Chapter 746: I'm Not Interested in Money

He glanced at the other's outstretched hand, then Li Jun reached out expressionlessly, gave it a brief shake, and immediately pulled his hand back.

"Looks like Captain Li is the impatient sort."

Zhou Dong turned his palm upward in a 'please sit' gesture, then said with a smile:

"I had assumed you would stay silent, or wait and see how things played out. After all, most people would do exactly that in a situation like this. I didn't expect you to react so quickly."

He paused briefly, then wiped the smile from his face and continued with a solemn expression:

"I had someone leave a business card so that you could call me whenever you needed anything — any need at all. I trust you understand what I mean."

His voice was warm and cordial, carrying a note of confidence and ease, as if everything were firmly in his grasp.

Li Jun heard this but did not respond right away.

After sitting down, he first set the paper bag in his hand on the desk, then fished out a cigarette from his pocket.

"Ashtray."

He pointed at the crystal stand across from him, signaling Zhou Dong to push it over. A second later, he lit the cigarette and took a deep drag.

Li Jun did not ask whether smoking was permitted here — not out of rudeness, but to make a stance perfectly clear:

Your little tricks don't work on me!

A man who holds the post of detachment commander within the system could hardly be cowed by the other's presence.

Forget Li Jun — even if Lu Zhongxin were here, he wouldn't look up at Zhou Dong any more highly.

So long as a man walks upright and proper, he need fear no pressure from any quarter.

"That's not an ashtray."

Though Zhou Dong denied it verbally, he still pushed the crystal stand over:

"Fine, just use it as an ashtray. I don't smoke, so I never bothered to prepare one."

He then added:

"Come to think of it, no outsider has ever set foot in this study. You're the first — and the first person to smoke in here."

That was a gesture of goodwill; you could hear it plainly. He meant to use it to show how much weight he placed on Li Jun.

"Let's get down to business."

Li Jun did not pick up his thread, but instead tapped the ash into the crystal stand, then pushed the paper bag on the desk over:

"There's two hundred thousand in here. Thank you for everything you've done for my family, but I don't need it."

"I've already done the math — my father's hospital stay, plus the follow-up nutritional supplements. Two hundred thousand is more than enough."

His tone was calm and firm:

"I've brought the money. Please write me a receipt."

Li Jun was not the only child in his family; he had two older sisters.

Just last month, his father had been admitted to the hospital due to illness.

Because of work, Li Jun could not stay by the sickbed, so the two sisters had to take turns caring for their father.

The old grow frail and ailing; his father had been hospitalized before, so Li Jun hadn't thought much of it.

But on the third day after admission, the doctors and nurses at the hospital suddenly began showing extraordinary warmth toward Li Jun's father.

Not only did they attend to him with special care, they even moved him into a VIP ward.

At first the two sisters objected, but when they heard it was Li Jun's doing, they accepted it happily.

On top of that, someone had already paid all of the old man's medical fees in advance and pre-deposited a sizable sum.

Li Jun's two sisters were not the overly suspicious type; they simply assumed their little brother knew people at the hospital and had pulled some strings.

It wasn't until Li Jun went to pick his father up for discharge that he learned the truth.

As detachment commander of a sub-bureau, he immediately realized how serious the matter was and reported it to Director Wu.

But there was a tricky part to this whole affair.

If you called it bribery, the other party hadn't asked him for any favor — they hadn't even shown their face.

And if you said it wasn't bribery, there was no way someone would just front the medical bills and arrange a VIP ward out of thin air.

When Li Jun learned of the matter, he didn't even know who the other party was.

Later, someone else showed up at the house with a pile of nutritional supplements to visit the old man, and left a business card on their way out. Only then did Li Jun learn the other party's identity.

Director Wu's meaning was crystal clear: refund the money first, and make your stance known. If they keep pressing, then handle it by the book.

Why not just arrest them on bribery charges outright?

Well, that calls for a little bit of background.