"This car's a bit too fancy, needing the handbrake just to stop at a red light," Fang Chao grumbled with a frown.
At the traffic light, Fang Chao tensed his right leg, pressing the brake pedal all the way down while yanking up the handbrake with his right hand to finally bring the car to a halt. He wore a wig, large black-framed glasses perched on his nose, and a fake beard around his chin—completely transformed from his appearance just days ago.
Beside him in the passenger seat, Liu Zhi had undergone an even more drastic change. He had turned into a woman. Naturally tall and slender, he now wore a dress, black stockings, heavy makeup, and long wavy fake hair. If he didn’t speak, most men would surely let their imaginations run wild. Disgusted by his own disguise, he tugged at the wig and spoke in a rough, incongruously male voice: "Damn it! This piece-of-junk car is practically scrap, and that bastard still charged us twenty-five grand for it. Robbing us blind!"
Fang Chao sighed helplessly. "No choice. Supply and demand dictate the price. The police have been cracking down hard on unlicensed cars these past few years. It’s tough to buy one with proper papers now. The car itself is only worth five thousand—the other twenty grand is for the documents. We have to spend it. Otherwise, if the cops ever trace this car back to us, they’ll find out we bought it. Remember, we have to think ahead. Our ultimate goal in Three Rivers Estuary is to rob a big corrupt official. We can’t skimp on the prep work."
Liu Zhi slumped in frustration. "At this point, we’d better hope robbing that corrupt official makes up for it. Last time, the gold we took, plus the leftover jewelry from earlier, was worth over a million just in scrap gold. But that bastard buyer only gave us eighty grand total, saying it’s hard to launder stolen goods now. What’s there to launder with gold? Just melt it down! That bastard’s gonna get what’s coming to him sooner or later."
Fang Chao curled his lips into a calm smile. "Steady now. Do you know what Chairman Mao’s most philosophical saying was?"
"What? They’re all pretty philosophical," Liu Zhi scratched his wig, unsure what nonsense Fang Chao was about to spout.
"‘Take the long view when assessing things.’ What that means is, the money they cheated us out of will come back to us doubled before long."
Liu Zhi frowned in confusion. "How’s it gonna come back doubled?"
"After we rob the corrupt official, aside from cash, we’ll need someone to exchange the rest for money. Once we get their payment, we’ll take them out and steal everything back. That way, we get the money and keep the goods—effectively doubling the value. It’s like robbing the corrupt official twice!"
Liu Zhi thought for a moment, then instantly saw the brilliance of the idea. Cheerfully, he added, "Then we’ll find another buyer, do the same thing—trade the goods for cash, take the money, then take them out and steal it all back. That’d double it again, like robbing the corrupt official four times!"
Fang Chao raised an eyebrow and glanced at him before nodding. "Your math is impressive. No wonder you can’t find a real job."
Just then, the light turned green. Fang Chao released the handbrake and floored the gas. The car roared like a sports car but lurched forward as sluggishly as a tractor. They drove several kilometers down the road, turned a few corners, and finally arrived at a small hotel in the eastern part of Three Rivers Estuary.They parked in the lot behind the hotel. Fang Chao told Liu Zhi to wait in the car while he went inside alone to check in at the front desk.
Nowadays, all hotels, big or small, require ID registration linked to the police database. Those illegal inns that didn’t ask for IDs had long vanished after years of crackdowns. Fang Chao was prepared—his bag held over a dozen IDs, all under different names, and all genuine. He had paid a hefty sum through underground channels to acquire them, sparing no expense for this final showdown at Three Rivers Estuary.
For safety, they needed to switch hotels every two or three days, using a different ID each time. That’s why he had Liu Zhi wait outside while he checked in alone—only one ID would be registered, conserving their supply.
After getting the room key, Fang Chao returned to the car and sent Liu Zhi inside first. Seeing it was still early, he decided to scout around the municipal government alone.
His targets were corrupt officials—big ones. But identifying who qualified as a "big corrupt official" was a tricky problem.
Those notorious officials, whose corruption had once been common knowledge, had long been arrested by the disciplinary commission during recent inspections. Survival of the fittest meant only the most discreet and low-profile corrupt officials remained.
Fang Chao emphasized methodology—he started by filtering targets theoretically.
First, a "big corrupt official" had to hold a high rank. Those low-level clerks at service windows might strut around with inflated egos in the dating scene, but in Fang Chao’s eyes, they were small fry. Second, they had to have held a position of real power for years—otherwise, even if corrupt, they wouldn’t have had enough time to amass much. Finally, they had to be over forty—only older corrupt officials would foolishly stash their ill-gotten gains at home.
He loitered around the administrative service center where the municipal government was located for a long time but found nothing. Though he had theoretical criteria, in practice, he still had to rely on his untrained eyes to spot a target. For now, he couldn’t immediately identify who among the passersby was a big corrupt official. After some thought, he decided to follow the disciplinary commission’s investigative approach—first, he would research and gather information on the key leaders of Three Rivers Estuary, studying their career histories and backgrounds.
What kind of figure was this leader they had uncovered?
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