Reborn Cat Sheriff

Chapter 555 Digging three feet into the ground
There were no further gains regarding the villas.
The interrogation of Yang Yuhua continued, but no further clues were obtained.

So far, more than 30 million yuan has been recovered from the two villas, plus the villas themselves are worth nearly 10 million yuan, totaling 40 million yuan. However, compared to the total amount defrauded, this is still only a small fraction of the total.

According to financial experts, the combined value of Er Mao Grain Purchasing Station, Xiao Ming Food Co., Ltd., and Xiao Liang Trading Co., Ltd. is only tens of millions of yuan. Moreover, these three companies still have substantial outstanding bank loans, which can be considered negative assets to some extent. Furthermore, after the scandal broke, their reputations are now irreparably damaged, making it difficult to find someone to take over with real money.

On the other hand, the control and seizure of the Mao family's residences and other fixed assets only uncovered six houses and valuables inside, totaling a total of over five million yuan.

Mao Xiaoming's wife, Yu Hui, and Mao Xiaoliang's wife, Fan Chenghua, also have assets worth several million yuan each, which will definitely be confiscated and kept under guard.

However, the total amount of funds raised was less than 60 million, still far short of repaying the nearly 200 million yuan defrauded from the victims. Not to mention that the actual amount that reached the Mao brothers should be at least 300 million yuan, all of which undoubtedly must be recovered.

However, the Mao brothers no longer have any other fixed assets under their names. Even if the police determine that the Mao brothers must have used other people's names to hide the stolen money, how can they investigate without any clues?

The May Day holiday is finally over, but the police officers' busy work has no end.

As news of Mao Shouren's family's illegal fundraising fraud spread further and further throughout the city, more and more victims began to gather at the municipal bureau, local police stations, township units, and the municipal government, trying every means to inquire about the case and pleading with the government to return their money to them as soon as possible.

These people don't understand case-handling procedures, but they do know how to exert pressure.

In the end, the pressure will naturally fall back on the police.

In this situation, the municipal police station naturally has no choice but to work overtime.

"The investigation into Mao Xiaoming's mistresses has yielded results. Starting six years ago, a total of seven women have been seen with Mao Xiaoming, frequenting social and entertainment venues, changing on average once a year. At this rate, it's unlikely Mao Xiaoming would entrust his fortune and life to mistresses he could easily abandon. The investigation confirms this; despite being Mao Xiaoming's mistresses, he didn't spend much money on them—around 200,000 to 300,000 yuan a year, plus some jewelry. You might not believe it, but even all seven of them combined couldn't get Mao Xiaoming to buy them a single car. This guy is incredibly stingy."

Cao Chen reported the investigation findings to Xu Xiangjie with a grin.

Xu Xiangjie thought for a moment and said, "If he has this kind of personality, then I think the remaining undiscovered portion that belongs to him is very likely still in his hands. He is the kind of person who doesn't trust others, so he would definitely hide the money in a secret place that only he knows, but he wouldn't tell anyone else. I think we should continue to investigate any unusual circumstances in Mao Xiaoming's past daily activities. He definitely has other houses that we haven't discovered yet."

"Mimi has already taken care of this with the police dog unit! It shouldn't be a problem to leave this to them, after all, Mimi has already proven its search capabilities."

"What did Mao Xiaoliang say?"

In the innermost desk, Wang Guofeng suddenly raised his head.

Helping him serve tea and water was Zhuang Tao'er, who looked unwilling, but considering her father's hard work these past few days, she held back her temper.

“Mao Xiaoliang is different from Mao Xiaoming. This guy is a big spender, and he's our biggest problem right now. Everyone in Zhang City who knows Mao Xiaoliang knows that he spends money like water, frequents high-end places, and all his clothes, shoes, cars, and watches are incredibly valuable. He owns a total of fourteen cars, seven of which are imported luxury cars. Even just a week before Mao Xiaoliang was arrested, he spent 2.7 million yuan in three days at two lottery shops in the city!”

"Winning the grand prize only costs five million!"

Wang Guofeng frowned.

"He's just living life to the fullest, since the money came too easily. This guy doesn't even have the habit of hoarding houses, and luxury cars are just consumables; they'll only fetch a drastically reduced price at auction. Besides, Mao Xiaoliang has millions in personal debts, so we probably can't get any money from him. So, Captain Wang, shouldn't we try working on Mao Xiaoming? Field mice are the ones with the most stock; if we find them, we can alleviate the famine."

Cao Chen's expression gradually turned serious. He then secretly glanced at Zhuang Tao'er next to Wang Guofeng and noticed that the girl had changed quite a bit in the past few months. Now she looked no different from the other tough women in the bureau, which greatly reduced her appeal to him.

"Don't let a single one escape! I absolutely don't believe that Mao Xiaoliang would spend money like this when he's broke! The reason he's spending so boldly is definitely because he has plenty of money in his pocket! Just wait and see where he's hiding it!"

Xu Xiangjie raised a different opinion and asked, "Captain Wang, how's the interrogation of Mao Xiaoming and Mao Xiaoliang going? Are those two still stubbornly refusing to talk? Surely not, they've come this far and they're still not considering cooperating for a reduced sentence?"

"If you had 100 million yuan hidden away for your expenses after getting out of prison, would you hand it over just to get a two-year reduction in your sentence?"

Cao Chen glanced at Xu Xiangjie.

"Oh shit!"

What could Xu Xiangjie say? He could only curse and turn away to work in a sullen voice.

Meanwhile, lacking sufficient clues, Lin Ge could only aimlessly search the entire city for Mao Xiaoming's scent. He even gave clothes that carried the scent of Mao Xiaoming and Mao Xiaoliang to his cat subordinates to sniff, hoping that these guys might bring some unexpected surprises.

Although this method was like finding a needle in a haystack, it was still somewhat effective. Almost every hour, a cat would spot a similar scent and rush back to inform Ringo.

Seeing how hard they worked coming and going, Lin Ge simply divided Zhang City into several areas, and had Yang Ye assign several police officers to each area to receive feedback from the cat group. This way, they wouldn't need to run back to find their leader anymore; they could simply hand over clues to the nearest police officers. Basically, all they found was that the Mao brothers had been to that place; besides discovering their various prepaid expenses, they found no clues about hidden money.

I have to say, those two bastards really know how to play dirty tricks!

In an ordinary little bar, that bastard Mao Xiaoliang dared to deposit 100,000 yuan! In a seemingly shabby foot massage parlor, Mao Xiaoliang had been a member for four years. In a barbershop, Mao Xiaoming even owned a 30% stake! And the more these scattered small shops and small shares were discovered, the more Mao Xiaoming seemed to have financial ties with a considerable number of small shops, spreading his money around in these kinds of places.

An investigation revealed that Mao Xiaoming held shares in the vast majority of the clothing stores in a typical three-story building on the commercial street, where inexpensive clothes were sold. Some stores owned as much as 60%, others as little as 20%, meaning fifty or sixty stores were making money for him!

If it weren't for the cats discovering him this time, who would have thought that Mao Xiaoming was hiding his wealth among the people?

Regardless of what will happen after his release from prison, this matter has already become a major and troublesome problem for the police. Small shops generally have little cash flow, so expecting them to immediately return Mao Xiaoming's investment is unrealistic. Moreover, if they aren't pressured and left unattended, these scoundrels are absolutely capable of orchestrating a bankruptcy liquidation to escape responsibility! Who knows how much of the already tallied 30 million yuan in shares will actually be recovered?

"Let the municipal government figure out these things themselves! Anyway, for me, it's already close to 100 million! There's at most another 100 or 200 million left, and the workload is already 40% complete."

Lingo yawned and patted Beibei's head to turn it around.

At this stage of the investigation, almost all the easily accessible money has already been found. The remaining items are undoubtedly the most deeply buried and hardest to find; it remains to be seen how the police will outwit the Mao brothers.

"Meow?"

A large, thick-furred cat appeared in Lin Ge's line of sight. Just looking at its fluffy appearance made Lin Ge feel unbearably hot.

This almost summer-like heat was a nightmare for the Norwegian Forest Cat. Ringo wanted to laugh at the pitiful sight of the long-haired giant cat huddled in the shade, but he was also curious why the creature had suddenly come to find him.

"Meow!"

The long-haired cat meowed at Lingo again, turned around, and flicked its tail, signaling Lingo to follow it.

"Wait a minute! This guy... wasn't he given to that guy at the bank by Mao Xiaoming? It's a pity that the guy had the cat for only a few days before it was stolen, and because it was a bribe, he didn't dare to make a fuss, which is why the long-haired cat suffered for so long. But... doesn't that mean that for a period of time, this cat was hanging out with Mao Xiaoming? Where is it leading me now? Could it be some Mao Xiaoming's lair that I don't know about?"

The more Lin Ge thought about it, the more likely it seemed. After all, no matter how cautious Mao Xiaoming was, he wouldn't avoid even a cat.

Furthermore, this cat was likely a bribe he gave to someone, and it probably wasn't sent through normal channels, but rather hidden in one of his secret bases beforehand. And this, of course, didn't escape the big cat's notice.

With a sudden thought, Lin Ge quickly followed.

Today, Li Siyu and Sun Chang were with him. When they saw Lin Ge move, they quickly grabbed Bei Bei and chased after him.

The group followed the long-haired cat for a long time, walking further and further into the remote area. Seeing the cat turn and enter an old, self-built housing community, Lin Ge quickly signaled his mount, Beibei, to follow. Li Siyu and Sun Chang, exhausted from following behind, also rushed to catch up, forgetting their conversation.

This is an old community with a strong sense of history. The bungalows inside all look very old and each has its own unique style. Some of them even have broken windows, from which the wind blows out.

At the doorways of various houses, some elderly people could be seen sitting on the thresholds picking vegetables, while others were carrying babies. Despite the approaching cats and dogs, the elderly people carrying children weren't afraid; they even taught their children to identify the animals, seemingly unafraid of being bitten by a strange dog or scratched by a strange cat.

Then, deep inside the community, there is a six-story unfinished, illegally constructed building. The frame and walls are complete, but it has not been painted or fitted with windows.

These small buildings are occasionally seen in Zhangzhou City. They're a consequence of the rampant, unregulated growth of the real estate market during that period, when anyone could acquire a plot of land and build houses to sell for profit. Naturally, these houses won't obtain the necessary permits, and they'll never be issued property ownership certificates. However, once the houses are built, the housing authority can't simply send an excavator to demolish them. The developers can then sell these unlicensed houses cheaply and make a profit.

The reason these houses are abandoned is probably because the developers couldn't keep up with the funding, making it impossible to finish the building and sell it, or because the government tightened regulations and they had to go bankrupt.

In such situations, developers who have lost everything can only hope that the land will be demolished and they can recoup their losses someday. As for the houses, they are left to rot there, with only the doors and windows on the first floor sealed off.

Lin Ge had no idea that this building was also related to Mao Xiaoming.
Looking back down the alley, there was only one surveillance camera on the main road, making it easy to hide. Plus, the surrounding area was mostly inhabited by elderly people, and this dilapidated building had no permits. Who would have thought that this run-down building was also Mao Xiaoming's 'property'?
"Meow~"

Arriving in front of the unfinished building, the shaded area finally made the long-haired cat feel much more comfortable.

It turned and barked at Lin Ge, then started rummaging around in the dry, even dilapidated, cement mixer by the door. As it rummaged, a bunch of keys fell out from a gap at the bottom, making Sun Chang, who had followed,'s eyes light up.

"Well! This cat is smarter than I thought! But if it's so smart, why did it get bullied so easily at that furniture recycling shop?"

Lin Ge was a little puzzled, guessing it might be a personality issue. Then, over the past few days, the long-haired big cat had been learning from the big white cat, which made it bolder and realize that it had a police cat backing it up.

Sun Chang called the team in charge to explain the situation before trying out the keychain one by one. The police uniforms she and Li Siyu wore made the people on the way there curious but hesitant, only calling out to their friends and craning their necks to look in their direction.

After trying all the keys, none of them could open the security door.

At this moment, the long-haired cat led the group to the back of the unfinished building, where a roller shutter door was hidden in a corner where no one would notice. After two attempts, Sun Chang successfully opened the roller shutter door.

The door was easy to push up without any resistance, proving that this was not the first time it had been used recently, and that the building was not completely abandoned as one might imagine.

Upon entering, however, one finds the interior to be completely empty and unfinished.

Apart from the doors and windows on the first floor, there was no interior decoration, and the ground was littered with a lot of messy construction debris. Of course, these things were not important to the police. What was important was the way to the second floor, where there were many clear and complex footprints in the thick dust.

At first glance, it appears that the marks were mostly left by the same person, and there were numerous instances of them going in and out. Additionally, some cat paw prints can be seen, leading Lin Ge to conclude that this was the work of a large, long-haired cat.

"Be careful to walk along the side and don't disturb the footprints in the middle too much."

Sun Chang knew a bit more than Li Siyu; he needed to investigate further while also preventing the discovery of evidence. Of course, Sun Chang didn't forget to turn on his body camera, hoping to find some unexpected surprises here.

The second floor was the same as the first floor; the houses on both sides were just bare frames, but some footprints could be seen extending to one side. Sun Chang cautiously turned inside to take a look and found it was just a smoking area, with cigarette butts all over the floor. Judging from how long these cigarette butts had naturally decomposed, the oldest ones even had their filters turned a little grayish-white, clearly indicating they had been there for over a year.

But... why did you specifically come here to smoke?
Lin Ge looked around and realized that the only unique feature of this room was that it was completely blocked by walls on all four sides, making it impossible to see inside from any direction outside. Even in the middle of the night, no one would be found out that there was someone in the unfinished building.

"If the second floor is like this, then the third and fourth floors..."

Lin Ge felt he might have guessed something.

Sure enough, when Sun Chang arrived on the third floor, he found that the unfinished building looked exactly the same from the outside. However, the room inside, which was not visible from the outside, had paint marks on the walls and even a security door.

In other words, inside this security door is likely a fully furnished room.

But Sun Chang couldn't find the key to the security door.

As can be seen from the floor plan downstairs, this room has no windows. This means that unless the key is found, the only way to find out what's inside is to force the door open.

"Ow!"

Lin Ge suddenly called out, but it took him quite a while to come up from downstairs.

Li Siyu followed behind him, holding a bunch of keys in her hand, leaving Sun Chang dumbfounded.

"No way? Siyu, where did you find this?"

"It's in that room on the second floor where there were cigarette butts everywhere!"

Li Siyu covered her mouth and laughed, "It's in one of the cracks in the brick wall. You can find it by reaching in with your hand. Of course, Mimi told me. I never thought someone would make the hiding place so complicated."

"If I were to hide a nine-figure sum in here, I'd make it as complicated as possible!"

Sun Chang muttered something to himself and sent another message on his phone, reminding everyone that what had been discovered might be very important and signaling for reinforcements to come quickly. Only then did he prepare to respond and signaled for Li Siyu to open the door.

With a 'click', the door opened smoothly, revealing the scene inside.

A sofa, a coffee table, a wardrobe, and a safe—that's all there is in a room of about ten square meters.

But the various green and red books and file folders scattered on the coffee table astonished Lin Ge. How many houses would it take to have so many books? And what were the documents in the folders—could they be the contracts proving Mao Xiaoming's investment in the shop?
But how did this guy manage to do it? In what way and under whose name did he buy so many houses?

Who would have thought that such an unfinished building, where each apartment costs 100,000 yuan and the entire building is worth less than one million yuan, would actually contain property asset certificates worth tens of millions of yuan?
Outrageous!

Mao Xiaoming, you're incredibly bold! Aren't you afraid these things will be stolen? There's a roller shutter downstairs and a security door upstairs, that's all.

(End of this chapter)