"Thank you, Master Wang, for your hard work. I'll pay you in cash. See if this is enough."
"Alright, President Qin!"
Wang Yong happily accepted the money. On his way to the bank, I intercepted him.
Seeing my sudden appearance, Wang Yong looked awkward. "Boss Tang, I heard you got arrested, so I sold the goods I collected to President Qin."
...
That's right, the police arrested me, but then they released me. The Criminal Investigation Bureau comrades believed Yu Xiaoluo was missing and they couldn't find her. However, I happened to know the headquarters of the Empty House organization. I took the police to Li Dazhi's secret location. As expected, Yu Xiaoluo was drugged and unconscious in the dilapidated Empty House. Her colleagues rescued her, and I was thus cleared of suspicion.
In the Empty House where Yu Xiaoluo was rescued, there were obvious signs of something being removed. According to the site investigation by the trace expert, what was removed was a heavy object placed on a tray, very likely the huge profit obtained through the fake auction from the Empty House's celebrity circle.
...
For this reason, the Criminal Investigation Bureau prepared to close in and end the case.
Regarding this, I was still extremely confused. It was not difficult to see from the surface that Qin Sisi had reasonably used me and Yu Xiaoluo to allow the police to catch Li Dazhi, the real boss who considered himself a minor player.
Then, Qin Sisi would take the embezzled money and choose to escape.
However, the information the police obtained was not like this. Li Dazhi had been devoted to one last Empty House auction, and the raw jadeite was ready. After Li Dazhi was arrested, Qin Sisi still did not give up, accelerating the auction process and preparing to auction tonight.
This development was extremely unreasonable. Qin Sisi was a smart person. She could perfectly control me and the police. Was she going to be caught by the police just for the sake of greed for money? Some people might be held back by money, but I believed Qin Sisi would not. I had no evidence, but I believed that someone as smart as her could get money anywhere.
...
I promised Wang Zeyuan that I would no longer interfere in this case, but I really couldn't sit still, feeling like I was sitting on pins and needles, wanting to help but not knowing how to start. Qin Sisi should run away, but could she escape with the police following her?
Just as I was in a dilemma, that disloyal old ghost appeared. His chubby face was beaming, and it was past dinner time, yet he still held a plastic container with pao luda inside.
Pao luda is a famous snack from Dehong Mangshi, Yunnan. It first became popular in Thailand and Myanmar, and then gradually came to Ruili. It has more than ten kinds of ingredients and looks like fruit salad with a coconut aroma.
I stared at the old ghost with wide eyes and shouted, "What are you doing here? How dare you show your face? You knew the police were going to arrest me, and you ran away without giving me any advice."
"Would you not have been arrested if I had given you advice?"
"I..."
Temporarily speechless, I couldn't answer.
"It mainly depends on whether you got out of it. If not, I would have found a way to save you."
"Isn't that hindsight?"
The old ghost grinned, "It's good to have hindsight. I've already reminded you to be bolder with smart people."
"Wasn't I bold enough?"
"Was that what you call bold? What's the difference from playing cards with you? It seemed smart, but with the police on one side and Qin Sisi on the other, you were two-faced. You never guessed Qin Sisi's real hand from beginning to end. At first, she said it was fake, and you knew it was fake, so you didn't care. Were you planning something? But later, when she said something else, you started to believe it was true. From that moment on, you lost."
"When was that?"
"When you started suspecting Li Dazhi was the mastermind."
"I suspected it based on the information I obtained."
"What information?"
"Wang Yong said..."
I stopped mid-sentence. Wang Yong said that everything I deduced was because I heard it from Wang Yong. I thought I got intelligence from a passerby. But now I realized that perhaps none of this was said by Wang Yong. Qin Sisi had asked Wang Yong to say it.
I had been in custody the whole time. Wang Yong was a tool person for Qin Sisi, the mastermind.
...
Therefore, I decided to find Wang Yong. However, things turned out to be so coincidental that I happened to see Wang Yong and Qin Sisi transacting. He was still lying to me now, saying he was selling the raw jadeite he was supposed to trade with me to Qin Sisi.
I snorted, "Master Wang, let's be frank. I gave you a lot of deposit. You should have quite a few stones, right? How did you give them to Qin Sisi? Can a girl like her carry them?"
"This..."
"What kind of transaction did Qin Sisi make with you? If you don't tell me, then I'll have to confess your crimes to the police. Do you know that the people who arrested me were not from the local Public Security Bureau? They were from the Criminal Investigation Bureau. If they convict you, you'll never get out of prison."
The Criminal Investigation Bureau acted according to the law. I was just trying to scare him. I believed Wang Yong was just a minor figure. Wang Yong indeed got scared. I sneered and pressed further, "You don't know anything about Li Dazhi faking the raw jadeite, did Qin Sisi ask you to tell me that, right?"
"How did you know?"
As I guessed, Wang Yong said that Qin Sisi wanted me to hear it.
"Li Dazhi didn't bring any mistress back from Beijing, did he?"
"Yes, it was all that woman Qin Sisi who told me to say it. A few days ago, I lost a lot of money gambling on stones, and Qin Sisi found me and asked me to work for her."
"When was a few days ago?"
"It was when you first went to Brother Shun to buy stones."
My heart leaped. Qin Sisi was really formidable. She had turned Wang Yong into a tool person at that time.
"What else did Qin Sisi ask you to do? Tell me the truth. If anything is different from what I know, you'll be arrested and sent to prison by the Criminal Investigation Bureau."
...
At that time, Wang Yong had lost money and couldn't explain it to his parents. It might even delay his marriage. Qin Sisi took advantage of this opportunity to find him. What he did for Qin Sisi was not just a microphone. He also stole the fake red jadeite from Brother Shun's safe. I remember Qin Sisi even made a phone call to a thief in front of me, implying that the thief should go into hiding.
That was a complete act for me. It was a diversion set up by her to prevent me from suspecting Wang Yong, so that Wang Yong could naturally tell me everything she wanted me to know from the perspective of a passerby, making me reasonably suspect Li Dazhi.
The old ghost was right. From beginning to end, the mastermind of this scheme was Qin Sisi.
"Wang Yong, what did Qin Sisi ask you to do today? Tell me the truth. Let me tell you, the Criminal Investigation Bureau has already targeted Qin Sisi. She will be arrested today."
"She, she..."
"Speak quickly!"
I suddenly shouted, startling Wang Yong. Wang Yong almost instinctively said, "Qin Sisi asked me to find a Burmese acquaintance. Tonight, she's going to illegally cross into Myanmar."