Chapter 139
Chapter 139: <Power>
Ma Huateng ran to the business support department. Many stern faces roamed the office. He approached the director of the investigation.
“Who ordered this? You better stop now!”
“We got an anonymous tip that your company is involved in tax evasion. Step back.”
“What? That’s ridiculous!”
When Ma Huateng got visibly angry, his secretary stopped him.
“Sir, you can’t do this here…”
Suddenly Ma Huateng realized where he was. He looked around and saw his employees staring at him in shock and fear.
“Get my car ready.”
“Yes, sir.”
Ma Huateng arrived at the Tax office in Zhongguancun.
The head of this office was Wang Pang.
Ma Huateng begged him, “Sir, how could you do this to me? A tax audit?”
“It was an order from way above, so I couldn’t do anything about it.”
“Who ordered it? Let me meet him!”
“It is one of the ministers or possibly even one of the state commissioners.”
Ma Huateng bit his lips. He knew one or two high ranking officials but not very well. At least not well enough to ask for a favor.
Ma Huateng gritted his teeth.
Wang Pang continued quickly, “I don’t know what kind of connections you have in the government, but I’m not sure if you can get out of this one. The way it is going, I need to be careful myself, or I could get targeted too. The rumor is someone high up has begun to ‘clean house.'”
“W….what do you mean?”
“All I know is that those who were found to be receiving bribes are being fired.”
Suddenly, Ma Huateng’s assistant hurried in.
“Sir, you need to look at this.”
His assistant showed him his phone. It was a new game that suddenly became the most popular game on Let Store.
“Title: Let’s celebrate Hu Jintao. Clap clap clap.”
“Creator: Let Game.”
“W…what is this?”
The game started out with a photo of Hu Jintao making a speech. In front of him were two pairs of clapping hands. When you touched the screen, the hands clapped and the respect point for Hu Jintao went up.
It was a ridiculously planned game, yet it was being downloaded at record speed.
Jang Gwangchul looked at the game and murmured in shock, “People really like this kind of game?”
“Chinese culture is different than ours. You can see it’s working based on the reviews by the users.”
They were in Chinese, so Woosung read them for Jang Gwangchul to understand.
“It’s fun and rewarding.”
“I hope this helps Hu Jintao.”
“Praise Hu Jintao!”
Jang Gwangchul still couldn’t believe it.
“You’re just making that up because I can’t read Chinese.”
“Haha, why would I do that?”
Jang Gwangchul still was doubtful, but he nodded.
“Will this really change everything?”
“Mahwacin’s force is trying to take over the government. Any interest and positivity on the existing administration will not be welcome.”
Jang Gwangchul sighed. “I just hope this won’t backfire to us.”
“I bribed both sides. I spent a lot of money on them, yet one side chose not to help, while the other side is actively investigating us. We need to show them we can’t be treated like this.” Woosung said firmly.
Within a few minutes, Woosung’s phone rang. Woosung didn’t answer. The caller ID clearly indicated it was from Mahwacin.
Jang Gwangchul asked in surprise, “Won’t you answer it?”
“He didn’t answer my call last time.”
The ringing stopped, but it started to ring again within a few seconds. Woosung didn’t answer again.
This happened a few times. Woosung refused to answer every time. This time, it was Mahwacin who needed him and not the other way around. Woosung was willing to lose the Chinese market over this.
Finally, the phone’s ringing came to an end.
Jang Gwangchul asked nervously, “Shouldn’t you call Soobum and warn him about this situation? Who knows what they will do to our company?”
Woosung answered calmly, “It’s alright.”
“Are you thinking of leaving China ?”
Woosung smiled mysteriously.
Tick tock.
Tick tock.
After a few minutes, Woosung’s phone started to ring again.
It was from an unknown number.
Jang Gwangchul murmured in annoyance, “Gosh, it looks like a spam call. So annoying.”
But Woosung’s instinct said otherwise. This wasn’t a spam call. He answered slowly.
It was a familiar voice.
“This is Liu He.”
It was the call Woosung was waiting for.
Ma Huateng went back to his office. Things weren’t going well, but it wasn’t over yet.
“What the hell is this?”
His desk was filled with paperwork. When his assistant took a look, he found that they were all resignation letters from the developers.
Ma Huateng started to pant anxiously.
The assistant explained, “About 20 programmers have quit…They are from the database, back end, front end…”
“…Bastards! Don’t they know I have other things to worry about? Let the HR team know to give them bad references so they can’t find another job.”
After reading through the names, the assistant bit his lips and replied, “Sir, this is very serious.”
“What now?”
“These are all key programmers. These are people we can’t afford to lose.”
“…”
“This will affect our company right away. We will not be able to maintain WhoChat anymore.”
“Then get them back! Get the chief of HR here right now!”
The assistant made a call, but he frowned after hanging up.
“The chief of HR says he is quitting too. It sounded like he is the one who convinced the programmers to quit.”
“W…what?”
“Rumor has it that they are all moving to LetChat. They were all offered an incredible deal.”
“That must be a false rumor!”
“Well…LetChat is much faster and it’s performing better. The developers have been worried about the app and the company for a while now.”
Ma Huateng gritted his teeth.
The assistant continued, “You need to make a decision quickly. This could be the end of this company.”
Mahwacin threw his phone on the ground and screamed.
“So he refused to answer my call!?”
A few seconds ago, he received an order from Liu He.
“Make sure to treat LetChat with respect. This tax investigation must go smoothly for them. From now on, do not contact Kang Woosung. He will talk only to me.”
Mahwacin murmured angrily, “That bastard! He thinks he doesn’t need me anymore because he got Liu He. Well, I’ll show him.”
Mahwacin went through the address book on his phone. It was filled with high ranking officials.
“He will regret it.”
After his call with Liu He, Woosung went through the contact information on his phone.
Jang Gwangchul asked, “Who are all those people?”
“They are important people I met when I was in China. I still talk to them to maintain good relationships. I have also been helping them out in many ways.”
“And have they been helpful?”
“Totally. Money can buy anyone. They were only happy to help me this time.”
Jang Gwangchul replied in annoyance, “Why didn’t you get Soobum to do things like that? Why should you get involved?”
“This is a dirty business. I should take care of it. I don’t want you or anyone else get involved.”
“What?”
“I want everyone else to remain innocent and clean. These kinds of things will continue to happen, but I will take care of it.”
Jang Gwangchul murmured nervously, “What if we get caught and go to jail?”
“Don’t worry about it. It will never happen. I am being very careful.” Woosung paused and looked at Jang Gwangchul. “You just have to focus on the business. The rest will be on me. I like it that way.”
Jang Gwangchul couldn’t say anything.