At six o'clock in the evening, the setting sun dyed the streets orange.
Zhou Hui hid behind the newsstand and checked his disguise for the third time. The gray wig fitted perfectly, the age spots were perfectly placed, and even the crevices between his fingernails were painted gray.
He bared his teeth at the window glass - the coffee stains on his teeth made the smile look particularly weathered.
Perfect.
He touched the draft of "Zhou Group's Third Quarter Financial Report" in the inner pocket of his wrinkled suitcase. This was a specially prepared prop.
When it "accidentally" falls out later, the young master of the Zhang family who is not very worldly-wise will definitely be curious to check it out, and then he will take the opportunity to tell his tragic story of "falling from a rich man to the streets".
This kind of contrast can best arouse the sympathy of young people. Maybe tonight it will be possible--
"Here we come!"
The private detective's prompt came through his earpiece. Zhou Hui immediately hunched his back, his shoulders slumping in the old man's way. He counted the seconds, and the moment Zhang Xuanhua stepped under the streetlight, he suddenly rushed out and fell to the ground.
"Ouch!"
He threw himself hard, his knees slamming into the asphalt, the pain so intense that tears welled up in his eyes. The briefcase tipped over perfectly, and the documents scattered everywhere, with the draft financial report on top.
Zhang Xuanhua approached, his schoolbag slung over one shoulder. The tips of his black, wolf-tailed hair shone blue in the sunset. Zhou Hui glanced up furtively. From this angle, he could see the boy's well-defined forearms and the faint glimpse of his collarbone through the open collar of his school uniform.
"Are you okay?"
A cold voice came from above. Zhou Hui was secretly pleased with himself—he'd taken the bait! He immediately put on a mask of pain: "Young man, you, you bumped into me..."
The air suddenly froze.
Zhang Xuanhua stood still, his light blue eyes narrowed slightly. "I'm at least three meters away from you."
Zhou Hui's heart skipped a beat.
No, that's not the script! Why didn't he play by the rules? Zhou Hui quickly switched strategies, trembling and holding his knees: "Oh, I'm old, my legs are not good... Maybe I tripped."
The boy didn't respond, just stared at him. His gaze was like an X-ray, and Zhou Hui felt as if his disguise was being peeled off layer by layer.
Just as cold sweat began to break out on his back, Zhang Xuanhua suddenly bent down and picked up the documents on the ground.
It's over! Zhou Hui's pupils suddenly constricted. That financial report! He'd clearly planned to wait until they were more familiar with each other before "inadvertently" revealing his identity!
"Zhou Group's Third Quarter Financial Report?" Zhang Xuanhua read out the title, a faint smile playing at the corners of his mouth. "The old man has the wrong 'poverty certificate'."
Zhou Hui's mind raced. He chuckled twice, beads of sweat oozing from his forehead. "This, this is what I picked up..."
"Oh?" the boy handed the document back to him, a dangerous glint in his light blue eyes. "Then you have quite a business acumen. You even found internal documents of a listed company while picking up trash."
Zhou Hui's hands trembled slightly as he took the document. The composure he'd cultivated over twenty years of business was crumbling. The look in the seventeen-year-old's eyes reminded him of his own fear during his first board meeting.
Back in the hotel's luxurious suite, Zhou Hui threw the wig hard to the ground.
"He saw it! That little bastard definitely saw it!" He paced back and forth on the Persian carpet, his custom-made leather shoes crushing the draft financial report. "But why didn't he expose it? Why did he even play along with me?"
The personal assistant nervously handed over the iced whiskey: "Maybe... maybe Young Master Zhang really does have a sense of justice?"
"Bullshit!" Zhou Hui took a big gulp of wine, the amber liquid dripping down his chin onto his shirt. "He looks like he's watching a monkey show!"
The wine glass slammed onto the coffee table. Zhou Hui untied his tie and suddenly revealed a sinister grin: "Since he likes acting... then I'll act with him to my heart's content!"
—————————————————————
When Wu Meng pushed open the door, the shoulder pads of her Chanel suit caught the door frame. She reached out to adjust the brooch—the one Chao Nanhang had bid her for the highest price of 300 million.
Zhang Jianguo's roar hit her carefully made-up face like a piece of coal slag falling on velvet.
"My son's nose is broken!" Zhang Jianguo slammed his fist onto the printed copy of the surveillance video, his fingertips running over the frozen image of Wu Zeyu swinging his fist. "You're just giving a check to a beggar?"
Wu Meng chuckled, her fingertips tracing the crocodile leather pattern of her Hermès bag. "If Mr. Zhang feels cash is more respectable, I can have the finance department issue stacks of hundred-yuan bills and use them to cover your son's hospital bed."
She suddenly approached, the scent of perfume making him take a step back. "Or do you want the media to know that when Young Master Zhang pulled out his Swiss Army knife in the classroom, he was shouting, 'Let them and their sons have no chance of survival in this city'?"
Her phone screen lit up in her palm. It was a newly received email. She pulled up the environmental impact assessment report for the Jiangxinzhou land parcel from the Municipal Supervision Bureau and circled the note "Exceeding soil heavy metal standards" in red pen: "Did Mr. Zhang's construction team illegally dump soil on Linjiang Road last month?"
She tapped the screen with her nails. "I remember Nanxing saying that the most important thing for developers he works with is a sense of 'cleanliness.'"
Zhang Jianguo's Adam's apple rolled over his tie knot like a glass bead. He knew, of course, that the Jiangbei Group controlled 70% of the city's environmental impact assessment approvals, and that Chaonanxing was recently using "environmental protection rectification" to purge dissidents.
At this moment, the jade bracelet on Wu Meng's wrist dazzled him - it was bought by Chao Nanxing for three million at a charity auction last week, and it was said to be a "gift for his new wife."
"Mrs. Wu, are you going to kill me?" He loosened his tie, revealing the wrinkles on his fat neck.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
