Chapter 16: Sly And Rotten
After giving the instructions, Liao Shan went straight upstairs to his office.
He picked up the phone and dialed out: “Hey, it’s me. I’m releasing the people. No need to say more. I’m under a lot of pressure here. The consul personally applied the pressure. I can’t hold out. Understand?
You can’t possibly want me to lose my hat over a few suspects, right? Besides, it’s not like I didn’t give you time. You just couldn’t get anything out of them.
What do you mean? I helped you arrest them, and I let you interrogate them too. It’s your own incompetence. And now you want to cut off my goods? Try it!
If the tiger doesn’t show its might, you take me for a sick cat. Wu Sibao! I warn you, unless you don’t want your people entering the French Concession anymore!
Alright, that’s it. Oh, by the way, let me tell you some information. It’s not just pressure from my side on this matter. The Japanese Consulate applied pressure too. Figure it out. Thirteen o’clock.”
“Damn it.”
This Wu Sibao, relying on his high generational rank in the Green Gang, actually dared to talk to him like that?
When he was mixing on the Shanghai Bund, this Wu Sibao was still living in the mud, eating dirt and piss!
Thirteen o’clock. Instead of being a proper Green Gang boss, he goes to be a traitor’s underling. His brain is simply sick. He can’t think straight!
“Damn it.”
Da Xi Road, No. 67.
Wu Sibao slammed down the phone. What attitude!
With a dark face, he went up to the second floor of the villa and impatiently knocked open Li Shiqun’s office door.
“Bro, something’s happened. Liao Shan called and said he’s releasing everyone. No room for discussion. What do we do?”
“Knock first next time you come in.”
Li Shiqun behind the office desk scolded him irritably, crumpling the brush writing on the table into a ball. “I’ve told you how many times: stay calm when something happens. You ruined a perfectly good piece of writing. Tell me, what’s going on.”
Wu Sibao recounted everything Liao Shan said, as well as what his underling saw at the door.
Li Shiqun paced out with his hands behind his back. “So you’re saying a lawyer showed up, then Liao Shan rushed back specially, and after that his attitude changed.”
“Yes, they stayed upstairs for quite a while. I had someone check the license plate. It belongs to a law firm called Danwen Law Firm. The car owner is a British person, but the one who came down was a Chinese.
“Interesting.” Li Shiqun stopped casually and fell silent, clearly thinking.
Wu Sibao was anxious. “Bro, do you think this guy gave that scoundrel Liao Shan some good stuff? Otherwise, why would that scoundrel suddenly change his attitude?
Bro, I just don’t like that scoundrel. If it weren’t for his connection to Huang Ye, how could he be the chief constable? He really thinks he’s somebody, and he even threatened me. Bro, how about we hold up his goods? Worst case, we say it’s the Japanese who did it. That’ll hurt him bad.”
Li Shiqun looked at him and chuckled lightly. “Angry words are just that. If you really hold up his goods, then he’ll come find you for a shootout? That half-ship of opium is enough for him to buy 100 hitmen to chase you down. We still need to enter the French Concession. Don’t make enemies for ourselves.”
“But I’m just not happy about it.”
“Then drag it out at customs, make it go through slower. That counts as your little revenge, but that’s all.”
“Fuck, then it’s not even worth doing. All that effort and no money to make. Forget it, let him off easy. But what about those people? Did we work for nothing?”
“We won’t have worked for nothing.”
Li Shiqun said calmly: “Originally, they were making contact in the French Concession. Arresting them was a desperate move. It’s not our turf, so interrogation isn’t easy, and once the newspaper exposes it, any remaining fish will have been scared off anyway.
Since they’re releasing the people, let them. But send someone to tail them. See where these people go and who contacts them. If they’re rats, they’ll show their tails eventually.”
“Got it. I’ll go handle it right away.”
“Mm. Oh, you said that lawyer is a Chinese, right? Find a way to contact that lawyer. See if in this case, besides the consulate, anyone else has approached him to get him to rescue people.”
“Sure.”
Wu Sibao went downstairs and immediately instructed people to go to the French Concession to tail them. After giving the orders, he got angrier the more he thought about it.
“Damn it, all these days of work for nothing.”
Just thinking about having to tail them day and night again, and shelling out a lot of money.
He didn’t need to tail them personally day and night, but his brothers needed money to eat, ride cars, smoke, and drink. Otherwise, who would work for him?
“I’ve been exhausted lately. Gotta think if there’s any money-making path. Hit them for a score.”
“A money-making path, huh? Bro, don’t say it—there really is one.”
His usually sly underling Liu San came forward with a grin: “Bro, I’ve been thinking about this for days. Now, Shanghai has plenty of cars, right?
But out-of-town places are short on them.
Isn’t there a car repair shop right across from us?
We take it over, and heh heh, I’ve even picked the first target. That lawyer has a car, a luxury car. I checked—worth over ten thousand, US dollars. We take it, repaint it, change the color, slap on a plate, and sell it! Tsk, the money for taking over the car dealership gets covered on the spot with plenty left over.”
Wu Sibao’s eyes lit up. “You little punk, not bad!”
Central Police Station.
Wang Defa politely invited Mr. Gu into the meeting room.
“Mr. Gu, what do you think of this room? If it’s good, I’ll go bring the people up right now.”
A filthy place like the jail wasn’t suitable for a lawyer like Mr. Gu. When Mr. Gu said he wanted to see the arrested people one by one separately, Wang Defa immediately arranged this place.
Mr. Gu looked around and nodded. “It’s fine. Then I’ll trouble Captain Wang. Also, please bring their original confessions for me to look at.”
“Sure, good. Couples together, individuals separately, right?”
“Right.”
“Good. Have a seat. I’ll arrange it right away.”
With Liao Shan’s support, Wang Defa was very cooperative. The confessions were delivered immediately, and he turned to fetch the people.
Wen Yan, seeing the man leave, smiled shyly. “I originally heard Mr. Gu had just arrived in Shanghai and might not be familiar with the connections here, so I took the initiative to investigate the background. I didn’t expect you to handle even the police station in just one day. My investigated information was unnecessary meddling.”
Wen Yan was genuinely surprised. He’d been in Shanghai for years and knew exactly what kind of person Liao Shan was. This new boss looked young, but his methods were truly impressive.
Unfathomable.
“No unnecessary meddling. You did very well.” Mr. Gu praised him sincerely. “Everyone has different approaches to work. As my assistant, you proactively opened another line of thinking for me to choose from. How could that be meddling? My method worked this time, but may not next time. Having options and not using them is worlds apart from having none.”
“Thank you, Mr. Gu. I’ll continue to work hard.” Wen Yan bowed his head.
“Mm.” Mr. Gu looked around the meeting room, thinking about meeting the people later. Lu Bowen and He Yun didn’t know he was here. If their emotions showed when they saw him, it could lead to guesses, especially from a veteran lawyer like Wen Yan.
Better to send him away first to be safe.
“Wen Yan, there’s something for you to do now.”
“Please instruct me.”
“Go back to the law firm and draft a contract. The general idea is as follows.
The party and the Municipal Council have reached an agreement that regarding the entire arrest incident, including the arrest process, interrogation process, reasons for release, and other content, since deeper case investigation is ongoing, without Municipal Council approval, no information may be disclosed to the outside, including relatives, newspaper company, and public officials not explicitly authorized by the Municipal Council.
Otherwise, the Municipal Council will file a criminal complaint in the Concession Court for leaking confidential information and pursue all resulting economic losses.
You have the list. One copy per person. You fill in the details to make sure they won’t dare talk outside. Go now and bring it back when done.”
Wen Yan understood immediately and didn’t ask why. “Got it. I’ll try to finish in an hour.”
“No rush. Talking to so many will take time. Plenty of time.”
Mr. Gu saw Wen Yan off. Now he was alone in the room. He lowered his head to check under the table, the telephone, and patrolled the room for any eavesdropping equipment.
Better safe than sorry. Prepare to receive guests.
The two inside must have had a rough time.
They’d probably be quite surprised to see him.
Before long, Wang Defa brought the people over.
Opening the door, surprisingly, the first group was Lu Bowen and He Yun.
