Chapter 532: He Had Thought He Was the Only One Like This!

Chapter 532: He Had Thought He Was the Only One Like This!

The photographs of the corpse were stark and jarring. They looked like evidence snapped by police investigators at a gruesome murder scene, carrying an immediate, visceral revulsion. Most people would have hesitated upon seeing them, instinctively shrinking back and needing a moment to steel their nerves before daring to touch them.

An Huaiguo did not.

His family had clawed its way to prominence during Xiangjiang’s most turbulent era. He had lived through that bloody crucible himself; one could even say his family was among those who shaped it. For the Xiangjiang financial dynasties of today, it was impossible to have survived those years without blood on their hands. If you weren’t willing to wage life-and-death warfare against others, they would come for your life instead. There had been no alternative.

Photographs of a corpse were not terrifying in themselves. But the fact that these particular images had tumbled out of an envelope bearing the name of Hezhong Media’s largest shareholder—that made them extraordinarily intriguing.

An Huaiguo picked up the prints and examined them closely.

Judging by the terrain, the scene appeared to be a desolate, overgrown mountain slope in the wilderness outside some city.

A massive trench had been gouged into the earth. The body looked as though it had just been hurled into the pit, with only a few shovelfuls of dirt scattered over it. Several figures stood along the rim, holding shovels… The scene clearly captured the act of burying a corpse. From the perspective, the shots had likely been taken covertly with a pinhole camera.

Despite the awkward angle, the faces of two men shoveling dirt were plainly visible.

An Huaiguo was all too familiar with scenes like this.

It even stirred memories of an incident over thirty years ago. Back then, two rival factions totaling hundreds of men had clashed with weapons over a prime plot of land, leaving bodies in their wake. Where the deaths couldn’t be concealed, fall guys stepped forward to take the blame. Where they could be buried… the corpses were hauled off into the dark and dumped into the earth.

An Huaiguo had once stood beside a nearly identical pit, watching his own men shovel dirt over a grave.

He could instantly envision the grim story behind the lens.

Someone had been murdered, and underlings were disposing of the remains.

That alone wasn’t enough to shake An Huaiguo.

What sent a prickle of cold sweat over his skin was that someone had actually photographed the act. It looked suspiciously like a betrayal from within—an insider snapping clandestine shots to hold as leverage… How could a scene like this ever have been captured on film?!

A chill crept up his spine.

This was lethal, irrecoverable evidence!

In today’s hyper-connected world, where information spread at lightning speed, public outrage could easily overwhelm even the most entrenched power. If these photographs were unleashed onto the internet, someone would inevitably pay with their life.

Especially with the faces of the grave-diggers so clearly exposed.

And as for the victim…

An Huaiguo didn’t recognize the dead man, but his face had been clearly recorded as well. He was likely logged on a missing-persons registry somewhere.

How could photographs like these be here?

In Wu Chen’s hands?!

An Huaiguo dumped out the rest of the envelope’s contents.

There were over a hundred photographs alone—old and new, capturing various figures together. Some appeared utterly mundane, proving nothing more than a private meal or a casual meeting, while others were blatantly suspicious at a glance.

Sifting through them, An Huaiguo came across another set of corpse photos.

Though calling it a corpse was no longer accurate.

Only skeletal remains were left, freshly unearthed from the dirt. And, as if to prove a point, another photograph featured the exact same mountain backdrop: Peng Wei, clad in a baseball cap and white gloves, leaning on a shovel. Behind him stood more than a dozen men… Every single one wore a protective mask, yet An Huaiguo recognized Peng Wei in an instant.

The body had been dug up?!

Where was it hidden now?

Was it in Wu Chen’s custody?

There were photos of private banquets, photos of rowdy karaoke sessions, and photos of potbellied men sharing clandestine private suites with scantily clad women… Among the faces, An Huaiguo recognized several prominent figures. Beyond Hezhong Media’s largest shareholder, there were several other figures of staggering status.

He gave the photographs a cursory glance before turning to the thick stack of printed documents.

Some pages were densely covered with notes: On such-and-such date, at such-and-such location, Person A met Person B; such-and-such gifts were delivered… Others were raw bank transaction ledgers. Still others were nominee shareholding agreements and equity transfer contracts. Though they involved minor, obscure shell companies, the cross-referenced dossiers that followed laid bare the intricate web of illicit kickbacks buried beneath.

Even with An Huaiguo’s formidable composure, a creeping dread seized him the more he read.

It was as if the boss of Hezhong Media had been kept under round-the-clock surveillance for decades. Every dirty deed, every vicious act, had been meticulously cataloged. An Huaiguo even had the distinct impression that whoever assembled these files hadn’t bothered to record petty infractions—everything in this folder was grave!

So grave that every single transgression carried enough weight to send the man to prison for life, if not straight to the execution ground!

Yet on the other hand…

A man who had committed one or two such crimes might merely be a ruthless, violent thug; gather the evidence, and you could strike him down and destroy him. But a man who had committed dozens upon dozens of such acts had to be a titan with influence reaching into the heavens, insulated by a colossal fortress of vested interests. Pull one thread, and the entire tapestry would unravel. In a situation like that, even if someone dumped a mountain of ironclad evidence in your lap, you wouldn’t dare touch him! You couldn’t bring him down even if you wanted to!

Such was the harsh reality of power!

Yet looking at it from another angle—in this modern internet era, where information traveled with unprecedented speed…

Four words flashed through An Huaiguo’s mind: mutual destruction!

If someone weaponized these files against the head of Hezhong Media, wouldn’t they be backing him into a corner, forcing him into a desperate fight to the bitter end where everyone went down together?

At that thought, An Huaiguo’s gaze darted to the other envelopes scattered across the table.

He recognized many of the names. He knew virtually every shareholder and senior executive in Hezhong Media… He reached out, grabbed an envelope at random, tore it open, and shook out a handful of photographs…

Perhaps among the younger generation of tycoons, some had genuinely clean hands.

Some had ridden the tech wave, forging miracles out of thin air—so many, in fact, that they could hardly be called miracles anymore!

Yet among the older generation of the super-rich, unless their family pedigree was so exalted that they never had to stoop to such methods, who among them didn’t have blood and filth in their past? They had merely washed their hands and laundered their images! If you rounded up all the old-guard oligarchs, lined them up, and executed every other one, there wouldn’t be a single wrongful conviction among them!

As for the capital bosses lording over the entertainment industry… An Huaiguo knew exactly what kind of bastards they were!

Even so, the sheer depravity laid bare in these files shook him to the core.

He had always thought… he was the only one who operated like this. After all, he was a Xiangjiang tycoon who had clawed his way through an exceptionally savage era; certain compromises had been unavoidable, and certain brutal habits had hardened into second nature… He had never expected these mainland bosses to be even more ruthless, even more depraved than he was!

At least, some of them were.

There were still a few “decent” ones among the lot!

Yet their decency was strictly relative. While they hadn’t committed crimes worthy of a execution, their financial and economic offenses were more than enough to earn them three years behind bars at the very least!

The volume of evidence was staggering!

Much of it wasn’t even drawn out into exhaustive detail.

What had been seized was the crucial thread, the root of the illicit transaction. For instance, if an executive used a mistress as an intermediary for bribery, the dossier contained the woman’s identity, address, and bank account numbers. Nothing else was required… If you truly wanted to bring the man down, you picked up the woman first! Investigating her would be a hundred times easier!

Finally, An Huaiguo stopped reading.

He tossed the stack of documents onto the table and slowly raised his head to look at Wu Chen.

The office had fallen into silence.