253: Chapter 249: Duped and in a Terrible Mess 253: Chapter 249: Duped and in a Terrible Mess After talking to Tian Mingjian on the phone, Chen Hai took out a cigarette and lit it for himself.
He finished the cigarette and then went to the bathroom, soaked in a bath, and washed away his tiredness.
It was more than an hour later that the roar of the Jeep Cherokee’s engine finally reached his ears.
“Boss, the person has been picked up!” After another three to five minutes, Tian Mingjian appeared at the doorway of the living room inside the courtyard and reported to Chen Hai.
“Ah!
Thank you for the hard work, Mingjian!” With a smile on his face, seeing Tian Mingjian and Dong Dahai behind him, Chen Hai immediately got up to greet them.
“To work for the boss is my good fortune; what’s hard about it!” Tian Mingjian chuckled.
In his previous life as a junior officer in the military, although he had a certain status, life was truly somewhat stifling.
How long had he been following Chen Hai?
In Capital City, he had bought a house, brought over his wife, and they were expecting another child!
Carrying a mobile phone as large as a brick, driving out in a car, and with over a million in the bank account—life couldn’t be more comfortable.
No wonder, as soon as he returned from Hao River, without a second word, he beat up those in the army who had made things difficult for him and then left outright.
“Boss, if you have business to discuss, I’ll wait outside.
Just call for me if you need anything!”
In this era, anyone who could throw around a million in cash could definitely be considered economically free.
However, Tian Mingjian referred to Chen Hai as “boss” out of genuine consent and a sincere heart.
Knowing that Dong Dahai had come over and would definitely have something to discuss with Chen Hai, he very considerately withdrew to the outside of the living room for the time being.
“Younger Brother Chen, you actually live here?
The courtyards in West Mountain aren’t places where just anyone can move in!”
“Every time I see you, I feel like your aura is different.”
“Now, I even feel like I can’t completely understand you!” Dong Dahai said, scanning the living room’s furnishings, his expression complex, sighing.
As a native of Old Capital and someone who had been immersed in the antique industry for many years.
He certainly had an eye for quality.
When Tian Mingjian brought him here and he realized that this courtyard was a property owned by Chen Hai, he was profoundly shocked.
With his occupation, the people he knew were generally somewhat wealthy.
But he was sure that none of the people he knew had the means to secure a separate residence in West Mountain.
“Brother Dong, this place is just nice for its environment, very serene.”
“Other than that, I don’t really feel there’s anything particularly great about it!”
After exchanging pleasantries and inviting Dong Dahai to sit down on the sofa in the living room.
Chen Hai smiled and then said, “I don’t know why you hurried over to find me.
Is there something I might be able to help you with?”
For Dong Dahai to come to see him in such a rush, it was hardly just to catch up—that much was certain.
Therefore, there was no point in beating around the bush, so Chen Hai was being direct.
“Little brother, I won’t lie to you, my business is having big problems right now, and I urgently need cash to tide me over!”
His face bitter, he sighed deeply before continuing, “You must know a bit about my involvement with Zhong Fang.”
“I’ve just recently gotten involved with her, and I’ve tried to accommodate her requests as much as possible.”
“She told me she wanted to earn her keep by doing some part-time work.”
“Thinking that she was a college student and studied economics, I made a naive decision to let her help out in my shop!”
“Who would have known that because of this, she truly brought disaster upon me!”
At this point, Dong Dahai shook his head and let out a bitter chuckle, sighing repeatedly.
“What, did Zhong Fang make a mistake while working in your shop, purchasing fake goods by accident?”
“With your net worth, Brother Dong, even if you were fooled once or twice, it shouldn’t have left you in such a difficult position, right?”
Chen Hai furrowed his brows, his heart filled with doubts as he inquired.
Dong Dahai’s Treasure House had been open for so many years.
Chen Hai wasn’t too clear about how much Dong Dahai was worth, but he assumed it must have been at least a few million.
However, net worth is one thing, and having that much in cash is quite another.
“At the beginning of her work in our shop, her performance was quite good, and in just one week, she made several successful deals.”
“Given my relationship with her, coupled with her dependable work, she was basically in charge of the shop’s affairs when I wasn’t there.”
“At Treasure House, we have a dedicated appraiser, so her being duped isn’t necessarily the case.”
“She does have a talent for business; she purchased a piece of jade for thirty thousand and then sold it for eighty thousand in no time.”
“But what she didn’t realize was that it was all just a trap set by someone else.”
“The group that sold her the jade had over twenty similar Han Dynasty jade pieces, as well as items like the General Helmet, gold-plated dagger, and protective copper mirror.”
“The old masters in the shop authenticated those items, and they were indeed genuine Han Dynasty pieces.”
“Zhong Fang, testing the waters, bought one piece from that group and made a fifty thousand profit, which instantly ignited her greed!”
“But when she went back to them, looking to buy a few more items, the group refused to sell them individually!”
“To buy all twenty or so items, the total cost would have been upwards of one million six hundred thousand.”
“Women, long on hair but short on wisdom, that Zhong Fang gets me so angry just thinking about her.”
“She was bewitched, desperate to gather that money; she not only drained all the liquid funds from the shop but also sold the genuine items in the shop at discounted prices to some antique dealer.”
“That antique dealer disappeared after the fact, and I even suspect that he was in cahoots with the group selling the jade!”
“After much struggle, when she finally gathered that huge sum, the items Zhong Fang bought from them turned out to be switched – all fakes!”
“The thought of it fills me with such frustration; if she were in front of me now, I’d kick her so hard she’d fly to the heavens…”
As he spoke, Dong Dahai grew increasingly depressed, his aged eyes barely managing to squeeze out a tear.
“Wait, Brother Dong, you just trusted Zhong Fang like that, leaving her to handle everything in the shop?”
“What about you?
Such a major incident happened right under your nose, and you had no clue?”
“We’re talking about a huge sum of one million six hundred thousand here, and you had no inkling at the time; what’s the use of your regrets now?”
Sensing something amiss in Dong Dahai’s story, Chen Hai stared directly at him and pressed with a stern voice.
“I was negligent, and I definitely made a mistake.”
“During that time, I had bought over ten acres of land, intending to build a holiday resort.”
“I was so preoccupied with that, my whole mind was focused on it.”
“The relationship between Zhong Fang and me was such, and she seemed very reliable on a regular basis, having made quite a profit for my shop, I naturally left her in full charge.”
“But what did she do?
She caused such a big mess and didn’t even tell me about it, claiming she wanted to give me a surprise!”
“I had only paid a deposit of five hundred thousand for that piece of land and was planning to divert funds from the shop to pay off the remaining one million three hundred thousand when I found out there wasn’t a penny left in the shop…”
Dong Dahai sighed repeatedly as he explained.
According to his plan, once the land was fully paid for, he would take out bank loans, which should be enough to construct the holiday resort.
But now, he has nothing at all!
If he couldn’t come up with that one million three hundred thousand, he would definitely be held accountable for breach of contract.
By then, forget the land, even his Treasure House would likely be at risk, subject to being auctioned off directly.
These days, his worries were so great that he couldn’t eat properly or sleep well, aging noticeably in the process.