Chapter 4

The next morning, Monday.

When James Whitney walked into the chairman's office with a dark expression, he found a thick stack of white envelopes piled neatly on his desk.

Twenty-two resignation letters in all.

Every director and senior manager from Ruicheng Group's project department, engineering department, legal department, and the core bidding team had submitted their resignations right on time that morning.

The backbone of those departments were all men I'd personally trained over the past fifteen years.

They pulled all-nighters with me, ate boxed lunches with me, and fought alongside me over drinks at business dinners.

They knew better than anyone that following me, Roy Fox, meant there was meat on the table.

Following the Whitney uncle and nephew, who kicked away the ladder once they'd climbed it, they wouldn't even be left with bone scraps in the end.

"They've turned on me... every last one of them!"

James Whitney was shaking with rage, and he swept the resignation letters off the desk onto the floor.

"Uncle... Uncle, we've got a problem!"

Dale Whitney came scrambling into the office, his face pale as paper.

"Ronald Cobb's side sent a lawyer's letter demanding we settle the two hundred thirty million by five o'clock this afternoon! And... and the bank caught wind of it, so the five hundred million project loan that was supposed to be disbursed today has been put on emergency hold!"

Smack!

James Whitney's backhand landed another crisp slap across Dale's face, splitting the corner of his mouth and knocking him to the floor.

"You useless animal, good for nothing but ruining things! The empire I built with blood and sweat, and you tore it down in a single day!"

James Whitney's eyes were bloodshot, like a mad dog cornered with nowhere left to run.

With trembling hands, he picked up that private landline and dialed my number.

At that moment, I was sitting in a teahouse, sipping a freshly brewed cup of premium aged tea, when I pressed the answer button.

"Roy! I'm begging you, as a brother! Come back!"

James Whitney's voice cracked into a sob over the phone, not a shred left of the bluster he'd thrown around in the office yesterday.

"The company's about to fall apart! Just come back and handle Ronald Cobb and the bank, and I'll kick Dale out immediately! That fifty million, I'll double it... no, triple it! I'll give you twenty percent of the shares! Roy, you can't just stand there and watch Ruicheng die!"

I gently blew the foam off my teacup, my tone as calm as dead water.

"Chairman Whitney, affection that comes too late is cheaper than weeds, and so are shares that come too late. I'm not the one watching Ruicheng die. You and your nephew are the ones who ripped out its oxygen tube with your own hands."

Seeing that the soft approach got him nowhere, the viciousness in James Whitney's bones surfaced in an instant.

"Roy Fox! Don't refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit! You really think you can just get up and walk out?"

James Whitney roared himself hoarse on the other end of the line.

"Don't forget, you're a senior executive at Ruicheng, and you signed a non-compete agreement! The moment I invoke that non-compete, you're barred from setting foot anywhere in this industry for three years! And so is that crew you took with you!"

"What's more, I'm going to sue you, sue you for inciting a mass resignation, and make you pay for every loss the company suffers! I'll ruin your name in this industry!"

Listening to his threats, I actually couldn't help laughing out loud.

"Chairman Whitney, oh, Chairman Whitney. Have you been sitting up high as the boss so long that you can't even be bothered to glance at basic labor law?"

I set down my teacup, my voice going suddenly cold.

"A non-compete agreement only takes effect if the company pays the non-compete compensation in full, every single month. But just last month, your dear nephew Dale, wanting to pad the numbers on the annual report and pocket a bigger bonus for himself, made one stroke of the pen and, under the excuse of 'optimizing labor costs,' unilaterally stopped paying the non-compete reserve funds that were owed to every executive on a pro-rated basis before they even left."

"Under the law, if the non-compete compensation goes unpaid for three consecutive months, the agreement is automatically void. That agreement is now too stiff even to wipe with!"

The other end of the line fell into a dead silence in an instant.

I could even hear James Whitney's heavy breathing and the sharp gasp Dale sucked in.

"And don't hold it against me for not honoring old ties. Here's one more big gift for you."

I looked at the sunlight outside the window, my gaze sharp as a knife.

"That fifty million Dale skimmed off, I ran a check on the underlying transaction records before I left. He didn't leave the money in any account under his own name. He ran it through three shell companies, layer by layer, laundering it into an overseas account."

"This isn't a simple financial violation anymore. This is embezzlement, plus money laundering. Fifty million involved, more than enough to keep him behind bars for the rest of his life."

"You... you're talking nonsense!" Dale let out a shriek of absolute terror on the other end of the line.

"Whether it's nonsense or not, you two can save it and explain it slowly to the officers at the Financial Crimes Unit. The ironclad evidence in those transaction records was already sitting in the unit's tip inbox last night."

I gave a cold laugh and hung up, clean and decisive.

Beep—beep—beep—

Listening to the busy tone on my phone, I pulled out the SIM card I'd prepared long ago and tossed it into the teahouse trash can.

The era of Roy Fox at Ruicheng Group was over for good.

And the hell that belonged to the Whitney uncle and nephew had only just opened its doors.