Chapter 74 — The Man in the Restroom

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Once out of the hospital, Wei Zhao had at first meant to buy some Chinese herbal medicine at a pharmacy near the hospital, but hospital pharmacies generally charged rather high prices, so on second thought he let it go. He did have a little money on him, and the bank card Gu Pengzhan had given him as well, but the herbs he needed were no ordinary goods; for many of them, a few qian or a few liang cost tens of thousands.

"Mr. Lin, Mr. Gu called just now. He said that if you had the time, I was to bring you to see him," Uncle Qing said to Wei Zhao once they were in the car.

"Oh? Uncle Chu is looking for me? Then take me to pay Uncle Chu a visit. You know as well as I do, Uncle Qing, that aside from school I have nothing to do." Wei Zhao had no idea what Gu Pengzhan wanted with him. Perhaps there had been a lead in the bank robbery case, or perhaps it was about the clash with Black Panther at school the day before.

"Very good. I will get in touch with Mr. Gu right now." With that, Uncle Qing took out his phone, dialed Gu Pengzhan's number, and told him over the line that he and Wei Zhao were on their way.

The security guard in the underground parking garage of the Gu Group knew Uncle Qing's Bentley. Before the car had even drawn close, the guard raised the barrier. To such sycophantic behavior from a guard, Wei Zhao was noncommittal.

Uncle Qing's car was expensive; finding an identical one and fitting it with a matching plate to slip inside would take some effort. But those fellows who had robbed the bank that day were plainly no ordinary characters, and there had to be others behind them.

Fortunately, even gaining entry to the underground garage would not much affect the group, so Wei Zhao said nothing more about it.

They took the elevator up to the door of Gu Pengzhan's office. Uncle Qing knocked, then pushed the door open a crack and glanced inside. As the man closest to Gu Pengzhan, he was naturally free to come and go in that office as he pleased, even when others were present.

After that one glance, however, Uncle Qing closed the door and said to Wei Zhao, who was waiting to one side, "Mr. Lin, Mr. Gu is discussing business with someone. Shall we wait a little while?"

"Of course." Wei Zhao nodded. As the chairman of a top-tier conglomerate, Gu Pengzhan could hardly be sitting idle waiting for him to turn up; plenty of matters could be arranged in the interval. "I will go to the restroom. If anything comes up, you can call me."

"Very good, Mr. Lin. The restroom is over that way!" Uncle Qing pointed in the direction opposite the chairman's office.

Nearly everyone on this floor was a senior executive of the group, and each office had its own private washroom, so there was no need to use the public one. The farther the public restroom was from the chairman's office, then, the better.

Wei Zhao walked briskly toward the restroom. Just before he reached the door, he heard a man inside speaking in a low voice, apparently on the phone.

Wei Zhao had not intended to eavesdrop, nor did he have the vulgar taste for prying into other people's private affairs, but his hearing was extraordinarily keen, and a name that fell from the man's lips suddenly caught his attention!

"I waited so long for this chance, and that little girl Gu Mengyao went to the bank to open a card. Who exactly did you find over there? How do you people do things?" The man seemed furious as he snarled into the phone, though for fear of being overheard he still kept his voice as low as he could.

Had Wei Zhao's hearing not been so exceptional, and had he not been standing at the restroom door, anyone else passing by would not have made out a word he was saying.

The man had already mentioned the name "Gu Mengyao" several times, which had put Wei Zhao on his guard; now, standing at the doorway and hearing him speak of the bank again, Wei Zhao felt another chill in his heart!

Without betraying a thing, Wei Zhao stationed himself before the sink in the restroom's outer room and listened to the man inside.

"You cannot even handle a trifle like this, and you still expect me to work with you? It was nothing much I asked, just for you to keep that little girl Gu Mengyao under control for a few hours. When the contract talks with Gu Pengzhan came up, all you had to do was hint obliquely that Gu Mengyao's affair had something to do with you, and the contract would have been signed long ago! A mere oblique hint, and I daresay even that old fox Gu Pengzhan, for all his fury, would have swallowed his anger for the sake of his precious daughter's safety!" The man was plainly beside himself with rage.

"Hmph, there was no flaw exposed in this business, was there... What? You say you have no idea where the bunch you hired are now? Damn him, how did I come to work with a pig like you?" The man cursed. "Fine. I will sniff around for news on the police station's side. You get rid of the loose ends as quick as you can, and if it truly cannot be done... you know what I mean, don't you?"

"Ring—" A sudden burst of the classic Nokia ringtone went off, and the man inside the restroom broke off at once, plainly startled half out of his wits.

But the one most startled was Wei Zhao! His own phone had rung. Wei Zhao smiled bitterly; it seemed he had tipped his hand and scared off the snake. Whatever else there was to hear would now be very hard to come by.

As Wei Zhao had expected, the man in the restroom was badly shaken. This public restroom on the top floor was almost never used, for the group executives working on this floor all had private washrooms in their offices, and no one would come here to relieve himself; only outsiders on business and a few odd-job workers used the public restroom. That was precisely why he had chosen to make his call here.

In most cases, apart from a cleaner who came once in the morning and once in the evening to tidy up, this restroom stood empty nearly the whole day long.

Wei Zhao helplessly pulled out his phone, glanced at it and saw Uncle Qing's number. He pressed the hang-up button without hesitation, then muttered to himself out loud: "Brother Junhua, this is Xiao Liang—Li Xiaoliang! I'm over at the Gu Group. I couldn't find you—what floor are you on? I've already made it all the way up to the top floor. I figured, don't the senior executives all work on the top floor? Since you're a business manager, I came up here to look for you... What? Third floor? All right then, I'll head back down... I was just about to use the restroom anyway! What? The upstairs floors are all top brass territory? Never mind then—I won't go up. I'll go down first!"

As he spoke, Wei Zhao walked out of the restroom and headed in the direction of Gu Pengzhan's office. On Uncle Qing's end of the line, seeing Wei Zhao hang up without a word, he did not think much of it—after all, Wei Zhao had only stepped away to use the restroom, and upon spotting his incoming call, had presumably decided to come straight to Gu Pengzhan's office.

The man in the restroom heard Wei Zhao's words and immediately let out a long sigh of relief, muttering under his breath: "Damn it. Just some errand-runner here on business. Nearly scared me to death. Looking for a business manager—and coming all the way up to the top floor? A measly manager hardly qualifies as leadership. What an idiot. Doesn't he know that salesmen all call themselves 'business managers' just to sound impressive?"

Hearing Wei Zhao's voice grow steadily fainter, the man knew he had gone far enough. He picked up the phone again—but this time he was far more careful, keeping his voice even lower than before...

Martial Universe