mousepad-d2 Chapter 76: 3-Punishment Counterattack
Chapter 76: 3-Punishment Counterattack
Water began to seep from the base of the walls in the back alley of Liulichang as soon as it got dark.
The water didn't flow downhill; it just climbed horizontally along the cracks in the old bricks, stopping as a black line when it reached the back door of the stationery shop.
Cheng Xiaojin stood at the alley entrance, his hands tucked into his sleeves.
After soaking his hands for the second time, he could feel about 40% of the material with his fingertips, but now he doesn't even dare to lean against a wall.
There are so many old things in Liulichang – signs, door panels, stone lions, window frames – you might just bump into something and see someone's ancestors arguing.
Tong Kexin followed behind him, carrying a thermos in her hand.
"Drink water."
Cheng Xiaojin glanced at the teapot.
"Isn't that aged vinegar inside?"
Hot ginger soup.
"That's more like revenge than aged vinegar."
Tong Kexin handed the pot to him.
"drink."
Cheng Xiaojin unscrewed the cap and took a sip. The spiciness made his tongue sting and his eyebrows almost fly off.
"Boss lady, your ginger soup can open up your vagina."
Tang Wanqing stood at the other end of the back alley, her compass hidden in a cloth bag, wearing an ordinary trench coat over her cheongsam.
She didn't bring any conspicuous magical artifacts today; she only hid copper coins in her sleeve.
Tieguai Li was sitting not far away repairing a bicycle.
One leg was propped up on a small stool, the prosthetic leg was leaning against the wall, a wrench was in his hand, and a pile of screws was spread out next to him.
He looks like an experienced worker soliciting business at the entrance of an alley.
Zhou Banxian had it even easier. He simply put on a tattered military overcoat, squatted next to a trash can, and drank. Everyone who passed by would avoid him.
Master Ma didn't come; he stayed in the courtyard guarding the genuine Zhenhai Iron and the incomplete scroll.
The Glasses King didn't show up either, but Cheng Xiaojin knew that he was already sitting by the window on the second floor of Rongbaozhai, with white cotton gloves in his pocket, waiting to bear witness.
At the end of the alley, a black minivan stopped.
Mr. Lin came down first.
He was still wearing that neatly ironed shirt, and his hand was adorned with an ouroboros silver ring.
The boy with the nose scar followed behind, his face still a little pale, and he was holding a black cloth bag close to his body.
Another person who looked like a secretary was carrying a briefcase, had very thin glasses, and walked without looking at the ground.
When Boss Lin saw Cheng Xiaojin, he smiled politely.
"Mr. Cheng arrived early."
Cheng Xiaojin tightened the screws on the thermos. "There's no other way. Poor people are afraid of being late and having their pay docked."
Boss Lin glanced at his hands hidden in his sleeve.
"I heard Mr. Cheng's hand injury is getting better."
"Thanks to you, I can still count money."
Mr. Lin's smile faded slightly. He raised his hand, and his secretary opened his briefcase.
There are two things inside.
A small bronze-colored piece, which is the third array diagram guide, has water ripples on the edge and faint lock vein patterns on the back.
The other piece of broken copper was darker in color, only about half the size of a palm, and shaped like a broken door latch with burn marks on the edges.
When Cheng Xiaojin saw the second piece, he didn't reach for it.
The aura reacted even from two steps away.
The third array diagram is cold and hard, yet it contains rules, like a stone slab that has been pressed down on an old well for six hundred years.
The gas from the broken copper pieces is different.
It was restless, with a hint of something being pried open in the crack, its breath coming in and out rapidly.
Tang Wanqing coughed softly at the end of the alley.
She noticed it too.
Boss Lin picked up the third array diagram and began to draw.
"Mr. Cheng, my conditions remain unchanged. Today, I will inspect the outer perimeter of the seventh site. You lead the way, and I will guide you."
Cheng Xiaojin looked at him.
"How long do you need to borrow it?"
"Let's talk after we've watched it."
Cheng Xiaojin smiled.
"Mr. Lin, what you're doing is called 'get on the bus first, pay the fare later,' even Beijing buses don't do that anymore."
Mr. Lin said, "Mr. Cheng, we can all let the matter of counterfeit goods go for now, but if someone wants to investigate, the Panjiayuan circle can't hide it."
Tong Kexin took half a step forward.
Cheng Xiaojin raised his hand to stop her.
His hand peeked out from his sleeve, and there was blue blood at the base of his fingernails.
When Boss Lin saw that spot of green, his gaze lingered for a moment.
Cheng Xiaojin withdrew his hand again.
"Mr. Lin, instead of trying to scare me with a recording of the bottom of a Qing Dynasty Daoguang iron pot, why not scare me again with 800,000 yuan in cash? I felt quite comfortable spending that money last time."
Nose Scar glanced at Cheng Xiaojin but didn't say anything.
Boss Lin also picked up the broken copper pieces.
This is the seventh quote.
Cheng Xiaojin looked at the piece of bronze, and his smile faded slightly.
"Who told you that?"
"Old Man from Southeast Asia"
"The old man from Nanyang also said that my grandfather has something extraordinary. He has a wide range of expertise. How's his after-sales service?"
Mr. Lin rubbed his thumb on the ring.
"If Mr. Cheng doesn't believe it, he can verify it."
He handed the broken copper piece forward.
Cheng Xiaojin didn't touch it; he took out half a sheet of rubbing paper from his pocket as a copy.
The genuine rubbing paper is with Master Ma; what he brought was a safety draft he made last night.
It is marked with a pinhole shape and half a bolt pattern.
He unfolded the paper and placed it on a clean wooden board against the wall.
"Mr. Lin, you said this is the seventh mark, so let's identify the pattern first."
Boss Lin narrowed his eyes.
Cheng Xiaojin pointed to the door shape on the copy.
"The seventh piece is the door bolt position. The array diagram should have three layers of patterns: an outer lock, an inner vein, and a hook at the bottom. But your piece only has the door bolt pattern, not the lock vein pattern."
The secretary said coldly, "Of course the fragments are incomplete."
Cheng Xiaojin glanced at him.
"Are all your company secretaries this good at spending money for their bosses? They dare to use incomplete parts as bait. According to your logic, you can drive on the highway just by buying a car wheel."
His expression changed after seeing the nose scar.
Mr. Lin did not respond.
Cheng Xiaojin continued, "This thing isn't a magic array, it's a door latch. If you use it to open the door, the door won't recognize you as the owner, it will only recognize you as someone who pried open the door."
Zhou Banxian muttered beside the trash can.
"If you try to pry open Yao Guangxiao's door, even his ancestral graves will sneeze."
Tang Wanqing approached from the end of the alley.
She took out her compass, and when the needle pointed to the broken copper piece, she gently pressed it onto the dead gate position.
"He's right. This film is incapable."
Boss Lin looked at Tang Wanqing.
"Even the Zhenlong lineage believes in street vendors' theories?"
Tang Wanqing's expression was not good.
"I believe in the compass."
Boss Lin handed the broken copper piece to the man with the nasal scar.
"Test the exterior walls."
The nasal scar wasn't treated immediately.
Last night in Master Ma's courtyard, half of his shadow was caught in the ash water, and the cold still lingered in his bones.
Boss Lin glanced at him.
The man with the nasal scar reached out and took the broken copper piece, then took out a Nanyang copper ruler from the black cloth bag.
The copper ruler is still the same one.
The gray water inside the ruler hole was well hidden and not visible from the outside.
Cheng Xiaojin looked away, no longer staring at the ruler hole.
He couldn't let his anger get the better of him.
The person with the nasal scar walked to the back wall of the stationery store.
The wall bricks are old, and there are black lines in the seams; that's the faintest line on the seventh outer gate.
He attached the broken copper piece to the top of the copper ruler and then placed the body of the ruler close to the base of the wall.
The wind in the alley has died down.
The edges of the old GG paper on the wall were curled inwards.
The snake patterns on the copper ruler glowed with a dim light, and the gray water inside the ruler's hole was drawn in by the air coming through the door, slowly turning black.
Boss Lin stared at the base of the wall.
The secretary held a voice recorder, as if she was recording something.
Cheng Xiaojin stood still and only said two words.
"Don't measure it."
The man with the nasal scar looked up at him.
These two characters are not for indicating directions or leading to a door; they are simply a reminder.
But Boss Lin spoke up.
"quantity."
The copper ruler was pressed down into the crack in the wall.
The shadows on the wall have closed in.
It wasn't the wall that moved.
It was the black line at the base of the wall that squeezed from both sides toward the middle, and the copper ruler in the scarred nose's hand was caught in the shadow, the ruler bending into two folds, the snake pattern twisting into a messy line.
It's too late to let go of the nasal scar.
His cuff was caught by the shadow, and the fabric silently sank in.
Tang Wanqing raised her hand and tossed out three copper coins, which fell close to the base of the wall and covered the edge of the shadow.
Tieguai Li stood up from the repair stall, threw a wrench, and hit the end of the copper ruler, knocking it off course by half an inch from the shadow of the wall.
The man with the nasal scar stumbled back three steps and fell to the ground.
When the copper ruler fell, it was already twisted into a pretzel.
No one spoke in the alley.
Mr. Lin's polite demeanor finally crumbled.
He strode forward and picked up the copper ruler.
The ruler was twisted, the hole was cracked, and the gray water inside had dried into black marks. The black marks were wrapped around the snake pattern, like a rope around a snake.
Cheng Xiaojin walked to a spot three steps away from him and stopped.
"Mr. Lin, the door doesn't recognize you."
Boss Lin looked up at him.
Cheng Xiaojin continued, "I don't recognize your so-called seventh measuring tool. If you really use it to measure, what you're breaking today isn't a copper ruler, but a door measuring person."
The secretary's hand rested on her briefcase.
Tong Kexin had already stood beside Cheng Xiaojin, holding the thermos in her hand with the bottom of the thermos facing the secretary's hand.
Cheng Xiaojin glanced at it.
"Boss lady, let's not use ginger soup to hurt people, that's inhumane."
Boss Lin turned the bent copper ruler over.
A black wax-sealed pellet rolled out from the crack in the ruler.
The wax pellet was only the size of a soybean, with a tiny vertical hook engraved on its surface.
The smug look on Cheng Xiaojin's face faded.
The person with the nose scar, who was sitting on the ground, also saw it.
Boss Lin pinched the wax ball between two fingers and slowly looked at Cheng Xiaojin.
"Mr. Cheng, was this also part of your scheme?"
Cheng Xiaojin stared at the vertical hook.
"If I had this skill, I would have made myself a fortune pill long ago."