Chapter 29

Part One: Turbulent Waters of Officialdom. Chapter 29: A remedy for resentment

Zhang Ke stayed at Xu Xueping's home until mid-August, spending his days with Xie Wanqing and Zhitong and gradually helping Zhitong overcome the fear the car accident had left her with. By the time Zhang Ke left Haizhou, Zhitong dared to walk out of the villa's courtyard on her own again and no longer trembled with terror at the sight of cars on the road. She still did not dare speak, but everyone believed she would slowly get better.

On the day the company secured its loan, Xie Wanqing used her connections within the Bank of China to freeze the ten million yuan in loan funds transferred to Haiyu Company's account. Only then did Zhang Ke meet Haiyu Company's longtime representative for the first time: Xie Wanqing's older cousin, Xie Zhan.

Xie Zhan was about thirty-five or thirty-six, with a long, narrow, fair face, but his eyes made people uncomfortable. He was the sort who wore his shrewdness on his face. When he learned that Xie Wanqing had suddenly frozen the account through her connections within the Bank of China, he reacted like a dog whose tail had been stepped on. Without stopping to give it much thought, he went straight to New Plum Garden.

Xie Wanqing told him calmly, "Zhitong and I are a widow and an orphan, and I can't manage the company either. Zhiming's father wants me to withdraw from it. I've read your appraisal report on the company's assets. Although it has twelve million yuan in assets, I only need to take ten million. You can submit an additional application to the Bank of China to change the purpose of the loan, asking them to approve using the money to purchase the company's assets. I'll make sure they approve your application."

"What would I want Haiyu Company for?" Xie Zhan spread his hands. "Zhiming worked so hard to build Haiyu Company. What would I want it for?"

Xie Wanqing said, "When Zhiming's father was transferred to Donghai as secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission, Zhiming handed the company over to you in accordance with the central authorities' requirements. Although the shares are in my name, I haven't received a single cent in dividends in these three years. I don't think the company has much to do with either Zhiming or me. But I hear you've just bought a Mercedes-Benz. I think I might as well sell the company to you..."

Xie Zhan stood there, somewhat stunned. He had never imagined that his younger cousin, who had only taken over the company after Xu Zhiming died in the car accident, would be such a formidable character. He had never seen the slightest sign of it before. His expression darkened, and he dropped the niceties. "Even if you want to sell the company, you have no right to force someone to buy it."

"How am I forcing you?" Xie Wanqing said, feigning innocence. "If I were, I'd just transfer the money out. I wouldn't even bother telling you..."

Xu Xueping was secretary of the provincial Political and Legal Affairs Commission. Arranging to transfer ten million yuan straight out of the company's account through connections within the Bank of China was not beyond his reach.

Seeing that Xie Wanqing did not seem to be joking, Xie Zhan gave a strained smile. "Even if you want to withdraw from the company, it isn't worth that much. Don't be fooled by how good the asset appraisal looks. That was just to make it easier to get a bank loan."

"Would you explain that to the Bank of China and the court?"

"Weren't you the one who decided on the loan..." Xie Zhan stared at Xie Wanqing in astonishment. Not one of the loan documents bore her signature. At the time, he had congratulated himself on completely sidelining her, holding all the power and arranging the loan by himself. Now it looked like a trap. At that thought, he calmed down instead. He glanced at Zhitong and Zhang Ke beside them and frowned slightly. "Wanqing, what exactly do you want? With your ability, transferring all ten million out of the account wouldn't be too difficult. The company would certainly collapse as a result, dumping a pile of bad debts on the bank. That doesn't sound like something you'd do."

Seeing how quickly Xie Zhan had made sense of the situation, Zhang Ke thought he really was no ordinary man. He sat to one side holding Zhitong's hand, watching their exchange with a detached eye.

"Ten million yuan can't just vanish without an explanation. The bank would need a scapegoat before it could account for it. Tell me, would I get burned too?"

Xie Wanqing had made it plain that she was prepared to use any means, and she was indeed difficult to handle. Xie Zhan's face turned livid. "You want me to leave the company?"

"Whatever you've pocketed from the company over these three years, you'll have to cough it all up."

Zhang Ke had discussed this with Xie Wanqing beforehand. There was no possibility of getting Xie Zhan to return all the money voluntarily unless they took legal action. But taking legal action would inevitably give rise to rumors unfavorable to Xu Xueping. All they wanted was to drive Xie Zhan out of Haiyu Company. Of course, they could not reveal their bottom line at the start of negotiations.

Zhang Ke thought that Xie Zhan had pocketed quite a lot from Haiyu Company over the past few years. Though he would be reluctant to give up his position, he would not cling to Haiyu in the face of a threatened prison sentence. Perhaps he was already thinking of leaving Haiyu and using the money he had taken to pursue bigger ventures.

Zhang Ke returned to Haizhou without waiting to see Xie Wanqing take back the company. After he got home, he heard Zhou Shuhui complain over the phone that Wanqing was so busy with company matters that she had no time to look after Zhitong. He knew then that the outcome could not be too bad.

Ding Xiangshan's case and the case involving the loss of state-owned assets at Xinfeng Group were still being tried. Zhang Ke used opportunities to discuss the cases with Xu Xueping to put in a few words for Xu Si, but he could not spell out what he meant and had no confidence that he could help her. Fortunately, Xu Si's parents had promptly handed the enormous sum of 270,000 yuan over to the Special Investigation Team, and the IOUs Xu Si had written at the time had also been recovered from Jiang Mingcheng's residence.

It was funny, really. Jiang Mingcheng had kept those IOUs as leverage against Ding Xiangshan, because Ding Xiangshan had later told him not to take them seriously and to tear them up.

The other matters had very little bearing on Xu Si. The main issue was still the fabrication of evidence to frame Tang Xueqian. Zhang Ke had done everything he could to influence the Special Investigation Team's judgment, but whether they would ultimately determine that she had acted under coercion or had been party to a conspiracy could only be left to fate.

In two days, he would have to attend military training for new students at First Municipal High School. He needed to settle the rental arrangements first.

That day also saw Zhang Xiaojian, the former Municipal Government Secretary-General, follow Zhou Fuming to the Municipal Party Committee to serve as Municipal Party Committee Secretary-General, while Zhang Zhixing formally succeeded Zhang Xiaojian as Municipal Government Secretary-General. Although both posts were at the full division level, the Municipal Party Committee Secretary-General was a member of the standing committee and thus joined the ranks of the city's leaders.

The news had spread quickly. While Zhang Zhixing himself was still hesitating, people outside were already speculating that he would become Municipal Government Secretary-General.

Regarding Zhang Ke's living off campus, Zhang Zhixing had spoken in advance to Wang Yanbin, the principal of First Municipal High School, and had also asked him to help find a place.

By the time Zhang Ke and his mother, Liang Gezhen, arrived at First Municipal High School, Wang Yanbin had already selected several apartments for them to choose from. All were in Fortune Garden, the best residential complex east of the school. Many parents who moved there to accompany their children through their final year of high school liked to rent in this complex. Liang Gezhen favored a studio apartment with very nice decor and a full range of amenities, rather like the bachelor apartments that would become popular in later years. Zhang Ke was very satisfied too, and the rent was only eighty yuan a month. He was not very familiar with everyday details such as rent in 1994, but even he thought it was far too cheap. (He later learned that renting a garage from a teacher on the school grounds in 1994 also cost eighty yuan.) This was most likely a favor from Wang Yanbin. They quickly decided to rent the apartment. Liang Gezhen's only additional request was that the television and video player be removed. Zhang Ke nearly beat his chest and stamped his feet. Computers existed in 1994, but he had absolutely no desire to touch a computer from that year. He had only been hoping to revisit some Hong Kong films. (1994 was the first year mainland China imported Hollywood blockbusters. Foreign films were in extremely short supply, and Hong Kong films were what people saw most often. It was also near the end of the Hong Kong film industry's golden decade.) He had not expected even that wish to be dashed for the time being.

Since the rented apartment had everything, there was nothing extra to prepare apart from clothes. They returned home early that afternoon and saw his father's older cousin, Zhang Zhiwei, standing at the door. Zhang Ke stood on the stairs with his arms folded and glanced sideways to see that his mother Liang Gezhen's face had already darkened.

"Where have you and Ke been, sister-in-law? I've been standing here for ages."

"If you need something, go find your younger cousin at the Municipal Government," Liang Gezhen said bluntly. "Ke, how did we forget to buy groceries on the way back? Come to the market with me." She turned and went straight downstairs, not even wanting to enter her own home. Looking at the stiff smile on his father's cousin's face, Zhang Ke followed her down.

"Sister-in-law, sister-in-law..." Zhang Zhiwei followed them downstairs. "Other families hold a banquet when their children get into high school. Ke did so well on his exams and got into such a good school. Shouldn't we hold one too? I've discussed it with Zhifei. The two of us, as Ke's uncles, will organize the banquet for him. You and Zhixing pick a hotel, and we'll have Zhifei arrange the cars and invite all the relatives from your side and ours to wish Ke a bright future..."

Before coming, his father's older cousin had already won over his younger uncle. Zhang Ke hesitated. Given the man's character, he would rather have ignored him for the rest of his life, but he could not slight his younger uncle. After all, his younger uncle and his father's cousin were brothers, and he too hoped the two families could resolve their differences.

Zhang Ke had never believed that resenting someone meant cutting off all contact. The most satisfying way was to keep him underfoot for the rest of his life and make him fawn on you with the utmost care.