Xu Dayuan stared into Fang Qing’s eyes and raised his hand to wag his index finger.
"Answer my question: do you know the market value of the house at that ti?"
"I know. According to the normal real estate price back then, which wasn’t high, the house was worth about 5.5 million. But as I said, that was the market price. Plus, with this kind of incident, how could it sell quickly? It was also a haunted house. I helped out, and now I’m getting blad for it?"
Xu Dayuan slapped the table and stood up, his voice harsh as he scolded Fang Qing:
"When I ask you a question, just answer properly, and spare the irrelevant talk. Why did Zhu Yantao mortgage the property? It was to save his son and his family, which includes your own sister and your nephew. They had to co up with eight million within twenty-four hours. Do you realize how much money that is?
Did any of you help at the ti? According to our investigation, not a penny, right? It’s bad enough not to help out in an ergency, but then you colluded with others to cut a deal. There’s no need for you to say anything more. No one is accusing you of breaking the law or suspecting you of misappropriating others’ property; this is just a routine investigation.
But since you’ve brought this up, let do so accounting for you now. Director Peng, call in your finance officer. From the ti Fang Qing joined the Water Affairs Bureau in 1993 to 2004, how much money has he made in total salary and bonuses over those eleven years?
Let’s calculate it properly. I’m going to look into your spouse’s inco as well. A public and transparent investigation—what do you think about that?"
At this point, Peng Enxin chid in.
"I just finished sorting this out recently. In ’93, the highest salary at our bureau was 3,300 yuan, and in 2005, it was 6,500 yuan. Including all allowances, and considering allocation was made in October, calculated over eleven years, the total salary cos to 613,200 yuan."
Zhou Ning glanced at Peng Enxin; he really did have a chart with a statistical summary of salaries and benefits, all calculated at the highest salary level. But the speed of his ntal calculations was truly fast.
Before Fang Qing could speak, Xu Dayuan gestured with his hand to cut him off.
"I’m not finished yet. Even if your wife’s inco is similar to yours, the two of you couldn’t have amassed that sum of money in eleven years without eating or drinking anything. Of course, you could say your parents and your spouse’s parents helped you contribute, but do you think we wouldn’t investigate that?
Your parents died in 2000, and if they hadn’t, I think when Fang Yue had her incident, at least they wouldn’t have been ’helpless’. Now, tell about your source of funds. I’ve already sent people to check with the bank. I hope you think clearly before you answer."
Fang Qing fell silent. In fact, whether he had illicit inco or not was sothing Xu Dayuan didn’t care about, but the man’s disregard for his relatives and his opportunistic deanor was truly distressing to witness.
It took a long ti before Fang Qing finally raised his head.
"There’s no need to check; I borrowed quite a bit of money."
"From whom?"
"I borrowed from classmates and colleagues, but the biggest sum was from Lou Sanfeng. I was in a hurry at the ti and casually asked him, and he imdiately asked how much I wanted to borrow. I said a million and that I’d pay him three percent interest for three months. I didn’t expect he would agree without hesitation.
After buying the house, I cleaned it up and then sold it through a real estate agency for a high price. I settled all the debts within a month, not shorting him any interest. I have the bank transfer records. If you don’t believe , you can check. They’re kept in the left-hand drawer of my desk."
Xu Dayuan glanced at Zhou Ning, who knew it was his turn to act. He stood up and walked out, signaling Mr. Zeng at the door to enter as he casually asked:
"Are Mr. Zhao and the others done searching?"
Mr. Zeng shook his head, his face gloomy.
"Mr. Zhao hasn’t co up yet, and Liu Yufei and the others haven’t left either. I don’t know if they’ve finished searching. It’s so annoying, like having a thorn stuck in my throat."
Zhou Ning had no ti to comfort him and pointed inside the room. After all, Xu Dayuan was in there with just two other people, so it was safer to have soone from their own team present. As of now, it seed Fang Qing had no close ties to Lou Sanfeng; Zhou Ning couldn’t fathom why he would lend money to Fang Qing.
"Stop talking nonsense and go be with Director Xu," Zhou Ning said. "I’ll go find Mr. Zhao and search Fang Qing’s office."
Mr. Zeng quickly tidied his clothes and went inside while Zhou Ning took out his phone and called Mr. Zhao.
"Are you done searching? Found anything?"
"Yes, I’ve searched the whole office, all the drawers and cabinets, I looked very carefully, but there’s no valuable information. Almost nothing personal. But let tell you, his office is the epito of tidy—papers are stacked with precision, not a single corner folded."
Zhou Ning wasn’t surprised at the lack of findings; the man hadn’t resisted, and his composure was remarkably good. However, verification based solely on handwriting left him feeling uneasy.
"Did you send a blood sample for testing?"
"Relax, the mont he ca in, I drew blood and sent it for analysis. Mrs. Fei has arranged for soone to take it back to the bureau. Why are you in such a rush to find , is everything upstairs finished?"
"Co up. We’re going to Room 309. Director Xu wants us to check Fang Qing’s office. There hasn’t been much progress from the questioning."
Mr. Zhao hung up the phone, and soon after, quick footsteps ascended the stairs. Judging by his agile ascent, Mr. Zhao’s nimbleness was definitely inconsistent with his weight.
Panting, Mr. Zhao appeared energized, his eyes occasionally darting toward Room 301.
"What does this an? Did he confess or not?"
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