How a Salaryman Became an Underworld Boss

“Can I trust what you’re saying, Director Cha?” Vice Chairman Tang Guochang asked with an incredulous expression.

I knew how to dispel his doubts. All I had to do was show him the Triad’s confidential information seized from Chen Shao.

But if I did that, there was a risk of exposing not only the Triad’s headquarters, but also Vice Chairman Wei Chen’s true identity.

While I was lost in thought, trying to come up with a convincing answer, President Du Zhiguo spoke up.

“Vice Chairman Tang, Director Cha is telling the truth.”

“How do you know that, President Du?”

President Du Zhiguo had personally learned Vice Chairman Chen Zhihui’s identity from Wei Chen. But since he couldn’t tell the truth, he offered another explanation.

“I have a close relationship with Vice Chairman Chen.”

“I see. Director Cha, continue.”

I discreetly signaled my thanks to President Du Zhiguo and continued.

“Vice Chairman Chen personally visited our country with Deputy Secretary Zhang Jinan to take Chen Shao back to China. At the time, I participated in the negotiations over Chen Shao’s repatriation as the person handling the matter.”

“Why did Vice Chairman Chen bring that man to Korea?”

“Whatever the reason, the members of the Triad were Chinese citizens. Deputy Secretary Zhang Jinan came to our country as an official representative of the Chinese government.”

“Ah, I see.”

I decided it was necessary to lift Vice Chairman Tang Guochang’s spirits.

“During his visit to our country, Deputy Secretary Zhang suffered serious injuries.”

“Is that true?”

“He was diagnosed with a fractured forehead, a broken nasal bone, and eight broken front teeth. Altogether, his injuries required ten weeks of treatment.”

“Hahaha!”

Vice Chairman Tang Guochang burst into booming laughter, genuinely delighted.

Naturally, everyone else, including Vice Chairman Wei Chen, also grinned from ear to ear and laughed loudly.

Once their laughter died down, Tang Guochang turned to me curiously.

“Director Cha, how did he manage to suffer such serious injuries?”

Deputy Secretary Zhang Jinan had behaved blatantly arrogantly during the negotiations. His smug face had been so sickening to look at that I had unconsciously cursed him. No one would believe me even if I told them the truth, and I had no obligation to explain it to them anyway.

“It was confirmed that he lost his footing on the way to the restroom and fell hard.”

“That bastard must have raised hell demanding compensation, didn’t he?”

“The surveillance cameras clearly captured him falling all by himself, so he made no demands for compensation.”

“I see. And was he able to take Chen Shao back to China?”

“They couldn’t take Chen Shao because the crimes he committed in our country came to light. However, they were able to take the other members of the organization back.”

“And what is Chen Shao’s situation now?”

“He is currently on trial for the crimes he committed and is facing more than ten years in prison.”

“Haha. That’s excellent news.”

Everything up to now had only been the appetizer. The main course was about to begin.

“That was when my feud with Deputy Secretary Zhang Jinan and Vice Chairman Chen Zhihui began.”

“It sounds like you’re saying you have other scores to settle with those two. Is that right?”

“Yes, exactly. By any chance, do you know Go Yeongjun, the president of K&J Bio?”

“Of course! I know him very well.”

I had suspected that President Go Yeongjun had connections with Vice Chairman Tang Guochang. Judging by his reaction, I had been right.

“What do you know about him?”

“I know him as an honest and hardworking businessman...”

I knew perfectly well why Vice Chairman Tang Guochang trailed off midway through his sentence.

“He’s a criminal who embezzled nine billion yuan from his company in Korea and then fled to China.”

“Is that true?!”

“Absolutely. Our company invested 2.6 billion yuan in K&J Bio and suffered enormous losses.”

“Well, well!”

Vice Chairman Tang Guochang stared blankly at the ceiling and let out a heavy sigh.

“About half a month ago, we received information that President Go was hiding in Macau. I went there on a business trip with some of our employees to apprehend him. With Vice Chairman Wei Chen’s help, we managed to catch him.”

“With Vice Chairman Wei’s help?”

There was an unspoken question behind Vice Chairman Tang Guochang’s words: What exactly had Wei Chen done to help?

Since I couldn’t reveal his true identity, I came up with another reason.

“Vice Chairman Wei owns several hotels in Macau, so he has an excellent information network there.”

“Oh, what good fortune. And where did you catch President Go?”

In reality, Go Yeongjun had been hiding in a luxurious mansion guarded by twenty men. But rather than drag out the conversation with lengthy details, I gave him a different location.

“He was staying at one of Vice Chairman Wei’s hotels.”

“Ah, so that’s why you were able to apprehend him so easily?”

“I won’t deny it. Now we’re getting to the most important part, so please listen carefully.”

“I’m listening. Hurry up and tell me.”

“President Go proposed a plea bargain. He promised to repay not only the money he stole from us, but also interest, for a total of 10.5 billion yuan, in exchange for providing valuable information.”

“What does a plea bargain mean?”

“It’s a system in which a criminal admits his guilt or exposes someone else’s crimes in exchange for a reduced sentence.”

“I see. But where did President Go get the extra 1.5 billion yuan to pay the interest?”

I had started this entire conversation for one purpose: to drive a wedge between Vice Chairman Tang Guochang and Politburo member Liu Peiqi and set them against each other. As expected, Tang showed keen interest.

“It turned out that President Go went to Macau to purchase gold bars from Politburo member Liu Peiqi. Unfortunately for him, we apprehended him while he was making the deal.”

“And how many gold bars did that man have?”

“We later discovered that he had 206 gold bars, each weighing twenty-five kilograms.”

“That’s an enormous amount. But could he really buy 206 bars with nine billion yuan?”

“Of course not.”

“Then he only bought some of them?”

“You’re absolutely right, Vice Chairman Tang. But...”

I deliberately paused for dramatic effect before continuing.

“President Go intended to steal every single gold bar belonging to Politburo member Liu.”

“What?!”

Vice Chairman Tang Guochang was genuinely astonished, clearly not having expected such a turn.

In reality, I was the one who had taken Liu Peiqi’s gold bars with the help of my people. Nevertheless, with a completely innocent expression, I shamelessly lied to turn Tang Guochang against Liu Peiqi.

“May I continue?”

“Of course! Hurry up and tell me.”

“President Go succeeded in stealing all the gold bars stored at Politburo member Liu’s villa.”

“Was he really so careless about storing his gold?”

Of course not, but I couldn’t tell him the truth.

“I asked President Go about that. He said the bars had been hidden in an extremely secret location.”

“All right, I understand.”

“He handed over one hundred bars to me, which was equivalent to 10.5 billion yuan.”

“What about the remaining 106 bars?”

One lie gave birth to another, but there was no turning back now.

“President Go took them with him, so I don’t know what he did with them. However, this is where a serious problem arose.”

“A problem?”

“Politburo member Liu believes President Go stole the gold bars with your help, Vice Chairman Tang.”

“Whaaat?!”

Vice Chairman Tang Guochang roared as anger flared within him.

Who would be pleased to have someone else’s crimes pinned on them for no reason?

After waiting for a moment, I looked at him. He spoke with an utterly dumbfounded expression.

“Director Cha, are you telling me the truth?”

“Ask your people around Politburo member Liu. You’ll easily be able to verify whether what I’ve said is true.”

“So it is true?”

“I won’t deny it.”

“By the way, where is President Go now?”

President Go Yeongjun was resting at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. It wasn’t as though I could tell him that the man had long since become fish food.

“Politburo member Liu believes he’s hiding in the Philippines.”

“And that bastard is just going to sit back and do nothing?”

“There are rumors that he sent a pursuit team after him. Now I’ll tell you what we learned about Vice Chairman Chen Zhihui and Deputy Secretary Zhang Jinan.”

“President Go knew those two as well?”

Of course, Go Yeongjun had never even laid eyes on Chen Zhihui or Zhang Jinan. But if I told the truth, I wouldn’t be able to continue this conversation with Tang Guochang.

“If he hadn’t known them, we wouldn’t have obtained such valuable information.”

“Looks like I asked a pointless question. Hurry up and tell me what information you have on those two.”

“Vice Chairman Chen used Golden Trading to smuggle drugs and weapons from North Korea.”

“Is that true?!”

Vice Chairman Tang Guochang once again reacted with either genuine or exaggerated astonishment.

I had learned that Chen Zhihui was importing drugs and weapons from North Korea for further distribution from Jeong Sancheol. If I told the truth, the situation would only become even more complicated, so I presented it as though the information had come from Go Yeongjun.

“After checking through several channels, the information was fully confirmed.”

“Well, well!”

‘I wonder how many more times Vice Chairman Tang is going to sigh like that?’

While my thoughts wandered, Tang Guochang addressed me again.

“Director Cha, do you have proof that he was importing North Korean drugs and weapons?”

“To verify the information, we apprehended Vice Chairman Chen’s right-hand man, President Qin Hao. We have a video recording of his interrogation.”

“Do you have the recording with you now?”

I had already handed the interrogation footage over to Vice Chairman Wei Chen, so I didn’t have it with me.

After discreetly signaling to him, I answered Tang Guochang’s question.

“If you give me about thirty minutes, I can arrange for you to watch the recording.”

At that moment, Vice Chairman Wei Chen joined the conversation, indicating that he had something to say.

“Vice Chairman Tang, it isn’t appropriate to discuss such confidential matters in a place like this.”

I immediately understood Wei Chen’s intention.

He had brought this up to buy time to obtain the video of President Qin Hao’s interrogation. Now that I understood what he was doing, pretending not to notice would have been criminal.

“Vice Chairman Tang, I agree.”

“Then where would be appropriate?”

“The office over there would be perfect for our meeting.”

We moved into the office, and just as I expected, Vice Chairman Wei Chen entered last.

As he took his seat, he discreetly made an “OK” sign with his fingers.

I breathed a sigh of relief and resumed my conversation with Tang Guochang.

“Now I’ll tell you about the information concerning Deputy Secretary Zhang Jinan.”

“Go on. Quickly.”

“About half a month ago, an incident occurred in which the cargo ship Golden Mariner, owned by Eastern Shipping, was seized by U.S. forces in Japan.”

Vice Chairman Tang Guochang tilted his head in confusion.

Domestic ships were detained from time to time, so there was usually no reason for him to pay particular attention to such incidents. But the Golden Mariner case was fundamentally different. After all, it had been seized by their sworn enemy, the U.S. military.

Yet for some reason, he knew absolutely nothing about it.

‘That bastard definitely covered my ears and blinded my eyes.’

After finishing his internal monologue, he continued speaking to me.

“Why did U.S. forces in Japan seize the Golden Mariner?”

“There were five containers of North Korean weapons aboard the Golden Mariner.”

“Oooh...!”

Vice Chairman Tang let out another heavy sigh before continuing.

“Director Cha, who was the importer of those North Korean weapons?”

“The importer was Golden Trading.”

“I knew it. And where was that shipment of North Korean weapons headed?”

“It was confirmed that the final destination was a rebel group based on the Philippine island of Mindanao.”

“Now I understand everything.”

“Because of this incident, Vice Chairman Chen Zhihui fled to the Philippines.”

Bzzzt!

At that moment, Chief Secretary Kang Inhan’s phone briefly vibrated.

He quickly checked the sender and whispered to me.

“The Triad sent the video of President Qin Hao’s interrogation.”

I nodded to show that I understood, then turned to Vice Chairman Tang Guochang.

“Well then, shall we watch the video of President Qin Hao’s interrogation?”