"Ah, Chief Doug! Thank goodness you're back! Hurry up and explain everything to the officers here!"
The moment Doug Changsheng—better known around the warehouse as Old Doug—stepped through the door, Liu Shunfa practically launched out of his seat. He ran over, beaming, and escorted him in like he was welcoming a war hero.
Doug Feng, standing behind his father, couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. Just yesterday morning, this same Liu Shunfa had acted like Old Doug was nothing more than a disposable pawn—cold, distant, and itching to cut him loose. Now suddenly he was grinning ear to ear like they were long-lost brothers?
Something was definitely off.
"You're Doug Changsheng?" one of the officers asked, flipping open a notepad.
"Yes, that's me," Old Doug said, still catching his breath. "Officers, may I ask what's going on?"
"You're the one who reported the attempted frame job yesterday morning? The one involving stolen materials?"
Old Doug nodded. "Yes. Though technically it was my son who made the call," he added, gesturing toward Doug Feng.
Then, as if something had just occurred to him, he quickly followed up with, "Wait—you're not here because you think it was a false report, are you?"
The officer raised a hand to calm him. "No need to worry. We've looked into it, and we don't believe it was a false report."
The other officer took over. "Let's go over it again. You reported that a worker named Li Zuming, in collaboration with another employee, Liu Hanming, attempted to switch out a truckload of steel—worth around 60 to 70 thousand yuan—with a decoy load, in order to frame you. Is that correct?"
Old Doug glanced sideways at Liu Shunfa, who was suddenly looking uncomfortably eager.
"That's… yes, that's how it happened," Old Doug finally said.
"Oh, come on, Old Doug! Don't be shy now!" Liu Shunfa suddenly blurted, his voice full of false cheer. "Tell them exactly how it went down! Just say it straight!"
"Sir," the officer warned him sharply, "please do not interfere with the witness's statement."
Old Doug took a breath and began his story—halting at first, then more confidently as he laid out the timeline: how Liu Hanming had distracted him with bogus paperwork, how Li Zuming had moved the trucks while he was out of the way, how it all would've worked… if Doug Feng hadn't spotted the switch and warned his dad just in time.
By the time he finished, one of the officers had jotted down everything. "You're certain everything you've just said is accurate?" he asked. "If so, please sign here."
Old Doug hesitated for just a moment before signing his name.
As soon as the pen was down, Liu Shunfa jumped back into the spotlight. "See? I told you! Those two bastards—Li Zuming and Liu Hanming—they've done this before! They've got criminal instincts! Yesterday was just the warm-up!"
"Sir," said the officer, clearly tired of the theatrics, "we still need to process and file everything before launching a formal investigation. Please wait for further updates."
With that, the officers began packing up. A few other cops who had been taking photos and collecting physical evidence also wrapped up their work and left.
Once the door closed behind them, Old Doug turned to Liu Shunfa with a puzzled look. "So what's really going on? Did those two pull another stunt?"
Liu Shunfa let out a long, miserable sigh. "Oh, Old Doug…" he groaned, dragging his hands down his face. "That bastard Liu Hanming… after all these years of me feeding him, helping his family, treating him like my own… and now he turns around and stabs me in the back."
He slammed his palm against the desk in a fit of rage.
Doug Feng leaned against the wall with folded arms, observing. So the tide had really turned, huh? Yesterday this man was still trying to sweep everything under the rug. Now he looked like a man whose world had collapsed overnight.
"What did they do this time?" Old Doug asked, his voice tight.
Liu Shunfa looked like he had aged ten years overnight. His shoulders slumped, and when he spoke, his voice cracked with frustration. "A thousand laptops. Brand new. High-end models. Almost ten million yuan's worth of inventory. Gone."
That got even Doug Feng's attention.
Last night, the company had secured an urgent logistics contract with a computer manufacturer. A thousand premium laptops needed to be delivered to Yanlong City before dawn. Time was tight. The shipment was massive, and Liu Shunfa, wanting to ensure smooth delivery, had personally assigned the job to the two people he thought he could trust the most—Li Zuming and Liu Hanming.
The truck they used was huge—55 cubic meters of enclosed cargo space, one of the company's top units.
Yanlong City wasn't far. Seven or eight hours max. The shipment should've arrived by morning.
It didn't.
By mid-afternoon, the receiving company had already called more than ten times, furious and demanding answers. Liu Shunfa had called both drivers. No answer. Both phones powered off.
That's when it hit him—like a thunderclap.
Those two bastards had pulled a vanishing act. With ten million yuan of equipment.
"And I—I was the idiot who let them do it!" Liu Shunfa barked. "If I had just listened to you yesterday—filed the charges, turned them in—none of this would've happened!"
Doug Feng, still leaning against the wall, couldn't hold back a smirk.
Serves you right.
This was karma, plain and simple. Yesterday, Liu Shunfa was so desperate to "turn enemies into friends" that he let two obvious criminals walk. And today, they'd repaid him by robbing him blind.
Doug had to admit, the timing was poetic.
He also had to admit—grudgingly—he was kind of impressed. Li Zuming and Liu Hanming had balls. Yesterday, they tried to frame a supervisor over some mid-tier steel. When that failed, they went all in. A million-dollar heist? That took guts.
Of course, guts wouldn't save them from the fallout.
Doug crossed his arms and stared out the window. "You reap what you sow," he muttered, more to himself than anyone else.
But Old Doug heard him—and didn't disagree.
(To be continued…)