Sweeping Mouse Ridge – Chapter Six : 7

Leaving the Hefeng Hotel, perhaps the aftereffects of the wine were kicking in because Guo Xiaofen felt a little dizzy. Despite this, she firmly refused Zhai Qing and Cui Wentao’s offer to drive her home, saying her boyfriend would pick her up soon. Looking at the two lecherous men’s somewhat dejected expressions, she felt even more certain she had made the right decision.

Walking north along the main street in front of the Hefeng Hotel, she deliberately made a few turns to avoid being followed, eventually turning onto a side street. The streetlights on the side street were dim, and in the autumn wind, every ray of light projected onto the cracked ground trembled. The roadside trees had long since lost their leaves, resembling thin, bony prostitutes in the night. The clothing stores, restaurants, massage parlors, and other shops along the street were all dark, their locked doors plastered with tattered notices bearing words like “Closed” and “Apologies.” Perhaps because of this, a noodle shop with its lights still on stood out conspicuously.

Guo Xiaofen walked past the noodle shop, then turned back.

Because she saw someone sitting inside.

She climbed the steps, opened the sliding glass door, and went inside. Sure enough, sitting behind the long table, slowly eating a bowl of tomato and gravy noodles, was the middle-aged man who had been beaten by Zhai Qing at the entrance of Block E. Under the harsh white light, his already thin face appeared even more elongated and sickly, the clotted blood at the corner of his mouth particularly noticeable. Perhaps because the wound was still very painful and the steaming bowl of noodles was a bit too hot, he ate the noodles while hissing and wincing at his injured side.

As Guo Xiaofen sat down opposite him, he was somewhat surprised, a flicker of wariness crossing his eyes.

“Mr. Yue, is that right? Hello.” Guo Xiaofen remembered his last name. “I met you briefly today at the Hefeng Hotel.”

The man surnamed Yue tightened his thin, old jacket, staring blankly at her.

“Don’t worry, I’m not from the Love Charity Foundation. I’m just a reporter who went to interview them about the Sweeping Mouse Ridge Case,” Guo Xiaofen said.

The man surnamed Yue was still somewhat skeptical.

“I heard your accusations against them, and I saw Zhai Qing hit you. I’m very curious; what exactly happened?”

“You smell a bit of alcohol. Looks like they treated you to dinner!” The man surnamed Yue observed carefully. “Of course, they are always very generous to reporters.” He glanced at Guo Xiaofen, who wasn’t carrying any bags. He just handed her a card.

Guo Xiaofen was stunned.

“So, what did they want you to write? That the murderer was just a temporary worker at Mingyi Company? That they terminated their cooperation with Mingyi Company at the end of last year? That Tongyou Nursery was a privately run business, so the Sweeping Mouse Ridge Case had nothing to do with the Love Charity Foundation? And then list all the charitable deeds the Love Charity Foundation has done in recent years and the awards they’ve received, urging everyone to continue donating to them?”

“I think you’ve misunderstood—”

“No need to explain.” The man surnamed Yue smiled coldly. “We are on different paths. You eat your feast, I’ll eat my noodles. Goodbye!”

Guo Xiaofen slowly stood up: “It seems Vice President Xing and the others were right. ‘Competitors are enemies’; that saying applies everywhere.”

The man surnamed Yue suddenly looked up: “What did you say?”

“Vice President Xing said you’re just jealous of the Love Charity Foundation because you can’t raise money with your own charity. Hearing they got into trouble, you came here specifically to extort money from them under the guise of leaking information to the media. It seems it’s true.”

The man surnamed Yue trembled with anger: “You…you are making baseless accusations! Our own charity was ruined by them years ago! What money have I raised?!”

Guo Xiaofen opened the sliding glass door and went down the steps, saying, “What you just said—we are on different paths. There’s nothing to talk about.”

The man surnamed Yue jumped up, ran around the table, and tried to grab her arm, but hesitated before grabbing her handbag strap: “Come back, come back…let’s talk this out.”

Only after Guo Xiaofen sat back down opposite him did the man surnamed Yue feel relieved. Guo Xiaofen frankly introduced herself and explained why she had gone to Hefeng Hotel that afternoon. Mr. Yue’s expression softened considerably, and he gradually opened up.

As a seasoned journalist, Guo Xiaofen had encountered all sorts of interviewees. Many were initially very uncooperative. In such situations, deliberately trying to please them would only make them look down on you. The best approach was to first provoke them, creating a state of hostility, and then try to ease the tension… Human psychology was strange; former adversaries, once turned friends, were more likely to develop mutual respect, goodwill, and closeness—this tactic worked wonders on Mr. Yue.

“My name is Yue Shao. I used to be the principal of a private primary school in Province A. Province A is remote and underdeveloped, and its few industries are all major polluters, resulting in an exceptionally high birth rate of children with various deformities, congenital diseases, and rare illnesses in recent years. A trip through the countryside reveals several children, commonly known as ‘white wax sticks,’ squatting at the door of every household—these children often appear listless, like idiots, with sallow complexions and malnourished, emaciated like sticks. Their bodies are frequently seen in the mountains, fields, and rivers. When you ask their parents, they all say they ran out of the house and accidentally fell or drowned. Only the parents know the truth…”

Yue Shao started to tell her more details: “A few years ago, when several of us private primary school principals went to a meeting in the city, we discussed it and realized that while these children were indeed sick, many had no intellectual developmental problems, and their illnesses weren’t incurable. If left untreated, they would simply die. So we wrote materials and reports to the city government, applying for assistance, but no one paid any attention to us. Seeing this, we thought that going alone wouldn’t work, so we joined forces and organized a charity called Camphor Tree.”

“We leased an abandoned courtyard in each town,” he continued, “rebuilt walls and structures to serve as a nursery, and the parents of sick children brought their children there, paid a small fee, and then we solicited donations from conscientious businesses and individuals to hire caregivers and provide medical treatment. That’s how Dong Xinlan and Little Wu came to us.”

“Although Camphor Tree has always lacked food, clothing, and medicine since its inception, the children are very obedient and sensible, and other nongovernmental charitable organizations are willing to lend a hand. So we have the motivation, the children see hope in their eyes, and they are quite happy.”

“Especially Little Wu. Once, when a congenital heart disease expert from Beijing Children’s Hospital came to the Provincial People’s Hospital for a consultation, we heard the news, hired a car to take him there, and the expert performed surgery on him for free, actually curing his illness. Little Wu was overjoyed and has been devoted to Camphor Tree ever since. We couldn’t get rid of him, so we simply let him stay and help take care of the other children…”

Yue Shao gazed at the night sky for a while, lost in thought, as if reminiscing about the good old days. Then he sighed, “Later, the Love Charity Foundation came along, claiming to be a private organization like ours, but they had powerful backers and connections… Then suddenly, we received a notice saying that to strengthen management, all private charitable organizations had to be incorporated into the Love Charity Foundation, becoming its subordinate institutions and subject to its leadership. We were furious. We went to the city government to complain, asking, ‘We are private organizations, and they are private organizations too, so why should they lead us?'”

“And what happened?” Guo Xiaofen asked.

“The result? The result was that several teachers, including myself, were dismissed. So be it; it was only a few hundred yuan in salary anyway; it didn’t matter whether we had it or not… But what I never expected was that soon, the demolition team came with bulldozers and tore down the orphanage we had painstakingly built brick by brick. In the blink of an eye, all the flowers, trees, and shrubs we planted with the children were gone in a flash. Looking at the piles of broken bricks and tiles, the little blackboard, the accordion, the children’s drawings, and the homemade wheelchairs and crutches buried in the ground, we cried, and the children cried together, but what good was crying!”

At this point, Yue Shao choked up. Guo Xiaofen asked the noodle shop owner for a pot of water and slowly poured it into the glass in front of Yue Shao.

Yue Shao took a few sips of water, calming himself down a bit, and continued, “We were just worrying about how to settle the children, but who knew that Love Charity Foundation had already ‘considered’ it for us. Cui Wentao and the recently deceased Xing Qisheng led teams to various orphanages to ‘pick’ people to take to the welfare home—”

Guo Xiaofen was somewhat surprised: “Pick what kind of people?”

“Of course, they pick people they can ‘use,’ like pretty little girls, like Dong Xinlan, and those whose conditions might improve or heal as they grow up. This can serve as ‘testimony’ when they boast about their achievements to society in the future. They especially value people like Little Wu, because by simply altering his medical records, it becomes that he was cured of congenital heart disease at Love Hospital, which they can use every year to give testimonials and attract more donations.”

“So that’s how it is!” Guo Xiaofen exclaimed, suddenly understanding. “No wonder Love Hospital brings them here from Province A every year… So, what about the rest of the children?”

“They just ignore the rest of the children. Our orphanage isn’t allowed to operate, their welfare homes won’t take them, and most of the parents refuse to take their children home anymore. In the end, we can only watch helplessly as those children with nowhere to go disappear or die…” Yue Shao’s expression was somber. “Later, we tried to organize a few people privately to adopt children according to the orphanage model, but as soon as they got wind of it, they brought a bunch of thugs to vandalize the place and snatch away any children they liked. Little Li Ying was abducted by them like that—”

Guo Xiaofen frowned. “Teacher Yue, I don’t quite understand. They are just a group of sick children. Why does the Love Charity Foundation have to fight over them and ruin other private orphanages? What good does that do them?”

“In the end, it all comes down to a matter of interests.”

“Interests?” Guo Xiaofen was increasingly confused. “If it’s a public welfare and charitable organization, what kind of interests could there be?”

“Outsiders might think that charitable organizations are places with little ‘profit,’ but that’s a huge misconception,” Yue Shao said softly, tapping the tabletop with his finger. “From a national perspective, there are annual government grants to charitable organizations, and the flow of these funds is strictly audited. However, the number of people in need of assistance is enormous; just considering orphans and abandoned children alone, the number is staggering. Even with substantial government funding, it’s just a drop in the ocean.”

“In this situation, the government supports charitable organizations in raising funds from the public and provides tax breaks to companies and individuals who raise significant amounts. It should be said that the vast majority of charitable organizations in the country are law-abiding, dedicated to helping the needy, and wholeheartedly committed to charitable causes. But there are a very few—like Love Charity Foundation—who try every possible loophole in government policies to make a fortune.”

“How exactly do they do that?”

“Let me put it this way: those businesses and wealthy individuals eager for tax breaks, if they had many charitable organizations to choose from, would naturally compare which one had a better reputation and helped more children, and then donate to that one—but what if a province only had one charitable organization?”

Guo Xiaofen suddenly realized!

Yue Shao continued, “In this way, the donating companies, who were originally Party A, suddenly become Party B. Because for charitable organizations, it’s a take-it-or-leave-it situation; if you don’t donate, there are plenty of others who will. But if you want tax breaks, you have to donate to me—and if I don’t get a personal benefit, I have the right to refuse! So, there are huge kickbacks and commissions in the donated funds—”

“What are the percentages of these kickbacks and commissions?”

“According to the ‘rules’ set by Love Charity Foundation, it’s generally 3… or 5—”

“Three to five percent?” Guo Xiaofen was very surprised. “Doesn’t that mean if a company donates 100 million, they can pocket three to five million?”

“Not three to five percent, but thirty to fifty percent,” Yue Shao said coldly.

Guo Xiaofen was speechless for a long time.

“Of the 100 million yuan donated, half goes into the personal pockets of Tao Bing and Xing Qixian. But that’s not all. A significant portion of Love Charity Foundation’s ‘business’ involves money laundering. Because it’s social fundraising, auditing and monitoring the flow of funds is difficult. As a result, some illicit money is laundered through Love Charity Foundation under the guise of fundraising. Tao Bing and Xing Qixian, of course, take a cut.”

“People like Zhai Qing, who used to be involved in organized crime, now specifically manage Love Charity Foundation’s money laundering business…” Yue Shao said. “Besides that, Love Charity Foundation also makes money through student loans and real estate. Two years ago, student loans drove a female student to her death. Her father was reportedly a high-ranking police officer, so student loans were forced to stop for a while, but recently they’ve resurfaced. And they are still doing real estate as usual.”

Guo Xiaofen interrupted him, “I don’t quite understand. What kind of real estate is a charity doing, and how does it make money?”

“Where does the profit from real estate mainly come from? It’s simply the difference between the land price and the selling price. The higher the price the government sells the land for, the higher the selling price of the property, right? Okay, so what if the government doesn’t charge for the construction land, but the property is still sold at the high price of commercial housing?”

Guo Xiaofen shook her head: “How’s that possible? The government always has to sell construction land; how can they not charge for it?”

“There’s an exception,” Yue Shao said slowly. “The state has explicit regulations that charitable organizations can enjoy huge discounts on land prices for building nursing homes and welfare institutions, and even be exempt from fees.”

“That’s a good policy… I don’t understand; how can the Love Charity Foundation exploit loopholes?”

“They can build senior apartments.”

“Senior apartments?”

“Look, for example, the government approves a plot of land for them to build five buildings. They build a walled, independent community, use one of the buildings to build a nursing home or welfare facility, and then sell the remaining four at market price. Isn’t that just using land given to them by the government to build commercial housing and sell it?”

“But can they get full ownership rights for such houses?”

“Of course, they can’t immediately get ‘full ownership rights,'” Yue Shao said. “However, when these houses are sold, a separate contract is signed, granting the buyer ‘retirement residency rights’ for seventy years or even longer, and they’ll enjoy all the benefits of the only actual nursing home in that community—water, electricity, internet, and property management are all free; isn’t that tempting?”

Hearing so many unheard-of “inside information” reports, Guo Xiaofen’s already heavy head began to throb: “That’s why they want to destroy all other private charitable organizations, seize control of all the channels for acquiring wealth, and then do whatever they want: use tax policies to commit fraud, use charitable funds for financial crimes, use preferential land policies for speculation, money laundering… But the country’s anti-corruption efforts have been unprecedentedly strong in recent years; aren’t they afraid?”

“Of course they are scared, terrified! But they are used to it. Besides, every bad thing they do involves countless departments and individuals. Those who give them the green light all want a share. It’s too late to stop now. And the more they know they are about to be finished, the more desperately they try to grab what they can. After all, if it isn’t theirs, they can’t leave it to someone else… We understand all this, but there’s nothing we can do. When they took the children away, I was sad, but then I thought, their orphanage is much better than ours. Even though the children are being used, it’s better than them eating scraps with us poor teachers. But if you’re going to use the children, use them properly, don’t take their lives…” As he spoke, tears suddenly welled up in Yue Shao’s eyes.

Guo Xiaofen pulled two tissues from the tissue box beside her and handed them to Yue Shao. Yue Shao crumpled them vigorously, but the tissues, like the knot in his stomach, remained unruly no matter how he tried. “After hearing about Sweeping Mouse Ridge’s case, I rushed over, wanting to find Xing Qixian and Cui Wentao to get some answers, but I ended up getting beaten up by Zhai Qing… A useless scholar, but this isn’t something to be easily settled!”

“What are your next plans?” Guo Xiaofen asked.

“Since I’m already here, I’m going to report this to higher authorities no matter what. The country’s morals have been improving these past few years, and the crackdown on organized crime is serious. I don’t believe those people from the Love Charity Foundation can stay arrogant forever!”

Guo Xiaofen thought for a moment and said, “I suspect your so-called ‘reporting’ won’t yield much concrete evidence, right?”

Yue Shao nodded with a wry smile: “Where am I, an ordinary citizen, to find any concrete evidence?”

“This is a golden opportunity,” Guo Xiaofen said after a moment’s thought. “Normally, without evidence, the police wouldn’t have a reason to investigate the Love Charity Foundation. But it’s different now. The Sweeping Mouse Ridge Case has become such a big deal. According to investigative procedures, the police can’t let go of any clues related to the case provided by anyone. They must invest manpower and resources to verify them repeatedly. So if you report the Love Charity Foundation now, the police can do both, investigating everything at once—”

Yue Shao nodded repeatedly: “Great idea, great idea!”

Guo Xiaofen took out her phone and called Ma Xiaozhong, asking him to pick her up nearby. Then she said to Yue Shao, “During this time, you need to be careful about your personal safety. Starting today, you’ll be staying at the home of an old friend of mine who’s a policeman. He’ll teach you how to report the Love Charity Foundation’s illegal and criminal activities according to procedure.”

Yue Shao was overjoyed, but besides saying “thank you,” he didn’t know what else to say. Finally, perhaps feeling awkward just saying “thank you,” he buried his head and slurped down the remaining noodles in his bowl… Watching his clumsy appearance, Guo Xiaofen felt both amused and heartbroken.