A Chan – CH 082

Chapter 82: A Vampire Tumor (1)

Zhang Jingchan, carrying his schoolbag, walked out of the Zhang family villa. Just as he was about to hail a taxi, someone emerged from the shade of a nearby tree.

Zhang Jingchan, with his hands in his school uniform pockets, calmly looked at him.

Xu Yi, 26 years old, possessed a strong scholarly air; he was refined and slender. Looking at the girl before him, he gave a slightly bitter smile: “Weiyi, you really are here.”

Zhang Jingchan hummed in response.

Even after being coldly rejected, even humiliated, by a young girl, Xu Yi maintained his composure. He asked, “Didn’t you say before that there was absolutely no possibility between you and Ah Chan? Why the sudden change of heart?”

Zhang Jingchan: “Who can say for sure about matters of the heart?”

“Feelings, hah.” Xu Yi laughed self-deprecatingly. “You said before that you didn’t want to date because of the college entrance exam, but it turns out you only date him. Ah Chan is a good boy, but right now… Fuming is going through some really tough times. If you’re with him now, I’m afraid you’ll suffer in the future.”

Zhang Jingchan scoffed, took two steps forward to the roadside, one hand still in his pocket, the other waving for a taxi in the distance. He said, “That’s between Ah Chan and me. Don’t worry about it.”

Xu Yi stared at his movements.

The taxi slowly approached. Xu Yi said, “We made plans to go to the movies together this Sunday. You’re a girl of your word, so come with me to one last movie; consider it a farewell, okay?”

Zhang Jingchan frowned, opened the car door, tossed her backpack inside, and got in, saying, “No, there’s no point in saying goodbye. Don’t bother me anymore. Driver, drive.”

Xu Yi stood by the roadside, silently watching the girl’s cold profile as the taxi drove away.

He returned to his car, leaned back in his seat, and lit another cigarette.

He and Li Weiyi hadn’t made any plans to go to the movies on Sunday. But the girl hadn’t objected.

She didn’t know.

Tonight, the girl’s tone in her text messages, her mannerisms, and everything seemed like a different person. As if by some strange impulse, he probed.

The bizarre events of May 11th to 13th and March 11th to 13th had recurred.

Who was “she” now? Where did the girl he liked go?

—

Li Weiyi didn’t listen to Zhang Jingchan. There simply wasn’t enough time. She worked until 4 a.m., only going to sleep when she couldn’t stay awake any longer. She got up again at 9 a.m., grabbed a quick bite, and continued working.

At the same time, Zhang Jingchan was taking his English exam. This time, Mr. Zhang finally saved face, finishing his paper 20 minutes early, his brow relaxed. He arrived at Zhang’s house before midnight, unaware that Li Weiyi had stayed up all night; Li Weiyi, of course, didn’t know that Zhang Jingchan had taken her exam and given her the highest score in the entire grade—149.

The two ate lunch, barely exchanging a word, before Zhang Jingchan rushed back to take his least favorite subject, the humanities comprehensive exam.

A little after 3 p.m., the study was quiet, with the occasional birdsong outside the window. Li Weiyi’s pen scratched softly, her fingers tapping on the keyboard.

Someone knocked on the door.

Li Weiyi didn’t look up: “Come in.”

“Ah Chan.”

Li Weiyi looked up, glanced at the flustered Sister Liu, and asked, “What is it?” Her eyes returned to the account books.

Sister Liu was startled by the account books scattered all over the study. She hesitated for a moment, closed the door, took two steps forward, placed a plate of snacks on the table, and said, “I made you some food.”

Even though Li Weiyi’s attention was entirely on the account books, she was drawn in by the oily, fragrant smell. She glanced at the table and asked, “What’s this?”

“Oh, it’s a specialty from my hometown, called ‘Dengxin Wowo.'”

But Li Weiyi wasn’t really listening. She just unconsciously replied, “Oh…your hometown, where…”

Sister Liu didn’t answer.

After a few seconds, Sister Liu said, “I have something to tell you.”

“Hmm, go ahead…”

Sister Liu seemed hesitant to speak.

Li Weiyi reluctantly put down the ledger, rubbed her eyes, and looked at her: “Go on, I’m listening. Hurry up, I’m very busy.”

Sister Liu’s face flushed, her gaze melancholic yet sincere: “I just wanted to tell you…this matter, it’s not appropriate for me to tell your father, but I feel I should say it.”

“What is it?”

“Starting over a month ago, a Mr. Li, who seems to be an old acquaintance of your mother, has come over several times.”

“And then?”

“Every time…every time he’s alone in a room with your mother. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but sometimes they’re very loud. I heard them talking about ‘money,’ ‘feelings,’ and things like that. Also, there were some…some strange noises.” Sister Liu’s head was lowered. “I didn’t dare get too close, but…your mother told me I absolutely mustn’t tell anyone, including you and your father.”

Li Weiyi’s heart skipped a beat. She asked, “Is everything you’re saying true? If even a single word is a lie, do you know the consequences? My dad will definitely not let you off the hook. You’re probably aware of my family’s influence in Chen City.”

Sister Liu was indeed frightened and quickly waved her hands: “No, no! How could I spread such rumors? I… I didn’t want to say anything, but over the years, you and Mr. Zhang have been very good to me, and I also hope that your family will always be harmonious and happy. I was afraid that I might have misunderstood something…”

Sister Liu was almost crying when Li Weiyi interrupted her: “Is there anything else you want to say?”

“No, nothing.”

“…”

“I understand, thank you, Sister Liu. Regardless of the truth, I hope you’ll follow my mother’s instructions: don’t tell anyone except me, and don’t tell my father either. I’ll handle this.”

“Okay, okay! Ah Chan, I’ll do whatever you say.”

Sister Liu left. Li Weiyi let out a long sigh, leaned back in her chair for a moment, then stood up and walked out of the room. Leaning against the second-floor railing, she immediately saw Wu Xinhui playing mahjong with several ladies. She looked cheerful and unaffected.

Li Weiyi instinctively didn’t believe her, but Sister Liu’s story seemed so plausible, and why would she need to spread rumors?

Perhaps there was a misunderstanding.

She really couldn’t bring this up with Zhang Jingchan, relying solely on the nanny’s side of the story. That was Zhang Jingchan’s own mother. From the first day they met, she saw the blanket he had prepared for his mother in his car and knew that, although he didn’t say it, he respected and loved her deeply.

The accounting matter was urgent, concerning the life and death of Zhang Moyun and Fuming and the fate of their entire family. They simply didn’t have any extra time to deal with anything else. Li Weiyi decided to bring it up with Zhang Jingchan after resolving the accounting issue.

That evening, Zhang Jingchan, looking pale after finishing his humanities exam, returned to the Zhang family home. The two ate dinner, one checking the accounts, the other reviewing company documents or helping out. By 10 p.m., Zhang Jingchan had to return to the Li family home.

That night, Li Weiyi worked until 5 a.m. before finally going to sleep.

On the third day, Zhang Jingchan finally didn’t have to take exams or go to school. He arrived at the Zhang family home at 8 a.m., opened the study door, and found Li Weiyi fast asleep on the sofa, wrapped in a blanket, with several account books beside her.

He wondered why she wasn’t sleeping in her room, then realized—she was probably worried and had been sleeping with the account books by her side for the past two nights.

Zhang Jingchan sat on the other side of the sofa, looked at her for a while, then got up and left the study. He found Sister Liu in the kitchen and asked, “What time did Jingchan go to sleep last night?”

Sister Liu: “It must have been very late. I got up to use the bathroom at 4 a.m., and the study light was still on. I got up around 6 a.m., and the light was off.”

Chapter 82: Vampire Tumor (2)

When Li Weiyi woke up again, the entire study was dark, the curtains were drawn, and the lights were off. She rubbed her eyes, sat up, and only then did she realize that someone else was sitting next to her.

Zhang Jingchan stirred, sitting up straight, and asked, “Awake?”

“What time is it? Why aren’t the lights on?”

“Noon,” Zhang Jingchan said. “Why didn’t you listen to me and stay up so late?”

Li Weiyi replied, “I was anxious, afraid I wouldn’t have enough time.” She tried to stand up, but because of her twisted, curled-up sleeping position on the sofa, her legs went numb, and she fell onto the sofa. Zhang Jingchan caught her, but her body was too heavy, causing the petite Zhang Jingchan to tumble onto the sofa, landing on top of him.

Li Weiyi chuckled, and just as she was about to get up, Zhang Jingchan pulled her back to his chest.

Li Weiyi: “…”

Both his arms were propped up on either side of her head, looking down at her with a half-smile: “Mr. Zhang, are you sure you’re still thinking about taking advantage of me?”

In the darkness, she didn’t see the annoyed smile in Zhang Jingchan’s eyes. Perhaps the unsuccessful attempt at a kiss had made Mr. Zhang realize that the timing wasn’t right.

After all, it was his own body opposite him.

He propped himself up on the sofa with one hand, and Li Weiyi leaned back. However, having finally gained the upper hand, Li Weiyi couldn’t resist showing off. She chuckled twice and said, “If you really want a kiss, I’m not unwilling. Come on, close your eyes; I’m going to do another sofa-plop.”

Zhang Jingchan watched her in the darkness.

Li Weiyi pouted at him: “Come on, baby.”

Zhang Jingchan sighed, pushed her arms away, got up, and strode away, opening the curtains with a “whoosh.”

Li Weiyi laughed heartily. The room suddenly lit up. Zhang Jingchan turned around, his face calm as if he hadn’t just fled in panic. He said to Li Weiyi, “Go wash up and eat something first.”

Li Weiyi obediently swaggered off.

A while later, she came running back like a whirlwind, shouting, “You distracted me, and I forgot about the important matter! I found it! I found where the problematic accounts are! They embezzled a total of 80 million in the past four years, hiding it very well, but I’ve uncovered it!”

The two sat back down at the computer. Li Weiyi opened several spreadsheets and laid out four or five ledgers, saying, “The answer lies in this subsidiary of Fuming.”

As a rapidly expanding private family business, Fuming Group was immature in its internal management and organizational structure, even quite arbitrary and chaotic. The group had multiple subsidiaries; sometimes, a new construction project would lead to the establishment of a new subsidiary. The functional division between the group headquarters and subsidiaries was also unclear. For example, the headquarters had a purchasing department, but the purchasing authority of some subsidiaries was returned to the headquarters, while others remained with the subsidiaries. A major reason was “people,” because there was just too much nepotism.

Furida Trading Company was such a subsidiary with a great deal of independent authority. Its business scope was quite interesting. Fuming’s main business was real estate, and every year there was depreciation or scrapping of heavy equipment. Fuurida was responsible for the warehousing, transportation, and recycling of some of this heavy equipment and building materials, as well as the resale of obsolete equipment.

“Furida’s accounts are a mess, you know?” Li Weiyi’s eyes gleamed.

“I know.”

“Some subsidiaries use paper ledgers, some use electronic ones. Some are integrated into the group’s unified system, while others have their own separate system. In short, it’s already quite an achievement for your headquarters’ Finance Department to roughly balance the books each year. If you really look closely, there are problems everywhere. This situation makes the flow of funds and assets between different subsidiaries even less transparent and harder to verify.”

“Hmm.”

“They’re exploiting this loophole.” Li Weiyi pulled out a piece of white paper, wrote “Furida” in the center, and then wrote the names of four subsidiaries around it, saying, “For example, look at this account. In February 2012, there was heavy equipment worth over 8 million yuan in the previous item…” The equipment, after being used for a period of time, was transported to Furida. This batch of equipment was only two years old, with a long service life ahead.

In April 2012, Furida sold a batch of old equipment, receiving only 800,000 yuan in revenue.

In June 2013, the 8 million yuan worth of equipment that had been put into storage in February of the previous year, with half of its depreciation recorded, was delivered to subsidiary B for use. During use, a series of quality problems and accidental damage occurred, and it was scrapped after six months.

In July 2013, Furida reported to headquarters and applied for 9 million yuan in funding to purchase new equipment.

Did you notice? Was the equipment sold in April really old? Was it really only sold for 800,000 yuan? Was the equipment delivered to subsidiary B the following June really relatively new? Did it really become scrapped so easily?

In and out, high and low, buy and sell, cross-transfer—such accounts abound. If Furida wanted to manipulate the system and sell off the group’s valuable assets for cash, it had considerable room for maneuver.

At first glance, every batch of equipment appeared to have both inflows and outflows, with seemingly valid reasons and complete accounts. Furthermore, because different subsidiaries were involved, equipment losses were recorded in the subsidiaries’ accounts, effectively erasing costs. Therefore, on paper, Furida’s overall financial situation seemed acceptable. However, if you combined the accounts of these subsidiaries with Furida’s own, the total figure for equipment was terrifying. Over the past four years, Fuming had lost an extra 80 million yuan in this area!

Zhang Jingchan thought this wasn’t something one person, or even just a few, could accomplish. They were a group; some were intimately familiar with financial statements and exploited this loophole. With Furida at the core, accomplices were present in several subsidiaries, all working together to bleed Fuming dry. The faster Fuming expanded recklessly, the more advantageous it was for them, and the more aggressively they drained it. “Your father is in such a high position, yet he doesn’t understand finance. No matter how decisive he is, he couldn’t possibly see these details. Besides, he suffers from a common problem among many private entrepreneurs—being overly trusting and lenient with his senior staff.”

Zhang Jingchan sat upright in his chair, hands resting on the armrests, his expression cold and his eyes sharp.

“The person in charge of Furuida is called Li Minghui. I’ve met him a few times. He’s in his thirties, a fellow villager my father and his associates brought from their hometown. He’s been working at Fuming for seven or eight years.”

Li Weiyi: “Who’s standing behind this Li Minghui?”

Zhang Jingchan fell silent. He pulled a stack of executive files from the table, spread them out, and tossed them onto the table. Li Weiyi looked through the names one by one: Cheng Chuan, Vice President of Finance; Li Jinxiong, Director of Construction; Zhang Fengming, Zhang Jingchan’s second uncle, Vice President of Procurement; Liu Ying, Director of Marketing; Wu Mingrui, Wu Xinhui’s older brother, Director of Human Resources; Xu Yi, Assistant to the Chairman…

Li Weiyi slowly said, “The best thing to do now is to report it to the police. Once the accounts are presented to the Economic Crime Investigation Department, they’ll understand. With such a large sum of money involved, they’ll immediately open a case and apprehend the relevant individuals. They’ll easily trace the flow of funds behind it, revealing who the mastermind is, leaving no one able to escape.”

“You’re right,” Zhang Jingchan said, only this one sentence.

“But we can’t do that, can we?”

“Zhang Jingchan’s eyes were like frost: ‘Once such a big case occurs, all of Fuming’s creditors will swarm in. The fragile balance my father has been painstakingly maintaining these past few months will collapse completely. All of Fuming’s assets will be frozen, including the 90 million my father has invested in the futures market, which won’t last until September.’

So, in this round, they will still suffer a crushing defeat.

Li Weiyi sighed: “Then what can we do? We can’t just let them get away with it. Besides, they’re going to harm your father in two weeks. How can we leave with peace of mind if we don’t find them?”

Zhang Jingchan crossed his arms, his right hand resting on his chin, his index and middle fingers lightly touching his lips, deep in thought.

“Let’s go look for them, and we’ll find out.”

Li Weiyi’s heart tightened: “We…we’ll investigate ourselves?”

“If it were before, it definitely wouldn’t work. We’d be discovered before even entering the Furuida warehouse. But these are special times, which actually make things easier for us. Because my dad withdrew all the working capital, all construction sites stopped work, and Furida also closed down. Most of the workers went home.”

“So…their factories and warehouses are likely unattended?”

Zhang Jingchan nodded and said, “That’s right. My dad investigated once before but found nothing and gave up. Now is probably when they’re most relaxed. Although Fuming’s accounts are messy and uncontrollable, involving large assets, and the keys to the large warehouses of several subsidiaries are kept in my dad’s office, he just never goes to look at them.”

Li Weiyi thought it was feasible now. She snapped her fingers: “Great! Old foxes are still shrewd. Our dad still had a backup plan. So what are we waiting for? Let’s go. We’ll be sent back at midnight tonight.”

Zhang Jingchan said, “To be on the safe side, find a few more helpers, but not too many, or it will attract attention.”

“Who do you want to find?” “

Zhang Jingchan looked at her thoughtfully.