The BBC Beijing bureau interviews Zhu Ruifeng, the investigative journalist credited with exposing a Chinese official in the midst of a sex-tape scandal.
Zhu Ruifeng might be forgiven for seeming overtired or stressed – but he is jubilant, his voice full of energy.
Mr Lei’s sacking has been a popular topic on China’s microblogs
“I am very happy when I battle corrupt officials,” Mr Zhu told the BBC in a phone interview.
Earlier this month, Mr Zhu released a videotape shot in 2007 of a 57-year-old Communist Party local boss having sex with an 18-year-old girl.
Seven days later, the official, Lei Zhengfu, a district-level party secretary from the grimy city of Chongqing, was fired.
“In the past, I was at my happiest when they threatened me and blocked my website,” said Mr Zhu.
“Because then I know my reports have attacked their hearts, and my reports are genuine.”
Blackmail videos
Mr Zhu has a lot to look forward to. He is preparing to release four more sex tapes, also shot inside hotel rooms, clearly showing Chongqing officials having relations with young girls.
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All five videos were recorded as part of a blackmailing scheme by a crooked property developer in Chongqing.
The developer recruited attractive, young women between the ages of 18 and 20, paying them 300 yuan ($48, £30) each time the girls secretly recorded themselves having sex with prominent Chongqing officials.
If the girls failed to get a clear view of the officials’ faces on camera, they would be forced to record more sex acts until the developer had the material he needed to blackmail the city’s bigwigs into giving him better deals.
The honeytrap scheme went belly-up when Lei Zhengfu, star of the first sex video, appealed to the Chongqing police for help.
The city’s then-police chief, Wang Lijun, came to Mr Lei’s rescue, raiding the developer’s home and confiscating the videos. The property developer was jailed for a year and the young women were each detained for a month.
This year, Wang Lijun later starred in his own, separate corruption scandal, after offering US diplomats information on the Chongqing murder of British businessman Neil Heywood.
Gu Kailai, the wife of the city’s disgraced former party chief, Bo Xilai, was later convicted of that murder. Wang’s related misdeeds landed him 15 years in prison.
‘Real journalist’
Throughout that time, the developer’s secret sex tapes sat in a police vault until early November, when a mystery figure inside the Chongqing police force leaked them to Mr Zhu.
Former police chief, Wang Lijun, raided the developer’s home
The yet-to-be-released videos all feature prominent Chongqing party bosses, Mr Zhu says.
“My source told me the developers will only target officials who have real power over construction projects. They needed to invest money and time to train these pretty girls.”
Still, Mr Zhu says he wants to be absolutely sure of the identities of the people in the videos before releasing them.
“If you go ahead and spread things that could be fabricated, asking the public to check whether they are real or not, then you are not a real journalist,” he said.
It is possible the Communist Party’s own anti-corruption team will beat Mr Zhu to the punch, releasing information about the tapes on their own.
Chongqing’s Disciplinary Committee seized the videos a long time ago, Mr Zhu recently learned, but they were reluctant to make waves inside the Communist Party by punishing any of the officials involved.
