Chapter 799

Late night in Zhou Family Village, Ping Shan County, it was as bustling as a New Year temple fair.

However, the onlooking villagers showed no festive cheer of a temple fair; they craned their necks, eyes gleaming with the excitement of watching a show, purely there to gossip and not fear trouble.

Several government vehicles and a water pump truck were parked by the fish pond, their strong lights illuminating half the village like daytime.

When Lin Dongfan's car arrived at the scene, the water in the pond had already been mostly pumped out.

The exposed mud gave off a strong, foul smell.

A dozen or so disciplinary commission workers in waterproof pants were carefully feeling their way across the pond bottom, stepping deep then shallow, their movements cautious, as if conducting an archaeological dig.

Sun Yongwen came forward, lowering his voice to report: 'Mayor Lin, Secretary Shi, we've found something.'

His face bore an excitement he could not contain, his eyes shining frighteningly bright in the lights.

Lin Dongfan nodded, said nothing, and turned to look at Zhou Hongwei, who had just been dragged out of the car by Lao Ba.

This big shot from the Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau.

His current state could only be described as disheveled: his hair was messy, his shirt buttons had popped off in the struggle, and his tie was askew.

But the most striking thing was the shiny handcuffs on his wrist.

As soon as he stepped out of the car, seeing this frightening 'archaeological' scene before him, his legs went weak and he nearly collapsed, but his arms were held up by people.

"Bring it over."

Lin Dongfan said to Lao Ba.

Lao Ba hoisted Zhou Hongwei's arm like carrying a small chicken and dragged him to the pond's edge.

Zhou Hongwei's eyes stared fixedly at the pond bottom, his lips trembling, the last trace of color draining from his face. He saw the fruits of his lifelong struggle—amidst the mud, several workers were carefully lifting Along, waterproof-oilcloth-wrapped object.

The oilcloth was wrapped tightly, but its edges were torn, revealing a gleaming golden corner inside.

"What... what is this...?" Zhou Hongwei's voice sounded like a broken bellows, anxious and tearful: "How could there be such things in my fish pond?"

"Don't rush, Director Zhou." Lin Dongfan chuckled, patting his shoulder: "The show has just begun."

As he spoke,

The first oilcloth bundle was carried onto the plastic sheet beside the pond.

Sun Yongwen put on gloves, crouched down, and carefully untied the nylon rope.

The oilcloth was peeled back layer by layer.

Terrifying golden light!

Even under the strong lights, that golden light remained blinding.

Neatly stacked gold bars, each bar touching the next, were piled two layers high like bricks, with each bar engraved with the bank's mark and purity stamp.

A chorus of gasps rose from the crowd.

The watching villagers exploded in chatter:

"My goodness! It's all gold bars!"

"Damn! How much is this worth? With this many gold bars, you wouldn't have to worry about food and drink for several lifetimes."

"The Zhou family's ancestral grave is smoking green smoke—haha… wait, it's black smoke; Director Zhou is really in for bad luck this time…"

Zhou Hongwei's legs went weak; if Lao Ba hadn't been holding him up, he would have knelt right there.

"This… this isn't mine!" Zhou Hongwei jerked his head up, forcing a comical expression mixing shock and injustice: "Mayor Lin! Secretary Shi! I truly don't know who threw this valuable stuff into my fish pond! This is definitely someone framing me! You must get to the bottom of it…"

He spoke with genuine feeling, tears welling up.

This scene was all too familiar to Lin Dongfan—just like when he'd first dug up a coffin of gold from the Cheng family ancestral tomb, Cheng Dao had reacted in exactly the same ridiculous way.

Lin Dongfan raised an eyebrow, strolled over to the pile of gold bars, squatted down, picked up one, and hefted it in his hand.

"Whoa, it's pretty heavy." While chatting, Lin Dongfan shifted his gaze to Zhou Hongwei: "Director Zhou, whoever's framing you really went all out. This bar is 500 grams; I'd estimate there are at least thirty-odd bars here. At today's gold price, just this bundle alone is worth…"

He paused on purpose, turned to Shi Liantang, and said: "Secretary Shi, you're good at math—work it out."

Shi Liantang pushed up his glasses, expressionless: "At today's gold price, about 420 yuan per gram, each bar roughly 210,000 yuan, thirty bars around 6.3 million."

"6.3 million."

Lin Dongfan repeated the figure, stood up, and brushed off the dust on his hands.

Then, smiling at Zhou Hongwei, he said: "Director Zhou, who would be so lavish as to casually toss over six million yuan worth of gold into your fish pond? What grudge could you possibly have incurred?"

Zhou Hongwei choked up, left speechless.

He opened his mouth, and after a while managed: "That… that could also be someone else's stash hidden here… Anyway, it's not mine—I really had no idea."

"Oh? You had no idea?"

Lin Dongfan's interest was piqued, as if he'd just heard a funny joke.

Lin Dongfan said: "If someone else hid it in your fish pond, would your sister still be guarding it with a kitchen knife? Director Zhou, your sister is truly 'righteous to the clouds,' protecting outsiders' gold more than her own life."

The onlooking villagers burst into laughter.

Zhou Hongwei's face flushed a liver-like hue.

Just then, a shout came from the pond: "Mayor Lin! There's more here!"

The second oilcloth bundle was brought up.

This time, upon opening, it wasn't gold bars but stacks of U. S. dollars sealed in waterproof bags. The green bills gleamed enticingly under the lights, all hundred-dollar notes.

Staff counted on the spot—exactly fifty stacks, each worth ten thousand dollars.

"Another five hundred thousand U. S. dollars." Lin Dongfan laughed, saying: "At the current exchange rate, that's over three million yuan. Director Zhou, your fish pond has great feng shui—it keeps attracting treasure."

!!!

Zhou Hongwei was on the verge of collapsing into tears, his lips trembling.

Lin Dongfan stepped closer, lowered his voice, and said to Zhou Hongwei: "How about this—you teach me how to get unrelated people to toss ten or twenty million into my fish pond? I'll take you as my master."

He spoke softly, but several people nearby heard him.

Shi Liantang's mouth twitched as he struggled not to laugh. Several young staff members had already turned away, their shoulders shaking.

Zhou Hongwei panicked completely, shouting in despair: "I want to see Secretary Wang! Secretary Wang knows my character! I've been framed!"

"Secretary Wang?" Lin Dongfan sat up straight, the smile on his face fading: "Zhou Hongwei, do you think Secretary Wang will take your call now?"

Saying that, Lin Dongfan directly pulled out his phone, lit the screen, and handed it to Zhou Hongwei to see.

On it was an unread text message, the sender was "Wang Qigang", the time showed half an hour ago. The message content was very short, only eight characters:

"Handle it according to the law, show no leniency!"

What does "abandon the chariot to save the general" mean? This is a living textbook; in the face of right and wrong, or rather, in the face of honor, disgrace, survival or demise, how could Secretary Wang possibly get it wrong?

Zhou Hongwei stared at those eight characters, his eyes wide as if they might pop out of their sockets.

His expression shifted from shock to disbelief, then to utter despair, finally turning to dead ash—all in an instant.

"Impossible..." he muttered: "Secretary Wang wouldn't..."

In this situation, Lin Dongfan really wanted to sneer at him—who do you think you are? You're merely a pawn in Wang Qigang's hand! Now that this pawn has caused trouble, you still expect the player to protect you?

But once those words are spoken, they risk slandering Wang Qigang.

Words that affect "unity" cannot be said.

So they can only be kept bottled up inside.

Lin Dongfan turned away, no longer looking at Zhou Hongwei, then said to Sun Yongwen: "Continue the inventory; there should still be something at the pond bottom."

Before his words even fell, another shout came from the pond bottom: "Here! Here there's porcelain!"

The third package was lifted up.

The oilcloth was lifted.

This time what was revealed was not gold, silver, or banknotes, but a pile of porcelain carefully wrapped in foam.

Blue-and-white, fen cai, dou cai...

Although stained with mud, one could still see the exquisite form; they were certainly not vulgar objects.

A middle-aged man wearing glasses was summoned; this person was the expert Shi Liantang invited from the municipal museum! Without a doubt, prior to investigating the illicit goods at the pond bottom, the discipline inspection commission had already grasped some clues.

The veteran expert picked up a blue-and-white plum vase, carefully shone a flashlight on the base mark, then examined the glaze and painting, his hands beginning to tremble.

"This... this is a Qing Yongzheng official kiln blue-and-white lotus-scroll plum vase..." The expert's voice grew more excited: "If genuine... the auction price would start at no less than eight million."

He then picked up a fen cai bowl.

Even more excited: "A Qianlong fen cai bowl with overlapping branch hibiscus flower pattern! This one is even more valuable!"

Zhou Hongwei hearing these terrifying figures, his whole body went limp as if his bones had been pulled out, unable to stand; Lao Ba had to exert more effort to hold him up.

"Director Zhou, these bottles and jars surely aren't just trash someone threw away, are they?"

Lin Dongfan smirked: "Could it be that some tomb robber, having dug up treasure with nowhere to hide, saw your fishpond's good feng shui and deliberately came to store it here?"

The watching villagers laughed even harder, hoping the affair would blow up even more.

Someone shouted at the top of their lungs: "Zhou Hongwei! Your sister pretends to be poor in the village, running a broken courier service! Turns out the money was hidden in the pond feeding the fish!"

The scene burst into another round of laughter.

Zhou Hongwei's lips trembled; he still wanted to say something, but could no longer form words.

He merely stared fixedly at the things dug up from his own fishpond, those riches he thought were forever safe, now under the bright lights like slaps striking his face.

"That's about enough."

Lin Dongfan glanced at his watch; it was already 2 a. m.

He turned to Shi Liantang and said: "Secretary Shi, seal the scene, register all items in an inventory." Saying that, Lin Dongfan glanced again at the limp, mud-like Zhou Hongwei.

This terrifying deathly stare made Zhou Hongwei feel as if he were seeing the summoning of the Grim Reaper.