The door to Guoguo's room was gently pushed open. Zhou Qiang left the overhead light off and turned on only the desk lamp.
Guoguo was sound asleep. He rolled over and mumbled something without waking.
Kong Xiuyun stood in the doorway, both hands clutching the hem of her pajamas.
Zhou Qiang lifted the Orient Express from the middle shelf of the bookcase, set it on the desk, and stared at it for a few seconds. The section behind the steam locomotive was the tender. It supplied coal and water to the boiler, the source of power for the entire train. He examined the locomotive; its construction was too compact to hide anything inside. The second section was different. The tender's body had enough room.
He glanced back at Kong Xiuyun.
Kong Xiuyun nodded.
He took it to the living room and set it on the same blanket, then examined it carefully again and asked Kong Xiuyun to fetch him some disposable plastic gloves from the kitchen.
He carefully opened a gap and saw something shaped like a USB drive wrapped in a plastic bag, lying flush against the inner wall.
Holding his breath, he continued removing the surrounding pieces, exposing a small object sealed in several layers of clear plastic bags. Double-sided tape held it firmly against the inner wall. No wonder they had heard nothing rattling as they moved it around.
Zhou Qiang tried moving it. The double-sided tape held tight, so he applied a little force.
It came away into his hand.
Kong Xiuyun's eyes widened. Her mouth opened, then she covered it.
"Something this small... can hold three billion?"
Zhou Qiang didn't answer. He found a clean resealable bag and put the Cold Wallet inside, along with all the layers of plastic around it.
"Li Lanxiang really