The third update has arrived. Hong Chang Fa Cai is desperately begging for monthly votes—do you have any?

It took Wang Zhuo about ten minutes to briefly recount the events.

In his narration, he omitted many details, such as the scale of the Red House, the woman imprisoned on the top floor, and the concentration camp-like management style.

He did this because Qin Jingzhong was an elder in his eighties and still recovering from illness; subjecting him to this level of shock was already a transgression, and he couldn't push it too far.

Even so, Qin Jingzhong was furious. He cursed, "Is this still the Party's domain?" Then, pointing at his precious granddaughter, he commanded, "Call that bastard, your father!"

Qin Siqing thought to herself, if her father was a bastard, then neither he nor she would escape the consequences. She hurriedly called Qin Xue.

"Siqing, what is it, calling Dad?" There were background noises around Qin Xue; for him to still be entertaining guests at this hour, the affair clearly involved people of high standing.

"Dad, wait a moment, Grandpa wants to speak with you." Qin Siqing cleverly handed the phone to Qin Jingzhong.

"Qin Xue, drop everything you are doing immediately and come here," Old Master Qin’s tone was calm, yet his words were sharp and decisive, like a cutting blade.

"Dad? I'm here..."

"If you aren't here in half an hour, you’ll bear the consequences."

Qin Jingzhong abruptly hung up, closed his eyes in anger, and said, "Xiaoping, go find a computer."

Xiaoping responded with an "En" and left to find one. Wang Zhuo noticed a bunch of bananas on the bedside table, casually peeled one, and began eating, chuckling dryly, "Should I eat a few more? Perhaps after tomorrow, I won't be able to eat them anymore."

Qin Jingzhong sneered, about to mock the presumptuous young man, when Gan Lin, who was sitting on the sofa, suddenly burst into loud sobs and threw herself toward Wang Zhuo.

Wang Zhuo spread his arms to embrace her, gently patting her back while murmuring words of comfort near her ear. But Gan Lin's tears would not stop; she sobbed, trying to speak, but was choked by grief.

This scene moved everyone present. The woman who had already cried dry tears began sobbing again. Qin Siqing's eyes welled up, and she grabbed a tissue to wipe her nose. Qin Jingzhong’s eyes also glistened with moisture.

When the driver, Xiaoping, returned with the computer, he paused for a moment, said nothing, simply placed the machine on the table, found an outlet, and plugged it in.

This computer was an all-in-one unit, integrating the monitor and the main processing unit, eliminating all unnecessary cables; the keyboard, mouse, and network card were all wireless—just plug it in and boot up. Qin Siqing took the hard drive Wang Zhuo had brought, walked over, lifted the side panel of the all-in-one, and installed it.

The surveillance footage was stored in a proprietary format, and the computer couldn't open it directly. However, Qin Siqing quickly found the technician’s backup decoding program in one of the hard drive’s directories. After installing it, the video files could be played.

The security technician at the Red House was set to save footage every five minutes—perhaps considering the convenience of selective deletion. Furthermore, the archived files only held the last forty-eight hours, but this was already sufficient.

In fact, in many similar entertainment venues, surveillance cameras operate in a "view only, no recording" mode. If something happens, security spots it immediately on the screen and uses walkie-talkies to dispatch personnel. Recording leaves evidence, which could expose their illegal activities if there were a surprise inspection, so they often disabled the recording function.

But the Red House was an absolute heavyweight with deep roots, so they simply didn't care. It was precisely because of this indifference that Wang Zhuo managed to seize this invaluable evidence.

Seated on the [line break] Qin Jingzhong was watching the video on Wang Zhuo’s phone. For the vast majority of this recording, only sound was audible against a pitch-black backdrop. Occasionally, Wang Zhuo seized a free moment to pull out the phone and record snippets of the surroundings, but the camera was always shaking, yielding only fleeting glimpses.

After hearing a gunshot, Qin Jingzhong watched as Wang Zhuo pressed a gun against a man and then ducked into a room. A momentary flash of an image caught his attention.

"What is that woman doing?"

As old age brings frankness, the old man did not hold back, voicing the question on his mind directly.

Wang Zhuo glanced over and whispered, "She’s imitating smoking."

Qin Jingzhong was startled, paused for a moment, then shook his head and cursed, "Scandalous behavior!"

Wang Zhuo offered a wry, silent smile. In truth, it was far more than just imitating smoking; when he first used his X-ray vision on that room, he saw them opening beer bottles...

Qin Xue rushed, but was still over ten minutes late due to police roadblocks and inspections causing a massive traffic jam.

His chief secretary sat in the front passenger seat. Seeing how terrible the road conditions were, he called the traffic management bureau.

The reply he received was that the police were pursuing a major fugitive from a serious criminal case, and the road closures were necessary due to the extreme danger.

Qin Xue’s chief secretary had a rather rare surname: Pi. His name was Pi Shaochong. Upon hearing about the situation, Secretary Pi couldn't help but call the Public Security Bureau.

This time, he finally got definitive news: a group of criminals had attacked four police officers in the Hongfang District, injuring them and stealing three handguns and thirty-one rounds of ammunition. They had also killed a passerby and were now fleeing within Jiangzhou city limits; the police were pursuing them with full force, hoping to solve the case in the shortest possible time.

"These criminals are insane!" Qin Xue and Pi Shaochong exclaimed in unison, and the driver, Zhou Tielong, also heightened his alertness.

Then Qin Xue arrived at Haijiao Mountain Villa, and subsequently, he saw that group of heinous criminal suspects.

"Dad, why are you only just arriving?" Qin Siqing stood up to greet her father. "Brother Wang Zhuo, you know him. These two are his friends."

Qin Xue smiled and nodded at the three of them, then quickly walked over to his father’s bedside and sat down, asking with a hint of complaint, "Dad, why the urgent summons? I was just dining with executives from several multinational corporations."

"You are fourteen minutes late," Qin Jingzhong pointed to the old wall clock.

"There was traffic," Qin Xue explained. "A real jam—the police were setting up checkpoints looking for fugitives; the whole city was mobilized."

"They are looking for three armed fugitives, aren't they?" Qin Jingzhong sneered and asked, "Did they steal police guns and commit arson?"

Qin Xue was momentarily astonished, then gave a wry smile. "Dad, how did you guess so accurately? Someone did rob guns and murder, but I didn't hear about arson. I don't know how many people there were."

"Guess my foot!" Qin Jingzhong snatched the newspaper covering the computer desk and barked, "Take a look! The evidence has already been delivered to me!"

Qin Xue and Pi Shaochong were stunned at the sight. Neatly displayed on the table were three Type-64 police pistols and several gleaming golden bullets.

"Mayor, you’re quite imposing," Old Master Qin lectured his son without reservation, his tone coldly sarcastic. "Did you have a police escort on your way here? Did you encounter any poor citizens blocking the road to appeal their grievances? When dining with big bosses tonight, did you ever consider how much citizen wealth that meal consumed?"

Qin Xue’s face darkened, unable to utter a word. He turned his head and swept his questioning gaze over Qin Siqing, Xiaoping, and Wang Zhuo.

His gaze passed over Qin Siqing and Xiaoping, finally landing on Wang Zhuo. Undeniably, with these three guns having landed on the old man's desk, Wang Zhuo was the prime suspect.

"Mayor Qin," Wang Zhuo smiled at him and stated calmly, "I beat the police, I snatched the guns, and I killed the man."

Qin Xue sucked in a sharp breath. He hadn't expected Wang Zhuo to confess to having just killed someone with such composure. He noticed Wang Zhuo had changed his form of address, calling him Mayor Qin instead of Uncle Qin—this suggested significant underlying issues.

Secretary Pi stepped forward, intending to put the guns away. He had some awareness of Wang Zhuo's destructive capabilities; only the forty-year-old driver, Xiaoping, in the room stood a chance against him. Anyone else, even combined, was likely no match for Wang Zhuo. If this alleged terrorist had a gun, it would be terrifying.

"Hold on," Qin Xue raised his arm to stop him, staring intently at Wang Zhuo as he questioned, "Tell me, what is going on here?"

"What's going on?" Qin Jingzhong cut in with a sneer. "In the city under your jurisdiction, people are abducting women in broad daylight, taking them to do unspeakable things. Wang Zhuo reports it, but no one cares. The police not only tip off the criminals but also try to arrest him! He barely managed to rescue the people from near-death, and now, the pig blames the donkey—the police aren't catching the villains, but are instead turning around to arrest him!"

"That's impossible!" Qin Xue shot up from his seat, his voice carrying immense force and authority.

Qin Jingzhong watched him coldly, silent. Qin Siqing impatiently pointed toward the computer at her father. "The evidence is right here; come see for yourself."

On the monitor screen were several screenshots of the video Qin Siqing had just saved, arrayed like a comic strip. Some showed Wang Zhuo fleeing with two women, some showed thugs chasing them with knives, guns, sticks, and clubs, and others showed naked men and women scattering in panic. The visuals rendered the situation perfectly; unless one had a very low IQ, one could grasp the predicament Wang Zhuo and the others faced.

"This is my high school classmate. She scored 656 points and studies economics at Fudan; her family is middle-class. This summer, her whole family just visited Hong Kong," Wang Zhuo said, pointing to Gan Lin as he looked at Qin Xue. "Mayor Qin, you know her—would my classmate willingly go to a place like that to become a prostitute?"

Qin Xue remained silent with a stern face. Secretary Pi was about to interject a defense for his superior when Wang Zhuo spoke first: "And this older sister, we don't know her. When I first saw her, her limbs were tied, and her mouth was gagged with cotton. She was locked in a room with my classmate. I don't know how they went from victims to suspects. Mayor Qin is very busy, but perhaps you could dispatch a trustworthy person whom I could take to the scene?"

"I'll go see for myself!" Qin Xue roared in anger. He had been a leader for so many years, yet this was the first time a young upstart had openly mocked and taunted him to his face. No matter how composed he was, he couldn't simply swallow this insult.