"By the way, how’s the person I asked you to find last time?"
Before going abroad, Qi Yun had also arranged another matter for the other party, which was to help poach a senior operations person from Aunt Wang’s side.
"Already made contact, the other person is willing to come, just waiting for your word," Xie Mengmeng replied.
Qi Yun nodded, not really surprised by this result.
Work is work, doesn’t matter where you do it. Bosses like myself, probably the kind of boss every worker dreams of.
Pay is good, and there’s none of that cutthroat competition or pua tactics. If I had met the current me back then, I’d definitely work under myself for a lifetime.
"Okay, see when he’s available, set up a meeting, I’ll have a chat with him."
"Alright, Mr. Qi, I’ll contact her later."
After giving instructions to Xie Mengmeng, Qi Yun got up and went to Brother Peng’s office.
He opened the door, greeted by a thick smell of smoke. Brother Peng was frowning at a few sheets of paperwork on the desk.
Qi Yun waved his hand in front of his nose: "How much did you smoke?"
Brother Peng stubbed out his cigarette and straightened himself up, greeting him, "You’re back."
"Yeah." Qi Yun responded, sitting on the sofa beside him, "What’s up?"
"Well, we’ve hit a snag in transport. A batch of our goods was held up in Goose." Brother Peng sighed.
Qi Yun frowned upon hearing this: "Why was it held up? Missing paperwork?"
"It’s not the paperwork," Brother Peng shook his head, "We’ve got everything, legal and compliant. I notified Mendeleyev to check it out as soon as it happened."
"He said Goose’s railway department at some station suspects the train car is carrying dangerous goods and wants to hold and inspect it."
Qi Yun was puzzled: "Come on, a bunch of second-hand computers and speakers, how are they tied to dangerous goods?"
Brother Peng rubbed his temples: "Anyway, that’s their claim now, kinda seems like they’re looking for trouble."
"Damn bastards." Qi Yun cursed, sensing the complexity of the issue, "They want a first bite, huh? Have Mendeleyev grease the wheels; if that doesn’t work, let that Nokovic handle it."
Faced with such matters, there’s no choice but to deal with it. He had foreseen such problems from the beginning.
After all, Goose is notorious for its rough environment and those local officials aren’t any better than South Africa’s, something evident from dealing with Tuva’s top brass - Nokovic.
The reason for this business is mainly because of the lucrative profits. Second-hand speakers bought for a few hundred can sell for two to three thousand over there, a near double profit.
After deducting various costs, there’s still a significant gain.
"Mendeleyev already went out to handle it yesterday, but it’s been a whole day and no news has come back; I guess it’s not going smoothly," Brother Peng said with another sigh, "This batch is our largest shipment, costs alone over eight million."
Qi Yun grabbed a bottle of mineral water from under the coffee table, unscrewed and drank a couple of sips, comforting: "Don’t rush, let’s wait a bit longer, if it really doesn’t work, I’ll think of something."
The Fu Family has business in Moscow too. Though it’s not as large as in other European countries, the influence is considerable anyway.
If it really doesn’t pan out, they can offer some perks to ask Li Yaohua to introduce some Goose officials, solving such minor problems should be manageable.
Seeing Qi Yun’s confident demeanor, Brother Peng also felt somewhat reassured: "Alright, I’ll contact Old Men tonight and ask about it."
In the midst of their conversation, Qi Yun’s phone suddenly started ringing.
He took out his phone and saw Luo Yang’s name on the screen, immediately heading to an empty conference room nearby.
"Hey, Mr. Luo."
Luo Yang’s voice on the other end was quite low: "One of my guys picked up some info; the night of the 1st, someone saw three guys take Old Ghost from a motel."
"You know who they are?" Qi Yun asked, frowning.
"Not sure." Luo Yang paused and then continued, "I’m at the motel now, how about you come over so we can discuss?"
"Sure, send me the location, I’m coming over."
After hanging up, Qi Yun told Brother Peng he was off, then quickly left the company.
More than half an hour later, he appeared with Chen Wei beside a rundown city village street.
At the entrance of an inconspicuous motel, Luo Yang was squatting and smoking, while his guys were asking around the shops on the street.
After getting out of the car, Qi Yun glanced at a small lane three hundred meters to the left, remembering that Old Ghost’s rented room was somewhere down there.
He wasn’t taken from the rented room, but from a motel.
Looks like Old Ghost might have noticed he was being watched, didn’t dare return to his rented room, didn’t want to alarm them, so he went to a motel instead to seek an opportunity for escape.
As for why he didn’t manage to escape later, that’s unknown...
Qi Yun turned back, went to the motel and greeted Luo Yang, then asked: "Is there surveillance in the motel?"
Luo Yang tossed the cigarette butt on the ground, spat, and stood up: "There is, but that bastard usually doesn’t turn it on, only plugs it in when there’s an inspection."
Qi Yun was momentarily stunned but quickly understood the situation.
Such a motel, where you can stay for tens of bucks a night without an ID, gets all sorts of patrons; the owner understandably doesn’t want trouble.
If something does happen, he just claims "the surveillance is broken," which is a lot simpler than closing down for a few days to cooperate with an investigation.
"Got any other leads?"