Chapter 2050 - New Leads

That evening, the Guangzhou Municipal Tax Bureau Director's office was shrouded in cigarette smoke. Ai Zhixin examined the briefing on his desk with a self-satisfied expression.

"Old Wang, you see this? Every single one of these damned landlords deserves to be hung from a lamppost."

"Yes, we must handle this severely. The nature of this is too egregious!" Wang Qiyi felt somewhat sheepish. Before today's report arrived, he'd thought that although the Shi family's second young master wasn't entirely upstanding, his quick mind meant that with proper guidance, he could become a decent model of lawful and educated taxpaying. Who would have guessed that just moments ago, Guard Xiao Hu had delivered an expedited interrogation briefing copied to both the Tax Bureau and Police Bureau from Political Security. It stated that in addition to counterfeit currency, a stack of tax receipts had been discovered at the scene. Zeng Juan and the others had preliminarily determined them to be forged. According to Steward Liao from Guiren Residence, who was the first to confess, he'd obtained these tax receipts from the Qiwei Escort Bureau's storage depot at the Guangzhou docks on instructions from Steward Mai of the Liang family. He was supposed to deliver them to several "righteous men" in the chamber. He also disclosed that Steward Mai had repeatedly emphasized that provided he took care of the Shi family, he could sit back and watch the short-hairs of Guangzhou become a laughingstock.

Fortunately, he'd never mentioned to Ai Zhixin his "expectations" for this Smith fellow. Wang Qiyi secretly breathed a sigh of relief and stated resentfully, "These Liang and Shi families really concealed themselves deeply, pushing the Lin family out front to take the fall."

"Looks like it's time for a real feast," Ai Zhixin spread his palm in the air, then clenched it tight. "Not a single one escapes! I want them all!"

"Director Ai, at this juncture, this isn't merely our case anymore..."

"It never was solely ours."

"True." Wang Qiyi observed Ai Zhixin's expression, paused briefly, then continued, "So how do you think we should position ourselves?"

"Financial matters—we handle those," Ai Zhixin declared decisively. "No one else gets to interfere. We can't simply be the ones who set things up only to step aside. They want heads to pad their achievement records; we want silver to fill the national treasury! We absolutely cannot fall behind in the Executive Committee's estimation."

"Good." Wang Qiyi nodded firmly and jotted down a couple of lines in his notebook. "Then I'll proceed along those lines. Besides the Lin and Luo families, the Shi family also requires thorough investigation. We'll commence with the Hong Kong warehouse rental fees..."

"Old Wang, you're just too lenient. What's this 'commence with rental fees'? I say once we receive the detailed report back, if there's nothing too far off, we summon that Smith directly in the name of the Economic Major Cases Investigation Bureau. Bring him in first, then discuss. Several hundred to over a thousand in brokerage fees—who does he think he's deceiving?"

"Yes, yes, thank you for the reminder, Director Ai." Though Wang Qiyi privately felt Ai Zhixin's idea only sounded gratifying—having completely forgotten that the State Council's authorization limited the Investigation Division to merely twenty-four hours of detention power—he still nodded in agreement. "There I go again with my old habit, forgetting our Tax Bureau possesses teeth too. Alright, we'll take the initiative on this. Don't worry. Once Yao Yulan and the others return, we'll study this immediately and move swiftly."

The next day at noon, upon learning that Yao Yulan, Huang Ping, and Zeng Juan had returned to the bureau and were eating lunch in the cafeteria, Wang Qiyi immediately had them notified to meet in Room 114 at one o'clock sharp. In the past, given his temperament, Wang Qiyi would have allowed the three of them to catch up on sleep first. But there was no time for that now. Ai Zhixin had established the tone, which meant he had to lead his personnel in a race against time to "grab the spotlight." The Tax Bureau absolutely could not wait around for Wu Mu's people to conduct property seizures before raising tax evasion—this was a political mission.

"Alright, let's skip the pleasantries. Two items today. First, have Team Leader Yao brief us on yesterday's joint arrest and interrogation operation with Political Security and the Police Bureau. Second, we'll review the Shi family issues together. Yao Yulan, begin. Hit the key points—everyone listen carefully." Having said this, Wang Qiyi lowered his head and began flipping through the detailed report they'd submitted today.

"Yes! Three personnel from our bureau participated in this operation: Zeng Juan, Huang Ping, and myself. Among those arrested were stewards, accountants, and personal attendants from several major households that our bureau has been monitoring closely. Among them, Liao Rushen, steward of the Luo family's Guiren Residence, was one of the key figures. Through expedited interrogation, Liao Rushen confessed that he was acting on instructions from Mai Dami, the Liang family's steward, to meet with subordinates of someone codenamed 'Stone Elder' and distribute the previously acquired forged tax receipts. Additionally, the counterfeit currency discovered at the scene was brought back by these people because they felt it was 'hard to use' and 'difficult to spend,' intending to return it to 'Stone Elder'..."

"Wait..." Wang Qiyi glanced up, seemingly having caught something. "Yao Yulan, you just stated Liao Rushen was meeting with Stone Elder's subordinates. How is it now these people wish to return the counterfeit funds to Stone Elder?"

"Correct. After interrogation, Political Security states they can preliminarily determine that each of them received instructions from 'Stone Elder' through various channels directing them to the East Gate suburb, where they each assumed the others had been dispatched by Stone Elder."

"...So there was no one in command?" Wang Qiyi wondered what manner of operation this was—an anti-short-hair tea party?

"It's like this, Director Wang," Yao Yulan quickly elaborated, observing Wang Qiyi's puzzled expression. "According to Liao Rushen, these people all oppose us and mostly possess some resources and ideas at their disposal. So rather than calling 'Stone Elder' the mastermind behind the scenes, it's more accurate to say he's a facilitator and instigator. Naturally, Liao Rushen also stated that at critical moments, Stone Elder would dispatch people, but his level was too low to participate—he only possessed secondhand information."

Taking the masses (gentry) line? This Stone Elder possesses quite a brain. Wang Qiyi grew even more curious. "Continue."

"The aspects relevant to us mainly concern benefits transfer and forged tax receipts. According to Liao Rushen's confession, Mai Dami had repeatedly requested that he look after the Shi family's business, which our earlier investigation had already confirmed. As for the forged tax receipts, Liao Rushen obtained them from the Qiwei Escort Bureau's storage depot at the Guangzhou docks. He first acquired a claim ticket from Mai Dami, then proceeded directly to the depot to collect the package. Besides tax receipts, the package contained filling instructions. I've attached three of the tax receipts to the last page of the report."

Hearing Yao Yulan's explanation, Wang Qiyi hurriedly flipped to the report's rear, extracted the tax receipts and spread them on the table, then handed one copy to Xu Zhewei and Chu Xiaoran.

"Tsk tsk, I must say, these appear quite authentic." The two of them each held a tax completion certificate, now rubbing it with their fingertips, now holding it up to the sunlight. Soon, Xu Zhewei discovered the problem. "No, this is incorrect. Our tax receipts are self-copying paper—theirs is just regular paper, and slightly thicker." As he spoke, Xu Zhewei shook the tax receipt.

"Yes, we initially became suspicious of the tax receipts based on those two factors. I've reviewed the instructions—when filling out fake tax receipts, they employ carbon paper directly. Carbon paper is sold in Lingao. And since taxpayers only retain the second copy underneath, this issue is easily overlooked. As for the paper quality, they've devised a countermeasure too: mixing real and fake completion certificates in the same bound volume. When inspecting, it's very difficult to spot the problem..."

"Then what about the watermarks on these..."

"Report, Director Wang. The colleagues from the Police Bureau who interrogated with us stated that counterfeit currency has appeared on the Guangzhou market, and we seized some in this arrest. It can be confirmed that this underground network possesses the capability to produce paper with watermarks. Although it's not as sophisticated as new currency manufacturing, it's sufficient for tax receipts."

The Tax Bureau's tax receipt printing actually hadn't been held to high standards from the outset. Whether it was Cheng Dong, Ai Zhixin, or Wang Qiyi and Zhang Xiaoqi, the requirement proposed was merely "ordinary natives cannot easily counterfeit it." The low bar wasn't merely about cost—more importantly, tax receipts simply couldn't compare to paper currency in importance. Paper currency constituted bearer instruments that circulated directly as general equivalents. Tax receipts, conversely, contained detailed enterprise and issuing authority information along with clear tax payment records—they couldn't circulate. Besides, through the Tax Bureau's receipt issuance system, the printed serial number in the upper right corner alone made it simple to look up any receipt's actual status. For taxpayers, using fake receipts was just exploiting gaps in inter-departmental information sharing to offset taxes collected by other departments or foreign tax authorities. But the moment a tax audit cross-referenced the receipts, accounts, and Tax Bureau payment records, the fraud would immediately be exposed. Add to this the fact that people using fake receipts typically filled in large amounts to "recover their investment," which meant that once discovered, multiple charges accumulated with severe penalties. For any taxpayer of significant scale, the risk simply wasn't worthwhile. So while the old timeline had countless cases of falsified tax receipts, cases of outright counterfeit tax receipts were rare (counterfeits mostly concentrated among individual taxpayers or one-time personal transactions like real estate deed taxes).

But this did serve as a wake-up call for Wang Qiyi. While forged tax receipts might not cause major waves, if the Executive Committee planned to implement invoices next, they'd need to be cautious.

"Political Security investigated the Qiwei depot at the Guangzhou docks. Since not much time had passed, the counter attendant still remembered the person—he was wearing the uniform of a ship worker from the Guangzhou-Hong Kong ferry line. Because he wanted three days of storage, which was considered a longer duration, he had to pay a fee..."

"Oh." Wang Qiyi didn't glance up, continuing to flip through the report while rotating his pen.

"Director Wu specifically spoke with Team Leader Zeng and Colleague Huang, inquiring about the situation with the warehouses the Shi family leases from Guiren Residence in Hong Kong."

"Little Zeng, what did Director Wu ask you?" Wang Qiyi suddenly started, recalling the investigation report from Zeng Juan and Huang Ping that he'd forwarded to Wu Mu.

"Mainly the issues from that day's report," Zeng Juan deliberated again before continuing. "Director Wu was very interested in those two warehouses we mentioned that the Shi family had never utilized. He asked me and Colleague Huang many detailed questions."

(End of Chapter)