Chapter 116: Miss Paparazzo Wang Jianguo

Monday.

Across from the Jiangzhou City Municipal Government.

There stood an old office building.

It wasn’t tall.

Built with dull ceramic tiles, the entire structure had a muted tone.

It looked to be five stories tall.

Because of its unique location,
many companies and organizations that did business with government offices had set up their outposts in this very building.

Among them were several city-registered associations.

Early morning.

A middle-aged man with a round belly, carrying a fishing basket and a rod, walked through the building’s front door with a warm smile on his face.

As soon as he entered,
people began greeting him.

“Morning, Chairman Hua.”

“All geared up today—did you find a good fishing spot?”

“Let us know when you do, brother!”

“Morning, Chairman Hua!”

“You’re looking lively today.”

“Must’ve won big last night, huh?”

“Hahaha, you’ve got to show us your card skills sometime!”

“Haha, Lao Hua, I heard Old Duan got two canaries recently—when are we old guys going to check them out?”

“Young or mature?”

“Hahaha, young, of course. You think Old Duan’s body can handle the mature ones?”

“Hahahaha…”

…

The middle-aged man returned each greeting with a smile.

By the time he reached his office,
he found another middle-aged man with a handlebar mustache already sitting in the guest chair, smoking and reading the newspaper.

“Old Li, you’re here early today?” Hua Mingqiang placed his fishing rod beside the table and casually asked.

The man called Old Li put down his newspaper, clearly annoyed.

“Mingqiang, has our association’s influence in Jiangzhou really gotten this weak?”

As he spoke, he pointed to a report in the newspaper.

“Any random newspaper now dares to criticize us.”

Seeing this,
Hua Mingqiang chuckled, grabbed a kettle, and pulled a bag of tea leaves from the cabinet below.

While making tea, he said leisurely:

“Just a small paper.”

“Send Little Zhou with the tax guys over there in a couple of days. That’ll take care of it.”

At this, the mustached man snorted through his nose.

“Little Zhou?”

“He can’t find anything.”

“Last week, you sent him to investigate a fried chicken place, and he came up empty.”

“And yet you’re still letting that waste eat up the monthly budget.”

Before he could finish,
Hua Mingqiang quickly cut him off with a “Hey hey hey!”

“Old Li, watch your words.”

“It’s not like we ‘sent’ him. We discovered an issue, reported it to Comrade Zhou from the tax bureau, and worked together on the investigation.”

“Got it?”

Old Li grunted but didn’t argue further.

However, Hua Mingqiang had clearly caught something in what he said.

He had just started to pull out his chair, but now stopped mid-movement.

Turning back, he looked at the mustached man on the sofa and asked with a frown:

“Li Guang, what did you just say?”

“The fried chicken shop didn’t turn up anything?”

“That’s right.” Li Guang sat up straighter.

“Not just tax—fire safety, commerce, sanitation all went over.”

“They only got fined 100 yuan, and that was for not taking out the trash on time.”

He then asked, puzzled:

“Mingqiang, think about it—how could a shop that just opened for a few months have absolutely zero issues with tax and business licenses? Cleaner than a sheet of paper. Is that possible?”

Hearing this,
Hua Mingqiang stayed silent and pulled out his chair.

He sat down, frowning, and asked again:

“I remember there were two fried chicken places, right?”

“What about the other one?”

That seemed to make Li Guang even angrier.

He slapped his thigh and barked:

“Don’t get me started.”

“I spent 500 yuan to hire two drifters to cause them trouble.”

“Who would’ve thought those two got exposed on the spot and ran off!”

“Damn it! If I ever catch them—”

“I’ll break their legs!”

“Alright, alright, that’s enough.” Hua Mingqiang didn’t want to hear Li Guang’s rant.

After a moment’s pause, he waved his hand.

“Here’s what we’ll do.”

“Ask someone to check at the station.”

“Find out how they got that store at the station in the first place.”

“You think they’ve got someone backing them?”

Li Guang looked skeptical.

But Hua Mingqiang neither nodded nor shook his head—just frowned, deep in thought.

After a while,
he suddenly asked:

“Don’t we have someone in the association who supplies chicken?”

“What’s his name again?”

“Wang Quanming. We used to get him cafeteria gigs.”

“Oh, Old Wang…”

Hua Mingqiang tapped the desk and said:

“Send Old Wang a message.”

“Tell him to find an excuse to raise prices when making deliveries.”

“Raise prices?” Li Guang didn’t quite get it and asked directly:

“Why not just cut them off?”

At that,
Hua Mingqiang clicked his tongue and frowned.

“You want District Chief Li to lose face?”

The moment he said that, Li Guang immediately nodded.

“Got it. As long as we prove there’s no connection, we’ll cut their supply right away!”

——————

Honestly speaking—

Jiang Ning had always pictured paparazzi as shady old men lugging around massive telephoto lenses, skulking in alleys and snapping sneak shots like weird wizards.

But the paparazzo in front of him?

She was around 1.65 meters tall, slender, with fair skin and delicate features. Her long black hair hung down over her shoulders, and she wore black headphones over her ears, a black backpack slung over her back.

Whether from a distance or up close,
she looked just like a student.

Seeing this,
Jiang Ning couldn’t help but pull out his phone and glance at the info on the screen.

“Wang Jianguo…?”

“That’s me.” The girl gave a gentle smile, her big eyes blinking playfully.

“You can also call me Wang Xiaoya.”

As she spoke, she extended her hand to Jiang Ning.

“You must be the client for this job, Miss Jiang Ning, right?”

Client?

Oh, oh…

Jiang Ning snapped out of it and reached out her hand as well.

But the moment she touched the other’s hand, she was taken aback by the unexpected texture.

A bit rough… this hand…

“Hello, hello…”

“You were sent by Sister Liaoliao…”

“Paparazzi,” the girl said with a shy smile.

“Yes, yes, paparazzi… paparazzi…”

Miss Jiang tried her best to adjust her mindset, but with the girl’s name, her job, and her appearance all mixed together—it was just hard to reconcile.

Luckily, the girl didn’t seem to mind at all.

Still smiling brightly, she asked:

“Boss, is there somewhere to eat?”

“I arrived this morning and haven’t eaten yet…”

“Oh, oh, sorry…”

Immediately, Jiang Ning took her out of the station.

Considering the sensitive nature of their upcoming tasks, she didn’t take this Wang Jianguo—uh, Miss Wang Xiaoya—to any of the station restaurants.

Instead, she picked a nearby upscale western restaurant and led her into a private booth.

She ordered two steaks and some appetizers with tea.

Once the waiter left—

Jiang Ning couldn’t help asking out of curiosity:

“Um, I’m just a little curious…”

“You’re just a young girl, so why get into this line of work?”

“Quick money! And photography is my passion!”

That explanation made sense…

But…

Jiang Ning looked at the girl in front of her—definitely no older than twenty-five—and opened her mouth…

“Isn’t it dangerous?”

But it seemed the girl was ready for that.

She pulled a small notebook from her pocket and opened it.

Jiang Ning immediately noticed the words “Elite Athlete” stamped on the page.

Her eyes widened.

Damn.

That’s a certification above National First-Class Athlete.

You only get that if you place top three in national competitions, or rank in international ones.

Then—

When Jiang Ning glanced at the listed specialties—

She immediately understood.

Sanda, freestyle fighting and the like…

Jiang Ning subtly shifted her body a little farther away.

Just then, the steaks arrived.

Wang Xiaoya cheerfully picked up her knife and fork and started eating.

After that—

Miss Jiang casually chatted with her.

And the more they talked, the more she realized this girl had quite the interesting personality.

She loved photography but couldn’t afford a camera, so she went out to work.

She waited tables for half a year, pinching every penny to finally buy a basic entry-level camera—with the worst possible specs.

But she didn’t care. She just grabbed the camera and went out shooting like mad.

After a month, she came back without a single usable landscape photo.

Just as she was feeling down, two of her shots accidentally captured people in the background—exposing a top celebrity couple’s relationship.

She made a nice chunk of cash from that.

Upgraded her camera, and that was the start of her path shooting people and scenery.

Turned out she had a natural gift for capturing human subjects.

One chance encounter, and Sister Liaoliao discovered her.

She signed a contract and became one of Top Entertainment’s professional paparazzi.

After hearing all that, Jiang Ning couldn’t help but marvel at life’s twists and turns.

If this Miss Wang Jianguo hadn’t caught that celebrity couple on camera…

She probably would’ve already won one or two gold medals in freestyle fighting by now.

After sighing a bit—

Once the steak was finished—

Wang Xiaoya wiped her mouth in satisfaction.

“Boss, who’s the target this time?”

Hearing that, Jiang Ning fell silent for a moment before finally pulling a photo from her pocket.

She placed it on the table.

Then pointed at the middle-aged man in the photo.

Tapped it twice and said:

“I want to know everything about his movements and whereabouts.”

(End of chapter)