Chapter 2376: Financing (Part 11)

Zhou Wei found this very strange. The telegram recalling him had been marked urgent. He couldn't figure out what had happened. The next day, at the crack of dawn, he had hurriedly wrapped up whatever could be concluded in Foshan. Before noon, he departed on a returning patrol boat. He hadn't delayed along the way; even lunch was military rations gnawed on the patrol boat. The forty to fifty li distance, rushing frantically, he arrived back at the Great World before dark. If it weren't for the fact that he disembarked at the Great World pier, a stone's throw from the office, he would have wanted to change clothes before going. He had been ready to charge straight into Guangzhou Prefecture. How was it that now, having rushed to the city and contacted them, they weren't in a hurry, asking him to come tomorrow? If he had returned too late, they should have sent an extra-urgent marker yesterday! If it really wasn't urgent, why send an urgent telegram? Did Liu Xiang have an issue with him?

Zhou Wei's thoughts churned, his mood souring. The planned "reward" for the two seconded guards went ungiven. With a cold face, he entered his "Zhou Family Fortress."

"Has anything happened these days?" Zhou Wei was about to sign the reimbursement receipts for the two guards when he routinely asked Secretary Zhou.

"Nothing major." Secretary Zhou paused, brewing her emotions. "Just yesterday, some Senator I'd never heard of didn't see you, Chief, and lost his temper. He also grabbed several files from the document basket."

Zhou Wei's signing pen suddenly stopped. His arm hung in the air for more than ten seconds, trembling uncontrollably.

"Yesterday?" Zhou Wei looked up coldly at Secretary Zhou. "What time yesterday?"

Secretary Zhou, who had been putting on an act, finally managed to squeeze out a few tears and responded: "Around two o'clock, not yet three."

Zhou Wei's mouth twitched. The brass-shelled cartridge fountain pen from the old spacetime in his hand was being gripped so hard it seemed about to deform.

Snap—Zhou Wei threw his beloved pen aside. The signature wasn't signed; he'd probably have to continue borrowing those people for a while.

Zhou Wei took a deep breath, walked to the chair at the main desk in the entrance hall and sat down, then slowly exhaled. "Tell me what happened."

The tone was heavy, and he seemed a bit angry just now, but Secretary Zhou was pleased internally, thinking this was Zhou Wei's fury upon hearing that she had been humiliated by some unknown Senator. Since the Chief was inquiring, she immediately deleted what should be deleted and added what she wanted to add, "recounting" yesterday's events. According to her version, it was simply some rogue of unknown origin ruining the Nanyang Company's dignity. Anyone hearing it would think this guy claiming to be a Senator should chop off his own file-grabbing hand in repentance, reflect thoroughly, and drink some rat-tail juice.

After hearing it, Zhou Wei's heart went cold halfway, and half his body went numb. He took another breath, exhaled and inhaled properly, before composing his expression.

Document basket?

Zhou Wei looked around. In the back left sat a bamboo-woven basket with a cloth lining and a rattan-woven lid on top, weighted down by several thick books.

"Is it this basket?" Zhou Wei pointed at this thing he had previously thought was a wastepaper basket and asked Secretary Zhou.

"Reporting to Chief, yes, this is it. To prevent anyone from grabbing things again, I specially added some heavy objects to weigh it down."

How wonderful of you!

Zhou Wei desperately wanted to personally see what deadly things were in that basket, but he found that his coordination seemed to have problems; he couldn't stand up.

"Am I paralyzed?" Zhou Wei roared internally. He moved his hands from his knees and placed them on the table—okay, at least no hemiplegia. Raise the foot and stomp? The thigh could be forcibly lifted, but the calf muscles were stiff, and when the sole landed on the ground, it felt like thousands of needles were pricking—it seemed he wasn't half-paralyzed either.

Steadying his emotions, Zhou Wei ordered: "Then take everything out. What's there?"

"Quite a lot. When the Chief first came to Guangzhou, the second day you met the mayor, the third day you went to Danzhou for inspection. You told me to keep whatever came. You really predicted it well; starting from the fifth day, people kept coming. Some just left a business card. Some left messages, all saying to meet when you're free. I've recorded them all. Some left thick stacks of documents, each claiming it's very important, but I didn't see anything on the seal, so I kept them all together."

Secretary Zhou spoke while pulling things out of the document basket in handfuls. If you said she didn't do any work, everything was very well sorted, and for those who left messages, she had even recorded them on paper separately. If you said she did work...

"Didn't I come back from Danzhou about ten days ago? Why didn't you show me these then?" Zhou Wei held a "Brief Summary of Renangiang Crude Oil Development Plan in Myanmar" dated seventeen days ago, his hands trembling so much that the thick envelope rustled.

Before coming to Guangzhou, he had anticipated that many Senators would come to visit, promote their plans, or intend to "get involved," so he had specifically instructed the secretary to record all these materials and messages carefully. He would look at them when he returned—even if these memoranda were just garbage, he had to show "importance."

"That day you got off the boat at the Great World, took a carriage back, went straight to sleep without even showering, and just before sleeping, you informed me to arrange another meeting with Mayor Liu the next morning. These weren't official documents and had no confidential or urgent markings. When would you have had time to look at them?"

Well, thank you so much!

But that wasn't right. If he had never seen any private letters or memoranda sent by other Senators, Zhou Wei should have been suspicious long ago. Since these things were treated differently, then...

Zhou Wei carefully examined the various small accessories on Secretary Zhou that he hadn't paid much attention to before. He already had suspicions. Everything looked wrong, but he just couldn't precisely point out where the problem was. Perhaps he should test her?

"The new trinkets on you are nice, quite good." Zhou Wei pinched out a pleasant expression and suddenly gave praise.

Secretary Zhou was caught off guard by this test and subconsciously pressed her hand to her chest—did he notice? Was it that special underwired bra from Store 82, or this gold chain cat's eye necklace? That shouldn't be right; the Chief shouldn't be able to see the necklace! Then it must be the bra. Does this thing really prop things up? Does the Chief really like perky ones?

"Alright, go call Little Xu and Little Du in. I'll sign their receipt slips here."

"Yes, Chief." Secretary Zhou deliberately drew out a long note and turned around with coquettish eyes.

"Hello, Chief!" Little Xu and Little Du had just finished placing the luggage in the back hall when they heard Secretary Zhou calling and immediately came over.

"Mm, your receipt slips are signed." Zhou Wei held a slip in each hand, making a gesture to hand them over. Little Xu and Little Du stepped forward to receive them. Zhou Wei suddenly withdrew the slips, placed them on the desk and pressed down, raised his chin, and said to the two National Army soldiers: "I order: arrest Secretary Zhou!"

All three except Zhou Wei were stunned simultaneously, but the two National Army soldiers were well-trained and quickly reacted. They turned around with a big grappling move, not caring about being gentle with the fairer sex, one person per arm, one person hooking a leg, quickly pressing Secretary Zhou to the ground.

Little Xu pulled Secretary Zhou's left arm back. Secretary Zhou screamed in pain. Little Du took the opportunity to free one hand to take over this trembling left arm, crossed it and pressed it on Secretary Zhou's back, then used his left knee to press on her waist, single-handedly controlling her. Little Xu straightened up, took the rope for packing luggage from his belt, first tied up Secretary Zhou's feet that were kicking wildly, then pulled the rope end and tied her hands as well.

The two swiftly subdued Secretary Zhou. After completing the binding, Little Du stood and saluted: "Reporting to Chief! She has been controlled!"

Zhou Wei took another deep breath, looked up at the ceiling and exhaled, having sorted out his thoughts. "Thank you! But please help a bit more and act as messengers."

"We guarantee to complete the mission!" The two responded in unison.

Secretary Zhou was first stunned by the sudden attack, then with the arm pulling and the binding, her brain had been confused the entire time. By the time Zhou Wei was talking to the two guards, she had just come to her senses—I'm... tied up already?

In an instant, experiences and knowledge from years past surged up, scaring snot and tears to pour out together.

"Chief, spare my life! Chief! Chief, spare my life! This slave made a mistake! This slave made a mistake!"

But Zhou Wei ignored her, finding only her noise.

"First gag her!"

"Yes, Chief!" Little Du responded and walked to Secretary Zhou lying on the ground. Zhou Wei thought he would use cloth strips or socks to stuff her mouth—that's how it's done in movies and TV shows. But Little Du skillfully took out a hard pear-shaped object from his waist pouch, pinched Secretary Zhou's jaw with his hand, and while she opened her mouth in pain, quickly stuffed it in. Her mouth was filled with this hard object, and she could only make "wu wu" sounds through her nose, unable to speak anymore.

"What is this thing?" Zhou Wei was afraid this thing was some kind of dangerous item and asked.

Little Xu turned his head to look, also took one out and gave it to Zhou Wei, saying: "It's just Grass Field No. 7 emergency rations. When the special forces came to exchange, they said this thing is better carved into a pear shape. Carry it around normally, and when you catch a prisoner and need to shut them up, just stuff it in. It's more useful than temporarily finding other things. Our company carves these things with knives when resting normally. Basically everyone has one. I heard our company commander even submitted a report to the General Logistics, to see if future emergency rations could be made directly in this shape, saving us the trouble of carving."

"Interesting." Zhou Wei just examined the novelty and didn't delve into it. He wasn't in the mood.

Secretary Zhou knew she couldn't say anything anymore. She could only lie on her side on the ground, crying and whimpering while trying hard to make a kowtowing gesture. Zhou Wei's heart stirred with a trace of pity. But just as he had this thought and wanted to stand up to say something, he found that his calves still had no strength and still couldn't stand up. That just-kindled pity went with the wind. No longer caring about the "we don't do this" rhetoric, he just ignored her.

(End of Chapter)