I See through Everything

Time flew by.

In the blink of an eye, it was the fifth day of the new year, February 2nd.

Many of Hailufeng Company’s non-local employees also began trickling back to work today. A few who had unavoidable personal matters had already informed the HR department and requested leave.

The local employees, on the other hand, had mostly returned for their official first day back.

However, the first few days back were primarily focused on restoring normal operations. The finance, procurement, and logistics departments, in particular, had to deal with a backlog of tasks that had piled up over the Spring Festival holiday.

They probably wouldn’t return to a normal operational state until around the tenth day of the new year.

A few more days passed in the blink of an eye.

The eighth day of the new year.

At 3:30 in the afternoon that day.

Just as Zhang Xincheng came out of his office, he ran into a hurried Xiaocai. The man was all smiles as he asked for leave. "Manager, I have a relative from Ryukyu coming to visit. I’d like to ask for the afternoon off to go home."

"A relative from Ryukyu?" Zhang Xincheng smiled and nodded. "Sure. I’ll fill out the leave slip for you later."

"Thanks, I’m heading out then."

Watching the excited Xiaocai leave, Zhang Xincheng’s smile vanished. ’Could the secret buyer be from Ryukyu? It doesn’t matter. I’ll let you be smug for a few days.’

After leaving the farm, Xiaocai rode his little electric scooter, speeding along like the wind.

In less than an hour, he arrived at the Paris Peninsula Hotel in the city district.

The reason this hotel was chosen was mainly due to mutual distrust. Sun Moon Lake was worried that Xiaocai, being a local, would try to double-cross him, while Xiaocai was worried that Sun Moon Lake wouldn’t pay up after getting the goods.

Inside a private room on the third floor of the hotel.

Sun Moon Lake and his two assistants had been waiting for a long time when a knock came at the door.

An assistant quickly opened the door. Standing there was Xiaocai, wearing a black face mask. He poked his head in and asked with some uncertainty:

"Sun Moon Lake?"

"Gambling God Gao Jin?"

After confirming each other’s online aliases, they closed the door to talk business.

"Where’s the money?" Xiaocai asked bluntly.

Sun Moon Lake was a middle-aged man wearing gold-rimmed glasses. He smiled and opened a briefcase. It was stuffed with one and a half million in cash. Including the case, it weighed over twenty kilograms.

Seeing the huge pile of banknotes, Xiaocai’s breathing quickened involuntarily. Just as he was about to reach for it, one of the assistants stopped him.

"Gao Jin! You haven’t forgotten something, have you? Where are the goods?"

Xiaocai took out a Nescafé plastic bottle, frozen solid. "This is Hailufeng Company’s special feed."

Then Xiaocai sent the other party three high-definition photos and a video of himself entering the mixing room.

The other party had originally enticed Xiaocai to record this as proof that he had stolen Hailufeng Company’s materials.

After all, Sun Moon Lake had no way of knowing if he was being scammed. If the formula and feed were fake, this video would be more than enough to send Xiaocai to prison.

And to get rich, Xiaocai had no choice but to comply.

Birds die for food, and men die for wealth.

Now that both sides had leverage over the other, the transaction could proceed.

After getting the money, Xiaocai used a simple UV counterfeit-detection pen to check ten randomly selected bills. Once he confirmed there were no issues, he grabbed the briefcase and left in a hurry.

Sun Moon Lake, meanwhile, quickly sent the photos and video to his company’s boss.

As for the bottle of feed sample, it obviously couldn’t be brought back to Ryukyu. After all, an unidentified substance in a coffee bottle was likely to get flagged for a thorough inspection by customs.

However, Sun Moon Lake was prepared for this. He had already scheduled an appointment with a professional testing company in Peng City, paying them to analyze the specific components of the feed and their respective concentrations.

Feeling that the situation was well in hand, Sun Moon Lake didn’t rush off. Instead, he rested for a night at the Paris Peninsula Hotel.

He only took a taxi to Peng City the next day.

As for Xiaocai, who had just gotten a huge sum of money, he first deposited thirty thousand yuan into his bank account to pay off his overdrawn credit card.

Then he rented a small apartment in Jinting Bay to store the cash.

...

At Hailufeng Company, everything was still calm and peaceful. Production and sales were resuming step-by-step.

Meanwhile, over at Rokkaido Eel Company in East Japan, they had eagerly sent an email on the eighth day of the new year, stating that they would send someone over the next day to pay the remaining balance and collect the second half of the technical documents.

On the ninth day of the new year, Watanabe Kenjiro arrived in Magong Town with his assistant.

On the first floor of Hailufeng Company’s headquarters, Jiang Miao personally received them.

In the reception room.

"Mr. Watanabe, there is something I need to tell you in advance. Please inform your company’s chairman."

"What is it?" Watanabe Kenjiro asked hurriedly through the translator.

"Our company has experienced a case of trade secret theft. A feed formula and a feed sample were stolen by an employee."

After hearing the translator’s words, Watanabe Kenjiro’s expression immediately turned grim. This was clearly not good news for Rokkaido Eel Company.

He quickly asked, "Mr. Jiang, did the employee leak the materials?"

After the translator relayed the question, Jiang Miao explained with a smile, "Don’t worry! The feed sample that person stole was specially treated, and the formula data was also specially altered. Even if someone obtained these items, they wouldn’t be able to figure out the real breeding technology in a short amount of time."

After the translator relayed this, Watanabe Kenjiro finally breathed a sigh of relief and nodded.

"Sō ka! I knew Mr. Jiang must have been prepared."

Following that, Jiang Miao also gave him some suggestions for strengthening security.

Watanabe Kenjiro nodded. He fully agreed with Jiang Miao’s suggestions. After all, no company wants to see its intellectual property stolen by others.

After both parties reconfirmed the supplementary contract for the deal, they signed it.

After getting what he came for, Watanabe Kenjiro didn’t linger. He quickly took the remaining technical documents, the contract, and Jiang Miao’s suggestions, and hurried back to Kagoshima Prefecture in East Japan.

And that evening, Hailufeng Company’s finance department received the remaining final payment of 15 million dollars.

The next morning, on the tenth day of the new year.

Having mentally prepared himself, Zhang Xincheng, with a worried expression, took a USB drive and went straight to the city’s Public Security Bureau, heading for the office of the Economic Crime Investigation Division.

The office of the captain of the Economic Crime Investigation Division.

A young police officer knocked and rushed in. "Captain Fang, there’s an urgent case that needs your personal guidance. The amount of money involved could be enormous."

The division’s captain, Fang Hongbin, immediately put down his teacup. Hearing how serious the case was, he grabbed his jacket and put it on.

In the reception room, Fang Hongbin personally met with Zhang Xincheng.

Zhang Xincheng didn’t beat around the bush and quickly described the situation. "Captain Fang, this is an anomaly I discovered this morning during a routine inspection..."

A female officer at the side quickly took notes.

After listening to Zhang Xincheng’s description of the case, Fang Hongbin quickly asked, "So, you’re saying that room is the workshop where you prepare the special feed, and only you, General Manager Jiang, and General Manager Jiang’s father have access?"

"Yes, only my father-in-law, my brother-in-law, and I can enter that room. It involves a technology worth over a hundred million, so the mixing room is strictly off-limits to other employees."

"A technology worth over a hundred million?" Hearing the figure "over a hundred million" again, Fang Hongbin’s expression changed.

Zhang Xincheng was prepared. He took out a copy of the technology licensing agreement signed with Rokkaido Eel Company. "This is a technology licensing partnership our company has with a business in East Japan. They acquired the technology license for the East Japan region for a price of 30 million dollars."

"30 million dollars?" Fang Hongbin picked up the contract and looked at it. Although he couldn’t read the Japanese version, the Chinese version was easy to understand. After confirming the authenticity of the contract, he quickly picked up the phone:

"Ma Qiang, have everyone come for a meeting immediately."

Fang Hongbin couldn’t help but be tense. The case directly involved intellectual property worth over a hundred million yuan, and the potential indirect economic losses were incalculable.

After all, the licensing rights for the East Japan region alone were worth 30 million dollars. Even if the rights for other regions weren’t as valuable, they likely wouldn’t be cheap.

Soon, the dozen or so members of the Economic Crime Investigation Division gathered in the office. Fang Hongbin quickly and concisely briefed them on the case.

Hearing the details of the case, everyone gasped.

"Captain, I’ll take some men to arrest the suspect right away," Deputy Captain Ma Qiang said immediately.

"Alright. Take your men and go now."

Another deputy captain suggested, "I’ll request technical support from the tech department. If the suspect is trying to sell this, he’s bound to have left a trail in his call logs or online."

"I’ll request the bank’s cooperation to investigate whether the suspect has had any sudden large deposits."

The entire Economic Crime Investigation Division quickly sprang into action.

Meanwhile, Xiaocai was still at the eel farm, leisurely feeding the eels and daydreaming about the carefree life ahead of him.

He still had some sense, though, and didn’t resign immediately, obviously worried he might give himself away.