The word landed like a stone dropped into still water.
"External funds were being moved through this company's operational accounts in small calculated amounts. Spread across different transactions. Different departments. Timed to coincide with legitimate business activity so that on the surface everything appeared normal." Li Feng turned a page. "The incoming funds were disguised as supplier prepayments and freight deposits. The outgoing funds left as standard operational disbursements." He set the page down. "Over three years the total amount that passed through this company and was successfully cleaned came to ¥47 million."
Complete silence. Not a single person in the room moved.
"Anyone could have missed it," Li Feng continued. "It was designed to be missed. The only reason I caught it was because I was looking at timing. Not amounts. Not accounts. Timing." He looked across the room. "Legitimate freight deposits do not arrive at the same intervals with the same precision across three years. Real business is messier than that. Someone was running a schedule."
He turned to face Guo Tian directly. "And that schedule was being managed from inside this building. From someone with full operational oversight. Access to multiple departments. And enough authority to keep two separate auditors from asking the right questions."
Guo Tian stared back at him. Not a single muscle in his face moved.
"Deputy Manager Guo," Li Feng said. "The account receiving the cleaned funds is registered to a shell company with two directors. One of them is a family member of yours. The transaction records I have submitted to the relevant authorities this morning will confirm the rest."
Tao Jun sat back in his chair, color drained from his face. "You submitted them this morning?" he said quietly.
"Before I walked into this building," Li Feng replied.
Guo Tian's calm expression cracked for the first time.
*How is he still moving.* His thoughts ran wild behind his eyes. *I told those good for nothing idiots to rough him up. How is he still standing here. How does he know all of this.*
Tao Jun's chair scraped back hard against the floor. "Guo Tian."
His voice came out loud and hostile in a way nobody in the room had ever heard from him before.
Guo Tian couldn't reply.
Tao Jun crossed the room in three steps and drove his fist hard into Guo Tian's gut. Guo Tian folded, dropping to one knee, clutching his side.
"You filthy ingrate," Tao Jun said through his teeth. He straightened and turned to the room. "Hold him down."
The staff moved immediately. Nobody hesitated. Nobody questioned it. Three people had Guo Tian pinned before he could recover his breath.
Tao Jun straightened his jacket. His eyes swept across Wang Jin and then across the room. "Both of you will answer to headquarters." His voice had returned to something controlled but the weight behind it was heavier than before. "And to the rest of you." He paused. "I promise you. Anyone found to have been involved in any capacity — the consequences will be severe."
Not a single person breathed.
---
It took a long while before the hall settled. Before people moved. Before the building returned to something resembling a normal day. But even then the air was different. Heavier. Like something that had been sitting in the walls for three years had finally been pulled out into the open.
---
In Tao Jun's office Li Feng sat across from him. Tao Jun reached forward and held Li Feng's hands with both of his. "Mr. Li." His voice was quieter now. The hostility was gone. What was left behind it was something close to relief. "I cannot thank you enough." He shook his head slowly. "You just saved my job. You saved this company." He tightened his grip slightly. "Thank you. Truly."
Li Feng looked at him steadily. "It's what I came here to do."
"Please check your phone," Tao Jun said, settled comfortably back in his chair.
Li Feng frowned slightly. "My phone?" He reached into his pocket and checked it.
*¥500,000 credited to your account.*
He looked up.
"Mr. Tao—"
"This is from me personally," Tao Jun said, cutting him off. "You will still receive your official audit payment separately. This is different." He leaned forward. "A man like you deserves more than a standard fee Mr. Li. What you did today cannot be measured in numbers."
He extended his hand. "It has been a pleasure working with you."
Li Feng looked at him for a moment then took his hand. A smile settled on his lips before he could stop it.
---
The apartment door opened slowly.
Xian jumped up from the floor immediately. "Daddy—"
She stopped.
Two men she had never seen before walked through the door carrying something large wrapped in plastic. She stood where she was, Baozi clutched to her chest, watching them with wide eyes.
Zhao Lihua moved forward quickly, pulling Xian close. "Who are you?" she said. "What is this?"
"I thought I'd change the furniture."
Li Feng appeared in the doorway behind them, two large white bags hanging from each hand. He stepped inside and looked around the small apartment with a calm assessing eye. "Take the sofa out," he said to the men. "Bring the new one in."
Zhao Lihua stared at him.
*Was this because of yesterday?* she thought. *I said try harder but this—*
What followed was barely two hours but the apartment seemed to transform completely. The worn sofa was carried out and replaced with something clean and proper. A large flat screen television went up on the wall where nothing had hung before. The old bed frame was taken apart and a new one assembled in its place, solid and proper with a mattress still wrapped in plastic. And then the refrigerator — one of those large high quality ones Zhao Lihua had seen online before and quietly admired and never once thought she would own — was carried through the door and installed in the kitchen.
By the time the men left the apartment looked nothing like it had two hours before.
Zhao Lihua stood in the middle of it all looking around slowly. A mini home. That was the only way to describe it. It looked like a proper mini home.
She turned to look at Li Feng.
"I'll be cooking tonight," he announced, already moving toward the kitchen.
Zhao Lihua stood exactly where she was, watching his back.
*Did he find a gold mine somewhere?* she thought.
"Daddy daddy!" Xian was already climbing onto the new sofa, bouncing on it with both feet. "It's so soft!"
Li Feng glanced over his shoulder at her. "Ice cream after dinner," he said simply.
"Yay!"
Zhao Lihua shook her head slowly. He was stealing her daughter and apparently her entire apartment