Chapter 162 - 129: Three Stone Tokens! The Bizarre Golden Triangle

"This thing just looked a little familiar, so I brought it along. Now it seems like it has an unusual origin?"

It’s normal to grab gold when you’re escaping.

In fact, there are countless examples of people dying for gold!

For instance, during a flood caused by heavy rain, when the water surged into an underground mall, everyone was running for their lives.

But a few people went against the current, rushing in a specific direction.

Why? Were their parents there? Or their lovers?

No.

There was gold there.

That’s right. They were heading for a jewelry store. The staff had been driven out by the flood, and they took advantage of the chaos to grab gold.

One handful wasn’t enough. Two handfuls weren’t enough. Even three weren’t enough, not until the floodwaters completely submerged them.

In the end, they drowned.

When faced with money, perhaps death doesn’t carry much weight.

But compared to Cheng Yang’s net worth, this thing wasn’t expensive. The value of the gold within it wasn’t worth him risking his life to carry out!

"So the woman from that case was connected to Cheng Yang?"

Xu Huo frowned.

"No. We checked Cheng Yang’s social network. He has no connection whatsoever to the beauty salon."

"Besides, he’s a man; he doesn’t have a habit of going to beauty salons. His wife does, but she’s not connected to the people in the dwarf case."

Li Jianye shook his head.

"That’s strange..."

"For it to appear in one case could be a coincidence, but for it to appear in two unrelated cases..."

Xu Huo stroked his chin, looking at the exquisite and ornate Stone Token in his hand.

This was obsidian, but this quality was also known as golden obsidian, and it emitted a faint luster. However, the stone and the gold together weren’t particularly valuable.

"Familiar... Old Li, have you seen it somewhere else?"

Xu Huo suddenly looked at Li Jianye.

He had told Li Jianye about this thing and asked him to keep an eye out, but he hadn’t shown it to him. How could he find it familiar?

’Based on just a few pieces of information?’

Li Jianye fell into deep thought, his brow furrowed. He stared at the Stone Token, his mind racing as he tried to remember.

After a long moment, he suddenly said:

"I remember now! It appeared in a case!"

"Do you remember Chu Xi’s case?"

"The case where her father died in the line of duty?" Xu Huo asked, puzzled.

"Yes. At the time, I was leading the squadron that caught them. We handcuffed and arrested them, and then found Chu Xi and her brother in the cellar."

Li Jianye nodded.

"A necklace worn by one of the arrested gang members was very similar to this..."

"If I hadn’t seen it again now, I probably would have forgotten all about it."

Despite what he said, there was no way he could ever forget.

He and Chu Xi’s father were very close. His brother-in-arms had been tortured to death on the street, disemboweled...

He would never forget that case as long as he lived, including all the details.

"Sixteen years ago?"

Xu Huo paused, a look of astonishment on his face.

’This thing appeared sixteen years ago!?’

"Where is the Stone Token now?"

"Sold."

Li Jianye looked slightly embarrassed, then quickly explained.

"It was sold according to standard procedure. It wasn’t worth much; we just sold it for the price of the gold."

When a culprit is arrested, their personal property is generally handled in one of a few ways.

One, frozen, as in the case of huge sums of illicit money or assets with unclear origins.

Two, returned. If it’s unrelated to the case, it’s returned to the family or to the victims.

Three, destroyed on site, if it’s worthless and unrelated to the case.

Four, turned over to the state treasury.

For example, some properties are auctioned off by the court at a very low price. But it’s unlikely you’d be able to live there in peace unless the killer’s entire family was dead.

"A few people from the main detachment investigated the Stone Token and ultimately classified it as a piece of jewelry."

"It had no auction value, but since it contained gold, it wasn’t immediately destroyed. It was sold for the price of the gold, and the money was turned over to the state. I think it was only a few hundred yuan."

Li Jianye replied.

Hearing this, Xu Huo’s frown deepened.

Selling it to a jewelry store was basically the same as destroying it.

The classification back then was perfectly in line with procedure, so there’s nothing to criticize. After all, even Xu Huo couldn’t find anything despite his suspicions, let alone sixteen years ago.

It’s just...

"Now it’s appeared again..."

"This couldn’t be a criminal organization, could it!?"

Li Jianye’s heart skipped a beat. His pupils contracted as he stared at Xu Huo in astonishment.

"A criminal organization that’s existed for at least sixteen years!?"

’Good grief, a sixteen-year-old criminal organization...’

’And that’s *at least* sixteen years ago!’

However...

"It’s hard to say. The probability is very low."

"If it is a criminal organization... would someone at Cheng Yang’s level need to collude with human traffickers?"

Xu Huo thought for a moment, then shook his head.

"He might have preyed on people in the past or trafficked beautiful women, but there’s no reason he would still be doing that now."

"With billions, what couldn’t he get these days?"

"Not to mention taking it with him while fleeing the country."

Hearing this, Li Jianye paused for a second, then nodded.

"And in that previous dwarf case, aside from the woman having something wrong with her head, she had no prior criminal record besides the crime itself," Xu Huo added.

In the dwarf case, there were two culprits: a dwarf and his mother.

The mother was the director of a beauty salon and wasn’t short on money. Besides aiding in a rape, she had no other criminal record.

She didn’t know Cheng Yang, either.

’If this thing really represents a criminal organization...’

’...then this organization would be enormous. Its members don’t know each other, and even a billionaire is one of them.’

’Then... is it related to my transmigration and my system?’

Xu Huo frowned, then dismissed the thought after a moment’s consideration.

’Let’s see... if this token already existed sixteen years ago... then whoever distributed it must have started putting them out at least ten years before that. And that person would need decades to establish themselves.’

’Call it thirty years to get established, plus ten years to start distributing the Stone Tokens, that’s forty years. Add the sixteen years since then...’

’...the person behind it would have to be at least fifty-six.’

’It has nothing to do with my transmigration or the system.’

"Is Group Leader Zhang Liang in?"

Xu Huo suddenly asked, looking at Li Jianye.

"He’s driving Zhaozhou and the nearby cities covered by the Cheng Group crazy. What do you think, is he in?"

Li Jianye said helplessly.

For the past two days, Zhang Liang had been on the warpath, mobilizing all the resources under his authority to investigate anyone and everyone.

It couldn’t be helped. The very foundation of the Special Fifth Bureau was security and confidentiality.

Xu Huo had nearly been killed in Zhaozhou. If Zhaozhou wasn’t flayed alive, it would mean they were being lenient.

He investigated anyone connected to the case, and even those who weren’t!

He was conducting such a ruthless purge that it was expected to cause some short-term economic chaos, but it wasn’t a major issue.

Just as Xu Huo had said before.

People like Cheng Yang aren’t the chosen ones, nor are they unique.

Once they’re dead...

someone else will take their place, and for a short while, they’ll be much more honest than Cheng Yang ever was.

"Get Group Leader Zhang over here."

Xu Huo said after a moment of thought.

Li Jianye nodded.

He took out his phone and made a call.

Meanwhile, in an office far away, Zhang Liang’s phone began to ring.

He was holding a deck of cards, practicing sleight-of-hand techniques for pickpocketing. The sudden ring of his phone sent the cards flying all over the table.

He paid it no mind, simply took out his phone and answered the call.

A moment later, Zhang Liang put down his phone.

He glanced at the men beside him, all clad in suits, who were now cowering on the floor with their hands over their heads, faces filled with terror.

"Pack it up."

"Yes, sir!"

...

...

「By the time Zhang Liang arrived at the office, it was already five in the afternoon.」

In the meantime, Xu Huo had called Linlan City and spoken with Wang Hu.

Wang Hu had gone to interrogate the people from the dwarf case, but their answers were no different from last time.

They still claimed to know nothing. The Stone Token had barely been used, and tracing the few times it had been, led to nothing.

"What Stone Token?"

Zhang Liang asked as he entered the office, frowning at the atmosphere inside.

"This thing."

Xu Huo placed the Stone Token in front of him.

"Group Leader Zhang, you’ve been all over the country. Have you ever seen one of these?"

Zhang Liang examined the object made of obsidian and gold, turning it over in his hands for a moment.

After a long while, his answer was a shake of his head.

"This was found on Cheng Yang?"

"Never seen it."

’Strange...’

’Even Zhang Liang hasn’t seen it...’

The cases he’d worked on involved very sensitive individuals of a high caliber.

While not always at Cheng Yang’s level, they were at least a tier above human traffickers and the culprits of the dwarf case.

’So...’

"What in the world is this thing?"

Zhang Liang wondered aloud.