Chapter 147 - The brink of ruin

Shen and Lina spent the whole next day working together in his study. 

Lina revealed to him the doc.u.ments and diary she had found in the hidden compartment at her office. 

Lina was hesitant about sharing the new information so openly. It occurred to her that perhaps that part of her life was the part she had hidden from Shen and the rest of the people she knew. 

That part of her life was perhaps connected to the part Tachi knew about. She thought about Tachi from time to time. Her initial reactions to him and his familiarity to her. 

And then he told her that he was her actual husband! That bothered her the most. But she couldn't bring herself to repeat those words to Shen. She was his angel, and he was her most beloved hubby. 

She shook those thoughts away, as she took a deep breath.

"I found these, in a hidden compartment in my office desk" she said to him quietly. 

Shen knew how much courage it had taken for Lina to start being completely honest with him as she made her own discoveries. Especially when she had felt so alone, not even able to trust herself.

But he knew he was doing something right if she came to him herself, and opened up. She was placing her precious trust in his hands and he knew he would do his best to protect her and support her, whatever they may find. 

As he looked through all the doc.u.ments he recognised various numbers and identification tags. 

"These are definitely Moshi Corporation shipping units. How did you observe these people at the ports handling the shipments?" he asked, his voice low and somewhat dangerous. 

The mole in his empire had taken things too far, much further than he'd realised. And somehow his wife had managed to get too close to whoever was messing with Moshi Corporation. 

But why had she been involved with his business and the mole? That was the one question that troubled Shen the most. 

"I don't remember anything about this whatsoever" Lina said thoughtfully, her eyes closed as she tried to recall anything familiar. 

"But these notes are definitely your writing, even I am sure of it" Shen continued. This was a puzzle he was determined to solve. Most of all, to keep her safe. 

"I am certain this is what got you hurt in the first place, I can't let it happen again" he said to her, holding his precious wife in his arms. 

Lina hugged him back tightly, drinking in his familiar, musky scent. His aura, and his presence had always been a huge comfort. But there were still alarm bells ringing in her head, since the beginning. Not because she was scared of him. 

She was scared for him. 

To the husband, it was his life and his work that had brought his precious wife to her deathbed. 

To the wife, she would kill to protect the man who was her home. 

"Hubby, this is us. This is our life. It wasn't because of you. It wasn't because of Moshi Corporation. It was because someone tried to hurt us both. The fault lies with them. The fault lies with Magnolia Holdings and the Lims" she said determinedly. 

Who else could it have been. Magnolia Holdings had been tampering with the shipments to be handled by Moshi Corporation on their account.

But the Lims used their trust and partnership to transport contraband. Not just any contraband, but dangerous combat weapons. 

Lina's doc.u.ments were organised, detailed and coded with keys from the diary. 

Some of the doc.u.ments were copies of Shen's inventory files from months ago. That's why the file she had looked at in his study was so familiar. She had been through those inventories before. 

"There was something wrong with those inventories. The weights were all incorrectly listed. When I checked last time, these inventories were pre-checked by us and contained the goods as listed in this inventory by Magnolia Holdings. The weights matched as well" Shen explained. 

"And you check the weight to make sure they aren't concealing any other goods inside the ones listed in the inventory, right?" Lina contributed. 

Shen's eyes widened. Either she had good intuition or she definitely knew a lot about espionage. 

"Yes, that's correct. But then we do a final control check as well, where the weights of crates aren't checked, but only the items to make sure that we're sending what was listen on the inventory" he continued. 

Lina nodded as she listened to him intently. 

"Then how did you know the weights were different?" she asked. 

"Moshi Corporation recently expanded our controls department and established new protocol. We have security branches on the receiving ends of our major trade partner countries. We have a team in Country A. They do a final check at the port of arrival of the inventory and they also weight the shipping crates"

It dawned on Lina what had happened. The mole couldn't possibly have known about this new protocol unless they were directly involved in the establishment of this new department. 

"I would have never known about these discrepancies if I hadn't created this new controls teams on international shores. This would have kept going unnoticed" Shen finished catching Lina up. 

She thought for a second.

"Hubby, the mole is somebody who is close enough to you to have access to the Moshi Corporation shipping holds post the final checks, yet not close enough to know about every single business development such as the establishment of the new overseas protocol" 

Shen nodded. His wife's deduction skills were amazing. How long had she been doing this for? 

"So they switched the goods right before they were shipped, under the same inventories and objects but with hidden contraband invisible to the n.a.k.e.d eye and only discovered due to the excessive weight" Lina concluded to sum up their entire conversation. 

"That's exactly what has happened. We haven't confiscated any of the crates yet because we do not want to alert the mole and the people involved. We might still have a chance to catch them if we play dumb for the time being." Shen said, his face like dark clouds. 

Lina could sense the anger inside him. She felt his struggle and disappointment — she knew how hard he worked and how much of himself he had given to Moshi Corporation, to bring it back from the brink of ruin and rise from the ashes so quickly and majestically. 

She knelt down in front of her handsome husband, held his hands in hers, and smiled. 

Shen's whole body felt lighter when he felt his wife's soft hands hold his in a gesture of comfort. Her perfect lips formed into a bright smile was like a warm summer breeze blowing his worries away and her wide doe-eyes reduced him to a melted puddle. 

"Darling, we will figure this out together. I know nothing has happened yet, whatever they are planning in Country A, I have my ears open. The Consultancy is working on it too. We are both in it together" she said, he crystal clear voice like a bubbling stream, encouraging her husband on.