Golden Scale [EN]: Chapter 170

“I prepared a gift for Chairman Tian,” Hou Longtao took a velvet jewelry box out of Zhiji’s bag. “Want to see it?”

“How… how did you know?” Tian Donghua’s face was ashen, looking like he was about to collapse.

“Let’s take a look at this first.” Hou Longtao tossed the box toward the second floor. “It will definitely give you a surprise.”

Shi Chun caught the box and took out a piece of paper—more precisely, a fax. There was a fax number in the corner, indicating it was sent from mainland China.

This fax was a page from the People’s Daily, including the front-page headline and date. The date was Hou Tian’s. The main headline read: “Beijing Mayor Jia Qi Embezzles Huge Sums of Olympic Funds, Commits Suicide Out of Fear of Punishment,” and the sub-headline was: “Banking System Launches Anti-Corruption Campaign, Multiple High-Ranking Officials Suspected of Involvement in Jia Case Arrested.”

“You… you should take a look at this.” Shi Chun handed the fax to Tian Donghua.

Tian Donghua frowned and read the fax, his face turning from ashen to deathly white. He read it over and over, his breathing becoming heavier, as if he was struggling to breathe. The printed paper was crumpled into a ball in his hand. “You… you… you’re too ruthless, aren’t you?”

“First of all, this isn’t something I can decide; I have nothing to do with it. Secondly, I don’t think you care, do you?” Hou Longtao pushed up his glasses, guessing that the other party had no real father-son relationship with Jia Qi.

“Hmph, of course, I don’t care whether that Jia lives or dies, let alone how he dies.” Tian Donghua shook his head with a bitter smile. He understood very well that, as insurance, to prevent himself from pocketing the forty billion, the funds were transferred through multiple domestic banks and eventually entered the Bank of China Macau, into an anonymous account. For a long time, the Dongxing shares purchased with that money belonged to the owner of that account. It was conceivable that the password in his hand must be useless, which was what made him heartbroken.

“He’s your father, after all.” Hou Longtao didn’t expect Tian Donghua to be so “heartless.”

“Father? Hmph.” Tian Donghua didn’t even bother to answer the question.

“Do you know where your problem lies?”

“Are you going to lecture me?”

“I want to teach you how to be a person.”

Tian Donghua almost ground his back teeth to pieces, really wanting to tear off the smug expression on the other’s face. “I’m all ears.”

“Actually, I should have guessed your source of funds long ago. Not that I look down on you, but apart from that Olympic reserve fund, you really have no other way to get eight billion US dollars. The reason I didn’t expect it was because I didn’t think you’d be so bold as to use Olympic funds. Although you have the guts, it also destined you to fail. The Olympics are a major event for the entire Party, the entire country, the entire nation, and even the entire world. While everyone is vying to contribute to the Olympics, you dare to risk the world’s condemnation, targeting the special funds for the Olympics, undermining the Olympics. You are standing on the opposite side of the people, becoming an enemy of the people, acting as the spokesperson for evil. How can there be any reason not to fail?” Hou Longtao’s words were righteous, showing a sense of integrity.

“I represent evil? Then you represent justice?”

“That’s right.”

“That’s bullshit!” Tian Donghua shouted hoarsely, “The winner is king, the loser is villain; this is the eternal truth. What is justice? What is evil? History is written by the victors; the winner is always right, and the loser is always wrong. Li Shimin, Zhu Yuanzhang—if they succeeded, they would be the founding emperors; if they failed, wouldn’t they just be bandits? So what if I used Olympic funds? I successfully controlled Dongxing. If I continue in business, the world’s richest throne is not out of reach. If I turn to politics, my career will be even brighter; leading the core is my ultimate destination. History is written by me. You are a treacherous and evil person. My misappropriation of Olympic funds is to mobilize all forces to punish evil. I am the pillar of the country; I am on the side of the people.”

“Hahaha,” Hou Longtao clapped vigorously. “Well said, it’s exactly what I was thinking. I was just teasing you. I was singing a high tune; yours is the truth. Come on, everyone, give our President Tian a round of applause.”

Only Feng Yun understood what the man meant and started clapping with a smile. “Everyone knows how to clap, right?”

Hou Longtao’s people all clapped their hands.

“Stop! Stop it!” Tian Donghua’s face had turned from white to livid, but not a healthy, ruddy color.

“Alright, alright, I won’t tease you anymore. I’ll tell you the real reason for your failure now.” Hou Longtao put on a serious expression. “Your failure was destined from the beginning because you chose the wrong opponent. You chose an opponent you could never defeat.”

“Nonsense!” Tian Donghua’s body trembled slightly, a sign of extreme anger. “What do you think you are!? Do you think you are the chosen one!? You’re just a low-class gangster. Do you think you can rise to the top and enter high society just by getting a degree from a third-rate American school, turning a loach [a type of fish] into a dragon!? You’re still a hoodlum at heart! You’re still talking about brotherhood every day! Why should you be in charge of Dongxing!? What virtue do you have!? I am a son of a famous family! I am a graduate of a prestigious school! I am a business genius! Why do you have all the beautiful women!? Why is Yuqian so devoted to you!? I am the one who truly loves her! I am the one who should be with her forever! You just got lucky and picked up a treasure bowl. Everything you have should be mine! Huff huff huff…”

“Wow,” Hou Longtao looked around, spread his arms. “I knew you were jealous of me, but I didn’t expect you to be this jealous. And you seem to really believe that I caught a pie falling from the sky, and you are the rightful owner of everything I have. I think you are indeed a capable and talented person. How could you develop such a pathetic state of mind?”

“Why are you lecturing me? Why are you mocking me?” Tian Donghua tried to adjust his breathing. “I have nothing to say to you. Now you’ve won, and I’ve lost. What are you going to do with me?”

“Accept reality? Very good.” Hou Longtao slumped back into the sofa and lit a cigarette.

“Actually, Yuqian still has feelings for you. She not only treats you as a friend but also as a brother. Originally, for her sake, although I believe you would not hesitate to put me to death if you had the chance, I could still let you live because you were only targeting me. But now, you used a poisonous scheme to harm my brother. You colluded with the Japanese. I could accept it if you used him to blackmail me, if you used him to threaten me, but you hurt his body and almost killed him. I almost lost my dearest brother. Ten thousand deaths cannot atone for this crime. I will personally wring your neck.”

“To condemn someone, one can always trump up a charge.”

“Heh heh heh, you still don’t admit it?” Hou Longtao glanced at Feng Yun.

Feng Yun took out her phone and dialed. “Where are you?” She hung up the phone and turned to the man. “They just got on the boat and will be here soon.”

“Just in time.”

“Who?” Tian Donghua didn’t know what trick the other party was playing.

The door of the hall opened from the outside, and three men and a woman crowded into the room with an electric wheelchair. The woman was Tina, with a dog collar around her neck, the other end of the iron chain held by Long, who was sitting in the wheelchair with bandages wrapped around his head. “Hahaha, Brother Hua, long time no see. You don’t look so good. Did my fourth brother mess you up too badly?” The muscles under Tian Donghua’s eyes twitched, but he didn’t answer.

“Why are you sitting in a wheelchair? It’s not like you can’t walk.” Hou Longtao walked over and made a gesture to slap Long on the back of the head.

“Hey hey hey! Don’t hit me; the hole hasn’t healed yet.” Long pushed Hou Longtao’s hand away. “I’m just imitating ‘Once a Thief’ [a Hong Kong action film]. I’ll jump up like Chow Yun-fat [a famous Hong Kong actor] in a moment and scare him half to death. How interesting.”

“Weren’t you supposed to be in a vegetative state?” Tian Donghua winked at Shi Chun, who quietly retreated back to the room on the second floor.

“That was to keep you from being nervous. Although he doesn’t know anything, you’ll be more cautious knowing that he’s awake.”

“Hmph, do you think I’ll be any different seeing them? Like you were so out of control when you saw Shi Chun? What can they prove? Prove that I have connections with the Japanese? Prove that I knew the Japanese kidnapped him? So what? It was the Japanese who harmed him, not me.”

“Aren’t you curious about how she’s still alive?” Hou Longtao grabbed Tina’s hair and shook it.

“Be gentle,” Long stood up and patted Hou Longtao’s hand. “This is my big-ass bitch; don’t pull out her fur.”

“What the hell…”

“Why should I be surprised that she’s alive?”

“Stop pretending. You informed the Japanese of her whereabouts and sent two assassins to Las Vegas, making it look like a burglary, rape, and murder, giving her a knife to the heart. Too bad, man proposes, God disposes [an idiom meaning plans may fail]. This woman’s heart is on the right side.” Hou Longtao patted Long’s shoulder. “Otherwise, I really wouldn’t have been able to find this kid.”

“So?”

“So? We stuck bamboo skewers into Mitsukou Ryuusuke’s fingernails, and he told us everything.”

“You son of a bitch,” Long pointed at Tian Donghua and started cursing. “You’re ruthless enough. If I hadn’t been lucky, I’d either be dead or a cripple. You come down here. I’ll fight you one-on-one. If I don’t beat the shit out of you, you can call my ass tight.”

“Why do you people talk so dirty?” Feng Yun frowned. She didn’t care about these things before, but in the past few months, she found herself becoming more and more “like” a woman.

“Oh, did I make Fourth Sister-in-law unhappy? Sorry, sorry.” Long gave Feng Yun a salute with a grin, then turned to Tian Donghua. “You come down here.”

“That’s right, Tian Donghua, grievances have owners, debts have debtors.” Hou Longtao beckoned to the people upstairs.

Tian Donghua certainly wasn’t that obedient. “Hou Longtao, I asked you a question before, and you haven’t answered me yet. I’ll ask you again now: Do you think you’ve definitely won?”

“No,” Hou Longtao shook his head. “Thinking I’ve definitely won is future tense, which doesn’t apply to the current situation. Present tense or past tense is more appropriate, which is I’ve won, or I already won.”

“Are you mocking me again? Why does everything seem like a joke to you? Why are you still so self-satisfied when I’ve almost explicitly told you that I have a backup plan?” The door behind Tian Donghua opened again, and Shi Chun came out, grabbing a young woman’s arm, a gun pressed against her temple. “Keep laughing, keep mocking me, keep joking. Why aren’t you talking?”

The girl was wearing a tight white T-shirt, a pink skirt, a pair of pink flip-flops, and her dark hair was draped over her shoulders. Her beautiful face looked slightly thin, and her big eyes were full of melancholy and sadness. It was Zhang Yuqian, who had been missing for many days.

Hou Longtao stared at the girl, in a state of shock, his eyes full of confusion.

“Yuqian!” Feng Yun got up from the sofa.

The Star Moon sisters and several Russian men took out their guns.

“Don’t move,” Tian Donghua was obviously wary of Feng Yun, retreating behind Yuqian, pointing at Feng Yun. “You, don’t move.”

“Brother Tao…” Yuqian’s lips trembled slightly, her eyes covered with a layer of mist.

“Tian Donghua,” Hou Longtao felt a chill down his spine. “Let her go now, and I promise to let you walk away unscathed.”

“Everyone except Hou Longtao, get out.”

Hou Longtao raised his hand to signal everyone to comply. “What do you want?”

“The laptop on the coffee table—everything is ready. All I need is your password to transfer three hundred million US dollars into my Swiss bank account.”

“Hmph, you made yourself out to be so capable, but in the end, you’re just a kidnapper and extortionist.”

“Kidnapping and extortion? Call me whatever you want, let others call me whatever they want, let the world think of me however it wants, I don’t care,” Tian Donghua gently picked up a strand of Yuqian’s hair and smelled it in front of his nose. “As long as I can protect the woman I love for the rest of my life, that’s enough.”

Yuqian turned her head to the side.

“You’re still a sentimentalist? Would I let you take Yuqian away? You loved her just now, but you’re pointing a gun at her head. Your love is strange.”

“What’s so strange? What’s the difference between us? To love her is to possess her. If she doesn’t listen, of course, you have to use some means.”

“You can keep her body, but you can’t keep her heart.”

“As long as I keep her body, there’s a chance to keep her heart. If I can’t even keep her body, then I definitely can’t keep her heart.”

“Even if I don’t sleep or rest, I’ll chase you to the ends of the earth, and I’ll find you.”

“Okay, whatever you say.” Tian Donghua looked at his watch. “Hurry up and transfer the money. My helicopter is coming. I don’t want to waste any more time with you.”

“You want to take Yuqian away. Why would I give you money?”

“If you don’t give it, I’ll hurt her.”

“You won’t.”

“Do you want to take that risk? I can’t do it,” Tian Donghua glanced at Shi Chun. “But I don’t need to do it myself.”

Hou Longtao didn’t move.

“What? Hurry up! What are you waiting for?”

Hou Longtao still didn’t move.

“I…” Tian Donghua gritted his teeth. “Shi Chun!”

“Is it my turn?” Shi Chun made a move, but he didn’t hurt Yuqian with a knife as Tian Donghua had expected. Instead, he turned the gun and pointed it at his temple. “President Tian, I’m sorry.”

Yuqian turned her head in surprise, looking at the two men. She didn’t know what was happening, and she didn’t feel like figuring it out. The only thing she wanted to do was run downstairs crying.

Hou Longtao hurried to meet her.

When she was six or seven steps away from the first floor, Yuqian jumped and threw herself into her lover’s arms, tightly hugging his neck, burying her face in his neck, sobbing.

Hou Longtao could feel tears flowing down his neck into his shirt. He carried the girl to the middle of the room and straightened her face. “You… you’ve lost weight.”

Yuqian couldn’t see any blame in the man’s eyes, only indescribable love and guilt. She held onto her lover’s clothes tightly, resting her forehead on his shoulder, not moving.

Hou Longtao embraced the girl’s body, closed his eyes, and the fragrance of her hair entered his nose. As long as she could stay safely by his side, nothing else mattered.

Feng Yun and the others were almost driven mad outside the door. The exit at the end of the corridor was guarded by two bodyguard-like short Orientals, making it impossible to go around and find another entrance.

Only Long seemed relaxed, touching Tina.

“Aren’t you worried at all?” Feng Yun pushed Long’s shoulder.

“What’s there to worry about?”

“Has your personality really changed?”

“What nonsense are you talking about?” Long leaned close to Feng Yun’s ear. “Can you take out those two Japanese bastards?”

“What do you mean?”

“Kill them.”

“How? There are cameras there. Even if there’s no sound, the people inside will know.”

“Don’t you trust me? My fourth brother is full of tricks. Do it.”

Feng Yun stared into Long’s eyes and saw complete confidence in them. She didn’t turn her head and raised her hand, firing two shots.

The bodies of the two Japanese men slowly sat down against the wall, leaving two streaks of blood behind them. There was a small blood hole in the center of each man’s forehead.

“Done.” Long pushed the door open suddenly. Everyone was surprised by the scene in the hall.

Yuqian closed her eyes, slightly tiptoed, and finally locked her fragrant lips with her beloved man’s lips, greedily sucking and rubbing.

Tian Donghua hadn’t made a sound or moved. He went over the course of events in his mind several times, not missing a single detail, but he couldn’t understand how Hou Longtao had planted Shi Chun by his side.

It wasn’t that Tian Donghua couldn’t believe that Shi Chun was an undercover agent; he just couldn’t figure out how Shi Chun could be such an unsuccessful undercover agent. If he wasn’t an undercover agent, why was he pointing a gun at his head now?

Hou Longtao brushed the girl’s hair behind her ear, held her face, and looked at her with extreme heartache. “How much have you suffered? Tell me. It’s all my fault. It’s my responsibility to protect you. I should have protected you, my Qian sister.”

“Brother Tao,” Yuqian wiped the tears from the man’s face. “It’s my fault. I was too willful, Brother Tao.”

Hou Longtao hugged the girl back into his arms, rubbing her soft hair back and forth. “I’ll never let you out of my sight again.”

“Mm.”

“Enough!” The soft whispers between lovers still reached Tian Donghua’s ears. Ignoring the gun pointed at him, he tried to rush downstairs. “I’m going to fight you!”

Shi Chun stretched out his foot and tripped Tian Donghua’s shin.

“Ah!” Tian Donghua screamed and tumbled down the stairs.

Hou Longtao didn’t even look at Tian Donghua, as if he was unaware of his surroundings. He only had the girl in front of him in his eyes. He scooped her legs and carried her in his arms. “I’m taking you home.”

“Put me down, quickly put me down. I can walk myself.” Yuqian rubbed her forehead against her lover’s face, struggling gently in his arms.

“No, I want to hold you. Why won’t you let me hold you?”

“I…” Yuqian bit the man’s ear. “My skirt is short.”

“Oh oh.” Hou Longtao finally understood and quickly put the girl down, holding her hand tightly as they walked towards the door.

Yuqian clung tightly to the man, just like that day at the Lakeside Water Park.

Tian Donghua’s fall was really bad this time. His head was broken, his arm was fractured, and he had knocked out a few teeth, but he still tried to struggle to get up, opening his bloody mouth, his eyes bloodshot, as if he wanted to bite someone.

A burly Russian man walked over, bent down, and punched Tian Donghua in the face, knocking him unconscious…

Hou Longtao kissed Yuqian’s sweet mouth, breathing his hot breath on her delicate face, gently stroking her shoulders. “Tell me, what happened?”

“Shangguan scolded me for being useless and a failure…”

“It wasn’t intentional,” Hou Longtao didn’t let the girl finish, caressing her face with guilt. “Qian sister, I…”

“No,” Yuqian didn’t let her lover finish either. “You were right to scold me. I was too willful. As soon as you scolded me, I wanted to prove to you that I wasn’t. I ran to Tian Donghua myself. Although I already knew he wasn’t the person I thought I knew, and I knew he intended to harm you, I still presumptuously thought I could convince him to stop. I thought if I could do that, I would have the right to be bossy in front of you.”

“Silly girl,” Hou Longtao kissed the girl’s face randomly. “I like you being willful. You can be as bossy as you want. It doesn’t matter, as long as you never leave me again.”

“Brother Tao.” Yuqian hugged the man’s neck, tears streaming down her face. “I… I’ll never be willful again.”

“You can keep being, keep being.” Hou Longtao’s eyes were already wet.

“He was so happy when he first saw me. I felt even more confident. I told him how great you are, how smart, how amazing, always one step ahead of him, anticipating all his plans. The Hong Kong incident was completely under your control. I advised him to know when to quit. I also told him that I had already reconciled with you. I told him how much I love you. I told him that I would be with you for the rest of my life. I told him that I had always regarded him as my brother. I hoped that you could coexist peacefully and that he would stop targeting Dongxing for my sake.”

“What did he say?” Hou Longtao could imagine Tian Donghua’s reaction after hearing Yuqian say these words. When a man realizes that the woman he has been pursuing for so many years only sees him as a brother, he probably knows what death tastes like…(Golden scales are not things in the pool) [an idiom meaning a talented person is not meant for a small pond].