Chapter 1188: 500 Million (1/2)
”What are you doing? Who are you?” a policeman yelled at me.
Li Chengfeng immediately looked up and shot him a placating smile. ”Calm down, Little Wang. He’s the victim, you see.”
”Oh? Oh!”
The policeman immediately stared at me with wide eyes. ”Ha, ahaha! You’re Lu Chen? I never thought I'd be able to meet you in person! Your in-game avatar is plastered all over the official home page, but you’re a surprisingly handsome lad in real life too, huh?”
Li Chengfeng shook his head. ”Enough talk. Bring the handcuffs and cuff this bastard already, will you?”
”Sure thing!”
Li Chengfeng cuffed one of Tang Long’s hands to a nearby pole. Then, he sat down on the chair, produced a bottle of xylitol from his pockets and poured me one. While chewing, he said, ”The old fox thought he could escape, but I had nearly the entire airline network under surveillance after I received word that he was going to make his escape soon. The reason I kamikazed my way to the afterlife in the Nation War was to fly back to Beijing and lie in wait for him myself!”
I curled my lips. ”I knew it. I was confused when they told me you overextended, run into the enemies by yourself and died. That’s High Fighting Spirits’ style, not yours!”
Li Chengfeng chuckled. ”Pooh! If he hadn’t been blocking my escape paths all the time, I wouldn’t have died that quickly…”
Lin Yixin and Chaos Moon sat down nearby and looked at Tang Long. The guy cut a sorry figure especially after the punch I gave him, and his eyes burned with despair and anger. He most likely wasn’t expecting to be caught here.
Lin Yixin asked, ”Why is he alone? Shouldn’t a power-hungry person like him have a ton of bodyguards?”
Li Chengfeng sneered. ”When the tree topples, the monkeys scatter. Who would work for him after he lost his power? That being said, he did show up with seven or eight bodyguards. Long story short, my men kept them busy outside the airport.”
Tang Long spat out a bloody spittle before raging at the girls, ”What the fuck do you know, you prepubescent brats? You would never have caught me if someone hadn't leaked my activities to you!”
Li Chengfeng flexed his muscles. ”Aiyo, it looks like someone hasn’t figured out the situation yet. Allow me to teach you a lesson in humility!”
Before he could act though, the policeman nicknamed Little Wang hurriedly caught his arm in a death grip. ”How many times have the higher-ups warned you not to enforce via violence? Seriously, calm the fuck down. You’re literally one or two punches away from entering the blacklist, dude…”
It was only then Li Chengfeng relaxed and looked at me. ”Say, Lu Chen. Care to guess how much bribe this fucker accepted to protect Purple Grape City?”
”Just tell me.”
Li Chengfeng raised five fingers, and I exclaimed in surprise,
”5 million? My god, Little Japan is even stingier than I am! These days, even a Sacred Armament is worth 5 million!”
Li Chengfeng rolled his eyes. ”I swear that you’re like a kid sometimes whenever money is involved. Of course not!”
”5000W？”
”50 million then?”
”Nope!”
”No way. 500 million?” I was in complete disbelief at this point.
Li Chengfeng smiled. ”You’re kinda there, but no, it was 5 billion RMB, man. To be specific, the other guy paid him 500 million in deposit, but since he failed to follow through with his promise, he didn’t get the rest of it. Still, do you know that he has almost 1.1 billion worth of stolen funds in his Swiss bank amount? He embezzled all of them during his time as the vice chief of the VR department. Also, this fucker had apparently forced the China branch of Eternal Moon to cough out 500 million RMB to bring Heavenblessed to China. All in all, he was able to embezzle a total 1.6 billion RMB during his ‘service’. We weren’t able to freeze the funds, so this fucker would’ve been swimming in cash had we allowed him to escape overseas!”
I fell silent for a moment before clenching my fists. ”Let me guess. This old fucker’s family members have already gotten their green cards or something and taken up residence overseas, haven’t they?”
Li Chengfeng patted my shoulder with a bitter smile on his face. ”Welcome to the future, brother.”
For a time, I worried about the future of my nation and my people until Lin Yixin dragged me back to the present.
”What are you even worrying about? Let’s focus on retaking our main cities first!”
Li Chengfeng laughed. ”Well, Beauty Lin, Lu Chen, I trust you all to deal with the in-game stuff. I’ve been so busy lately that I can’t even spare the time to grind, not to mention that I have to settle Tang Long’s case within a week. Anyway, this guy must be super anxious to tour his execution ground, so I have to go now! See you all later!”
You could probably imagine how white Tang Long looked when he heard this. An outsider might think that Li Chengfeng was exaggerating, but the anti-corruption movements within the country had been growing stronger and stronger in the past few years. We in China didn’t believe we have the ability to guide an evil, heartless, and false servant of the public like Tang Long back on the right path, so our only option left was to leave it to God to save his immortal soul.
……
Tang Long was a big fish. At least a hundred policemen had entered the waiting hall over time, not to mention that Li Chengfeng, a high-level officer himself, had shown up to catch him. Eventually, the old man was escorted toward the exit like a superstar who was surrounded by the paparazzi. Right before he vanished from my sight though, he looked back and shot me a hateful and disdainful sneer. ”You think you’re a hero, boy? You’re just an idiot who has no idea you’re protecting an apple that has rotted all the way to the core!”
I simply shrugged before saying to myself, ”You’re the idiot. You think I care about the rotten stuff? I’m protecting the seeds inside the core.”[1]
Lin Yixin gave my arm a tug and said, ”Come on. There’s no need to split hairs over a guy who’s about to warm his jail cell, is there? By the way, it’s almost time to board the plane. Do you want to call Sister He Yi and Beiming Xue before that?”