Zhang Chi was spun around several times by Yang Chen’s slap, and only after regaining his balance did he curse loudly, "You idiot, you dare hit me, you're tired of living..."
"You're the one who's tired of living!"
*Slap!*
Yang Chen sneered and delivered another slap. Zhang Chi was sent spinning again. When he stopped this time, Zhang Chi saw Yang Chen’s hand raised high. He covered his face with both hands, daring not to speak ill of him further, and yelled, "Don't... don't hit me anymore, we can discuss things!"
"No, Jesus said if you're slapped on the left cheek, you should offer the right one too."
Saying this, Yang Chen’s left palm moved to strike again.
"Stop!"
The office door was suddenly pushed open, and two uniformed individuals rushed in. The one in front, a man in his thirties with an air of authority, sternly ordered Yang Chen, "Don't hurt anyone, or we'll cuff you!"
Zhang Chi was overjoyed to see the newcomers and blurted out, "Cousin..."
"Shut up!"
Li Ze quickly stopped Zhang Chi and asked, "What’s your name, and why is he hitting you?"
The policeman leading the charge was Zhang Chi’s cousin, Li Ze. It was Li Ze who had tipped off Zhang Chi after Li Yu had called the police.
Upon being reminded, Zhang Chi immediately changed his tune and said urgently, "Uncle Police Officer, quickly... quickly arrest them, I want to sue them!"
"Tell us, what happened?"
"She... she's the boss here."
Zhang Chi pointed at Li Yu and said, "She fired me without cause and demanded I leave with nothing. Naturally, I refused, so I asked her to compensate me with six months' salary according to labor law. To avoid paying, she framed me for stealing from the store and then ordered this big idiot to hit me!"
"Nonsense!"
Li Yu was shocked that Zhang Chi was twisting the facts. She quickly explained, "Officer, this man is the head manager of our auction house, but he’s been stealing. I reported him first, you should know..."
"Madam, our law is based on facts, not on who reports first." Li Ze interrupted Li Yu directly, speaking righteously, "Do you have evidence to accuse him of embezzlement? I personally witnessed you instigating an employee to assault someone!"
From the moment Li Ze entered and exchanged glances with Zhang Chi, Yang Chen had a bad feeling. Now, with Li Ze’s words clearly favoring Zhang Chi, he felt even more uneasy.
"Yes... yes, there's evidence. The security cameras here recorded Zhang Chi’s embezzlement."
"Alright, then show me the surveillance footage."
"The memory card storing the footage was stolen by him." Li Yu pointed at Zhang Chi and said, "Officer, you can search him. The memory card is on him."
"Slander, this is absolute slander!" Zhang Chi pulled out a memory card from his pocket, looking furious, and said, "I do have a memory card on me, but it contains my personal belongings, absolutely no surveillance video."
"You still want to quibble!" Li Yu snatched the memory card and inserted it into a computer. Indeed, it contained hundreds of short videos. She sneered, "Now let's see your true colors!"
She double-clicked to open a short video. The content played was unbearable to watch. Li Yu quickly closed the video, embarrassed and flustered, "What... what is this?"
Zhang Chi looked more smug. He knew Li Yu had already reported him, so he wouldn't use real surveillance footage to threaten her. "Officer, I think this is a matter of morality, not a crime."
"As long as you don't spread these things, it doesn't constitute a crime." Li Ze turned to Li Yu, his expression righteous, "Ms. Li, we now suspect you of filing a false report and wasting police resources. You'll have to come with us."
Li Yu's face turned pale. She never expected that instead of arresting Zhang Chi, she would be the one taken to the police station.
"Wait, I have evidence!" Yang Chen quickly took out his phone and played the video he had just secretly recorded. "Officers, please watch. This video shows Zhang Chi admitting to embezzlement and threatening the boss. This is evidence. You can arrest him now!"
Li Ze glared angrily at Zhang Chi, blaming him for being so careless and getting caught on camera.
"Fake... it's fake, the recording is fake!" Zhang Chi argued, "These... these words were forced out of me, the recording is fake." He then pointed at his swollen face and said, "Look, they beat my face like this because I refused to cooperate with their filming!"
Li Ze raised an eyebrow. His cousin was truly cunning, finding a loophole even in this situation. He quickly said, "Indeed, a single video doesn't prove anything. Do you have any more concrete evidence to prove Zhang Chi's embezzlement?"
Bias! Outright favoritism! By this point, Li Yu realized Li Ze was deliberately favoring Zhang Chi, and her face flushed red like an eggplant.
"Yes... there's more evidence, follow me!"
Everyone was confused but followed Yang Chen downstairs to the treasure room. Yang Chen first found the ledger in Zhang Chi's office and pointed to the inventory records, saying, "This bears Zhang Chi's personal signature, meaning he received this Yongzheng shallow bowl."
Then he took out the shard of the replica that had been broken today. "The facts prove it's a fake!"
"So what?" Zhang Chi said dismissively, "I handle so many antiques every year, I'm human, not a machine. It's normal to misjudge one or two occasionally."
"One or two is normal, but if everything you handled was fake, how do you explain that!" Yang Chen said, pointing to more than a dozen antiques on the display shelf, including a Ming Dynasty white jade lotus pendant and Kangxi celadon glaze, speaking indignantly, "These were all handled by you, and all of them are fakes. What do you have to say for yourself now!"
"Nonsense... nonsense, these are not fakes..."
*Crackling sounds...*
Yang Chen didn't give Zhang Chi a chance to retort. He smashed all the jade pendants and porcelain pieces, one after another. The chemical dyes filling them flowed out, creating a foul stench that made everyone cover their noses.
"Tell me, if this isn't fake, what is it? How can you argue your way out of this now!"
"I... I..."
"Officer, the evidence is conclusive. Can you arrest him now!"
Li Ze looked at the shattered fakes on the floor and then at the enforcement camera on his chest. Even if he wanted to help Zhang Chi, he couldn't be too obvious. He had no choice but to take out handcuffs and cuff Zhang Chi.
"Zhang Chi, you'll have to come back with us to assist with the investigation!"
"Assist with the investigation?" Yang Chen, though not a lawyer, knew that "assisting with the investigation" meant at most a 48-hour detention, while a criminal suspect could be directly charged. These were two completely different concepts.
"Officer, this is not right..." Yang Chen was about to correct Li Ze on the charge of arresting Zhang Chi, but Li Yu interrupted him, "Xiao Chen, it's fine. Let the officers take Zhang Chi."
"But..." Seeing Li Yu give him a meaningful look, Yang Chen, though puzzled, could only fall silent.
After Li Ze took Zhang Chi away, he asked, "Ms. Li, 'assisting with the investigation' and 'criminal suspect' are two different concepts..."
"I know."
"Then why didn't you correct him?"
"The officer who led them here was clearly intentionally favoring Zhang Chi. Arguing with him is useless; we can just file a complaint. Besides, there are more pressing matters to attend to!"
"More pressing matters?"
"Zhang Chi reminded me. He's been here for so long, there must be at least eight or ten items he switched. Many of them were sold to wealthy individuals. If they find out, our auction house's reputation will be ruined!"
Li Yu's eyebrows furrowed into a deep character, resembling the Chinese character "川". She pointed to the ledger and said, "Help me check one by one, how many items handled by Zhang Chi were switched, and how many were sold to wealthy collectors."
"And after we find out?"
Sigh... Li Yu let out a long sigh and said helplessly, "Triple compensation for fakes. We'll have to compensate those wealthy collectors triple the price."
"That would be a huge loss!"
"We can afford this loss. What I fear most is... those rich people don't lack money. I fear they won't forgive us even if we compensate them."
Li Yu was right. Those who spent tens or hundreds of thousands on antiques were naturally wealthy. Tripling the compensation might not win their forgiveness.
"This... this is really troublesome." Yang Chen tapped his fingers on Zhang Chi's desk and suddenly felt an energy fluctuation. He exclaimed joyfully, "Ms. Li, our auction house has security checks every time we enter and exit. The antiques Zhang Chi swapped out probably weren't easy to take away. A large portion might still be hidden in our company. I can find them!"
"Really?"
"Absolutely not lying to you!" Yang Chen directly pulled out all the drawers of the desk, but inside there was nothing but ledgers and stationery.
"There's nothing here!"
"Ms. Li, don't worry." Yang Chen gestured at the desk and smiled, "Look, this desk is over three meters long and more than two meters wide. The drawers are less than eighty centimeters long..."
Li Yu suddenly realized and cried out joyfully, "There's a secret compartment!"
"Exactly." Yang Chen ran his hands over every inch of the desk and soon felt the area with the strongest energy fluctuation.
"It's here!" He pushed, and a panel naturally fell open. The first thing that met their eyes was a Kangxi celadon glaze plain bottle. After taking out the bottle, behind it were a Yongzheng shallow bowl, a Ming Dynasty white jade lotus pendant...
"They're all here!"
The fakes of these items had just been smashed to pieces by Yang Chen. Naturally, everything hidden inside were genuine articles.
With items worth millions recovered, Li Yu couldn't contain her excitement. She hugged Yang Chen tightly and kissed him on the cheek, "Xiao Chen, you're amazing!"
In Li Yu's mind, although Yang Chen looked like an adult male, his intelligence was only that of a seven-year-old. Kissing his cheek was like kissing a child, without much other thought.
But for Yang Chen, it was different. The beautiful boss suddenly hugged him and kissed him on the cheek. Such close contact as an adult male, his blood rushed to his head!
"Huh, something's not right!"
"Yang Chen's intelligence and psychology aren't just at a seven-year-old level. Why is he reacting like this?" Li Yu thought, increasingly uneasy. "He discovered Zhang Chi's embezzlement and even recorded it as evidence. And he could identify the secret compartment in the desk just now... I, a normal person, don't know that much. How could someone with abnormal intelligence do all this?"
"You scoundrel, he... he's not an idiot!"