What Do You Want to Do?
Back home, Xia Lei connected the portable hard drive to his old Lenovo laptop and looked at what was saved on it.
The hard drive had many videos on it, mostly of Huang Yi-Hu or Li Yu-Lan bribing officials. The bribery was offered in many forms, some was a direct handing over of cash, some in the form of antiques, famous calligraphy and paintings. There were also unsightly bribes where direct arrangements were made for a young woman to sleep with the official.
Xia Lei quickly found the original copy of the video Huang Yi-Hu had of Qin Xiang. The video was of Qin Xiang entering a gold shop and he was easily recognizable even though his face was covered. He liked to dress in a feminine way, especially leggings which showed off the curves of his hips – Xia Lei had no words.
“Delete it!” Qin Xiang was quite excited, “That bastard won’t be able to threaten me anymore!”
Xia Lei deleted the video and said, “Come look at these videos and make a name-list for me. Transfer all these videos to my computer. This portable hard drive must be destroyed.”
Qin Xiang was shocked, “Why do you want to destroy such an important thing?”
“Modern technology is very advanced. Even if we delete the video Huang Yi-Hu used to threaten you with, the police technicians will be able to recover the file. Do you want to go to jail?”
Qin Xiang paused, then smiled, “I didn’t think of that. Okay, I’ll do as you said.”
It wasn’t difficult to make a name-list from the videos since both Huang Yi-Hu and Li Yu-Lan would greet the official by their official positions. The official’s information could then be looked up on the official government website.
Qin Xiang set to work making a name-list of the bribed officials and Xia Lei looked through the paper documents they had stolen. The documents were mostly business contracts and engineering contracts as well as some project acceptance reports.
The business contracts and engineering contracts looked fine but the project acceptance reports were fishy. The project acceptance reports contained quality issues such as poor quality building materials, inferior quality steel and so on, resulting in a huge safety risk. He compared these project acceptance reports to project contracts and found that the numbers matched.
‘Huang Yi-Hu is using New Moon Real Estate to construct buildings with inferior building materials and to sell them to people at high prices. These reports have been locked away in a safe so he must have bribed someone to get the construction approved. He must have kept these reports to keep those officials who accepted his bribes in hand. I have these reports now – you can make preparations for suicide, Huang Yi-Hu!’ The corners of Xia Lei’s lips curled in a sneer. He picked up the leather-bound book next and opened it.
Xia Lei was floored by the contents.
This book was a true ‘black ledger’. It held records of every bit of income Huang Yi-Hu had from his underworld operations. There were records of revenue from illegal gambling dens, protection fees from a market area, the sex industry and everything illegal except for drugs. These sources of revenue were all collated and washed clean through his legitimate businesses to become legal income.
The ledger also recorded the names of officials who had accepted his bribes, their ranks, the exact dates and amount paid to them. It seemed that the videos on the portable hard drive were only part of it. The ledger held early records of the bribery while the video records of bribery were only from the last two years. Huang Yi-Hu’s methods of saving evidence and recording material for blackmail had changed with the times and he had switched over from paper to electronic.
Xia Lei had thought that the leather-bound notebook would contain something that linked Huang Yi-Hu and the Gu clan but he found nothing after looking through it.
“Lei, I’ve finished making the name-list,” said Qin Xiang.
“Have you saved the videos too?” asked Xia Lei.
“All saved. What do you plan to do next?” said Qin Xiang.
Xia Lei walked to the computer desk, “Let me do it.”
Qin Xiang got up and gave Xia Lei the seat.
Xia Lei sat himself and selected some ‘wholesome’ videos, then uploaded them to a few video-sharing websites. The titles of the videos were all made to look like it was posted from a first-person perspective – ‘I want to report XXX’.
Qin Xiang looked at what Xia Lei was doing and frowned as he said, “I don’t think anyone will believe that Huang Yi-Hu would report these himself.”
Xia Lei smiled, “You’ll see.” He took up a pen and some writing paper and started writing an informant’s letter.
Qin Xiang watched Xia Lei write and quickly saw that something was not right and said in astonishment, “Your handwriting! How is it the same as Huang Yi-Hu’s handwriting? This is impossible – I’ve seen his handwriting and this looks exactly like what he had written himself!”
Xia Lei continued writing the letter. The Huang Yi-Hu in the letter wrote of being persecuted by some powerful person and was in fear of his life, pleading with the prosecution to provide protection. Once he had protection, he would turn in all the corrupted officials and reveal all illegal records. Xia Lei put in some information from the black ledger at the end.
“You want the police to arrest him?” asked Qin Xiang.
Xia Lei shook his head, “The police would want to arrest him but some people won’t.”
“Are you talking about those officials who were reported? They can’t do anything about Huang Yi-Hu,” said Qin Xiang.
Xia Lei smiled, “Huang Yi-Hu is the Gu clan’s dog and the dog has started to bite people. Who do you think will act first?”
“You’re saying…” Qin Xiang’s mouth dropped open, “The Gu clan!”
Xia Lei put the letter into an envelope, “Let’s await a grand show.”
“I’ll go post it right now,” Qin Xiang said eagerly.
Xia Lei handed the envelope to him and gave him a reminder, “Find someplace to hide after you post that. Don’t show your face for a few days. Even a rabbit would bite when cornered, let alone a vicious wolf like Huang Yi-Hu.”
Qin Xiang nodded, “You be careful too.”
Early next morning, Xia Lei knocked on Jiang Ru-Yi’s door. Before he could say anything, however, Jiang Ru-Yi grabbed him by the hand and pulled him towards the kitchen.
“What are you doing?” Xia Lei only had the chance to talk after he’d gone through her doors.
Jiang Ru-Yi smiled sweetly, “Lei, you came at the right time. Cook two dishes for me.”
Xia Lei smacked her on the head with the leather-bound notebook in his hand. “Am I your chef? Cooking two dishes for you so early in the morning? Dream on. I’m here to talk business.”
Jiang Ru-Yi rubbed her head and glared at Xia Lei, “You have no tenderness for the fairer sex hitting me like that. What business? Be clear about it or I’ll kill you!”
“An important matter, of course. Look at the contents of this notebook and you’ll know. This is a great opportunity I’m giving you.” So saying, he put the leather-bound notebook and a USB stick into Jiang Ru-Yi’s hands.
The USB stick contained the bribery videos he had copied and saved from the portable hard drive.
Jiang Ru-Yi opened the notebook and started reading. Her little cherry-blossom lips opened in surprise, “Oh my gawd, Chief Lee from the Development Bureau? I met him at a trade fair two days ago. He dresses simply and only eats canteen meals. I’d thought a person like him was definitely a clean official. This guy actually accepted a bribe of two million from Huang Yi-Hu!”
“There’s more. Keep reading,” said Xia Lei.
Jiang Ru-Yi chattered on as she read and seemed rather excited.
Xia Lei rubbed at his ears and walked towards the kitchen, “Whatever, I’ll cook those dishes for you.”
Xia Lei cooked tomato eggs and finely-sliced potatoes, then brought them out into the living room. Jiang Ru-Yi had finished reading the notebook at that time and was looking at the videos on the USB stick on a laptop.
The first video she clicked on was of Huang Yi-Hu using a woman to bribe the official. The moans of the woman echoed throughout the living room as soon as she opened the video.
“Eh?” Jiang Ru-Yi’s face turned red in embarrassment, “You’re a bad guy, making me watch this sort of video early in the morning!”
“You clicked on it yourself, okay? There are other videos in there. Watch those instead,” said Xia Lei.
Jiang Ru-Yi did not switch to another video but put the laptop down, walked to the dining table and stared straight at Xia Lei, “Prepare the rice.”
The woman’s moans were still echoing and becoming more and more intense. There was no denying that the woman Huang Yi-Hu had found was very skilled in what she did and her moan itself was arousing. The problem wasn’t that though; the problem was that Chief Jiang, among all these moans, was demanding that he prepare rice for her!
“Prepare the rice,” said Jiang Ru-Yi again, “Hurry up, I’m starving.”
Xia Lei wordlessly filled a bowl of rice for Jiang Ru-Yi.
Jiang Ru-Yi went straight to the dining table and started to pick up food with her chopsticks, acting as if the moans of the woman were bird-calls outside her window and that they did not affect her at all.
Xia Lei filled his own bowl with rice, sat himself opposite Jiang Ru-Yi and begun eating. He hadn’t eaten anything before coming to her flat and it wasn’t too bad of him to freeload off her since he’d cooked the dishes himself anyway.
“I’ll bring a team to arrest Huang Yi-Hu after I’m done eating,” said Jiang Ru-Yi as she ate, “That guy is actually the President of the Chamber of Commerce. Hah! He’s a scumbag!”
“I brought you a great opportunity for promotion again. How will you thank me?” said Xia Lei.
Jiang Ru-Yi looked at Xia Lei, all smiles, “Oh, you bad boy, making me watch that sort of video early in the morning and asking how I’ll thank you. What are you hinting at?”
“Pretend I never said anything.” Xia Lei hurriedly buried his face in his ricebowl.
Jiang Ru-Yi removed her slipper, sneakily stretched her stockinged foot forward, and rubbed it on the top of Xia Lei’s foot.
Xia Lei froze. “Wh,What are you doing?”
Jiang Ru-Yi smiled, “Honestly, Lei, what do you want to do?”
Rubbing stockinged feet on him and asking him what he wanted to do – this sort of thing could only be uttered by Jiang Ru-Yi.
In that instant, Xia Lei lost control of his eye and the Jiang Ru-Yi opposite him was as naked as the day she was born.
“Come on, say it. What do you want to do?”
Xia Lei could not take it any longer and looked away. He turned to leave and said as he walked out, “If you want to arrest Huang Yi-Hu, you should bring your police officers to my plot of land later. Remember to bring guns. Huang Yi-Hu’s bodyguards are armed.”
“Hello? Can you come back and wash the dishes before you leave?” Jiang Ru-Yi called from behind him.
Xia Lei was already out the door.