Chapter 38: Digging a hole in the cauldron and playing with your life, you damned fool!

  Two months ago, Huang Yangmu was confirmed brain dead and had his tubes removed by the doctor. Ye Haodong's crime should have been changed to murder, but during the detention period, he committed such a big thing, even if he hadn't been shot yet, the people in the miscellaneous group all believed that Ye Haodong would never come back, he was dead for sure. But things in the world are not absolute, Ye Haodong not only came back, but also didn't add any days to his sentence, and came back completely intact.

  Lu Tianming returned to the miscellaneous group with his head down, a clear red palm print visible on his face. Feng Tao noticed his face and asked: "What's going on? Did you offend some official?"

  Lu Tianming didn't dare to lie: "Ye Haodong is back, I just received a notification from the squadron, and he was sent to the fifth group of the first squadron. The one who hit him in the mouth was indeed him."

  Feng Tao took a deep breath in, furrowed his brow, and asked with some concern: "What was he like when he came back? How did Xu Shao treat him?"

  Lu Tianming shook his head. According to Ye Haodong's request, he didn't tell the truth and lied: "I didn't notice, I didn't see Captain Xu Shaozhong, when I passed by, only Ye Haodong was there, not even a single cadre."

  Feng Tao's big eyes rolled around in a circle, slightly relieved: "I estimate the problem is not big, this kid has found some big backer, saved one life, and was sent back, hum~ as long as the cadres don't pee on him, I can still deal with him."

  At the beginning of each month, when buying daily necessities, it used to be the job of small team cadres, but now this task belongs to Da Zaowu Feng Tao.

  Each group of people started filling out the registration form for the things they wanted to buy. Ye Haodong came back, and naturally, there was no shortage of money in Group 5. Wang Yijun filled out the list according to Ye Haodong's requirements: ten packs of Yuxi cigarettes, a box of canned meat, four smoked lamb legs, and other things, totaling nearly 10,000 yuan worth of purchases.

  In the evening, Feng Tao sent a message, the original words: No goods! Even if you have money, I won't sell it to you.

  Lu Tianming conveyed the message, his eyes never leaving Ye Haodong's face. Ye Haodong didn't look very angry, he expressionlessly comforted Lu Tianming and told him to go back, reminding him to be careful with what he said afterwards.

  After Lu Tianming left, inside the fifth group's cell.

  Ji Chenggang: "Hao Dong, Feng Tao must be taken down, he's too vicious. Isn't this intentional oppression of us?"

  Wang Yijun: "Taking him down is a certainty, but we need to get to the bottom of things, after all there are still cadres over there, we don't know the ins and outs and can't act rashly, it's easy to suffer big losses. The last time with Hao Dong was already quite suspenseful, after you left, your friend Chen from that unit beat up Feng Tao and even smashed up the squadron office, but in just a few days I heard he got transferred away, not even the cadres could do anything about this little punk, it won't be easy for us to take him down."

  Ye Haodong felt a warmth in his heart when he first heard about Chen Hong doing this for him, but he wasn't worried that Chen Hong's future would be affected by this matter. That kid had a much stronger foundation than Ye Haodong, with an old man who was a rising star in the military, having just been promoted to Major General and made commander of the 38th Group Army through special promotion, someone who could shake up the entire northwest region with just one footstep. This matter would probably not even affect him, and he might even get promoted again after being transferred away.

  Lin Xudong also rarely spoke up: "Yes, it's too bullying. Not only did you not buy back the things we asked for, but also the things that other people in our group of five asked him to buy were not bought back either."

  He Pingchao laughed and said, "What you said about other people doesn't include me. I let him buy those things that are worthless, but I won't owe him a favor. I'm still on the same side as you guys, don't believe that idiot. Old Wang wants to know his secrets, I know this stuff."

  Ye Haodong: "How did you know? Tell me."

  He Pingchao: "One of my distant uncles was the secretary of the Political and Legal Committee in Ken District, Feng Tao's entrusted person is Lu Mingqiu, the deputy secretary of the Political and Legal Committee in Ken District. His brother Feng Bo has been doing business in Xinjiang for many years and has a very close relationship with Lu Mingqiu. This Lu Mingqiu is also Xu Shao's uncle."

  Ye Haodong shook his head: "Is that all? What's the relationship between Feng Bo and Lu Mingqiu, did they have any money transactions or were they secret business partners?"

  He Pingchao bit his tongue and tried to speak in Mandarin: "I just know that much, if you want more specific information, you'd better ask someone else. To be honest, I think it's a waste of time for you to deal with him, with your skills, you can handle him in no time."

  Ye Haodong smiled and asked him, "You said that if he were to lose his backing outside, what would happen next? I can take care of him for a while, but once I'm gone, this kid will still be in charge, still locking the door and acting like a local emperor. If I want to deal with him, I'll do it thoroughly. First, I'll cut off his support by removing the cauldron from under him, then I'll lure the snake out of its hole and grab his handle, finishing him off in one go, leaving him no chance to turn over!"

  Huo Ping Chao looked at Ye Hao Dong in surprise, after a while, he sighed and said: "You're ruthless, in our Guangdong dialect, this is called letting his whole family go to the Yellow Springs." Meaning his whole family will be wiped out.

  After dinner, Ye Haodong came to the squadron department. Xu Shi very politely let him in.

  Xu Jue: "What brings you here?"

  Ye Haodong nodded: "Yes, there's something I want to ask you."

  Xu Jue: "Speak up, what is it? As long as I know about it."

  Ye Haodong asked, "What's the relationship between your uncle and Feng Bo? Is it about money or business dealings? I want to know if I have a chance to discuss business or financial matters with your uncle. By the way, I just opened a branch in Wucheng. If your uncle is interested, we'll have many opportunities for cooperation and common language. I don't know if you can help me pass on the message?"

  Xu Jue was taken aback. Last time, he had deliberately been vague in his words because he didn't want Ye Haodong to know about his uncle's affairs. He hadn't expected Ye Haodong to grasp the relationship between Feng Bo and his uncle so quickly. After thinking for a moment, he replied: "I can go back and ask my uncle. As far as I know, he does have business dealings with Feng Bo. It seems that my aunt is selling Xinjiang's local specialties in Liaoning Province through Feng Bo's channels."

  Ye Haodong: "You go back and ask your aunt how much of that stuff she can get rid of in a year, my business needs a large quantity every year. And if we talk about the channels for doing business, I have connections all over Northeast China. You can tell your uncle now that I am willing to buy unlimited quantities of Xinjiang specialties from your aunt's hands at a price one percent higher than what Feng Bo pays, on one condition: let your uncle stop messing with that disgusting thing from now on."

  Xu Jue hesitated somewhat, and at his age, he still had some mental reservations about pursuing personal gain by betraying his trust.

  Ye Haodong continued: "This kid likes to play with fire, you know? How many young and inexperienced ones in the group have been messed with by him, do you know? If he continues like this, when something big happens, it will eventually implicate you. When He Ruqiu was around, I once helped him get rid of a big troublemaker named Gu Mingchen. Now this Feng Tao's resentment is not one bit smaller than that Gu Mingchen. This is today's procurement list for our group, take a look, this kid didn't even buy back one item for me. Think about it, if this kid continues like this, won't he stir up big trouble?"

  Xu Jue: "You don't seem to plan on taking him down yourself, do you mean for us to take action? If what you said has evidence, please inform me and I will give you and the other culprits a chance to surrender."

  "Is such a disgusting thing worthy of my attention? If I'm going to deal with him, I'll go after his backers, cut off his resources. As for taking care of him, that's up to you, but as long as he loses his backing, no matter how much you guys hate him, the prisoners in jail will be able to take him down."

  The next day at noon, Xu Jie's uncle, Lu Mingqiu, deputy secretary of the Garrison District Political and Legal Committee, rushed to the cotton mill team. In the prison's reception room, he had a face-to-face conversation with Ye Haodong. Lu Mingqiu straightforwardly introduced the scale and specific profit-sharing model of his business dealings with Feng Bo. Ye Haodong readily fulfilled the conditions he had previously promised Xu Jie. In front of Lu Mingqiu, he called Zhu Mingyu, who was in charge of the new store in Wucheng, and told him that from now on, all the dried fruits and honey products needed by Tianyi Pavilion would be purchased from Lu Mingqiu's wife's trading company. That afternoon, Lu Mingqiu and his wife's trading company received an order worth 2 million yuan and a deposit from Tianyi Pavilion Group, which was equivalent to their annual transaction volume during their cooperation with Feng Bo.

  Lu Mingqiu was settled, and Feng Tao thoroughly became a toothless old wolf. Next, it's time to give him a set of tricks. Lu Tianming volunteered, but Ye Haodong refused without hesitation. Not only because he didn't trust Lu Tianming, but also because Ye Haodong believed that someone like Feng Tao didn't need to be given special treatment - soon enough, he would trip himself up. Later events proved Ye Haodong's speculation correct.

  In the prison, old inmates often play with each other's butts, although it's a common thing, it's an unspoken rule, not to be made public. If they were caught in the act by the guards, being beaten and taken away is nothing out of the ordinary.