Absolute power in officialdom

Chapter 98 reveals the answer, but a new mystery arises.

Wu Zhiyuan read Su Taohong's long letter word by word.

Su Taohong's autobiography fully presents to him how a woman is consumed by vanity, manipulated by power, and ultimately destroyed.

Su Taohong was indeed involved with the Sang family father and son. She is most likely no longer alive, and the murderer is very likely an employee of the Sang family father and son.

Wu Zhiyuan did not shed tears, but his heart was heavy.

There's always a reason why someone is pitiful!

He connected the USB drive to the computer.

There weren't many files on the USB drive, and not many of them were actually valuable.

It's either a secretly filmed indecent video or an audio recording of Sang Chenglong boasting.

The recordings involving Sang Chenglong detail how he made money through connections and how he resolved various troubles, but they are mostly vague and lack key information such as specific times, places, people, and amounts, making them weak evidence.

Sang Jiaquan was very cautious and would not easily let Su Taohong find any fault with him.

Come to think of it, with Sang Jiaquan's shrewdness, how could he possibly trust Su Taohong? How could he possibly let her access core secrets?

Because in Sang Jiaquan's eyes, Su Taohong was just a prostitute.

In Su Taohong's view, the most valuable piece of evidence on the USB drive, which she used as a talisman and a bargaining chip for blackmail, was a secretly recorded audio recording.

That was a recording made secretly by Su Taohong, who was pretending to be asleep, when Sang Jiaquan answered the phone.

This audio recording can provide evidence that Sang Jiaquan accepted bribes, and that the single bribe amounted to five million yuan.

Peng Dafu was the one who gave money to Sang Jiaquan.

Peng Dafu acquired a good plot of land at a relatively low price and gave Sang Jiaquan five million yuan in one go.

However, in Wu Zhiyuan's view, the most valuable data on the USB drive was not the recording of Sang Jiaquan accepting bribes that Su Taohong had secretly filmed, but a blurry video and text record.

The video is titled "Is the Sang Family a Hidden Treasure Trove?"

Su Taohong added a question mark, implying that she was unsure if it was the Sang family's hidden treasure trove.

The written record was written by Su Taohong herself, and it is quite long:

Sang Jiaquan is a cunning old fox, and he never talks to me about work.

That important recording was made when he received a phone call from Peng Dafu while he was sleeping.

The phone call woke me up. Because the content was sensitive, and I was determined to find something to use against me, I pretended not to be awake and secretly turned on the phone's recording function.

Sang Chenglong is quite different from his father. He likes to flaunt his family's authority, how easy it is to make money, and how many properties his family owns, including three villas, one of which is in Jiangzhou.

Perhaps he wasn't bragging, but simply telling the truth.

Sang Chenglong used his father's power to take over the GG business of several companies in Longcheng. He also held shares in several other companies.

Once, when we were having dinner at a high-end Western restaurant in Longcheng, he received a phone call from Sang Jiaquan.

He deliberately kept his distance from me, and I pretended to be indifferent, but I was actually eavesdropping.

Because the sound was too low, even recordings were indistinct.

I overheard a few sentences, something about sending some golden Buddha statue to that place and putting it away.

After dinner, he drove me to a residential area.

He told me to wait in the car while he went into a house alone.

Shortly after, he came out carrying a heavy suitcase.

He put the bag on the front passenger seat; I was in the back seat at the time.

I didn't ask him what was in the bag, but when he wasn't paying attention while driving, I tentatively touched it. The bag should contain the golden Buddha that Sang Jiaquan mentioned on the phone.

He then drove me to another neighborhood.

This is an old residential area. It's located near the intersection of Dongfeng Road and Changjiang Road. I don't know what kind of community it is; there are no obvious name signs.

But I remembered that there was a barbershop at the entrance of the community – Toutou Shidao Hair Salon.

Many streetlights in the neighborhood were broken, making the light very dim. And since there was no moon, the whole neighborhood was pitch black.

Sang Chenglong told me to wait in the car, saying he was going upstairs to drop off some things and would be back in a few minutes.

He got off the car carrying that heavy suitcase.

I believe that Sang Chenglong moved the golden Bodhisattva here after receiving instructions from Sang Jiaquan.

I've always wanted to find something to do with the Sang family, and I feel like I have a chance this time, so I decided to secretly follow them.

I slipped out of the car and, under the cover of the night and the parked vehicles, followed Sang Jiaquan at a distance that was neither too close nor too far.

He looked back several times on the road, but because the light was not good, I was on guard and did not notice that I was following him.

He walked into an old five-story residential building. The corridor was dark and unlit.

I didn't dare get too close, let alone follow him upstairs, for fear of being discovered.

I hid in the shadows of a corner piled with junk not far away, holding my breath and staring at the building.

About a minute later, I vaguely saw a light come on in a window on the third floor of that building.

I noticed that this house had security bars installed on the windows, while most other houses did not.

The video I filmed shows a blurry image of this house.

A few minutes later, the lights on the third floor went out.

Sang Chenglong walked out of the stairwell empty-handed.

Before he reached the car, I quickly slipped back to it and pretended to have just gotten out and stretched.

He saw me standing outside the car, paused for a moment, a hint of doubt and wariness flashing in his eyes, and asked, "Why did you get off the car?"

I forced myself to remain calm and said in a slightly coquettish tone, "Why did you take so long? I was scared being alone in the car, so I got out to check if you were back."

Sang Chenglong stared at me for a few seconds, probably thinking that I was indeed getting impatient and hadn't noticed that I was following him, so he didn't ask any more questions. He just smiled and said, "Let's go, I'll take you to a good place."

Later, he drove me to a grove of trees in the suburbs to have sex in the car and in the open. He was very adept at it, and quite provocative.

I never used this to blackmail the Sang family because I wasn't sure if the video had any value.

Su Taohong's record ends here.

The video is very short, only a little over a minute long.

In the video, a man carrying a bag can be vaguely seen walking into a dimly lit residential building.

Because of the dim lighting, the building number and unit door were not clearly visible.

Shortly after, the video camera panned upstairs, and on the third floor, a light was indeed on in a window, revealing that security bars were installed on the windows. The video then abruptly ended.

There was also a short video clip of about ten seconds that cleared up Wu Zhiyuan's doubts.

When he returned from that business trip, he discovered that Su Taohong had locked herself in her room and was having an affair with a man. Then the man jumped off the building to escape.

This man was none other than Sang Jiaquan.

Sang Jiaquan had a penchant for having affairs with his mistresses, perhaps because it was more exciting that way.

The video was secretly filmed by Su Taohong. It was only a few dozen seconds long and was filmed in the master bedroom of Wu Zhiyuan's rented house.

One mystery has been solved, but a new one has emerged.

Was the third floor of that old residential building that Su Taohong recorded really the Sang family's treasure trove? If so, how many treasures were hidden inside?