Chapter 11 The Secret Chamber: The Foundation of the Su Family's Wealth
The next morning, the Su family was shrouded in an eerie atmosphere of low pressure.
Su Yuting was placed under house arrest by Liu Liyun, who locked her in her room and refused to eat or drink.
Liu Liyun sat in the living room, her eyes dark and swollen from drinking too much tea. She drank a cup of tea from boiling hot to ice cold, still unable to figure out how the jewelry box had vanished into thin air.
Steady footsteps echoed down the stairs.
Liu Liyun looked up and saw Lu Jingyan, dressed in a crisp military uniform, his posture as straight as a pine tree, coming down from upstairs. Behind him followed closely behind, Su Zhenhong, his face full of ingratiating smiles, looking just like a servant eunuch.
"Jingyan, everything's ready. Shall we set off now?" Su Zhenhong rubbed his hands together, his back almost bent at a ninety-degree angle.
Lu Jingyan walked straight to Su Wantang's door without looking to the side, raised his hand, and tapped it twice with his fingers.
The door opened.
Su Wantang was wearing a simple cotton dress, her hair loosely tied up, revealing a section of her fair and slender neck. Leaning against the door frame, she winked at Lu Jingyan, a mischievous smile in her eyes, "Going out to discuss business so early?"
"It's a huge order for military supplies, and we can't afford to delay it." Lu Jingyan looked at her, his voice low, but his gaze lingered on the curve of her lips for a moment. "I've booked a private room at Hongyunlou, the largest restaurant in Shanghai."
These words were meant for Su Wantang, but even more so for Su Zhenhong.
Upon hearing "military supplies" and "Hongyunlou," Su Zhenhong's fat face trembled with excitement. If he could get on the good side of the military, wouldn't his Su family's business soar to new heights?
"Yes, yes, yes! Important matters come first!" He followed Lu Jingyan around excitedly, his face beaming with the anticipation of making a fortune, completely unaware that Lu Jingyan had made a barely perceptible mouth gesture to Su Wantang before turning around.
—Clear the area.
The sound of the Jeep engine fading into the distance brought peace and quiet back to the Su family mansion.
Su Wantang closed the door, turned around and went downstairs.
In the living room, Liu Liyun saw her and her eyes pierced her like poisoned needles.
Su Wantang ignored her and walked straight to Wang Ma's side. Wang Ma was wiping a vase, her fingers still trembling slightly.
"Aunt Wang, I'd like to find some old photos of my mother. I remember seeing a photo album in my father's study when I was little." Su Wantang's voice was neither too loud nor too soft, just loud enough for Liu Liyun in the living room to hear.
Wang Ma was taken aback, but then understood. She put down the rag and said, "Miss, I'll go with you to look for it. There are indeed quite a few old objects in the master's study."
Liu Liyun snorted coldly and remained silent. Her mind was completely preoccupied with the missing jade set, and she couldn't care less what tricks Su Wantang was up to. In her eyes, a little girl without her mother's protection couldn't cause any trouble.
The door to the study is always locked.
Wang Ma picked out one of the keys from a bunch of keys, inserted it, and the door opened with a click.
A dull smell, a mixture of books and dust, wafted over.
"Miss, please find it yourself. I'll stand guard at the door for you. The master doesn't allow anyone to rummage through his things." Wang Ma wisely stood guard at the door and closed it behind her.
The study was dimly lit.
Su Wantang's gaze swept across the entire room like a hawk's. Finally, it settled on the mahogany bookcase that occupied an entire wall.
She walked to the bookshelf, but instead of browsing the decorative hardcover books, she went straight to the corner. There hung an unremarkable landscape painting, its misty clouds conveying a profound and evocative atmosphere.
This is it.
She reached out, gently lifted the frame, and took it down. A brass keyhole was clearly visible on the wall behind the painting.
Su Wantang took out the unremarkable brass key she had found in the wooden box containing her mother's belongings from her inner pocket.
The key's shape fits the hole perfectly.
She took a deep breath, inserted the key, and gently turned it.
“Clatter.”
A very faint click of a mechanism.
Then came a dull rumble. The entire wall of bookshelves slowly slid to one side, revealing a dark entrance just wide enough for one person to pass through.
A musty smell, a mixture of sandalwood and ink, wafted out.
A locked room.
Without hesitation, Su Wantang stepped inside.
Suddenly, everything became clear.
The secret room was small, about twenty square meters, with floor-to-ceiling display shelves on all four walls. The shelves were filled with a dazzling array of antique paintings, calligraphy, and jade ornaments.
The lights were dim, but the brilliance of those treasures could not be concealed.
In a corner stood a painting tube containing several scrolls. Su Wantang pulled one out and slowly unfurled it.
Travelers amidst streams and mountains.
Even though it's just a replica, its imposing presence is still overwhelming.
On another display cabinet, two framed paintings lay quietly, with several lifelike ink shrimp swimming on the paper, which were genuine works by Qi Baishi.
The other items—an official kiln vase from the previous dynasty, a bronze jue from the Han dynasty, a jade disc covered in emerald green—were all exactly the same as those on Mother's list.
These were all her mother's premarital assets, the capital her mother had built up the Su family empire with her own hands. Now, Su Zhenhong was keeping them as his private stash, locking them in this dark and secluded room.
ridiculous.
Su Wantang stood in the center of the secret room and slowly closed her eyes.
A thought crossed my mind.
"receive."
A simple instruction is given in the mind.
In the secret room before them, those priceless treasures vanished without a trace in an instant.
All that's left is an empty, dusty shelf.
Su - Wherever she went, not a blade of grass grew - Wan Tang, a satisfied smile curving her lips.
Her gaze fell on the bottom drawer of the last display cabinet.
It was a locked drawer.
Su Wantang walked over and effortlessly stored the entire drawer into her spatial storage using her mind.
Inside the space, she easily "opened" the drawer.
There were no gold bars or jewelry inside. There was only an iron box wrapped tightly in layers of oilcloth.
Open the tin box.
A dozen or so thick ledgers lay quietly inside.
Su Wantang casually flipped open a book.
The densely packed, tiny characters record a series of shocking transactions.
"On March 5th, I delivered two gold bars to Section Chief Wang of the Urban Construction Bureau. The approval document has been issued."
"On April 12, with the 'guidance' of Tax Commissioner Liu, I underreported my profits by 30%, amounting to 80,000 yuan."
"On June 1st, under the guise of a 'donation,' a painting from the previous dynasty was presented to the son of the deputy director of a Shanghai textile factory in exchange for priority access to cotton yarn..."
One case after another, all of them are evidence of Su Zhenhong's crimes of tax evasion and collusion between officials and businessmen over the years! The names involved, from section chiefs to bureau chiefs, form a huge and intricate network.
Su Wantang's breath hitched.
Immediately, an indescribable ecstasy mixed with icy killing intent surged to his head.
She couldn't help but chuckle.
After all that, the most valuable thing in this secret room wasn't the bottles and jars, but these death warrants that could send Su Zhenhong, along with the network of connections behind him, to hell!
This is the real, ultimate weapon that can completely destroy the Su family!
She put all the account books into the space, restored the drawers to their original state, and put them back in the display case.
Then, she stepped out of the secret room, looked at the bare wall, and pressed the mechanism.
"Boom..."
The bookshelf slowly returned to its place, fitting perfectly, as if nothing had ever happened.
She re-hung the landscape painting and smoothed out any wrinkles that weren't actually there.
Finally, she opened the study door and went out.
At the doorway, Wang Ma was anxiously looking around.
"Young Miss, have you found it?"
"No." Su Wantang shook her head, her face showing just the right amount of disappointment.
"Maybe I remembered wrong. Never mind, let's go. Let's not let Dad come back and say we trespassed on his forbidden area."
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