Chapter 98

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Protagonist:

Jiang Wenyu

Wang Tao was actually still hesitating, but looking at that bankbook, ID card, and a deed all placed right there, there was no way the other party could be a scammer, right?

Moreover, he really needed money; if he missed this chance, there would be no shop like this again — finding an opportunity to sell off the Mall wasn't easy.

Right then Wang Tao took a deep breath and finally nodded, saying: "Alright, then how much money does Mr. Li need to borrow?"

The moment Li Gen saw Wang Tao agree, his face instantly broke into a smile, and he said directly: "Not much, not much — ten thousand yuan is enough!"

Compared to the selling price of his own Mall, this ten thousand really didn't count as much; right then Wang Tao wasn't sloppy either and wrote an IOU with the other party, finally handing the money over to Li Gen, who didn't say another word and hurriedly put the previous thirty thousand and this ten thousand together.

"Then Mr. Li, I'll wait for you to come back." Wang Tao said.

Li Gen smiled: "Mr. Wang, rest assured, I'll go and return as fast as I can!"

Thump thump thump—

Suddenly, the office door was knocked; Wang Tao didn't think much of it and went to open it, but Li Gen, for some reason, suddenly tensed up — though Wang Tao didn't notice these details.

The door opened; upon seeing the visitor outside, Li Gen inexplicably relaxed again — it was a young man, neatly dressed, who immediately said upon seeing Wang Tao: "Mr. Wang, hello."

Wang Tao sized him up slightly and immediately recognized him, saying: "Oh, you're Zhou He, right? Come on in."

The visitor was precisely Zhou He; he followed Wang Tao inside just like that, and seeing there was still another person inside, he couldn't help but give a few extra glances; Li Gen also gave Zhou He a polite smile, and after the two entered, Li Gen said to Wang Tao again: "Mr. Wang, then I'll be going first; I'll try to hurry back as early as possible."

Wang Tao also hurriedly said: "Alright, then I'll wait quietly for Mr. Li."

Li Gen left the office just like that, and in a moment his figure was gone.

During this time Zhou He also glanced a few more times in the direction Li Gen had left, his brows furrowing slightly; Wang Tao said: "Sorry, Mr. Zhou, I forgot to go to your construction site and tell your boss — I just found someone willing to buy my Mall yesterday, so the matter of transferring this place to you guys that was mentioned before, let's just forget about it for now."

Zhou He had come today precisely for this matter; hearing the other party say this, he didn't think much of it and nodded: "Then alright, I'll go back and relay it to our boss later — but Mr. Wang, you say someone's willing to buy your Mall; could it be that person just now?"

Wang Tao nodded: "It's him; do you know him?"

Zhou He shook his head, recalling: "I don't know him, but this person seemed to have gone to our construction site before; at the time he wanted to discuss some acquisition with our boss, it fell through, and he left — I only met him once. Afterwards my boss said this person's background was unclear, not someone from Chema City, and his words were hard to trust."

Wang Tao froze for a moment hearing this, then laughed: "You're saying he's a scammer? Hahaha, impossible, impossible."

Zhou He also immediately said: "I was just saying casually, Mr. Wang don't mind it; then I'll be going first."

"Alright, take care!"

Having seen Zhou He off, Wang Tao was still smiling, muttering to himself: "Scammer? Heh, where would such a bargain come from — would a scammer actively hand over his own bankbook? I don't believe it."

On the other side, Zhou He quickly left the Mall entrance, but didn't immediately return to the construction site; instead he stopped in place and began pondering.

"I remember there seemed to have been a notice issued before……" he said while looking around everywhere; not long after he indeed saw a Police Station notice on a utility pole.

Then he pinched his chin and pondered a bit; even if someone got scammed it wasn't his business, and besides it wasn't certain that person was a scammer — looking at Wang Tao, he was a shrewd man, so being scammed shouldn't be too likely, but better safe than sorry, and the police also said to report suspicious persons directly; wasn't that man just now a suspicious person? Telling the police about it didn't seem like a bad thing.

Although Zhou He was somewhat timid, over this half year at the construction site, relying on his glib tongue he had also made his way smoothly, not the least bit worse than when he used to follow behind Jiang Wenyu's backside back then; although he hadn't really met or contacted Jiang Wenyu for nearly half a year, if it were Jiang Wenyu right now he would definitely meddle in other people's business.

Said and done; Zhou He finally didn't say another word, picked a direction, and ran off.

Half an hour later, a small inn near the station.

A man looked at the ten thousand yuan he had gotten, his face full of joy, his mouth incessantly muttering: "Tsk tsk tsk, this money came so fast I almost can't spend it all, hehe, where to go next? Hmm… there seems to be another city nearby, why not go take a look?"

Just at this moment, footsteps suddenly came from outside; his alertness was still pretty high; right then he hid the money and listened carefully to the movement outside; fortunately those sounds disappeared after a moment.

He let out a long breath and comforted himself: "Overthinking it, overthinking it; that guy was dazed by my smooth talk, he shouldn't go report it to the police, but just in case it's still better to leave early."

Speaking, he picked up his things and immediately walked out of the small inn, but just as he stepped out he felt something was off; he discovered the surroundings were different from when he came — deathly quiet, not a single person in sight.

He had just wanted to ask where all the people had run off to when suddenly several figures burst out from both sides!

"Don't move, police! Don't move!"

"Waaaaah—!"

Several people pounced on him without hesitation, directly pinning him hard to the ground; Li Gen was scared so badly he nearly wet his pants, still screaming nonstop.

……

About another half hour later, Zhou He, who had already returned to the construction site and was preparing to start work, suddenly saw someone come looking for him; he went out and saw it was precisely their Chema City Police Bureau's Bureau Chief, Lu Biao.

"Mr. Zhou, sorry to disturb you; regarding the lead you provided to us today……"

After hearing Lu Biao's words, Zhou He's face was full of shock, his speech stammering: "R… really… really a scammer?"

Lu Biao nodded seriously: "Yes, a key fraud criminal spanning roughly several cities, with many victims already; thank you this time; later please come to the Police Station alone, we have other matters to discuss with you."

"Oh… oh, okay!" Only after Lu Biao left did Zhou He blankly scratch his head, muttering to himself: "Is my luck a bit too good? How come I keep stumbling into these things."

……

After seeing the person off, Wang Tao didn't do much else; he just wandered around the big Mall very reluctantly — once upon a time this Mall was so prosperous it could accommodate many, many people every day, but as of today, only himself remained.

This down-and-out big Mall also made Wang Tao smile bitterly nonstop, even leaving him without the strength to speak.

Selling it off now was good too; once sold he could just go do some other things.

Tap tap tap……

Footsteps suddenly came; hearing the sound Wang Tao turned his head to look, only to see a tall man in a police uniform walking straight toward him.

Wang Tao was also startled at first, until that person came up close and said forcefully to Wang Tao: "You're Mr. Wang Tao, right? I'm Lu Biao; there's a matter I hope you'll cooperate with our police in investigating."

Wang Tao asked in confusion: "Wh… what matter?"

After this, Lu Biao recounted the matter of Li Gen being a fraud criminal in full detail.

And having heard all this, Wang Tao's whole person froze in place; the two were in the office at this time, Lu Biao held the deed, the ID card, and the bankbook; after glancing at them a few times he directly said to the dazed Wang Tao: "These are all fake; although it's not nice to say it this way, with current methods forging these things actually isn't hard."

Fake… forged… scammer.

These things nearly made Wang Tao faint; being scammed wasn't something he actually cared that much about — what he cared about most was his money! He hurriedly asked right then: "Po… police comrade, then the money he borrowed from me… no, swindled from me — what about that? That's ten thousand yuan!"

Lu Biao immediately said: "We searched several tens of thousands of yuan from him; your portion should be in there."

Only now did Wang Tao slump onto the sofa like a deflated ball; thankfully, the money was still there! But while the money was fine, the humiliation of having been swindled could not be erased, and more importantly, what was to be done about this mall?

Thinking of this, Wang Tao's expression darkened once again.

……

This was the Miaoshou Jiang Electrical Appliance Company; work was proceeding vigorously, but these past few days Jiang Wenyu had fallen into an unfathomable reverie.

Every day he took no pleasure in tea or food; though it was not that severe, his whole mental state was always somewhat dazed.

After work this day, Jiang Wenyu immediately went to the telephone, then fished out a phone book in which a certain person's contact information was recorded.

After pondering for a moment, he finally hesitated no longer and dialed the number.

The call connected, and he said: "Hello, I'd like to find Miss Zhong Beiyue."

……

Time arrived at noon the next day; the sun was bright, the sky cloudless, the weather neither hot nor cold, quite comfortable. The Mayor of Chema City held a grand commendation conference at the Police Bureau, after all the news that Chema City Public Security Bureau had caught a heavyweight fraudster had spread yesterday.

Everyone who knew came to join the excitement, and that man who always encounters inexplicable events — Zhou He — also went on stage at the Mayor's invitation.

On stage, he scratched his head quite embarrassedly; even he had not expected things to turn out this way. How could he have known that fraudster was actually a habitual offender who had already swindled quite a lot of money? So when the Mayor heard the man was caught, he was overjoyed.

This kind-hearted Mayor handed Zhou He a large red silk banner before the crowd; a few big characters were written on the banner.

"Warm-hearted Good Citizen — Zhou He!"