Chapter 494: Surrender

Yuan Yuming's office was at the other end of the floor below, reduced to a tiny space of about twenty or thirty square meters, roughly the same size as Yuan Yushan's dressing room.

The office contained a desk, a sofa, and a filing cabinet; they looked brand new, as if they had seen very little use.

By contrast, the cigar humidor, the safe, and the tea table showed significant signs of wear. However, they were currently in a state of disarray; the shattered teacup and the fallen cigars spoke to the owner's hurried departure.

Walking out of Yuan Yushan's office and into Yuan Yuming's, even the few police officers could feel a stark contrast, much like leaving a panda enclosure at the zoo and walking straight into the black bear exhibit.

Mu Zhiyang couldn't help but say, "Even though I can't afford a house this big, I still think Yuan Yuming is pathetic."

"Others are 'CEOs in the making,' but he's a CEO who's fallen from grace; he doesn't even have an assistant anymore." Lu Tongda was also moved by the downfall of the wealthy, shaking his head as he said, "If I were reduced to an office one-tenth this size, I probably wouldn't even want to come to work."

"Your previous workplace was a motorcycle..." Mu Zhiyang retorted.

"That's why the office space can't get any smaller!" Lu Tongda emphasized.

Because they had already found clues to Yuan Yushan's whereabouts, Mu Zhiyang and the others were relatively relaxed. They hadn't yet considered the possibility that Yuan Yushan and Yuan Yuming would flee separately. After all, following normal logic, setting up one escape route was already difficult enough; for two people to split into two independent escape parties—that was only something a drug trafficker of Jianyuan's caliber would do.

Drawing on his previous experience, Jiang Yuan collected the necessary evidence after entering and then went to look for Yuan Yuming's wardrobe.

After moving to this office, Yuan Yuming had done some remodeling, but the wardrobe he requested was only about two meters long. Inside hung several suits, ties, and shirts, all currently in a mess, clearly with no one left to organize them properly.

It was likely that after losing the office with an attached bedroom, Yuan Yuming no longer had any requirements for changing clothes.

Jiang Yuan scanned the wardrobe, but came up empty-handed. Proving things was extremely difficult; at least Yuan Yushan had a witness on her side, but Yuan Yuming had no one left around him.

"This guy uses drugs." A SWAT team member pulled a crystal-clear hookah out of the bathroom. Its yellowish dragon-pattern design actually looked quite nice. But looking at the accessories next to the hookah, the item immediately lost its innocence, feeling like meeting someone you'd said goodbye to at a cram school only to run into them at a high-end hostess club.

At that moment, the forehead of the pure and handsome top student from the cram school no longer shone, and the back of the slightly chubby, insecure underachieving senior student straightened up.

"Do they use the hookah to smoke drugs?" Lu Tongda helped collect the evidence and curiously asked the SWAT member, "What are they smoking in this thing?"

"Ice, yaba, marijuana." The SWAT member was a man of the world. He even mimicked the action of smoking and added, "This Yuan Yuming really is the 'Little Prince' of two generations. If drug users knew his family could produce their own drugs, they'd probably want to become him once they got high."

"But Yuan Yuming still isn't satisfied," Lu Tongda said.

The SWAT member hummed twice and said, "In the words of our Captain Wu, this guy just lacks discipline. No matter how well they eat, they always want to eat better; the ones who train the hardest are usually the most obedient."

Jiang Yuan ignored what the others were chatting about and searched the office slowly.

Yuan Yuming hadn't bothered to hide anything when he left: clothes pulled out in a mess, drawers left open, and even the safe left unlocked.

The safe still contained quite a few things, including the official company seal, some rose gold jewelry, and several boxes of stamps—all items that were difficult to liquidate.

The office's cigar humidor had also been ransacked; a box of Cohiba GR cigars had been opened, with only five sticks taken.

Jiang Yuan recorded the situation one by one, summarized it, and relayed it to Liu Jinghui: "Judging by the state of the cigars, Yuan Yuming likely wanted to take the whole box, but was stopped."

"That means their escape route won't be very easy," Liu Jinghui concluded in one sentence.

This counted as circumstantial evidence. If the road were easy, especially with a vehicle, taking a few extra things would be tolerable.

Only when they foresaw that the escape route would be arduous would his subordinates stop Yuan Yuming.

Jiang Yuan was still in the thinking stage when Liu Jinghui added, "Xu Taining has arrived."

"He's here... Wait, he's already here?" Jiang Yuan was surprised. If Xu Taining had arrived now, it meant that as soon as there was movement in the early morning, someone had already called him over.

Liu Jinghui gave an "En" and said, "While he was on the road, he already started directing personnel to seal off the city. Now he's planning to mobilize people to search the mountains."

"Search the mountains..." Jiang Yuan read the phrase and felt the budget burning.

However, for a case this big, the budget certainly wasn't an issue. Or, to put it another way, the Jianyuan Group itself could be the budget... probably.

"What about the police dogs? How is the situation?" Jiang Yuan asked again.

"They haven't been deployed yet. The current priority is setting up the blockade line, and then there's Yuan Jiansheng..." Liu Jinghui was also feeling overwhelmed.

The Jianyuan factory area was very large. To capture the Jianyuan gang members, a thorough search of the factory area was required. One couldn't just assume that all the gang members had run off with Yuan Yushan and the others; perhaps someone thought they could hide in plain sight, or that there were safe houses operated for years within the factory area.

But on the other hand, Yuan Jiansheng was sitting in the warehouse with a massive bomb, threatening to use an "over-spec dirty bomb." This meant that every police officer entering the Jianyuan factory area could face a life-threatening danger. Sending too many people to participate in the search carried too much risk.

Jiang Yuan shook his head, able to empathize with the pressure Liu Jinghui and the others were facing.

Time passed in anxiety.

Yuan Jiansheng appeared increasingly exhausted; occasionally, even moving his body would make people break out in a cold sweat.

The police officer in charge of negotiations was also covered in sweat, holding a phone and constantly talking to Yuan Jiansheng.

By noon, Yuan Jiansheng was getting annoyed. According to the agreed-upon time, the delay he needed was almost up. He didn't want to keep messing around with the police either; his health was poor, and talking and acting were exhausting. Under normal circumstances, he would have taken two naps by now, all sustained by medication.

Buzz, buzz.

The phone rang again.

"Brother Sheng." The old brother accompanying him picked up the phone.

"Don't answer it. Day after day, it's all the same circular talk. If talking were useful, we wouldn't have had to reach this point..." Yuan Jiansheng was still full of dissatisfaction.

The old brother hesitated, looked at the phone screen, and said, "The call shows it's Li Fu."

"Li Fu?" Yuan Jiansheng hesitated, sighed, and said, "Put it on speaker."

The old brother obeyed and pressed speaker.

"Little Fu? Did they find you?" Yuan Jiansheng asked.

A silly laugh came from the other end of the phone, and he said, "Found them. They've rounded up everyone who took the Jianyuan large coins in the past few years."

In the early years, Yuan Jiansheng hadn't thought about drug trafficking; he just wanted to use high-yield compounds like special precursors to extend his life. Once the company's life was secured, he naturally wouldn't do that kind of business anymore.

Therefore, when everyone split the money, they did it through Jianyuan's public accounts, which was safer than laundering money outside.

Yuan Jiansheng hadn't expected that this would become a loophole.

"They really are pervasive." Yuan Jiansheng knew the police were listening, so he said, "You didn't know back then; you were just an engineer following orders. Later, when you guessed a little, you resigned. I couldn't keep you even if I wanted to. There's no reason for them to arrest you."

"I took too much of a share," Li Fu laughed honestly.

The amount of profit is often used by domestic public security, procuratorates, and courts to gauge whether someone was aware of the crime. For example, if a company is doing telecom fraud, did the cleaner in the company participate in the crime? If the cleaner earns a salary of 3,000 or 5,000 a month, it can be presumed they were unaware, but if they earn a salary of 20,000 and claim to be unaware, it's highly unlikely to be believed.

By the same token, there were nearly ten thousand workers in Jianyuan's chemical plant. Counting former workers and other staff, who was a participant in the crime? Who was an oblivious, ordinary working beast? There's a saying: if you want to know if it's a mule or a horse, take it out for a run.

Those earning average wages could be seen as horses or donkeys, but those earning several times or even ten times the salary were likely mules. At the very least, you have to explain the source of the income.

Yuan Jiansheng understood the law and immediately said on the phone, "Little Fu, don't be afraid. The police also have to rely on evidence. Back then, Jianyuan couldn't keep going, and it was you all who voluntarily took pay cuts, and later even took only living expenses, working together to pull through. Later, when the situation improved and we made money, you taking a bit more was a return on the loans; it has nothing to do with anything else."

"I told them that, and the investigating officer told me that as long as I confess honestly and then make this call to you as they said, I might get a suspended sentence, or at most two or three years of actual prison time. I'm retired anyway; if I can get a suspended sentence, that's best. If not, three years is nothing." Little Fu sighed and said, "They asked me to send you some photos and videos, and then tell you some stories."

"Fine, send them." Yuan Jiansheng knew this was the police's soft-hearted policy, but he couldn't harden his heart to say no.

If it were when he had just stepped down as general manager, he might have been able to stay tough. Now, he was prepared to die, and it was the time he missed the past the most; how could he possibly harden his heart to refuse Li Fu?

Just as he said, Li Fu and the others were the old brothers who had walked through the most dangerous and difficult path with him back then.

As a company, Yuan Jiansheng didn't even dare to look back at how difficult that path had been.

Finally, when the time came for a breakthrough, Li Fu and the others retired, taking only a small amount of money. For so many years, they had lived their own lives quietly, never bothering Yuan Jiansheng, let alone threatening to report him.

At this very moment, how could Yuan Jiansheng possibly refuse the other party's voice and pictures?

Soon, Li Fu sent a photo to Yuan Jiansheng via WeChat.

It was just a photo of an old fat man holding his thin grandson, smiling foolishly in front of a beach. But from the photo, Yuan Jiansheng could see Li Fu's happiness, the joy of holding his grandson, and his future...

Yuan Jiansheng sighed heavily.

At this time, another man's voice came from the other end of the phone: "Yuan Jiansheng, don't turn a major criminal case into a terrorist attack. If you do that, even if we arrest and sentence people, we will follow the Criminal Law. Jianyuan is also your life's work; leaving the Jianyuan Group intact is better than leaving behind a pile of ruins. Surrender."

Yuan Jiansheng was silent for a long time.

There was only static noise on the phone.

"What time is it?" Yuan Jiansheng looked up at the old brother taking care of him.

"It's 11:40," the old brother said softly.

"Fine. I surrender." Yuan Jiansheng didn't even make any extra demands. At this time, it was already past the agreed-upon line. Detonating the bomb would certainly be beneficial for Yuan Yushan and Yuan Yuming's escape, but from the other party's attitude, Yuan Jiansheng didn't feel that detonating the bomb would increase Yuan Yushan and Yuan Yuming's survival rate.

For Yuan Jiansheng, everything was over. ===== CHAPTER 495 =====