I agreed to be a kept man, but I'm still being punished by the system.

Lin Yang's attention was entirely focused on a newly created folder on the computer screen.

Inside were several videos he had previously copied from the surveillance room of the Junfu Hotel using his mobile phone.

The image quality is poor, the angles are awkward, and there's screen glare.

But he still patiently examined it frame by frame.

In the first video, outside room 1725, he is seen like a corpse being carried out of the room by two men in black.

In the second video, outside room 2610, he was dragged into the room, and then the woman wearing a wide-brimmed hat appeared, entered, and quickly left.

The third video shows the hotel entrance, where the woman and the man in black got into a Mercedes-Benz van with the license plate obscured.

Lin Yang examined each segment with extreme care, trying to extract any overlooked clues from those blurry pixels.

A morning passed quietly in this focused state.

He edited, enlarged, and marked several key video clips, and extracted a few of the clearest images, then integrated all the files together.

After doing all this, he stood up and walked to He Xiaoya's workstation.

"Sister Xiaoya."

He Xiaoya looked up from in front of the screen and snorted in response.

"Could I borrow your USB drive?" Lin Yang asked politely.

"Take it yourself." He Xiaoya gestured towards a pen holder on the table.

Lin Yang picked out a blank USB drive, thanked them, returned to his seat, and cut and pasted the organized files into it.

He unplugged the USB drive, held it in his palm, and felt the coolness of its metal casing.

Then, he walked toward the closed oak double doors of the director's office.

Boom, boom.

"Enter."

Su Man's voice remained as cold and aloof as ever.

Lin Yang pushed open the door and entered; a faint scent of perfume filled the office.

Su Man was sitting behind her executive desk, reviewing a document, when she heard the noise and looked up.

"What is it?"

Lin Yang didn't say anything, but walked up to her and gently placed the USB drive he was holding on the table.

Su Man's gaze slid from his face to the small USB drive. She put down her pen, picked up the USB drive, and plugged it directly into the computer's USB port.

The folder was opened, and the video files inside were clearly arranged.

She clicked on the first one.

The video started playing, and the noise from the monitoring room mixed with the hum of the server came from the computer speakers.

Su Man's expression was calm. Looking at Lin Yang, who looked like a corpse on the screen, her eyes showed no emotion, only her brows furrowed slightly.

When the scene shifted to the doorway of room 2610, and the woman wearing a wide-brimmed hat appeared, Su Man unconsciously leaned forward slightly.

She pressed pause.

The woman's image was frozen on the screen.

Su Man's gaze was fixed on that figure, scrutinizing him inch by inch from head to toe.

She wasn't focused on the other person's face; it was completely obscured and utterly worthless.

What she was looking at was the woman's walking posture, the range of her arm swings, and the curves and demeanor of her body revealed when she turned slightly to the side.

Lin Yang stood to the side, holding his breath. The office was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

He saw Su Man's pupils contract slightly.

She seemed to remember something.

The next second, Su Man's movements were astonishingly fast. Instead of continuing playback, she moved the mouse to the bottom right corner and selected "Safely eject hardware."

The USB drive was unplugged.

The video window on the computer screen disappeared instantly.

She stood up, walked around the large desk, and went to the bookshelf at the back of the office. Lin Yang noticed that she didn't seem to be trying to hide anything from him.

She crouched down and opened the bottom cabinet door of the bookcase.

Inside the cabinet, a black electronic safe was prominently displayed.

Su Man skillfully entered the password and verified her fingerprint.

With a soft "beep", the safe door popped open.

She tossed the small USB drive in, then closed the safe door and locked it again.

After doing all this, she stood up, turned to look at Lin Yang, and her face returned to its usual calm and expressionless state.

Lin Yang's heart was in turmoil.

She recognized her!

She definitely recognized who that woman was!

But she chose not to speak, and instead used this method to seal away the only clue.

Why?

What is she afraid of? Or, who is she protecting?

Countless questions exploded in his mind, but he couldn't utter a single one.

Su Man sat back down at her desk, picked up her water glass and took a sip, as if nothing had happened.

She looked at Lin Yang and gave the instructions.

"Come with me somewhere this afternoon."

Lin Yang suppressed the myriad thoughts in his mind and nodded.

"oh."

……

In the afternoon, Lin Yang drove his dark blue Porsche Cayenne, with Su Man in tow, out of the Enwei Group's underground parking lot.

Su Man gave Lin Yang an address, which he entered into the navigation system. He found that the destination was in the east of the city.

As the vehicle merged into the traffic, its V6 engine emitted a deep, smooth roar. Compared to the surrounding vehicles, this million-dollar luxury car possessed an invisible aura.

The entire journey was conducted in silence.

Su Man turned her head to look at the scenery rushing past outside the window, seemingly lost in thought.

Lin Yang focused on driving, while frantically trying to guess the purpose of his trip.

After the car exited the elevated highway, away from the hustle and bustle of the city center, the scenery along the roadside gradually changed from high-rise buildings to a villa area with shady trees.

Finally, the navigation led them to a magnificent gatehouse halfway up a mountain.

"Yunxia Mountain Villa".

Four large, gilded characters, written in a vigorous and elegant style, are engraved on a huge natural rock, exuding a majestic aura.

At the gate, a security guard in a crisp uniform stopped the car.

Lin Yang rolled down the car window. The security guard's eyes swept over the Porsche crest on the hood of the car, and his serious expression softened a little, but his tone remained formulaic.

"Sir, do you have an appointment?"

"Go to Building 88 and find President Qin," Su Man said from the passenger seat.

Upon hearing the keywords "General Manager Qin" and "Building 88," the security guard immediately stood up straighter. He picked up the walkie-talkie, whispered a few words to confirm, and then raised his hand to let him through.

"Please come in."

The Cayenne slowly drove into the resort.

Lin Yang then realized that the house numbers here were very unusual. As he drove along, he saw only buildings numbered 11, 22, 33, and so on... There were no odd-numbered house numbers at all.

This place, even the house numbers, are unique.

After driving for a few minutes on the winding mountain road, a manor with an exceptionally large area finally came into view.

A massive black, ornate iron gate completely isolates the courtyard from the outside world.

Su Man took out her phone and dialed a number.

A few seconds later, the call connected, and she only said one sentence: "I've arrived."

The heavy iron gate slowly opened to both sides with a low hum of an electric motor, as if welcoming an important guest.

Lin Yang drove into the spacious courtyard and parked the car in front of the main building's porch.

A middle-aged woman dressed in an elegant maid uniform immediately came out to greet her, with a professional smile on her face, and first bowed slightly to Su Man.

"Mr. Su, you've arrived."

She then said to Lin Yang, "Please wait in the meeting room for a while. President Qin hasn't woken up from his afternoon nap yet."

The maid led the way, guiding Su Man and Lin Yang through the entrance hall and into a well-lit side room.

A faint scent of sandalwood wafts in the air, there are expensive leather sofas, a mirror-like floor, and abstract paintings on the walls that are incomprehensible but seem very valuable.

Every detail here silently speaks of the owner's wealth and taste.

The two had barely sat down on the sofa for less than a minute when the door to the side room was pushed open.

A woman walked in.

She wore a loose white silk dress and woven slippers, her long black hair casually draped over her shoulders, and her face was free of makeup, yet her beauty was undiminished.

She is Qin Xue, the president of Enwei Group.