197 - Pile of s***

Ju De walked into the lobby of He & Shang, dressed as though he was an accountant. He had scheduled a business meeting to review potential collaboration with them to review Shennong's legal contracts.

Upon arrival, the lobby receptionist asked him for an identification and appointment letter. Ju De gave the receptionist an email confirmation. The receptionist looked up the information on her computer, and confirmed the appointment.

"Mr. Ning, please head into elevator #5," said the receptionist as she pressed the button on her desk. Within a few seconds, the elevator door with a #5 written by the side opened up from beyond a hallway that was guarded by two security officers. "Mr. Shang will be waiting for you at the top."

Ju De thanked the receptionist and approached the elevator, taking it up to a floor already registered by the receptionist. Most modern high-rise buildings had security-type elevators. The building was shared by different companies, from tech companies to law firms. He & Shang, as the owner, occupied the 10th to 13th floor.

The elevator opened up on the 12th floor, revealing a spacious lobby and a bulky man greeted Ju De.

"Mr. Ning, nice to meet you!" Mr. Shang greeted Ju De warmly, and they headed into the meeting room. If it was anyone else, another partner would have greeted Ju De, but for Mr. Shang to greet Ju De, it meant they were aware that he was connected to Governor Ning Long.

As they walked through, Ju De carefully eyed the workers sitting in the open cubicles. They were workers in the lower end of the pyramid, but they all appeared friendly. However, there was a strong scent of sewer rats. Most people couldn't smell it, but Ju De could smell rats everywhere in the law firm. The longer people worked in a hostile environment, the more they began to smell like it. 

"Mr. Ning, what sort of assistance are you seeking?" asked Mr. Shang. He was a bit surprised when he got an email about a potential collaboration. Governor Ning's son was known to be unremarkable, and while he appeared to be, his company seemed to be doing quite well locally. 

"I am interested in buying another company for Shennong's expansion, and would like you to handle it," said Ju De. "There's a local dairy and packaging company that seemed like a good area. We invest extensively in farming, and that area would be perfect."

"Ah, then you seek the right firm," said Mr. Shang. "We handle a lot of business acquisition for clients. Do you also need assistance with construction? We know a bit about construction laws."

"No, but I am also looking out for a law firm to handle copyrights and internal contracts. If you manage to do well, we might hire you for that position."

Mr. Shang nodded. Buying the dairy company was a test for the company, and not the main deal. The potential main contract would be a long term collaboration. Before ending the meeting, Ju De asked about what resources Mr. Shang's had at his disposal. Mr. Shang offered him a tour around the law firm.

"We have 40 lawyers and 70 employees here," said Mr. Shang. "Naturally, we will build a team to assist with your needs, the team can be as small as four for any trouble involving employees. It could be as large as 12 if you need to handle a major acquisition."

In the open office area, everyone was working or chatting amongst themselves with a relaxed facade, but they were cautious of each other. Only the interns were naive enough to believe nothing shady happened after hours.

Ju De needed to focus on the person most people seemed to fear. It wasn't always the boss. Mr. He was an elderly man and rarely showed up in the office anymore. Ju De was sure Mr. Shang was involved in bribery. Many of the other partners were just as bad, either involved in corruption or bribery.

"How to find s*** in a pile of s***?" Ju De asked himself.

"Mr. Shang! Are you showing the clients around?" asked Mr. Gong, giving Mr. Shang and Ju De a handshake. "You must be Mr. Ning."

"Mr. Ning, this is Mr. Gong, one of our top associates," said Mr. Shang. "He's our closer for many deals."

Mr. Gong was a squarish man with a medium build. He was an average looking man, but his chin was very large and distinct.  There was a strong scent of expensive cologne, but to Ju De, the scent was closer to pure sewer trash, the source of the odor that rubbed on the rats in the office.

Ju De noticed that the female employees tensed up when Mr. Gong walked out of his private office.

After another 30 minutes of touring, Ju De left.

He had gathered enough information from the tour. The problem was what to do next. Li Yun was returning the same day, so he thought it was a bad idea to start stabbing people as he had imagined.

****

"Why are you guys investigating instead of Old Bu?" Li Yun asked later that evening. He had just returned from his trip when Rouxi filled him in with what had happened. "Don't tell me he got pushback from his superiors?"

Rouxi nodded. If it was any place in the world, she would have ignored the police, but Bu Tao was captain, and she trusted him. However, within a day, he was ordered to hand over the case to the provincial office after they saw the He & Shang Firm was attached to the case.

"Apparently, there was already a file on the firm, and the provincial office was investigating the cases," said Rouxi. "However, Old Tao said he had dug up some complaint reports from at least six years ago."

"In other words, they had been sitting on top of piles of evidence," Li Yun looked at Ju De. "Your father probably knows."

Ju De nodded. "The firm used to be Fu & He Associates, but they changed the name after Mr. Fu took office. He used to be father's lawyer, but he hadn't been active in awhile. I think he's holding evidence because they have something on him."

Soliciting prostitutes, assassination, money laundering and bribery, it wasn't something people do without it being known to other people. Crime only surfaced when something happened between the parties that was beyond repair.

"There are a couple of creeps there, but only three are feared by everyone else in the firm," said Ju De. "Mr. Shang, Gong, and Lui."

"How about the women?" Rouxi asked. "During the party, only the female associates attended the party, so who do you think spiked Zhangmi's drink?"

"A mousy intern that joined the same time Zhangmi did," said Ju De. "She looked like someone who could be pushed to follow orders. Aside from an inferiority complex, she's not mentally stable."

Ju De knew; he was like that before. Although he had gotten better, his desire to destroy everything in his path and to feel a tiny sense of superiority remained. The intern was likely jealous of the attention Zhangmi was getting. It was easy to manipulate her and make her drug Zhangmi. She could reason with herself that she was coerced into it, but ultimately, it was her own weakness that led her down the road.

"Did you do anything to them?" asked Li Yun.

"I'm not that rash, there are bigger fish in the sea," Ju De replied, although there were ways to ruin her life after everything else was settled, but he left that out.

Li Yun nodded. He wanted to make sure Ju De's approach hadn't alerted anyone. The police could raid the firm, but what were the chances of them finding evidence? Even if they did gather evidence, who else was involved? If the firm had information on the governor, they likely had information on the judge and many other government officials.

The worst thing to do in any situation was to be rash for monetary gains. The best they could do was gather as much evidence as possible to see how far up the money trail went up to.

"Should we get Bufu to push out the news?" asked Ju De.

The best way to spread the news fast was over the internet. However, they also need to release it in a way that wouldn't be traced back to them. The authority has the ability to shut down any website if they see harmful materials. They also had the ability to track down the individuals who sent out the information.

However, if they were able to spread the information quickly, it would remain in the consciousness of everyone. The problem was, what was the best platform to expose politicians? First, by working with the rival politicians. 

There were problems in all scenarios. What if the rival politician didn't want to expose the information immediately? The best time was usually before the committee selection.

Second, was to push the news onto trending nationwide. Bufu had methods, but it only worked once. He could hack the three largest news agencies and push the information through. No matter how quickly the authorities worked to remove the content, the information was already leaked and could be shared through word of mouth. However, the content must induce enough rage in the general public to push a thorough investigation. What they needed wasn't evidence, as it could gather them with relative ease. What they needed was an emotional response from the general public.

"We need to wait," said Li Yun. If they attempt to open an investigation, it may not go as planned. The general public was too fickle to rely on. If they revealed the information and someone released a big name celebrity scandal, it would be wasted. "We will have to find some more explosive information or even a video."

A document with illegal deals wasn't as explosive as a sex scandal by a politician or celebrity. Even a corrupt politician wasn't newsworthy unless it was a large-scale operation, much less a law firm involved in illegal deals and prositution.

"Did you check the cameras of the restaurant?" asked Li Yun.

Ju De revealed a video on the tablet. "Ah Nin and I went there to scope out the place."

Li Yun watched the footage that appeared to be Ju De, walking with Zhu Ah Nin inside a fancy club. Apparently, they were going to celebrate Ah Nin's birthday, which was seven months ago.

The video panned briefly on the first floor, which was the dance floor. As it was the weekdays, there weren't as many partygoers. Ju De and Ah Nin followed the waiter up to the second floor of the club, where the private lounges were located. Ju De spent 2500 yuan to reserve a lounge for an hour.

"I hope it's your own money," Li Yun said looking at the expensive decorations inside the club.

Aside from the decorations, there were checkpoints and security guards in key locations, along with security cameras.

"This isn't a normal club," Ju De explained. "It's a very fancy club called the Midnight Sky Bar. It's owned by Mr. Bai, who was a former judge. He worked mainly behind the scenes, and few people have seen him."

Li Yun had never heard of the bar before, and it was likely an elite type bar. Even after gaining a bit of wealth, he never saw the need to go out to expensive places. However, he may have to attend one.

"You're doubtful that Mr. Bai will share his camera feed with us, and that he's involved somehow?" asked Li Yun.

"Probably," said Ju De. "Bufu have tried hacking into their computers, but he said there wasn't anything, so it's likely on their internal server."

 [author] I'm starting the rewrite on RR. So far, very minor changes. From the poll, it's pretty evenly split, but I'm going to directly use the English equivalent for some words.[/author]