Siheyuan: The Era of Struggle

Chapter 439 Surfaced
Upon hearing He Yuanchao's words, Li Weizhong looked as if he had heard something unbelievable, his face filled with disbelief.

“Yuanchao, you said these two things were done by the same group of people, how is that possible?”

"Why is it impossible?"

He Yuanchao took out a cigarette and offered one to Li Weizhong to refill, then lit one for himself, took a puff, and said:

"As far as I know, the missing items from the factory have not yet been transported out. I suspect that this group is trying to confuse the issue and divert the attention of the security department."

Looking at He Yuanchao's face behind the smoke, Li Weizhong felt that things were somewhat surreal, but after thinking about it carefully, he felt that it was not impossible.

Seeing Li Weizhong looking thoughtful, He Yuanchao didn't say anything more and stood aside quietly smoking.

Li Weizhong hesitated for a moment, took two deep drags on his cigarette, threw the butt on the ground and stomped it out, saying, "Yuanchao, let's go talk to Secretary Liang about this."

The two stepped out of the room, neither of them speaking a word, and strode quickly, arriving at the small conference room in the office building in no time.

When Liang Weimin saw He Yuanchao and Li Weizhong walk in with grave expressions, he assumed there had been progress in the case and immediately stood up to greet them, saying:
"How's the handwriting analysis going? Have you found any clues?"

The threatening letter issue hasn't been resolved yet, and now they're accusing me of stealing from me. Aren't they just asking for trouble?

Knowing Liang Weimin's temper, Li Weizhong didn't dare to say anything. He turned to look at He Yuanchao beside him and gestured for him to speak.

With the end of the workday fast approaching, Liang Weimin was getting anxious. Seeing Li Weizhong's dawdling manner, he became increasingly annoyed.

Seeing that Liang Weimin was about to get angry, He Yuanchao quickly explained what had happened.

After listening, Liang Weimin sat in his chair and pondered for a while. He then discussed a few words with Mo Dacheng beside him before turning to He Yuanchao with a serious expression and saying:

"How confident are you that the two incidents were committed by the same group of people?"

"I'm about 60-70% sure for now!"

He Yuanchao was now absolutely certain that the two incidents were committed by the same group of people, but he didn't give a definitive answer in front of Liang Weimin.

A 60-70% chance of success is quite high, but considering the impending explosion threat to the factory, Liang Weimin was still undecided.

Mo Dacheng, who was standing nearby, knew that Liang Weimin was under a lot of pressure at the moment, so he took out a cigarette and offered it to him, saying:

“Secretary Liang, I think the speculation about aiding North Korea is very likely. I remember that the Ministry of Public Security announced a case at the end of last year, and the similarity to what happened this time is extremely high.”

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone in the small conference room turned to look at Mo Dacheng. Liang Weimin also became interested, lit a cigarette, took a puff, and said:

"Oh! Really? Tell me more."

Without further ado, Mo Dacheng recounted the events of December 9, 1958, when the platinum wire drawing crucible was stolen from the First Glass Factory in Shangmen.

After recounting the events, Mo Dacheng seized the opportunity to summarize:
“Secretary Liang, the criminal who stole the platinum drawing crucible wrote that letter under the guise of a spy, with the aim of diverting the attention of the public security organs. The cause and process of the whole case are very similar to this incident, so I agree with Yuan Chao’s speculation.”

The platinum wire drawing crucible case was a sensational event at the end of 1958. Most of the people in the small conference room had read about it in the newspapers. Now that Mo Dacheng mentioned it, they all nodded subconsciously as they thought about the course of the case.

Although Secretary Hong and Li Weizhong agreed with He Yuanchao and Mo Dacheng's speculations, they had no say and could only look at Liang Weimin. Seeing that everyone in the room was looking at him, Liang Weimin took a few puffs of his cigarette before speaking:
"Since Minister Dacheng and Yuanchao both believe that the two incidents were committed by the same group of people, let's take a few people and review the theft of scrap parts from the first factory again to see if we can find anything."

"Okay, Secretary Liang, I'll go find Section Chief Ding to get this sorted out right away."

As soon as He Yuanchao finished speaking, Ding Liangcai led a panting Li Jiefang into the small conference room.

When Li Jiefang saw that Liang Weimin, Mo Dacheng and others were in the room, the excitement on his face subsided considerably, and he changed the "section chief" he was about to say to "Secretary Liang".

Liang Weimin recognized Li Jiefang, and upon hearing him call his name, he naturally picked up the conversation, asking, "What is it?"

Li Jiefang glanced at He Yuanchao furtively, and seeing that he didn't react, he spoke somewhat hesitantly:

“Secretary Liang, when we were checking for explosives at the southeast corner of the factory wall, we found about 40 to 50 kilograms of copper blocks. According to a security guard from the first branch factory, these copper blocks are very likely the batch that was stolen from the factory some time ago.”

Upon hearing that the stolen copper ingots had been found, He Yuanchao asked eagerly before anyone else could speak:
"Did you touch those copper ingots? Also, besides our security department, does anyone else know about this?"

The people in the room were all seasoned veterans. As soon as He Yuanchao finished speaking, they all knew what he was up to and turned their gazes toward Li Jiefang.

When he saw everyone's eyes turn to him, Li Jiefang was startled, and a fine layer of sweat appeared on his forehead.

"Chief, our people didn't touch those copper pieces. I didn't publicize it when I came to report it. I guess only the people in our security department know about this now?"

In his haste, Li Jiefang forgot about the proper form of address and simply addressed He Yuanchao as "Director" according to his usual practice.

Right now, everyone's attention is focused on the copper blocks they found. Apart from Mo Dacheng frowning, no one else has even thought about it.

Liang Weimin even stood up and said, "Let's go, let's go to the scene and take a look."

He Yuanchao was afraid that if the group went too far, it would attract the attention of those who were stealing the copper pieces. He wanted to speak up to stop them, but seeing that Liang Weimin had already reached the door, he swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue.

Seeing He Yuanchao's hesitant expression, Li Jiefang lingered until everyone had left the room before walking up to him and whispering:

"What's wrong, Director? Did you do something wrong? Did I say something wrong?"

Seeing Li Jiefang's cautious demeanor, He Yuanchao shook his head and said, "Don't overthink it, it has nothing to do with you."

After saying that, he didn't explain further and walked out of the small conference room.

As soon as I stepped out of the office building following the crowd, I ran into Wang Jibin, who was excitedly jogging towards me.

"Master, I think I've found the person who wrote the letter."

Wang Jibin ignored the others and walked straight to He Yuanchao, who was following behind the crowd, and said with a smile, while raising his hand to wave a file in his hand.

Upon hearing that the person who wrote the threatening letter had been found, Liang Weimin and Li Weizhong, forgetting all about the stolen copper ingots, turned and quickly went to Wang Jibin's side, saying almost in unison:
"Did you really find it? Tell me quickly, who is it?"

(End of this chapter)