Chapter 354: Ledger

The Tu family had been trading in the South Sea for over a hundred years and, unlike those aristocratic clans obsessed with land consolidation and the "farmer-scholar tradition," owned only a modest amount of land and property just outside Huangjiang Prefecture near the coast.

The vast wealth they accumulated, beyond necessary expenditures like bribing officials, mingling with all walks of life, purchasing shops, and building ships, was stored in their vaults.

Thus, the vault located east of the manor was under extremely strict control: its four brick-and-stone walls had no windows, and outside the single entrance sat six vault guards, with two additional teams of four men each patrolling in rotation, carrying lanterns and leashed hunting dogs.

From their build, breathing rhythm, and gait, it was clear these vault guards were all martial artists, each carrying the most advanced flintlock firearms of this era on their backs.

A thug with martial arts skills is unstoppable; a master with a firearm wipes out all enemies.

Martial artist + firearm produces a 1+1>2 effect. And this is a modified Wu Xia Great Ming—there might even be some bizarre rule where martial artists infuse their inner Qi into bullets to enhance firearm power.

Li Cheng briefly calculated, crouched on the roof, and made a single stroke with his balloon-shaped Gray Rain pen.

When they first landed on the island, she had used a small portion of liquid metal to forge the invitation bronze plaque.

At this moment, the bronze plaque on the shelf received the signal, silently melted, and turned into tiny Gray Rain that "heiyi heiyi" climbed up the shelves, listening carefully to confirm no one was inside the vault.

Then it leapt down from the shelf and, through the connection between its main body and branches, transmitted the message back to the roof.

After confirming no one was below, Li Cheng pulled out his electronic pet egg, placed the Gray Rain inside, activated the familiar's position swap, and exchanged places with the tiny Gray Rain below, appearing directly inside the vault.

Landing complete.

Li Cheng slowly rose from the ground, released the Gray Rain, activated the 【Assembly Puppet】 effect, and fitted both herself and himself with monocular night-vision goggles over their eyes.

"Sss…"

Gray Rain, adjusting her monocular night-vision goggles, surveyed the vast vault and involuntarily sucked in a breath. "Is this really necessary?"

After a century of trade in the South Sea, the Tu family's treasure vault was lined with shelves piled high with pearls, coral, tortoiseshell, rare woods, calligraphy and paintings, artifacts salvaged from ancient shipwrecks, and in the farthest corner stood a large stack of silver elliptical spheres.

These things were called "Mei Nai He"—essentially silver ingots.

Because they were heavy and elliptical, making them hard to carry, ordinary thieves couldn't steal them away, and could only cry out in despair, "Mei Nai He!"

Gray Rain, at least, had seen the world—Li Cheng alone had spent over forty thousand game coins on the 【Zhu Xing Zhen Tai】, equivalent to enough cash to fill a small room.

But game coins were invisible and intangible; sitting daily in a shop worth forty thousand game coins while scrolling on her phone,

was nothing like standing in the center of this treasure vault, surrounded by shelves brimming with gold, silver, and jewels.

"Huh… huh…"

Gray Rain's breathing had grown heavier without notice, her hand instinctively reaching toward an orange sea-spiral pearl, slightly larger than a ping-pong ball.

"Your hands aren't clean enough."

Li Cheng snapped his hand out and slapped hers away. "Focus on the task—help me find the vault ledger. It should be several thick stacks of books together; shouldn't be hard to find."

"I ain't stealing—I'm just picking it up!"

Gray Rain bit her lip reluctantly, then joined Li Cheng in rummaging through boxes and cabinets, searching for the vault inventory.

They quickly found the ledger in a large box in the corner.

"Let me see."

Li Cheng pulled out a high-power battery, a handheld scanner, and a workstation computer, connected them to himself, and rapidly flipped through decades of records—ten pages at a glance.

The Tu family had now reached its sixth generation, nearing the seventh, and since Tu Lao Tai Jun, each generation had inherited a genetic illness.

From the monthly procurement and distribution lists of medicinal herbs, one could determine the exact names of each household member and the specific illnesses they suffered from;

from the money disbursed by the household, one could trace the Tu family's commercial network and their relationships with people on land.

"Suspicious,"

Li Cheng frowned, slowly lowering the scanner. "Extremely—nearly nine out of ten suspicious."

"What's wrong?" Gray Rain asked, idly twirling different colored top-grade pearls in both hands—couldn't she even touch them if she couldn't take them? "The Tu family has too many oddities. Just looking at marriages and funerals: every woman married from outside and every son-in-law brought in received a lifetime stipend paid monthly.

Every few years, they'd send a ship to bring the in-laws and son-in-laws' families from the mainland to the island, invite them to stay for a few days, then send them back to ease their homesickness."

Li Cheng said: "In effect, every generation of daughter-in-laws and son-in-laws, upon arriving here, were kept imprisoned on the island for life, never allowed to leave."

"Imprisoned?" Gray Rain looked puzzled. "Once you enter the palace gates, the walls run deep, cutting you off from the mortal world. Is the Tu family running some kind of imperial court? Hmm, though their walls really are absurdly high."

From the aerial drone's overhead view, the residential area designated for the Tu family's core members was indeed vast, and their walls were exceptionally, extraordinarily high.

"It goes further—this closed-off nature extends to the servants: all servants are employed for life, marry internally, rarely recruit from outside, and their children's education is handled entirely within private academies."

Li Cheng pointed to the "monthly interest payment" item on the list. "And after a Tu family member dies of their genetic illness, their spouse also dies within a few months to a year, under various pretexts."

"The Tu clan is hiding a secret—all these arrangements conceal something unspeakable."

Gray Rain realized. "Could that dragon palace story be true? Do they really have a dragon pearl?"

"Hard to say."

!

Li Cheng shook his head. "From the medicinal herb procurement records, the unseen first branch of the Tu family likely suffers from a severe skin disease.

The second branch—the one present at dinner tonight, Tu Qiaohua and Tu Qiaoru's household—likely suffers from delirium and mania.

The third branch, Tu Dongcong, likely suffers from fertility disorders.

The fourth branch, Tu Wangmo and Tu Wangjuan, the father-daughter pair wearing sunglasses and cosplaying Yan Shuangying, likely suffer from eye diseases.

The fifth branch has no clearly defined illness. But its members live significantly shorter lives than other branches, rarely surviving past thirty.

Strangely, they seem to have accepted their fate long ago, even refusing ordinary health-regulating medicines."

"."

Gray Rain scratched her head. An isolated, seafaring family, hidden behind walls concealing scandals, plagued by strange genetic illnesses.

All these factors together were utterly incomprehensible.

Beep-beep!

Li Cheng's wristwatch vibrated—he saw clearly through the aerial drone that a figure dressed in black nightwear was silently moving along the rooftops, approaching the vault.

'As expected—these martial artists are also moving tonight.'

Anticipating this, Li Cheng remained calm, swiftly packing away all equipment, and within a dozen breaths, returned the ledger, the box, and the sea-spiral pearl Gray Rain had picked up to their original positions.

As for himself, he and Gray Rain hid in the vault's corner, concealed behind the shelves.

The newly arrived black-clad figure was clearly well prepared. He unclipped from his waist a metal contraption resembling a pair of oven tongs, clamped the heavy tile with it, lifted it steadily, and set it aside.

After repeating this several times, he took out a rough metal wire from inside his robe.

With internal force coating it, the metal wire was as good as a wire saw. Using the wind's noise as cover, he sawed through the rafter in a few quick strokes, cutting open a small skylight.

The black-clad figure stretched his body for a moment, performed a bone-shrinking art, and slipped through the child-sized skylight with ease, landing lightly on the ground.

Then the very first thing he saw was that orange conch pearl — perfectly round and flawless, bigger than a ping-pong ball by a full size.

"I didn't steal it, I picked it up."

The black-clad figure muttered so, and tucked the conch pearl straight into his pocket.

(End of chapter)