Chapter 107: Hibernating in the Dim Sunlight – 1
#I have a new family, and I’ve forgotten my old name. From today on, my name is Tang Yingli.
**
The night of Linsen North Road was filled with a special atmosphere that was different from the other streets of Taipei.
The streets were lined with clubs and KTVs, and among them, “Givenchy” was a particularly eye-catching and outstanding establishment.
Among the top clients who frequented this place, “Givenchy”’s reputation was always at the top.
Was it because the selection of alcohol was particularly outstanding? Or was the service so attentive that it made people come back again and again? Or were the beauties inside particularly eye-catching? Perhaps all of these were reasons.
Or perhaps not.
The real reason should be the beautiful and mysterious owner.
The original owner of “Givenchy” had the stage name Lisa. Besides the huge financial backing she had, her excellent social skills and wide network were definitely the key to her being able to stand firm in this place. Of course, she herself was the face and the brand of the club, attracting a large number of men.
But this “incentive” had suddenly disappeared two years ago.
Just like Lisa’s mysterious background, which outsiders could not see through, the reason for her retirement was also repeatedly guessed in the whispers of the clients. Some said she had retired due to her health, and others guessed that she had secretly married a long-time suitor, a gangster boss—after all, she was still a beautiful woman with many suitors. But there were many different opinions, and no one could get any reliable information.
The only thing that was certain was that Lisa had personally entrusted this cash cow, “Givenchy,” to another hostess under her—
**
At eight in the evening, a luxurious imported car quietly drove into “Givenchy.”
The parking lot was not touched by the early spring night wind, which made him feel a little stuffy after he got out of the car. But the young men from the shop and the bodyguards of the other guests were all around, which added a lot of psychological security.
“Honored guest, this way, please.”
They didn’t call him “councilor” or “chairman.” They’re well-trained.
Wei Shenghui and his assistant were quickly led to a private room. “You’ve… redecorated.”
“Yes, the old decoration was too old-fashioned, so the owner hired someone to redesign it.”
He looked around and nodded frequently. “Very thoughtful… very thoughtful.”
Before entering the private room, a hostess in a sleeveless evening gown stood at the door and greeted him with a smile.
“Mr. Wei, welcome.”
Wei Shenghui took off his sunglasses, and he heard a young man call her “boss.” “You… are the owner?”
“Yes, Sister Lisa personally handed over the management of ‘Givenchy’ to me before she retired. You haven’t been here in a long time, have you?” The last consumption record was almost ten years ago.
She respectfully handed him a business card, and his assistant took it for him. “You know I’ve been here before?” he asked in surprise.
Hearing the displeasure in his tone, Dingdang smiled. “Yes, we have a record of every transaction, but please don’t worry, it will never be leaked.”
“Mm…”
“Boss Wu has already arrived. This way, please.” She personally pushed open the door to the private room.
This private room was well-equipped with entertainment facilities, and the decoration had also been renovated. And the person he had an appointment with was sitting in a corner of the sofa, with two hostesses already by his side.
“Councilor Wei?” Wu Jianxiong quickly put out his cigarette and came forward to greet him. “Thank you for coming all the way to Taipei in your busy schedule. It must have been a long drive. You’ve worked hard.”
Wei Shenghui put on a polite smile. “You’re too kind, Boss Wu. Please sit.”
“Please, please.”
As soon as they sat down, Wu Jianxiong was all hospitality, offering him wine and cigarettes. “You haven’t had dinner yet, have you? Would you like to order something? The sashimi and sushi here are very good. Or would you like some barbecue or seafood?”
“It’s fine. I’m used to not eating at night.”
“Really? No wonder you’re in such good shape.”
“Uh, Boss Wu, did Chairman Zhao say when he would be here?” Without a middleman, no matter how they talked, the two of them, who had no prior relationship, seemed a little awkward.
“Him? You wait a minute, I’ll give him a call.” Wu Jianxiong’s speech was a mixture of Mandarin and Taiwanese. His free left hand was around a hostess, and his movements were very bold. While he was on the phone, Dingdang pushed open the door and came in, with five young and beautiful, well-proportioned beauties behind her.
“How can a big boss talk business without fine wine and hostesses?” Dingdang winked at Wei Shenghui. “We have a few new girls in the shop recently… would you be willing to give them a chance to learn by your side, Mr. Wei?”
Drinking his whiskey, Wei Shenghui only needed to look up to know that these were not new girls. Whether it was their expression or their demeanor, they were all solemn and experienced. A real new girl would not be able to serve an important guest.
“I won’t choose. I’ll leave it to Boss Wu…” he smiled, pretending to be reserved.
“Ah, you can just come yourself. What do you need new girls for… hey, old Zhao? The councilor is here. Where are you…”
“Me? How am I as pretty as our little sisters? You’re joking, Boss Wu.” Even though Dingdang was a little older, she looked to be no more than in her early thirties, and she was indeed quite beautiful.
“Or would you like something to eat? We’ve changed our chefs. Not only Chinese and Western food, but also Japanese and French cuisine.” She proactively flipped through the menu, and when she got to the seafood section, she immediately covered it. “I almost forgot, you’re allergic to seafood.”
He was secretly shocked. He didn’t expect them to have even noticed such a detail.
“Old Zhao is on his way.” Wu Jianxiong quickly returned. “Why don’t you eat something, councilor? The food here is not bad. No matter how much it costs today, it’s on me.”
“Since you’ve said so, Boss Wu, then I’ll have a steak…”
While choosing a hostess, Wu Jianxiong continued to joke with Dingdang, which showed that he was indeed a regular here. In the end, he chose a hostess in a white evening gown and also requested Dingdang to accompany him.
“Boss Wu, really.” She feigned anger. “I’ll have Chairman Zhao be the judge.” she twisted her waist and walked out.
“Oh, so much personality. Are all the club owners like this now?”
The last to arrive, Zhao Chenghong, walked in, apologizing. After the greetings, Dingdang also came in and said to him in a low voice, “The food will be here soon. You can order more anytime.”
“Thank you.”
“What brings you here today? Even Boss Tan is here to sit with us.” Zhao Chenghong’s eyes widened in surprise.
Dingdang—Tan Ziying—pouted and complained, “It’s not Boss Wu’s request. It’s just that it’s rare for Mr. Wei to come up from Taoyuan, so it’s only right to stay and entertain our honored guest.”
“So you’re saying the councilor is more expensive? We’re not expensive enough?” Wu Jianxiong frowned.
“Chairman Zhao is more expensive than you, okay? He doesn’t come often, but you come to our ‘Givenchy’ every other day.” She covered her mouth and discreetly moved closer to Wei Shenghui.
After the small talk and a few rounds of drinks, the three of them quickly got down to business.
“I heard from Chairman Zhao that the foreign workers you bring in, Boss Wu, are obedient, willing to work, and you have a network all over Southeast Asia.”
Although Wei Shenghui was a councilor, he also had a stake in a construction company. Since it was the construction industry, they naturally needed workers, and this kind of dangerous and heavy work was mostly done by foreign migrant workers.
Zhao Chenghong was also the chairman of a construction company and had a great demand for workers. His friendship with Wu Jianxiong was not only because they got along well, but also for business reasons.
“Of course, of course. Whether you want Vietnamese, Indonesian, or Thai workers, it’s all fine.” Wu Jianxiong patted his chest.
“It was a little hard to find Thai workers for a while. I mostly find Vietnamese workers here.” Zhao Chenghong offered his opinion and lowered his voice, “the people here, Boss Wu, are especially cheap. Don’t worry, the quality is guaranteed.”
“Are they illegal workers?” Wei Shenghui asked cautiously.
He knew that Wu Jianxiong did both legal and illegal recruitment. Legal recruitment was to find foreign migrant workers who were willing to pay a brokerage fee in their own country and come to Taiwan to work through proper channels. As for illegal workers, they were all workers who had run away from their original employers and were unwilling to be repatriated.
“Isn’t it usually a few legal ones, and the rest are all illegal?” Zhao Chenghong smiled a little strangely. This was indeed the norm in the construction industry.
“The company’s person in charge is not the councilor’s name, right?”
“Of course not.”
Wu Jianxiong threw up his hands. “Then that’s fine. Even if you’re accidentally caught by the immigration agency, you’ll be fine.” According to the law, a “repeat offender” who is found to have hired illegal workers will be sentenced to less than five years in prison, but the person in charge of a company that actually hires illegal workers changes every year, so they can easily evade the law.
Taoyuan is a major hub for illegal workers, and the immigration agency’s special task force will conduct cross-regional raids. Although you can easily get away with it if you’re caught, it’s not a very glorious thing after all.
“That’s true…”
“The worker problem wasn’t handled by the councilor himself before, right?” Seeing Wei Shenghui nod, Wu Jianxiong smiled with a sudden realization. “To avoid any moral burden on the councilor, let’s make it simple. You just tell me which construction site needs how many people, and then we’ll see if my people will drive them there or if your foreman will be in charge. We’ll ‘arrange’ that separately. These are all small matters, no problem.”
“Since you’re so straightforward, Boss Wu… then I’m at ease.” Wei Shenghui raised his wine glass. “To our happy cooperation.”
“Haha, to our happy cooperation, to our happy cooperation.”
The three of them clinked glasses happily, and after that, the private room was filled with the laughter and singing of the hostesses. After the food was served, Dingdang discreetly left the room.
Through a crack in the door, watching Wei Shenghui gradually reveal his true self after a few drinks, she sneered and quickly typed a message on her phone.
Wei Shenghui’s assistant was still standing outside, trembling. She raised an eyebrow. “It’s a rare trip up here. Mr. Wei seems to be having a lot of fun, making you stand outside and wait. You’ve worked hard.”
“Not at all, not at all.”
“Do you need a stool? It must be tiring to stand here all the time.”
The assistant hesitated for a moment and finally gave in. “Thank you, boss.”
She patted his shoulder. “Don’t be polite.”
**
‘This morning, a man with the surname Lin was found dead in his apartment in the Songshan district of Taipei. The deceased was a freelance journalist. In the morning, Mr. Lin’s girlfriend went to his residence…’
During lunch break, it was a habit for the police officers in the office to turn on the news. Cai Yuwei was eating his rice and watching the screen when a figure floated past.
“I was just wondering where you were… you went to work out again?”
“Yes, it’s less likely to get fat if you eat after you work out.”
“You’re already so thin.”
“How so? I was in the hospital for almost a month. My whole body feels like it’s about to rust.” Zhou Jinglin put down her boxing gloves, drank some water, and retied her ponytail. “Hey… why are there so few people?” she asked, and Cai Yuwei kept pointing at the TV screen. “What’s wrong?”
“Over there.”
She looked at the TV, and the screen was just showing Fang Zijun being interviewed. “Are you investigating a case?”
“Yes, it’s preliminarily determined to be a suicide, but the chief still went to the scene to search.”
She peeked her head out. Chen Huomu, Lu Tingfeng, and the other senior veterans were all on the move, which showed the importance of this case… “Did the teacher go too?”
“It seems the chief relies on the teacher even more now. After all, the Xiao Xun case almost ended in disaster.”
Jinglin stared at Tang Yingli’s seat for a moment—it was always piled with a mountain of files—and then crossed her legs and opened her bento box. “By the way, I heard from the teacher that the director is going to set up a special task force for the Jingxun case.”
“Yes, he is.”
“And the results? Did he say when the list will be announced?”
“It should be in a few days. Although the director was discharged early, I heard he’s working while injured…” Cai Yuwei finished his bento box. “But he’s been continuously collecting evidence and trying to track the organization’s movements.”
“Mm-hm… do you know who’s been selected?”
“I secretly asked Senior Ah Mu, but he’s very tight-lipped… it’s obvious the teacher is in. I’ll go and throw away the box.”
While Cai Yuwei was away, Jinglin turned to stare at the TV. The camera had shifted to a reenactment made by the TV station, showing the location of the deceased’s body, with a “suicide? homicide?” caption in the top right corner.
Shaking her head, she picked up her chopsticks and focused on her meal.
**
The police cordon kept the reporters outside, and the on-site search was almost over.
The water in the bathtub was overflowing. The deceased was moved out of the bathtub with the help of two detectives. The deceased was naked, and the possible cause of death was electrocution—his girlfriend had found a plugged-in hairdryer in the bathtub when she had finally gotten into the house.
Tao Qianya examined the deceased’s rigor mortis, skin color, and pupils on the spot. Tang Yingli stepped into the bathroom in her high heels and reached out to feel the water in the bathtub.
“No one has touched the shower head, right?”
The police officer answered “yes,” and after a second’s pause, he looked at the deceased’s girlfriend, who was shaking her head frantically.
“I was so scared, I didn’t even dare to go in…” she was trembling, wrapped in a towel, with a female police officer comforting her.
The water was cold. It was only March. If it were a bath, it would never be cold water. No… even the cause of death was suspicious. It looked like a suicide, but no suicide note was found, and according to his girlfriend, as a freelance journalist, he had no reason to commit suicide.
However, there was another reason why this deceased had attracted the high attention of Fang Zijun, and even Zhou Zengxiang.
He was one of the people on the “list.”
Lin Pinyi. Forty-nine years old, a freelance journalist, but before that, he had also been a retired officer of the military’s special forces. Simply put, he was the type of person who had to be specially monitored and paid attention to.
How many was that? After Zhou Zengxiang had handed over the “list,” this was already the third person to have died mysteriously. And two others had also gone missing.
Were they also dealt with by “Mountain Wind”? Or were they persuaded and recruited to become a member of the organization?
“Teacher, come and take a look.”
Yingli glanced at the bottom of the bathtub and turned to Tao Qianya. “What’s wrong?”
He held a spatula, pried open the deceased’s mouth, and shone a flashlight on it. “Can you see it?”
There were small brown spots on the tongue. She frowned and repeatedly shone the light from various angles. “Is it… a pinhole?”
“Yes, I believe we will be able to test for some kind of drug in his body.”
Yingli looked around and happened to meet Fang Zijun, who was walking in from outside.
“Teacher, Ah Qian, how’s the investigation going?”
“Yes, we have a preliminary conclusion.” She took off her gloves. “It’s a homicide… there’s no doubt about it.”
