090 This is Your Home Ground
Pei Ningle didn’t know what Han Yixuan was thinking. She just felt that this love rival was quiet and reserved, seemingly a very honest and well-behaved girl.
No wonder, after being high school classmates with Wang Heng for three years, they still hadn’t gotten together. If it wasn’t because of academic pressure, it must be because she was too shy, right? Pei Ningle speculated…
After dinner, it was time to say goodbye.
“Let’s go shopping together next time?” Han Yixuan extended an invitation. “Next time, let’s split the bill, okay?”
“Sure!”
Pei Ningle readily agreed. She felt she had no reason to refuse. If she could become best friends with her love rival, and her best friend didn’t know they liked the same boy… thinking about it this way, it felt a bit scheming, but it would probably be more advantageous for her, right?
After saying goodbye to Han Yixuan at the subway station and boarding a train going in the opposite direction, Pei Ningle found an empty seat and sat down.
Perhaps because she had thought too much today and exhausted her mental energy, she leaned back and fell asleep after sitting for a while.
After an unknown amount of time, the girl woke up leisurely, only to find that she had already missed her stop.
Pei Ningle stood up subconsciously, and at this moment, the subway slowed down as it entered the station. The girl, who already had a poor sense of balance, lost her footing and almost fell out—fortunately, she grabbed the vertical pole next to her in time.
Entering the station, stopping, the carriage doors opened.
Pei Ningle glanced at the station name. It happened to be the software park where the Penguin building was located. She remembered that Wang Heng often came here to work on weekends, and that sister named Lu Qi also worked here…
“Right, there’s also Lu Qi!”
Pei Ningle suddenly remembered this mature woman she had once ignored. Recalling their brief encounter that night, it seemed that her relationship with Wang Heng was also somewhat unusual? And working in the same office, they must spend a lot of time together.
Suddenly, an impulse arose in the girl’s mind to find a time to run into the Penguin building and see what exactly the relationship between Lu Qi and Wang Heng was… But on second thought, that would be a bit too much. Besides, the plane ticket had been bought with money borrowed from Lu Qi. Although she had paid Wang Heng back later, in Lu Qi’s eyes, she should be someone who had left Rongdu long ago. Popping up now would be a bit hard to explain.
“So annoying!” The girl couldn’t help but mutter. “Why are there so many things?”
She didn’t exit the station here but walked into the subway car for the return trip.
It was getting late. She should hurry back and rest.
**
Wang Heng sat in the corner of the last row of the bus, looking at the name ‘Liu Rong’ on his phone screen and the brief wanted notice, lost in thought.
The wanted notice stated that the suspect Liu Rong was involved in a case of ‘bridge loan fraud’ and that ‘the amount involved was extremely huge’—Wang Heng couldn’t help but be curious. How huge was this amount?
He first searched for ‘bridge loan’, read the encyclopedia entry, and roughly understood what the term meant.
Simply put, A borrows money from B, lends the borrowed money to C, and when their own other funds are in place, they pay B back, and then wait for C to pay back… Here, A, B, and C are usually commercial banks, policy banks, and enterprises, and it’s normal for the amounts involved to be tens of millions or even over a hundred million.
In the bus after nine o’clock, there were few passengers, but quite a bit of noise. So as long as the volume wasn’t too loud, even if the hamster spoke, it would be hard for others to hear.
Wang Heng took the guy out of his pants pocket and asked in a low voice, “How exactly did this Liu Rong do it?”
The hamster was cracking melon seeds. Hearing this, its front teeth stopped, and it looked up at him. “Are you asking about the fraud method?”
Wang Heng: “Yes, a little curious.”
The hamster threw the unfinished melon seed into its mouth, hid it in its cheek pouch, and then explained, “Liu Rong was a mid-to-high-level manager of a large commercial bank, occupying the position of general manager of the branch’s business department for a long time. With such an identity, breaking the law becomes very easy—if you don’t consider the consequences. For example, suppose you are a local entrepreneur. When you seek a loan from a bank, you definitely have to deal with people like Liu Rong. Then one day he tells you that you can provide a bridge loan to the bank, with an interest rate higher than all the wealth management products in the bank, and it can be credited quickly. Would you take the bait?”
Wang Heng frowned slightly. “Higher than all wealth management products, and credited quickly? That sounds unreliable.”
The hamster: “That’s because you haven’t been in contact with the high-end financial market. Opportunities like this not only exist but also depend on connections. Ordinary people can’t get in even if they want to. Unless you have a really good relationship with the management personnel inside the bank, they won’t tell you even if they find such a bridge loan opportunity. This kind of thing is not compliant in the country, but it is very common.”
Wang Heng: “In other words, bridge loans are a frequent project, and most of them can make money, but this time Liu Rong played a scam?”
The hamster: “Yes, but speaking of which, Liu Rong himself might also cry injustice. He helped someone with a bridge loan, but the borrower had an accident and went bankrupt directly, so the loan couldn’t be repaid. To fill this hole, Liu Rong could only rob Peter to pay Paul, and then it got out of hand, and the scam got bigger and bigger.”
Wang Heng couldn’t help but lament, “Playing with finance, the risk in this industry is indeed big enough…”
But the hamster sneered, “What risk? As long as a bank manager honestly follows the rules, there is no risk at all. If he insists on earning income outside his duties, who can he blame? And after simply starting to cheat, his income is calculated in tens of millions. Do you still sympathize with him?”
“Tens of millions…” Remembering his bank account with only a little over a thousand yuan left, Wang Heng immediately became righteous. “Reporting parasites is my duty.”
The hamster reminded him, “We’ll be there at the next stop. According to what I told you before, find that hotel first.”
Wang Heng nodded, stuffed it back into his pants pocket, stood up, and went to the bus door.
Less than a minute later, the bus arrived at the stop, and Wang Heng got off.
This was outside the North Third Ring Road of Rongdu, quite desolate and quiet. Looking around, there were only two or three figures in sight, and few cars. And the tallest buildings around didn’t seem to exceed four stories.
After walking more than a kilometer, Wang Heng finally saw the hotel.
The building where the hotel was located was an old-fashioned small building in the style of the last century. The originally white tiles had long since changed color and many had fallen off, revealing the concrete texture inside. But this was all normal. What was surprising was the hotel’s sign.
The sign used old-fashioned neon lights to outline four big characters: 【Hua Xin Hotel】 (Flower Heart Hotel).
Wang Heng: “This naming idea is a bit unique… Oh, half of it is missing.”
Walking closer, it wasn’t hard to see that the sign should have been 【Hua Qin Hotel】 (Flower Soaking/Permeating Hotel), but half of the character 【Qin】 (沁) wasn’t lit up, so it looked a bit magical.
The hamster popped its little head out of the pocket. “Hua Xin (Playboy)… This hotel is your home ground!”
