Chapter Two: A Million Is Not the Finish Line

Before requesting the suspension, Shen had scheduled an anonymous report to the economic-crimes unit, attaching photographs and auction terms. He did not know what the card contained. But Scarface had threatened an entire market for it, and Haiyue had allowed its own executive to bid on the cabinet. That was enough for professionals to investigate. The card held hundreds of lot numbers, true origins, and payment splits. For three years, Haiyue had used bankruptcy auctions to launder stolen cultural property. Scarface sourced the goods; Qiu fabricated their histories. Gu Chengze’s name was absent. But the “ultimate capital source” column repeated one code: L.S. Lanshi. Gu put down his glass. “You always insist on reading the last column.”