Chapter 2047 - Nothing New Under the Sun
"Mm, your reasoning is sound. I'll coordinate with the Police Bureau on this..." Wang Qiyi said, though his mind calculated how long copying materials from the Police Bureau would require—this timeline possessed no photocopiers. The various foundational social information gathered through the Guangzhou Police Bureau's "household surveys" had already been dispatched to the Municipal Government Printing Office for typesetting and printing under Liu Xiang's orders—he wondered how progress proceeded...
One had to acknowledge these naturalized cadres had performed admirably, and their suggestions were astute. But Wang Qiyi understood that the genuine prize couldn't be captured this way. The reason was straightforward: even in the old timeline, people evaded supervision through verbal agreements (for instance, not exercising matured debts but having the counterparty repay through alternative means via oral arrangements). And in seventeenth-century Ming, an era where verbal agreements might carry no less weight than written contracts, such situations proved even more prevalent. According to his deduction: the Lin family's shares in various industries could all demonstrate losses with no dividends for major shareholders, but whenever the Lin family genuinely required funds, a single note would suffice for these taverns and teahouses to disburse on their behalf—or perhaps even more directly, clandestinely delivering currency to the Lin family, maintaining it exclusively in private ledgers, off official books.
Wang Qiyi had been contemplating this problem for considerable time. When he'd discussed it with his wife last night, she'd offered several suggestions. Today, after examining Yao Yulan and the others' report, he felt even more certain of his approach. He retrieved his brush, pondered momentarily, then wrote rapidly in the blank space on the first page: "Approve expanding the investigation scope and seconding personnel from the Accounting Verification Office to assist. Consider focusing the investigation on industries where the Lin family holds significant stakes, particularly taverns..."
Hmm?... How many strokes on the left side of "tavern"? Pausing his brush, Wang Qiyi glanced up and noticed the three naturalized cadres seated across from him, backs rigid, expressions solemn, staring at him unblinkingly. He couldn't help but tug awkwardly at his mouth's corner, hurriedly crossing out the character "tavern" he'd inscribed. "...particularly businesses where concrete evidence exists that the actual operator is Lin Zunxiu." Yao Yulan, this should align with your expertise, Wang Qiyi reflected internally, rotating his brush.
"Report, Director Wang—Team Leader Zeng and Investigator Huang are here. They state they have work to report."
"Admit them." Wang Qiyi set down the report he'd just authorized and called to the three individuals in the room, "Everyone remain and listen together. Xu Zhewei, borrow a stool from Director Zhang's office next door."
Zeng Juan pushed open the door and discovered only one vacant chair in the chamber. Yao Yulan and Chu Xiaoran were seated on the three-person sofa, with an empty space beside them, though it didn't seem entirely appropriate to sit there—besides, who knew if Colleague Xu would be returning... Just as Zeng Juan was enacting this minor drama in his head, Huang Ping casually settled down next to Yao Yulan.
"Sit for now, Team Leader Zeng. Xu Zhewei went to retrieve a stool, so there'll be seats for everyone." As Wang Qiyi spoke, he reached into his right drawer and extracted a white-boxed special-issue Sacred Ship cigarette, tapped one out and tossed it to Huang Ping. "Little Huang, catch..."
"Hey! Thank you, Director Wang!" Huang Ping rapidly stood and caught the airborne cigarette with both hands. But knowing no one else in the room smoked, he casually tucked the cigarette behind his ear.
"Little Huang, let me inquire—where did you acquire this habit of tucking cigarettes behind your ear?"
"Director Wang, I learned it when studying smoking from my upper bunkmate at vocational school. He claimed it was the style of superior individuals, very fashionable, and everyone believed it projected an Australian aura. Actually, I'm uncertain if it's accurate—you know Fangcaodi prohibits smoking..."
Just then, Xu Zhewei entered carrying a chair.
"Now that everyone's assembled, let's commence. Team Leader Zeng, tell us about your Hong Kong trip."
"Yes, Director Wang!" Zeng Juan stood and presented his report with both hands, then returned to his seat and began his briefing. "After Colleague Huang and I arrived in Hong Kong the day before yesterday, we immediately conducted an inspection of the warehouses the Shi family leases in Hong Kong according to protocol. Due to time and manpower constraints, after obtaining cooperation from local customs, we selected several of the larger transit warehouses for spot checks. Overall, we discovered no issues—the inventories filed by the Shi family matched the warehouse spot-check results completely. We also reviewed customs' shipping records and vessel manifests. According to Deputy Director Wei, he believes the vessels, shipping volumes, and voyage frequencies are all essentially consistent. His signed attestation appears on my report's final page."
"Mm, so the Shi family can basically be deemed clean?" Wang Qiyi considered this within expectations—otherwise that Smith fellow probably wouldn't have been so confident.
"From an operational standpoint, there shouldn't be problems." Zeng Juan paused thoughtfully, seemingly considering how to phrase his words. "But Director Wang, both Colleague Huang and I perceive something anomalous about the warehouse they lease."
"How so?"
"They've leased a total of eleven warehouses, all owned by the Luo family's Guiren Residence. But according to the Qiwei manager responsible for transporting goods at the dock, two of them appear never to have been utilized—they've never transported goods out of or into those locations. One in particular is extremely diminutive. When Guiren Residence was initially constructing it, the dock's warehousing management division had suggested modifications, but the Luo family didn't accept them..."
Heh, now that's intriguing, Wang Qiyi mused. Should he transfer this to Wu Mu's people for examination? The Luo family was finished anyway—if something additional got uncovered, that would constitute pure profit. But no need to mention this to Zeng Juan and the others. He glanced at Yao Yulan. Damn, that dead-fish expression again. I refuse to believe someone from Political Security wouldn't react to this. She's probably going to rush off to report to that Yang Cao tonight. Contemplating this, Wang Qiyi suddenly felt resentful: whose troops were these, anyway?
"There's one more matter." Zeng Juan's suddenly elevated voice startled Wang Qiyi, who had been absorbed in thought. "We discovered there's a significant problem with the rent Tianrui Garden pays to Guiren Residence. Logically speaking, there should exist a well-established long-term contract between producers like Tianrui Garden, who manage large quantities of goods requiring transit, and landlords like Guiren Residence, who own substantial dock warehouse space. Otherwise, whether Tianrui Garden switches to a different warehouse or Guiren Residence refuses to lease to Tianrui Garden, both parties would face unnecessary trouble and losses..." Zeng Juan steadied himself, then regarded Wang Qiyi again. The Director's approving gaze gave him confidence to continue. "But strangely, the rental contract between Tianrui Garden and Guiren Residence is signed for merely half a year at a time! Each signing requires a substantial 'brokerage fee,' which Tianrui Garden also counts as rental expenses, listed under transit warehouse account details. If we hadn't journeyed to Hong Kong, we never would have observed this reviewing the Sanya books. Add to this the fact that since the Executive Committee recovered Hong Kong, increasing numbers are employing the island as a transit point, and Hong Kong warehouse rents have been ascending steadily—especially those near the docks, which command a significant premium—so this expense doesn't appear particularly anomalous. Although executing this is completely legal and doesn't violate our regulations, something still feels irregular. We questioned the person responsible for the transit warehouse about this broker's situation, and he stated he didn't know either—plus he only manages the ledgers, not the payments."
"What does he base his accounting on without vouchers?" Wang Qiyi wondered. This was a commonplace tax evasion tactic—fabricating expenses to inflate costs—nothing remarkable. But there was more forthcoming.
"He possesses vouchers, but he can only manage accounts, not currency. The cashier is dispatched from Tianrui Garden—arrives from Sanya quarterly with tax receipts, handles the payment and collection of ongoing business transactions, then takes the tax receipts to customs to offset the taxes due before returning to Sanya. Ordinarily, no currency flows through his location."
"..." Wang Qiyi was stumped. This was genuinely encountering a worthy adversary. Young Master Shi was truly talented! "Did you track down that broker?"
"No, we don't possess that capability..." Zeng Juan shook his head regretfully.
"Director Wang, for someone where we only possess a physical description but incomplete social identity information, if we wish to investigate, we'd require police cooperation to commence checking through Hong Kong's incoming ship manifests and hotel registries. We didn't have sufficient time." Huang Ping, having received law enforcement training in Lingao, clearly comprehended such matters better.
If only we had computers and networks, Wang Qiyi reflected. Big data would be magnificent... But as matters stood, they had to search through archived documents. He'd witnessed the card-style mechanical calculators that Director Ai treasured like precious jewels: they were cumbersome to operate. Just punching holes in the cards for input required numerous people, and you had to queue extensively to query a single item... The critical limitation was you could only search by preset fields, not perform fuzzy keyword searches.
"You mentioned substantial brokerage fees earlier—how substantial exactly?"
"It varies. Different each instance, but always at minimum several hundred yuan. One payment last year even exceeded a thousand."
Hsss—over a thousand yuan! Wang Qiyi drew in a breath. Unlike those who imagined ancients dispersed thousands or tens of thousands of taels like trivial sums, Wang Qiyi's work had given him lucid comprehension of Ming society's actual economic conditions. Not only was it distant from what appeared in films and dramas, but even compared to the later Qing dynasty, Ming silver possessed vastly greater purchasing power.
Although they had now abolished taels favoring yuan, the new currency remained essentially silver-backed. Its purchasing power was substantial. Land prices in the area surrounding Guangzhou's Great World were ascending, yet Zhang Yu had paid merely around three hundred yuan for eighty mu of land. Miss Dong's establishment, despite being so popular, would only generate approximately a hundred yuan in total annual revenue. That thousand yuan would suffice to purchase several hundred mu of prime farmland in the countryside and become a landlord.
But failing to track down the broker posed no problem, Wang Qiyi considered, pivoting. The monk may flee, but the temple remains. "Tomorrow, you two proceed to the Shi family..."
Ring ring ring... The telephone rang.
"Yes, this is Wang Qiyi! Oh, Director Wu... hold on..." Before Wang Qiyi could even glance up to speak, Huang Ping inquired, "Director Wang, should we step out and wait?"
"Yes." Once he confirmed that all the naturalized cadres had departed the room, Wang Qiyi removed his hand from the mouthpiece and continued, "Director Wu, we can converse now... What?!"
(End of Chapter)