Chapter 87

Lu Xin crawled out from under the desk, picked up a gold bar from the floor, and placed it on the desk.

Just now, he had used his metal manipulation ability to control a gold bar inside the safe and slammed it hard on the back of Zhou Yuanfu’s head, knocking him unconscious.

Seeing Zhou Yuanfu lying on the ground unconscious, Lu Xin was greatly startled. He had only intended to act as a civilian anti-corruption activist, gathering evidence of Zhou Yuanfu’s corruption and then handing it over to the relevant authorities to ensure that this corrupt official would be imprisoned. He had never intended to kill him personally. In other words, for someone like Zhou Yuanfu, Lu Xin wanted to use others to do the dirty work, not to kill him with his own hands.

He quickly squatted down and felt Zhou Yuanfu’s nose. Although his breathing was weak, he was still breathing. It seemed he was just unconscious and not dead. Lu Xin’s heart, which had been in his throat, finally relaxed.

Seeing Zhou Yuanfu lying unconscious, Lu Xin estimated that he wouldn’t wake up for one or two hours. He then carefully examined the structure of the safe, especially using his metal manipulation ability to see through the fingerprint recognition device.

He understood the principle of the fingerprint recognition device. When a finger is placed on it, the light emitted by the fingerprint scanner passes through a prism and reflects the fingerprint onto a charge-coupled device, generating an image for the microcontroller to process. The internal system software matches the sampled fingerprint image, and if the match is successful, the lock opens. The collected signal is processed by a digital signal processor and then converted into an analog current signal to control the electronic switch of the motor, causing the motor to move and the lock tongue to retract.

Lu Xin chuckled to himself. Since the lock tongue was made of an alloy and under his metal manipulation ability, he could have ignored the fingerprint recognition device and directly used his ability to control the lock tongue and open the safe. He had wasted time squatting in front of the safe, lost in thought.

However, if he had used his metal manipulation ability to open the safe and taken out the items inside, he might have run into Zhou Yuanfu when leaving, which would have been troublesome. Sometimes, life is unpredictable.

He was very curious to try whether his metal manipulation ability could open the safe, but to be on the safe side, Lu Xin took the cash from the safe, along with four account books and three diaries.

Curiously, Lu Xin opened the account books and, as expected, found that they contained Zhou Yuanfu’s records of the bribes and embezzled public funds he had received since becoming an official.

He then picked up the three diaries, which shockingly recorded the women Zhou Yuanfu had slept with. The content was as sensational as the diary of a certain bureau chief that had been exposed before, if not more so.

Lu Xin glanced at Zhou Yuanfu, the corrupt official with a receding hairline, who always pretended to be a righteous and incorruptible official, never touching women. He had even participated in crackdowns on prostitutes. Who would have thought that such a good official had secretly slept with over a hundred women, more than half of whom were prostitutes. He would write detailed reviews of each woman in his diary, boasting of his "hundred conquests" and feeling that his life was not in vain.

Most disgraceful of all, one of the girls Zhou Yuanfu had slept with was also his son Zhou Yi’s conquest, likely the pure schoolgirl Zhou Yi had brought over that noon. This father-son duo was truly bizarre, leaving Lu Xin in awe.

Lu Xin put the account books and diaries aside and continued to look inside the safe. There were about a dozen gold bars, which he took. The rest included fourteen property deeds, thirteen bank cards, and some antiques and calligraphy. These items were difficult to liquidate, so Lu Xin didn’t take them.

He had initially thought about leaving some cash in the safe as evidence of Zhou Yuanfu’s crimes, but then he realized that when Zhou Yuanfu woke up and found the account books and diaries missing, he would likely flee in a panic, taking a large amount of cash with him. Leaving the cash would only benefit Zhou Yuanfu and his son Zhou Yi.

Zhou Yuanfu hadn’t kept much cash in the safe, probably because he had deposited a lot of it into bank accounts under the names of his relatives. The thirteen bank cards were proof of this.

Lu Xin quickly counted the cash, adding the fifty thousand yuan Zhou Yuanfu had just received, bringing the total to 1.06 million yuan.

For Zhou Yuanfu, this might be just a fraction of his ill-gotten gains, but for Lu Xin, who earned a base salary of 2,000 yuan, it was a fortune he could never earn in his lifetime.

While crouching under the desk, Lu Xin had already decided that this money was dirty, and spending it all on himself would shorten his life. He would donate at least half of it to help the people who had been harmed by corrupt officials like Zhou Yuanfu. Otherwise, he wouldn’t feel at ease spending the money.

The most pressing issue now was not how to spend the money but how to transport it. Lu Xin had come to Du Haibo’s house to help with the move that morning without a backpack. What should he do?

Lu Xin noticed a stack of large black garbage bags by the kitchen door. These bags were large and sturdy, perfect for carrying the money.

He put two black garbage bags together, first placing the gold bars, then the cash. After putting in 300,000 yuan, the bag was full. He placed a few newspapers on top and tied the bag, making it look like a bag full of garbage.

He divided the 1.06 million yuan into three black garbage bags and placed the account books and diaries in each bag.

Lu Xin then took a towel from the kitchen, dampened it with water, and wiped the areas he had touched to remove fingerprints. He also mopped the places he had walked on to remove footprints and carefully checked the floor to ensure no hair had fallen.

He was being so cautious because he feared that Zhou Yuanfu would call the police to investigate, and they might trace it back to him, putting his life in danger.

Lu Xin carried the three black garbage bags to the door, listened carefully, and found the corridor quiet and empty. He opened the door and left Zhou Yuanfu’s house with peace of mind.

Before leaving, he didn’t forget to wipe the doorknob with a cloth to remove his fingerprints.

As it turned out, Lu Xin’s caution was unnecessary. When Zhou Yuanfu woke up and found the account books and diaries missing, he was terrified and dared not call the police or investigate who had taken the items.

He could only think of one possibility: it was Jiang Shendong, another vice-mayor of Sanjiang District, who had sent someone to take the items. Jiang Shendong was competing with him for the position of mayor and would stop at nothing to get ahead. This move had hit Zhou Yuanfu where it hurt. If he stayed in the country, he would be investigated and imprisoned. He had no choice but to flee abroad.