162: Chapter 162 Caught in the Act

The sound came from a metal door labeled "CW5". Several police officers were trying to crack the keypad lock, but progress was slow.

"It's Xiao Yu!" Su Yun recognized the voice. "She's locked inside!"

Xiao Bei immediately called for backup. A few minutes later, a technical officer arrived with professional equipment and began to crack the code. With a "beep," the lock disengaged, and the police officers rushed in.

The scene before them made everyone's blood run cold—the bald man was choking Xiao Yu with one hand, while holding a sharp scalpel to her throat with the other. Xiao Yu's face was deathly pale, and there was already a bloody scratch on her neck.

"Back off! Or don't expect her to come out in one piece!" the bald man roared hysterically, pressing the tip of the knife deeper into Xiao Yu's skin.

The police officers stopped in their tracks, and a negotiation expert stepped forward: "Calm down, we can talk—"

"There's nothing to talk about! This is what we've worked so hard to build!" The bald man dragged Xiao Yu back into a corner. "Get me a car, or this girl is dead!"

"Calm down, think about your family." Xiao Bei took half a step forward, his voice unnervingly calm. "You're only an accomplice right now. If you hurt someone, the nature of the crime will change completely."

The bald man's hand trembled slightly. Fear caused Xiao Yu to let out a stifled sob, tears rolling down her cheeks.

"You don't understand... It can't just end like this..." The bald man's gaze wavered for a split second. That momentary lapse was all it took.

Two SWAT officers lunged from the side like lightning. One pinned the bald man's knife-wielding wrist and slammed it against the wall, while the other pulled Xiao Yu away forcefully. The scalpel clattered to the floor, and the bald man was pressed to the ground, his face against the cold floor.

"Let me go! Do you know who I am?" the bald man roared, struggling. "We still have people in the province!"

Xiao Bei sneered and bent down to pick up the scalpel. "I was worried you didn't have anyone. Take him down and make sure he confesses everything."

Xiao Yu collapsed to the floor. When she saw Su Yun, she lunged forward like she was grabbing a lifeline, clinging tightly to her waist and wailing.

"They were going to... going to send me to the leaders in the province..." Xiao Yu sobbed until she was almost suffocating. "This man... he first... first..."

Su Yun took off her coat to wrap around Xiao Yu's trembling body, and asked the police for a large bath towel to cover her completely. "It's okay now, it's all over." She patted Xiao Yu's back gently, her voice tender but filled with suppressed rage. "No one can hurt you ever again."

Xiao Bei walked over to the officer in charge: "Captain Wang, there is one more person we must find—Chen Zhiming, the son of Old Chen from Hongxiang Town. It was the information he left behind that let us know this company had issues."

Captain Wang frowned: "Are you sure he's still alive?" "Alive or dead, we need to find him." Xiao Bei's voice dropped. "His parents have been waiting for him."

The police began a carpet search. The area behind the metal door was larger than imagined; besides the luxurious reception area, there was a hidden corridor leading deeper inside. At the end of the corridor was a gray iron door with no markings, featuring an old-fashioned keyhole.

"Bash it open," Captain Wang ordered. After three violent impacts, the door frame warped, and the iron door swung open with a boom. A gust of air, mixed with the stench of mold and excrement, rushed out, making several young officers retch.

The sight in the basement made everyone's blood run cold. In a room less than ten square meters, the walls were covered in scratch marks and dried blood. Curled up in the corner was a gaunt young man with deep, bone-exposed ligature marks on his wrists and ankles. Most shocking of all was his emaciated, unrecognizable face.

"Chen Zhiming?" Xiao Bei crouched down, his voice so soft it was as if he were afraid of shattering a nightmare. The young man's unfocused eyes slowly converged, and his cracked lips trembled as he spat out a few words: "Who... who is it..."

Xiao Bei took off his shirt to wrap around his exposed upper body. "We're here to save you! We're late." Chen Zhiming suddenly grabbed Xiao Bei's wrist, his fingernails digging deep into the flesh: "The evidence... is in my... stomach..."

After the medical team arrived, an X-ray revealed a metal object in Chen Zhiming's stomach. Surgery retrieved a micro USB drive wrapped in multiple layers of plastic. Although the plastic had been partially digested by stomach acid, it had been wrapped thick enough that the USB drive inside remained intact, containing data sufficient to cause an earthquake in the entire Jinhe County officialdom.

In the video, Liu Fuzhi sat in the clubhouse he had meticulously built, looking triumphant: "This building was funded entirely by poverty alleviation funds, but who could have guessed? It looks dilapidated on the outside, but it's a whole different world on the inside!"

He raised his glass. "Leaders, please enjoy yourselves. The girls are all trapped by the 'Beauty Loan', so they are very obedient..."

There was something even more atrocious—the ledger recorded in detail each "VIP's" preferences, consumption amounts, financial dealings with the medical aesthetics industry, and the details of the medical aesthetics industry selling counterfeit and shoddy products. In Liu Fuzhi's notebook, it was written clearly: "Send Xiao Tian, Deputy Department Head Li, matches preferences."

"Animals!" Captain Wang slammed his fist on the table. "Do they not have hearts!"

According to the evidence, they finally understood what the letters and numbers on the doors meant: A represented provincial-level leaders, B was city-level, and so on down to county and town levels. The second letter was the initials of the leader's name, and the number behind it updated in real-time—showing how many times they had visited.

Liu Fuzhi used this method to keep many officials in check, which was why he was released on bail so quickly even when he was caught.

Three days later, the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection sent a special investigation team to Jinhe County. Fu Chuanyi was arrested while attempting to flee abroad, and seven other involved officials were also apprehended.

Amidst the overwhelming media coverage, Su Yun's in-depth investigation, "Beauty Trap," reached over 100 million views. That comparison photo—the dilapidated exterior and the luxurious interior—became the news photo of the year.

Meanwhile, in the interrogation room, the lights were pale and blinding. Liu Fuzhi narrowed his eyes, his hands crossed leisurely on the table, the handcuffs on his wrists reflecting the cold light. His obese body filled the chair completely, and a faint, elusive smile hung on his face, as if he were just attending a boring meeting.

"Liu Fuzhi, do you recognize these photos?" Captain Wang pushed a stack of photos in front of him, showing the luxurious clubhouse hidden inside the dilapidated building.

Liu Fuzhi glanced at them lazily: "Oh, this? This is part of our poverty alleviation and agricultural assistance project. We're building a high-end livestreaming base to attract city people to come and spend money, boosting the local economy."

"Built with poverty alleviation funds?" Captain Wang sneered. "Attracting investment, multi-party financing." Liu Fuzhi shrugged indifferently. "You can ask the finance department for the specific accounts. As a leader, I only focus on the big picture."