The firecracker went out below, and we retreated to a relatively safe place. The fat man then told me about something that happened to him when he was younger. It wasn’t really that long ago, but he spoke very briefly, and I could only recount it as he described.

At that time, he had just started working independently and had made a few small deals—not in gambling, but in antique trading. After parting ways with his previous associates, he lived a somewhat extravagant and indulgent life, spending nearly all the money he had received from the partnership split. These few small deals helped him recover from his losses, restoring his confidence and making him feel that working independently wasn’t such a big deal after all. So he decided to take a gamble and started spreading the word that he was looking to acquire big items.

He thought that going into gambling was too dangerous, and if dealing in antiques could be profitable, it might not be violent, but there was plenty of room for growth. Who knows, he might even start a publicly traded company in the future. People in the industry knew he had some money, so many shady characters came to him. One of them showed him a photo of a boat from the Qing Dynasty, belonging to a local chieftain.

This was quite an odd item; it was a complete boat that didn’t look like a burial item but rather a piece that had been passed down through generations, showing no signs of earth corrosion. It seemed to have been displayed in a home and had very meticulous lacquer work. Although most of the lacquer had worn off, you could still see patterns in gold and bright red. This state suggested it was some sort of decorative item, but its size and craftsmanship indicated it was a genuine boat.

After looking at many photos, the fat man noticed something strange: all the pictures only showed the bottom of the boat and none of the interior. When he pressed for details, the seller hesitated for a long time before revealing that it wasn’t just one boat but two boats locked together, with something inside. They were too scared to open it themselves and just wanted to sell it off.

The fat man was quite bold at the time and thought there must be treasure inside, so he bought the boat. Such items are usually too risky for antique dealers to handle, as they could easily end up stuck with them if they didn’t find a buyer. After purchasing it, he stored it in a local warehouse and didn’t pay much attention to it. Later, he discovered that the seller had vanished as soon as they received the payment, which made him suspicious. So he took a train to check on it and found that the goods hadn’t moved. However, the two boats weren’t sealed; the middle had already cracked open, and a hand resembling a bird’s claw was protruding from the gap.

Having some experience, the fat man realized he was in big trouble and didn’t dare to touch it. When he returned to Beijing, he didn’t know how to handle the situation. As he drank and talked, the story gradually spread, and soon someone came to inquire about it. Initially, the fat man denied everything, but the other party directly stated that they were willing to pay him an astronomical sum for it, a price that was unimaginable to the fat man at the time.

It was certainly good to have someone take it off his hands, so he made the deal without asking for a down payment, allowing the buyer to take the item away first. He hadn’t even considered that he would receive such a large amount of money, but in the end, the money was transferred to him in full.

After that, the fat man went to organize the warehouse and saw that the other party was not only moving things out but had also done a lot of other things before moving them. He noticed countless white sand particles on the floor and asked the old man who was watching the warehouse. The old man said that those people had come with a truck, and what was unloaded from the truck was all iron chains. The fat man said to me, this was the background. After that, he didn’t take it to heart, but a long time later, an incident made him suddenly realize what exactly it was that he had sold at that time.