usenovelgroup Chapter 160 Racing Against Time, Witnesses in the Ruins
Chapter 160 Racing Against Time, Witnesses in the Ruins
Daqiuzhuang, Tianjin.
The rain poured down.
Lightning cleaved the night sky, its pale light illuminating vast stretches of barren, saline land.
An abandoned red brick kiln stood in the rain, its entrance covered by overgrown weeds.
Two unlicensed Jetta cars were stuck in the mud outside the brick kiln.
Wu Gang and four security personnel lay in ambush in a drainage ditch fifty meters away, the icy muddy water reaching above their knees.
He raised his night-vision binoculars.
Inside the brick kiln, the beam of a flashlight flickered.
Three men in black raincoats surrounded an elderly man who was tied up on the ground.
It was Li Fuquan.
One of them crouched down, grabbed Li Fuquan's hair, and gleamed a military dagger in his hand.
"Boss Lu said, tell me where the original is, and he'll leave you with a complete body."
With a rag stuffed in his mouth, Li Fuquan could only make muffled noises.
Wu Gang put down his binoculars and gave a tactical hand signal.
Four security personnel silently dispersed and surrounded the brick kiln from both sides.
Wu Gang drew the baton from his waist, flicked his wrist, and the steel baton shot out with a "whoosh" in the rainy night.
He leaped out of the drainage ditch, propelled himself forward with both legs, and charged toward the entrance of the brick kiln, mud splashing from his feet.
Ten meters from the entrance, the man in the raincoat who was keeping watch noticed the shadowy figure and reached for his waist.
Wu Gang did not slow down and jumped three meters away from his opponent, pulling out his right leg.
The instep of his foot struck the opponent's jaw solidly.
The sound of bones cracking mingled with the thunder.
[Edited] The person flew up and crashed into the brick wall, then slid into the mud and disappeared.
Wu Gang landed and tumbled, rushing into the cave.
The beam of the flashlight swept over.
The man in the raincoat with the dagger stood up and saw Wu Gang.
"Kill him!"
Another accomplice pulled out a machete and swung it down in his face.
Wu Gang turned to the side, the blade grazing his windbreaker before striking the red brick, sending sparks flying.
He reached out with his left hand, grabbed the other man's wrist holding the knife, used the momentum to turn around, and slammed the baton in his right hand onto the other man's elbow joint.
The joint snapped in the opposite direction, and his accomplice screamed as he dropped the machete.
Wu Gang followed up with a knee strike to the man's abdomen, causing him to curl up and fall to the ground.
The man in the raincoat with the dagger abandoned Li Fuquan and instead gripped the dagger to stab Wu Gang in the throat.
Instead of retreating, Wu Gang advanced, raising his left arm to block.
The Kevlar lining of the jacket caught the tip of the knife.
He swung his baton upwards with his right hand, striking the other man's wrist precisely, and the dagger slipped from his grasp.
Immediately afterwards, the baton swept across, striking the man in the raincoat in the temple.
The man in the raincoat rolled his eyes back and collapsed to the ground.
Two security personnel entered from behind and completely subdued the three people on the ground.
Wu Gang walked up to Li Fuquan, tore the rag out of his mouth, and cut the rope.
Li Fuquan gasped for breath, staring at Wu Gang in horror.
"Chen Yan asked me to pick you up."
Wu Gang put away his baton. "If you want to live, come with me."
When Li Fuquan heard the name "Chen Yan," the fear in his eyes faded somewhat, replaced by something else.
He glanced at the person on the ground, then got up from the mud and followed behind Wu Gang.
The convoy drove away from Daqiuzhuang in the torrential rain.
……
BJ, the underground secret chamber of Yanying Culture.
Incandescent bulbs illuminated the windowless room.
Li Fuquan sat in a chair, holding a cup of hot tea, the tea still sloshing around.
Chen Yan sat opposite him, with a copy of the forged acceptance form on the table.
"How my father died."
Chen Yan spoke.
Li Fuquan's gaze fell on the photocopy, tears welling up in his cloudy eyes, mingling with the mud on his face and streaming down.
"Engineer Chen is a good man; he saved my life."
Li Fuquan gripped his teacup tightly with both hands. "In 1995, the seventh contract section received a batch of substandard cement and steel bars. Engineer Chen went to conduct a spot check and immediately ordered work to stop, refusing to sign the acceptance form."
He swallowed hard.
"Lu Haiming panicked and called Wang, the comprador, over to discuss it. That night, Wang invited me for drinks, and he laced the drinks with drugs. I fell into a deep sleep."
"When I woke up, the project seal I was keeping had been tampered with, and the blank acceptance forms in the drawer were missing. I secretly went to check the archives and found an extra acceptance form for C30 building materials, stamped and signed by Engineer Chen."
Chen Yan looked at him and asked, "How did you get the signature on?"
"Copier".
Li Fuquan pointed to the photocopy on the table, "Wang, the comprador, found someone to find the qualified documents that Engineer Chen had previously signed, cut out the signature, glued it onto the forged acceptance form, and then made a photocopy. The photocopy doesn't show any signs of splicing, and they kept this photocopy as the original on their archives."
"Did Engineer Chen discover it?"
"Found it."
Li Fuquan nodded. "He came to me to check the files and saw that copy. He said he was going to file a formal complaint against Lu Haiming with the Discipline Inspection Commission and told me to protect myself. The next day, he was in a car accident. A large truck ran over him, crushing both him and the vehicle."
The only sound in the sealed room was the hum of the exhaust fan.
Where is the original?
Chen Yan asked.
Li Fuquan put down his teacup, unbuttoned his tattered cotton-padded coat, and pulled out a square wrapped in layers of plastic from the inner lining of his underwear.
He unwrapped it layer by layer.
Inside was a yellowed acceptance form.
"This is the original C50 building materials acceptance form that Engineer Chen signed back then."
Li Fuquan handed the paper to Chen Yan, "Engineer Chen has a habit: every time he signs, he adds three black dots in a triangular shape in the lower right corner of the date with a pen. This is his secret mark to prevent counterfeiting."
Chen Yan took the original document.
Three tiny black dots are clearly visible in the lower right corner of the date.
Looking at the copy provided by Lu Haiming, because it was a spliced copy, there was only the date in the lower right corner, without any black dots.
Chen Yan carefully placed the original document into a waterproof bag.
The door to the secret room was pushed open, and Su Wan walked in carrying several faxes.
"The General Office of the Ministry of Culture received a joint letter from the Southern Cinema Chain Alliance, demanding that the key to 'Broken Bridge' be suspended and that the source of funding for the production team and the background of the main creators be thoroughly investigated."
Su Wan placed the fax on the table.
"besides."
She opened her tablet. "Zhou Man just posted a preview on Weibo and major portal websites. Tomorrow morning at 10:00, a press conference will be held in Guangzhou to announce the 'shocking ironclad evidence' of Chen Jianguo's bribery. Fifty mainstream media outlets from across the country have been invited."
Chen Yan stood up and put the waterproof bag into the inside pocket of his coat.
"Guangzhou is too far, let her drive in Beijing."
He straightened his collar.
Su Wan looked at him.
"Help Zhou Man rent the venue for the press conference, the largest banquet hall in the China World Trade Center Phase 3, and Yan Ying will cover the cost."
Chen Yan walked towards the door.
"Invite all mainstream media outlets, including CCTV and Xinhua News Agency. Send VIP invitations to the CEOs of Wanda and Jinyi."
Chen Yan did not turn around.
"Tomorrow at 10 a.m., I will slap this original document in everyone's face in front of the national media."
He pushed open the door and stepped into the shadows of the corridor.
Outside the window, the snow in Beijing had stopped, and a pale moon hung in the sky.
Su Wan picked up the phone on her desk and dialed a number.
"Hello, is this the China World Hotel? I need to reserve the largest banquet hall for tomorrow morning, under the name of Yanying Culture."