The Secret of the Yoga Club: The Women's Identity is Not Simple

First, several photos went viral on social media. The photos showed two men embracing intimately in a cozy living room in the background.

One person's face was blurred using the phone's built-in mosaic function, while the other person's face was crystal clear.

Wang Hao is the only son of the mayor of Hehai City.

Along with the photos, several screenshots of chat logs and a very short audio clip were also leaked, in which the voice conversation was so sweet it gave people goosebumps.

These materials were released simultaneously in the early hours of the morning through several self-media accounts outside the province. The timing of the release was extremely precise; at the same time that news came from within the Discipline Inspection Commission that "there is insufficient evidence in the Lin Feng case," these photos and recordings were simultaneously exposed on major platforms as if by prior arrangement.

The local online comment section in Hehai City was flooded with messages within minutes. The topic of the mayor's eldest son keeping a boyfriend and living with him for half a year spread faster than any official statement.

The platform couldn't keep up with the deletions; as soon as one post was deleted, someone else would immediately screenshot and repost it, causing the number of reposts to skyrocket.

Wang Hao sat on the sofa in his apartment, the photos on his phone screen making his eyes blurry.

My fingers trembled as I dialed Xiaoyu's number, but the phone was off. I dialed again, but it was still off.

Yesterday, Xiaoyu went to another province with Shangguan Jinghong's men, and he also changed his phone number.

This time it's really over!

He slumped on the sofa, staring blankly at the crystal chandelier on the ceiling.

Then his dad called.

Wang Feng's voice exploded in the receiver, furious to the extreme, shouting out his full name and bombarding the receiver with a barrage of questions.

Are those photos online real?

How long did you and that man actually sleep together?

Do you know that your father is about to be promoted to the municipal party secretary?

Do you know that this will ruin our whole family?

Wang Hao opened his mouth several times, but couldn't utter a single word. The sound of something being smashed came from the other end of the phone, followed by Wang Feng's suppressed, trembling breathing.

Finally, the call ended, leaving only a hurried busy tone on the receiver. His father had never hung up on him before; this was the first time.

Immediately afterwards, Zuo Ning was also arrested. After seeing Wang Hao's sex tape scandal, she realized something was wrong, and she couldn't get in touch with Ma Jinli.

Having just spoken with Mayor Wang, who seemed to be trying to distance himself from him, Zuo Ning immediately returned to his hotel. In his office safe, there were USB drives containing the names of many people, implicating more than a dozen officials.

They're all filled with explicit photos and videos that violate regulations and rules...

at the same time.

Several police cars were parked in a row in front of the Keda Hotel, their red and blue lights reflecting a blinding glare on the hotel's glass curtain wall.

Fully armed special police rushed into the hotel lobby, and the front desk staff were so frightened that they crouched behind the counter with their heads in their hands.

The elevator went straight to the top floor, and Zhou Jianguo personally led a team of more than a dozen heavily armed police officers who filed out, completely blocking both sides of the corridor.

When the office door was kicked open, Zuo Ning was sitting behind her desk packing her things to make a runaway. She hadn't even had time to put the cash and passport in her bag yet.

Seeing the police rushing in and the dark muzzles of guns, his hand froze in mid-air, and the expression on his face changed from shock to bewilderment.

How could it be so fast?

Two special police officers stepped forward, pinned him to the desk, and handcuffed him behind his back.

With his cheek pressed against the cold tabletop, he heard Zhou Jianguo's icy voice in his ear—"Zuo Ning, you are suspected of multiple crimes, including organizing a criminal organization, drug trafficking, and intentional homicide. You are hereby arrested in accordance with the law."

I was dragged up and pushed towards the door, through the corridor, through the lobby, past the rows of police cars with flashing lights at the entrance.

The heavy rain was still falling, and large raindrops pounded on the roof of the police car, splashing up white mist. He was escorted into the back seat of the police car, where a fully armed SWAT officer sat on each side.

The moment the car door closed, most of the sound of the rain outside was cut off. Looking through the car window at the golden sign above the Keda Hotel entrance gradually blurring in the rain, a question kept swirling in my mind.

Who betrayed him?

Face after face flashed through my mind, finally settling on Ma Jinli's face.

At this moment, the woman he was thinking about, Ma Jinli, had already been kidnapped by Kui Zi in the Golden Triangle.

Ma Jinli was targeted on his flight to Nanning. He was sitting in a window seat in economy class, clutching his spare phone with a new SIM card, planning how to meet with the smugglers in Nanning, then cross the border jungle into the Golden Triangle, and finally transfer to a flight to Dubai.

He thought everything was arranged perfectly, but what he didn't know was that this contact with the local tyrant was actually intricately connected to Shangguan Jinghong.

This man is called Gao Feng, and he was one of her father's old buddies back in the day.

After Shangguan Hong's father passed away, Gao Feng and a few of his old buddies did some small business in the Golden Triangle, and they never lost contact with Shangguan Jinghong.

After landing in Nanning, Ma Jinli had just made contact with the smuggler when he was intercepted by Gao Feng's men, stuffed into the back of a pickup truck, and driven into the Golden Triangle overnight.

In a small wooden cabin deep in the interior, the bamboo walls let in the wind, and the tin roof rattled as the rain pattered against it.

A dim light bulb hung in the middle of the room, and a person was tied to a wooden chair below the bulb.

Ma Jinli's hands were tied behind his back to the chair. His nostrils and mouth were covered in dried blood, and there was a wound on his forehead from being hit by a hard object. The blood had congealed into a dark red scab.

Through her swollen eyes, she looked at the burly, bald man standing in front of her and shook her head in despair.

Kui Zi glanced down at Ma Jinli, who was slumped in a chair covered in blood, and asked Gao Feng, who was smoking a cigarette beside him, "Uncle Gao, what should we do with this guy?"

Gao Feng flicked his cigarette ash and said slowly in heavily accented Mandarin, "Stay here and help me grow bananas. The Golden Triangle has everything, except people to do the work."

Kui Zi chuckled. This kid's lucky; he even found a job!

Just two days ago, after meeting Ma Jinli, Kui Zi used every trick in the book.

At first, Ma Jinli was very stubborn and refused to say anything. But when he found an African gay man to take care of him, he immediately started to confess.

He poured out all the dirty work Zuo Ning had done over the years, from running casinos and organizing prostitution to drug trafficking, murder, and framing others. He described the time, place, and people involved in each case in great detail.

Kui Zi recorded all of this on her phone.

After recording, he put his phone away and used a satellite phone to dial Shangguan Jinghong's number.

"Sister Hong, this kid has spoken up. He confessed a lot about Zuo Ning's matter, including Brother Lin's matter, it was all a frame-up. I'll send you the video right away."

Shangguan Jinghong was silent for a moment on the other end of the phone, then said "Thank you for your hard work" and hung up.

Kui Zi forwarded the video to Zhou Jianguo. After watching it, Zhou Jianguo didn't say much, but simply picked up the landline on the table, dialed Shen Ping's number in the provincial department, and said, "Director Shen, it's time to close the net."

Zuo Ning was unaware of any of these events.

He was taken to a solitary cell in the detention center and sat on the iron bed all night, unable to understand who had betrayed him.

The next day, his cell phone was allowed to be used to contact his family and lawyer. The first number he dialed was not his lawyer, but Mayor Wang's private number.

The phone rang for a long time before being answered. The voice on the other end was hoarse and tired, as if he hadn't slept for days.

Before he could speak, the other person spoke first, their voice calm, a calmness that chilled him to the bone—"Zuo Ning, I'm in trouble myself. The Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection is investigating me. I can't help you with your situation. Take care of yourself."

The phone hangs up.

Zuo Ning stared blankly at her phone for a long time, then suddenly slammed it against the wall, the phone case cracking into several pieces that bounced to the ground.

He crouched beside the iron bed, clutching his head, curled up in a ball, and let out a hoarse growl.

He finally realized that he had underestimated Lin Feng and Shangguan Jinghong from the very beginning. They weren't without a counterattack; they had been weaving a web all along.

Wan Jingquan was Hong Jie's man from beginning to end. He was planted in the Keda Hotel just to turn on him at a crucial moment.

Ma Jinli's escape was not unexpected; he must have been kidnapped by that scoundrel Shangguan.

These past two days, I was thinking of moving Ye Qinghan and the others, but I didn't expect that I had overlooked Ma Jinli...

Zuo Ning lost completely this time, without even a chance to turn the tide.

The heavy rain has stopped.

After days of overcast skies, the long-awaited sunshine finally appeared over Hohai City.