Chapter 2: 001 A Major Disaster Strikes! Twenty Million in Savings Vanishes Without a Trace

001 A Major Disaster Strikes! Twenty Million in Savings Vanishes Without a Trace

Fang Qingye slept until 7:30 before being woken by the "ding-a-ling" of his alarm clock.

He woke with sleepy eyes, dressed and washed, leisurely tied his tie, put on a dark blue suit, prepared to leave for work, and before leaving, did not forget to tidy his appearance in front of the dressing mirror.

A young face immediately appeared in the mirror, along with eyes that revealed a clear yet slightly foolish gaze.

Fang Qingye smiled.

Youth is truly good.

It was only a month ago that he returned to March 2008.

Having graduated from Shen City University of Finance and Economics only a few months ago, he is now an employee at the Nanxin Branch of Oriental Bank—still in his probationary period.

Nanxin County is his hometown.

The house was very quiet.

His parents were both teachers; his father served as principal at Guancheng Middle School in the county town, and his mother was an ordinary teacher at Qianjin Road Primary School; they had already gone to work by now.

Fang Qingye went downstairs, mounted his small scooter, left the residential compound, and rode west along the street.

Nanxin is a small county town in central Su Province; here dawn breaks very early, morning sunlight had already bathed the entire county town, cars came and went on the streets, white steam rose from the steamers of breakfast shops on both sides, and the whole small town was full of the scent of daily life.

Fang Qingye was in a cheerful mood.

Compared to struggling in the "glitzy metropolis" before his rebirth, life in the small town was very relaxed.

Just look: he slept until daylight, then leisurely got up, dressed, and washed; riding his bike took only five minutes to reach the workplace; then he ate breakfast in the canteen and could sit in his office by eight o'clock sharp.

Back in the day, commuting from home to Lujiazui for work in Shen City by subway took at least an hour and a half; he had to get up at six every morning, often returning home past ten at night, living like an ant underground, in darkness with no light.

Moreover, the workplace food was also quite good.

In the morning, soy milk and fried dough sticks, plus Nanxin County's specialty snack, pan noodles, cost fifty cents and you could choose whatever you wanted; lunch was also very abundant, usually four dishes and one soup: one dollar and fifty cents.

The salary was also decent: over 3,000 yuan per month; upon completing probation and becoming a regular employee, he could receive 4,200 yuan, not including the year-end bonus and various benefits during holidays; additionally: he received fourteen months' salary per year! In the entire county town, this was a high salary.

In this era, banks were still very popular.

Fang Qingye quickly arrived at the branch building located at the intersection of Changle Road, rode his scooter through the main gate beside it, parked the small scooter in the shed, and then went to the canteen.

Taking his own lunchbox from the cabinet, Fang Qingye went to the window to get food, but he soon discovered that the atmosphere in the canteen today was somewhat off; employees were eating while whispering about something.

"Hey, have you heard? Something major happened at the Qianjin Road Savings Office!"

"Is it the case where Tenglong Industry's 20 million yuan deposit at the savings office vanished without a trace? I heard about it too; it's simply too bizarre, just like a movie!"

Immediately, a bystander nearby leaned in: "Ah, how come I don't know? Hurry and tell me, what exactly happened?"

Fang Qingye just listened silently; an old event immediately surfaced in his mind.

The famous case of Tenglong Industry's missing deposit!

It had caused a sensation back then.

Fang Qingye naturally would not join the crowd; he got a portion of pan noodles, looked around to find a relatively empty table, saw someone waving at him, and walked over.

Already seated at the table were a man and a woman, both young people around his age; the man was named Zhang Rong, wearing a pair of black-rimmed glasses, graduated from the School of Finance and Economics at Su Province University of Science and Technology, and was now on rotation in the General Office, a place well-informed about news.

The girl was named Chen Meimei, graduated from Jin Ling Audit College, petite in stature, working diligently on rotation in the Finance and Accounting Section.

The three of them were recruited last year and were rotating through various departments within the bank; additionally, two temporary workers were hired, and after training, they were already working at grassroots savings offices.

After Fang Qingye sat down with his bowl, Zhang Rong immediately lowered his voice and asked, "Fang Qingye, a major incident occurred at Qianjin Road Savings; do you know about it?"

"I just heard people discussing it, but I'm not clear on the specifics," Fang Qingye replied.

"Yesterday afternoon, Tenglong Industry's headquarters, which is our bank's top-three deposit client, had their cashier go to Qianjin Road Savings Office to transfer 20 million yuan from a special company account; guess what happened?" Zhang Rong paused here to build suspense, waiting for Fang Qingye to respond.

But seeing Fang Qingye leisurely eating noodles with no intention of responding, he had to continue:

"It turned out the 20 million yuan in the account had already been transferred away long ago, vanished without a trace!"

"Did the deposit grow legs and walk away?" Fang Qingye retorted.

"I'm not entirely clear on the specifics, but anyway, our bank is now famous!" Zhang Rong said, his face somewhat excited, looking like a typical person who thrives on chaos.

Chen Meimei, who had been silent beside them, gently sighed: "Sigh... indeed, who knows how many people will get dragged into this."

Fang Qingye glanced at the girl; this matter would indeed drag her in as well.

Not because she participated in it, but because she was seconded to assist the investigation team sent down from the city.

Was it something like that?

Joining the investigation team was not because her abilities surpassed those of veteran employees; mainly, she had been at the bank for a very short time, had no roots, and certainly no significant entanglements of interest.

Of course, Fang Qingye would not say anything; after finishing his meal, he cleared the dishes and went to the Credit Section.

He was currently on rotation and probation there.

The Credit Section was considered one of the more powerful departments in the branch, responsible for loan issuance and post-loan management; although the final approval authority rested with the branch president, the initial client data application, review, and assessment were completed by the Credit Section, so not only the section chief and deputy chief, but even ordinary clerks in the section were frequently invited out for meals.

Even Fang Qingye, a probationary trainee rotating in the Credit Section, had been invited two days ago by a local enterprise boss in the county to dine at Jindi Grand Hotel with colleagues from the section, and later went to a KTV to sing, returning home only after midnight.

Of course, he did not handle core business; his work was just assisting—helping colleagues organize various documents and input data.

His work today was to input data for five enterprises whose mortgage loans had already been approved into the computer, then organize and archive them.

This work was not tiring; Fang Qingye sat in his workspace, drank tea, and leisurely began inputting.

Working lightly naturally felt comfortable; unfortunately, he could not listen to music online—all computers in the Credit Section could only access the bank's internal network.

Normally, the office was very quiet, with everyone busy with their own tasks, but today the atmosphere was obviously restless; everyone put down their work and whispered to one another.

Naturally, it was still about the mysterious theft of Tenglong Headquarters' deposit; of course, they discussed it in greater detail and more deeply.

"I heard Tenglong Industry's people have already called the city branch to complain about this matter; the investigation team established by the city will arrive today."

"That doesn't sound right? At the very least, they should have notified our branch to conduct an internal investigation first; how could they directly call the city branch?" A male colleague with a crew cut immediately raised a question.

"Exactly, it's too unreasonable; I wonder if they reported it to the police?"

"Apparently not; our President Zhao worked through the night with the general manager of Tenglong Industry, persuading him not to call the police for now, but to let the bank investigate internally first; family scandals should not be aired publicly."

"Hmm, that makes sense; President Zhao is very experienced."

The colleagues all nodded in agreement.

"Hey, talk less! This is work hours!" Just as everyone was chatting happily, a man in his thirties pushed the door open and shouted loudly at everyone.

It was Su Ming, the chief of the Credit Section.

"Just now, the leadership held an emergency meeting and issued an order requiring all cadres and staff of the entire bank to strictly forbid discussing this matter! Violators will be dealt with seriously! Deduct bonuses! Deduct wages!"

As soon as Su Ming spoke these words, everyone immediately fell silent and got back to their own work, but as soon as he left, the sound of discussion rose again.

"Sigh, what do you think? With President Zhang about to retire, will this incident affect his reputation? His late years won't be safe." Someone sighed.

Someone immediately refuted:

"The matter hasn't been investigated clearly yet; how can you say his late years won't be safe? Maybe it's not our bank's fault, but a problem with Tenglong Industries."

"Exactly. Even if it is the bank's problem, at most it's poor internal management; whoever is responsible should take responsibility. President Zhang has been on leave for over a year recovering from illness; what does that have to do with him? I think the one who will suffer is President Xia."

"Right, she is currently the vice president in charge of operations, and according to the leadership division of labor within the bank, the Qianjin Road Savings Office falls under her supervision; if there's a problem, she will definitely suffer!"

"Then, looking at it this way, will President Xia's promotion to the top spot be ruined?"

Fang Qingye had not spoken the whole time, sitting at his own desk and focusing on entering data.

This gossip wasn't worth eating, because he knew even more details.