Jiang Zhe gave Qiao Zhan a thumbs up, signaling for him to continue.
After getting Jiang Zhe’s affirmation, Qiao Zhan’s expression became even prouder.
Thinking that he had done a good job, he finally felt superior to Jiang Zhe.
“I initially wanted to look for these few people, but I couldn’t. They probably left the city already. This shows that the other party is very meticulous. Knowing that we’ll investigate, they’ve sent those people away in advance,” remarked Qiao Zhan.
“So, have you run out of ideas now, Captain Qiao?” asked Jiang Zhe.
“Yeah. Do you have an ingenious idea, Assistant Jiang?” Qiao Zhan looked at Jiang Zhe.
“These people are just ordinary employees who don’t hold any grudges with Ms. Ding. In fact, they probably don’t even know each other. Hence, they must have acted based on their boss’ orders. Can’t we just investigate who their boss is?” scoffed Jiang Zhe.
Agreeing with him, Nan Chen turned his gaze to Qiao Zhan.
Qiao Zhan applauded. “Gotta hand it to you, you’re pretty smart to have thought of this, Assistant Jiang, but unfortunately, I’m one step ahead of you. I have already look into it and I found that the owner of the nightclub is a certain Mr. Gao. However, he’s not the actual boss—Bao is the man behind him.”
“Bao?”
“Yep. He’s the president of Rainbow Entertainment, Gao Bao. He calls himself the ‘King of the Night’ in Flower City, controlling more than half of the nightclubs here. He even owns some secret gambling and prostitution dens. He’s a very scheming man. You haven’t heard of him, have you, Assistant Jiang?” said Qiao Zhan.
Indeed, Jiang Zhe had never heard of him.
Jiang Zhe was a finance executive in Nanshi Corporation, familiar with global politics and economic trends. He was also well-versed with both spoken and unspoken rules in various industries, but never was he involved in the underworld scene.
Normally, he was so busy working for Nan Chen that he did not have time to visit nightclubs. At the most, he would occasionally drink at some clubs. As such, he never had the opportunity to interact with the underworld scene and he was oblivious to the shady things that occurred there.
“King of the Night? He sounds quite formidable,” commented Jiang Zhe.
“That’s the title he gave himself. He just likes to brag about himself. That being said, to me, he’s nothing but an insignificant ant,” said Qiao Zhan confidently.
“Well, if even you look down on him, he’s probably not a big shot then,” remarked Jiang Zhe disdainfully.
“If that’s what you thought, then you’re wrong! Gao Bao is not just any ordinary man. All celebrities that wished to hold a concert in Flower City will need to pay their respects to him, sometimes even personally. Otherwise, they would not be able to hold their concert.”
“Why? Does he own the venues?” Jiang Zhe was still skeptical.
“He can’t interfere with the venue bookings. However, he can mobilize more than a thousand people to create a ruckus at the concert. If a celebrity decides to hold a concert, but the audience kept hurling insults at said celebrity, do you think that they’ll be able to continue with the concert?”
“Aren’t the police doing anything about him?” Jiang Zhe became even more confused.
“They can’t do anything. Who can prove that he’s the one who mobilized the crowd? It’s not just one or two troublemakers, we’re talking about thousands here. The police can’t possibly detain all of them, right?”
“So, does that mean that the police is helpless to do anything about him? He can just continue living a lawless life like this?”
“Why do you think he calls himself the ‘King of the Night’?” Qiao Zhan threw the question back at him.
“There’s someone backing him up,” commented Nan Chen.
“That’s right. Sir Chen, you truly understand what’s happening.” Qiao Zhan shot a disdainful look at Jiang Zhe.
“So what?”
“Gao Bao doesn’t know Young Mistress. According to my analysis, he must have been instructed by someone to sabotage her. This is the first thing,” declared Qiao Zhan with a great sense of accomplishment.
“But it’s difficult to find out who gave him those orders unless you catch him and interrogate him directly. However, without any evidence, we can’t touch him—and even if we do, we can’t kidnap him just like that. It’s against the law,” said Jiang Zhe as he frowned.
Qiao Zhen looked even smugger. “That’s why I said that there’s a lot of things you don’t understand, Assistant Jiang. If you’re free, have a drink with me and I’ll teach you.”
Nan Chen signaled for him to cut the nonsense short and continue.
“The second thing is to investigate Huang Chen, whom Young Mistress mentioned. There are ten people called Huang Chen in Flower City, with two of them being women…”
When Nan Chen heard that, he shot a sharp glance at him.
Qiao Zhan quickly corrected himself, “Well, it’s the women’s fault they’re called Huang Chen—it’s so obviously a masculine name!”
“Cut the crap and go straight to the point,” instructed Nan Chen coldly.
“Anyway, none of those people called Huang Chen are big shots. Hence, I asked my friend to search the database. There’s indeed only one deputy commissioner with the surname Huang.”
“We know about this already. Can you investigate that person with the surname Huang?” asked Jiang Zhe impatiently.
“I can’t, but my friend can. There’s nothing shady about that man. However, his son who’s studying in the States owns five properties under his name. All of them are located in luxury residential areas in the States, costing tens of millions each. If his son is still studying, where did he get all those money from? After further investigation, we discovered that the son also owns a foreign enterprise. It specializes in producing all sorts of alcohol which are mainly supplied to nightclubs. Gao Bao is the company’s most important customer. They are long-term business partners,” revealed Qiao Zhan.
By then, even Jiang Zhe, who was an outsider to all these, understood what was happening.
“So this company is a platform through which Gao Bao channels profits to the Huang fella. It’s just to launder dirty money. Because of that, that Huang fella kept protecting Gao Bao, which gave him the confidence to call himself the King of the Night,” exclaimed Jiang Zhe.
Qiao Zhan mockingly applauded. “How impressive, Assistant Jiang! You even understood this. As expected of a highly educated elite.”
“Stop mocking me and just tell us what else you found.” Jiang Zhe adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses.
“They’re also related in another way. That Huang fella is actually Wang Shengli’s brother-in-law. That foreign enterprise has two big shareholders—the largest is his son, followed by Wang Shengli. His son also owns stocks in Wang Shengli’s real estate company. They share a mutually beneficial relationship,” continued Qiao Zhan.
“What about that government officer who instructed our cosmetic company to cease operations? Does he have anything to do with them?” asked Nan Chen.
“Yes. He’s the Huang fella’s high school classmate. It is said that they become sworn brothers in high school. After they joined politics, they stopped making that known. However, they have always shared a close relationship—it’s something all the insiders are aware of,” explained Qiao Zhan.
Nan Chen nodded. “We’re clear about that now. What do you plan to do next?”
“We can’t afford to anger that Huang fella. After all, he’s a government official. On the other hand, I can offend Gao Bao. I’m planning to make a personal visit to this so-called King of the Night.” Qiao Zhan looked very excited.
“What about that Huang fella? He’s the one controlling everything,” remarked Jiang Zhe.
“We’re living in a law-governed society. If we can’t teach him a lesson, someone else can. He’s involved in many corruption cases, so the relevant departments will certainly investigate him,” replied Qiao Zhan.
Nan Chen nodded in agreement to Qiao Zhan’s words.
“But that Huang fella is still not the main mastermind. He doesn’t hold any grudges against Ms. Ding, so why did he still instruct Gao Bao to do all that?” Jiang Zhe raised his query.
Qiao Zhan could not think of an answer to his question as he could not figure out who directed that Huang fella.
I was only able to find out this much… Any more than this is really beyond my capabilities.
“I have no idea. This is all I can find,” admitted Qiao Zhan.
“It’s good enough. The Nan family has a lot of rivals who are all potential suspects. The most important thing is to solve our current problem,” said Nan Chen.
