Jiang Zhe gave Qiao Zhan a thumbs up, signaling for him to continue.
After getting Jiang Zheâs affirmation, Qiao Zhanâs expression became even prouder.
Thinking that he had done a good job, he finally felt superior to Jiang Zhe.
âI initially wanted to look for these few people, but I couldnât. They probably left the city already. This shows that the other party is very meticulous. Knowing that weâll investigate, theyâve sent those people away in advance,â remarked Qiao Zhan.
âSo, have you run out of ideas now, Captain Qiao?â asked Jiang Zhe.
âYeah. Do you have an ingenious idea, Assistant Jiang?â Qiao Zhan looked at Jiang Zhe.
âThese people are just ordinary employees who donât hold any grudges with Ms. Ding. In fact, they probably donât even know each other. Hence, they must have acted based on their bossâ orders. Canât we just investigate who their boss is?â scoffed Jiang Zhe.
Agreeing with him, Nan Chen turned his gaze to Qiao Zhan.
Qiao Zhan applauded. âGotta hand it to you, youâre pretty smart to have thought of this, Assistant Jiang, but unfortunately, Iâm 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, heâs not the actual bossâBao is the man behind him.â
âBao?â
âYep. Heâs the president of Rainbow Entertainment, Gao Bao. He calls himself the âKing of the Nightâ in Flower City, controlling more than half of the nightclubs here. He even owns some secret gambling and prostitution dens. Heâs a very scheming man. You havenât heard of him, have you, Assistant Jiang?â
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.
âKing of the Night? He sounds quite formidable,â commented Jiang Zhe.
âThatâs the title he gave himself. He just likes to brag about himself. That being said, to me, heâs nothing but an insignificant ant,â said Qiao Zhan confidently.
âWell, if even you look down on him, heâs probably not a big shot then,â remarked Jiang Zhe disdainfully.
âIf thatâs what you thought, then youâre 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.â
âWhy? Does he own the venues?â Jiang Zhe was still skeptical.
âHe canât 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 theyâll be able to continue with the concert?â
âArenât the police doing anything about him?â Jiang Zhe became even more confused.
âThey canât do anything. Who can prove that heâs the one who mobilized the crowd? Itâs not just one or two troublemakers, weâre talking about thousands here. The police canât possibly detain all of them, right?â
âSo, does that mean that the police is helpless to do anything about him? He can just continue living a lawless life like this?â
âWhy do you think he calls himself the âKing of the Nightâ?â Qiao Zhan threw the question back at him.
âThereâs someone backing him up,â commented Nan Chen.
âThatâs right. Sir Chen, you truly understand whatâs happening.â Qiao Zhan shot a disdainful look at Jiang Zhe.
âSo what?â
âGao Bao doesnât know Young Mistress. According to my analysis, he must have been instructed by someone to sabotage her. This is the first thing,â declared Qiao Zhan with a great sense of accomplishment.
âBut itâs difficult to find out who gave him those orders unless you catch him and interrogate him directly. However, without any evidence, we canât touch himâand even if we do, we canât kidnap him just like that. Itâs against the law,â said Jiang Zhe as he frowned.
Qiao Zhen looked even smugger. âThatâs why I said that thereâs a lot of things you donât understand, Assistant Jiang. If youâre free, have a drink with me and Iâll teach you.â
Nan Chen signaled for him to cut the nonsense short and continue.
âThe 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 womenâ¦â
When Nan Chen heard that, he shot a sharp glance at him.
Qiao Zhan quickly corrected himself, âWell, itâs the womenâs fault theyâre called Huang Chenâitâs so obviously a masculine name!â
âCut the crap and go straight to the point,â instructed Nan Chen coldly.
âAnyway, none of those people called Huang Chen are big shots. Hence, I asked my friend to search the database. Thereâs indeed only one deputy commissioner with the surname Huang.â
âWe know about this already. Can you investigate that person with the surname Huang?â asked Jiang Zhe impatiently.
âI canât, but my friend can. Thereâs nothing shady about that man. However, his son whoâs 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 companyâs most important customer. They are long-term business partners,â revealed Qiao Zhan.
By then, even Jiang Zhe, who was an outsider to all these, understood what was happening.
âSo this company is a platform through which Gao Bao channels profits to the Huang fella. Itâs 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,â exclaimed Jiang Zhe.
Qiao Zhan mockingly applauded. âHow impressive, Assistant Jiang! You even understood this. As expected of a highly educated elite.â
âStop mocking me and just tell us what else you found.â Jiang Zhe adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses.
âTheyâre also related in another way. That Huang fella is actually Wang Shengliâs brother-in-law. That foreign enterprise has two big shareholdersâthe largest is his son, followed by Wang Shengli. His son also owns stocks in Wang Shengliâs real estate company. They share a mutually beneficial relationship,â continued Qiao Zhan.
âWhat about that government officer who instructed our cosmetic company to cease operations? Does he have anything to do with them?â asked Nan Chen.
âYes. Heâs the Huang fellaâs 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 relationshipâitâs something all the insiders are aware of,â explained Qiao Zhan.
Nan Chen nodded. âWeâre clear about that now. What do you plan to do next?â
âWe canât afford to anger that Huang fella. After all, heâs a government official. On the other hand, I can offend Gao Bao. Iâm planning to make a personal visit to this so-called King of the Night.â Qiao Zhan looked very excited.
âWhat about that Huang fella? Heâs the one controlling everything,â remarked Jiang Zhe.
âWeâre living in a law-governed society. If we canât teach him a lesson, someone else can. Heâs involved in many corruption cases, so the relevant departments will certainly investigate him,â replied Qiao Zhan.
Nan Chen nodded in agreement to Qiao Zhanâs words.
âBut that Huang fella is still not the main mastermind. He doesnât hold any grudges against Ms. Ding, so why did he still instruct Gao Bao to do all that?â 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.
âI have no idea. This is all I can find,â admitted Qiao Zhan.
âItâs 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,â said Nan Chen.
Next Chapter q