Chapter 605: Reaching the Peak 14 (4,000 words)_2
Tan Shuangshuang sat inside the room, leafing through the investigation data in her hands. The investigation data showed that the Bai family's secret silver business was quite normal before, but a year ago, they suddenly had many large clients, causing their secret silver supply to fall short of demand.
Tan Shuangshuang repeatedly reviewed this section of the data, unconsciously tapping her fingers on the smooth tabletop. This situation was a bit strange. Although the nearby Secret Silver Mine was managed separately by several major families in Mangshui City, the quantity and quality of the secret silver produced by each mine were actually about the same.
Under these circumstances, why did these sudden large clients only focus on trading with the Bai family while ignoring other families? Even when other families tried to poach them, these large clients of the Bai family surprisingly didn't even care, clearly recognizing only the Bai family. This was unreasonable.
People who buy goods generally compare their options; it's not normal to fixate on one seller. Moreover, the output of a secret silver ore vein has a production limit. The Bai family didn't suddenly gain another Secret Silver Mine, so where did they get so much secret silver to sell?
This was just the first doubt. Tan Shuangshuang continued browsing through the data in her hands and found that in the past year, the Bai family suddenly became very wealthy.
Although on the surface the Bai family seemed the same as before, after careful investigation, it was discovered that the Bai family members suddenly had many high-level elixirs, and even some important direct descendants had top-grade weapons.
Although they were just Yellow Level Lower Grade, graded weapons are particularly expensive. This point is clear as Tan Shuangshuang, despite her significant contributions, received only a Yellow Level Lower Grade weapon as a family reward.
The Tan Family was, after all, a prominent family in a Fourth Grade City, with a heritage incomparable to any family in this small Seventh Grade City. Therefore, the sudden appearance of so many Yellow Level Lower Grade weapons and the particularly costly high-level elixirs in the Bai family wasn't just general wealth.
Moreover, the Bai family was spending this money secretively because these elixirs and weapons from the Bai family members were never shown outside. If it weren't for the Tan family's investigators with some special means, this well-hidden secret of the Bai family could never have been discovered.
Tan Shuangshuang was certain there was a problem with the Bai family, and her first suspicion was the Bai family's Secret Silver Mine that refused to cease operations. Although it's unknown what secret the ore vein held, the Bai family's sudden wealth and increase in large clients were definitely related to this Secret Silver Mine.
Secret silver also has grades: ordinary secret silver, medium secret silver, and top secret silver. One grade apart in price makes a world of difference, and the Mang Mountain's Secret Silver Mines generally have ordinary and medium grades, with occasionally some top grades extracted.
Above ordinary, medium, and top grades, there's an extremely precious secret silver known as secret silver gold crystal. The price of secret silver gold crystal is comparable to a sky-high price, but its appearance cannot be predicted. However, secret silver gold crystal mines mostly attach to Secret Silver Mines, and any grade of Secret Silver Mine can potentially have an attached secret silver gold crystal mine.
Therefore, Tan Shuangshuang's first suspicion was that the Bai family's Secret Silver Mine had an attached secret silver gold crystal mine. The Bai family feared being discovered and attracting covetous eyes, hence the secrecy.
As for the missing people, it was easy to infer that they were probably captured and imprisoned by the Bai family to help with secret mining, which was the most reasonable explanation.
This also explained why those large clients of the Bai family ignored other families because other families couldn't possibly have secret silver gold crystal, and moreover, secret silver gold crystal was too hard to find and too precious.
To maintain the secret of the secret silver gold crystal mine, the Bai family was likely looking for buyers in secret, and the selling price of secret silver gold crystal wouldn't be too high.
To ensure exclusive access to this affordable channel for purchasing secret silver gold crystal, these large clients of the Bai family wouldn't mention it to others. Such double secrecy allowed the Bai family to cover up the news thoroughly.
Tan Shuangshuang thought if her speculation was correct, then the Bai family was truly foolish. Fearing that their possession would attract the attention and greed of other families in Mangshui City, they chose such a secretive way to protect their family's interests, not realizing it was even more dangerous.
The various families in Mangshui City were nothing more than a pack of hyenas. Just sharing a little of the advantage with these families would satiate their appetites.
However, the large clients the Bai family attracted, who could afford to buy secret silver gold crystal in bulk, were like tigers, whose appetites would not be satisfied until they gnawed the Bai family to the bone.