Chapter 473: 476. Chapter 469: I Sold My Life for the Company 66616 (Supplementary)

476. Chapter 469: I Sold My Life for the Company 66616 (Supplementary)

In the morning, the Vice President strode up to the office of Shi Diwen Johnson, and his secretary hurriedly stood up.

"Mr. Vice President..."

The Vice President pushed open the office door as if he hadn't seen the secretary at all; the lights inside were already on, and coffee had been brewed in the living area.

Newspapers and breakfast were laid out on the table, but no one was using them at the moment.

It was only then that he seemed to notice there was a blonde Miss behind him.

He turned to look at Shi Diwen's secretary. "Shi Diwen hasn't come?"

The secretary squeezed out an awkward smile. "Yes, Director Johnson hasn't arrived yet. Would you like me to give him a call?"

The Vice President gave a nod. "Call him right now."

The secretary returned to the desk outside the door, picked up the phone, and dialed Shi Diwen's home number.

He lived alone; he had been married, but had since divorced.

On the surface, he had lost all contact with his wife and children, but some of the higher-ups on the board of directors were well aware of this.

Roughly one-third of his income was deposited into an anonymous account, and the money in that account would be withdrawn in another state and transferred away.

And his ex-wife and children lived over there.

To protect his family, he had chosen to divorce.

So now Shi Diwen lived by himself, along with a few dogs; in the photo frame on his desk, there was one of him posing with three dogs.

Fierce, large breeds — according to Shi Diwen himself, these dogs could take on a wild boar!

The call went through, but no one picked up. The secretary glanced at the Vice President; the Vice President said nothing, so she could only let the phone keep ringing.

In Shi Diwen's villa, several dogs were pacing restlessly around the living room. Their master hadn't come home all night yesterday, and they were already hungry!

Two minutes later, the secretary cradled the receiver in both hands and looked at the Vice President. "Can't get through, no one's answering. Maybe he's on his way?"

The Vice President stood there in a daze for a moment, then tapped the secretary's desk twice with his fingers. "When he gets here, send him to my office."

The CEO had contacted a chief judge to discuss the lawsuit, and at the same time the company had dispatched a new legal team to Jingang City.

They still had to keep a close eye on this case — after all, the massive penalty for breach of contract had hurt them badly!

Some less-than-friendly voices had also emerged within the board of directors. These people believed that if, last time, they had simply fulfilled the contract for the Jingang City grape deal, they would still have made money, and wouldn't have spawned so much trouble!

The result was that they hadn't made more money by tearing up the agreement; the bonds had been handed over to the bank by Lans and his people, and they still had to pay the money to Baihui Bank at the market settlement price.

They hadn't gained any benefit, and the Lans family hadn't gained any benefit either. What should have been a successful investment had turned into a not-so-successful one — you could say it was "a lose-lose"!

This was what had led to this clearly retaliatory commercial shakedown. If they hadn't done those things before, they wouldn't be facing the current problem.

It wasn't all that strange for such voices to exist on the board — this was the result of directors and shareholders liaising privately.

They wanted to use this approach to force the directors and shareholders who had made the decision to bear the losses this time.

Or to bear the bulk of the losses — for instance, the Chairman of the Board, the CEO, the Vice President, and others who had played important roles, bearing three million out of the four million, or even more.

While the others bore a smaller portion.

They were no longer holding out much hope of winning the lawsuit, so minimizing their losses was what they most needed to do right now.

The CEO intended to teach these people a lesson, and Shi Diwen was very good at that sort of thing!

But what displeased the Vice President was that Shi Diwen had actually shown up late!

He returned to his office. The secretary was in the middle of signing for some mail and packages; upon seeing him come in, she immediately stood up. "Mr. Vice President, there are some things here for you..."

The Vice President had no mind to look at them. "Bring them in."

Saying so, he walked behind his desk and sat down, picked up the phone, and dialed the CEO over the internal line to discuss work matters.

When a person isn't focusing on one thing all that intently, they find something else to do.

Like... reading on the toilet — so when on the phone, he would also have some little fidget.

While talking with the CEO on the phone, he picked up a few pieces of mail from the desk and started looking through them.

Apart from a few letters of condemnation sent over by local agricultural committees, there was basically nothing else.

These kinds of letters he would forward to the PR team to handle — of course, that was also within the scope of his work.

Soon his gaze settled on a box that looked about the size of a basketball.

"... I'm saying, what if — what if these people call a shareholders' meeting to discuss this matter, it would put us in a very passive position too."

"We need to resolve..."

The CEO's voice came through the receiver in his ear, and he gradually became somewhat absent-minded.

He glanced at the package. There was no obvious marking on it, only a slip of paper stuck on: "This is a package for Mr. Vice President... from your admirer!"

Shi Diwen's package?

What was inside?

He propped the receiver against his shoulder, held the package in both hands and gave it a shake. Something inside seemed to be going thump-thump, and the weight was unclear.

"Alright, I have other things to attend to. Handle the matter I instructed you on first, and we'll discuss the rest when I get back," the CEO delivered the final summary of the call.

The Vice President's hands paused. "Alright, once Shi Diwen arrives I'll keep an eye on him and make him get to work. I guarantee there won't be any accidents this time. Talk later."

He hung up the phone, then picked up a pair of scissors, cut the ribbon on top, and opened the lid.

Inside was some... white stuffing, some of it pink. He didn't really know what this was, so he reached in and felt around, because just now he had heard there was something inside.

Then he felt something that might have been rubber or the like — no warmth, a bit of a rubbery texture — and he took the thing out.

Almost the instant that thing emerged from the stuffing in its true form, he suddenly cursed "F**k," flung the thing in his hand back in, and leapt up as if startled, dodging far away!

He paced back and forth by the wall, rubbing his face with both hands, but suddenly, as if remembering something, he sniffed at the palm of his right hand — and was immediately overcome by a violent urge to vomit!

He cursed while retching. The secretary outside heard the commotion, knocked on the door, and poked her head in.

He took a deep breath. "Call... call security, and then call the police!"

At the same time, a box had also appeared before the CEO, with the words "Dedicated to... Mr., your loyal admirer" written on it.

He sometimes received these things too, and seeing the rather decent packaging, he decided to give this follower a chance!

"I hope your loyalty and fanaticism toward me will satisfy me!"

He quickly cut the ribbon, opened the box, then lifted it up and tipped it toward the desk.

"Holy crab!" — the instant the contents appeared, he sprang backward to his feet as if he'd been electrocuted.

The chair slammed into the bookcase behind him and shattered the glass, but his entire attention was fixed on the hand on his office desk!

The Chairman of the Board's door was knocked as well. His secretary stood at the door, holding a box in her hands. "Someone just delivered this package and said it contains a way to solve the trouble the company is currently facing."

The Chairman of the Board curled his lip. "A tiresome trick!"

"Then shall I throw it away?" The secretary knew exactly what the old man meant, so she deliberately asked.

"Come on, you know what to do — open it and let me see what's inside…"

A few seconds later, cursing also erupted from the Chairman of the Board's office. The company's entire security force was activated, and they began searching everywhere for the package. Five minutes later, seven or eight police cars arrived at the foot of the company building.

Director Shi Diwen·Johnson is dead.

Not only dead, but dismembered — a piece here, a piece there!

The case has been assigned to the Criminal Major Crimes Investigation Division of the New Jin Zhou Police Department, which specializes in major and important cases.

In the short term, nothing could be bigger than the dismemberment of a director of a Shangshi Company worth hundreds of millions, with the remains mailed back to the company!

The entire building was quickly sealed off. More police arrived at the scene, and he, too, appeared in the company's conference room.

Before him sat three trays, holding the three sets of bodily remains that had triggered the police report.

Two hands, one foot.

"How did you identify this person as Shi Diwen?"

The head of the Investigation Division was a Sheriff. Elsewhere, a Sheriff could already serve as a Bureau Chief, but here he was only middle management in the police department.

The Vice President was still sitting there, visibly shaken. He didn't dare look at the remains and could only stare out the window, trying to steady himself. "That… the emerald ring. I recognize that emerald ring. It was Shi Diwen's favorite ring — he never took it off except when he slept."

The Sheriff did indeed find an emerald ring on the left palm, and the description basically matched what the Vice President had said.

Being able to confirm the identity of the remains with reasonable probability had already given the investigation a tremendous push forward.

Soon more information came flooding in. Many board members had received similar body fragments, but the head and torso were missing.

The entire company was shrouded in unease.

The fragments were quickly taken away and sent back to the police department, where they would be examined and verified by the medical examiner before being pieced together.

Next came the questioning.

The Sheriff pulled out a pen and a notebook. "Has your company recently offended some ruthless figure?"