I was just telling a story, why is the whole internet urging me to turn myself in?

Chapter 169 Locking in the Underground Vault of Eden!

"Yes, Captain Su!"

With Su Qing's order, the entire special task force sprang into action like a tightly wound machine. A massive net targeting "Sihai Pawnshop" and Zhao Sihai was quietly unfurled in the darkness.

Meanwhile, the real hunting dogs had already sneaked into the prey's den.

Jiangzhou Antique Street. Sihai Pawnshop is located in the very heart of the street. Unlike the rustic charm of other shops, Sihai Pawnshop is a three-story antique-style building with flying eaves and bracket sets, exuding an extraordinary grandeur.

At that moment, a man as burly as a bear, dressed in an expensive custom-made casual suit and with a huge gold chain around his neck, swaggered into the pawnshop. It was Grizzly Bear, disguised as a coal mine owner from out of town.

"Is the boss here? I heard you have some good stuff. Show it to me!" Grizzly Bear said in a loud voice with a heavy accent, attracting the attention of several shop assistants.

A middle-aged man dressed in a long gown, who looked like the shopkeeper, hurriedly came forward.

"Sir, please come in, please come in. What would you like to see? Calligraphy and paintings? Porcelain? Or jade?"

"Just browsing for now." Grizzly waved his hand casually, his gaze seemingly sweeping across the store.

Just as he was talking to the shopkeeper, a black particle smaller than a fly silently flew out from his sleeve and landed precisely in the shadow of a dragon-carved pillar in the hall.

Miniature biomimetic scout fly.

The Shanghai World Financial Center; 68th floor. Inside the server room of Hidden Media; Xiaoyu's ten fingers blurred into a series of afterimages on the keyboard.

On the main screen, the high-definition images transmitted by the scout fly were divided into a nine-square grid, displaying everything inside the pawnshop lobby without any blind spots. On another secondary screen, countless blue data streams rolled down.

"Master, this guy's security system is something else," Xiao Yu said into his headset while typing code. "There are thirty-two high-definition cameras, eight thermal imaging sensors, and sixteen laser tripwires in the lobby. All the signals are fed into a single physical server, using military-grade encryption algorithms."

"Can I get in?" Shen Feng's voice came from the encrypted channel.

"What's an impregnable fortress to others is nothing but a paper lantern to me." Xiaoyu's face lit up with a fanatical smile. "Give me thirty seconds!"

Before he could finish speaking, he pressed the Enter key. The data stream on the screen turned red, and a virtual progress bar loaded rapidly.

"Firewall layer one, bypassed! Data encryption protocol, cracked! Administrator privileges, stolen successfully! Done!" Xiaoyu snapped his fingers. "Now I'm the 'god' of this pawnshop; I can see wherever I want."

He retrieved the surveillance footage from the pawnshop's backyard. The backyard wasn't large, but it was heavily guarded. Four burly men in black suits stood guard in front of an alloy door leading underground.

"There's a basement," Shen Feng said calmly.

"It's not just the basement." Xiaoyu zoomed in on the image, scanning and analyzing the electronic combination lock on the alloy door. "I've seen this security system before. Its underlying architecture and encryption logic are 70% similar to the vault system of the Eden Group's overseas branch that we broke into last time. This is definitely their work!"

Upon hearing the conclusion, the air in the server room seemed to freeze. A pawnshop located in the heart of China was using a top-tier security system from a transnational criminal organization.

Meanwhile, Shen Feng's live stream continued. He didn't dwell too much on the horror of the "poison cauldron," but instead began to analyze the operation mode of money laundering through antiques in a simple and easy-to-understand way.

"At this point, some people might ask, how does money laundering using antiques work?"

"It's actually very simple. Let me give you an example. Suppose I have ten million in illicit money and I want to clean it up."

I would have Company A, which I control, take a valuable item worth only 100,000 yuan, such as a counterfeit Tang Bohu painting, to Pawnshop B, which I have arranged.

"Pawnshop B will invite 'authoritative' expert C to conduct a serious appraisal, and then issue an appraisal certificate for eleven million. Immediately afterwards, my company A will, under the pretext of 'working capital,' pawn this fake to Pawnshop B in exchange for a legitimate loan of ten million."

"Throughout the process, my illicit funds were transformed into legitimate loans issued by the pawnshop through a fraudulent pawn transaction. As for the forgery, after a while, Company A would declare bankruptcy, allowing the pawnshop to legally seize and dispose of it. The accounts would be flawless."

Inside the National Defense Agency's office, Su Qing and several experts from the Economic Crime Investigation Division were listening intently to the live broadcast.

Upon hearing this, an expert slapped his thigh in amazement: "Brilliant! By inflating valuations and using fraudulent collateral, the nature of illicit money is directly transformed! This method is extremely covert; outsiders simply cannot detect it!"

Su Qing immediately grasped the key point: "In other words, as long as we find that Sihai Pawnshop has a large number of pawn transactions that are inconsistent with their actual value, and that the experts responsible for the appraisal are involved in shady dealings, we can create a loophole in the law!"

She immediately ordered: "Contact the bank, freeze all of Sihai Pawnshop's corporate accounts, and retrieve all their mortgage contracts and transaction records for the past three years! Draw up the list of all the appraisers they work with and investigate them one by one!"

The order had just been issued when the field team monitoring Zhao Sihai's movements sent a message.

"Captain Su, Zhao Sihai just came out of an upscale club, looking flustered and constantly on the phone. We've been monitoring him using technical means, and he seems to have caught wind of something!"

Almost at the same time, Grizzly Bear, who was in the antique street, also reported in a low voice through his earpiece: "Boss, Zhao Sihai is back. He didn't go into the front hall, but went straight into the backyard through the side door, and gathered all the bodyguards. It seems like he's moving something."

Xiao Yu immediately switched the backyard surveillance footage to the main screen. Zhao Sihai, his face grim, was yelling at the head of the bodyguards. A few minutes later, the heavy alloy door to the basement opened. Several bodyguards carried out several heavy metal boxes and a dozen long scrolls wrapped in bright yellow brocade. They quickly loaded these items into a black heavy-duty van parked in the backyard.

Zhao Sihai personally inspected the entire place, then got into a Mercedes-Benz sedan, and with the truck and two other escort SUVs, drove out of the antique street through the back door, disappearing into the city's night.

"Master, they've run away! They've headed towards the western suburbs!" Xiao Yu reported loudly.

"Have Xu Zhengyang make the move." Shen Feng's voice was calm, as if everything was under control. "Tell him I want it alive, and intact."

Meanwhile, Su Qing also received a report from the field crew. "Reporting, Team Leader Su! The target convoy has left the city and is speeding along the western suburban highway! Requesting instructions!"

Seeing the red dot on the screen, Su Qing grabbed the walkie-talkie and decisively ordered, "Notify all units on the ground! Deploy interception! Xu Zhengyang's team should already be in position; let them make their move first! We'll be there shortly! Remember, this operation is codenamed Fox Hunt!"