Chapter Forty-Three: The Grand Corruption (Part Two)

“Sister Ban, who are you, really? Why is it that aside from your name, there’s no record of you at all? And why were you imprisoned here in the first place?” Around Ban Yunchan, Zhao Li never felt any pressure. He would always sit side by side with her, gazing at the distant sea through the women’s cell window. Today, it seemed the warden had left for a meeting, so Zhao Li seized the chance to slack off here once again.

“If you don’t know, then it’s a secret. Aren’t you afraid you’ll be arrested for prying into classified matters?” Ban Yunchan tilted her head to glance at him, her lips curled in a teasing smile.

That was a good point—Zhao Li, caught up in the conversation, had forgotten all about it. He scratched his head and gave a sheepish laugh. “Well, if someone deliberately opens a classified file, that’s espionage; but if the subject volunteers the information, it’s not my problem, right?” With that, he deflected both his curiosity and embarrassment.

“You are curious, but you shouldn’t be. If you want to make a career in the military, curiosity is something you must rid yourself of.” Ban Yunchan, it seemed, had no way to handle this younger brother but to admonish him lightly.

“I know, I know, but Sister Ban, don’t always lecture me like you’re my elder. You’re only a few years older than I am!” Zhao Li enjoyed this easy banter, especially when it was with Ban Yunchan. She had an uncanny sense of what to say and what to withhold, always keeping the exchange pleasant and free from irritation.

“Do you really want to know?” Ban Yunchan fell silent for a moment, watching the tides crash against the metal supports in the distance. Suddenly, she spoke.

“If you don’t mind sharing a secret, go ahead.” Zhao Li truly didn’t care much. After talking with the others here, he’d discovered that the military held all sorts of strange tales. As long as it wasn’t too serious, no one minded a little gossip. No one would punish you for minor infractions.

She chuckled. “I’m serving a life sentence now. What would I care for leaking a secret? What can they do—give me another life sentence?” Only then did Zhao Li remember Ban Yunchan’s status. But as it turned out, leaking secrets was a trifling matter here. Over the past days, Zhao Li had overheard plenty of military gossip—like the incident with Qi Zhen’s punishment, which, to the people here, was hardly classified. Most likely, Qi Zhen simply became the sacrificial chicken to warn new recruits like Zhao Li.

“Go on, I’m listening! I really am curious. Did you also kill a lot of people? Ah, this is the last time—I promise I won’t be nosy again!” Zhao Li shifted, seeking a more comfortable position. If only someone would massage his legs and he could puff on a pipe, he’d be the very image of an old-time landlord.

“In the end, it all comes down to money.” Ban Yunchan smiled faintly, her voice calm.

“Money? You’re in here for some financial crime?” That struck Zhao Li as absurd. If it were an economic crime, shouldn’t she be in a civilian prison? Why a high-security military one? “You must have embezzled a lot of military funds, right?” He tried to fit her into a military context.

“Military funds? No.” Ban Yunchan found Zhao Li’s imagination amusing. “But it was a lot, that much is true.”

“How much?” Zhao Li perked up, sitting up straight, eyes shining with excitement. “Was it a hundred million?”

“A hundred million?” Ban Yunchan couldn’t help but laugh. “A hundred million wouldn't be worth landing in here!”

“Then how much was it?” To Zhao Li, a hundred million was already an astronomical figure—the largest corruption case he’d ever heard of amounted to that. Yet to Sister Ban, it seemed nothing.

“I won’t tell you,” Ban Yunchan replied, eyes gleaming, a hint of laughter on her face. “But you can try to estimate.”

“At least give me a ballpark figure!” Zhao Li grinned wryly. How was he supposed to guess otherwise?

“A sum large enough to bankrupt the Federation’s second-largest bank—HSBC.” Ban Yunchan remained seated, her smile unchanged, but her eyes sparkled with deeper amusement.

Zhao Li was too stunned by the sheer scale of the number to notice her expression. His mouth hung open, moving as if to speak, but not a word came out.

It was a long time before Zhao Li finally emerged from his stupor. “That really is a lot. Lucky you were caught, or else HSBC would’ve gone under!” But then he realized something was off and hurried to clarify. “Sister Ban, I’m not saying it’s good you were caught. I mean…”

“Don’t you know?” Ban Yunchan struggled to suppress her laughter as she looked at him.

“Know what?” Zhao Li asked, still dazed, his face flushed.

“HSBC is already bankrupt. It happened three months before I came here.” Ban Yunchan looked at him earnestly.

“I was still at the recruit training center then, cut off from all news. Heh…” Zhao Li explained, but then his body jolted as the truth hit him. “HSBC went bankrupt?”

Ban Yunchan nodded solemnly. “Because I’d already transferred the money out.”

“Ah! Ah!” Zhao Li could only gape at her, pointing a trembling finger, completely at a loss for words, his expression utterly comical.

At that moment, a hidden alarm device in his belt vibrated softly, then, after a pause, vibrated again. It was a discreet warning system, alerting everyone to quietly evacuate without drawing attention.

“Sister Ban, you’re not joking, are you?” The alarm snapped Zhao Li from his daze, but he kept his expression calm.

Seeing Ban Yunchan’s serious nod, Zhao Li no longer tried to tell truth from jest. But suddenly, the ground beneath his feet swayed.

Not knowing what had happened, Zhao Li bit his lip. “Sister Ban, I’m going to check it out!” Without waiting for her response, he hurried away. Ban Yunchan remained seated, watching him leave, not even rising from her place.

“What just happened?” Only after leaving the prisoners’ quarters did Zhao Li realize that everyone, even those off duty, had gathered in the conference room. “What was that tremor just now?”

“The warden isn’t here,” a temporary commander, a lieutenant colonel, announced solemnly. “We just received word that a massive undersea earthquake occurred a hundred kilometers away. The resulting tsunami is over a hundred meters high. Our facility will be submerged within half an hour.”

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