Chapter 0043 The Scheming Calculator
I was stunned, thinking he was lying. I slapped him immediately. "You're trying to frame someone? Pick a better person!" Wang Hong clutched his face, pulled out his phone, and started playing a recorded call.
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Sun Xicai: "I can't take this job, but my fiancée's cousin can. His name is Tian, and he's very capable, knows a lot of Thai Arjans. He can definitely handle it."
Wang Hong: "But as you know, this matter is complicated. He might not be willing to do it."
Sun Xicai (laughing): "Can't you find a way to drag him into it?"
Wang Hong: "How can I drag him in?"
Sun Xicai: "Hasn't the well water in your village already been poisoned by that woman? That one drink will make him sick?"
Wang Hong: "Yes."
Sun Xicai: "All you have to do is find a way to get Brother Tian to the village. Then, make him drink the well water first. Once he's poisoned, he'll have to find a cure, right? You keep an eye on him, don't let him leave the village easily, and make him call someone for help. Won't that work?"
Wang Hong: "Ah... you know, that's actually a great idea! But he'll definitely come after me to settle the score afterwards."
Sun Xicai: "Just say it was an oversight later, and give him the money. Given the whole village and the money, he won't be able to say much. But, you have to split the money with me afterwards."
Wang Hong: "Friend, you're quite ruthless. You want ten thousand out of twenty thousand?"
Sun Xicai: "I came up with the idea and made the connection. You only get paid if it's done. My idea is worth ten thousand. How about this: once it's done, we split that ten thousand evenly? How about that?"
Wang Hong: "That's more like it. It's a deal then. Transaction successful."
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After listening to the recording, I was so furious I almost smashed Wang Hong's phone. Frank Fang chuckled and said, "Your cousin's husband is something else. He dares to scheme against his own brother-in-law. Truly a talent."
I gritted my teeth in hatred. It turned out the reward offered by the villagers was twenty thousand yuan, and the job hadn't even been accepted yet, but Sun Xicai had already planned to skim ten thousand off the top. I used the Bluetooth function to transfer the call recording to my phone and saved it. Grandpa Hong walked into the room, carrying a blue cloth bag, which he placed on the table. Wang Hong opened the bag. It was full of banknotes: one hundred, fifty, and ten-yuan denominations.
Grandpa Hong said awkwardly, "This is the money collected from all two hundred and fifteen households in the village. It totals one hundred and ninety-seven thousand yuan. We are still short three thousand, and we just can't raise it."
Wang Hong pleaded, "Mr. Tian, Mr. Fang, please have mercy on me, considering the entire village sold all their possessions. I don't want a single cent of benefit. I'll give it all to you. I promise never to engage in buying and selling wives again, alright?"
Looking at the mix of new and old banknotes, I felt a pang of sadness. The village was so poor that the children struggled to get a piece of meat, yet they raised nearly two hundred thousand yuan for me. How could I take this money? Frank Fang, however, tied up the cloth bag and pocketed it. "We'll talk about your matter when we get to the city!" I looked at Frank Fang's completely indifferent expression and thought if I had half his hard-heartedness, I would probably be a millionaire by now. Frank Fang put the money bag in the car and locked the door.
In the evening, just as I was about to lie down to sleep, Frank Fang woke me up, saying he wanted to take the woman and leave the village immediately that night. I had considered this, but Frank Fang's reason was different from mine: "I feel like that Wang Hong is up to something. Let's sneak away while the villagers don't dare to come out at night, to avoid further complications."
I asked, "But the guide you hired has already left. The road back is so difficult, and it's the middle of the night. Do you know the way?"
Frank Fang waved his hand. "We can't worry about that right now. Let's just go!" I had to agree, so I, along with him and Arjan's two apprentices, quietly slipped out of the room and went to the house where the woman was being imprisoned.
The door was secured with several large locks and even braced with two ox carts, lest the woman escape. It took all of us a great effort to get the door open. The woman was sitting on a pile of dry grass, staring at us blankly. I pulled her up, but the woman didn't want to leave. I said, "The villagers are determined to watch you die tomorrow. If you don't want to die, come with me!"
The woman smiled. "I can't bear to leave him. Otherwise, I would have left long ago. Why wait until today?"
I was puzzled. "A man who doesn't love you at all—is he worth this? What exactly attracts you to him?"
The woman said, "I can never forget what he said. I dream of having a good husband, a home, children, and a sense of belonging." I smiled and said I would help her find a truly good man later, guaranteeing he'd be a hundred times better. The woman ignored me and refused to leave. Frank Fang walked up and punched the woman in the back of the head, knocking her unconscious. The two apprentices carried her out and put her in the car.
Luckily, Frank Fang had rented an SUV; otherwise, it wouldn't have fit seven people. To avoid alerting the villagers, the two apprentices and I pushed the car from behind while Frank Fang steered, quietly rolling out of the village. As soon as we reached the stone gate at the village entrance, two villagers who were sleeping on the wall woke up. Before they could scream, Arjan Tong's two apprentices silently crept up like cats, knocking one out first. Frank Fang whispered, "Leave one for a guide!" The other apprentice was about to strike the second villager's head with his elbow but quickly stopped, grabbing the villager instead.
Frank Fang pulled out a knife and held it to the villager's chin, saying fiercely, "Show us the way! Drive us to the county town! If you dare to say half a 'no,' I'll stick a big hole in your throat. Did you hear me?"
The villager was so scared he peed himself, nodding repeatedly. Just then, a gust of wind blew, and those of us downwind smelled a strong odor of alcohol. Guided by the villager, Frank Fang drove the car out of the village entrance. The road was uneven. As the car drove up a high slope, I saw flames soaring in the direction of the village. Arjan Tong pointed at the fire and said, "They wanted to burn us alive."
It was only then that I understood Frank Fang's suspicion. That Wang Hong had intended to burn all of us to death that night. The alcohol odor we smelled earlier was the villagers pouring alcohol around the houses and on the roofs. Once the fire started, even a deity couldn't have escaped. Luckily, my friend Frank Fang was more cunning than a fox; otherwise, there would have been five more resentful spirits wandering in that village at night.
The villagers would soon discover that Frank Fang's car was missing. Fearing they might chase us, we turned on the high beams and sped out of the mountain road in one go, reaching the county town that very night. I wanted to report to the county police station, and this villager was a perfect witness, but Frank Fang stopped me. He said, "The police might not believe your story. If the villagers turn around and accuse you, you won't be able to explain the source of the twenty thousand yuan in your car, and you'll just cause trouble."
I thought he had a point. I gave the villager five hundred yuan for travel expenses and sent him away. By then, the woman had also woken up. Seeing that we had taken her out of the village, she was very dissatisfied and insisted on getting out of the car. I said to her, "The villagers will skin you alive the moment you return to the village. Even if you don't want to cooperate with us, give up on that idea. Go wherever you want. No one will stop you, but you'd better never come back to this place." The woman looked dejected. She knew the reality better than anyone; she just didn't want to face it. It was already late at night when we arrived in Bijie City. We got out of the car. Frank Fang said to the woman, "It's truly remarkable that you know Burmese Katha techniques at such a young age. Come to Thailand with us. Money and men are plentiful there."
The woman smiled. "I'll go back to Gongshan, Yunnan. That is my home."
No matter how much we tried to persuade her, she wouldn't listen. We could only watch her figure disappear into the night. Theoretically, I shouldn't have seen this woman again, but things in the world are often coincidental. I unexpectedly encountered her again a year later. And what she did during that time was even beyond my wildest imagination. Of course, that is a story for another time, which I will tell later.
At Guiyang Airport, Frank Fang and I parted ways. Because this rescue mission was too risky, Arjan Tong and his two apprentices requested increased compensation. Frank Fang gave twelve thousand of the money to Arjan Tong and the others. He kept five thousand of the remaining eight thousand as compensation for his hard work and the danger. I had absolutely no objections. If it hadn't been for Frank Fang's full effort and the help of Arjan Tong and his companions, I would probably have become another lonely spirit in that village.
Although this business venture was full of twists and turns and peril, it ended with both people and money secured, and I was quite satisfied, except that the human trafficker Wang Hong got off easy.
Frank Fang patted my shoulder. "You have nine lives, my friend. If you hadn't met a great person like me, you'd probably be in heaven from the pain by now, wouldn't you? How will you thank me?" I said to him, "Let me go back to Shenyang to take care of a few things, and we'll meet up after I return to Thailand. Then, food, drink, gambling, or women—you name it, I'll pay." Frank Fang burst into laughter.
Back in Shenyang, I didn't go home first. I took a taxi directly from the airport to the amulet shop. Pushing the door open, I saw Sun Xicai playing mahjong at a table with three other people. Wang Jiao was sitting next to him, watching the game and cracking sunflower seeds. Seeing me walk in, Wang Jiao rushed up to greet me. Sun Xicai glanced at me, smiled, and calmly pulled a tile from his hand to discard. Wang Jiao said with a smile, "Brother, you're back. Did the business go well?"