Chapter 328: Lie All You Want, Just Don’t Get Carried Away

Beep-beep-beep...

Vice Chairman Wei Chen reached for the keypad on the specialized container and entered the password.

At once, with a loud clack, the tightly secured lock disengaged.

The people waiting nearby approached the container and swung both doors wide open.

Neat rows of gold bars gleamed inside.

Deputy Secretary Zhang Jinan gazed at the gold in the container with satisfaction, then curiously asked Chairman Zhen Weiliang,

“How many bars are there in this container altogether?”

“Six hundred 10-kilogram bars and two hundred forty 25-kilogram bars.”

“Why are they different sizes and weights?”

“As I told you last night, the 25-kilogram bars were purchased on the market. The 10-kilogram bars came from Carlos’s personal reserves.”

Carlos had hidden five hundred 10-kilogram bars in his cave hideout. The remaining hundred belonged to the Philippine government. However, Zhen Weiliang saw neither reason nor need to tell him such details.

“I see. Well, shall we begin verifying their authenticity?”

Instead of answering, Zhen Weiliang merely gave a slight nod.

At his signal, the Triad members standing ready jumped into the container and hauled out the nondestructive testing equipment.

With quick, practiced movements, they set up the equipment directly on the warehouse floor and connected the power.

Once everything was ready, Zhang Jinan’s men and the specialists began checking the bars with scanners.

Zhen Weiliang and the others sat in armchairs, watching the process.

Unable to hold back, Zhang Jinan addressed Zhen Weiliang again.

“How long will it take to completely inspect all the bars?”

If they hurried, checking a single bar took about 15 seconds. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ

Since they had to inspect 840 bars, it would take approximately 3 hours and 30 minutes.

However, bound by Cha Jiham’s request, Zhen Weiliang could not tell him the truth.

“On average, one bar takes about a minute, but if we hurry, we can get it down to around 40 seconds.”

Zhang Jinan took out his phone and opened the calculator to work out the total time.

At 90 bars per hour, it would take roughly 9 hours and 30 minutes.

It was 8 p.m. now, meaning the inspection would not finish until 5:30 in the morning.

Such a late finish completely ruined the plan he had laid out.

“Chairman Zhen, is there any way to speed things up?”

“Is there some reason you’re in such a hurry?”

“I plan to present this gold to Chairman Xi as a gift tomorrow morning.”

At that moment, Cha Jiham’s fears began coming true right before their eyes.

“I fully understand your enthusiasm, Deputy Secretary Zhang, but we cannot afford to be careless when inspecting gold.”

“I understand what you mean, but I’d still like it done faster... if only as a favor to me.”

Zhen Weiliang’s heart grew heavy.

He had no legitimate reason to refuse Zhang Jinan outright.

While he was thinking about how to get out of the situation, Vice Chairman Wei Chen joined the conversation.

“Deputy Secretary Zhang, why are you in such a hurry to give Chairman Xi the gift?”

“It’s simple. I’m afraid Committee Member Liu might beat me to it.”

Wei Chen knew perfectly well what Liu Peiqi had in mind.

He planned to seize Zhang Jinan’s gold by force and present it to Chairman Xi Jinping himself.

Under those circumstances, the chances of Liu Peiqi beating Zhang Jinan to the gift were exactly zero.

Unfortunately, Wei Chen could not say that aloud.

“Committee Member Liu boasted that he would give the Chairman 30 tons of gold, but he hasn’t even obtained it yet.”

“Is that true?”

“I can call his brother on speakerphone right now, and you can hear it for yourself. Would you like me to?”

“You’ll do that?”

“Give me a minute.”

Wei Chen ordered everyone conducting the inspection to temporarily leave the warehouse.

Zhang Jinan immediately understood what he had in mind and readily agreed.

Once everyone else had left, Wei Chen dialed Director Liu Haoran.

After several rings, a puzzled voice came through the speaker.

“[What is it? Why are you calling at this hour?]”

“You were the one who asked me to call you back, Director Liu.”

“[Ah! Right. Have you arrived in Beijing already?]”

“We landed an hour ago and immediately resumed negotiations with Deputy Secretary Zhang.”

“[I see. How are things going?]”

Wei Chen had a specific goal, so he had no intention of telling the truth.

“The negotiations are tedious and dragging on. Were you able to secure the gold for Chairman Xi’s gift?”

“[I’m negotiating with the seller right now, but the sharp rise in gold prices has made things very difficult.]”

‘You bastard... Lie all you want, just don’t get carried away.’

“Committee Member Liu seems to be in the same position as us. How much gold are you planning to buy?”

“[We’re planning to purchase around 10 tons.]”

“I see. And when do you expect to finish your negotiations?”

“[We’re trying hard to persuade the seller, but he’s asking an outrageous price, so it’ll probably take about a week.]”

“Understood. Well, I sincerely hope you manage to secure the gold and get what you want.”

“[Wait a second!]”

Liu Haoran called out to Wei Chen just as he was about to hang up.

“Is there something else, Director Liu?”

“[Tell me... Is Deputy Secretary Zhang really planning to buy gold from Chairman Zhen?]”

“From what I can see, he appears inclined to make the purchase.”

“[Skin him alive!]”

“I’ll do my best. All right, I really am hanging up now.”

Click.

The moment Wei Chen ended the call, a vicious curse burst from Zhang Jinan’s mouth.

“That son of a bitch!..”

Putting on a sympathetic expression, Zhen Weiliang suggested,

“Deputy Secretary Zhang, I know a way you can get revenge on Committee Member Liu. Would you like to hear it?”

“Of course! Tell me!”

“All you have to do is take the vacant seat on the Standing Committee before he does.”

“Ha-ha-ha-ha!”

Zhang Jinan burst into loud, booming laughter, convinced that he had figured out what Zhen Weiliang meant.

‘Look at this dead man laughing when he’ll soon be on his way to the afterlife.’

When Zhang Jinan’s laughter subsided, Zhen Weiliang continued,

“Deputy Secretary Zhang, Liu won’t be able to secure that Standing Committee seat even if he spends the rest of his life trying.”

“Why are you so certain?”

“He bought 14 tons of gold from me. And now he’s trying to negotiate for another 10 tons.”

Zhang Jinan immediately understood the implication.

That meant Liu Peiqi would be able to present Chairman Xi Jinping with, at best, 24 tons of gold.

While he himself was preparing a tribute of 31 tons.

Naturally, under those circumstances, Chairman Xi Jinping would favor him over his rival.

“Ha-ha, I see what you’re getting at!”

“Then let’s resume inspecting the bars.”

As soon as Zhen Weiliang finished speaking, Director Pan Kai hurried outside.

A couple of minutes later, the people who had left returned to the warehouse and resumed the inspection.

A little more time passed, and Zhen Weiliang discreetly signaled Pan Kai.

Catching the hint, Pan Kai naturally began searching for something on his phone.

A moment later, he spoke with feigned astonishment.

“Chairman, gold futures are skyrocketing!”

“Director Chen, is that true?!”

Zhang Jinan shouted before Zhen Weiliang himself could respond.

Pan Kai and Wei Chen were sworn enemies of Vice Chairman Chen Zhihui. As a precaution, Zhen Weiliang had introduced them to Zhang Jinan under altered surnames. To Zhang Jinan, Pan Kai was known as “Chen Kai.”

“The price has jumped about 8% compared with when the contract was signed and has broken through 1.135 million dollars per kilogram!”

Zhang Jinan felt as though he were getting drunk on happiness without having touched a drop of alcohol.

He had bought 12 tons of gold from Zhen Weiliang at a price of 1 million dollars per kilogram.

In just 10 hours, his paper profit had exceeded 1.6 billion dollars! How could he not be delighted?

“Is that so?”

“Judging by the insane demand, the price will continue to rise.”

“Ha-ha-ha! Let it rise. That’s great!”

Pan Kai decided to hammer in the final nail so that Zhang Jinan would not do anything foolish.

“With prices rising like this, Committee Member Liu definitely won’t be able to buy the gold.”

“Of course! How could he possibly afford it!”

“In that case, I have a suggestion. Why don’t we continue checking the bars at the normal, ordinary pace?”

“Fine. I accept your suggestion, Director Chen.”

Pan Kai rose from his chair and walked over to the specialists.

After instructing them to conduct the inspection without unnecessary haste, he returned to his seat and said,

“Deputy Secretary Zhang, we’ve checked 150 bars so far, and not a single one has been fake.”

“Excellent news.”

“If we work at a normal pace, we should finish at around 11 tomorrow morning. Why don’t you go back to the hotel and rest, then return here at around 10 tomorrow morning?”

“That sounds reasonable. It’s not too late yet, so I’ll stay and watch the inspection for a little longer before leaving.”

At that moment, the execution of Zhang Jinan’s plan was pushed back from tomorrow to the day after tomorrow.

***

Late at night.

We were killing time at the safe house provided by Vice Chairman Wei Chen while waiting for news.

“Chief Cha, why don’t you call Chairman Zhen and ask how things are going?”

“Chairman Zhen promised to contact me immediately if anything unexpected happened.”

“I understand that, but it’s already been almost four hours.”

I had told Director Griffin that inspecting the gold would take about 3 hours and 30 minutes.

Which meant that, under normal circumstances, everything should have been finished by 11:30 p.m.

But it was already approaching midnight, and there had still been no news from Zhen Weiliang, so the Director was beginning to worry.

“I personally asked Chairman Zhen to drag out the inspection as much as possible.”

“For what reason?”

“Zhang Jinan intends to give the gold to Chairman Xi before Liu Peiqi does.”

“But Liu Peiqi himself plans to take the gold from Zhang by force and present it to Chairman Xi, right?”

“Zhang Jinan has no idea what Liu Peiqi is really planning.”

“Hmm... That’s true.”

Bzzzz...

Just as Director Griffin nodded, the phone lying on the table began to vibrate.

I quickly glanced at the screen.

Wei Chen was calling.

After telling the others who it was, I pressed the answer button.

“Vice Chairman Wei, how is the gold inspection going?”

“[We plan to finish around 11 tomorrow morning.]”

“That late?”

“[Just as you feared, Chief Cha, Zhang Jinan intended to give the gold to Chairman Xi tomorrow morning.]”

So they were deliberately dragging out the inspection in order to ruin his schedule.

To confirm my suspicion, I asked Wei Chen directly,

“You deliberately slowed down the inspection?”

“[You hit the nail right on the head, Chief Cha.]”

“And how did you manage to talk him out of it?”

“[I emphasized that there was absolutely no way Liu Peiqi could beat him to it.]”

Wei Chen began explaining in detail the substance of his conversation with Director Liu Haoran.

Out of courtesy, I listened attentively until he finished.

“[...In the end, Zhang Jinan agreed to Director Pan’s suggestion that the gold be inspected at the normal pace.]”

“You did an excellent job. Thank you.”

“[Ha-ha! Hearing praise from you, Chief Cha, makes all my exhaustion disappear.]”

‘Well, that was laying it on thick.’

“I’m glad to hear that. Where is Zhang Jinan now?”

“[He just left, saying he was tired.]”

After chatting with Wei Chen for a little while longer about unrelated matters, I ended the call.

Then I gave NIS Director Om Giyeon and the others, who had been waiting impatiently, a detailed account of the conversation.

“...They plan to finish inspecting the bars at around 11 tomorrow morning.”

“Phew... Thank goodness.”

NIS Director Om Giyeon let out a relieved breath.

“Exactly. Maybe it’s time for us to head to our rooms and get some rest too?”

“Excellent idea.”

The endlessly long day was finally drawing to a close.