BPIFC -Volume 1 – Chapter 48 Attempted Self-Defense

To be precise, it was all a misunderstanding on Ma Xiaolin’s part.

Back when Gao Liang foresaw his own fate, he entrusted Che Qianzi to Boss Ma before his death. However, Ma misunderstood and assumed the boy was Gao Liang’s illegitimate son. Since he and Gao had always been close friends, he took it upon himself to raise the child.

Later, Kong Dalong became increasingly excessive. Every time he asked for living expenses, the amount kept growing, and he even included his gambling debts. This infuriated Ma Xiaolin. It had already reached tens of thousands of yuan a month, and at that rate, wouldn’t it become over a million yuan per month in a few years? Forget Gao Liang’s son—even Gao Liang’s father wouldn’t qualify for that kind of treatment.

After spending several million yuan over the years, Ma Xiaolin felt he had already fulfilled his obligations to Gao Liang. He instructed his finance department to stop sending money to Kong Dalong and Che Qianzi, leading to the chain of events that followed.

Now, after hearing that the young man before him was the child Gao Liang had entrusted to him, and seeing his appearance clearly, Ma Xiaolin realized he had been mistaken.

Forcing a smile, he patted Che Qianzi on the shoulder.

“So this handsome young fellow is Che Qianzi, whom Director Gao asked me to take care of? I was just thinking of finding time to visit you. Who would have thought you’d already joined the Bureau?”

As he spoke, Ma Xiaolin kept signaling his secretary with his eyes.

The secretary immediately understood and chimed in:

“Chairman Ma, our apologies. Some of our companies were undergoing restructuring and public listings, and the company responsible for sending money to the Extreme Truth Temple had its accounts audited by the Securities Commission. The monthly remittances were suspended. Later, the recipient changed bank accounts, and we simply never…”

“What are you doing? Such a major matter, and I knew nothing about it?”

Ma Xiaolin put on a shocked expression and scolded his secretary:

“How do you people handle your work? Do you know this was a matter personally entrusted to me by my good elder brother before his death? People might think I, Ma Xiaolin, couldn’t afford such a small expense. A few million means nothing to me—just pocket change!”

After “reprimanding” his secretary, Ma pulled out his checkbook right in front of Sun Desheng.

“Since my staff mishandled things and made Director Sun laugh at us, here’s… fifty thousand—no, five hundred thousand yuan. Consider it pocket money for the young man. Time really flies; the child has grown so much.”

Sun Desheng took the check, glanced at the amount, and handed it to Che Qianzi.

“Brother, take it quickly. Boss Ma is giving you spending money. Don’t be polite with him. Buy whatever you want. Spend it all, and Boss Ma will give you more. Right, Old Ma? This is my dear younger brother. If you can’t find me in the future, asking him is the same.”

Holding the check for half a million yuan, Che Qianzi felt dizzy.

Although his master Kong Dalong could lose millions in gambling, he had always been stingy with his disciple. As a child, Che Qianzi had almost no spending money. Every New Year he only received one hundred yuan in red envelope money, accompanied by advice to spend it wisely. It was only in recent years that Kong Dalong had started giving him two hundred yuan a month.

Seeing the boy standing there speechless, Ma Xiaolin misunderstood again, thinking the previous cutoff of funds had offended him.

Gritting his teeth, he wrote another check for one million yuan and smiled.

“No need to wait until you spend the first amount. Prices are so high these days. Five hundred thousand won’t last long. Here’s another million.”

At that moment, Yang Shuji’s voice came from the end of the corridor:

“Chairman Ma, you’re here? I wondered why you hadn’t come upstairs. So you’re chatting with Little Sun.”

Turning to Sun Desheng, he continued:

“Little Sun, I heard there was trouble in the cafeteria again. Whoever caused it must be severely dealt with.”

Then he noticed the check.

“Chairman Ma, why are you writing checks? The Bureau can handle its own affairs. We mustn’t encourage investigators to abuse official business for personal gain.”

No one knew where Yang Shuji found the courage, but before Che Qianzi could take it, he grabbed the check and stuffed it back into Ma Xiaolin’s pocket.

Hearing Yang repeatedly call him “Little Sun,” Sun Desheng’s smiling eyes narrowed dangerously.

Anyone who knew him—especially Shen La—would immediately recognize that the fat man was preparing to cause trouble.

But before Sun could say anything, Che Qianzi exploded first.

“Surnamed Yang! Do you know you just committed robbery?”

“That money was given to me by Boss Ma, and you snatched it away. Did they rewrite the criminal code or something? If someone commits robbery, you can beat them to death! Watch carefully—this counts as self-defense!”

As he spoke, Che Qianzi lunged at Yang Shuji.

Fortunately, Sun Desheng reacted quickly and grabbed him in a bear hug.

Once this little madman’s temper flared up, Yang Shuji might really end up dead or crippled. Yang was useful as a scapegoat to appease higher-ups. If anything happened to him, finding another Yang Shuji would be difficult.

“Brother, listen to me. It’s only one million yuan. Boss Ma never said he wouldn’t give it to you. Why bother lowering yourself to Yang Shuji’s level? He’s just jealous because he can’t earn extra money from private jobs.”

Then, seeing Yang frozen in terror, Sun cursed: “What are you standing there for? Waiting for food to be served? Run! I can’t hold him much longer!”

Only then did Yang Shuji snap out of it. Grabbing Ma Xiaolin, he fled all the way back to his office.

Several other people were called over to help restrain Che Qianzi.

Panting, Sun Desheng said: “Brother, you’re like a little bull. Your old brother here is getting old…”

“Come on, let’s go see your new place. I personally replaced the furniture over the past few days. For your sake, I even moved my hundred-inch television over there. Your sister-in-law is still making a fuss at home.”

As Sun Desheng prepared to leave the Bureau with Che Qianzi, Ma Xiaolin’s secretary hurried after them.

“Director Sun, please wait. Could we speak privately?”

“This is the check Chairman Ma just wrote. He insisted I personally hand it to Mr. Che.”

“There’s another matter. Chairman Ma actually came to the Bureau this time because he wanted your help—and Director Shen’s. If it’s convenient, I’d like to explain the situation.”

With the lost million yuan restored, Che Qianzi no longer felt an urgent need to kill Yang Shuji.

Putting away the checks, he began calculating how to spend his total of 1.5 million yuan.

Maybe I should return to secular life? Buy a house, marry a wife, have a few children…

But after doing the math, he discovered that even 1.5 million yuan didn’t seem like enough.

While Che Qianzi was lost in his fantasies, Sun Desheng brought him and Ma Xiaolin’s secretary to his former Director’s office.

Although he had already handed over the keys, the fat man still possessed his lock-picking skills.

Borrowing a hairpin from the secretary, he fiddled with the lock for a while and opened the door.

“Fatty, you’ve got talents. Even if you quit your job, you’d never starve.”

Che Qianzi stuck out his tongue, borrowed a calculator from Sun Desheng, and began calculating housing and wedding expenses.

Sun ignored him and sat comfortably in his old chair.

Smiling, he said to the secretary: “No one gets in here without my approval.”

“So tell me, what kind of trouble has Old Ma gotten into this time? Did he buy some ancient relic again, and now the original owner is coming out of the grave at night asking for it back?”

The secretary smiled politely.

“You misunderstand, Director Sun. This time it isn’t Chairman Ma’s problem.”

Opening his briefcase, he took out a thick stack of documents and placed them on the desk.

“These are the materials. The one in trouble is Chairman Ma’s business partner. He recently developed a project in southern China…”

While the secretary spoke, Sun Desheng flipped through the documents.

On the cover were the words:

‘Guangdong XXX Resort Development Project.’

They looked like ordinary business materials.

Why show these to him?

Seeing Sun’s confusion, the secretary explained:

“It’s this resort. During construction, they discovered an ancient Song Dynasty tomb beneath the site.”

“At the time, archaeologists examined it and concluded that the tomb belonged to a Song official who had been exiled to southern Guangdong…”