Pair of Burglars
Huang Yi-Hu had many businesses under his name but the largest and most profitable of them was New Moon Real Estate. Huang Yi-Hu had wanted plot number thirteen to build condominiums. He had become a laughingstock in Hai-Zhu City after Xia Lei had snatched plot number thirteen from him for one million. How could Huang Yi-Hu let this matter go?
Huang Yi-Hu wanted to assert his power so he had gone on the offensive against the people close to Xia Lei. He had no idea that he had poked the hornet’s nest right after setting his plan of revenge into motion.
At 0100 hrs, a Great Wall H6 came to a stop outside the walls of New Moon Real Estate’s office building with its license plates covered. The doors opened and two youngsters with covered faces alighted. The two then climbed onto the roof of the car and went over the wall, jumping right into the inner courtyard of the office.
One of the youths with covered faces was Qin Xiang and the other was Xia Lei.
In the courtyard, they stuck close to the wall and moved carefully to the outer wall of the office building. The office building had four storeys and there were security cameras facing the front but none in the back. Xia Lei’s eye twitched and a wall in front of him disappeared, clearly revealing the situation in the lobby beyond.
The lights were on in the lobby and a security guard sat on the sofa, playing with his phone.
Qin Xiang gestured at Xia Lei to crouch down, then pointed to the windows on the second storey.
Xia Lei got the hint and squatted. Qin Xiang climbed atop his shoulders, then supported himself along the wall and started crawling upwards slowly. He straightened his body, then made a lunge and grabbed the second storey windowsill with both hands. He pulled himself up and into the window.
Xia Lei looked up at Qin Xiang standing in the window and did a searching motion.
Qin Xiang responded with a time-out hand signal and took out a metal pick, then inserted it into the window lock and opened it after a jimmy or two. He flipped into the window, then lowered a rope from it.
Xia Lei grabbed onto the rope and straightened his back, both feet on the wall. He climbed quickly to the second storey, through the window and into the building.
This was an office so there were office desks, file cabinets and water dispensers. Xia Lei soon concluded his search. This office belonged to normal workers so there was nothing of value in it.
“Do you know where Huang Yi-Hu’s office is?” Xia Lei asked in a low voice. He knew that New Moon Real Estate was the largest and most important business under Huang Yi-Hu’s name but he wasn’t sure where his office was.
“I don’t know either. This is my first time here too. Huang Yi-Hu likes to be above others and be in control of everything so I’m guessing his office should be higher than the rest, maybe the fourth storey,” said Qin Xiang.
Xia Lei lifted his head and looked at the ceiling above him.
“You won’t see his office like that. It’s better if we search storey by storey from here. We’ll find his office in the end,” said Qin Xiang.
Xia Lei still stared at the ceiling.
Qin Xiang tread lightly to the door, then cracked it open gently and put his eye to the crack to spy on the situation outside.
Just then, Xia Lei spoke, “Don’t look. The corridor has cameras, one in front and one behind. We’ll be discovered once we go out.”
Qin Xian retracted his head, shut the door gently and looked at Xia Lei strangely, “There really are security cameras. How did you know?”
Xia Lei did not answer his question but said, “Huang Yi-Hu’s office is indeed on the fourth storey, straight up. We can get into it if we climb the walls.
“You…” Qin Xiang was gobsmacked, “How do you know so clearly?”
“I just remembered that I’d seen a blueprint of this building,” said Xia Lei.
This explanation was a little ‘late’, but it made sense. Qin Xiang shook his head and walked towards the window, grumbling, “You should have told me. I nearly walked out and I would’ve got caught on camera.”
Xia Lei and Qin Xiang went to the window and onto the windowsill. Qin Xiang did not ask Xia Lei to crouch this time – he crossed the windowsill, grabbed the water drainage pipe hanging from the roof, and climbed up.
Xia Lei was afraid that the pipe would not hold the weight of two people so he waited till Qin Xiang was on the windowsill of the fourth storey before he climbed. He had never done this before but he had climbed higher than this on scaffolding when he’d worked in construction sites. He quickly got used to it and climbed to the fourth storey windowsill.
Qin Xiang looked at Xia Lei and said quietly, “You have the talent to be a burglar. Want to work together?”
“Stop joking around; this is no time for jokes. Open the window,” said Xia Lei.
Qin Xiang took out his wire again and inserted it into the lock while covering the latch. He lifted the latch gently and it opened with a click.
Xia Lei followed Qin Xiang into the room beyond the window.
This was indeed Huang Yi-Hu’s office. It was several times larger than the previous office and had higher quality office fittings. A huge framed picture hung on the wall opposite the desk, depicting Huang Yi-Hu and some leader shaking hands. The Huang Yi-Hu in the picture was proud and smiling.
The office also had a very big bookshelf with many books but the books were all new and had no trace of being read before. It seemed Huang Yi-Hu did not have the habit of reading as a member of the underworld and these books were only used as simple and elegant furnishing.
There was also a lounge in the office with a large double bed, a leather sofa, a wine cabinet and a large three-door refrigerator.
Qin Xiang went to the bedside table and opened its drawer to find a lot of women’s items – stockings, lace bras, thongs and boxes of condoms. He snorted quietly, “Damn, that bastard really knows how to enjoy himself.”
From what they could see, this lounge was obviously where Huang Yi-Hu and his secretary did ‘battle’. A person like him couldn’t do without games like this.
Qin Xiang continued his search for something useful while Xia Lei just stood in the doorway and watched.
“Hey, come help,” said Qin Xiang, “Look for evidence of bribery. This was your idea so can you not just stand around?”
“You’re in charge of this area. I’ll take care of the office.” So saying, he vacated the doorway of the lounge and went into the office.
He had actually used his eye and surveyed the entire lounge when Qin Xiang was checking the items in the bedside table. He had not discovered any secret books or a hidden USB stick.
In the office, Xia Lei rested a little and called forth the power of his eye once more. His gaze swept slowly over the office and its walls and soon stopped on Huang Yi-Hu’s desk.
There was a wooden cabinet under the desk and in that wooden cabinet was a safe embedded in the floor.
The safe was about one metre into the concrete floor and was very solid; It had a turntable lock on top of electronic code lock.
Xia Lei looked at the safe, his eye like an impact drill, and he saw the contents of the safe after a few seconds.
The safe had a leather-bound notebook, a portable hard drive, some American dollars, some Euros and over ten bullion bars. There were also some papers like documents, records, certificates and the like.
“Found it!” Xia Lei said in excitement.
It didn’t seem right for Huang Yi-Hu to put these important things in his office but once one thought more about his identity, it made sense because of his crafty nature. He was from the underworld and had many enemies. He changed residences frequently and couldn’t take all these with him. Putting them in his most important office and into the most advanced safe where it couldn’t be unlocked without his double passwords was a good idea since who else could open his safe? Who could move a safe embedded in concrete if one were unable to unlock it? This safe looked like it weighed at least a thousand pounds!
Qin Xiang walked out of the lounge at this moment and said gloomily, “I didn’t find anything. It was full of gross stuff.”
Xia Lei didn’t say anything. He walked to the desk and pulled the door of the wooden cabinet open.
Qin Xiang saw the safe and was shocked. He paused half a beat before saying, “Fuck! This is an imported Dottling safe from Germany. Even my Master can’t open this!”
“Your Master?” Xia Lei asked while squatting in front of the safe.
Qin Xiang squatted by Xia Lei’s side, “You won’t know even if I told you and he won’t let me tell anyone either. Don’t ask. I advise you to give up. This safe needs two codes – one for the turntable lock and one for the electronic code lock. You know how much one of these things cost? 3,500,000! Huang Yi-Hu must have put his most important things in here, but…” He punched the floor and said angrily, “Huang Yi-Hu’s secret is right before us but he can only stare at his safe!”
“You’re a professional in this line. Can’t you open it?” said Xia Lei.
Qin Xiang shook his head, “Would I tell you to give up if I could open it?”
Xia Lei was silent, then he said, “Let me try.”
“You?” Qin Xiang stared blankly.
Xia Lei reached over with his hand.
Qin Xiang grabbed Xia Lei’s hand, “Stop joking around. How can you open it when I can’t? Let’s go. Don’t do anything to alert him of our presence. Let’s find another way.”
“Do you enter the code on the electronic lock first or the turntable?” said Xia Lei.
Qin Xiang smiled wryly, “Why are you so stubborn? Fine… the electronic lock is first.”
Xia Lei stared at the numerical keypad. The keypad slowly magnified in his left eye and increased in detail, so much so that even the dust particles on it were visible. He saw not only dust particles not visible to the naked eye but fingerprints. Fingers had sweat glands and left sweat marks on whatever they touched – it was unavoidable.
Xia Lei soon eliminated three numbers which had no traces of sweat and was left with ‘9, 7, 3, 2, 1, 5’ – six numbers.
The code was a combination of these six numbers but there were too many permutations. He could enter combinations one by one all night and not get anything right.
However, Xia Lei had his own way of solving this problem.