The Shadow Tycoon
Copyright© 2026 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 27: The House Everyone Envied
Every family had blind spots outsiders could not see. Many people envied Michael’s family and his house. After all, being able to move into a middle-class community at his age was not easy.
But who could have imagined that the inside of the house was not necessarily as perfect as William had pictured?
Some old appliances had still not been replaced. Some wallpaper was already faintly showing a rotten yellow cast. Some decorative plasterboard had begun to crack. Some floorboards, after years without repair and insect damage, were no longer as steady as they had once been.
Every family had problems like this. Some were only matters of furnishing and decoration. Others were matters of family relations.
Fortunately, Michael’s line of work and his department ensured that his family would not have major problems in terms of family relations. Management in a key department could guarantee his family food and clothing, with some money left over.
Once financial freedom was achieved, most of the time, relationships between family members would not be unpleasant. Affection, passion, all of it was essentially agitation built upon a material foundation, agitation some people might consider unnecessary.
When the news boss stepped on a floorboard Mrs. Michael had mentioned twice but still had not had replaced, the sound of warped wood rubbing against itself rang through the empty house.
In the middle of the night, a human noise from the living room was enough to make many people’s already sensitive nerves pull tight in the dark.
Mrs. Michael turned on the light. She walked to the door and pressed her ear against the panel, listening to the sounds outside.
She was the only one in the house today. The maid was not a live-in full-time maid. Their house was not a villa, not an estate, only an ordinary detached house in a middle-class community.
They did not have an extra bedroom and washroom for the maid. And since their child was away at a full-time private school, she was the only person in the house.
The woman in her thirties listened carefully for a while. There seemed to be no further sound from the living room downstairs. The noise she had suddenly heard earlier now felt unreal, almost like an illusion.
Facing the door, she hesitated. Should she go out and look?
Usually, Michael would be at home. She had never realized that a large house could give her such a terrifying sense of fear. Only a door separated her from it, yet that door had become the boundary between light and darkness.
Open the door and face the dark. Not everyone had that kind of courage.
At the same time, the news boss gripped the gun in his hand and gently stepped up the stairs toward the second floor. His eyes, fierce and carrying a trace of madness, fixed on the light beneath one door in the upstairs hallway.
That light seemed to be trying to break free from the narrow gap, to illuminate the whole room and drive away the darkness. But it was too weak, weak enough to light less than an inch of floor outside the crack.
He was barefoot, moving slowly and softly until he reached the master bedroom door. He knew the floorboard he had stepped on might have startled the person inside. He was waiting, waiting for her to open the door herself.
After more than ten seconds, Mrs. Michael hesitantly opened the door. An ugly face filled her entire field of vision. The scream that rose from instinctive terror lasted less than half a second before a fist drove it back down.
Outside the house, William saw two shadows flash quickly past the window through the curtain that did not fully block the light. The sudden scream cut off almost as soon as it began. It had not even startled the neighbors.
William packed up the tools in his hand and silently climbed down the utility pole. He glanced twice at the lit window, then turned and ran toward the main gate.
If the news boss had not come looking for him and had been willing to swallow the loss in silence, then there would no longer have been any story involving the news boss in this whole matter.
But he had not been willing to swallow the loss, and he had come to William’s door. That meant the news boss was an unstable factor. He was very likely to become a major problem, especially since his greed might turn into a dagger aimed at William from the dark.
Once Michael won his trust and made him believe that William had skimmed the money, the two of them might very well join hands. That was not a situation William liked.
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