When I went home for Chinese New Year, I spent a million times more money on my foreign wife.

Lei finished reporting over the phone.

The billion-dollar bounty on the dark web has just changed.

Chen Yang pressed the hang-up button directly.

The dull thud of high heels on the thick carpet echoed down the corridor.

The door was pushed open. Chen Yue walked in, carrying a military-grade encrypted terminal.

She tossed a stack of printed tracking reports onto the coffee table.

"Those old-money families in North America are getting desperate." Chen Yue pointed to the edge of the report. "Once the bounty is posted, mercenary groups in Europe will take the job."

Chen Yang did not pick up the report.

"Let Lei investigate. A rat was let in tonight. The entire outer team is going to Siberia to dig potatoes."

An electronic notification sound came from the main entrance downstairs, indicating that the access control system had been deactivated.

Chen Yang got up and went downstairs. Chen Yue picked up the terminal on the table and followed behind.

Lobby.

Mr. and Mrs. Chen were placing two rough bamboo baskets on the marble coffee table.

The basket was lined with several layers of dry straw. On top of the straw mat were dozens of small, free-range eggs.

Several bright red, handmade cotton-padded jackets were draped over Chen's mother's arm.

"The snowstorm outside is terrifying," Mr. Chen said, brushing snow off his thick coat. "You were all perfectly fine upstairs, why did you insist on staying here?"

"Katyusha loves eating the farm eggs we bring from home. She doesn't like the foreign stuff you buy in the city." Chen's mother straightened the little cotton-padded jacket and placed it on the back of the large sofa.

Katyusha heard the noise and came out from the side hall.

She was wearing a beige silk nightgown, and her belly was already slightly protruding.

Michelin three-star chef Pierre, accompanied by two assistants, stood early at the temperature-controlled worktop in the open kitchen.

The marble table is set with the finest Caspian caviar, air-freighted Alba white truffles, and freshly thawed premium Kobe beef.

An assistant had even picked up a sterling silver truffle slicer, waiting for the order to put it in the pan.

Wearing white silk gloves, Pierre bowed and asked for instructions regarding the arrangements for tonight's supper.

Katyusha pointed to the bamboo basket on the coffee table.

"Take that egg and make a fried egg. Don't add any random seasonings," Katyusha instructed in fluent Chinese.

Pierre froze on the spot. He held up his gloves, momentarily at a loss. His two assistants exchanged glances.

As one of the world's top ten private chefs, how can they make fried eggs without any seasoning using kitchen equipment worth millions?

Chen Yang pulled out a dining chair and sat down.

"Do as she says."

Pierre immediately took off his expensive watch and put on a brand new pair of white gloves. He carefully picked up two eggs covered in grass clippings and walked toward the temperature-controlled work surface.

The induction cooker is turned on. The extra virgin olive oil is slid into the frying pan. A free-range egg is cracked and falls into the hot oil, its edges instantly bubbling and browning.

The warm light from the overhead lamp shone down.

The family's silhouettes were reflected on the gleaming marble floor.

Ten minutes later, a high-end bone china plate inlaid with gold leaf was served on the long dining table.

In the center of the huge plate lay two golden-brown fried egg pancakes, all alone.

The custom-made tableware, costing hundreds of thousands, creates a striking visual contrast with this simple dish of food.

Katyusha picked up a sterling silver knife and fork, cut off a large piece of omelet, and put it in her mouth.

"This is still the one I like best."

With a smile on her face, Chen's mother handed over the handmade little cotton-padded jacket from the sofa.

"I re-fluffed the cotton and boiled the fabric several times. It's very soft now, I'll keep it for the baby to wear."

Katyusha took it and spread it directly on her thighs.

My fingers traced the fine stitches on it again and again.

She looked down and carefully examined the stitching, slowly making a plan: "I'll wear these undergarments that Mom made. Those shapewear garments from luxury brands are too stiff; I'll only wear them when I'm meeting outsiders."

Chen Yue pulled out the chair opposite her and sat down, the terminal screen in her hand still scrolling through red alerts.

Chen Yang sat quietly in the main seat, watching Katyusha finish most of the egg pancake.

[Triggering the hidden achievement for pampering your wife: Ordinary Warmth.]

[Reward issued: Military-grade anti-frequency band brainwave calming wave.]

[The digital master band has been delivered to the host's personal terminal. This band can perfectly shield against all electronic noise and external magnetic field interference, inducing deep, dreamless sleep.]

Chen Yang took out his portable miniature computer.

One end of the data cable is directly connected to the control core of the central security tower of the Snow Palace.

Fingers tap rapidly on the virtual keyboard.

Progress bar is full. Upload complete.

A special wavelength that cannot be detected by conventional detection instruments instantly covered the entire villa complex.

Katyusha, who was holding a silver fork in her hand, suddenly stopped.

She gave a small yawn.

"Suddenly I feel so sleepy."

Chen Yang walked over and picked her up, including her bright red cotton-padded jacket, around the waist.

"Go to sleep when you're tired."

He carried Katyusha toward the master bedroom. Just as they reached the corner of the stairs to the second floor, Katyusha was already breathing evenly in his arms.

Chen Yue was still sitting at the dining table.

She looked down at the specially designed detection watch on her wrist.

After the hands on the dial spun wildly several times, they got stuck on the zero mark.

The microwave background radiation in the surrounding environment was completely eliminated. The entire interior of the Snow Palace became a vacuum-safe zone completely isolated from electronic noise.

Chen Yue pounded on the watch face. This level of electromagnetic shielding was beyond her current scientific understanding.

The outer perimeter of the Snow Palace's back mountain.

The wind, which was at minus forty degrees Celsius and was carrying ice shards, pounded wildly against the explosion-proof metal mesh.

Lei Zi, dressed in a pure black tactical uniform, lay prone beneath a patch of frozen bushes. Thick snow covered his back.

The action team's report came through the communication headset.

"Point number one is cleared. No abnormalities detected at defense line number three."

Lei Zi's right hand, gloved with cut-resistant gloves, was tightly gripping a tiny, silver-gray bionic bee.

The paint job on this thing blends perfectly into the snowy background, almost avoiding the outer infrared sensor array.

The red light at the tail of the biomimetic bee is still flashing at a high frequency.

Lei Zi suddenly tightened his grip on his two fingers.

A crisp sound of metal shattering.

The high-strength alloy casing collapsed completely, exposing the tiny memory chips inside to the cold wind.

Just one second before the chip completely broke.

A string of random characters was transmitted via extremely high frequency shortwave, heading straight for a spy satellite in outer space.

Lei casually tossed the metal scraps into a nearby snow pit, then slammed his tactical boots into the mud.

Across the ocean.

An unnamed server center somewhere underground in New York.

A blond hacker is pouring half a can of cold coffee into his mouth. His hands are typing like afterimages on a mechanical keyboard.

The data on the dark web's highest bounty list has been updated dramatically.

The reward was originally for a candid photo of Chen Yang taken from a distance.

Now, that photo has been replaced with an extremely blurry overhead view of the plant dome.

That was the ecological micro-circulation garden that Chen Yang built on the back mountain of Snow Palace.

The bounty amount jumped several times, soaring directly to five billion US dollars.

The bolded, blood-red mission details have changed:

The assassination plot against Chen Yang was completely halted.

The objective has been changed to: stealing samples of life support technology from inside the Snow Palace.

The green indicator lights in the underground server room flashed alternately. The figure of five billion US dollars on the huge screen glowed with a faint light.