Reborn in 1993, Dark Sea

Ten days later, Xingfuyuan Community

An Xiaohai was doing rehabilitation exercises on the treadmill, and Zhou Xun was watching him carefully, afraid that he would not be able to hold on and fall off the treadmill.

Mai Xiaoyu prepared breakfast and called Zhou Xun and An Xiaohai over. The three of them ate together.

"Sister Xiaoyu, how do you think my makeup is?" Zhou Xun asked while eating.

At An Xiaohai's request, Mai Xiaoyu redesigned the makeup for the two of them. The scars on An Xiaohai's face were really difficult to deal with. If they had to be covered up every time, it would be troublesome and take too long.

After the treatment, the scars on my face remained, but they faded considerably.

During this period, An Xiaohai and Zhou Xun have been trying to do their own makeup, so that even if Mai Xiaoyu is not around, they will not be unable to change their makeup.

"Not bad, much better than the last two days. I'm making a batch of silicone strips. Once they're done, you two can each take some; that will make processing much faster."

"Okay, thank you, Sister Xiaoyu!" Zhou Xun nodded and finished her porridge.

During these ten days of living and working together, Zhou Xun has been carefully observing and studying An Xiaohai's movements, and now the two of them are becoming more and more alike.

"How are you feeling?" Mai Xiaoyu asked An Xiaohai.

"It should be almost healed. I estimate it will be completely healed in another three to five days," An Xiaohai said after stretching his shoulders.

"I suggest you rest for a while longer. You've been dealing with old injuries that haven't healed and new ones that have been added. If you keep doing this, your body will break down. It's not worth it."

"Yes, Secretary Xiaoyu!"

"By the way, our men disguised themselves as bandits and kidnapped Ding Ping. She's been locked up in the warehouse for several days now. What should we do with her?"

"Keep her locked up. Keep Number One and the others on their toes. Don't be fooled by her appearance. I don't think she's as simple as she seems."

"Don't worry, I've already reminded them. I'll go check on them whenever I have free time. I'm thinking of going tonight, do you want to come with me?"

"No," An Xiaohai shook his head: "No rush, let's leave her alone for a while and let her slowly fall into despair before we talk about it."

"Have the savages returned to the mountain stronghold?"

"We've arrived. We arrived last night. We had a safe journey."

"Secretary Xiaoyu, didn't you tell me to rest for a while longer? Why are you acting like a leader is inspecting our work now?!"

"You just need to rest your body, I didn't expect your brain to rest too!" Mai Xiaoyu rolled her eyes at An Xiaohai: "Haixi Province has been too peaceful these days, I'm feeling really uneasy."

"It's a bit too peaceful..." An Xiaohai frowned slightly. "What is Xu Chonghua doing?"

"He's looking for a wife. He goes to the Municipal Public Security Bureau every day; he's practically living there."

"Where's Xu Zhijie? What's he doing?"

"He started school yesterday. Yesterday was the weekend, and he accompanied Xu Chonghua to the police station."

"You weren't home yesterday, so you went to see them?"

"Yes, Xiaohu gave me the message, so I went over to take a look and even took some photos. I'll develop them for you in a bit."

"Okay, what do you think of the relationship between Xu Zhijie and Xu Chonghua?"

"It looks pretty good, but it seems a bit too rigid."

"How so?"

"In other words, Xu Zhijie showed Xu Chonghua too much respect; they seemed more like superior and subordinate than father and son."

Xu Chonghua also felt a little awkward about Xu Zhijie, but I couldn't quite put my finger on why.

However, one thing is quite interesting: after Ding Ping disappeared, Xu Chonghua seemed genuinely anxious; it didn't seem like he was acting... Hey, why aren't you saying anything?"

"I'm wondering, what is Xu Chonghua still holding on to? Ding Ping has already been arrested, why doesn't he run away? If he doesn't run, isn't he afraid of dying? Does he think he can still hide?"

"Yes, it is very strange..."

Mai Xiaoyu and An Xiaohai both frowned and began to think. Zhou Xun glanced at the two of them and then consciously took away the dishes to wash them.

After a while, the two stopped thinking. An Xiaohai exercised for a little longer before sitting in front of the French windows to read the newspaper and watch TV, while Mai Xiaoyu went to her room to develop the photos.

Looking at Xu Chonghua in the photo, An Xiaohai frowned even more.

Xu Chonghua looked to be in his forties. He was very short, only about 40 meters tall, slightly overweight, and balding. Judging from his appearance, he and Xu Zhijie, who was standing next to him, were completely unrelated.

Is this the fearsome "Lord Hai" who strikes terror into the hearts of the entire Haixi Province? Just because his forehead is shiny?

"Mr. Chen, can you tell me why you insist on sitting here for so long every day?" Mai Xiaoyu asked, blinking her big eyes.

"We've thoroughly checked the surrounding residents twice in the past few days and haven't found any suspicious individuals. I suspect you're not sitting here for show; you must have something else on your mind!"

"Yes, I'm not sitting here to be seen; I'm looking at people."

"Who are you looking at?" Mai Xiaoyu ran over and sat down next to An Xiaohai. She peered out from his angle for a while, but found nothing unusual. From this vantage point, she couldn't even see the interior of any of the rooms opposite.

"No need to look, she hasn't arrived yet."

"Who?"

Do you remember the female TV host who lived across from our old apartment? The one named Han Shasha?

"You're waiting for her."

"Yes, every time she comes here, she always goes down that little path to the convenience store at the entrance of the community to buy a bunch of instant noodles. That's where I wait for her."

"Why wait for her? Have you fallen for her?"

"How could that be? I'm waiting for her to come, to create a chance encounter, and then to have her bring me into her circle."

"Don't leave things unsaid!" Mai Xiaoyu said, squinting at An Xiaohai.

"It's like this, a long time ago, I flew here and met this female host on the plane. At that time, after she got out of the airport, she got into a dark green car with a very special design."

I later asked Mr. Xu to check for me, and it turned out to be the Taiwan/Hong Kong version of the Christie sedan.

Mr. Xu told me that the car belonged to a man from Hong Kong who did business in Haixi Province year-round, and that he didn't have much of a connection with Xu Chonghua; they weren't from the same circle.

"So you want to get to know this Hong Kong guy through that pretty female host and then enter his circle?"

"Yes."

hiss~

Mai Xiaoyu took a deep breath: "Did you find An Zhehao's company?"

Wow, Secretary Xiaoyu, you react so quickly!

Unfortunately, I couldn't find Ahn Cheol-ho's company; I just narrowed down the list of companies.

"You idiot! Why didn't you report something so important?!"

"Why do we need to report this? Didn't Senior 027 already say that I'm in charge of Ahn Cheol-ho?"

"That's a different matter. You've narrowed down your search but haven't told us! Do you know our people are still investigating those companies day and night!"

"That's correct! I can't guarantee my judgment is right. Different ways of thinking lead to different results. Wouldn't it be better if we went separately and cross-validated?"

"You always manage to make something that doesn't make sense sound reasonable! Hurry up and hand over your results!"

"Okay!" An Xiaohai pretended to shrug helplessly, took out a piece of paper from his inner pocket and handed it to Mai Xiaoyu, who quickly unfolded it and started reading.

The paper listed six companies: Haixi Pharmaceutical; Jinling Media Co., Ltd.; Future Education Group; Xingchen International Investment Co., Ltd.; Wanli Winery; and Nansheng Technology.

"Why? Why these six companies? If I remember correctly, half of these six companies weren't on our shortlist. What criteria did you use to select them?" Mai Xiaoyu asked, her brows furrowed.

"Based on what..." An Xiaohai took a deep breath and stood up: "I don't have any specific basis, it's just based on my feeling."

"Based on intuition? Explain yourself clearly, what kind of intuition are you referring to?"

"It's based on intuition, but it can't be said to be entirely based on intuition..."

I used to be like you, constantly studying those companies' business reports and detailed data. But after doing this for a while, I found it too difficult. Finding Ahn Cheol-ho this way was just too difficult.

Putting aside the accuracy of these data, since Ahn Cheol-ho dared to use these companies to circulate funds, he must have taken precautions long ago. If we keep studying the data, we may very well be led astray by him.

So, I tried a different approach.

I put myself in Ahn Cheol-ho's shoes and thought: If I were him, what kind of company would I set up to conceal my identity? What kind of company would best achieve my goals?

I think we should list these criteria, establish a range of standards, and then exclude companies from the list based on those standards.

"Yes, that's definitely a good approach!" Mai Xiaoyu nodded repeatedly. "How did you set this standard?"

"Let's deduce it step by step. First, I ruled out some industries, such as manufacturing companies."

Opening a factory and engaging in manufacturing is relatively safe, but it also has too many drawbacks.

Too much trouble! He has to handle a lot of internal and external relationships, expand the market, establish channels, manage inventory, and so on. After the whole process, he doesn't have to do anything.

This can be seen from Qiaoyu Company. With so many people like Qiaoming, they are so busy every day that they don't even have time to eat. Where would they find the energy to cause trouble? Moreover, the flow of funds in industrial companies is relatively clear, and it is not easy to hide large sums of money.

Therefore, we can rule out manufacturing for now.

Secondly, the company cannot be too big or too small, nor can it be too famous.

An Zhehao started the company for two reasons: first, to have a legal identity, and second, to launder money. He didn't want to attract too much attention; a company that was too small wouldn't work either, as it couldn't handle a large flow of funds.

Third, this company must be completely separate from other related companies and must not be implicated by other companies.

For example, Li Chenghang and his wife's Malaysian energy group, Xu Chonghua's Haixi International Group, Hu Haikong's Deep Sea Real Estate Company, and the companies under Zhu Polong, Gui Laoqiang, and others.

Fourth, and most importantly, these companies, in addition to concealing his identity and laundering money, should ideally also be able to assist his plans.

This is in line with Ahn Cheol-ho's style of doing things—making the most of everything!

Based on our current understanding: Ahn Cheol-ho used a drug cartel to create suffering, used Seo Chung-hua and Chu Po-lung's companies to influence the economy, placed his people in the police system and the military to weaken control, and used the Xiaoguanwan nuclear power plant as a trigger for unrest.

But would this allow for complete control over the two provinces of Haidong and Haixi?

No, I feel it's not enough. It seems like something's missing! What's missing is a very important element, and this very important element is most likely in the hands of An Zhehao himself. His company must have this function!