Chapter 144: Jiang Tiansheng's Schemes

In the Yinhejiuba office, several of Chen Mo's core subordinates were all present.

For three consecutive days recently, police license inspections had begun appearing on Chen Mo's turf.

Although the police had conducted inspections before, those were only occasional and random, with no real impact on business.

This time, however, it was three consecutive days of inspections every single day, hitting every bar and nightclub on Chen Mo's turf — clearly a deliberate targeting.

Fortunately, Chen Mo's establishments had always kept to the rules: not a trace of drugs could be found, there were no people of questionable identity, and the hostesses didn't cause trouble on the premises.

But even though the establishments themselves had no issues, some patrons had their mood ruined by daily police interruptions and were no longer willing to come.

"How are your calculations looking? How much have we lost these past few days?"

Shen Guodong glanced at the ledger in his hand and said, "Mo Ge, counting last night, we've lost over a million in earnings in just three days.

The key is, we don't know how long this situation will persist, and the business losses will only keep growing.

If this continues for a month, I'd estimate all our establishments will have to shut down."

"Have you found out what's causing it?" Chen Mo asked with a frown.

Chen Mo knew the losses were significant, but he hadn't expected them to be this large.

Shen Guodong said, "We haven't found the specific reason yet. But there's something very suspicious."

"Speak!"

"This police crackdown doesn't seem to be targeting just us — it's targeting all of Great Prosperity. These past few days, every Great Prosperity territory has been targeted by the police, though the other branches aren't being hit as hard as ours.

As for other Triad Societies, it's business as usual — they haven't been affected at all.

Also..."

As he got to the end, Shen Guodong began to hesitate.

"If there's something to say, just say it directly."

"Some of the younger brothers asked around with a few police officers. That Officer Li Ying from before has been transferred, and now we've got a new Senior Inspector here.

Our area being targeted so severely — could it have something to do with this new inspector?"

"Li Ying was transferred? Who replaced Li Ying — did you find out?" Li Ying's transfer came as a surprise to Chen Mo.

Li Ying had gone undercover in a Triad Society years ago and was very familiar with how Triad Societies operated.

He and Chen Mo had already reached a tacit understanding: as long as Chen Mo didn't cause trouble, he wouldn't target Chen Mo, and both of them had an easier time.

He hadn't expected that before long, Li Ying would be transferred away.

Bringing in a new Senior Inspector would make it very difficult to reach that kind of understanding with Chen Mo anytime soon.

"We checked. The Senior Inspector who replaced Li Ying is called Huang Ziyang."

"Damn! It's actually him!"

Hearing the name Huang Ziyang, Chen Mo knew there was trouble.

This Huang Ziyang had previously applied to Huang Bingyao to have his jurisdiction transferred to Chen Mo's area, but Huang Bingyao had rejected the request.

Later, although Huang Bingyao was promoted to the Xijiulong Police Headquarters, Huang Ziyang's uncle Huang Zhi Cheng had also died.

Chen Mo had assumed that without backing, this Huang Ziyang wouldn't be able to stir up much trouble — yet he'd still found an opportunity.

"Mo Ge knows him?" The others looked at Chen Mo curiously.

Chen Mo nodded somewhat awkwardly. "He pursued your new sister-in-law before, but couldn't compete with me, and I scolded him a couple of times."

"No wonder we're being targeted so hard — turns out it's Mo Ge's love rival."

They already knew about Chen Mo finding them a new sister-in-law these past few days, but they hadn't expected there was a story behind it.

"Mo Ge, want me to take him out?" Tian Yang Sheng spoke up directly.

When there's a problem, solve the problem; if you can't solve the problem, solve the person who created it — Tian Yang Sheng's logic was flawless.

"No!" Ahua objected. "If Huang Ziyang gets taken out at this point, the police station will immediately suspect it was us."

"Then what do we do? We can't just leave it alone — if this keeps up, we won't be able to do business at all!" A Hu said anxiously from the side.

A Long patted A Hu on the shoulder. "A Hu, don't worry. There'll definitely be a way."

Shen Guodong also advised, "A Sheng, A Hu, the root of this matter isn't Huang Ziyang. Taking him out won't do much good.

Right now, all the police are targeting Great Prosperity. Even without this Huang Ziyang, there'd be other police coming after us."

Chen Mo thought for a moment, then nodded. "Guodong is right. This matter isn't that simple.

Here's what we'll do: go back and keep a close watch on your own establishments. Don't give the police any leverage.

I'll notify you if anything comes up later."

No matter what, Huang Ziyang was just a Senior Inspector. Even if Chen Mo couldn't take him out right now, there were other ways to deal with him.

The real trouble was the police targeting all of Great Prosperity.

Mobilizing police across all of Gangdao to target all of Great Prosperity meant the Gangdao government higher-ups had to be behind it — at the very least, the top brass of the police system.

Chen Mo suspected this might be Jiang Tiansheng's doing again.

With something this big happening to the Triad Society, the Dragon Head would have to step in to resolve it.

Once Jingkun failed to resolve it, his seat as Dragon Head would become unstable.

The Jiang family had occupied the Dragon Head position of Great Prosperity for many years and inevitably had plenty of government connections behind them — something Jingkun certainly couldn't match.

But Jingkun was no pushover either, and he might well have ways to deal with it.

Chen Mo still felt it would be best to give Jingkun a call first to ask about the situation.

"Brother Kun, it's Chen Mo!"

"A Mo, has your turf been harassed by the police too?"

Through the receiver, Jingkun's voice sounded somewhat weary — he'd probably been worrying a lot over this matter.

"That's right. I heard all of Great Prosperity's establishments are being harassed, and quite a few have been raided. That's why I'm calling Brother Kun to ask about the situation!"

"Damn it! It must be that bastard Jiang Tiansheng pulling strings! He ran off to Holland and still won't behave!"

On the phone, Jingkun angrily cursed at Jiang Tiansheng.

"Oh? Is this matter still related to Mr. Jiang?" Chen Mo feigned ignorance.

Hmph, it's definitely him—who else would be at odds with me! Jiang Tiansheng thinks he's the only one with connections in the Gangdao government? I, Jingkun, haven't been idle all these years.

"Chen Mo, rest assured, I'll definitely settle this for you within three days."

"Jingkun, if you could explain it more clearly, I'd have some peace of mind! Now the underlings keep coming to me every day, and I'm getting annoyed by them." Chen Mo asked, feigning worry.

Chen Mo was curious—just who exactly stood behind Jingkun?

Jingkun now treats Chen Mo as one of his own.

Hearing Chen Mo's question, he didn't hide it, his tone hinting at pride: "Chen Mo, what do you say—who really calls the shots in Gangdao these days?"

"You mean the foreigners?" Chen Mo ventured.

"Exactly, those foreigners. So just wait patiently—I'll definitely settle this within three days."

After hanging up, Chen Mo began to wonder how Jingkun could have gotten involved with those foreigners.

But if he couldn't figure it out, it didn't matter—as long as the problem was solved, the details weren't important.