”
Seeing her daughter’s unfriendly tone, Xu Songmei said directly, “Qiaoqiao, what kind of tone is that? Xiao Ming came here out of kindness to see me. Look at how many nice things he brought. You can’t forget your roots just because you married the boss. If Xiao Ming hadn’t stepped in to help back then, I’m afraid I’d be a cripple now!”
“It’s fine. Auntie Xu.” Xiao Ming wore a refined, gentle look. “Little sister-in-law probably ran into some trouble.”
Only then did Xu Songmei notice Zhou Qiaoqiao’s pale face. She quickly asked, “Qiaoqiao, what’s wrong?”
Zhou Qiaoqiao looked at Xiao Ming, who sat there with a faint smile the whole time, and didn’t dare say what had happened. No matter what, Xiao Ming was He Cheng’s man. And she had lost He Cheng’s five million. And it wasn’t just that five million—she had also privately borrowed money from quite a few people in the gang. Altogether, that added up to nearly two hundred thousand. Not to mention, many people in the gang had followed her lead and invested a lot of money too.
If any one of these things came out, she’d have only one outcome—death.
And this Xiao Ming in front of her—if she remembered correctly, she owed him fifty thousand yuan.
“Mom, it’s nothing.”
“If it’s nothing, then don’t come back so often. I have everything here. You don’t need to worry. Just focus on having the baby safely. While you’re young, have a few more. Then you won’t have to worry for the rest of your life.”
She rambled on and on, all about holding onto Brother Jian and having more children.
Seeing this, Zhou Qiaoqiao gave Xiao Ming an awkward smile.
Xiao Ming continued sitting there, unmoved.
Zhou Qiaoqiao had no choice but to speak. “Xiao Ming, um, my mom and I have something to discuss. Look, you…”
Only then did Xiao Ming put on a look of sudden realization. “Oh, I see! Alright. Then I’ll be going. If you need anything, remember to contact me…”
Seeing Xiao Ming about to leave, Xu Songmei, whose legs and feet still hadn’t fully recovered, quickly said, “Qiaoqiao, go. See Xiao Ming out.”
Seeing Xiao Ming about to leave, Zhou Qiaoqiao immediately relaxed and happily saw him out.
But soon, the smile on her face collapsed.
“Little sister-in-law, you know about the investment company running off, right?”
Hearing this, Zhou Qiaoqiao felt like she’d been struck by lightning.
Xiao Ming acted as if he hadn’t noticed and continued, “I came today originally to tell you this news. Now, seeing you like this, you probably already know. Ah, that fifty thousand you owe me, you don’t need to pay it back. That’s all the help I can give you. Ah, you know how things are in the gang. I hope you… ah…”
“Brother Xiao, save me!” Zhou Qiaoqiao was practically about to kneel and beg. She really didn’t want to be chopped into eighteen pieces!
The kind where you get tortured before you die.
Xiao Ming said, “I can’t help you. Although I don’t know exactly how much money you diverted from the gang, I can’t cover that shortfall.”
Hearing this, Zhou Qiaoqiao’s tears flowed like they cost nothing.
Xiao Ming looked like he wanted to say something but couldn’t, torn and conflicted. Finally, he turned and walked away. As he left, the breeze carried a murmured sentence.
“As long as He Cheng can’t stay on the mainland, no one will pursue this money.”
Right!
Zhou Qiaoqiao had always been quick-witted. Earlier, she’d been too emotionally wrecked by the investment company running off to remember there was still this path.
She scrambled up from the ground, wiped her eyes, and headed straight outside.
She wasn’t leaving. She couldn’t leave. Better to save herself.
—
At the same time, Tian Tian and Zhou Haoting were discussing what changes would come to He Cheng.
“He Cheng hasn’t made any big moves for now.”
Tian Tian figured as much. The news only came out today, and it was only in the local newspaper. It hadn’t fermented yet. Because the first to discover it was the police, not the investors.
“Forget it, let’s not worry about it for now. Those three dump trucks should be moved in the next couple of days, right?”
Hearing this, Zhou Haoting showed a mysterious smile. “Tomorrow you won’t see them anymore.”
Sure enough, the next morning, when Tian Tian saw Zhou Haoting’s car parked at the door, she knew the road was finally clear.
“Oh my, that’s efficient!”
Zhou Haoting said, “If it dragged on any longer, the neighboring village would come looking for my uncle again.” Although he wasn’t afraid, it was annoying. The nearby villages were all connected by relatives. Having people show up at his door all the time was irritating. And he couldn’t do anything to them, because they came politely.
“Did you just hire people to lift the trucks away?”
As the car passed the road that had been blocked, it was clean, with nothing there. Tian Tian was really curious what method Zhou Haoting had used. After all, the owners of the three trucks had people watching them before. On the excuse of being afraid the trucks would delay village travel. They had people watching so they could lend a hand.
Zhou Haoting said, “Lifting them away would be too much trouble. Last night I had people dismantle all three trucks overnight.”
Tian Tian liked hearing that. “And the guards?”
Zhou Haoting shrugged. “They all happened to fall asleep. Who knows?”
Tian Tian thought about those people waking up to find the trucks completely gone and couldn’t help laughing. As for where the trucks went? That wasn’t her concern. They dared to block the road with their trucks—why worry about the trucks disappearing? If you dare to do it, you have to bear the consequences of failure.
Earlier, they’d found out that the owners of these three trucks had privately taken ten thousand yuan to do this road-blocking job. Judging by how experienced they were, it was clear they’d done this kind of thing plenty of times.
Now that the trucks were gone, the more Tian Tian thought about it, the funnier it seemed.
“Has no one come to the village looking for them?”
Tian Tian figured these kinds of people would definitely come to the village looking for their trucks.
Zhou Haoting shrugged again. “Who cares? If they dare come, never mind anyone else—my uncle will have them beaten out.”
“Haha…” Just thinking about that scene made Tian Tian feel gleeful. She wished she could see it live.
Zhou Haoting saw what she was thinking and said, amused, “But those people probably won’t dare come.”
Of course they wouldn’t dare! They’d offended several villages at once. The trucks were blocking the road. If they’d been in the village, they would’ve been dismantled long ago. Now if they really dared enter the village, they’d definitely get a sack thrown over their heads.
And things went just as Tian Tian and Zhou Haoting said.
When the three truck owners woke up and learned their trucks had vanished, they were furious. But they didn’t dare actually go into the village to look. In the end, with no other choice, they went to Lao Hei, the one who’d paid them.
Naturally, these three were beaten out by people Lao Hei sent.
Are you kidding? Taking money to do a job is only natural. He hadn’t even blamed them for failing to do it properly. Yet they dared come to his door demanding an explanation. If this were Hong Kong, they’d have been beaten half to death already.
But Lao Hei didn’t have time to deal with these people now. His head was pounding.
The rank and file might not know about the investment company running off yet. But Lao Hei wasn’t stupid—he naturally had his own sources. After the newspaper report, he immediately knew the investment company had run.
In that instant, he had the feeling of “we’re done for.” But he still held onto a sliver of hope. After all, Zhou Qiaoqiao had called the investment company to book a withdrawal.
So now he was anxious to find Zhou Qiaoqiao. Maybe the money had already been withdrawn.
It was under these circumstances that Zhou Qiaoqiao suddenly appeared before him.
“Where’s the money? Did you get it?”
Seeing Lao Hei’s expression, Zhou Qiaoqiao knew it was over.
“Lao Hei…” Zhou Qiaoqiao forced herself to stay calm. “We’re in the same boat. You don’t want this to blow up and get directly dealt with by Brother Jian either, right?”
“Impossible. My uncle won’t leave me to fend for myself.” Lao Hei said instinctively. But inwardly, he knew that no matter how close his uncle was to him, he wasn’t as close as money. He’d been anxious to get the diverted money back precisely because his uncle was coming. Now the money was gone, and his uncle was coming.
Although that money was from the company account, He Cheng really only had two decision-makers. So of this five million, at least a million-plus was his uncle’s.
Once he understood this, Lao Hei felt dizzy.
Then he immediately shifted the blame. “Zhou Qiaoqiao, it’s all your fault. You’re the one who lost the money. It has nothing to do with me.”
“Heh, if it has nothing to do with you, what are you afraid of? If it has nothing to do with you, how could I have diverted so much of the gang’s money?”
At this point, Zhou Qiaoqiao looked completely different from before. There was a kind of madness in her, like someone who’d seen through everything and had nothing left to lose.
“Look, no matter how it happened, the result is that you, Lao Hei, diverted five million of the gang’s money for me to invest. You shared in the investment returns too. Now the money’s gone, so naturally you share the responsibility. And you were the one in charge of safekeeping the money. If anything, your fault is even bigger.”
Zhou Qiaoqiao started shifting blame too. The two of them went back and forth, each blaming the other. In the end, neither could convince the other. And both knew their responsibility couldn’t be escaped.
“Forget it, I can’t be bothered to argue with you.” Lao Hei suddenly said something uncharacteristic.
Zhou Qiaoqiao had experience and knew he was thinking of running. In their line of work, running was what they were best at.
“You can’t run. Let me tell you…” A trace of madness showed on Zhou Qiaoqiao’s face.
Even Lao Hei, an old hand, was startled by her expression. But what she said next made Lao Hei feel like he’d never truly seen Zhou Qiaoqiao’s real face.
—
Over the next two days, news of the investment company running off gradually spread.
Many investors who hadn’t known rushed in droves to the investment company and the police station to find out what was going on. At the wholesale shop, Tian Tian heard plenty of people talking about it.
Only then did she learn that quite a few people on the wholesale street had invested in this so-called investment company.
“How did they believe it?”
When Fengmei brought this up, her face was full of disbelief. The returns were so high—one look and you could tell there was a problem.
Niuzai added, “Isn’t it just greed? If they weren’t greedy, how could they not see the problem?”
The Tianlan and Tianmei sisters chimed in with their own opinions.
Tian Tian, meanwhile, stood at the shop entrance watching a fight in the street.
Yes, because the investment company had run off and blown up, some people only now learned that their husband or wife had secretly taken the family’s money to invest without telling them. Now the investment company had run off, the family savings were gone, and of course they were fighting.
“I’m definitely going to keep a tight grip on the family finances from now on.” Fengmei couldn’t help saying after coming out and seeing these couples fighting.
Tian Tian said, “That’s right. Once you’re married, a woman needs to control the money.” And ideally, she needed her own source of income.
Like the three couples fighting outside, they all ran wholesale shops on the street. But among them, some had the man as the boss and the woman as the helper, and some had the woman as the boss and the man as the helper. The difference between these two situations created the different scenes before them now.
One of them wholesaled men’s clothing, and the boss was the man. He was also the one who had secretly invested. At this point, the man was shouting loudly, “I’m the one who earned the money. You’re just a helper—what business is it of yours? If we lost it, we lost it. Worst case, I just sell more clothes and earn it back. Without me, you wouldn’t have earned this money either!”
Doing something wrong yet still acting like he was in the right—it made people want to give him a couple of kicks.
The other one wholesaled children’s clothing, and it was the complete opposite. The boss was the woman, and the one doing the heavy lifting was the man. The money had also been secretly taken by the man to invest. At this moment, he was being chased and beaten by the female boss with a bench.
“Well beaten.” Tian Tian couldn’t help applauding.
A grown man who couldn’t earn money was one thing, but he’d actually secretly taken the family savings to invest and lost it all. Not beating him was impossible.
Fengmei saw this scene too and laughed along. “Sure enough, women still need to have hard fists.”
“Haha, yeah!” Tian Tian thought to herself, if these people had discussed the investment with their other half, even if the investment company ran off, it wouldn’t have turned into the scene before them.
When a husband and wife aren’t honest with each other, the result is obvious.
She wouldn’t be like that. And from what she could see now, Zhou Haoting wasn’t that kind of person either. The two of them discussed everything together—that was the state Tian Tian liked best. Her parents were like that too. The couple hadn’t argued in decades.
The whole day, the wholesale street was lively. Plenty of people who hadn’t known about the investment company blowing up now knew too.
So He Cheng’s office in Shenzhen was also quite lively at this moment. Most people knew about this investment company, because many had invested under Zhou Qiaoqiao’s lead, received interest on time every month, and those who invested more even got high dividends.
In short, however happy they’d been before about picking up free money every month, now they were that angry.
They had already discussed going to find Zhou Qiaoqiao, the one who’d introduced them, to demand an explanation. At this point, no one was afraid of the flesh in her belly anymore.
But before they could go find Zhou Qiaoqiao, the police came to their door.
Not only did they round them all up in one sweep, but they also took away Brother Jian, who had just arrived at the office, and Brother Xiong, who had just come to Shenzhen.
When the police came, Xiao Ming, several of his men, Lao Hei, and Zhou Qiaoqiao very coincidentally weren’t there.
—
“Going to arrest people at their door? That fast? What happened?”
That evening when she got home, before she’d even warmed her seat, Zhou Haoting came to tell Tian Tian this news, which completely stunned her.
This… the direction of events was moving quite a bit faster than they’d estimated, wasn’t it?
According to the plan, their first step was to expose the investment company’s blowup and cut off He Cheng’s cash flow. The most important thing for buying land was capital. Without capital, no amount of tricks would help.
The second step was naturally to gather evidence of He Cheng’s crimes.
He Cheng had been smuggling around Renmin Road before. They’d been busted once before, but they hadn’t given up. They had long since built a new smuggling chain. Zhou Haoting had experience in this area—a report from him would definitely hit the mark. But before reporting, they needed to gather enough evidence. Only then could they pin them down completely.
Yet tonight they got word that He Cheng’s office in Shenzhen had been directly sealed in the evening. The police came and took away everyone who was in the office at the time. Including He Cheng’s number one and number two.
This result was truly beyond their expectations.
“This is a bit exaggerated!” Tian Tian looked at Zhou Haoting in disbelief.
Zhou Haoting nodded with a serious expression. “I’ve already sent people to find out the specific reason the police made the arrests. Many of them are Hong Kong residents. If there weren’t solid evidence, the police wouldn’t just go to their door and arrest them.”
That was exactly the reasoning. In this era, and even in the future, non-mainland nationals always had certain privileges.
So something they didn’t know about must have happened. And it was something very serious.
But Tian Tian spread her hands toward Zhou Haoting. “Are we winning just by lying down?”
The plan hadn’t even been fully carried out, and this good thing happened in the middle. Wasn’t that winning without doing anything?
Zhou Haoting smiled and rubbed the top of Tian Tian’s hair. “Yes, we won by lying down.”
Except someone must have made a move in the middle. He needed to find out who that person was. An unknown person hiding behind the scenes—whether friend or foe—couldn’t be taken lightly.
So Zhou Haoting began investigating the whole sequence of the arrests.
That wait lasted a week, and autumn arrived without them noticing.
One day, Tian Tian’s wholesale shop was putting out winter clothes. She and Zhou Haoting went to the shop earlier than usual. And just as they turned the corner, they saw two familiar faces walking toward the bus station.
“Was that Zhou Qiaoqiao just now?”
Zhou Haoting stopped the car and looked toward the bus station with Tian Tian. After a while, he said, “Looks like Zhou Qiaoqiao and her mother.”
Especially since one was heavily pregnant and the other walked with a limp. The characteristics matched well.
“Drive over and take a look.”
Zhou Haoting nodded. Thinking of the information he’d gathered that hadn’t yet been confirmed. But when he confirmed that the people heading to the station were indeed Zhou Qiaoqiao and her mother, Zhou Haoting knew the information he’d gathered was actually true.
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