Chapter 175

Chapter 175: The Rich Keep It Low-Key; the Good Stuff Is Hidden Underground

Jiang Tea Tea watched them for a beat, then asked, “How many years of crime records and dirty-money ledgers?”

Lang Xin Yi held her gaze. “Nearly a hundred years.”

“Anything older than that, we don’t know. But one thing is certain—Mom and Dad are involved in crime, and even our late grandfather and grandmother weren’t clean.”

Mom and Dad weren’t clean. Grandfather and grandmother weren’t clean.

Was this some kind of family tradition?

Jiang Tea Tea’s expression turned thoughtful. “Among your sixteen siblings, how many are Mom and Dad’s accomplices?”

Lang Xin Yi and Lang Xin Wei answered without hesitation. “Three. Me, Second Sister, and Third Brother.”

“We’re their accomplices. The ones they trust most.”

“Since we understood what ‘obedience’ meant, we’ve been their accomplices. We’ve helped them for at least thirty years. We…” Lang Xin Yi’s throat tightened. Lang Xin Wei’s eyes reddened. Their voices broke, and they couldn’t continue.

They wanted to live like normal people. Especially after they’d had cubs of their own—they didn’t want their cubs to walk the same path.

But in recent years, as they aged and their cubs grew older, Mom and Dad had started setting their sights on the next generation.

They wanted to train their cubs—cast bigger nets, do bigger things—cement the White Wolf Clan’s glory and the Lang family’s so-called “brilliance.”

They could endure hardship. They could be poor. They could wear plain clothes and not drive the newest model flyer.

But they couldn’t let their child walk their road.

What they wanted was simple: freedom, safety, and a life where the sound of a lightbrain wouldn’t make their fingers tremble and their hearts slam; where they wouldn’t wake at midnight with tears on their faces; where they could finally sleep through the night without fear.

Jiang Tea Tea looked at them. “Wait a moment. I’m going to place a call and ask Commander-in-Chief Chong Ming.”

The instant Lang Xin Yi and Lang Xin Wei realized she not only had Chong Ming’s contact, but could call him directly, shock hit them like a wave.

Jiang Tea Tea tapped her earpiece and dialed in front of them.

The video call rang once before it connected.

Chong Ming’s voice came through low and steady, edged with concern. “What happened? Why are you calling so early?”

Jiang Tea Tea answered seriously. “There’s been a major breakthrough in the mission. I want to ask you something.”

Chong Ming’s gaze sharpened. “What kind of breakthrough? Tell me.”

Jiang Tea Tea summarized Lang Xin Yi and Lang Xin Wei’s request and what they knew—clean, concise, no wasted words.

After listening, Chong Ming said, “Tell them this: if they were forced, they can redeem themselves through merit. The empire’s law will consider leniency.”

“Anyone who didn’t break the law won’t be implicated by their parents’ crimes or their siblings’ crimes.”

“Legitimate income, after lawful taxes, will not be confiscated because of criminal facts. If their merit outweighs their fault, there’s a strong chance their sentence will be suspended.”

A suspended sentence.

Behave during the suspension, and you likely never served a day.

Jiang Tea Tea lifted a brow. “Understood. I’ll pass it on.”

Chong Ming grunted, then added, “Remember to eat. Some things don’t require you to do them personally. Learn to control the whole field—give orders and have Cheng Xiao Ting, Sui Xuan Chu, and Huang Da Zhuang execute them.”

“I know,” Jiang Tea Tea said.

He was so annoying.

She mouthed the last two words silently.

Chong Ming read her lips. A trace of amusement and indulgence flickered in his golden eyes. “All right. Continue negotiating. If there’s anything you don’t understand or can’t judge, call or message me anytime. Be careful.”

Jiang Tea Tea murmured an acknowledgment and ended the call. Then she turned back to Lang Xin Yi and Lang Xin Wei and repeated Chong Ming’s words exactly.

Once they heard that their brothers and sisters, their mates, and their cubs wouldn’t be implicated as long as they hadn’t broken the law, their shoulders sagged with relief. Tension bled out of their bodies, and they forced themselves to keep going.

“We have handwritten copies of the crime records,” Lang Xin Yi said hoarsely.

“The original ledgers are with Mom and Dad. The dirty-money ledgers weren’t kept in any electronic system. They’re written ledgers—handwritten books.”

“The list of involved people is handwritten too. We’ve copied some, but not all.”

“We know where the originals are.” His voice tightened. “Before you go retrieve them, can you have our brothers and sisters leave Barley Star first?”

All the records were handwritten.

No wonder Chong Ming had the top information specialist in the whole M31 Star System and still only knew they were criminals—without being able to pin down hard proof.

Jiang Tea Tea studied them. “Why do you want your brothers and sisters to leave? Your fear and psychological shadows come from Mom and Dad—from this house.”

“If you want to break your fear and escape their control for good, shouldn’t you see it with your own eyes?”

Her voice stayed cool. “Shouldn’t you watch this house collapse? Watch Mom and Dad arrested?”

Lang Xin Yi and Lang Xin Wei clasped hands. Their fingers trembled. Their bodies trembled. Even their hearts felt unsteady.

This home was lavish. One decoration could buy an ordinary person a lifetime. Even the most ordinary paper in the house cost hundreds of star credits per roll. A tablecloth cost tens of thousands per meter.

To outsiders, it was a dream.

To them, it was a blood pit—a place that made their souls shake.

They’d dreamed of destroying it for years.

Jiang Tea Tea had struck straight at the core. She wanted them to face it—face the pit that imprisoned them—and watch it crumble.

They forced smiles that looked worse than tears. “You’re right, Tea Tea. You’re right.”

“Our everything comes from this house.” Lang Xin Yi’s voice cracked. “If it can be destroyed, none of us should leave. Not one.”

“We… we should all stay and face every shadow in our hearts—”

Jiang Tea Tea smiled, bright and decisive. “Since you’ve decided, give me everything you already have as evidence. Then take me to the rest—the other evidence and the crime scene.”

“And if we can catch them red-handed, with the evidence and stolen goods in place… even better.”

Lang Xin Yi nodded stiffly. “The evidence we hold is stored in two places.”

“One is in the First Star System, Capital Planet, in the empire’s central bank vault. What we have here is a handwritten copy.”

“The other is in the Second Star System, Liu Guang Star, in a local bank vault. What we have is a copied transcript. The vault number and password are here.”

He passed her a slip of paper. Jiang Tea Tea took it, opened her lightbrain, snapped a photo, and sent it to Sui Xuan Chu.

The other seven were already awake. They’d been listening and watching through the shared screen.

Sui Xuan Chu forwarded the information to their direct leader. Their leader moved fast, using the highest level of secrecy to coordinate with Capital Planet’s central bank and Liu Guang Star’s local bank.

Lang Xin Wei pulled out a map and spread it on the coffee table. Her finger tapped a location. “The crime site is in the mountains. Underground—here.”

“It’s about eighty kilometers in a straight line from this house. The mechanical room in the backyard is the entrance to the tunnel leading to it.”

“And here—this is a mountain resort. It’s one of our properties too. There’s an underground passage from the resort that leads straight to the crime site.”

“Half the ledgers and the list of involved people are in Mom and Dad’s room vault. The other half are at the crime site.”

“Their room isn’t on the top floor. It’s on the first floor.” Her finger traced the layout. “The first floor extends down three underground levels. It’s all their vault.”

As Lang Xin Wei finished, Zhang Ting Zhou’s voice came through Jiang Tea Tea’s earpiece. “Sister Tea, I scanned the area she marked. It matches the high-voltage fenced site Cheng Xiao Ting found during the night run.”

“Mom and Dad’s bedroom and the area below it are protected by the newest signal blockers. We can’t scan through. We can’t confirm the three underground levels. Someone has to go in person.”

Jiang Tea Tea pressed the invisible mic in her ear to acknowledge the update, then looked at Lang Xin Yi and Lang Xin Wei. “I’ll need to verify what you’re telling me.”

“In the days ahead, I’ll treat you well. You do the same—treat me well.”

Lang Xin Yi and Lang Xin Wei nodded quickly. “Yes. We’ll cooperate completely.”

They shared additional details for about ten minutes—Jiang Tea Tea listened, and the other seven listened too—then the sibling pair finally left.

Jiang Tea Tea reread the map they’d left behind, then locked her door. She changed into streamlined combat gear, tied her hair into a high ponytail, and spoke into the channel. “It’s not even four a.m. Lang Yin Feng and Lang Luo Feng are asleep. I’m going to check their basement first.”

“If possible, I’ll take whatever crime ledgers they keep there and put them into my storage button.”

“After that, if there’s time, I’ll go to the crime site. My door is locked. If anything happens, alert me immediately.”

Sui Xuan Chu said, “Clip the law enforcement recorder on you. Bring the signal disabler too.”

Cheng Lin Yue added, “Based on what we know, the Lang family is suspected of illegal medical operations. Wear a gas mask and a protective respirator. Don’t risk whatever they might have in the basement.”

Huang Da Zhuang and Cheng Xiao Ting chimed in too.

“Sister Tea, be careful. If anything feels wrong, leave immediately.”

“We’re waiting for you to come back. Good luck.”

Jiang Tea Tea didn’t just wear the recorder—she kept a live link open with the other seven.

Using the map’s markings, she activated Shrink the Earth to an Inch and dropped straight down from the upper floor to the underground level—fast as a blink.

The basement was pitch-black, the air stale. While invisible, she swept the space with a detector and found a signal jammer.

She placed a signal disabler beside it. Zhang Ting Zhou immediately hacked in, altered the camera feed, and turned on all the lights on the first underground level.

The ground-level house covered about five hundred square meters, but the first underground level was far larger—over a thousand.

Rows of shelves lined the space. On them were raw rare mineral stones—some massive and imposing, others small and exquisitely beautiful.

There were also preserved specimens of rare plants and sets of furniture made from protected trees, species long banned from logging. Expensive in ways money was never meant to buy.

Jiang Tea Tea prowled through the first underground level.

The other seven watched through the live feed and couldn’t help reacting.

Cheng Xiao Ting whistled softly. “Holy shit. I just saw raw stones bigger than anything in the raw-stone museum.”

Huang Da Zhuang added, stunned, “My family has hills with protected trees on them. You’re not allowed to cut them. Yet they’ve got three full furniture sets down here.” His voice dropped. “Look at the rings. These trees are at least a thousand years old.”

“A thousand-year-old tree made into a couch in a basement…” Cheng Xiao Ting sounded half sick. “That’s not something a hundred million can buy. On an auction floor, that’s at least five hundred million.”

Huang Da Zhuang spoke weakly, embarrassed. “I used to think the two richest people in the empire were Commander-in-Chief Chong Ming and the Crown Prince. After seeing this basement—more than a thousand square meters of it—I owe my ‘I used to think’ an apology.”

“Even a canine like me who doesn’t know what he’s looking at can tell it’s at least tens of billions.”

Cheng Xiao Ting cursed. “Tens of billions? Open your eyes. This alone is a trillion, minimum.”

Sui Xuan Chu’s voice stayed steady. “At least a trillion.”

Sui Xuan Chu was the Imperial Crown Prince. He knew what he was seeing.

Zhang Ting Zhou cut in. “Sister Tea, I’ve breached Basement Level Two and Basement Level Three. Lights are on. You can go in directly.”

Jiang Tea Tea moved in a flash, dropping into Basement Level Two.

The moment she stabilized her footing, the channel exploded with shocked voices.

“Beast God above—what the hell is this?”

“Specimens. Animal specimens. My god, I’ve never seen this many even in an animal specimen museum. They look like they were butchered yesterday and dropped in!”

“This is insane. I thought the Lang family was involved in medical or biological crimes. This is bigger than I imagined.”

Zhang Ting Zhou cut through their panic, voice urgent. “Stop losing your minds for a second. I scanned the first underground level—about 1,030 square meters. Basement Level Two is about 1,500 square meters. Basement Level Three is about 2,000 square meters.”

“And those animal specimens on Level Two—the containers have dates. Some have been there for over a thousand years.”

“Think about it: nature evolves. Animals evolve. Animals from a thousand years ago aren’t the same as animals today.”

“So here’s the question—if these 1,500 square meters of specimens are a thousand years old, where do you think the specimens from the last eight hundred years, six hundred years, five hundred years, a hundred years, ten years are?”

Cheng Lin Yue’s voice trembled. “In the mountains.”

“All animal specimens from the last thousand years are in the mountains.”

“My uncle once said—anything involving research, no matter the subject, takes up far more space than normal people imagine.”

“The White Wolf Clan settlement is private territory. Mountains, lakes, grasslands—it stretches across hundreds of kilometers.”

“In the empire, private land has legal protections. Outsiders can’t enter unless invited, or unless the landowner calls law enforcement in.”

“And only Commander-in-Chief Chong Ming and the Crown Prince have the highest authority to enter anywhere. For anyone else, entering private territory without permission is invasion. It’s a crime.”

“They have money. They can dig down. They can hollow out mountains. They can build secret bases under lakes.”

“With soil covering it, signal blockers, flowing water, and underground interference, detectors rarely catch anything.”

Cheng Xiao Ting agreed immediately. “She’s right. Our family has basements too. If you dig deep enough—dozens of meters, a hundred meters—detection gets difficult.”

“Our detectors didn’t find anything because they dug deep, then threw in signal jammers. No footprints. No trace.”

“If the Lang family caught Commander-in-Chief Chong Ming’s attention, their crimes won’t be small.” His voice went grim. “It could be something that shakes the whole galaxy.”

Sui Xuan Chu followed, cold and precise. “Just what we’ve seen on Basement Levels One and Two—these unknown origins alone—would be enough to send Lang Yin Feng and Lang Luo Feng to lifelong exile.”

“Now isn’t the time to debate. Work.”

“Zhang Ting Zhou, scan everything, catalog it, transmit it to our superior leader. Sister Tea—walk the perimeter of Level Two. Knock on the walls. Check for hidden chambers.”

“Scan already in progress,” Zhang Ting Zhou replied.

“Received,” Jiang Tea Tea said. “Starting.”

Basement Level One was rows of shelving and raw stones. Basement Level Two was rows upon rows of glass vessels, arranged by size and height.

Each animal specimen appeared at least three times—female, male, cub.

Some were dozens of tons, hundreds of tons, even thousands. Others were a few hundred jin, a few dozen, a few.

Some were skinned. Some weren’t. Some were dismembered and arranged—heads, limbs, torsos—in massive containers.

The air on Level One was stale. The air on Level Two felt… different. Heavy, like a thousand years of resentment moving in slow currents.

The cubs in Jiang Tea Tea’s belly hated this space. They stirred early, writhing restlessly.

She flexed her fingers as if casually, but in truth she formed several seals and pressed them to her abdomen, isolating the cubs from whatever this place carried.

In the vast 1,500-square-meter Level Two, she expanded her magic power, searching for living beings.

Nothing.

Only the dead. Only that heavy resentment.

She made a full circuit, tapped along the walls, and found nothing. Then she dropped into Basement Level Three.