Break out of the courtyard

Chapter 862 New Year’s Day 1992

In the Hua family's living room, after listening to Secretary Chen's retelling, Elder Hua shook his head and said, "These people! They really think Consultant Zhang can't see through their little tricks!"

"We sent four young men to Zhang's house to take statements, hoping to force Consultant Zhang to find someone to settle the matter and make him owe a lot of favors."

"That's great! Consultant Zhang didn't contact anyone and even took notes!"

Secretary Chen continued, "Given Consultant Zhang's personality, I'm afraid he's holding a grudge against those people in the Municipal Bureau!"

"I wish them all a long life!" Elder Hua said coldly, "This is Advisor Zhang's greatest hatred for them!"

"You mean, Consultant Zhang will only give them the 100-year lifespan potion, and not the 120-year lifespan potion?" Secretary Chen asked doubtfully. "Given Consultant Zhang's vengeful nature, he probably wouldn't even give them the 100-year lifespan potion, right?"

Elder Hua said calmly, "The word 'bless' doesn't mean he's going to give you a longevity potion!"

Secretary Chen saw that Mr. Hua had lost interest in talking, so he stopped talking and waited silently for his next instruction.

~

Zhangjia, on the north bank of Houhai Lake in the capital.

Even though it was snowing outside, Zhang Heping still took some of his family out after dinner and took a walk around the lake that had already frozen.

More than 6 years ago, the two old gangsters who rented in Courtyard No. were forced by Zhang Heping to kill each other on this ice surface.

That night, the old scoundrel Zhang Lin was very cunning. He used a monkey stealing peach trick to win the game and sent Lin Lao Er into the ice hole.

Afterwards, Zhang Heping, under the guidance of the old gangster, came all the way to Nanguan Hutong and found Hu Youde, the eighth master who wanted to cause trouble, and sent them all to hell that night.

Just as Zhang Heping was distracted, his second sister Zhang Pandi suddenly asked, "Brother, how are you going to deal with this?"

Zhang Pandi originally wanted to ask whether she should find someone to communicate with the Municipal Bureau, but then she thought that Zhang Heping was so close to Mr. Hua and Mrs. Zheng, so there was no need for her to do anything unnecessary.

"Whatever he does, it's unfounded!" Zhang Heping said slowly, his hands behind his back, looking at the lights on the other side. "Besides, they're just conducting routine inquiries today."

This is what made Zhang Pandi uncomfortable. Four young policemen came to take her statement and forced the Zhang family to cooperate in the name of visiting and investigating.

If they really visited several nearby families and took statements, Zhang Pandi would still be able to accept it.

But the problem is, after the four young policemen left, they didn’t even visit anyone else and just drove away!

Zhang Pandi said angrily, "If they come looking for trouble again, I'll talk to someone in their department and tell them about it!"

"What's the point of looking for them?" Zhang Heping turned to look at his second sister and asked indifferently, "Can we get rid of those people and kick them out of the system?"

"No, don't say that!" Zhang Heping looked away again and said in a gloomy tone, "If you don't even have this much sophistication, you'd better quit your job and start a business."

Zhang Pandi fell silent. From what her third brother said, he actually wanted to get those people out of power!

Chen Shuting, who was following behind with her youngest son Zhang Hao, took two steps forward and asked, "Husband, should we go back tomorrow?"

"It just so happens that the chip factory on the Dapeng Peninsula in Shenzhen is in trial production, and we need you to go and inspect it!"

"No need!" Zhang Heping said casually, "Chairman He, Chairman Guo and others will come over tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. We'll go back together after New Year's Day."

Chairman He, Chairman Guo and a group of Hong Kong businessmen came to celebrate Zhang Heping's birthday, to strengthen their relationship and to inspect the capital's real estate market.

After hearing this, Chen Shuting said nothing more.

With President He and Chairman Guo, plus the Hong Kong and Macau media controlled by the Peace Group, Chen Shuting doesn't believe that people in the capital don't care about international reputation.

After all, Zhang Heping is now the richest man in Hong Kong Island. If he is falsely accused of murder in the capital, it will be a serious matter!

Those foreign media will simply ignore the truth and insist that the mainland wants to force Zhang Heping to hand over the Heping Group and the technology for making longevity potions!

The next morning, I didn't have to go to a meeting.

After Zhang Heping came back from morning exercise and had breakfast, he took his mother, wife and children out shopping.

Chang Sheng, who had been complained about by Zhang Zhaodi for half the night last night, went to the Household Registration Office of the Municipal Bureau this morning with a lot of resentment. According to Zhang Heping's instructions, he began to collect the identity information of the group of people from the Criminal Investigation Brigade.

Although Chang Sheng didn't know how Zhang Heping would retaliate against these people, judging from Zhang Heping's action of asking for their ID numbers, he probably had the intention of taking them all down.

Therefore, when Changsheng was copying down those names and ID numbers, he was particularly alert to whether there was anyone nearby.

Just as he was about to finish copying, he caught a glimpse of the director coming over from the corner of his eye.

The director wanted to find Chang Sheng last night, but thinking of his identity as director and the death case of He Yuzhu, which he had not yet had time to learn about, he endured it until this morning.

"Good morning, Chief!" The young policeman who was helping Changsheng keep watch shouted loudly and looked very energetic.

Changsheng closed the notebook casually, then stood up and looked at the director who came in, and then shouted, "Good morning, Director."

"Deputy Director Chang, are you done?" The director smiled and said, "If you are, let's go for a walk. I have something to tell you."

"Director, please wait a moment. I'll turn off the computer." Chang Sheng said as he started operating the mouse.

Finally, he casually picked up the notebook and pen on the table.

Seeing this, the director waved his hand and stopped him, saying, "There's no work assignment, so don't bring paper and pen!"

Upon hearing this, Chang Sheng locked the notebook and pen in the drawer.

The two men left the office and didn't take a car. They just walked out of the city bureau gate and walked towards the street.

They walked in silence for a while before Chang Sheng spoke first, asking, "Director, do Section Chief Geng and the others have any objections to my position as deputy director?"

"Why do you ask?" The director subconsciously kicked the question back.

"I know Section Chief Geng has plenty of experience, but he's not computer literate and can't keep up with the Household Registration Office's information technology reforms. That's an indisputable fact." Chang Sheng first disparaged Old Geng, then added:

"But, in order to get me out of this position as deputy director, they went so far as to falsely accuse my wife's brother, Consultant Zhang, of murder and even sent people to our house to take statements from us one by one!"

"I can understand their visits, investigations, and record-keeping. After all, this is a matter of life and death." Chang Sheng frowned and said:

"But they went to Houhai with such fanfare and only took statements from our family. The neighbors all thought we had committed some serious crime, and they're afraid to even approach our house today!"

Chang Sheng's words were exaggerated, because the four young policemen went to Zhang's house to take statements, and never mentioned it to outsiders. How could ordinary people in Houhai know that the Zhang family was questioned by the police and their statements were taken!

At most, I saw a police car parked outside Zhang's house, that's all.

"The fact that the first-floor shop can't do business is a minor matter. The main issue is that our family's hard-earned reputation has been ruined by Chief Geng and his gang!"

……

Capital Hotel, second floor restaurant.

Because Chairman Guo and his family had arrived in the capital, Zhang Heping booked lunch at the Capital Hotel.

Just as Zhang Heping and Chairman Guo were sitting in the restaurant discussing whether the Japanese real estate market had fallen to the floor price, Zhang Pandidi came over with five people.

"Chairman Guo, I heard from my brother that you're interested in investing in real estate in the capital, so I invited a few friends over. They know much more about policies regarding investment attraction, land allocation, and demolition than I do!"

As Zhang Pandi spoke, she arranged the five men and women she brought with her to sit at the table with Zhang Heping and his friends.

In order to communicate effectively with Zhang Heping over the years, Chairman Guo has already mastered Mandarin, so he has no problem communicating with these five local tyrants.

However, Chairman Guo didn't rush into business. After briefly getting to know the five people, he smiled and said, "Some of our friends haven't arrived yet. We'll talk about investment when they arrive, so we don't have to repeatedly explain the local policies to us."

These five people belong to different departments and came here today to expand their network.

It would be best if the investment here could be negotiated, but if not, just consider it as an opportunity to come here and meet new friends.

Of course, the person they most wanted to meet during this trip was the rumored Consultant Zhang.

Therefore, the five of them had no objection and followed the food topic casually brought up by Zhang Heping, and started chatting about the famous foods from all over the capital.

After chatting for a while, the conversation between the younger generation of the Guo family and Zhang Bei and others at the next table attracted the attention of others.

"If the mainland doesn't allow casinos to open, what will happen to the casinos there after Macau returns to China?"

"Didn't I say it? One Country, Two Systems. It won't change for at least 50 years!"

"That's what you say, but how can you guarantee what will happen in the future?"

Because they were disgusted by the interrogation yesterday, Zhang Bei, Zhang Nan and others did not argue too much, which made everyone in the Guo family think that the Zhang family was not optimistic about the Ao Island Casino.

This kind of concern has actually always existed in the Hong Kong business community. Even though many Hong Kong businessmen, including the Zhang family, have made large investments in the mainland, they are still wary of policy changes in the mainland.

Zhang Heping naturally knew that 92 was a year of great change, but he could not explain the source of the information, and he was unwilling to argue with the younger generations.

My eldest brother-in-law Changsheng came very late. He arrived almost when most people had put down their bowls and chopsticks and started discussing where to go to the capital for fun in the afternoon.

"Director Chang, there's a seat reserved for you here!" The middle-aged man from the Housing Authority was very enthusiastic and obviously had a good relationship with Chang Sheng.

"Sorry!" Chang Sheng sat down next to his father-in-law Zhang Bing and said to everyone with a slightly apologetic tone, "I went out to run some errands this morning and didn't drive. I even forgot to take my phone with me. I only realized we were eating here when I got back to work. I'll drink three glasses of wine as punishment!"

"Director Chang, you're being too formal. You've just been transferred to the Municipal Bureau, so you must have a lot of things to do." The middle-aged man from the Housing Authority said, picking up the teapot and pouring a cup of tea for Chang Sheng, saying with a smile:

"We still had to work in the afternoon, so we didn't drink."

"However, I can remember these three penalty drinks for you. You have to pay them back next time we drink together."

Seeing that his eldest brother-in-law Chang Sheng didn't look surprised, Zhang Heping casually said, "Don't do it next time. Dinner is also scheduled here. You can come over after get off work and ask him to pay it back."

"Okay! We'll drink tonight!" Chang Sheng agreed, then looked at the old man next to Zhang Heping and said, "Chairman Guo, I'll have tea instead of wine. Welcome your family to the capital."

Chairman Guo raised his teacup and said with a smile, "We were just talking about Director Chang. I didn't expect you to be here. Congratulations to Director Chang on his promotion to the Municipal Bureau."

After the two exchanged some polite words, the others resumed their previous conversation, discussing where to go to enjoy the scenery in the capital in winter.

饭后，众人散去。

Chang Sheng pulled Zhang Heping aside and whispered, "Heping, our director talked to me for a long time this morning..."

Zhang Heping interrupted, "There's no need to beat around the bush among us. Just get to the point."

Chang Sheng organized his words and then continued, "He said he would suppress this matter."

"Besides, he had no idea about this before, otherwise he would never have let those people do this."

"Finally, he wants to treat you to a meal and apologize to you in person on behalf of the Municipal Bureau!"

"That's roughly what he meant. Do you want to agree to it?"

Zhang Heping looked at his eldest brother-in-law Chang Sheng, frowned, and asked, "Did he say what to do with those people?"

"Yes!" Chang Sheng said seriously, "What he meant was that he would first transfer the deputy director, the captain, and Section Chief Geng to a subordinate unit to supervise their work and improve their case-handling capabilities."

"As for how to deal with them in the future, it depends on whether the three of them have made any mistakes or omissions."

Zhang Heping did not comment on this marginalized approach. He simply placed his hand on his brother-in-law Chang Sheng's shoulder, looked at Chairman Guo who was still waiting at the restaurant door, and said softly to Chang Sheng:

"Observe for the next two days. If they don't cause any more trouble, tell your director that I'll invite him to dinner at the Capital Hotel's Western restaurant the day after tomorrow, New Year's Day."

"When the time comes, please greet your director at the door."

"Okay!" Chang Sheng nodded seriously and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Chang Sheng was arranged by the director to join the Municipal Bureau. Unless it was absolutely necessary, Chang Sheng really didn't want to have a conflict with the director.

At the same time, he also doesn't want Zhang Heping to go back on his promise to give him the potion that would extend his lifespan to 120 years!

In the afternoon, President He called and said that he had already boarded the plane.

Zhang Heping and Chairman Guo did not go out for a stroll, but at the request of Chairman Guo's family, they took them to the Zhang family compound on the north bank of Houhai.

Wang Baochuan and others arrived a little later, on the afternoon of the next day, the 31st.

During this period, Zhang Heping sent invitations to some acquaintances, inviting them to have lunch together on New Year's Day.

Because the roads were slippery due to the snow, and considering that many old men and women would come to eat, Zhang Heping set the party time to noon.

After Zhang Heping was wrongly accused, Chang Sheng, Zhang Zhaodi and Zhang Pandyi all realized the importance of personal connections.

Taking advantage of Zhang Heping’s 42nd birthday party, they discussed it with Zhang Heping and invited many friends to come.

As a result, the Capital Hotel's Western restaurant seems small.

January 1992, 1, New Year's Day.

After Zhang Heping met Mr. Hua, Mr. Li, and Mrs. Zheng at the entrance of the Capital Hotel that morning, he asked his eldest son Zhang Bei to greet them at the door on his behalf.

"Didn't you say you wanted a Western restaurant?" Old Mrs. Zheng asked, puzzled. "Why did you change to Chinese food? Won't that waste too much food?"

Zhang Heping responded with a smile: "Don't worry, it's still a buffet. You can take as much as you want, so there won't be too much waste."

……