Chapter 22 — A Day as a Janitor

A low murmur of suppressed discussion instantly rippled through the boardroom. Aiden fixed his gaze upon me, his voice grating against the air like a jagged blade dragging across frosted glass.

Manager Qin, you have guarded those old ledgers for thirty-two years.

Then perhaps you should explain to the Board of Directors where the money in the guarantee fund has vanished.

He paused for a fraction of a second, shifting his piercing gaze toward Aaron.

Or perhaps this ledger was deliberately concealed by the two of you right from the very beginning?

Aiden maximized the display on the main screen, where the number thirty-seven thousand two hundred glowed in bold, oppressive figures. He knew precisely what the members of the board feared. They were not afraid of shedding tears for a veteran employee, nor were they terrified of seeing me standing before the camera in a sanitation worker uniform. What terrified them was the evaporation of capital. Aaron opened his mouth to speak, but I had already placed my palm flat against the mahogany table.

This ledger is entirely fabricated.

Aiden let out a cold, derisive laugh.

You have not even finished reading it, yet you claim it is fake?

There is no need to read it through, I replied evenly.

Vian-Thai has never maintained any independent account bearing the name of startup guarantee special fund.

A heavy silence descended upon the boardroom. I turned my attention directly to the board members attending via the live video feed.

The pledge made thirty-two years ago did not involve setting aside a separate pool of cash.

It was formally inscribed within the Special Guarantee Registry of the Board of Directors, jointly sustained by the annual administrative overhead and the corporate specialized contingency reserves.

Year after year, the finance department merely recorded these as estimated future liabilities, without ever establishing a distinct monetary fund.

Phan Minh, seated quietly in the far corner, instantly drained of all color. He knew intimately that every word I spoke was the absolute truth. Vice Chairman Hong-Chong immediately challenged the corporate financial auditor.

Examine the company accounts concerning estimated liabilities across all previous fiscal years.

The auditor frantically began retrieving the archived financial data. The legal counsel standing beside Aiden attempted to intervene, but Ethan directly stepped forward to present an official audit directive.

As of this moment, all relevant ledger systems fall strictly within the scope of our judicial and administrative seal.

In less than ten minutes, the auditor projected the historical line-by-line details onto the massive central screen. The estimated liabilities had indeed persisted continuously throughout the years, and the remaining balances were more than sufficient to cover the highest tier of compensation for all current veteran employees. The so-called figure of thirty-seven thousand two hundred originated entirely from a newly minted ledger entry created a mere six months ago. The requisitioning officer recorded for this entry was Phan Minh, authorized by Trinh Hoai Nhan, with carbon copies directed straight to Aiden’s private office. Phan Minh’s shoulders slumped forward in utter defeat. Yet Aiden remained unnervingly composed.

This new ledger entry was created solely for more meticulous and streamlined internal management.

I locked my eyes upon him.

Meticulous management does not require spiriting away the genuine, original ledgers.

From the oilcloth package retrieved at the abandoned factory, I produced another thin, weathered notebook. It was the handwritten index originally affixed to the reverse side of the microfilm negatives from thirty-two years ago. Countless individuals had mistakenly assumed it was merely a routine explanatory appendix for the registry, but I remembered distinctly that the final line of the index contained a specific string of alphanumeric security codes. I recited the code sequence aloud to Kyle.

Run this archival access code through the system.

Kyle blinked in astonishment before frantically inputting the string into the corporation’s legacy document retrieval portal. The file popped up instantly on his monitor. Its title read: Annual Allocation Tracking Schedule for Startup Guarantee Pledges. The most recent access timestamp was registered precisely three months ago. The user account utilized: The Office of the Board Secretariat. The downloading device designated: Aiden’s Private Office. Finally, the color drained entirely from Aiden’s face. I stated clearly: This tracking schedule proves conclusively that the funds have always remained safely within the books.

What truly went missing was the fraudulent entry manufactured by your faction afterward.

Ethan traced the trajectory of the newly fabricated ledger items to conduct a thorough cross-examination. In rapid succession, twenty-one separate disbursements—consisting of consultation fees, asset liquidation charges, and old factory maintenance costs—were interconnected and laid bare. The ultimate recipient of these funds was a corporate entity named Vian-Khai Management Consulting. Its registered legal representative was none other than Tao Ban’s older sister. Tracing the chain of actual control through two intermediate shell companies ultimately led directly back to a private investment firm wholly owned by Aiden. The boardroom fell into an absolute, suffocating silence. The remote board members turned on their microphones one by one.

What is the meaning of this?

The Chief Executive Officer owes the board an immediate explanation.

This has long since ceased to be a simple labor dispute.

Aiden’s gaze turned terrifyingly dark and venomous.

Corporate affiliations and business associations do not constitute concrete proof of embezzlement.

I nodded slowly.

Then let Tao Ban explain it himself.

The heavy oak doors were suddenly thrust open. Several police officers escorted a senior investigative investigator into the room. The investigator handed a freshly transcribed deposition directly to Ethan. Ethan scanned the document rapidly before projecting it onto the large screen for all to see. Tao Ban had confessed under questioning that he had been instructed by Trinh Hoai Nhan to steal the employee registry, set fire to the old factory warehouse, and concurrently issue fraudulent service invoices under the name of Vian-Khai Management Consulting. The allocation of the illicit funds was coordinated by Hsu Thua-Le, who commanded him to funnel a portion of the money into designated private accounts. The ultimate beneficiary of those designated accounts was Aiden himself. Upon hearing these revelations, Hsu Thua-Le looked as though every bone in his body had been shattered. He abruptly raised his head.

I will confess to everything.

Aiden whipped his head around to glare at him with sudden fury. Hsu Thua-Le did not dare to meet his eyes.

The unauthorized access device was handed to me directly by Aiden.

The personal seal was obtained the exact same way.

He instructed me to frame the transfer decision as a mere internal misunderstanding, and subsequently cast Qin Ngoc-Tran as a malicious extortionist demanding exorbitant severance compensation.

If the nine o’clock board meeting successfully ratified her dismissal, the entirety of the blame was to be dumped squarely onto Trinh Hoai Nhan.

Once public opinion quieted down, we were to quietly annul the entire Startup Guarantee Registry and execute a falsified replacement.

The remote conference call remained as silent as the grave.