Chapter 385: Flowers melt early

It was an ordinary day in April 1995. Fine rain with a chilly air, after brewing for many days in the sky, finally fell heavily on the small southern city of Jiangchuan.

The season has crossed the spring equinox and is approaching Qingming Festival. The air temperature and humidity are getting higher and higher. The Hunan land, which had just experienced a once-in-decade ice and snow attack a few months ago, seems to have forgotten the cold winter days of water, electricity and network outages. However, the truly warm and brilliant summer is still a long way off.

Continuous rain is the theme of this season.

Normally, on such gloomy days, people would always seem listless, but early this morning, a breaking news in the Chunjiang Morning Post: "Jiangchuan million-dollar kidnapping case! The family of Zhang Yunqi, a famous young entrepreneur in Jiangchuan City, was kidnapped, and the ransom was as high as one million yuan!", detonated the public opinion field in Jiangchuan City and became the gossip center in the streets and alleys, adding some interesting topics of conversation to the mundane life of ordinary people day after day.

At the same time when this news broke out, Zhang Yunqi and Wang Guibing, who had not slept all night, walked out of the Hongshan Lane shantytown in the early morning light, and the two parted at a fork in the road.

Zhang Yunqi dragged his tired body and walked away.

Wang Guibing didn't know where his boss was going or what he was going to do at such a time. It must not be a trivial matter, but he didn't ask. He followed Zhang Yunqi's instructions, wiped his eyes full of eye boogers, and went directly to the Public Security Bureau to go through the procedures, report the case, and make a statement.

At the police station, Wang Guibing was questioned by two plainclothes police officers, one young and one older. They were surprised that Zhang Yunqi did not come.

As soon as Wang Guibing entered the office, he noticed that everyone in the police station had a copy of the Chunjiang Morning News. He frowned and read it, then threw the newspaper on the table and explained politely: "As you know, my boss has too many fires to put out in this situation, so he really doesn't have time. Please understand. If you have any questions, you can ask me. I participated in the whole process and I know everything."

The older plainclothes officer asked Wang Guibing to explain what happened.

Wang Guibing then recounted the entire incident in detail. He told them everything he knew. There was nothing he couldn't tell.

After listening to Wang Guibing's story, the young plainclothes officer was stunned. He felt that Zhang Yunqi didn't take them seriously enough. He thought of coming to them because he couldn't clean up the shit in his pants. He said with a dark face, "Such a big thing happened. Why didn't you report it to the police immediately?"

Wang Guibing glanced at the young plainclothes officer and patiently explained, "We couldn't help it. At the time, we thought that since the other party dared to do this, they must be willing to risk their lives. We were indeed a little worried that if we reported the case, they would kill us. We are not short of money either, so it would be best if we could rescue them without paying a ransom. If that is not possible, we will just give the money to them as long as they are safe."

The young plainclothes officer asked sarcastically, "Is everyone safe?"

Wang Guibing slapped the table with his hand: "We pay nearly 10 million yuan in taxes every year, are we feeding dogs?"

After a pause, he crossed his legs, lit a cigarette and said, "Young man, I have a lot of things to do. Please be patient and cooperate with your work. Please don't talk to me in this tone. If it really doesn't work, please ask Director Zhou to come."

Another older plainclothes officer pulled the red-faced young man next to him, pointed at the Chunjiang Morning News and asked Wang Guibing: "Boss Wang, I heard you say the ransom the other party wanted was 300,000 yuan? Why did the newspaper say the ransom was over a million yuan?"

Wang Guibing took a puff of his cigarette and said, "It's three hundred thousand. I've prepared the money. Aren't these newspapers exaggerating to attract attention? They just write nonsense to add fuel to the fire. I don't know who leaked the news. I will sue them later! By the way, have you finished asking questions? I've told you everything I know. If you can solve this problem, I will definitely send you the largest banner in the country. I have other things to do, so I won't accompany you. If you have anything, please call me and I will tell you everything I know."

Wang Guibing threw out a bunch of words, then stood up and left.

He did have something to do. Something urgent.

He wanted to rush to Zhang's house immediately.

At that time, Aunt Zhang was running a fishmeal business at Zhangji's Qifengdu Fishmeal Market No. 1 Store.

The No. 1 Middle School Store now has three employees, including Chu Jian's mother Jiang Feng and two girls in their early twenties. These two girls are cheerful and quick-handed, and they are eager to do any work. The eldest brother Yunfeng specially selected them from other branches, just to make her mother more relaxed and less busy.

Zhang Ma doesn't have much to do every day, and she feels at ease, and there is nothing to look forward to in life. However, the most well-behaved and sensible child, the fourth child, is not at home these days, and she is always thinking about him.

Now the eldest and second child have already registered their household registration, and the third child Yunqi no longer needs her to worry about. The only ones she needs to take care of now are the fourth child Chunlan and the fifth child Xiaoxiao.

Early in the morning of that day, Zhang's fish meal business was as busy as usual. Everyone has to eat breakfast, and Qifengdu fish meal is often the first choice for breakfast for people in Jiangchuan, so this is also the busiest time of the day. The store was full of students slurping noodles with sweat on their foreheads.

Aunt Zhang was smiling and greeting customers while collecting money for fish powder. At this time, the owner of the bookstore next door ran in with a newspaper in her hand and shouted into her loud speaker: "Aunt Zhang, Aunt Zhang, have you read the newspaper? Oh my! Something bad has happened to your daughter Chunlan!"

Zhang Ma's chest skipped a beat, and her heart suddenly ached: "What happened?"

The bookstore owner handed the newspaper to Zhang Ma, pointed at the front of the newspaper and said, "Look, Chun, Chunlan has been kidnapped, and the kidnapper wants a ransom of one million!"

Aunt Zhang has presbyopia and can hardly see the words on the newspaper clearly, but when she heard her neighbor's words, her body swayed, her vision went dark, and she fell down.

There was a sudden chaos in the fish meal shop.

Outside the fish meal shop, the rain was falling mercilessly.

There was an old locust tree on the roadside outside the store, with a few half-yellow dead leaves hanging on it. They had survived the last cold winter with difficulty, but suddenly fell from the branches in this late spring when everything was growing and the sun was getting warmer.

However, in the windy and rainy Jiangchuan City on this day, what fell were far more than just a few dead leaves, and far more than just Zhang Ma who was like a dead leaf.

The Zhang family, who were already shrouded in sorrow because of Zhang Chunlan's kidnapping and Zhang's mother being sent to the hospital in a coma, were once again in the spotlight at noon on this day by a piece of ridiculous news titled "Cockroaches found in Longjingyuan canned meat"!
Zhang Yunfeng and Zhang Qiulan, the two adult brothers and sisters of the Zhang family, had been confused by this series of accidents. When they were rushing to the First People's Hospital of the city to visit Zhang's mother, they received news that made them collapse again. A large number of consumer complaints suddenly appeared in the Qifengdu Fish Powder chain stores and Zhangji Flavor House under Lianzhong and Zhangji Catering, which they controlled.

The municipal supervision department has arrived.

Within one day, negative news about the Zhang family was rampant!
The tree wants to be still but the wind does not stop. In the afternoon of that day, a large crowd suddenly appeared in front of the office building of Liansheng Group. They were all old suppliers of Longjingyuan Cannery. At this critical juncture, they also joined in the fun and challenged Zhang Yunqi, who had not shown up for a whole day, on issues such as raw material prices and payment after goods are delivered.

In the early morning of the next day, Chunjiang Morning News, a newspaper that seemed to be obsessed with Zhang Yunqi's popularity, once again published negative news about Zhang Yunqi.

This time, what appeared in the newspapers were no longer the anecdotes that were talked about on the streets, such as the kidnapping of the rich man's family, but in-depth reports on the restructuring of state-owned enterprises that caused a great stir in the city's upper circles.

The title of this news is "The whole story of how Jiangchuan City's top rich man Zhang Yunqi acquired Longjingyuan Cannery for zero yuan", and the sword point directly points out that Zhang Yunqi has embezzled state-owned assets!
At this time, Zhang Yunqi, whose whereabouts were unknown, seemed to have been trapped in an invisible giant net.

All the major industries of the Zhang family are in jeopardy!

Amid the drifting wind and rain, melodious opera sounds were coming from the top floor of a tall building.

It was the song "Lament for Jiangnan" from the "Peach Blossom Fan·Remaining Rhythm" suite by Kong Shangren of the Qing Dynasty: "I once saw the orioles singing in the Jade Palace of Nanjing at dawn, and the flowers blooming early in the Qinhuai Waterside Pavilion. Who knew that the ice would melt so easily! I watched him build a red building, I watched him entertain guests, and I watched his building collapse! I once slept in this pile of green moss and tiles, and watched the rise and fall of the past fifty years!"

******
(End of this chapter)