Cao Jing's back was soaked with sweat, and his face had gone completely pale.
"Who... who the hell said that?" Cao Jing roared.
Everyone looked at him innocently. "Boss, you did."
"???" Cao Jing nearly lost his mind.
He kicked one man over and cursed, "Can't you understand plain words? I told you to take the money and run. Why the hell did you throw it downstairs to someone else?"
The blond-haired man hurried to remind him. "Jing Ge, think about it. That was what you said at first, but then Ma Ye's people arrived to pick it up, right? So you had someone tell us to throw the money downstairs. That was the new plan for moving it..."
Seeing the blond-haired man earnestly trying to jog his memory, Cao Jing nearly fainted from rage.
If someone had maliciously cut the power, the worst that might happen was a disturbance that ruined his business.
But missing money was no accident. Put the two together, and it was obvious someone had set him up and made off with the cash under cover of darkness!
Eight million. Had he really handed it over just like that? Cao Jing's scalp prickled at the thought.
"Do I need you to remind me? I never said that! Do you understand? Who the hell passed that message around? You said I had someone notify you—who was it?" Cao Jing pressed.
Everyone looked at one another. Who had told them? It had been so dark. Who knew? One of them, probably.
Now Jing Ge was saying he had never given that order. Which meant... someone had stolen the money?
At that, everyone realized how serious this was.
The blond-haired man glared at the others. "There's a traitor among us!"
"Who said it? Huh? Who?" Cao Jing scrutinized them too, his eyes red with fury.
"It was A Lu! I recognized A Lu's voice!" a scar-faced man suddenly said.
Cao Jing immediately turned an angry glare on A Lu.
A Lu froze, then protested, "Bullshit! I didn't say it!"
Seeing Cao Jing stare at him, he hurried on. "It must be Scarface! It clearly wasn't me, but he's accusing me. That bastard has to be the mole!"
"Talk, Scarface! Did you team up with outsiders to steal the money?"
"Passing off your words as Jing Ge's and tricking us into throwing the money downstairs? You've got some nerve. That was eight million!"
Cao Jing turned to Scarface.
"How could it be me?" Scarface said urgently. "Jing Ge, you know how loyal I am!"
"I just want to know where the money is," Cao Jing said ominously. "Give it back, and nothing will happen to you..."
"It really wasn't me, Jing Ge! Everyone, be fair. Can't you recognize my voice? You all heard that person back there. It was obviously A Lu!"
A man whose hair was styled like a flower roll shook his head. "It sounded a bit like him, but it wasn't A Lu. I was beside him the whole time. It was dark, but my phone lit him up. The person passing the message was across from me."
"Exactly!" A Lu said. "Hua Juan'er, that bastard even accused me. He has to be the mole."
Hua Juan'er shook his head again. "But that voice obviously wasn't Scarface's either."
"Maybe he disguised his voice on purpose?" someone suggested.
Wu San stepped forward. "For starters, it definitely wasn't me or Hua Juan'er. That person shone a light in our faces and even called us by name."
Everyone nodded. Then someone else said, "We can rule out A Lu too. So the mole has to be one of the people left... I know it wasn't me."
As he spoke, he surveyed the remaining men.
"Xiao Yang, was it you? Why haven't you said anything?"
When Xiao Yang saw Jing Ge look his way, he blurted, "It couldn't have been me! Jing Ge, you know I'm an orphan. What would I do with that much money?"
"Who knows? It's eight million," the blond-haired man chimed in.
"Bullshit! Money means nothing to me!" Xiao Yang snapped. "I know! It was you, wasn't it? You're the greediest one here!"
The blond-haired man jumped up. "He's talking nonsense! Jing Ge, I might love money, but I'd never dare do this! Besides, this had to be planned in advance. I didn't even know there was money in that private room."
At that, the others spoke up too. "Right! I didn't know there was money in there."
"Neither did I."
Hearing this, Cao Jing fixed his gaze on Wu San'er. Of everyone there, only A Lei and Wu San had known where the money was.
A Lei had been with him since childhood, and Cao Jing trusted him completely. Besides, A Lei had gone to deal with the goods at the time and hadn't been in the private room. Cao Jing immediately began to suspect Wu San. Only he could have planned it.
"Jing Ge, that person called me by name!" Wu San said urgently.
"Hah? Who's to say you didn't call out your own name?" someone retorted.
"Impossible. I was standing with Wu San at the time!" Hua Juan'er spoke up for him.
Someone else said, "I've got it! There are two moles!"
Everyone argued at once, giving Cao Jing a pounding headache.
"Shut up!" he roared.
The room fell quiet. Cao Jing asked, "Did the person who passed the message have any distinguishing features?"
"Oh!" the blond-haired man blurted. "A flashlight!"
"...You call that a distinguishing feature?" Cao Jing stared at him.
"He had the flashlight pointed at us, with the light behind him. We couldn't see him clearly!" the blond-haired man said helplessly.
The others nodded. Thinking back, all they remembered of that person was the flashlight's beam. It had practically swallowed up every other detail.
"A flashlight? Do you all have pig brains? All you remember is a flashlight?" Cao Jing was in despair. Utter despair...
How had this happened? Who was it?
Cao Jing gritted his teeth. "If it was one of you, don't blame me for getting rough."
A Lei had been listening from the side. Now he moved closer and said, "Jing Ge, they all look like they're just guessing. I don't think there's a mole among them. Why would the culprit come back?"
Cao Jing knew he had a point, but what else could he do? All he could do was pressure them for answers.
"Jing Ge, you were there at the start," A Lei said. "Something went wrong after you left. What happened then?"
Cao Jing thought for a moment, then quickly recounted what had happened.
"What? The money case was snatched? No, it wasn't. One of our guys brought it over and put it on the office desk. I saw it there. Then the power went out." A Lei immediately spotted the inconsistency.
He added, "Right—the money case disappeared during the blackout too!"
Cao Jing finally realized that someone had only pretended the money case had been stolen.
"You mean... I mistook an outsider for one of our men and called him in to move the money?" Cao Jing was stunned. He had never imagined such a thing.
The blond-haired man gasped. "What? The guys at the door weren't ours? Three people came into the private room with me!"
"What? Three?" Cao Jing's jaw dropped.
"Ah!" A Lei jolted at the blond-haired man's words, remembering the two men who had been standing guard at the door.
"I remember now. Two men were standing guard at the door the whole time. Jing Ge, after the power went out, did you call them in to move the money?"
Cao Jing nearly broke down. So he had let the outsiders in himself!
"Who were they? Why the hell were they guarding my door?"
Beside him, A Lei slammed a fist into the wall, as though something had clicked into place!
He turned to Cao Jing with complete confidence. "Jing Ge! I know who did it!"
"Oh? Who?" Cao Jing perked up. He could always count on A Lei, his closest brother!
"Jing Ge, remember who came to trade with us?" A Lei asked confidently. "He was already here before the blackout!"
"You mean Wang Siwen?" Cao Jing said as understanding dawned.
Wang Siwen was the man in the suit.
"The two guarding the door were Wang Siwen's men," A Lei said with a smile. "He brought quite a few more people the second time he came. Remember how he claimed he'd lost his money? He insisted you'd taken it, Jing Ge, and had a huge argument with us. Looking back, that's very suspicious."
"Maybe he really did lose his money, thought you took it, and held a grudge. So he brought more men the second time and pulled this."
"Or maybe Wu San accidentally let something slip, and Wang Siwen set his sights on you. He could have deliberately made the first deal fall through by claiming he had no money, then used the visit to scope out the private room."
"The cops raided our original meeting place, so we temporarily hid everything at this KTV. He might have guessed that too. He posted men at the door, had someone cut the power, and arranged for someone to catch the money... When the alarm sounded, he deliberately said the deal was off and ran after his money. Then he used the chance to slip his own people inside... You were played, Jing Ge!"
By the time A Lei finished, Cao Jing's eyes were bloodshot and he was seething.
"Well, Wang Siwen has some nerve. He actually dared steal from me."
"Come on! We're going after him!"
He had to get the money back. But just as he gathered his men and reached the parking lot behind the building...
Wang Siwen arrived with his own men!
Wang Siwen had even taken off his suit jacket. Wearing only a shirt, he stood among dozens of armed men.
Red-faced and furious, he slammed a case onto the ground!
Cao Jing looked down. The case was full of bricks and rags.
Wang Siwen pointed at it furiously. "Cao Jing! I knew you took my money. How do you explain this?"
He had seized the case from one of "Cao Jing's men," only to open it later and find bricks and rags inside. Someone had switched it!
Wang Siwen had nearly died of rage.
"You've got the nerve to come here?" Cao Jing snapped. "I told you, I didn't take your money! You're the one who's gone too far. Who told you to send that text? Talk!" More than the money, he knew that text was the most serious part of this.
"I've gone too far? You're saying I've gone too far?"
Wang Siwen was so furious he could have breathed smoke.
He pointed at himself. "Screwing me over once wasn't enough? You had to do it twice?"
"You didn't touch my money? Heh... Do you think I'm a fucking idiot?"
With that, he suddenly pulled a baseball bat from behind his back and smashed it into Cao Jing's head.
The man who had been dressed in a crisp suit earlier now looked like a wild beast.
"I'm telling you, Cao Jing! I've put up with you for a long time!"
Wang Siwen planted the bat on the ground and jabbed a finger at Cao Jing, who lay where the surprise blow had dropped him. Hatred seemed to seep from his very gums!
"You've gone too damn far!" he said, trembling with rage.
P.S. Sorry.