Chapter 43: Mobilize Every Connection to Find Him—We Must Track Him Down!

At eight-thirty that evening, Yu Bai arrived at the Red Club. In the top-floor office, she leisurely brewed a pot of tea and lounged on the sofa. Before long, the air filled with the fragrance of tea. She gradually closed her eyes, seemingly drifting off to sleep, but her mind remained sharp and alert.

She mentally rehearsed how she would pry Yan Mingchang’s whereabouts out of Tong Jinhua. As she pondered, a knock sounded at the door. “Come in,” Yu Bai said.

A bodyguard in a black suit stood in the doorway, bowing respectfully. “Madam, Miss Tong has arrived.”

With that, he withdrew from the room and closed the door behind him.

Yu Bai lifted her eyelids slightly and saw the woman standing at the entrance. She was around twenty-five, dressed in a red skirt and high heels, her face caked in heavy makeup. She was young and strikingly beautiful.

Out of mere courtesy, Yu Bai made a welcoming gesture and offered a faint smile. “Miss Tong, I’m delighted you could make it.”

Tong Jinhua clicked across the floor in her high heels and settled onto the opposite sofa. She smiled politely at Yu Bai. “An invitation from Sister Yu? Of course I had to come.”

Yu Bai smiled but said nothing.

Tong Jinhua was no pushover. The mere fact that Yan Mingchang had left her behind to deal with the police when he fled proved as much. And now, with police eyes everywhere, she had still managed to slip in here for this meeting—which only confirmed how shrewd she really was.

Sure enough, Tong Jinhua continued, “That said, I do need to get back to the hospital before midnight. My mom’s there with no one to look after her.”

Yu Bai glanced up, a subtle hint of amusement flickering in her eyes. She took a sip of tea before replying in a leisurely drawl, offering her assurance. “You can rest easy on that front, Miss Tong. You won’t even have to wait until midnight. The moment I hear what I’m after, I’ll have someone drive you back before ten.”

Tong Jinhua tested the waters. “What is it you want to know, Sister Yu?”

“I want to know if Yan Mingchang has been in touch with you lately.” Her voice was calm and even.

Tong Jinhua’s face twisted into an expression of reluctance. “Well…”

“Hard to say?” Yu Bai arched an eyebrow, her tone carrying a half-serious warning. “It shouldn’t be. You and your Boss Yan were intimate enough to share a bed. What, just a few days later and he’s already pretending it never happened?”

The words were blunt and cutting, and sure enough, Tong Jinhua’s face darkened in the next instant.

Yu Bai knew her warning had hit home. Tong Jinhua was still wary of her. Otherwise, if Yan Mingchang hadn’t fled, someone as close to him as Tong Jinhua would never have shown up so obediently for this meeting.

But Yan Mingchang had already been rattled by a few choice words from her, enough to draw a full police investigation. Now he was being hunted by a nationwide warrant, forced to run for his life across the world. Tong Jinhua didn’t need it spelled out to know who was pulling the strings behind it all. She was scared.

Seeing her words take effect, Yu Bai pressed on. “Bedroom deals don’t hold much value in the end, though. Yan Mingchang’s gone on the run. Why cover for him? Why play the fall guy?”

Tong Jinhua eased up a fraction, flashing a cunning smile. “You and I are both businesswomen here. No hard feelings—how about a deal?”

The corner of Yu Bai’s mouth curved into a more pronounced smile. She leaned back languidly and nodded at Tong Jinhua. “Fine. If you’ve got something to bargain with, then by all means, let’s trade. What are you after? Name your terms.”

“I need money,” Tong Jinhua said.

Yu Bai wasn’t surprised at all. Problems that money could solve were the easiest kind. “How much?”

“Three hundred thousand.”

“Three hundred thousand? Not a huge sum.” Yu Bai took another sip of tea and spoke measuredly. “That said, it’s not free money. It all depends on what kind of information you bring to the table, Miss Tong.”

Tong Jinhua thought it over for a moment, her brows furrowing in uncertainty. “The company got locked down by the police out of nowhere, and Boss Yan bolted in a hurry. He just said he needed to head overseas to lie low for a bit. As for exactly where… oh, probably America. His son’s studying in Los Angeles right now, with his wife there to keep him company. Or maybe… Miami? He mentioned taking a vacation there once…”

“Tong Jinhua—” Yu Bai rubbed her temples, cutting her off. “Save that vague rambling for the cops. I want something useful.”

Tong Jinhua still hesitated.

Yu Bai’s voice remained soft and unhurried, devoid of any real emotion. “I know your mother’s in the hospital right now, desperate for a big pile of medical bills. Fresh diagnosis: brain cancer. That surgery can’t wait, can it? But this isn’t a charity. If you want the cash fast, you’ll need to bring chips of equal value to the table. That’s only fair.”

As expected, Tong Jinhua’s nerves visibly tightened the moment she saw her. After struggling internally for what seemed like forever, she finally steeled herself and said, “President Yan… there’s a villa in the East Suburb, at Huajin Residential Complex No. 54. It’s really close to the airport, and no one knows about the place—not even his wife or son. He told me himself that he’d stashed a big pile of cash there. If things went south, he’d grab the money and bolt.”

Yu Bai paused in surprise, furrowing her brow as she asked, “Did he say where he’d take the money?”

“I really don’t know. President Yan never mentioned it.”

Yu Bai hesitated for a moment before asking, “When was the last time he contacted you?”

“Five days ago.” Tong Jinhua continued, “President Yan called me and said he needed to lay low for a while. He only said he might head to America, and that someone had arranged a flight for him to get out of the country.”

Yu Bai listened to her finish, then raised an eyebrow in feigned surprise. “Yan Mingchang didn’t tell you anything else?”

Tong Jinhua gave an awkward little smile. “Sister Yu, that’s really all there was. President Yan only shared that much—nothing more.”

“Looks like I overestimated you, huh? You’re not worth three hundred thousand in President Yan’s eyes after all?” Yu Bai leaned back into the sofa, firing off the question casually toward Tong Jinhua. “But…”

Her gaze settled on Tong Jinhua, flickering with something unreadable, and she said, “But I’ve picked up some info. Wonder if Miss Tong wants to hear it?”

Under Yu Bai’s piercing stare, Tong Jinhua felt a shiver run down her spine. She forced a restrained smile. “Sister Yu, please, go ahead.”

Yu Bai tapped her knuckles lightly against her knee, a smile playing on her lips. “It’s nothing major. Just heard you paid a visit to President Yan’s house last night. What, sneaking off alone to reminisce about old times?”

A flicker of panic crossed Tong Jinhua’s face, but she quickly regained her composure and explained steadily, “Oh, I forgot to mention—President Yan called earlier and asked me to grab his passport. He left in such a rush that he didn’t have time to take it.”

“Passport?” Yu Bai nearly laughed in disbelief after hearing Tong Jinhua spin her bald-faced lie without so much as blinking.

With Yan Mingchang’s face plastered all over the internet as the entire city hunted for him, he’d dare to use a passport?

She reined in her irritation and warned her patiently once more. “Tong Jinhua—you’d better start telling the truth. Otherwise, any one of the things you and Yan Mingchang pulled off together would land you in jail for at least two years. You don’t want your mom hearing in the ICU that her daughter’s behind bars, do you?”

Satisfied by the deep fear that flashed in Tong Jinhua’s eyes, Yu Bai pressed on. “Miss Tong, care to tell me now what you actually took from Yan Mingchang’s place?”

Tong Jinhua’s facade of calm shattered in an instant. She blurted out in a panic, “An account ledger—the records of all the deals over the years between President Yan and… Wu Guojiang, and… their upstream suppliers.”

Yu Bai’s eyes widened in shock. “Yan Mingchang didn’t take the ledger with him?”

“It’s not safe to carry it on you.” Tong Jinhua explained, “The company ledgers are all cleaned up already. Even if the cops dig them up, they’ll only find… partial records. President Yan figured that if he ever got nabbed, he could hand over the ledger and shave a few years off his sentence. And carrying it around? Not safe.”

She repeated “not safe” a few times.

Yu Bai believed her about seventy or eighty percent. She knew these people’s playbook inside and out. If Yan Mingchang got caught, he’d sing like a canary to save his own skin, ratting out everyone in the chain. Stashing the ledger gave him insurance with both the cops and the dealers. Right now, his upstream contacts had to be scrambling to destroy it.

“Where’s the ledger now?” Yu Bai asked.

“I… I already gave it to President Yan.”

Yu Bai’s eyelid twitched, a sinking feeling in her gut. “Yan Mingchang’s been in touch with you recently.”

It wasn’t a question.

Tong Jinhua stammered, “President Yan… this morning, President Yan texted me to bring the ledger to the East Suburbs Villa. I… I already delivered it.”

Yu Bai’s head suddenly throbbed. “So you never actually got a call from Yan Mingchang.”

There was no point in waiting for an answer. Yu Bai ran through a few minor details before telling her, “Miss Tong, you’re free to go. The three hundred thousand will hit your account tonight.”

Tong Jinhua flashed the most genuine smile she’d shown all evening. “Thank you, Sister Yu.”

Just as she reached the door, Yu Bai called out. “Miss Tong. One bit of advice—don’t stray from the police’s watchful eyes anytime soon. Trust me, you’ll be safer that way.”

Tong Jinhua froze for a second, then nodded with a flirtatious smile tugging at her eyes and brows. “Sure thing. I’ll follow Sister Yu’s lead.”

After seeing off Tong Jinhua, Yu Bai rubbed her temples, not bothering to figure out how much of that woman’s smile had been genuine and how much fake.

She summoned two bodyguards and gave them their orders. “Huajin Residential Complex No. 54. Find the account ledger. Call me right away if anything comes up.”

The bodyguards acknowledged the command and departed. Yu Bai reclined on the sofa with her eyes closed, waiting for word from them. Twenty minutes later, her phone erupted with its ringtone right by her ear. She fumbled for the device, hit the answer button, and the bodyguard’s voice echoed through the speaker with a chilling reverberation in the empty villa. “Madam, no account ledger. And… someone’s already been through the place. They beat us to it.”

Yu Bai’s heart sank. It was the outcome she’d half-expected.

Frustration welled up inside her. Of all the times for her body to fail her, it had to be now—wasting the whole morning and letting someone else snatch the advantage.

For Yan Mingchang to suddenly reach out to Tong Jinhua like this, using a text message to claim her one and only bargaining chip… it wasn’t the move of a rational man. Things had likely gone south for him already—probably fatally so.

Had Yan Mingchang been discarded as a pawn this quickly?

It was possible his superiors were gearing up for some major operation and needed to tie up loose ends in a hurry. Or maybe his exposure had rattled some bigwig’s nerves.

Yu Bai turned the possibilities over in her mind.

On the other end of the line, sensing her silence, the bodyguard hesitated before asking, “Madam, what now?”

Yu Bai thought it over for a moment, then said in a heavy voice, “Pull every string we have. Find Yan Mingchang, no matter what it takes.”

She could only hope they weren’t too late.