Chapter 322: Repaying a Favor

Beijing. State-Owned Second Cotton Spinning Factory!

In the factory director’s office, Jiang Longcheng sat in his chair, flipping through the investigation report page by page, his expression growing increasingly furious.

This report was a case briefing just delivered to him by the District Public Security Bureau, and its contents completely exceeded his expectations!

In fact, during the time Li Yi had been away, Jiang Longcheng had been busy investigating Gao Shubin, Tong Shouliang, and their gang of parasites.

After nearly a week of investigation, significant progress had been made; the investigators had finally uncovered how this group had embezzled state assets through raw material procurement.

However, as the investigation deepened, Hu Liang and his team discovered that the scale of the case far exceeded their previous estimates.

Therefore, after consulting with Jiang Longcheng, they immediately escalated the case to the district authorities.

Subsequently, the district authorities immediately established a special task force to take over the case!

Soon after, having secured concrete evidence, the public security authorities took decisive action and apprehended more than twenty suspects, including Gao Shubin and Tong Shouliang.

Immediately afterward, the police began interrogating Gao Shubin and the others.

After the interrogations, the truth of the case finally came to light!

The district bureau also briefed Jiang Longcheng, the factory director, on the situation. However, after reading the case report sent by the district authorities, Jiang Longcheng couldn’t help but feel a chill run down his spine!

At first, he had assumed this was just an ordinary corruption case, but now, after the interrogations, the complexity of the case far exceeded his imagination.

The greed and audacity of Gao Shubin and his accomplices completely surpassed Jiang Longcheng’s expectations.

The investigation revealed that as early as ten years ago, when Gao Shubin was a procurement officer, he had begun embezzling the factory’s purchase funds by falsifying quantities and prices and passing off inferior goods as high-quality ones.

However, in the beginning, he was worried about getting caught, so he didn’t dare to go too far. Coupled with his cunning tactics and willingness to spend money to curry favor with his superiors, he managed to avoid detection for a long time.

In fact, he continued to rise through the ranks; in just over a decade, he went from an ordinary sales representative to the deputy director of a large state-owned factory.

However, once he became deputy director, his ambition and greed only grew.

To make it easier to embezzle the factory’s funds and assets, he orchestrated a series of maneuvers to secure a position for his brother-in-law as the manager of a farm in a county in eastern Henan.

He then had the farm grow cotton, which was sold back to the factory.

What was originally 10,000 catties of cotton, with the addition of some worthless fiber impurities, became 15,000 catties.

Later, he stopped adding fibers altogether; when loading the trucks, he simply placed a layer of soil underneath, turning 10,000 catties into 20,000.

In other words, the cotton mill paid for 20,000 catties of cotton but ultimately received only 10,000 catties of low-grade material full of impurities.

In just a few short years, Gao Shubin and his associates embezzled over 4.8 million yuan from the factory using this scheme. Of that amount, 3 million yuan went into Gao Shubin’s own pocket, while the remainder was divided among Tong Shouliang, Gao Shubin’s brother-in-law Li Lechang, and others.

In short, by embezzling the factory’s assets, every member of Gao Shubin’s inner circle made a fortune, while the state and the factory’s employees were the only ones to lose out.

This also led to a steady decline in the quality of the cotton mill’s products over the years, with mounting financial losses and a corresponding drop in profitability.

Corruption alone would have been bad enough, but what truly sent a chill down Jiang Longcheng’s spine was the malicious intent behind Gao Shubin and his associates’ actions.

During the interrogation of Gao Shubin and his associates, the police uncovered a chilling revelation: Gao Shubin and his group had actually planned to set fire to the cotton mill to destroy the evidence.

According to Gao Shubin’s confession, while he was on a business trip in Henan Province, he suddenly received a call from Tong Shouliang.

Tong Shouliang reported that recently, numerous strangers had been investigating the factory’s accounts—not only last year’s records but also those from the year before and the year before that.

Gao Shubin, who was naturally suspicious, immediately sensed something was wrong. He realized that his sudden reassignment to a business trip in another province was likely because higher-ups had detected irregularities and were deliberately keeping him away.

Realizing the danger, Gao Shubin reacted immediately, instructing Tong Shouliang and his team to seize the opportunity to burn down the raw materials warehouse.

Without the raw materials or the warehouse’s entry and exit records, there would be no way to prove anything. Even if higher-ups wanted to investigate, there would be no evidence left.

As long as they stopped their activities from then on, they would be safe.

Tong Shouliang and the others knew that if this were ever uncovered, they would all be finished!

In other words, they had no way out, so they immediately agreed to Gao Shubin’s plan.

But what they never could have imagined was that just as they had finished making preparations, they were arrested before they even had a chance to act.

When Jiang Longcheng learned that Tong Shouliang and the others had been arrested—just one hour before the scheduled time to set fire to the raw materials warehouse—cold sweat broke out on his back.

At the same time, he recalled Li Yi’s earlier warning to be wary of Gao Shubin—a man who was no ordinary figure—and to be on guard against these men, who might become desperate and do anything.

Fortunately, sensing something was amiss, he immediately had the district bureau take over.

Otherwise, if things had dragged on, the consequences would have been truly unimaginable!

Setting fire to a cotton mill—how could those bastards even think of such a thing? This is a cotton mill, after all, filled with highly flammable materials.

Once a fire started, it would be extremely difficult to put out!

More importantly, he was now the factory director. If a major fire broke out there, he would be the primary person held responsible and would inevitably face accountability.

At this thought, cold sweat broke out on Jiang Longcheng’s back!

After reading the case report, he sat alone in his office, motionless for a long time.

Recalling Li Yi’s two warnings, his heart was filled with gratitude.

With that in mind, Jiang Longcheng felt he had to do something for Li Yi. Isn’t there a saying that goes, “One should repay kindness with gratitude”? And another that says, “One should repay even the smallest kindness with the greatest gratitude”?

If he didn’t do something, he wouldn’t feel at ease!

He quickly grabbed his coat and left the office, and soon the sound of a car engine roared downstairs.

Driving away from the cotton mill, Jiang Longcheng headed straight for the district government office; there were some matters he needed to discuss with his second older brother.

When Jiang Longcheng arrived, Jiang Longyin had just finished presiding over a meeting. As soon as he returned to his office, he saw his younger brother, Jiang Longcheng, sitting in his chair with his legs crossed, looking every bit the spoiled rich kid.

Jiang Longyin poured himself a glass of water and asked, “Why aren’t you at that run-down little factory? What are you doing here?”

“The case has been fully investigated, you know,” Jiang Longcheng said.

“I’ve seen it. We just had a meeting to discuss this!” said Jiang Longyin.

“What did the district say?”

“Although you bear some responsibility for oversight, Gao Shubin and the others have been corrupt for a long time, so it has little to do with you. Plus, you deserve credit for reporting it. Your merits and demerits cancel each other out, so you’ll neither be rewarded nor punished!” Jiang Longyin said indifferently.

“Gao Shubin was promoted during Old Zhang’s tenure; he never really had anything to do with me anyway… Never mind, let’s not talk about that. I came here today for something else!” Jiang Longcheng said.

“What is it?”

“Sign off on a request for me to install a phone line!”

“Doesn’t your factory already have a phone line? Why do you need another one? You know how tight phone lines are these days…”

Before Jiang Longyin could finish, Jiang Longcheng cut him off: “It’s not for me—it’s for Brother Li Yi’s place!”

Jiang Longyin paused briefly, then said, “Alright! I’ll approve this request, but this is a one-time exception!”

“Cut the crap!”

Jiang Longcheng then added, “Also, I think your district government’s hospitality standards are a bit lacking. I suggest that whenever you have official reception duties, you should go to Brother Li Yi’s restaurant for a meal—it’s much more upscale!”

Jiang Longyin chuckled and said, “If you want to return a favor, do it yourself—what’s that got to do with our district?”

“Hahaha, it’s just that you guys have a lot of people here—I only have a few at my place!”

Jiang Longyin quickly signed off on the slip, tossed it to Jiang Longcheng, and said, “Get out of here. How we handle our hospitality is none of your business!”

Jiang Longcheng didn’t say a word; he grabbed the slip and turned to leave Jiang Longyin’s office!

Watching the young man’s retreating figure, Jiang Longyin couldn’t help but shake his head.

Just then, Secretary Xiao Wang walked in and said, “Sir, we’re hosting a business delegation from Shancheng tonight. Should we use our staff cafeteria or the Jianguo Hotel?”

Jiang Longyin thought for a moment and said, “Neither. Book a table at the Grassland Beef and Lamb Grill & Hot Pot Restaurant in Beiguan Village!”

“That restaurant…”

“Just ask around in Beiguancun and you’ll find it. Go there ahead of time and let them know so they can prepare for the reception!” Jiang Longyin said.

“Yes, sir!”

…….