Chapter 3

The government subsidy for the "Extreme Climate Emergency Project" became my best excuse.

Because Mark hadn't gotten that one million in funding, the look in his eyes had grown venomous, and his wife, Chloe, constantly made passive-aggressive remarks toward me.

Sarah, meanwhile, bombarded me every night before bed with her soft-spoken "we're all one family" emotional blackmail, trying to make my heart soften.

If this were my past life, I would have compromised long ago out of guilt and my longing for a family.

However, I knew that if I unilaterally and completely cut off their funding, this pack of greedy leeches would quickly notice something was wrong.

To utterly destroy them, I had to cast a longer line.

At a weekend family dinner, looking at the lavish spread on the table, I actively raised my wine glass.

"Mark, the project was just getting off the ground a while ago, so I really couldn't free up the cash." I smiled at my gloomy brother-in-law, tossing out the prepared bait. "But yesterday, the government approved the first massive special subsidy payout. I took a close look at your auto-parts project, and it has great potential. I’m not just going to invest that one million for you; I’m adding another two million. We’ll just buy the storefront outright and expand the scale."

The air instantly fell silent for a second.

Mark’s eyes widened abruptly. The previous gloom was swept away, and a flush of excitement crawled up his face. "Are you serious? Brother-in-law, I told everyone you wouldn't just leave your own family out to dry!"

Beside him, Chloe couldn't stop smiling, immediately putting a piece of braised rib into my bowl. "See? I told you we’re all family! As if he’d ever forget us when he strikes it rich!"

I slowly pushed the rib to the side and pulled out several prepared real estate and commercial property brochures from my briefcase, spreading them on the table.

"It's not just a business investment." I looked up at them. "Wasn't Chloe complaining a few days ago that your current house is too small, and it'll be inconvenient for the kids' schooling? It just so happens I've had my eye on a few new listings at Galaxy Bay. Whether it's the commercial spaces on the ground floor or the top-floor penthouses, that area is the core zone of future city planning. It has huge appreciation potential. I’ll cover the down payment as a gift to you."

"Galaxy Bay?!" Chloe shrieked, snatching the brochure.

It was currently the most hyped high-end real estate project in the city, boasting beautiful mountain backdrops and supposedly stunning waterfront views.

But in my memory, that area was also the lowest-lying basin in the entire region.

In one year, when the consecutive weeks of catastrophic downpours cause the rivers to breach their banks and backflow into the city, Galaxy Bay’s proud underground garages and beautiful sunken plazas would instantly turn into a bottomless lake.

It would be the very first death trap in the entire city to be completely submerged, where the sewage systems totally collapse, and where rescue boats couldn't even get close.

"Brother-in-law, how could we possibly accept this!" Mark rubbed his hands together hypocritically, his eyes greedily locked onto the most expensive floor plan in the brochure.

"We’re family. Don't be polite. I'll have my assistant handle the contracts tomorrow." I looked at them, shaking with excitement, while my eyes remained icy cold.

Buy it. Go ahead and sign the contracts, take out those massive mortgages, and bind your entire future firmly to that imminent graveyard.

That night, the dinner ended amidst their tearfully grateful flattery.

In the dead of night, I lay on the large bed in the master bedroom with my eyes closed, listening as Sarah beside me carefully lifted the quilt and tiptoed toward the balcony.

I opened my eyes slightly. Under the dim moonlight, she was leaning against the railing, focusing intently on texting. The faint glow of the screen illuminated her "gentle and virtuous" face.

Just to be safe, I had long ago written a network packet-sniffing protocol into the base layer of our router.

I pulled out the encrypted backup phone that never left my side. The dancing data mercilessly completely displayed the real-time chat logs between her and her first love, David.

[Today that idiot was buttered up by my brother. He agreed to buy us a house at Galaxy Bay. Once we get the deed, I’ll find a way to transfer the name to my side.]

[Honey, just bear with it a bit longer. Once things stabilize here and I squeeze him dry of his money, I’ll give you an answer. The baby kept kicking today, he probably wants to meet his real daddy too.]

Reading the words on the screen, I felt not a single ounce of anger.

I calmly took a screenshot and saved this lethal evidence into an independent cloud vault.

Keep dreaming, Sarah.

Meanwhile, the middle tier of my underground bunker was already one-third full of supplies, and at the private shipyard, the life-support system of the mini-sub had successfully passed its first deep-pressure test.

I rolled over, closed my eyes peacefully on the soft pillow, and went to sleep.