Luo Jinhong's secret residence was well-concealed. If a thief broke in, they would likely be satisfied just finding the gold chain and cash in the drawer and leave, wouldn't they?
But Yang Yi wasn't so easily fooled. Narrowing his eyes, he paced slowly, carefully studying the layout of the house.
Soon, he spotted several clues.
"Thump, thump..."
Yang Yi gently knocked on a wall of suspicious thickness at the junction of the living room and dining room. The sound wasn't the expected dull thud but rather crisp and hollow—clearly, there was space behind it!
But where was the entrance?
Surely he wouldn't have to tear down the wall to get to what was inside?
Then, a flash of inspiration struck Yang Yi. He circled around to the dining room and took down a painting hanging on the wall.
Sure enough, the door of a safe appeared in the wall behind the frame!
Opening a safe was child's play for Yang Yi, especially this old-fashioned model. He didn't even need tools, relying solely on his touch to quickly lock in the combination.
"Click, click, click..." Finally, he turned the dial and swung the safe open.
Just as Yang Yi had expected, the safe was stacked with gold bars. Under the light's reflection, they gleamed brilliantly, like a mountain of gold!
"This is all blood money!" Yang Yi exhaled deeply, thinking bitterly.
Judging by this large safe embedded in the wall, Luo Jinhong was even greedier than Yang Yi had originally imagined.
Besides the gold, on the top shelf of the safe sat several black leather notebooks and a cashmere pouch.
Yang Yi opened the small cashmere pouch first. Inside, as expected, were plump, sizable diamonds, including one pink diamond of excellent quality.
These diamonds alone were worth tens of millions!
But Yang Yi wasn't interested in the diamonds or gold. Dealing with them would leave traces! So he put the pouch back and picked up the notebooks instead.
As he suspected, these were Luo Jinhong's secret "ledgers"—who had given him money and how much, all meticulously recorded.
"His handwriting isn't bad," Yang Yi remarked, noting Luo Jinhong's neat, forceful small regular script. A faint smirk crossed his face. "Too bad it's put to such ironic use."
Yang Yi also spotted a red notebook tucked at the very back. This one was a much bigger deal!
Luo Jinhong hadn't just recorded who gave him money; he'd also documented every instance where he'd greased palms to pull strings!
The list of officials involved was staggering and shocking!
Even though Yang Yi didn't recognize all the names, he knew this was huge.
But that only made it more challenging, didn't it? Yang Yi felt a surge of excitement. "Heh heh, this really is a big fish!"
After another sweep of the house, Yang Yi found a small safe hidden inside a bookshelf in the study. It contained no precious metals, just layers of colorful foreign currency and a few passports of dubious authenticity.
Clearly, Luo Jinhong had long been ready to flee at a moment's notice!
But what Yang Yi valued most was a mysterious hard drive hidden in that safe.
"Could it be some kind of video he recorded?" Yang Yi was close to uncovering the truth, but now wasn't the time to check. He stashed the hard drive and the ledgers into his backpack.
Next, it was time to collect some interest!
Yang Yi went to the bedroom he hadn't touched, reached under the bed, and with a slight lift, flipped up the thick mattress.
A sea of red greeted him—an impressive sight! The hollow space beneath the bed was packed solid with stacks of cash!
He'd guessed right: these corrupt officials loved hiding money under their beds, as if sleeping on a pile of cash—both discreet and satisfying their twisted desires.
Without further ado, Yang Yi unzipped a duffel bag and started stuffing bundles of cash inside.
Was this against the law or morality?
But Yang Yi, a former assassin, had never cared about legal boundaries or moral codes.
Besides, he was acting as a vigilante!
Delivering justice and making sure such corrupt officials got what they deserved was his primary goal. But he wasn't about to play the righteous hero for free! Even in his past life, when he punished corrupt officials, he always "collected" a fee.
Are you kidding? The Poker organization's assassins had expensive rates, okay? Without a few million, who could afford a top-tier killer like Yang Yi?
So Yang Yi took the money without guilt—it was just his compensation for the trouble!
"I'll take two million," Yang Yi muttered, not out of softness, but because he felt his current skill level didn't justify his old price.
Still, he had to stick to his principles!
After collecting his "rightful" interest, Yang Yi restored the bed, carefully wiped away any traces he might have left, and deliberately left a few clues before casually walking out with the duffel bag stuffed with two million in cash.
...
Two days later, in the capital's national disciplinary inspection agency—similar to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection in his past life—several thick envelopes sat on Minister Yan Yumin's desk. The heads of various departments sat solemnly across from him.
"This matter must be kept strictly confidential!" Yan Yumin said sternly, his voice firm. "Send people to investigate thoroughly. We never let a guilty person off, nor do we wrong an innocent one."
"If the allegations are true, even if it's the Emperor of Heaven himself, he must be brought down!" Yan Yumin's tone was harsh, because the information in these tip-offs had shocked him and several higher-ups.
Yang Yi himself probably didn't realize how massive the implications of the ledgers and mysterious hard drive he'd stolen were!
Most of the senior officials in Shanghai's political circle were implicated, and even ministerial-level officials in the capital appeared in the records!
Within half a day of receiving the tip-offs, the agency's auditors had tallied the numbers. The scale of the involved funds, though not the highest in history, was still jaw-dropping.
Investigate—they had to investigate!
A week later, the long-arrived investigation team from the national disciplinary agency formally revealed their identity in Shanghai. Soon, many officials in the Shanghai government were placed under isolated interrogation.
As deputy mayor, Luo Jinhong keenly sensed something was off. Several of his patrons were unreachable!
"Something's definitely wrong!" Panicking, he decided to flee immediately.
But when he arrived at Building 5, Unit 306 in Chang'an Compound, Luo Jinhong found he couldn't open the security door!
After fiddling for a while, Luo Jinhong let out a mournful wail: "Who the hell stuffed paper into my keyhole?"
With no other choice, he gritted his teeth and called a locksmith.
But the locksmith never showed up. Instead, Luo Jinhong was met by several uniformed officials who made his legs go weak—the national disciplinary agency had already had him under surveillance, and a momentary lapse almost let him slip away!
With irrefutable evidence, during the century's landmark trial the following year, Luo Jinhong and a string of corrupt officials received their just punishment.
But that's a story for another time.
Meanwhile, carrying the heavy duffel bag, Yang Yi returned to Jiangcheng. Without resting, he casually tossed the two million in cash aside and headed straight for Tingshan District.
With startup funds in hand, Yang Yi was ready to find a location for his coffee shop!