pertwk Chapter 438 Zhao Hu's Investigation
Chapter 438 Zhao Hu's Investigation
Zhao Hu sat in his office for the entire morning, making over a dozen phone calls. Each call was short; he'd say a few words and hang up, then jot down some notes in his notebook before dialing the next number.
The notebook he used had a black cover with worn-out corners. It was filled with names and phone numbers, some crossed out with horizontal lines and others marked with asterisks.
When he made the eleventh call, the other party said something that made Zhao Hu suddenly tighten his grip on the pen, causing the pen tip to poke a small hole in the notebook.
"Are you sure?" he asked.
A few more words were spoken on the other end of the phone. After listening, Zhao Hu hung up, stared at his notebook for a long time, then stood up, pushed open the door, and strode towards Ling Yun's office. Someone greeted him in the corridor, and he hummed in response, without stopping.
There was no knocking. Ling Yun looked up at him.
"We found that Taiwanese number," Zhao Hu said, putting his notebook on the table. "It belongs to a company called 'Hualian Technology,' registered in Neihu, Taipei. On the surface, they trade electronic components, but I had Lao Sun check their shareholder structure—"
He pointed to a name on the notebook with his finger. "Last March, Hualian Technology registered a wholly-owned subsidiary in Shenzhen. The legal representative's surname is Wu, and his name is Wu Jianguo. Do you know who this Wu Jianguo is?"
"Who?"
"Vice President of Supply Chain Management Department, Yixiang Group"
Lingyun put down the pen in her hand and leaned back in her chair.
"Go on."
"Since its establishment, Hualian Technology has done two things," Zhao Hu flipped through his notebook to the next page. "First, they smuggled electronic components from Taiwan to MP3 OEM factories in the Pearl River Delta, that's the obvious thing. Second," he lowered his voice, "they recruited people in China to specifically target Xinghuo's R&D personnel for infiltration. This started in the middle of last year, almost exactly coinciding with the start of our Xinghe chip project."
"How many people have been infiltrated?"
"At the moment, I can confirm at least two. One is Zhang Wei, and the other is still under investigation. Lao Sun obtained a set of internal personnel contact records from Hualian Technology, which involves several phone numbers in Jinan. I am comparing them one by one, and two numbers have called our R&D center."
Ling Yun stood up and walked to the whiteboard hanging on the wall. The whiteboard originally had the design improvement plan for the next version of the Star Core chip written on it. He picked up the eraser and erased the bottom half, then picked up a marker and wrote three words in the blank space—"Whimsical Idea".
"Their goal isn't just to steal technology," Ling Yun said, uncapping his pen and drawing two lines below it. "Their goal is to slow us down, ideally making us miss the StarPhone launch window next year. If we're held back before the launch, other brands will get ahead of us in the market."
"Liu Chuanzhi was beaten so badly by you in the PC market that he didn't even have the strength to fight back, and you also cut off his escape route in the MP3 market," Zhao Hu said. "Now he's counting on the mobile phone battle to turn things around."
"But he can't do this alone," Ling Yun turned around. "Zhang Wei copying the chip design documents that time wasn't something one person could do alone. It required inside connections, technical support, and overseas cloud storage and redirection servers. Liu Chuanzhi couldn't handle all of these things on his own."
Zhao Hu closed his notebook. "So?"
"So he has someone backing him."
Ling Yun picked up the landline on the table and dialed a number. After three rings, the other end answered.
"Fiona, help me find someone. Gordon Gu, or as commonly known in Chinese-speaking regions, Gordon. He has a Wall Street background and may hold positions at multiple institutions. I need all his travel records from the past year, especially his trips to China."
After hanging up the phone, he said to Zhao Hu, "Don't touch Wu Jianguo yet. They don't know we've already gotten in touch with Hualian Technology. Let them continue operating. Give me the address of Hualian Technology's office in Shenzhen."
"What are you going to do?"
"Nothing much," Ling Yun capped the marker and put it back in the slot under the whiteboard. "Let's see just how capable they really are."
For the next three days, Zhao Hu hardly left his office. He pulled up all of Hualian Technology's records from the past year, flipping through them page by page. When his eyes turned red, he would wash his face with cold water and continue flipping.
News also came from Wang Degui's side—he found the property security captain of Hualian Technology's Shenzhen office, treated him to drinks, and extracted a lot of information from him.
"That Wu Jianguo comes to Jinan every month or two," Zhao Hu slammed the compiled materials onto Ling Yun's table. "Every time he comes, he stays at the same hotel on Quancheng Road. He doesn't stay in star-rated hotels, just those chain hotels on the roadside, which cost a little over a hundred yuan a night. There's no lobby, no doorman, and there's a barbecue stall next door. He doesn't ask for a receipt when he checks out; he pays in cash."
"Who did you meet?"
"I don't know. The hotel registration system only has his own check-in record. But," Zhao Hu turned to the last page, "every time he came to Jinan, Zhang Wei's cell phone signal would appear near the hotel late at night. He would leave around 2 a.m. and take a taxi back to his dormitory. This happened several times in a row."
Ling Yun picked up the document, read it from beginning to end, and then closed it.
"You said before that Zhang Wei and his group were not just one person."
"right."
"Did you find the other one?"
Zhao Hu took out his phone from his pocket, found a photo, and handed it to Ling Yun. The photo was from a surveillance camera; it was a bit blurry, but you could clearly see a man shaking hands with another person in a teahouse. Only the back of the man shaking hands was visible; the person being shaken was facing the camera, had a square face, wore glasses, and had neatly combed hair.
"Liu Jun," Zhao Hu said, "was the database administrator in the systems department. He was bribed by Yi Xiang last year, but we didn't report it to the police because he was a long-time employee; we just fired him. But this guy showed up in Jinan again last month, rented a house in the development zone, ostensibly to do network cable cabling business, but actually—look at this photo."
He swiped his finger across the screen to flip to the next page. It was the same teahouse. Liu Jun and a man sat facing each other, two cups of tea on the table, and a brown paper envelope beside them. The envelope was bulging, so much so that the seal was slightly torn.
"Who was he meeting?"
"Yang Peng," Zhao Hu said, "is the sales manager of Yixiang Group's Shandong branch. It was Yang Peng who was behind Zhao Weiguo's accident in Nanjing."
Ling Yun returned the phone to Zhao Hu and stood by the window for a moment. The sun had already set halfway, casting long shadows of the row of poplar trees outside the window. The machines in the workshop downstairs were still humming rhythmically.
How much evidence do you have right now?
"This is sufficient proof that Yixiang Group bribed Xinghuo's R&D personnel through Hualian Technology and instigated them to steal trade secrets," Zhao Hu said, flipping through his notebook and listing the evidence one by one. "Zhang Wei's bank statements, Hualian Technology's hotel check-in dates in Jinan, surveillance photos of Liu Jun and Yang Peng, and call records from that Taiwan number. We have both witnesses and physical evidence."
"continue."
"But one thing is still unclear—the source of their funds." Zhao Hu turned to the next page. "Hualian Technology has very little cash on hand; it simply can't support operations for the past six months. The money transferred to Zhang Wei, the rent for Liu Jun's house, and the rental fees for those overseas servers—these are all substantial sums. I haven't fully investigated where their money came from yet."
"No need to investigate," Ling Yun said. "I know who it is."
Zhao Hu waited for him to continue.
"Wall Street." Ling Yun turned around to face Zhao Hu, his back to the window, half of his expression obscured by the backlight. "Liu Chuanzhi doesn't have the guts or the capital. He's backed by American capital, and his target is control of Xingchen Technology. He's trying to cause trouble domestically, while Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are waiting overseas to reap the rewards. The MP3 issue is just a feint; the real battleground is in mobile phones."
Zhao Hu was silent for a moment, then asked, "What do you plan to do?"
Ling Yun picked up the document on the table, flipped to the last page, glanced at it, and then put it back on the table, placing it under an open notebook.
"Don't alert them yet. They don't know we've already gotten in touch with Hualian Technology. Let them continue operating. Keep an eye on Liu Jun, but don't touch him. Don't touch Yang Peng either."
Zhao Hu frowned. "Not moving?"
"Don't move," Ling Yun picked up the cold tea on the table and took a sip. "Let them feel safe. We'll close the net when they send out their next mole."
Zhao Hu nodded, closed the notebook, stuffed it into his pocket, and turned to leave. Ling Yun called out to him.
"But there's one thing you need to do right now. Let them know that someone is watching them, but it's not us. Spread the word that Zhang Wei's case wasn't suicide, and that a third party is secretly investigating."
Zhao Hu was taken aback for a moment, then realized what he meant. "To stir up trouble and scare them?"
"Yes. Make them panic; panic will lead to mistakes."
Zhao Hu nodded, opened the door, and left.