mousepad-d2 Chapter 55: The Phone Call from Penang
Chapter 55: The Phone Call from Penang
When Cheng Xiaojin pushed open the door to Tieguai Li's studio, the rusty smell was more than twice as strong as yesterday.
The exposed water pipe joint in the corner had become even larger with the gray water stains spreading out, leaving two thin streaks along the cement wall.
Yesterday it was straight, today it's curved, arcing towards the cot.
Tieguai Li was squatting in front of the workbench, grinding copper pipes, when he heard the door open and he raised his eyelids slightly.
"What did Master Ma say?"
"I agree to the change, but the location is a courtyard house, and Master Ma will personally oversee it, watching which page Liu Bai turns to and which line he copies."
Tieguai Li never stopped sanding things with sandpaper.
"Would that man surnamed Liu be willing to come?"
"I haven't asked yet, but I'll finalize things with Master Ma first."
Cheng Xiaojin walked to the cot and sat down. The moment his bottom touched the bedding, a chill ran up his tailbone. The bedding was as cold as if it had been left out to dry overnight in the sweltering heat of summer.
Just then, his phone rang; it was an unknown number.
He stared at the screen for two seconds before answering.
"Feed?"
"Cheng Xiaojin".
The King of Glasses' voice came through the receiver, with the sound of an engine humming in the background.
"Brother Wang, are you taking a plane in the middle of the night for a business trip or to elope?"
"Just landed, transiting in Kuala Lumpur, will fly back to Beijing later."
Cheng Xiaojin was still joking around, but sweat was already pouring down his back.
"Have you given the conclusion to Boss Lin yet?"
"Given it."
"How was it written?"
"The appeal is questionable; it is recommended to shelve it."
Cheng Xiaojin sat up straight.
"What was Boss Lin's reaction?"
"I made this call because his reaction was wrong."
"What's wrong with it?"
"He glanced at the report, closed it, and put it on the table without asking a single question or raising any doubts."
A broadcast came from the Glasses King's side, and he waited until it ended before continuing.
"He only said three words, 'Thank you for your hard work,' and then he brought me tea."
Cheng Xiaojin bit the inside of her cheek.
He knows how to serve tea and see guests off.
But the item bought for 800,000 was questioned. The buyer didn't ask a single question, either because he didn't care about the 800,000 or because he didn't care about whether it was real or fake.
"Did he find another way?"
"Yes, he brought someone with him."
"Who?"
"An old man from Chaozhou, over seventy years old, thin, with age spots all over the back of his hands, but his ten fingers were so steady that they didn't look like those of an elderly person."
"Dried ironware?"
"He's known in the martial arts world as 'Iron Maniac,' a prodigy unearthed from Cambodia."
Cheng Xiaojin muttered the nickname to himself several times.
"What kind of approach?"
"Iron Memory".
As if afraid Cheng Xiaojin wouldn't understand, King Glasses spoke very slowly from then on.
"Place your entire palm flat on the iron surface, spread your five fingers and hold it still for at least twenty minutes."
"Why are you pressing it down? To give him a pulse diagnosis?"
"Read Iron".
When those two words reached his ears, Cheng Xiaojin's five fingers on his right hand twitched involuntarily.
The knuckles beneath my bluish fingertips twitched—short, sore, and with an indescribable numbness.
"The old man's exact words were that iron, from the moment it is forged and buried in the ground, is exposed to moisture and pressure, and gradually ages, with each layer of years remaining in its core. When you press your palm on it, those years will seep out layer by layer."
Cheng Xiaojin clenched his fist, then relaxed it.
His hands could pluck iron and hear the dragon's roar, distinguishing truth from falsehood in a second. He relied on the instant the iron surface touched his fingertips, quick, accurate, and spotting the mark perfectly.
The old man pressed down with his whole palm for twenty minutes; he was eating the core.
Do it the opposite way.
"He touched it?"
"I touched her for a full twenty minutes."
"And the conclusion?"
"He hadn't given her the last one yet, but after he finished touching her, he stood up and said three words to Boss Lin."
"Which three words?"
"Something's wrong with your mood."
The sound of sandpaper being used in the studio stopped.
Tieguai Li's gaze shifted from the copper pipe to Cheng Xiaojin's face.
A very faint gurgling sound came from the water pipe connector in the corner, as if something deep inside the pipe had nudged it.
Neither of them turned around.
"Brother Wang, what did he mean by 'the energy isn't right'?"
"I asked him, but he ignored me and only talked to Boss Lin the whole time."
From Glasses King's side came the sound of luggage wheels dragging over the floor tiles.
"But having worked in the ironware industry for fifteen years, I can guess a thing or two."
"What he was reading wasn't the rust layer, but the age and furnace properties of the iron itself. What kind of moisture, soil, and places had the cast iron been exposed to in the past six hundred years? The internal structure would change. The three-step method of removing rust can fool a magnifying glass and an acid test, but the iron core can't fool his hand."
Cheng Xiaojin closed his eyes.
The base used to make fake Tieguai Li products is a fragment of an old iron pot from the Qing Dynasty. It is old enough and has a beautiful rust.
But a pot is a pot.
The Zhenhai iron cast in the Yongle official furnace was completely different from the furnace properties of ordinary cooking pots.
No matter how realistic the rust is, the memory of iron cannot be faked.
"One last question, when is Boss Lin returning to Beijing?"
There was a three-second pause on the other end of the phone.
"The day after tomorrow, there's a direct flight from Beijing, and that old man is coming along."
Cheng Xiaojin leaned back against the iron frame of the cot, the coolness of the iron pipe seeping down the back of his head, colliding with the coldness seeping from between his bones and hitting his neck, making his teeth clench.
"Cheng Xiaojin, you have at most three days left."
The Glasses King spoke as always, calm and unhurried, a habit honed by fifteen years of experience as an appraiser; no matter how big the matter, he remained composed.
But the more they did that, the more somber the atmosphere became.
After hanging up the phone, Cheng Xiaojin tossed it onto the bedding.
Tieguai Li put down the copper pipe and sandpaper, and stood up, leaning on the worktable.
"What's wrong?"
"Boss Lin brought along an old man who reads iron with his palm; he's flying to Beijing the day after tomorrow."
Tieguai Li's hexagonal wrench stopped on his knee.
"Can he break my three-step method for making rust?"
Cheng Xiaojin stared at the water stain on the ceiling. The light bulb reflected it, making it appear gray and its shape had changed. Yesterday it was a clump, but today it had a tail, the tip of which was pointing directly at where he was lying.
"The rust you made is fine; it fooled the magnifying glass, the acid test, and even the hands of the Glasses King."
He paused for a moment.
"But the foundation is not good. The furnace properties of Qing Dynasty iron pots are different from those of Yongle official furnaces and Zhenhai iron. The old man was not reading the surface, but the years inside the iron core."
He turned his right hand over, and the bluish-black ring under his five fingernails gleamed coldly under the light bulb; that color shouldn't be on a living person's hand.
Tieguai Li's face slowly darkened.
"Three days."
Cheng Xiaojin held up three fingers.
"Once the counterfeit goods are exposed, the 800,000 transaction will be ruined. Who knows how those Ouroboros gang will retaliate..."
Tieguai Li put the hex wrench back into the tool rack with a metallic clang.
"What should we do then, Xiao Jin..."
"Let's get our hands on the formation diagram first."
Cheng Xiaojin sat up, resting her arms on her knees.
"Boss Lin has two things that are related to me: one is a fake Zhenhai Iron worth 800,000, and the other is the array diagram guide for the third stake. The fake can't be hidden for three days, but I have to get my hands on the array diagram guide before he turns against me."
Tieguai Li looked at him.
"What are you planning to do?"
Cheng Xiaojin did not answer.
He reached into his pocket with his right thumb and felt the Qianlong Tongbao coin. The copper surface pressed against his fingertip, feeling dull, as if there was something between them.
Liu Bai's last words came to mind again.
Page 31 of the first volume.
Three days.
Ten days.
The two countdowns were pressing down on him, making it hard for him to breathe.
The water pipe connector in the corner made another gurgling sound, this time louder than before.
The gray water stain on the pipe wall moved half an inch further towards the cot, following its original arc.
Cheng Xiaojin didn't look at that section of water pipe.
But the hairs on the back of his neck all stood up.