Leng Manor. Leng Xuanmo study Room
The grandfather clock in the corner ticked steadily, its rhythm the only sound in the room until the door opened. Mo Tianyi entered, dressed in a matte black coat, his expression cold as the November wind that followed him.
Leng Xuanmo sat behind his desk, eyes fixed on a chessboard where no pieces had moved in days. Leng Shiyan leaned casually against a windowsill, arms crossed, while Li Zeyan stood to the side, hands behind his back.
Tianyi gave a shallow nod and stepped forward. "I found something."
Xuanmo didn't look up. "Speak."
Mo Tianyi placed a file on the table, flipping it open. "A transaction. Quiet, buried under seven dummy accounts. It led to a fixer in Kuala Lumpur. The funds were funneled just weeks before the Lu family's financial collapse."
Shiyan's brows lifted slightly. "And the fixer?"
"Dead," Tianyi said. "Three days after the funds were moved. Car explosion. Looked like an accident until I pulled the black box report. Engine failure was triggered remotely."
"Who triggered it?" Xuanmo asked, voice flat.
"I don't know, Yet," Tianyi admitted. "But the signature matches a string of similar 'accidents' tied to a defunct shell company: Yuhai International Holdings."
Li Zeyan frowned. "Yuhai was dissolved four years ago."
"Yes," Tianyi replied. "But its name surfaced again, quietly. Not in China. In Vienna."
At that, Xuanmo finally looked up.
"Vienna?"
Mo Tianyi gave a nod. "A proxy account tied to the shell was used to purchase encrypted data from a private vault. That vault once belonged to the Lus."
Leng Xuanmo's fingers curled around a pawn on the chessboard.
"It was never about the collapse," he said. "They were after the data."
He stood slowly, eyes locked on the burning fire in the hearth.
"Keep digging, Tianyi. I want that vault opened—and whoever touched it, erased."
Tianyi nodded. "Understood."
Shiyan straightened, grin sharp. "Looks like we're going overseas."
The fire crackled softly in the hearth as Mo Tianyi lingered for a moment, eyes flicking toward Leng Xuanmo.
"There's something else," he said.
Xuanmo didn't react outwardly, but the room tensed.
Mo Tianyi continued, "While tracking Yuhai's ghost accounts, I found a communications link—brief, encrypted, and nearly wiped clean. It connected to a closed satellite relay in northern Myanmar."
Li Zeyan straightened. "That relay was dismantled during the border conflicts."
"Exactly," Tianyi said. "Which means someone rebuilt or hijacked it."
Leng Shiyan's expression darkened. "Myanmar... That's Ghost Chain territory."
Mo Tianyi gave a single nod. "The transmission lasted under forty seconds. But I intercepted a fragment—coordinates linked to a cold storage facility beneath a decommissioned hydroelectric plant."
Xuanmo's voice was low. "Is it connected to the Lu case?"
"I believe so," Tianyi replied. "That facility was registered under a fake subsidiary of Meihua Logistics—one of the companies that suddenly pulled out of Lu Enterprises before their collapse."
Li Zeyan's jaw clenched. "So they started moving assets before everything hit."
Tianyi added, "I also found surveillance data—partial footage of someone accessing the site two weeks after the Lu scandal broke."
Leng Xuanmo looked up slowly. "Who?"
Tianyi exhaled. "He wore a mask, but the body structure… it matches someone with military training. Narrowed down the gait, posture, and height."
He reached into his coat and pulled out a grainy photo. "Cross-referenced with internal databases."
He placed the photo on Xuanmo's desk.
"The man's codename is 'Obsidian'. Former intelligence asset. Currently off-grid."
Xuanmo's eyes darkened. "Find him. I don't care what mountain you have to turn over."
Leng Shiyan cracked his knuckles. "Looks like Myanmar's about to wake up."