Chapter 644 - 605: Reaching the Peak 14 (4,000 words)
Shuangshuang didn’t know why she had such an idea. Actually, the desolation to the south might not imply a problem there. It’s more likely that the person grabbing people was doing so in this location, whereas the real lair might be far from here.
After all, the saying goes that rabbits don’t eat the grass by their burrow, doing bad deeds near one’s own doorstep easily leads to mistakes. So the problem shouldn’t be here, but for some reason, Shuangshuang had a strange feeling that, whether it was something or some organization, its base was here in this area.
Shuangshuang has always had accurate intuition, and since there were no leads anyway, heading south wouldn’t hurt, which is why she came directly to this side. Shuangshuang hadn’t expected to enter Mang Mountain, but having come this far, along with her gut feeling, she felt there was no harm in venturing into the mountain for a look.
Tan Yue was puzzled about Shuangshuang’s decision to enter Mang Mountain. In her opinion, those who could abduct people without leaving a trace were very clever. If they abducted people here, their base definitely wouldn’t be in this place.
Because that would be too dangerous. Previously, people had disappeared in this direction, and several major families in Mangshui City had jointly searched this area thoroughly many times, but found no traces.
With so many people searching together, it would be impossible to hide if the lair really was here. So Tan Yue didn’t think Shuangshuang coming to this place would be of any use. However, since Shuangshuang was a young prodigy of the Tan Family’s main household, she didn’t dare offend her and decided to follow along with a mindset of "at worst, just a wasted trip".
This section of Mang Mountain was very crowded due to the abundant Secret Silver Mines. With so many people coming and going, usually there were no wild beasts or magic beasts, and a small path had been trampled out in the mountains and forests.
Shuangshuang followed this small path onwards. The path wound its way deep into Mang Mountain, and after some distance, it split into a fork.
Tan Yue explained to Shuangshuang, who was standing at the fork, "This path goes straight ahead, and the split leads to the Secret Silver Mines belonging to several major families in Mangshui City. This fork leads to the Wang Family’s Secret Silver Mine. Because of the recent unrest, the martial artists who came to mine have all quit. Now, except for the Bai Family Secret Silver Mine, which is still operating due to special reasons, the other families’ mines have all stopped operating."
"Where does the Bai Family hire people from for their Secret Silver Mine? Why are they still mining?" Shuangshuang asked, puzzled by Tan Yue’s words.
"I heard that the Bai Family found a few major clients who need premium Secret Silver supplied regularly every month, in considerable quantities, and they pay a very high price. They don’t allow any delays or quality issues, otherwise, the contract will be terminated and they will find another source for Secret Silver."
Tan Yue sighed, a bit frustrated, "With Mangshui City in such chaos now, let alone martial artists, even samurai dare not take contracts to mine for money. No one wants to work, so the Bai Family couldn’t hire anyone and were forced to send their own family members to mine to keep from losing these major clients."
As Tan Yue explained, she guided Shuangshuang around the Wang Family fork and continued forward. Trespassing into other families’ Secret Silver Mines would easily lead to unnecessary misunderstandings and trouble.
Shuangshuang found the Bai Family quite intriguing for risking their family members’ lives for business, not knowing whether to commend them for their integrity or accuse them of valuing money over life.
Secret Silver has a wide range of uses and there’s no worry about finding buyers, regardless of how much is produced. Even if these major clients are hard to come by, losing them wouldn’t lead to an oversupply of Secret Silver, so it’s completely not worth risking family members getting abducted to mine it.
Shuangshuang immediately placed the Bai Family under focus for observation, feeling there was definitely something suspicious about them. So, after returning from Mang Mountain, she instructed Tan Yue to immediately send people to investigate every big and small event involving the Bai Family recently, and to find out everything.
Tan Yue slightly frowned, wanting to say something but ultimately didn’t voice it, and still carried out Han Shuangshuang’s instructions to conduct a thorough investigation.
Tan Yue managed the Tan Family branch quite well, and the efficiency of the family members was very high. In about three days, all the information Shuangshuang requested was presented to her, and it was extremely detailed, short of investigating and recording every member of the Bai Family’s physiological needs during this period.