Chapter 317: Many Zeros

The Hope Project is a public welfare project initiated by the China Youth Development Foundation in 1989 with the aim of helping out-of-school children in poor areas.

However, as of now, the Hope Project has only received a total of 5.3 billion Chinese yuan in donations.

In other words, the amount of money that Qiao Bazhi was forced to donate this time alone was six times the total amount of donations received by the Hope Project in all previous years.

Yanjing, the headquarters of Project Hope.

Several clerks from the Hope Project Center were lazily sitting at their desks.

In recent years, public welfare has been affected by certain human factors. The public's enthusiasm for donations has been in a continuous downturn, and some kind-hearted people have resorted to other channels to help others, using what they consider to be more appropriate channels.

The Hope Project was originally just a special fund aimed at helping out-of-school children. Due to the influence of the overall environment, it received even fewer donations.

It often takes them ten days or half a month to receive a relatively substantial amount of funds.

Ding-a-ling...

When the phone on the desk rang, a young-looking girl immediately answered it and said in a very sweet voice, "Hello, this is Project Hope. What can I do for you?"

"We are Yanjing Bank." A very nervous voice came from the other end of the line: "We just showed that your account has received a sum of funds."

The bank card used by Project Hope to publicize was indeed from Yanjing Bank. The two parties had business dealings, so the young girl was not unfamiliar with it.

"Hmm?" the girl asked doubtfully. "What's the problem?"

This kind of thing can be said to be very normal. There are still many caring people who send money on time every month. There is nothing strange about it.

"The amount of funds is too large, so we want you to confirm it."

The girl was surprised. "A large sum of money? We haven't received any special notice recently. How much is it exactly? We can check."

"30 billion."

The girl was startled, then said angrily: "We are working hours now, please don't joke around."

"I'm not kidding." The man on the other end of the phone said with a wry smile, "It really is 30 billion!"

The girl frowned and hung up the phone.

How could she believe this trick to fool children? 30 billion, do you think it’s cabbage?

An old man wearing reading glasses and reading a newspaper in the office asked, "Xiao Wang, who is that?"

"It's a harassing call," the girl known as Xiao Wang replied. "Some psychopath said someone donated 30 billion to us."

"Hmm." The old man closed the newspaper and asked doubtfully, "30 billion?"

"Yeah." Xiao Wang said, "I hung up the phone right away. It must be another harassing call."

Ding-a-ling...

The phone rang again.

Xiao Wang calmed down, picked up the phone, and said, "Hello, this is Project Hope. How can I help you?"

"We are really Yanjing Bank. An anonymous donation of 30 billion has just been made to your account. I came here specifically..."

"If you call me again, I'll call the police," Xiao Wang said, and hung up the phone. Why are scammers so persistent these days? What's the point of using this method to deceive me?

Just when she was about to hang up the phone, the old man next to her stopped her.

The old man took the phone with a serious expression and asked, "There's an extra 30 billion in our account?"

“Yes, yes.” The person on the other end of the phone responded immediately: “We are just confirming with you.”

"Wait a minute." The old man put the phone on his neck and said to Xiao Wang, "Take a look at our public account."

Xiao Wang was a little confused by the old man's meaning. Thirty billion sounded like a lie, so what was there to confirm? Three hundred thousand did seem somewhat believable.

However, due to the other party's qualifications, Xiao Wang could only log into the public account on the computer. When he saw the amount on it, Xiao Wang was so surprised that he was speechless.

So many zeros!

The old man looked at the stunned Xiao Wang, patted him and asked, "What's wrong?"

"That's a lot of money!" Xiao Wang replied, then started counting the zeros on the screen. "It's 30 billion!"

The old man trembled all over and said a few words to the phone. After hanging up, he said to Xiao Wang, "Go see if anyone has contacted us. I'll go find the leader and report this to him."

As soon as he finished speaking, the old man ran towards the door. His trembling body made people worry that he might accidentally fall.

Soon, China News urgently interrupted the broadcast of a news item.

An anonymous person donated 30 billion yuan to the China Hope Project. The national leaders attached great importance to it and personally led a working group to verify and examine it, striving to put the money into practical use.

…

Qiao Bazhi, who received the donation, had no time to think about how much of a shock he had caused.

Looking at the receipt brought by the bank manager, Qiao Bazhi felt as if all his energy had been drained from his body.

Tang Shuo took the receipt, checked it, and then said to Qiao Bazhi, "Tell him to permanently delete your account!"

Qiao Bazhi grinned, thinking that Tang Shuo wanted to kill him!

Once the Swiss bank account is permanently deleted, all previous information will be cleared, and he will not have the right to access the previous data. If he is arrested by the police at this time, he will not be able to explain the whereabouts of the funds and will have to bear the blame for the 30 billion yuan.

Qiao Bazhi rubbed his swollen temples and sighed, "Please help me clear my account!"

This time, the bank manager did not try to persuade him to stay and decisively turned around to help Qiao Bazhi close his account.

Qiao Bazhi suddenly raised his head, looked at Tang Shuo and asked, "Was everything today your plan?"

"About the same." Tang Shuo replied.

"If I hadn't sent Wang Zhong and the others to find you, would what happened later have happened?" Qiao Bazhi asked.

Tang Shuo smiled and shrugged, "What do you think?"

Qiao Bazhi nodded, smiling uncharacteristically, and said, "This puts my mind at ease. At least it proves that I didn't do anything wrong."

If Qiao Bazhi were asked to evaluate Tang Shuo now, the only word he could use would be "horrible".

It would be fine if such a person were your friend, but once you become your enemy, he will definitely give every opponent a headache.

The account closing procedure seemed even more complicated than the transfer procedure. After nearly an hour, the bank manager finally came over.

He handed the two Swiss Bank promissory notes, one for a fixed amount of 100 million, and one for over 50 million to Qiao Bazhi and said, "Mr. Qiao, this is the remaining funds in your account. You can come and cash it anytime."

Qiao Bazhi took the check and followed Tang Shuo out of the bank.

It seemed that the saying "money leaves the body and brings happiness" was true. The moment he walked out of the bank, Qiao Bazhi suddenly felt very relaxed.

After half a lifetime of intrigue and fighting, he has never been as relaxed as he is now.

Qiao Bazhi handed the promissory note and two checks he had just received to Tang Shuo and said, "I'm hungry. Can you treat me to a bowl of wonton noodles?"

Looking at Qiao Bazhi, who seemed to have aged a few years, Tang Shuo chuckled and said, "Okay."

Tang Shuo and Qiao Bazhi had just gotten into the car when they saw a team of police officers checking passing vehicles suddenly appear at the intersection where there were no patrol officers before.

Qiao Bazhi closed his eyes and said to Tang Shuo, "Just go ahead. I won't resist."

Tang Shuo glanced at Qiao Bazhi, didn't say anything, and drove the car over.

Fortunately, he had made preparations in the morning and told Jesus to follow from a distance. Otherwise, even if Qiao Bazhi didn't say anything, Tang Shuo would not dare to take such a risk.

"Pull over," the uniformed police officer said.

Tang Shuo looked at the police at the intersection, hesitated for a moment, and then pulled the car over to the side of the road.

"Driver's license." The police knocked on the car window.

Bang……

At this moment, a gunshot suddenly rang out from behind Tang Shuo's car.

The police officer who asked Tang Shuo for his driver's license immediately pulled out his pistol and said to Tang Shuo, "Get out of here now."

Tang Shuo immediately started the car and drove away from the intersection quickly.