“This…. This this this can’t happen!” Li Xiusheng panicked, as he objected with a smile plastered on his face. “Police officer, don’t joke around! This was to be sent with the flowers, and it is not even that valuable! How about I bring you to my flower shop and we can take a look. The flower pots there are much nicer than this. I will give you a few pots of flowers too, alright?”
Nonsense!
Zhao Yu’s eyes grew cold and he thought to himself. The night before, your nephew, Fat Sausage, took three million from me! I finally found a chance to fleece him in revenge, so you, being his second uncle, should be more generous in helping repay the family debt!
Then, Zhao Yu smiled treacherously, while saying with a smile, “Wahaha, Mister Lee, you give me a price! I really like it a lot. Tell the customer of yours that I am willing to give double the price. Tell him to let this go to me!”
“No way, I really can’t! We do trading here, so we need to establish credibility, alright?” Li Xiusheng advised, “This is really already booked! But don’t worry, if you really like it, just wait for another two days, then I will get you another one!”
Humph!
Zhao Yu’s mind raced with thoughts. Of course. Another two days. In the meantime, you can get your nephew or niece to make me a counterfeit that looks exactly the same…
“Hahaha… Okay!” Zhao Yu shook his head and laughed. He put the vase back into the box carefully, then told Li Xiusheng, “As Mister Lee is not willing to sell today, then forget it! Mm… I saw that you had a lot of other boxes in your boot earlier, so there must be something nicer in the back! Let me choose from there, then!”
Then, Zhao Yu pretended to get out of the car. Li Xiusheng was dumbfounded. His boot was full of cultural relics. If Zhao Yu were to mess around with it, his illegal business would be discovered and doomed!
“Don’t! Wait a second, hold on just one second!” Li Xiusheng beckoned with both his of hands and said calmly, “Police officer, listen to me, I can sell you this vase, but I’ve got to let you know that this is really not a cheap item. All my stock is at least a hundred and fifty thousand, so I…”
What Li Xiusheng was really doing was trying to make Zhao Yu retreat by using a high price tag.
But Zhao Yu called his bluff and remained unphased by the amount. He nodded and said, “No problem. I can’t let you lose money! Hence, I will pay you two hundred thousand. Hurry up, give me your handphone. I will make the transfer right now!”
“Huh?!” Li Xiusheng was stunned. He would have never guessed that the police officer would not play his little game accordingly.
“Why? You’re not really selling, are you?” Zhao Yu baited and threatened him. He purposely showed his gun, while he pulled the door handle. “I think I will see what’s going on in your boot. There should be even better choices there!”
“Okay okay okay… Do as you wish! I will sell!” Li Xiusheng gritted his teeth. That very moment, he hated this greedy Zhao Yu!
“Mm, that’s more like it!” Zhao Yu returned to his car satisfied. Then, through his phone, he transferred two hundred thousand to Li Xiusheng.
When he transferred the money, Li Xiusheng looked like scorched earth, his face ashen. Originally, he had thought that Zhao Yu would leave after conning him. Instead, after he transferred the money, Zhao Yu took a seat in an even more comfortable posture and settled in, telling Mister Lee, “Mister Lee, I am aware of how you became rich now! In just this short period of time, you have made fifty thousand from me! Businessmen like you are so cunning! Hehe…”
This one sentence had rendered Li Xiusheng at a complete loss for words. Who had earned and who had lost in reality, well, the both of them were very aware of that fact…
“Alright, I’ll let you make some money, but just some money.” Zhao Yu smiled treacherously. “After that, we could finally get down to business, right?”
Li Xiusheng was flustered and exasperated, “Police officer, that’s too much. What else do we have to talk about?”
“You are so forgetful! The grave robbers? The theft of the prefect’s tomb?” Zhao Yu said impolitely, “Let’s get this straight. Tell me everything you know! Don’t worry. I am a man of principles. I only want to solve the case now, so I won’t cause you any trouble regarding your own side businesses!”
“Police officer, I am wrongly accused. How would I know anything about that? Who did you hear this from?” Li Xiusheng looked innocent as he spoke. “Yes! I do know some knowledge about ancient relics, as some of my close friends would show me their items and such. But grave robbers and that sort of riffraff, they are not related to me!”
“Sigh! Alright, alright!” Zhao Yu waved and said, “Mister Lee, although I am a police officer, I am different from the other policemen. Think about it, why would I sit in your car?”
“Mm…” Li Xiusheng was not dumb. He could tell that, from what Zhao Yu said, he had come prepared.
“Let me tell you!” Zhao Yu said. “I am taking a lucky guess here. There was no evidence. Whether if I got it right to not, please bear with me! I am guessing that you have such big trade circles that, first of all, you must have a safe storehouse, right?”
Not waiting for an answer, he continued. “Naturally, you wouldn’t do it at your house, either, because the police would come and check there, right?! Sigh. So, Mister Lee, where would your storehouse be?”
When Zhao Yu spoke, Li Xiusheng was dumbfounded. What Zhao Yu said poked at his vital concerns.
“Oh… You didn’t know?” Zhao Yu smiled maliciously, watching him squirm. “It’s okay if you didn’t know. Yesterday, when I was interrogating your nephew, I realized that that fat boy is not very tight-lipped! He would spill the beans about everything! Luckily, I didn’t interrogate him too thoroughly!”
“At that time, we mainly interrogated him regarding counterfeit goods. Hehe… If I were to return and change the focus to you, his second uncle….”
What Zhao Yu said was full of ambiguities, but in Li Xiusheng’s ears, the unveiled threat was piercingly clear!
Li Xiusheng felt like he was carrying a huge rock that weighed five hundred pounds all of the sudden. Cold sweat was rolling down his face like rainwater.
“Oh…” Zhao Yu was in a rush, so he didn’t want to waste more time talking to him. Hence, he pulled out the final killer tactic directly, “Oh….. and as I understood it, Fat Sausage didn’t know where your storehouse was! Hehe, then forget it! That’s presumptuous of me! Mm….. I have to leave now…..” Then, Zhao Yu carried the box with the vase and opened the door to leave.
“Don’t! Slow down… Police officer, please hold on…” Li Xiusheng was scared to death and quickly stopped Zhao Yu. He said, “If there’s anything, we can it discuss slowly…”
“Alright!” Zhao Yu pointed at his watch and said, “Let me emphasize this again. The only thing that I am thinking about is the Tomb Murder Case! Regarding your things, I wouldn’t get involved! But I can only guarantee that I would try not to buy vases from you in the future if you helped me in this case!”
Gru…
Hearing that, Liu Xiusheng was nearly paralyzed. Zhao Yu made a few million from just one of his vases, and unless he helped him in the case, Zhao Yu might come back and purchase more? Wasn’t that the same as taking his life away?
“Police officer, let me be frank!” Li Xiusheng spoke in difficulty, “I can bet on my fortune and life to guaranteed that I am definitely not related to the Tomb Murder Case! As of now, I have not heard anything about the cultural relics of the prefect’s tomb, and there was no one who got in touch with me to appraise anything for them! What I said was the truth!”
Zhao Yu understood that the “appraise” that Li Xiusheng spoke of was just a front. It was supposed to be “buy in”!
Phew…
Zhao Yu sighed a breath of relief and looked into Liu Xiusheng’s eyes carefully. He wanted to see if Li Xiusheng was lying. At the same time, Zhao Yu also regretted having used the lie detector on Fat Sausage.
“Police officer, I promise!” Li Xiusheng raised his arms and said, as though he was making an oath, “Once there is any news about the cultural relics from the prefect’s tomb, I will report to you at once! Would that be enough?”
“No way!” Zhao Yu shook his head and smiled. “Besides that, you have to be honest with me about the ancient tomb murder case. What are your thoughts? Who do you think, among your friends, has such an ability to commit such an act?”