manynovel Page 486
Page 486
Who knew that after driving for only ten minutes on the mountain road, the other party called again: "Richard, right? I'm monitoring your movements through the French military optical reconnaissance satellite Apollo-2B. Don't waste your energy. Just go home. As long as you hand over the money, everything will be fine."
"Otherwise, you're just courting death. Think about what kind of forces can use military satellites, and whether you can afford to offend them."
Upon hearing this, Richard finally came to his senses, then turned ashen-faced and drove back onto the highway, showing no anger whatsoever.
Yes, the other side can even mobilize the French military's optical reconnaissance satellites. This... this power is terrifying.
Then he wondered to himself, what exactly is the background of this son-in-law of the Su family?
At first, he thought this pretty boy was a son-in-law who had married into the Su family, a gigolo who lived off a woman. But the strength he displayed on the beach made him think that the other party had just happened to know a big shot in the mafia.
But now, this son-in-law's secretary can actually mobilize French military satellites to monitor him, a nobody. Clearly, this son-in-law has extraordinary abilities.
How could he have provoked someone like that!
However, it was too late for Richard to regret it now, so after being threatened by Lee Eun-sook last night, he drove straight home without telling his accomplices at the office.
Since I am going to die, then let us all die together!
The three office staff were unaware of Gu Ran's power and were still discussing what to do, but they noticed that Richard was silent, and thus realized something was wrong.
"Mr. Li, are you really willing to return fifteen million US dollars?" one of them asked in a low voice. "Did you take that much?"
The implication was that Richard had taken so much but only gave the three of them two million.
“We have a total deficit of ten million in this office. We gave you two million, and I kept eight million for myself.” Richard had nothing to hide at this point. “The remaining seven million is for buying indulgences. You…you decide for yourselves whether to buy them or not.”
"Indulgences?" The three men understood what this meant, because Gu Ran had just said that they had to pay back two million as a fine.
However, the three of them didn't have two million, their investment and financial management skills weren't as good as Richard's, and they had no other income besides their salaries.
Moreover, these three people had more than two million US dollars, which averaged more than six hundred thousand US dollars each. They had almost spent it all. Some of them bought new cars, some renovated new houses, and some bought new detached villas...
Where would they find the money to give Gu Ran?
"By the way, Mr. Li, what exactly is the consequence of not being able to raise the money?" The woman among the three finally began to feel scared and asked cautiously.
Richard truthfully recounted: "Yesterday, because I refused to confess, I was first subjected to waterboarding, using seawater. Then, if we couldn't raise enough money, he planned to make me a pair of cement boots and then throw me into the sea."
"You must be joking..." the woman said with a sneer.
“I actually tried to escape yesterday, but this son-in-law used the French Apollo-2B military satellite to monitor me. I knew I couldn’t escape, so I turned back,” Richard continued. “Now that things have come to this, there’s nothing left to hide.”
Only then did these people understand why Richard hadn't mentioned Gu Ran to them last night.
And this son-in-law actually has access to military satellites? That's incredibly shocking! What's his background? He's got connections everywhere!
No wonder Richard was willing to pay back $15 million. He had no choice but to pay; he knew the other party was powerful, so he chickened out!
"What, what are we going to do! I just bought a detached villa and moved in a little over a month ago!" The woman among the three panicked. All of their family's money had been spent on the villa, and they had no extra money for Gu Ran.
“By the way, what about 14K? The Dutch gang? Lin Shengquan?” One of the men seemed to have grasped at the last straw.
"Do you think the 14K has more power, or the Mafia? Can the 14K use military satellites?" Richard looked at the man as if he were an idiot.
And so, this person finally lost all hope.
At this moment, looking at the three men's ashen faces, Richard suddenly felt a sense of exhilaration. Their current mood was exactly the same as his last night.
However, he could give the money to Gu Ran as requested, so he could start over. But these three people in front of him, not to mention the extra two million for atonement, they couldn't even afford to pay back the two million they had lost. Their fate would definitely be worse than his!
Some people are like that; they feel happy when they see someone else's fate is worse than their own, and they call it "not as good as the best, but better than the worst"!
……
Inside the conference room, Gu Ran glanced at the expressions of the four people outside the office and could roughly guess what they were thinking.
Gu Ran couldn't read the accounting books, so he could only help Su Xiaoqiang from the sidelines.
But the accounts in front of her were piled up like a small mountain, and Su Xiaoqiang couldn't finish looking at them in a short time. At this rate, it would probably take her a whole day and night.
In fact, according to Gu Ran's idea, it would be fine as long as they made up the money, but Su Xiaoqiang said that they had to take responsibility and find out how they embezzled and lost money, otherwise they would ruin the next person who took over the company, which was a bit unethical.
Su Xiaoqiang looked at the data for over an hour, then rubbed her eyes; there was so much data that her vision was starting to blur.
"Take a rest," Gu Ran said, standing behind her and gently massaging her temples. "Your beautiful eyes are dry and teary."
"No, I need to finish reviewing this data as soon as possible." Su Xiaoqiang felt the pressure of Gu Ran's fingertips and enjoyed his massage for a while before opening her eyes again, ready to continue the battle.
"Oh, stop looking." Gu Ran grabbed Su Xiaoqiang's slender hand and squeezed her palm. "I can't bear to see my wife so tired."
"It's okay to be a little tired, just consider it learning and gaining experience," Su Xiaoqiang said with a smile.
"So...aren't you planning to ask your beloved husband for help?" Gu Ran asked with a grin.
Su Xiaoqiang was stunned for a moment, then suddenly realized that Gu Ran must have a way to make her life less tiring.
So she sat down in the chair, wrapped her arms around his waist, and nuzzled her head against his abs, saying sweetly, "Honey, you have a way, right? Please help me!"
Gu Ran first touched her delicate chin, then bent down slightly and gently tapped his own cheek with his fingers.
Su Xiaoqiang immediately understood and pouted, giving him a kiss.
Gu Ran turned her face to the other side.
Su Xiaoqiang smiled and kissed him back.
Then Gu Ran pouted at her, wanting to kiss her, but Su Xiaoqiang directly pinched his cheeks with both hands: "We'll talk about the rest after you help me take care of it!"
"Tch, stingy!" Gu Ran scoffed, but he still took out his laptop, opened the conference room door, and called out, "Um, could someone help me bring in a laser printer?"
"Okay, please wait a moment, son-in-law, please wait a moment!" Richard had been waiting outside, and upon hearing the order, he immediately went to push the laser printer in.
Laser printers are large and usually too heavy for one person to move, but they have wheels that allow you to push them around.
So Fatty Richard quickly pushed the large laser printer into the conference room and thoughtfully prepared a power strip for Gu Ran.
"Alright, you can leave now, or you can recount the details of the crime and tell me which account is problematic," Gu Ran said to Richard.
Richard was sweating profusely. Even though the air conditioner was set to 24 degrees Celsius, he was still sweating, but the sweat was cold.
He truthfully replied, "I didn't do the accounting; I really don't know anything about it."
In fact, he didn't even know how much the office was losing money.
"What about the people outside? Does anyone know?" Gu Ran looked at the other five people.
No one spoke, because they really didn't know either.
Just when Gu Ran thought that no one really knew these things, the only woman among them raised her hand:
“I actually noticed something: when we receive payment from the buyer, the money is transferred to a third-party account and stays there for a week before returning to us…”
"Are you in charge of finance?" Gu Ran asked.
"Yes." The woman nodded.
"Oh, then I'll give you half a day off today. Go back and raise the money to pay me back. Don't even think about running away. You have a family to support, so there's no way you can escape unless your whole family is willing to go to hell." Gu Ran turned around and went back to his office without looking back.
Since the person in charge of finances was actually embezzling, Gu Ran naturally had to say something to scare her.
The woman panicked and seemed at a loss.
After hearing that Richard was willing to obediently return the money, she no longer dared to have any thought of resistance!
So she immediately rushed over and pounded on the office door: "Son-in-law, Miss, I, I will never dare to do it again, please spare me, please let me live!"
Chapter 567 EVA Investigates Accounts
Gu Ran remained expressionless, his eyes darting around as if he were plotting something.
Seeing that Gu Ran seemed difficult to fool, the woman thought that Su Xiaoqiang, being a woman herself, would be more soft-hearted. So she knelt down, dragging her knees, and knelt at Su Xiaoqiang's feet, hugging her legs and crying, hoping that Su Xiaoqiang would let her go.
Upon seeing this, the other two people quickly knelt down and bowed to the side.
The other two employees who did not embezzle felt very pleased to see this, thinking that those who do bad things will always be punished, and it was fortunate that they did not embezzle.
Richard, whose mind was twisted with elation, was equally delighted. He had been terrified on the beach yesterday and while driving last night, and today these people were finally experiencing the fear he had faced before!
So cool!
Su Xiaoqiang frowned, seemingly having never encountered such a rogue before. He looked at Gu Ran, frowned at him, and told him to quickly get rid of these three troublesome people.
Gu Ran winked at her, then slowly squeezed in front of her, separating the kneeling woman from Su Xiaoqiang.
"Hey, we're not bad people, it's just that in this world, if you do something wrong, you always have to pay the price, right?"
The woman was taken aback, thinking that Gu Ran was not going to let them go.
But Gu Ran changed the subject: "However, we're not bad people, and we don't want to push everyone to the brink, so... I have a suggestion I can offer you."
"What plan?" The three corrupt officials looked up at Gu Ran together.
Gu Ran smiled and said, "First of all, the two million you embezzled must be returned. There's no room for negotiation on that. Are you willing to return it?"
"Yes, we are willing!" Now that things had come to this, the three of them had no choice but to agree.
“Very good, then I can lend you the next two million in the form of a loan, with an interest rate of thirty-five percent per annum!”
"Huh?" The three people kneeling on the ground were all stunned.
What does a 35% annual interest rate mean? It means that with two million dollars, they would have to pay seven hundred thousand dollars in interest alone each year!
"You, you, you're loan sharking!" the woman glared at Gu Ran and said.
"No, no, no, theoretically speaking, only loans with an annual interest rate exceeding 36% are considered usurious. Mine is only 35%!" Gu Ran laughed.
He continued, "And I don't set a term for this loan. You can borrow for thirty years or fifty years, I know you all have families to support. If you can't pay it back, your sons and daughters can pay it back together!"
Gu Ran's words sounded threatening to the three of them: if they didn't accept, he would go after their families.
Remembering Richard's claim that Gu Ran had a Mafia background, they didn't dare to breathe loudly at this moment.
"Aren't you afraid I'll report you to the French police?" the woman asked Gu Ran, mustering her courage.
Gu Ran laughed: "Go ahead and pay it back, I'd love to! Anyway, it's you who'll be going to jail, not me. And don't think that just because you're in jail you don't have to pay back the money. Nobody can owe me money and not pay it back!"
"You, you have no evidence, you can't find any evidence!" the woman said with a ferocious expression.
"You don't need to worry about that!" Gu Ran began to invite them out. "It's noon now, I'll give you an afternoon to think it over carefully. As my wife said, there are only two ways to make a criminal admit their mistake: either they apologize with their death or they pay for their entire fortune. You can choose."
With that, Gu Ran kicked the three bewildered embezzlers out of the meeting room and then let in two people who had not participated in the embezzlement.
"Do me a favor and scan these original accounting documents into my computer; I need them," Gu Ran said.
The two readily agreed and began working.