Chapter 659: Darkness Under the Lamp

After Ms. Ding left, Chen Shi turned on Lv Qi’s computer to see if there were any clues. The computer wasn’t password-protected, and on the desktop were some company documents. Chen Shi casually opened them and scanned through financial reports and internal notices.

The hard drive was packed with nude photos of women and downloaded fitness videos from the internet—apparently Lv Qi’s personal hobbies. There were no games, movies, or ebooks on his computer. Chen Shi remarked, “He lives quite a simple life.”

Lin Dongxue said, “I’ve never seen anyone like Lv Qi before—smart in the head but simple in actions, like an animal.”

“Being too simple can make one a bad person. It shows the true nature of people.”

After searching for a while, they finally found a suspicious folder that was password-protected. However, Lv Qi had left a note on the computer with a string of letters that worked like a charm to unlock it. This guy couldn’t even remember his own passwords.

Inside the folder were photographs that immediately caught Lin Dongxue’s attention. They were gruesome pictures—a man in a suit lying in a pool of blood, another whose face had been smashed in.

From the angle of the photos, they seemed to be taken secretly, probably with a phone. Some photos even captured two thick legs resembling pillars, stained with blood on the trouser cuffs.

Chen Shi said, “These chubby legs belong to Dong Xiao. Could these be Dong Xiao’s evidence of crimes? Lv Qi follows Dong Xiao around, so when Dong Xiao kills someone, he secretly takes photos?”

“Who are these deceased people?”

“They seem to be company employees… roughly five or six of them.”

“Dong Xiao kills his own employees at will in the company? That’s outrageous! I remember when we first went to find Dong Xiao, we had to check the company’s staff. He gave us a list and none of the missing persons were on it.”

“That list was printed by Dong Xiao’s orders. Obviously unreliable. These people he killed had already been ‘removed’ from the company roster.”

They took the computer back with them. Unable to confirm the identities of the deceased, they could only bring in Jia, the secretary in custody, for another round of questioning. Chen Shi showed him the photos one by one for identification. When Jia saw the first photo, he said, “This is a bodyguard. He was stabbed to death by President Dong… no, Dong Xiao, for saying something he shouldn’t have.”

“What did he say that he shouldn’t have?” Chen Shi asked.

“I remember he made a joke, roughly saying Dong Xiao was fat.”

“What? Just because of that?” Lin Dongxue couldn’t believe it. Was Dong Xiao a tyrant who killed people over a joke?

“Dong Xiao has a hot temper. We were always careful around him, afraid that saying something wrong would get us killed. When he wants to kill someone, he calls you over, smiles while fixing your collar, and then suddenly pulls out a knife and cuts your throat. Zhuoyuan Corporation is just his little kingdom. The executives are all his cronies. Once a senior executive was playing games in the smoking room and didn’t hear Dong Xiao call him. Out of anger, Dong Xiao picked up a trophy and smashed him to death. Because of this executive’s death, we lost a deal worth millions. The next day, Dong Xiao deeply regretted it and berated everyone in the office for not stopping him. We were all terrified, afraid we’d become his targets.”

“How did such a company even develop?” Lin Dongxue asked in shock.

“As you must have found out, by any means necessary. Dong Xiao is ruthless. Have you ever seen someone hold a gun to a contractor’s head to force them to sign a contract? Dong Xiao has. After that, he even kidnapped the contractor’s family to prevent them from going to the police. He has connections to the underworld, or rather, he is the underworld. He’s a complete gangster.”

“I guess you stayed with him for the money, right?” Chen Shi asked.

“Yes. Being an executive at Zhuoyuan pays very well. At year-end, Dong Xiao gives houses, cars, bonuses—very generous. One time, a senior executive liked a third-tier star. Dong Xiao found out and brought her over to spend the night with the executive. But one thing, Dong Xiao never gives out shares. He keeps all the company’s equity in his own hands. Regardless, Dong Xiao knows how to win people over, how to use them. He’s never failed to poach employees from other companies. But he’s like he has a split personality. When he gets violent, it’s like thunder and lightning. He could kill someone over a trivial matter and then we’d have to clean up after him.”

“Why didn’t you mention any of this before?”

“You never asked!” Jia hung his head. “Is there anything else you haven’t asked about? Now that Dong Xiao has fallen, the police are investigating every day, and many people have been arrested. You should take this opportunity to confess and redeem yourself!”

So Jia proceeded to reveal all the dirty deeds Dong Xiao had done, talking for the entire afternoon, leaving Lin Dongxue reeling with disbelief.

One of the photos caught Chen Shi’s attention, and he asked Jia, “Who is this person?”

“With his face smashed like that, I don’t know.”

“This photo is from last December. Do you remember anything?”

“In December, Dong Xiao killed a person. It was the journalist Cao that you mentioned.”

“Is this person Cao Man?” Chen Shi asked.

Jia squinted at the photo. “He’s a journalist. It’s impossible for him to be wearing company uniforms… Oh right, I mentioned earlier that Cao Man didn’t have permission to interview. That’s a fact. Dong Xiao wouldn’t have the patience to meet such a small journalist, so I’m also puzzled how he met Cao Man.”

“When you last handled the body, what was the person wearing?”

“I don’t know.”

“How could you not know?” Chen Shi pressed.

Jia sighed. “I really don’t know. Do you remember what someone you saw on the street last month was wearing? I was very nervous when handling the body and didn’t remember these details. But it seems like he was wearing black clothes.”

Chen Shi immediately went to find Peng Yue, comparing this photo with Cao Man’s corpse photo, and found that the person in the photo was almost certainly Cao Man.

But this “Cao Man” clearly wore company uniforms, which raised suspicions. Chen Shi suddenly thought of something. Regarding the fact that the deceased was Cao Man, Chen Gong had mentioned earlier that Cao Man’s younger brother was brought in by Chen Gong.

As the saying goes, darkness lurks under the lamp. Chen Gong, who had been following them all along, had escaped everyone’s notice.

Chen Shi immediately called the newspaper where Chen Gong worked. The person who answered the phone was a flippant woman who casually said they weren’t a newspaper but a cabaret.

It took a lot of effort for Chen Shi to find out that the newspaper where Chen Gong worked had long since closed down, and there was no such person as Chen Gong. However, a photo of journalist Cao Man from the newspaper showed that he looked exactly like Chen Gong.

It turned out Chen Gong was Cao Man. He had been covertly planning and guiding the police to bring down Dong Xiao.