No Ghosting Allowed

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After hanging up the phone, Zhou Qingbo turned his head and glanced at Pei You.

“It’s not a big deal to go once,” Pei You said, walking to his side, and continuing, “Even if we are investigating him, we can’t keep avoiding him.”

Zhou Qingbo thought the same way. Perhaps due to experiencing the rebellious phase early, he had never been afraid of trouble. Before coming here, he had mentally prepared for Liu Xin’s situation and knew that he was probably up to no good. So he had already prepared to deal with him.

Moreover, Zhou Qingbo had always wanted to see how Liu Xin partied and used money and where he stashed away all those profits.

“He’s so greedy, yet he’s not afraid of spending carelessly,” Zhou Qingbo thought.

“In any case, the confrontation is relative,” Zhou Qingbo said lazily, with his hands in his pockets, walking casually. He continued, “He wants to investigate us, so naturally, we should scrutinize him as well.”

While speaking, Zhou Qingbo’s phone rang again. Liu Xin seemed afraid that he might change his mind, so in just a few minutes, he had already arranged a table and sent the hotel address and private room number to him.

Zhou Qingbo’s fingers slid up and down the screen and finally decided not to reply. Instead, he locked the phone.

“Since he’s so eager to meet both of us, let’s give him a chance,” Zhou Qingbo said.

Pei You nodded in agreement. He had been in the auditing profession for many years and had dealt with numerous company bosses. He was not a naive and inexperienced person. However, when he first arrived in Wei Nan, he was unfamiliar with Dongjiang’s situation and Liu Xin didn’t make a good impression on him. So he became cautious and preferred not to engage and interact with him too much.

But now, the auditing work in Dongjiang was already more than halfway done, and the scanned documents and accounts had been sent back to Beijing. If Liu Xin wanted to make a move at this point, it was already too late.

So Pei You didn’t comment on the invitation, leaving the decision to Zhou Qingbo.

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“Let’s go back to the hotel,” Zhou Qingbo said, stretching lazily and turning his head with a smile. He sized up Pei You and playfully whispered something in his ear, “He’s also so rich, we can take advantage of him.”

Pei You chuckled and looked at him with gentle eyes, nodding after a moment.

They walked side by side on the dimly lit street, and the faint streetlights stretched their shadows, intertwining together in the distance.

Turning around a corner, they entered a small street with several large roadside stalls and barbecue stands.

It was 10:30 pm, the peak time for the barbecue stalls. Plastic tables and chairs were set up along the street, and electric fans hummed at the door of each store, blowing air noisily. Plastic light bulbs dangled under the open plastic roof, surrounded by a swarm of small flying insects.

The scent of cumin and chili from the steaming air drifted over, teasing Zhou Qingbo’s appetite. He narrowed his eyes and couldn’t help but look in the direction of the aroma.

There was a seafood barbecue stall that seemed to be doing well. The plastic tables at the entrance were already full, and a group of muscular young men were sitting around them, making a lively and noisy scene. Glass beer bottles were scattered around the table, looking precarious.

Suddenly, one of the men got agitated when someone said something at the table. He slammed the table, stood up unsteadily, and, with a flushed face, pointed vaguely towards the dark empty road not far away, cursing, “Always doing hard work, but all the benefits go to them. That sneaky bastard, Liu Xin, uses flattery to please the boss, taking all the profits for himself!”

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The words “the boss” acted as a sensitive keyword, lightly brushing a string in Pei You’s heart. He frowned and looked towards the noisy group, but he noticed that Zhou Qingbo was also staring in that direction.

“Who is that?” Pei You asked softly.

“A contractor from another construction team at the site,” Zhou Qingbo said.

Zhou Qingbo was good at recognizing people. He had been to several construction sites and though he didn’t have a clear picture, he recognized quite a few people. The man in front of them was similar in status to Qian Chuan, both leading construction teams. After observing for a moment, Zhou Qingbo noticed that they were all wearing work clothes, probably coming to have supper right after finishing work at the site.

In the afternoon, Zhou Qingbo had wandered around the construction site. Although the accounts were not clear, he remembered that this person seemed to have a bad relationship with Qian Chuan’s team. At first, he thought it was just a typical friction between two teams on the site. However, hearing the way he complained, it seemed there might be more hidden behind it.

“And this hidden information might be related to Qingshan.”

Fortunately, he hadn’t been idle these days,  Zhou Qingbo thought. It was a relief that he had been roaming around and was able to recognize faces; otherwise, he might have missed this information.

“Let’s go,” Zhou Qingbo said, “Let’s sneak over and listen.”

The barbecue shops were separated by large umbrellas on both sides, with a plain blue-green plastic cloth in the middle. Zhou Qingbo and Pei You circled around in the dark behind the streetlights, taking another route to the adjacent shop, sitting right beside the table separated by the plastic cloth.

They ordered two portions of quick-fried rice and listened attentively to the gossip from the other side while having dinner.

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“What profits?” someone asked quickly, “Li Ge, maybe you don’t know what’s going on.”

“Isn’t it about the project in Dongshan?” the middle-aged man known as “Li Ge” said with displeasure, downing another glass of beer and wiping his mouth before sneering, “What do you think those guys are doing with the funds? They are just enjoying themselves! Operate a few machines, take some photos, and they’ll get the bonus!”

A string of foul language erupted on the table, followed by the clinking of bottles and some muddled dialects expressing discontent.

The sounds were too chaotic, and the dialects were spoken too quickly to follow. Zhou Qingbo frowned, considering whether to risk moving closer to hear more clearly.

But just as he was about to move his chair, Pei You reached out and held his wrist.

“He said, ‘Isn’t it true, Li Ge? why should they get money for doing nothing?'” Pei You translated.

“Hmm?” Zhou Qingbo looked at him unexpectedly, “You can understand the dialect?”

Pei You took a sip of the soup that came with the fried rice, nodded lightly, and said, “I’ve worked around here before.”

Pei You’s job had taken him all over the country, and after spending enough time in various regions, he had a basic understanding of the local dialects.

Meanwhile, the complaints continued on the other side of the plastic cloth.

In Zhou Qingbo’s presence, those people were always guarded in their words. But in this “private” environment, and with the boost of alcohol, they dared to say anything.

The commotion on the other side of the plastic cloth continued, and the middle-aged man called “Li Ge” seemed to have a deep grudge about this matter, complaining relentlessly and occasionally providing bits of useful information.

“”Qingshan allocates several million every year for that project, and our boss Liu only gets to eat from that one project. He can eat for a lifetime with just that!” Li Ge grumbled, clenching his teeth, “Those money-grubbers carry favor with Manager Liu, who knows how much money they’ve grabbed behind his back.”

Zhou Qingbo thought about the term “project” that he heard again.

It seemed that this matter wasn’t a secret—or rather, it was a secret that everyone in a certain circle knew.

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He was about to ask Pei You if he could pick up any clues when he raised his head and saw Pei You’s face turn unpleasant.

“What’s wrong?” Zhou Qingbo moved his lips slightly and asked in a hushed voice, “What’s this project?”

“This year, there’s only one project in Dongshan,” Pei You said, lowering his eyes and his face suddenly becoming serious. “It’s a school.”

“A school?” Zhou Qingbo wasn’t very familiar with Qingshan’s external business and didn’t react immediately. “What’s so special about it?”

“It’s a public school,” Pei You said, “It’s not a project that Dongjiang privately donates to build; it’s a project they sponsored and cooperated with the government on.”

As someone with a certain level of knowledge in the accounting department, Pei You had looked through Dongjiang’s financial reports. From the company’s perspective, their expenses were somewhat excessive and had exceeded the maximum amount for tax deductions, making it a loss. But when Pei You had inquired about this with Zhou Qingbo, he learned that this was a tradition passed down from Liu Xin’s father. Retired soldiers of the older generation had a unique sentiment for their hometowns and were very generous in charitable activities. Before Qingshan took over Dongjiang, they donated money every year and built roads every year.

After Qingshan’s acquisition of Dongjiang, Zhou Qingbo’s father supported this act of kindness, so the tradition continued without any change.

Zhou Qingbo listened as Pei You briefly explained the intricacies, then swallowed a mouthful of fried rice.

“Um…” Zhou Qingbo took a sip of the soup and said, “Didn’t you notice this before?”

From his understanding of Pei You, he wasn’t the kind of person to let anomalies go once he found the answer. He was a perfectionist, so when checking the accounts, he would carefully scrutinize any issues. Several schools were not a small matter, and based on Pei You’s working habits, Pei You would inspect the site to check for any misuse of funds.

“What I mean is,” Pei You said softly, “In the financial report of Dongjiang, these projects were not constructed by them, but were government-sponsored cooperation projects.”

Zhou Qingbo paused and turned to look at him.

“You mean…”

“Yes,” Pei You nodded, confirming his unfinished thought, “In this part of the project documents, Dongjiang not only has photos and reports, but also a complete set of certificates and government cooperation documents.”

It is precisely because of this that during the initial investigation process, Pei You did not include this part of the content in the “high-risk zone” for inspection.