17 Played Out by Heaven (1/2)

”Wait.” Seeing that Chen Fan was about to leave, the middle aged man stood up to stop him.

Chen Fan turned his head. ”What? You want me to pay for medical expenses?”

”Bro, could you leave your name? Let me introduce myself. I’m He Shan, currently a manager at the finance department of Tianhai Shipping Limited. The man you beat up is Wei Songyue, the assistant manager of Tianhai Shipping’s finance department.”

Chen Fan gasped with surprise at the older man’s introduction. Tianhai Shipping Limited was very well-known; almost all the locals had heard of it. It wasn’t that the company so successful that it contributed hundreds of millions in taxes to the local government each year, but that the company’s staff made one’s blood freeze.

During the early 2000s, if you asked a local who the most famous person in Zhongyun City was, the answer would be neither Mayor Wang nor the richest local Ma Rongtao. Everyone would tell you Wei Qing. After his discharge from the local military forces in 1995, Wei Qing was transferred to Zhongyun City’s Maritime Bureau as a surveyor. When the rebel became a deputy chief five years later, he was exposed for and immediately arrested for misappropriating 170,000 RMB of public funds. If he had not come up with 150,000 RMB, he would have been jailed for at least ten years.

After he was released from jail one year later, the first thing Wei Qing did that afternoon was grab an iron bar and charge into the house of a colleague whom he suspected reported him. If the person had been home, he most likely would have had to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. Wei Qing smashed everything in his house and still threatened to break the guy’s legs. In the end, this colleague of his got so scared that he did not dare call the police. Instead he got someone to intercede for him, and the matter was put to rest.

Since his future was destroyed, Wei Qing partnered with a few of his jailmates and rented a ship to do maritime transport. The country had just joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and the entire industry was soaring. Wei Qing and his partners rode that wave and their business boomed. If he had done his business honestly, the government might have even given him a medal for turning over a new leaf. Instead, he made his fortune smuggling cigarettes and liquor from Hong Kong to Macau. Then he bribed some underlings to get big crime bosses to come gamble on the yacht he rented while it was in international waters along his route.

Since the laws were different on either end of the route, the Hong Kong and Macau governments could not do anything. The Tianhai Shipping Company, under Wei Qing’s name, had more than a few gambling yachts registered in Hong Kong and Macau. He became the role model for many local ruffians.

”Bro, are you scared?” He Shan laughed.

”Hmph. You rascal! Tell us who you are...if you dare. Ouch! This hurts like hell!” Wei Songyue was lying on the ground, covering his face with both hands. He could not speak clearly from the pain.

”Scared? Ha! You’re the ones who should be scared!” Chen Fan stalled and touched his brows. ”Have you heard of Chen Mingya?”

”Chen Mingya?” The middle aged man tilted his head and thought for a while before saying uncertainly, ”The deputy mayor?”