Golden Scale [EN]: Chapter 69

According to the information provided by Wu Beiying, the evidence he knew that could convict Mao Zhengyi was stored in two places. One was at No. 118 Jiangning Road, Block B of the Xingye Building, where Nongkai Group’s headquarters were located. Mao Zhengyi had stored the list of bribes he had given over the years, the amounts, dates, and some actual account books left over from working with Zhou Yuping to falsify accounts, all on the president’s office computer.

The other location was the four-star Longbai Hotel, located at No. 2419 Hongqiao Road, a property under Mao Zhengyi’s name. He had stored recordings and videos of entertaining some Shanghai bigwigs with women in the safe there, likely as leverage for a last-ditch effort if he became desperate. Although these couldn’t be considered direct evidence of crimes, they were still very important, so Gu Quanzhi didn’t intend to ignore them.

Hou Longtao and Long hailed a taxi and went straight to the Longbai Hotel. After arriving, they didn’t enter the building but went to the parking lot and found a silver-gray Toyota Land Cruiser. Hou Longtao took out a key, inserted it into the door lock, and twisted it. “This is the one.” The two got into the back seats separately and lay down. Long took out his mobile phone, “Hello, we have arrived.”

About ten minutes later, Wu Beiying came out of the Longbai Hotel, carrying a black briefcase, and drove away in his Land Cruiser. Two middle-aged men following Wu Beiying got into a Santana 2000 and tailed him closely.

“Mr. Wu, is everything going smoothly?” Hou Longtao sat up straight. The rear window was tinted black, so he wasn’t worried about being seen by the people behind.

Wu Beiying handed the briefcase from the passenger seat to the back. “It’s all here. It’s going relatively smoothly. No one in ‘Longbai’ dares to stop me yet. It seems that Mao Zhengyi doesn’t think it’s time to make a move against me.”

“Hmph,” Hou Longtao opened the briefcase. In addition to the audio and video tapes, there were also several albums of candid photos, which included not only Shanghai bigwigs but also several Hong Kong and Taiwanese businessmen. “It’s quite a collection.”

Long picked up an album and flipped through it. “Damn, even Niu Jiading is here?”

“Really? Zhong Chu’s husband?” Hou Longtao turned his head and took the album. He saw an older man in his fifties or sixties pouring wine into the mouth of a young woman sitting on his lap. The woman looked uncomfortable. He didn’t recognize the man, but he recognized the woman. It was Yang Gongru. “How do you know this is Niu Jiading?”

“Tch, don’t forget what I do. Niu Jiading is a famous advertising executive in Hong Kong. If I didn’t know him, I’d be out of a job. Besides, I read an exclusive interview with him a couple of years ago.”

“Hehe, okay, my teachings weren’t wasted on you. Alas, it’s a pity for Zhong Chu to marry such an old fart. A flower stuck in cow dung.” Zhong Chu was Hou Longtao’s favorite actress.

“Maybe he was handsome when he was young. Your Zhong Chu isn’t always going to be ‘Dou Mei Mei’ [a reference to a famous role]. She’s probably in her forties now, right? I think they’re quite suitable.”

“Bah, the difference between a forty-three-year-old ‘Dou Mei Mei’ and a thirty-one-year-old ‘Dou Mei Mei’ is…”

Hou Longtao threw the album back into the box. “Isn’t Yang Gongru Old Mao’s mistress? How could he let others have her?” He asked Wu Beiying this question.

“Hmph, Mr. Lin is right. Niu Jiading is the top advertising executive in Hong Kong and has extensive connections in the business world. To get in touch with ‘Bank of China Hong Kong’, I invited several Hong Kong celebrities to Shanghai in batches and entertained them with money and women. When it was Niu Jiading’s turn, his wife was Zhong Chu. Ordinary women probably wouldn’t impress him. I discussed it with Mao Zhengyi, and guess what he’d choose between 2.2 billion Hong Kong dollars and a woman?”

“If it were my fourth brother, he’d definitely choose the woman,” Long interjected, “but Mao Zhengyi might even sell his own mother.”

“You’re probably right.” Although Wu Beiying thought Long’s words were vulgar, they were likely true.

“Did Yang Gongru agree?” Hou Longtao felt that Yang Gongru was also a celebrity and always projected a pure image. She shouldn’t be so willing.

“The entertainment industry is just a big ‘chicken farm’ [a derogatory term for the entertainment industry]. As long as the price is right, both men and women will do it.”

“Are there no exceptions?”

“Yes, but they’re rare. Actually, Yang Gongru is a bit of an exception. She’s a typical lady from a good family, relatively quiet and introverted. As a result, she met an old rogue like Mao Zhengyi. The first time they were intimate, she was drugged. What happened afterward was like a movie. A lamb entered a tiger’s mouth and didn’t know what was going on. But that night, the guy surnamed Zhu was too drunk and didn’t accomplish anything.”

“Hmph, the entertainment industry is really a mess. Women don’t respect themselves, and men don’t respect themselves. They’re all just vases with faces but no acting skills.” Hou Longtao lit a cigarette with a look of disdain. He wasn’t really concerned about those things, nor did he want to understand the inside story of the entertainment industry, because he still had no plans to enter the film and television business.

The Land Cruiser drove on the highway for a while, and the Santana 2000 followed closely behind. It seemed that the Santana hadn’t received any anti-tracking training and had no skills at all. Even the most basic constant change of distance wasn’t being done. Wu Beiying accelerated the car, made a few sharp turns, and looked in the rearview mirror. “It’s not working. I can’t shake them off.” He was a little anxious. He had already entered the downtown area, and the speed couldn’t be increased. “Do you want to circle around a few more times?”

“The traffic in Shanghai is really worse than in Beijing,” Hou Longtao looked around. “What’s that place?” He pointed to a group of buildings that looked like the Beijing West Railway Station not far away and asked.

“That’s the Shanghai Mart [a large exhibition and trading center].”

“Mart…”

Hou Longtao’s eyes darted around. “Drive over there.”

The Land Cruiser slowly drove into the non-motorized lane next to the mall, and the 2000 followed. There was a Volkswagen Bora between the two cars.

Wu Beiying handed his wallet to the back. Hou Longtao and Long took out all the cash they had on them, even one and two yuan bills. Together with Wu Beiying’s, there was a total of more than 10,000 yuan. They pressed the bills into a stack, tore off the edge of a newspaper in the car, and wrapped the money. “Damn, this money is going to cost Old Mao.”

The window of the second row of the Land Cruiser was opened, and Hou Longtao threw the bundle of RMB [Renminbi, Chinese currency] out. It hit the windshield of the Bora with a “bang”, and the banknotes immediately scattered and flew around, which was quite a sight. The driver of the Bora was startled and reflexively slammed on the brakes. He didn’t know what the Santana was thinking, but it suddenly bumped into the Bora’s rear, though because the speed was very slow, it didn’t matter much.

Although it was just past 9:00 on Friday morning, the area in front of the mall, located in the downtown area of a metropolis with a population of over 10 million, was always bustling with people. The matter of money falling from the sky isn’t something that happens every day. After a very brief shock, the crowd began to flock to the Bora, blocking the road for a while, but the Land Cruiser didn’t stop for a moment and had already driven out of the non-motorized lane and sped away.

Hou Longtao just wanted to use the crowd to block the 2000. He didn’t expect the effect of a rear-end collision. Seeing the driver of the Bora getting out of the car in a rage, with a posture of not giving up, he didn’t even bother to grab the money. The three people in the Land Cruiser burst into laughter. “Let’s hurry up and get things done.” Hou Longtao urged Wu Beiying to drive faster. As far as he was concerned, Shanghai wasn’t a place to stay for long.

“Have you figured out how to get the information out? Without Mao Zhengyi or Zhou Yuping, no one is allowed to enter the president’s office alone.”

“Isn’t it just a female secretary guarding the door? Are you worried you can’t handle her?”

“Don’t mess around.”

“Do you still want to get the evidence or not?”

“Yes, I do, but don’t be too rough.”

“Don’t worry, we won’t kill her.” Long and Hou Longtao began to change clothes.

“Mao Zhengyi’s computer isn’t connected to the internet. My password isn’t working.”

“Hahaha.” Long suddenly laughed.

“What’s wrong?” Wu Beiying didn’t know what stupid thing he had said. He didn’t know much about computers or networks.

“It’s nothing, don’t mind him,” Hou Longtao curled his lips. “He just remembered the time I discussed this matter with him. He caught me off guard once.”

“Hehehe,” Long’s eyes welled up with tears. “My fourth brother asked me to buy an external USB card, a Hub, two cables, and told me to prepare a WinXP disk. When I got all those things, he told me that he was going to build a PeerToPeer network, upgrade Old Mao’s OS, and download his hard drive. It was killing me, hahaha.”

“What’s so funny?” Wu Beiying still didn’t understand.

“It’s like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. It’s not like we’re afraid of people knowing. Just take the hard drive away, hahaha. My fourth brother is the kind of person who likes to overcomplicate things. Brother Ding already said that sometimes the simplest method is the most feasible.”

“Stop it,” Hou Longtao said angrily, lighting a cigarette. He really made a fool of himself that time.

While they were talking, they had already arrived at the Xingye Building. Wu Beiying drove the car to the entrance of the underground parking lot, which only internal personnel could enter, pressed the window, and inserted the card into the reader. “Wang [sound of the card reader].”

“Mr. Wu, long time no see.” The guard in the duty room saw that it was an acquaintance and didn’t even glance at the back seat of the car.

After the automatic roadblock was raised, the Land Cruiser drove straight in. After parking the car, Wu Beiying left alone. Five minutes later, two young men in “internal security” uniforms got out of the car. Long was still holding a packaging box for a security camera. They took the elevator in the parking lot directly upstairs, thus avoiding meeting the security guards on duty in the lobby.

“Sister, good morning.” The two found the president’s office. There was indeed a twenty-six or seven-year-old female secretary sitting outside, who looked pretty good. Hou Longtao took the initiative to say hello.

“Good morning, is there anything I can help you with?” The woman’s tone was polite, but she just glanced up and saw that they were two security guards, so she lowered her head and went back to her work.

“We received a notice to install a security camera in Mr. Mao’s office.”

The female secretary raised her head again. She could tell from the two people’s accents that they weren’t locals, and their faces were very unfamiliar. It seemed that she had never seen them before. “No one told me about it. Mr. Mao isn’t here now. Let’s talk about it when he comes back.”

“Mr. Wu asked us to come.”

“Is that so? That’s still not okay. Without Mr. Mao here, no one is allowed to enter this office.”

At this moment, Wu Beiying came out of his office. “Hi, you guys are pretty fast. I just called, and you’re already here.”

“Oh, the department happened to have a few sets in stock.”

“Mr. Wu,” the female secretary stood up. “When did you come back?”

“I just came back the day before yesterday and have been at ‘Longbai’. You go ahead with your work. I’ll take them in.” Wu Beiying said and took out his access card.

“Mr. Wu, Mr. Wu,” the woman took a step forward. “You know Mr. Mao’s rules. If he finds out, he’ll fire me.”

“It’s okay. If Mr. Mao blames you, just put it on me.” Wu Beiying still opened the door to the president’s office. Long and he walked in one after another. Violence was their last resort. It would be best if they could get through this peacefully. “This… I’d better call Mr. Mao.” The female secretary couldn’t afford to offend Wu Beiying, but she didn’t dare disobey Mao Zhengyi’s instructions. She returned to her desk and picked up the receiver.

Hou Longtao glanced around. There was no one in the corridor. He darted behind the woman, covered her mouth with one hand, and wrapped his other arm around her waist, lifting her feet off the ground. Before she could recover from the shock, she had already been carried into the office. Wu Beiying immediately closed the door…

After spending a lot of effort and paying 1,000 yuan, the “2000 duo” finally got rid of the entanglement of the “Bora trio”. Originally, one of them saw that the Land Cruiser had run away and wanted to call Mao Zhengyi, but the three people in the Bora thought he was going to call for help, so they came up and snatched their mobile phones. Those two people were actually figures in the Shanghai underworld. In normal times, they would definitely have a big fight, but today the situation was different.

In fact, the Bora wasn’t “injured” at all. It just lost a little paint. For this level of car, there was absolutely no need to repaint the entire car, but the three people saw that the other party seemed eager to get away, so they simply quoted a price of 1,000 yuan, otherwise they would wait for the traffic police to deal with it. The two just wanted to leave quickly, so they agreed to the extortion, but they also wrote down the Bora’s license plate number and planned to retaliate later.

“Hello, Mr. Mao, we lost them.”

“What are you doing!? What has he been doing these past two days?”

“There’s nothing special. He was just inspecting the work at ‘Longbai’, checking the safe, and taking some documents from the company’s office, and then…”

“Wait, he took something from the company’s office?”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you report it earlier?” Mao Zhengyi on the other end of the phone roared.

“You… you only need a specific report on his actions in ‘Xingye’.”

“***, you’re a waste! Where are you now?”

“Still outside ‘Shanghai Mart’.”

“What are you waiting for? Call the security department now and have them send people to guard outside my office. No one is allowed to enter. You have to go too. Before I get back, you are not allowed to leave. Notify me immediately if there is any situation.”

“Yes, yes, Mr. Mao, don’t worry.”

After hanging up the phone, Mao Zhengyi quickly paced back and forth in the extremely luxurious bedroom. He didn’t understand what prompted the always loyal watchdog to bite him without warning, and directly bite his lifeline. He picked up the phone again, “Go to the airport immediately.” Unfortunately, due to the impact of “SARS” [Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome], flights to and from Hong Kong were reduced. Originally, there were flights back to Shanghai every day, but now they were only available on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. He had to go to Shenzhen by land first, and then take a plane…

“Hmm…” The female secretary twisted her body desperately, her eyes filled with fear. She was pressed onto the high-end wooden chair in front of the desk. Long threw the box on the ground, took out a roll of wide tape from it, and came over to wrap the woman’s arms around the two armrests first, and then sealed her mouth. Hou Longtao freed his hand, took out a screwdriver from the cardboard box, and began to disassemble the computer. It turned out that there were only two things in the box.

Long separated the female secretary’s legs so that they could be wrapped around the two front legs of the chair. The woman was wearing a short skirt, and her black stockings were quite attractive. Long slowly leaned over, stroking her legs upwards until he touched the edge of her underwear. He put on a perverted expression and patted the female secretary’s pale cheeks. “Hehehe, I’ll have some fun with you after I’m done.”

“Play with your grandpa,” Hou Longtao gently kicked Long’s butt. He had already taken out the two hard drives. “Let’s go.”

“Wait.” Long used the remaining tape to fix the woman to the back of the chair. “Hehe, sister, we are the ‘Justice Trio’. We won’t hurt you. Maybe we’ll have a chance to meet in the future, hahaha.” The three of them swaggered out of the president’s office and saw two security guards walking out of the corner.

The security guards showed surprised expressions on their faces. Opposite them were Wu Beiying and two “internal security” guards they had never seen before, and they had just received an order not to allow anyone to enter the president’s office. “Mr. Wu, who are these two…? You…?” Hou Longtao walked up to the two of them with a friendly smile on his face, and suddenly smashed the two hard drives in his hand on their foreheads. They didn’t even groan before they fainted to the ground…

“Mr. Mao, something bad has happened. Mr. Wu has left ‘Xingye’. The three of them knocked out two security guards, tied up your secretary, and stole your hard drives.”

“…” Mao Zhengyi dropped the phone in his hand in the car, and he felt dizzy.

“Mr. Mao, Mr. Mao, what should we do?” The person on the other end of the line was still asking for instructions.

Mao Zhengyi picked up the phone, “You immediately check the airports, docks, trains, and long-distance buses, and ask all taxi companies to report the situation of chartered cars leaving Shanghai. Also, who are the other two people?”

According to the security guards’ description, the other party described their appearance. “Hou Longtao,” Mao Zhengyi gritted his teeth so hard that they clicked. “They must not be allowed to leave. Even if you turn Shanghai upside down, you must keep them here, alive or dead.” Old Mao’s next call was to the Shanghai Public Security Bureau…

At the ticket window of Hongqiao Airport, there were three men asking about flights to Beijing. The clerk behind the counter checked the computer records. “All flights after 3:00 PM today have been cancelled, and the others are also full. There is only one seat left in business class on CA1568, which takes off at 12:35.”

“Only one?”

“Well… there are five seats available in first class on MU581, which takes off at 2:10 PM, but because it flies from Los Angeles and then transfers to Beijing, it’s at Pudong Airport.”

“Okay,” Hou Longtao took out his credit card. “One for CA1568, Wu Beiying, and two for MU581, Hou Longtao, Lin Long, all Mr.”

“Okay,” the clerk issued the tickets. “CA1568 will take off in less than forty minutes. You need to hurry.”

“Thank you.”

The three left the counter. Hou Longtao handed a ticket to Wu Beiying. “Mr. Wu, take the things and leave first. I’ll call Uncle Gu and ask him to send someone to pick you up.”

“Fourth brother, let’s go,” watching Wu Beiying enter the waiting hall, Long turned around, “We have to hurry too.”

“What’s the rush? There are still more than two hours.”

“How are we getting there?” “Of course, by car,” Hou Longtao threw the key in his hand. “I’ve never driven a big car before. Let’s see what it feels like.”

“Do you even know the way?”

“There’s a map in his car. I’ll drive the Land Cruiser, and you’ll be the navigator.” The two laughed and left the hall…

“Is that Old Wu’s car!?”

“That’s right.”

“Quick, quick, chase, I’ll call for someone.” On the second floor of Hongqiao Airport, the people in a Jetta found a Land Cruiser driving out of the parking lot on the lower level. The Jetta driver had good eyesight and saw the Toyota’s license plate clearly. It was Wu Beiying’s car, so he immediately followed.

Hou Longtao didn’t know that he was being watched and wasn’t driving very fast. Soon the Jetta was running parallel to him.

“Fourth brother, look outside.”

“What’s wrong?” Hou Longtao turned his head and saw the person in the passenger seat of the Jetta gesturing for him to open the window, because he couldn’t see inside, and he looked very anxious.

Hou Longtao pressed the car window down. “Is there anything wrong?” He knew that the other party couldn’t hear what he was saying, so the expression on his face also conveyed the same meaning.

The person in the Jetta pointed to the rear wheel of the Land Cruiser and then closed the window. The Jetta also slowed down slightly and fell behind. “What’s the matter?” Long looked down at the map.

“Damn, maybe the rear tire is flat. Didn’t you notice it?” It’s common to remind each other on the road, and there’s nothing unusual about it. Although Hou Longtao really didn’t feel that he was running off course, he still drove the car to the parking lane for safety reasons.

Hou Longtao stopped the car, opened the door, and wanted to get out to check it. One leg had already stepped out when he suddenly found that the Jetta was also slowly stopping less than five meters behind. This was a bit strange. Could it be that they were going to help him change the tire? In this day and age, he had never seen such helpful people.

A pass-like thing pasted on the upper left corner of the Jetta’s windshield caught Hou Longtao’s attention. Upon closer inspection, it actually read “Shanghai Real Estate”. At the same time, all four doors of the Jetta opened, and four people began to get out of the car. One of them didn’t know what he was holding, and the sunlight shone on it, dazzling Hou Longtao’s eyes. “The grandsons have weapons.” This was the first thought that flashed through his mind.

“Fourth brother, what are you doing?” Long saw that Hou Longtao’s movements had stopped and thought that he was suddenly too lazy to get out of the car. “Damn, lazy ass, okay, okay, I’ll go down and take a look.” He was about to get out of the car.

“Don’t move! They’re Mao Zhengyi’s people!” Hou Longtao didn’t even have time to close the car door, put it in gear, and sped off with one foot on the accelerator.

The “Jetta Four” saw that the target had recognized their identity and hurriedly returned to the car. “Quick, chase, is Wu Beiying in the car?”

“I don’t know, maybe he is. No matter what, stop them first.”

“They’re now on Yan’an Road, heading east. Turn, turn, get on Nanjing Road.” Two of them began to mobilize people to intercept the target through their mobile phones. It seemed that there was more than one group…