Chapter 90: 090 This Is Your Home Turf
Pei Ningle didn’t know what Han Yixuan was thinking. She just felt that this love rival was taciturn and seemed like a very honest and obedient girl.
No wonder, after being high school classmates with Wang Heng for three years without success, if it wasn’t academic pressure, it must be because she was too shy, right? Pei Ningle speculated like this…
After dinner, it was time to say goodbye.
“Next time, shall we go shopping together again?” Han Yixuan issued an invitation. “Next time, no one treats, we’ll split the bill, how about that?”
“Sure!”
Pei Ningle gladly agreed. She felt she had no reason to refuse. If she could become best friends with her love rival, while the best friend didn’t know they both liked the same boy… Thinking like this, it felt a bit scheming, but probably more advantageous for her?
After saying goodbye to Han Yixuan at the subway station, she boarded a carriage going in the opposite direction and found a blank space to sit down.
Perhaps because she had thought too much today and it was too mentally exhausting, after sitting for a short while, she leaned against the backrest and fell asleep.
After an unknown amount of time, the young girl slowly woke up and realized she had already passed her station.
Pei Ningle instinctively stood up, and at that moment, the subway was slowing down as it entered the station. The young girl, who already had poor balance, didn’t stand steady and nearly fell—fortunately, she grabbed the vertical pole next to her in time.
Entered the station, stopped, carriage doors opened.
Pei Ningle glanced at the station name; it was exactly the software park where Penguin Building was located. She remembered that Wang Heng often came here to work on weekends, and the older sister type named Lu Qi also worked here…
“Right, and Lu Qi!”
Pei Ningle suddenly remembered this older sister type she had once overlooked. Recalling that evening’s brief encounter, it seemed her relationship with Wang Heng was also somewhat unusual? Moreover, working in the same office space, they must spend a lot of time together.
Suddenly, an impulse popped into the young girl’s mind: find a timing to run into Penguin Building and see what exactly the relationship was between Lu Qi and Wang Heng… But on second thought, that would be a bit too much. Besides, that airplane ticket back then was bought with money Lu Qi lent her, and although she had later repaid Wang Heng, in Lu Qi’s eyes, she should have left Rongdu long ago. Appearing now seemed hard to explain.
“So annoying!” The young girl couldn’t help muttering, “Why are there so many matters?”
She didn’t get off here but walked into the return carriage of the subway.
It wasn’t early anymore; better hurry back to rest.
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Wang Heng sat in the last row corner of the bus, looking at the name ‘Liu Rong’ on his mobile phone screen, along with that brief wanted notice, and fell into contemplation.
The wanted notice said that suspect Liu Rong was involved in a ‘bridge loan fraud’ case, and the ‘amount involved was extremely huge’—Wang Heng couldn’t help but be curious: just how huge was this amount?
He first searched for ‘bridge loan’ and looked at the encyclopedia entry, roughly understanding what the term meant.
Simply put, A borrows money from B, lends the borrowed money to C, and when A’s other funds arrive, repays B, then waits for C to repay… Here, A, B, C are usually commercial banks, policy banks, and enterprises, with amounts involved in tens of millions or even over a hundred million being normal.
On the bus at around nine o’clock, there were few passengers, but quite a bit of noise. So as long as the volume wasn’t too loud, even if the hamster spoke, it would be hard for others to hear.
Wang Heng took that guy out of his trouser pocket and asked in a low voice: “This Liu Rong, how exactly did he pull it off?”
The hamster was cracking sunflower seeds, paused its front teeth upon hearing this, lifted its head to look at him: “You’re asking about the fraud method?”
Wang Heng: “Yeah, a bit curious.”
The hamster tossed the unfinished sunflower seed into its mouth, stored it in its cheek pouch, then explained: “Liu Rong is a mid-to-high-level manager at a large commercial bank, long holding the position of general manager of a branch business department. With such an identity, committing crimes becomes very easy—if not considering consequences. For example, suppose you’re a local entrepreneur, you’d definitely deal with people like Liu Rong when seeking bank loans. Then one day he tells you, you can provide bridge loans to the bank, with interest rates higher than all wealth management products in the bank, and quick disbursement—wouldn’t you take the bait?”
Wang Heng frowned slightly: “Higher than all wealth management products, and quick disbursement? That doesn’t sound reliable at all.”
Hamster: “That’s because you haven’t been exposed to high-end financial markets. Opportunities like this not only exist, but depend on connections; ordinary people can’t even enter the game. Unless you really have good relations with bank insiders, otherwise, even if they find such a bridge loan opportunity, they won’t tell you. This kind of thing isn’t compliant in the country, but it’s very common.”
Wang Heng: “So, bridge loans are common projects, most of which make money, but this time Liu Rong was running a scam?”
Hamster: “Mm, but speaking of it, Liu Rong himself might cry injustice. He helped people with bridge loans, but the borrower had an accident, directly went bankrupt, and couldn’t repay the loan. To cover that gap, Liu Rong could only rob Peter to pay Paul, and then it snowballed, scamming bigger and bigger.”
Wang Heng couldn’t help sighing: “Playing in finance, this line really has huge risks…”
The hamster sneered: “What risks? A bank manager has zero risk if they just follow the rules honestly. If they go for income outside their duties, who can they blame? And after starting to scam outright, his income was in the tens of millions—still sympathizing with him?”
“Tens of millions…” Thinking of his bank account with only a little over a thousand yuan left, Wang Heng immediately became righteous: “Reporting vermin, duty-bound.”
The hamster reminded: “Next station arriving, as I told you before, first find that hotel.”
Wang Heng nodded, stuffed it back into his trouser pocket, stood up, and went to the front of the bus door.
Less than a minute later, the bus arrived at the station, and Wang Heng got off.
This was outside Rongdu’s North Third Ring Road, quite desolate and quiet. Looking around, there were only a few sparse figures in view, and very few cars. The tallest buildings nearby didn’t seem to exceed four stories.
After walking another kilometer or so, Wang Heng finally saw that hotel.
The building where the hotel was located was an old small building in last-century style; the originally white tiles had discolored and many had fallen off, exposing the cement underneath. But this was all normal; what was astonishing was the hotel’s sign.
That sign used old-style neon lights, outlining four large characters: 【Hua Qin Hotel】
Wang Heng: “This naming train of thought is a bit unique… Oh, half is missing.”
Getting closer made it easy to see that the sign originally should have been 【Hua Qin Hotel】, but the 【Qin】 character had half not lighting up, making it look a bit magical.
The hamster poked its little head out from the pocket: “Hua Xin… This inn is your home turf!”
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Thanks to classmates Tianzhichuanshaye, Zongjue, Shaonininbuzainianshao, Jiazhumoke, and others for their rewards, and thanks to everyone for their recommendation ticket support!
