Chapter 233 - Buy Time

The house they had entered had nothing special in the outside. From her point of view, it looked totally perfect for the neighborhood wherein the houses looked like they were cousins.

She wondered what the neighbors thought when they saw men going in and out of this house.

"Now this is what I want to see."

Feng Xuan was greeted by rows of tables. And on top of those tables were bills. Around a dozen people were sorting out the crumpled paper and two were on the money counter, banding stacks of bills together.

"One night?" she asked Qing Chen.

"Half the day. Tonight's income will come tomorrow moring and it would be a whole lot more."

Feng Xuan had never seen more cash in one place. Guns lined the wall, within reach to each one of them. "Do they live here?"

"Clown does. He's the one keeping things together and reports back to us."

"What do you do with the money?"

Qing Chen stepped further inside the house. It was complete with a brightly lit kitchen and there were lots of food on the table. "Bring in the vault for payment to La Hiena in the next shipment."

Qing Chen opened a door and it revealed a staircase. He continued talking when he had shut the door behind them. "We meet La Hiena every quarter. Father met him the last time. Now I can see him on March."

"Are you going to end things then?"

"Let's see," he answered. He had thought about that too in his sleepless nights. He had to make sure they were not fighting two opponents at the same time. The Zookeeper and La Hiena in one plate would be too much.

Feng Xuan lightly stepped down the metal staircase and found that there were more rooms here. It was possible that this bas.e.m.e.nt ran on the space of the whole property and not just the house. The rooms were not labeled.

"How do you remember where to go? Is that meant to confuse people in case there's an invasion or raid?"

It tugged a slight smile on Qing Chen's lips. "Yes, that's so great that you got that. Some of the doors here do not really open. Sometimes it would but to concrete or an empty room. It's just to buy time. But some rooms are escape paths. Or there would be a false wall in that room where they can hide for quite a while."

At one end, some people were checking the guns on a black counter. She wanted to have a check in the armory but didn't continue as Qing Chen was leading her to the other hallway. 

"What am I to see here?"

"Have you ever seen a vault?"

"Oh, so it's here?" she asked excitedly.

"One of them are here. We got houses like this one all over the city, keeping our money. Well, not including the storage rooms full of cash."

There was a thick metal gate that could only be accessed by a fingerprint scanner and once they were through, they were in a room where the vault is. The walls were not painted and looked a dull dark gray but the vault was shining under the light.

"Can I do that?" she pointed to the handles.

"Please," he answered when he finished putting in all the codes needed. "It's a little heavy."

Feng Xuan didn't believe his warning and strained her back when she was turning the handles. When the lock clicked, it released a soft hiss and the door protruded open.

"Ha!" she said jovially. She pulled the heavy door and peeked inside. "Oh my god," she muttered. The walls were lined with small safes but she did not see a keyhole. In the middle of the room was a bed of cash. "Can I jump in?"

"I tried." Qing Chen's lips were smiling a little. "Cut me a little."

"No thanks, then." She had no intention of getting a stinging paper cut. "So how do we open these?"

"It only responds to certain voices."

"Really?!"

"Yeah." Qing Chen cleared his throat. "Open safe 4045."

"Is that a random number?"

"Yes," he said and then there was another hiss sound and a part of the wall slowly pulled itself out. Feng Xuan walked to the open case.

"Sapphires," she breathed out. "I was expecting gold bars," she laughed. "Are all these filled out?"

"Some of them. Again, to buy time."

"Do you have any idea how much money the mafia has?"

Qing Chen inspected some of the cases, looking for flaws. Whenever one of these were open, he got alerts on his phone and so does Qing Lok and his father.

His father… it was crazy to think that he had wanted to spend time with Feng Xuan surrounded with the things his father built, and everything he wanted to crumble in the dust.

He released a shaky breath. Maybe this was not the best idea after all.

"Are you scared, Qing Chen?" she asked, pushing the door of the case and it slowly went back to its position.

"Hmm, of what?"

"Of implementing your plans here in the mafia?"

"Well," he sat on the pile of money. "I want to know what you think about it."

"Why me?" she laughed and sat down next to him. The bills did not move under her because they wrapped and sealed.

"Because you're going to be running it with me."

"Yeah, in time. But I don't think my opinion matters right now. Our fathers are still alive. They still have the final say in everything."

Qing Chen's throat closed up and it was as if the breath had been knocked off his chest.

"What's wrong?" Feng Xuan grabbed his hand and she got worried. "Is this about the problem that you are not telling me?"

"It's not a problem really. More like a reality."

"You need to tell me now," she pleaded.

"My father's dying," he said.