Chapter 61 "Tenfold Penalty for Fakes"
Mr. Zhuge finally put down his racket, twisted his shoulders, leaned on the desk, took out a few wet wipes, and carefully wiped the dust between the grids.
"Wesley, since Wenhui praised you as a good student, I will temporarily believe that you wouldn't lie."
Meng Weishen hates beating around the bush: "The truth is, I don't know in which direction I can lie."
"It would be best if you really knew nothing."
"So why are you talking to me? All my taxi reimbursements come with itineraries, my business trips and hotels don't exceed the standard, and I've never even secretly taken the company's afternoon tea home."
"I can only tell you one possible guess." The old man's expression was solemn, and the wrinkles on his brow were enough to kill a fly. "From what I know, when someone is forced into a corner, he will bite everyone he wants. He's bitten both of us. No matter how tightly you guard your house, you can't keep out a thief from inside, humph."
Meng Weishen secretly cut ties with his two old schoolmates. He was the innocent victim bitten by someone passing by, while Old Zhuge was merely the temporary victor in a dog-eat-dog situation.
He said indifferently, "I've never been to your house. I don't care or know what you discussed behind closed doors. No matter how much the Compliance Department asks me, I'll just say this."
"You'd better not keep saying you don't know. The Compliance Department will think you're passively resisting and will keep hounding you until at least the end of the year," the old man instructed him. "Think carefully about whether Zeus and you have had any unusual financial transactions. Prepare your story carefully and try to leave the Compliance Department unscathed. I believe you can do it."
"Thank you, I understand. I'll be leaving first, Mr. Zhuge."
Meng Weishen said goodbye at the right time. He unlocked the office door, and the old man added behind him:
"Of course, I also believe that you won't bite anyone, right? I still want to continue playing badminton with you, so don't do anything stupid."
——
Waiting, waiting in vain. Disaster is always going to come, but I don’t know when it will happen, maybe tomorrow.
The only thing that was settled was that Ke Mi had passed her interdepartmental interview. With a job change, her workstation naturally had to be relocated, leaving the front desk seat vacant once again. Lin Zhesi's office was also vacant. Before the company officially suspended him, he had taken a two-week annual leave and hadn't been seen since, becoming a laughingstock.
On the countless nights of scraping together work, Meng Weishen sat by a screen filled with code. As the clock ticked toward midnight, the fluorescent lights in the workstations dimmed, like the eyes of an elderly man with a serious illness, growing increasingly blind with age.
In a trance, he felt that his three-year working life was like a dream.
During his internship, he imagined how he could solve technical problems that others couldn't overcome and successfully be promoted to technical director before the age of 40. However, he never imagined that the closest promotion opportunity would come from his badminton skills.
After realizing his own insignificance, he worried that the company's business would decline and he would be fired in order to reduce costs and increase efficiency. However, he never expected that his unemployment crisis would come from a fabricated corruption case.
Or maybe the first twenty years of his life were just a dream.
The seeds of moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic, and labor sown in the ivory tower have all turned into empty talk. The adult world is governed by the absurd and cruel law of the jungle. Anyone who cannot adapt to this law will be frustrated, destitute, and miserable.
Meng Wei deeply hated the law of the jungle. But he had already stepped into a secretly set trap. If he continued to tolerate it, he would only wait for death. The torment was driving him mad.
At some point, the lights in Lin Zhesi's office quietly came on.
Meng Weishen broke in without permission and didn't even have the courtesy to knock on the door.
"Zeus, stop wasting your time. You once sacrificed your subordinate, Gavin, and now Mr. Zhuge is planning to sacrifice you. You're dead."
Lin Zhesi jumped in shock, and the cardboard box in his arms fell to the ground with a thud. After a moment's pause, he yelled at him, "Are you mentally ill? Can't you knock on the door?"
Meng Weishen was still leaning against the door frame, staring intently at the other person's hunched back. Lin Zhesi became increasingly uncomfortable, repeatedly trying to pick up a mug, only to fail.
"You guys have dirty hands, so you deserve to be pushed out and blamed." Meng Weishen said, "What about me? How did I provoke you?"
"I don't know what you're asking."
Meng Weishen spoke honestly, "My biggest sin is giving you too much face. To be honest, your technical skills are terrible, your character is terrible, and you only got promoted through backdoors. It's no wonder the company's business is getting worse and worse when they can select a mid-level manager like you. I should have resigned the day you joined, so I wouldn't have been disgusted by you for half a year."
“Get out!”
"I can leave. But I've already notified security, and they'll be here soon. You're still under investigation, so don't even think about taking any documents out of the office today."
——
Meng Weishen knocked on the conference room door and was greeted by a gust of icy air. The company was clearly demanding cost reduction and efficiency gains, so why was the compliance department still running the air conditioner at 18 degrees Celsius in September?
He counted the pores on his arms, then sat down at an empty side of the long table. The two people across from him looked up from their computer screens, their scrutinizing eyes scanning him from head to toe.
Consistent with his previous investigation, the Anti-Fraud Compliance Department usually arranges two staff members to be responsible for the interviews, one male and one female, one year older and one younger.
The woman looked like the discipline committee member in his high school class, with a tight ponytail and a forehead brighter than the fluorescent lights in the conference room. She wore pink Adidas camouflage and made a significant contribution to solving the problem of unsaleable ugly clothing. The man looked like the squash from Plants vs. Zombies, his mouth curled down to his chin. He had jumped from the bottom of the public security, procuratorate, and court system to a large company, but he hadn't given up on his dream of becoming a seasoned detective and treated everyone as a criminal.
He didn't know where the company had found these two judges, two at once. Just sitting face to face with these two in the same office was enough to make him feel like he was in a state of low pressure.
The disciplinary committee member spoke in a shrill voice, picked up the information sheet and read out: "Meng Weishen? In the R&D position?" His tone was as if he had caught him eating Little Raccoon instant noodles during evening study.
Entering a large company is like going to prison; you'll lose your real name, becoming a string of English or a nickname. On the verge of being fired, Meng Weishen finally got his real name back, nodding in confirmation.
Wogua acted like an elder, feeling deeply saddened and giving him earnest advice: "You're young, and you have a promising future. You're in a technical position, and people who work in technology should have purer minds than those in marketing. How could you have gone astray?"
Meng Weishen immediately pointed out: "Teacher, you are trying to induce a confession. I can't answer you because I didn't do anything."
"I'm just having a heart-to-heart talk with you." Wogua took the paperwork from the disciplinary committee member and flipped through a few pages. "Is it because you just got married this year and are facing the pressure of a mortgage and childcare? As men, we understand each other. As long as you cooperate with the company's internal investigation, there's no need to meet with the police, and your family doesn't need to come either."
Obviously, the other party had carefully investigated his background before the conversation and even found out that he had taken wedding leave this year.
Meng Weishen should be thankful that he really didn't do anything. After all, he wasn't good at lying. Since he had a clear conscience, no matter what tricks the other party used, he only had to do what he was best at: telling the truth.
"What exactly do they need my cooperation for? Is it about the investigation into my manager? To be honest, he's hinted at me, and my former colleague's departure might be related to him, but I don't want to get too close to him, so I know nothing."
The disciplinary committee member screamed, "Meng Weishen, you and your manager are two peas in a pod. You're both refusing to admit anything! You've already entered the Compliance Department. How long do you think you can hide?"
Wogua stopped his companion at the right time: "Don't push me like that. It's normal to forget things when you're nervous. Meng Weishen, it doesn't matter if you can't explain it clearly in a short time. We have prepared a manuscript for you in advance to help you sort out your thoughts. We have plenty of time today. You can think about it carefully and answer our questions after you have thought it through."
Wogua handed the manuscript under the computer to the disciplinary committee. The woman followed orders and crossed the long table, throwing a thin piece of A4 paper in front of Meng Weishen.
This was a pre-prepared manuscript, typed in Song-style font. Meng Weishen read silently word by word:
I, Meng Weishen, joined the XX Department of the XX Business Group of the Beijing company in August 2022. This year, my department, in an effort to expand its local lifestyle business, brought a large number of merchants onto the platform. My immediate superior conspired with me, promising to facilitate merchant onboarding and review procedures, and in exchange for this, accepted a substantial commission.
On August X, 2025, I intentionally paid 30,000 yuan to purchase a fake bracelet from a jewelry store. After obtaining the appraisal report, I demanded that the store honor its promise of a tenfold penalty for counterfeit goods, and legally accepted a 300,000 yuan bribe.
The gold shop had a very poor credit record and had been subject to multiple administrative penalties, ultimately failing to pass the platform's merchant review. Because the gratuities failed to yield tangible results, the gold shop reported the internal corruption to the compliance department.
I have confessed to the above facts and voluntarily returned the stolen goods.
The air conditioning in the conference room was turned down too low. A piercing chill ran down Meng Weishen's spine. "Ten times the penalty for a fake product?"
"How about it, do you remember everything?" Wugua finally raised the drooping corners of his mouth.
"I didn't receive a single cent of the 300,000 yuan bribe. I don't know what you want me to recall."
"You transferred the 300,000 yuan bribe through several accounts, and we're still investigating its final destination. But the 30,000 yuan was definitely transferred from your bank card to the gold shop. We've already retrieved the bank statements. You didn't forget, did you?"
"I remember now," Meng Weishen said, "but the truth is, my manager Lin Zhesi asked me to help pick up a gift. The gold bracelet was for a date. The 30,000 yuan he transferred to me was the balance for the gold bracelet. I don't know anything else."
The two people opposite each other were unable to obtain any useful information and could only exchange annoyed glances.
Wogua continued, "Meng Weishen, you and Lin Zhesi are in the R&D position. The qualification review of merchants entering the market is the responsibility of the operations position, and you can't do it. So there must be someone above you, and this person must be in a high position. We can guess all this."
Meng Weishen remained silent.
"Unfortunately, your superiors are seasoned swindlers. They're much more cautious about accepting money than you are. Every payment has to go through several accounts, even overseas. After searching so hard, only your account has been exposed. If there are no other clues, you'll be the only one facing actual punishment." The other party offered him a tempting bait. "You don't want to take the blame for others in vain, do you? How about this? If you can make meritorious contributions while serving your sentence, we can give you a lighter sentence: a one-month suspension without pay. You can come back later."
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