After he left the hospital to go to a nearby forest, Zhao Yu was thinking to himself, trying to anticipate what kind of encounter he would soon have. He had smelled something fishy on the anonymous phone call, so he could make a rough guess that something was amiss…
Although the person on the anonymous call had said that he had important clues regarding the case, Zhao Yu felt that the coming encounter would most likely be related to the Dui hexagram. It seemed that the Qian hexagram had yet to end. This was because there was still one more encounter awaiting him.
As it was already nine in the evening, the northerly wind was beginning to howl, hushing everyone. Besides the fallen leaves in the forest, nothing, and no one was in sight.
Zhao Yu gripped his jacket tightly, then pulled up its hood. However, the breeze was still bitingly cold.
He walked for a while, then found a black car that was parked in the depths of the forest. Suddenly, it turned on its headlights to catch Zhao Yu’s attention. Then, just to be sure that he had done the trick, the person in the car honked the horn softly, too.
Zhao Yu knew that the person, who had made the anonymous call must be the person in the car. As expected, the person soon opened the door and waved at Zhao Yu. He then shouted politely, “Sir, this way, this way…”
As Zhao Yu quickly walked towards the car, the man said, “Sir, you’re here. That’s great!” He had black framed glasses and was smiling wide. He then said, “Come, let’s get in the car and talk. The wind is howling!”
Zhao Yu was not scared, as he was confident in his skills. He also assumed that these people wouldn’t dare make a move on him, so he lowered his head and entered the back seat of the car without hesitation.
It was an older Benz. The temperature in the car was warm, like spring, making it extremely welcoming and comfortable. Besides Zhao Yu, there were two other men in the car. One was the driver, who wore a pair of white gloves and was seated in the front seat, while the other was the man with glasses, who was in the backseat. The man was in his forties and looked mature and steady.
“Sir, sorry for all the trouble!” the man with glasses said. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am the general manager of He Sheng Credit, Fu Qian. It is nice to meet you!”
Then, he extended his right hand politely. Zhao Yu smiled, shook his hand, then responded politely, “No wonder your company is doing so well! Even the name of the general manager is apropos, as it literally means ‘Pay money,’ correct?”
“You flatter me!” Fu Qian smiled and said. “I’m sorry, sir! We really want to get to know you, so we lied about providing you an important clue! I hope you don’t mind!”
“Oh? No clues?” Zhao Yu pretended to be disappointed and complained, “I thought I got lucky today and would be able to solve the case!”
Actually, the moment Zhao Yu answered the anonymous call, he knew the person’s intention. As the other party was from He Sheng Credit, they could only have one goal in mind, which was to bribe him!
With this in mind, Zhao Yu had already sent a message to the boss of He Sheng Credit via Bureau Chief Mu from the branch police station, saying that he didn’t agree with the car repair fees.
As for why he hadn’t agreed, there could only be one of two reasons. One was that he considered the amount to be too little, while the other was that he wanted to investigate the He Sheng Credit further, using this excuse to buy some time.
He Sheng Credit was in cahoots with the burglar group, after all. So, if they were to be investigated further, they would definitely be exposed! Hence, they risked having someone come over in order to hopefully appease Zhao Yu.
“Sir, first let me first apologize for our mistake, as our henchmen failed to recognize someone as important as you!” Fu Qian said, basically groveling. “We are very sorry that we offended you, and we hope that you won’t hold it against us! To express our sincerity, we…”
Fu Qian took this moment to signal to the driver in the front seat, who passed him a delicate case. After Fu Qian opened the case, he pointed at a stack of blue cash notes and said, “These are some unregistered bonds, which are worth about four million. You can easily convert them into cash at any international bond trading center, so you can rest assured that there will not be any trouble in the future. Please do us the kindness of accepting it!”
Zhao Yu sighed in his heart.
I never expected that bribery could be so straightforward! Isn’t this too easy?
“Your boss is so generous!” Zhao Yu complimented. “You only hit my headlight and bumper, so is all of this really necessary? Hehe…”
“Eh, no big deal… Please don’t even mention it.” Fu Qian smiled apologetically. “Firstly, it was our guys who hit your car, so providing you with compensation is only natural! Secondly, our guys didn’t recognize you, and they even offended and frightened you! As such, consider this psychological damage fees! Thirdly, our boss really wanted to befriend you!”
“Wahaha…” Zhao Yu suddenly roared with laughter, which gave Fu Qian and the driver quite a shock.
“What sir meant was…” Fu Qian grew less and less confident. He opened his mouth, didn’t dared to ask any questions.
“Humph!” After Zhao Yu laughed a little more, he suddenly tensed up. He then slammed his fist on the seat and shouted, “How dare you? Who do you think I, Zhao Yu, am? How dare you try to bribe me in broad daylight? This is so humiliating. Do you know that? I’m telling you, I, Zhao Yu, as the nation’s special investigation group leader, have to unearth the truth and carry out my duty, giving my all until my heart ceases to beat! As such, how can I allow myself to be bribed?”
He continued, getting further agitated. “I’m telling you, don’t even mention the four million! Even if you gave me a mountain of gold and silver, I couldn’t be bought!”
Zhao Yu shouted in an imposing manner, “The very fact that I didn’t arrest the both of you and take you straight to the police station should be considered a great mercy! If you were to try to bribe me again in the future, I will not let it slip! Goodbye!”
With that, Zhao Yu jumped out of the car. Then, with a loud band, slammed the door shut heavily. Very soon, he was out of sight completely.
…
Back in the car, Fu Qian was dumbfounded by what Zhao Yu had just said. He exchanged a few glances with the driver, then finally came back to reality. He creased his eyebrows and said, “So, what he meant was that he thought the amount was too little?”
“That can’t be, right?” The driver also looked confused. “Even if he was a national official, four million is no small figure!”
Fu Qian spat angrily, then said, “This person is simply psychotic! If he thinks that amount of money was too little, he could have said so straightforwardly. If he were to be a really upright person, he could have just told us! Look at him just now… The way he spoke…”
Fu Qian was complaining and distressed when he suddenly noticed that there was a small tree that had broken and fallen right onto the hood of the car!
“What the heck?” Fu Qian shouted, thus frightening the driver.
The two of them then got out of the car to check it out. Luckily, it was just a small tree, so it didn’t really damage the hood. The two of them quickly worked together to move the tree out of the way, then returned to the car.
“Oh my God!” The driver exclaimed. He had cold sweats all over. “That was a close call! The boss cares so much about this car, if it were to be damaged, I’d be in big trouble!”
“What are you just standing there for? We tried our best to minimize the damage. What’s done is done, so let’s head back!” Fu Qian urged.
However, suddenly, Fu Qian noticed that there was something wrong. He quickly opened the case that was carrying the bonds. But, he found that the case was now totally empty!
Ah…
The quiet of the forest was suddenly broken by Fu Qian’s mad roar…
After he left the hospital to go to a nearby forest, Zhao Yu was thinking to himself, trying to anticipate what kind of encounter he would soon have. He had smelled something fishy on the anonymous phone call, so he could make a rough guess that something was amiss…
Although the person on the anonymous call had said that he had important clues regarding the case, Zhao Yu felt that the coming encounter would most likely be related to the Dui hexagram. It seemed that the Qian hexagram had yet to end. This was because there was still one more encounter awaiting him.
As it was already nine in the evening, the northerly wind was beginning to howl, hushing everyone. Besides the fallen leaves in the forest, nothing, and no one was in sight.
Zhao Yu gripped his jacket tightly, then pulled up its hood. However, the breeze was still bitingly cold.
He walked for a while, then found a black car that was parked in the depths of the forest. Suddenly, it turned on its headlights to catch Zhao Yu’s attention. Then, just to be sure that he had done the trick, the person in the car honked the horn softly, too.
Zhao Yu knew that the person, who had made the anonymous call must be the person in the car. As expected, the person soon opened the door and waved at Zhao Yu. He then shouted politely, “Sir, this way, this way…”
As Zhao Yu quickly walked towards the car, the man said, “Sir, you’re here. That’s great!” He had black framed glasses and was smiling wide. He then said, “Come, let’s get in the car and talk. The wind is howling!”
Zhao Yu was not scared, as he was confident in his skills. He also assumed that these people wouldn’t dare make a move on him, so he lowered his head and entered the back seat of the car without hesitation.
It was an older Benz. The temperature in the car was warm, like spring, making it extremely welcoming and comfortable. Besides Zhao Yu, there were two other men in the car. One was the driver, who wore a pair of white gloves and was seated in the front seat, while the other was the man with glasses, who was in the backseat. The man was in his forties and looked mature and steady.
“Sir, sorry for all the trouble!” the man with glasses said. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am the general manager of He Sheng Credit, Fu Qian. It is nice to meet you!”
Then, he extended his right hand politely. Zhao Yu smiled, shook his hand, then responded politely, “No wonder your company is doing so well! Even the name of the general manager is apropos, as it literally means ‘Pay money,’ correct?”
“You flatter me!” Fu Qian smiled and said. “I’m sorry, sir! We really want to get to know you, so we lied about providing you an important clue! I hope you don’t mind!”
“Oh? No clues?” Zhao Yu pretended to be disappointed and complained, “I thought I got lucky today and would be able to solve the case!”
Actually, the moment Zhao Yu answered the anonymous call, he knew the person’s intention. As the other party was from He Sheng Credit, they could only have one goal in mind, which was to bribe him!
With this in mind, Zhao Yu had already sent a message to the boss of He Sheng Credit via Bureau Chief Mu from the branch police station, saying that he didn’t agree with the car repair fees.
As for why he hadn’t agreed, there could only be one of two reasons. One was that he considered the amount to be too little, while the other was that he wanted to investigate the He Sheng Credit further, using this excuse to buy some time.
He Sheng Credit was in cahoots with the burglar group, after all. So, if they were to be investigated further, they would definitely be exposed! Hence, they risked having someone come over in order to hopefully appease Zhao Yu.
“Sir, first let me first apologize for our mistake, as our henchmen failed to recognize someone as important as you!” Fu Qian said, basically groveling. “We are very sorry that we offended you, and we hope that you won’t hold it against us! To express our sincerity, we…”
Fu Qian took this moment to signal to the driver in the front seat, who passed him a delicate case. After Fu Qian opened the case, he pointed at a stack of blue cash notes and said, “These are some unregistered bonds, which are worth about four million. You can easily convert them into cash at any international bond trading center, so you can rest assured that there will not be any trouble in the future. Please do us the kindness of accepting it!”
Zhao Yu sighed in his heart.
I never expected that bribery could be so straightforward! Isn’t this too easy?
“Your boss is so generous!” Zhao Yu complimented. “You only hit my headlight and bumper, so is all of this really necessary? Hehe…”
“Eh, no big deal… Please don’t even mention it.” Fu Qian smiled apologetically. “Firstly, it was our guys who hit your car, so providing you with compensation is only natural! Secondly, our guys didn’t recognize you, and they even offended and frightened you! As such, consider this psychological damage fees! Thirdly, our boss really wanted to befriend you!”
“Wahaha…” Zhao Yu suddenly roared with laughter, which gave Fu Qian and the driver quite a shock.
“What sir meant was…” Fu Qian grew less and less confident. He opened his mouth, didn’t dared to ask any questions.
“Humph!” After Zhao Yu laughed a little more, he suddenly tensed up. He then slammed his fist on the seat and shouted, “How dare you? Who do you think I, Zhao Yu, am? How dare you try to bribe me in broad daylight? This is so humiliating. Do you know that? I’m telling you, I, Zhao Yu, as the nation’s special investigation group leader, have to unearth the truth and carry out my duty, giving my all until my heart ceases to beat! As such, how can I allow myself to be bribed?”
He continued, getting further agitated. “I’m telling you, don’t even mention the four million! Even if you gave me a mountain of gold and silver, I couldn’t be bought!”
Zhao Yu shouted in an imposing manner, “The very fact that I didn’t arrest the both of you and take you straight to the police station should be considered a great mercy! If you were to try to bribe me again in the future, I will not let it slip! Goodbye!”
With that, Zhao Yu jumped out of the car. Then, with a loud band, slammed the door shut heavily. Very soon, he was out of sight completely.
…
Back in the car, Fu Qian was dumbfounded by what Zhao Yu had just said. He exchanged a few glances with the driver, then finally came back to reality. He creased his eyebrows and said, “So, what he meant was that he thought the amount was too little?”
“That can’t be, right?” The driver also looked confused. “Even if he was a national official, four million is no small figure!”
Fu Qian spat angrily, then said, “This person is simply psychotic! If he thinks that amount of money was too little, he could have said so straightforwardly. If he were to be a really upright person, he could have just told us! Look at him just now… The way he spoke…”
Fu Qian was complaining and distressed when he suddenly noticed that there was a small tree that had broken and fallen right onto the hood of the car!
“What the heck?” Fu Qian shouted, thus frightening the driver.
The two of them then got out of the car to check it out. Luckily, it was just a small tree, so it didn’t really damage the hood. The two of them quickly worked together to move the tree out of the way, then returned to the car.
“Oh my God!” The driver exclaimed. He had cold sweats all over. “That was a close call! The boss cares so much about this car, if it were to be damaged, I’d be in big trouble!”
“What are you just standing there for? We tried our best to minimize the damage. What’s done is done, so let’s head back!” Fu Qian urged.
However, suddenly, Fu Qian noticed that there was something wrong. He quickly opened the case that was carrying the bonds. But, he found that the case was now totally empty!
Ah…
The quiet of the forest was suddenly broken by Fu Qian’s mad roar…
