Reborn in Russia as a Big Shot

54. Where did the illicit money go?

Victor is directing officers in the monitoring room to interrogate Galina, attempting to break through her defenses.

Suddenly someone knocked on the door.

The people who pushed open the door were Victor's subordinates from the asset recovery team.

"Boss, Li Xiang's lawyer is here. He wants to bail out all the people we arrested."

Victor's attention remained on the interrogation process, and he casually remarked, "No amount of bail will help; don't release a single one."

"Director Sokolov said they agreed to bail, and if we insist on disagreeing, we need to keep a written record to avoid misunderstandings when assigning responsibility in the future."

"Pause after this part of the interrogation." After relaying the order through the microphone, Victor looked at his subordinate with a serious expression. "Do you know who contacted him?"

The subordinate hesitated for a moment, then quickly said, "That lawyer came with proof of assets."

"The rubles we seized were cashed out by Li Xiang from Deutsche Bank; they were his personal savings and funds from the sale of his property."

"Judging from the surface evidence, there is insufficient evidence to file a case, and the person should be released immediately. As for whether anyone pressured Sokolov behind the scenes, we don't know."

Victor frowned and said, "Isn't all money the same? Just because he says it was withdrawn from the bank doesn't mean it was withdrawn from the bank."

"The lawyer told us to check the banknote serial numbers at the bank. Li Xiang withdrew a total of 30 million rubles from Deutsche Bank, all of them in 500 ruble denominations. Deutsche Bank also transferred a lot of money from other banks to help him raise the funds."

"If he dares to say that, the serial number must match the stolen money we've recovered. These banks can all testify to Li Xiang that the money is legitimate."

The subordinate leaned close to Victor's ear and whispered, "How about we find some rubles privately and exchange them for the stolen money in the evidence room?"

"Don't drag me down with you!" Victor was a little confused. "This stolen money was clearly transported from Vladivostok, how did it suddenly become that it was withdrawn from a bank? How did he do that?"

The subordinate speculated, "Could it be that we've made a mistake, and these are actually two separate sums of money?"

Victor followed this line of thought, "He takes clean money and launders it as if it were dirty money. If there are no problems after laundering, then he takes the dirty money and spends it as if it were clean money?"

"We were hoping to push the police to the front so as not to alert him, but instead we were the ones who got caught and lured out."

The subordinate was full of confidence, "As long as the embezzled money is still there, we still have a chance. Where could he hide the money? Nine times out of ten, it's in the Hongxing factory. All we need now is a search warrant. As long as we can go in and search, we're sure to find something."

"At times like this, we have to think of a solution."

Victor pointed at his subordinate and yelled, "Can't you come up with something that doesn't break the law? This guy is a wealthy man with a legal team backing him up. Do you think he's just an ordinary citizen who can be framed however he wants? The search warrant is problematic, so even if you find evidence, it's useless."

The subordinate leaned closer to Victor's ear.

Victor looked impatient, but he listened anyway. Halfway through, his eyes lit up, and he said approvingly, "That's a good idea. Go and make the arrangements. I don't know anything about it."

The officers in the interrogation room couldn't hold back any longer and interrupted, "Victor, could you please keep your voices down? The microphone's still on; it's being broadcast live."

Only the two officers wearing headphones could hear the live broadcast; Galina couldn't hear it.

But she remembered the name Victor!

-

Zhang Renyong told his daughter to wait for news at the police station. Zhang Baizhi sat on a public chair in the police station lobby, unsure whether to leave or stay, as it was getting dark.

Suddenly I heard voices, and they sounded somewhat familiar.

Li Xiang?

The voice sounded somewhat similar, but since it was Russian, Zhang Baizhi wasn't entirely sure.

Following the sound, I looked towards the corner of the stairs.

A few seconds later, Li Xiang and a middle-aged man in a high-ranking police uniform came downstairs together, chatting and laughing, and appeared in Zhang Baizhi's sight.

"I'm really sorry about this incident. It was the General Administration that gave us the order, saying that there were motorcycle gangs exchanging US dollars everywhere to deal with drug money, and that we were to cooperate in the arrest. I thought we could make a great contribution, but I didn't expect to make such a blunder."

The Pushkin District Police Chief, Sokolov, personally escorted Li Xiang out, which was quite a show of respect.

"It's my fault. There were new regulations in July that allowed free exchange of US dollars, but I didn't know that. I thought it was the same as before, so I sneaked around looking for exchange points like a thief, which caused the misunderstanding and trouble for you."

Zhang Baizhi had already come over, but didn't get close.

Sokolov stopped and said, "Mr. Li, I'll leave you here."

"Although this was a misunderstanding, the necessary procedures still need to be followed. Once we have verified the serial number with the bank, we will notify you to come and collect the money. I will expedite the process for you and try to get it done within three days."

Li Xiang said with a big smile, "Thank you for your trouble."

Sokolov turned and went upstairs. Petrov, the thuggish lawyer who had been following behind, stepped forward and said to Li Xiang, "Mr. Li, you can go back now. Leave the rest to me."

"I'll pay the bail. Get them all out of jail so they don't have to spend the night inside."

"Okay, take care, I have to go now."

No sooner had Petrov left than Zhang Baizhi approached him with a smile.

"Can you walk now?"

"I'm waiting for a friend, he should be out soon." Li Xiang took out a cigarette from his pocket and said, "Let's go outside and wait, and have a smoke while we're at it."

"Give me one too."

"Girls shouldn't smoke. You're not allowed to. Just bear with it." Li Xiang really didn't give her any.

Zhang Baizhi lagged slightly behind Li Xiang, muttering to himself, "He's just a big kid, what's with all the acting so mature? And he's even trying to tell me what to do."

-

Hongxing Factory does not have centralized heating, but it has boilers that have already started providing heating, and there is plenty of hot water.

Staff bathhouse.

Li Xiang soaked naked in the hot water pool to wash away the bad luck.

A little while later, Galina came in with a big smile on her face, wrapped in a bath towel.

"The water is so hot." Galina tested the water temperature with her hand, then got into the water, sat in the pool, took off her towel, and put it aside.

Li Xiang asked coldly, "Do you have anything to explain to me?"

"What's there to explain? Everything's fine now." Galina's expression was slightly stiff.

Have you finished watching Infernal Affairs?

"I've finished watching it."

"Only the two of us know about those two boxes of dirty money. I can't just betray myself, can I?" Li Xiang pressed, "Whose mole are you?"

Galina quickly explained, "I didn't do a good job on what you asked me to do. I accept being scolded or punished, but if you say I betrayed you, that would be a misunderstanding. I didn't say a word in the police station. I was prepared to go to jail."

"You're saying only the two of us know about the illicit money? How is that possible? Think again, could there be others? What if the information leaked from Gusinsky's side?"

Li Xiang glared at him and said, "Then it's not dirty money. I just wanted to test you."