The chubby man complained, “Hey, buddy, I asked you to clean the windows, not this! If I had known you were so diligent, I would have let you clean the floor instead.”

The silent oil bottle shook his head, touched it, and smelled it. I noticed that the water he wiped off was green.

“Faded? No way,” the chubby man gasped. “Damn it, could it be a fake that’s been painted over?”

A chill ran down my spine. If that were the case, we would be in deep trouble. From the cautious attitude of the staff towards us earlier, it was clear that this item was genuine, but there could be unexpected situations. If this thing was fake, it would mean that the auction house had committed fraud. If they insisted that the items at the auction were real, but it turned out to be fake when it reached us, we wouldn’t be able to clear our names even if we jumped into the Yellow River.

Just as I was about to take a closer look, the silent oil bottle interrupted me, warning us not to touch it: “It’s toxic.” He showed us his hand, where the areas he had touched the liquid had developed large, two-layered red patches, and it was spreading towards his palm.

I was startled, and the chubby man clapped his hands, saying, “Ah, I know! I’ve heard that Americans sometimes use a chemical substance on antiques to prevent theft. If someone touches it, they could have an allergic reaction and faint. Hey, how come I didn’t have any reaction earlier?”

“You wrapped it in your clothes, which might have blocked it. This stuff dissolves when it absorbs moisture.”

The red rash on the silent oil bottle’s hand didn’t continue to spread, nor did he show any signs of fainting. He seemed not too concerned. The chubby man wrapped the jade seal in a towel and went with him to rinse it off below.

After washing, the jade seal became very translucent. In the ample sunlight in the yard, many details that were previously unclear suddenly became visible. I noticed the exquisite craftsmanship of the jade seal, which had reached an almost otherworldly level. Even if it wasn’t an antique, it would undoubtedly be a masterpiece in the history of art.

I felt relieved and thought to myself, thank goodness.

Now I could finally observe the entire jade seal closely. I discovered that the seal’s knob was shaped like a qilin stepping on a demon. The qilin stood proudly, stepping on a three-headed little demon, whose claws were gripping the qilin’s paws. However, upon closer inspection, you would find that the qilin was actually composed of many little demons, carved with incredible skill. The entire form didn’t look like a qilin stepping on a demon, but rather a demon forming into a qilin. And these demons all had scales on them, resembling intertwined snakes.

Demon-knob dragon-fish jade seal.

The demon knob was indeed fitting, but where was the dragon fish? All I saw were snake-like patterns. When I changed the angle of the jade seal, we immediately noticed that the qilin’s shape transformed into that of countless dragon fish. When viewed from the side, the twisted shapes of the little demons all hinted at the meaning of dragon fish.

Incredible.

As someone with a certain understanding of traditional Chinese craftsmanship, I immediately recognized that this item’s value was extremely formidable. In the antique market, condition, creativity, craftsmanship, and background are all very important. Often, if one of these four elements is excellent, the value is considerable. However, this item had reached the limit in almost all aspects. To be honest, the price it fetched earlier was not high at all. If we hadn’t caused any trouble, the final transaction price would likely have reached astronomical figures.

Thinking about it, I broke out in a cold sweat. If I were the seller and someone snatched this thing away, I definitely wouldn’t let that person off the hook. At the same time, I felt that such a powerful item was so easily escaped with. It seemed like their security measures were too lax.

The entire form of the Qilin felt very similar to the tattoos on the body of the “dull oil bottle,” but I knew they were not the same. That said, Qilins all look somewhat alike.

The fat guy was drooling as he said, “We need to count how many fish and how many ghosts there are. If the numbers are particularly special, that would be even more incredible.” He started counting, and after just a few counts, he sighed and said, “Oh no, this thing has quality issues.”

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“This ghost is missing a head,” he pointed out. I looked, and sure enough, on the very finely carved patterns, there was a distinct break. Because the entire carving was so complex, it was impossible to see this detail without counting one by one.

After looking over it, I found that there were not just one, but three places where the patterns had issues. However, strangely enough, the broken areas were very smooth, as if they were intentionally done that way. The fat guy gestured and found that those three places corresponded to where three fingers would grip the jade seal, right where the fingertips would rest.

“Have you heard of the ‘flower shirt’ from old Beijing?” the fat guy suddenly asked.

I shook my head, and he explained, “The flowers on the ‘ma gua’ and ‘kan jian’ are connected. When wearing the ‘kan jian,’ the two sleeves of the ‘ma gua’ look like clouds, while the ‘kan jian’ has a crescent moon. When you take off the ‘kan jian,’ the sleeves of the ‘ma gua’ remain as clouds, but the chest of the ‘ma gua’ shows a full moon. This is called ‘yin qing yuan que’ (the phases of the moon).”

I exclaimed, “What? Just get to the point!”

The fat guy said, “What I mean is that these three ghost heads are actually three rings. The person wearing the three rings must have gripped the jade seal, and the positions of the rings align perfectly with the breaks. It’s clever, really damn clever.”

I thought for a moment. While it was indeed clever, it seemed similar to the ghost seal I had in mind, but how could I prove whether there was a connection? I turned to the “dull oil bottle”: “You—” But then I realized he must have forgotten everything, so asking him would be pointless.

The “dull oil bottle” didn’t seem particularly interested either, showing no special reaction. The fat guy, however, was completely enamored with the item, almost wanting to swallow it whole: “Damn, we really hit the jackpot this time. Tianzhen, do you think we can find someone to take this off our hands?”

I suddenly had a bad feeling: “Well, that’s hard to say.”

Just then, a few honks sounded from outside, startling us. The fat guy quickly wrapped the item back up and said, “Alright, the little girl is back. Let’s not dwell on this; we should keep this safe. Sooner or later, someone will tell us what to do. Let’s put it away for now.”

As he spoke, he took it back inside the building, and being quick-witted, he climbed up to the beams and stuffed it into the cracks between the bricks. Sure enough, it was Ho Xiuxiu who had returned, followed by a few people carrying large and small bags, which were all sleeping bags and the other items she mentioned. The fat guy reacted quickly, pretending as if he hadn’t just seen the jade seal, and immediately asked, “Where’s the alcohol? Where’s the alcohol?”

Ho Xiuxiu took out two bottles of unlabelled liquor: “The best Erguotou, I guarantee you’ve never had this before.”

“Come on, is Erguotou really the best?” said the fat guy. He noticed that the people who had followed them greeted the little girl and left, but she didn’t go. Instead, she pulled out a large instant food box from her bag: “Fried peanuts.”

I watched those people leave and asked curiously, “Aren’t you going back?”

“If I go back, you guys will be in trouble. An ancient house, three old men, Erguotou—it’s just missing a rope for hanging. After you finish drinking, the three of you will hang yourselves together,” she replied.

“Add a female ghost like you, and we won’t be able to avoid hanging ourselves either,” the fat guy said.

I asked, “Does your grandma know you’re here? Don’t let her come looking for you later.”

“Wu Xie, do you really forget or are you just pretending? Don’t you remember my temper?” the little girl blinked. “My grandma doesn’t know, but she won’t come looking for me. I dared to fly on my own when I was eight; I’m familiar with both Changsha and Beijing. She can rest assured that I can go wild. Besides, I’m here to exchange secrets with you, so I’ve definitely taken precautions.”

I really had no impression of her, and her quirky nature intrigued me. I didn’t want to appear dull, so I asked, “Do you really want to exchange? I thought you were joking. How? How can I trust that what you say is true?”

“You can test me,” she smiled.

“Test you? How do I test?” I thought to myself, not knowing what information she had.

The fat guy teased in a low voice, “Naive, this girl isn’t trying to seduce you, is she?”

I poked him to stop talking nonsense, and she said, “How about this? I’ll tell you something, and after you hear it, you’ll immediately know that I qualify to exchange information with you.”

I found it increasingly interesting, so I nodded, curious about what she was up to.

She looked at me and said mysteriously, “When I was little, I happened to see a videotape. After watching it, I was very confused and asked my grandma about it. She didn’t say anything and scolded me instead. So, I started investigating this matter on my own. After hearing what you told my grandma, I found that our investigations seem to be related. If I say that, you should believe me, right?”

The fat guy and I exchanged glances but didn’t respond, because I had mentioned this matter when I recounted it to the old lady, and it could easily be fabricated.

Seeing that we had no reaction, she sighed and leisurely recited, “The fish is with me.”