Chapter 114: Robbery

“Of course.” Old Ming actually looked a bit smug. “Think about it—would a low-ranking eunuch have dared to do something so bold? No way, right? So what does that mean? It means our ancestor must’ve been some chief eunuch or the like.”

“So you don’t even know what rank he was?” Zhenzhen laughed, not understanding what he was so proud about.

Old Ming scratched his face, looking regretful. “There used to be an autobiography left behind by our ancestor. Said he wrote it after leaving the palace in his later years. But the way the world’s been, nothing stays peaceful—it got lost.” He gently caressed the nine intertwined chi dragons carved on the jade seal, saying with immense relief, “Good thing this treasure didn’t get lost. I’m counting on selling it in my next life to eat.”

Zhenzhen watched him stroking the seal with a touch of reluctance and couldn’t help but advise, “This kind of thing is finite. Once you sell it, you won’t find another like it. So you’d better think it through before selling. Don’t come crying to me a few years later after I’ve bought it.”

“You always wear a mask. I don’t even know what you look like—how would I find you to cry to?” Old Ming sneered and flopped into a chair, propping his feet on a nearby stool. “I know you mean well, but it’s not necessary.” He looked at Zhenzhen with a roguish air. “I eat for one, the whole family’s full. Who knows who’d end up with this treasure if I keep it—might as well sell it now, maybe I can even get myself a wife and have a kid or something.”

After saying that, Old Ming glanced at the four men who’d stayed quiet and then at Zhenzhen. “Hey, so did any of you actually bring money? Don’t try to trick me if you didn’t. This ain’t the Forbidden City—I’m not putting on a museum exhibit for free. Even the Forbidden City charges admission.” Speaking of which, Old Ming’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Right! If you don’t buy anything, you all owe me admission fees. You can’t just look at this jade seal for nothing.”

“How do we know your seal is even real? And you want us to pay admission? At least let us handle it and see if it’s genuine,” one of the young men muttered, clearly annoyed with Old Ming.

“Fine, I’ll let you all have a look.” Old Ming scratched his head and pointed at them. “Line up. Ten minutes each. And besides the admission fee, I’m charging a handling fee—fifty cents per person.”

Zhenzhen couldn’t help laughing at Old Ming’s shamelessness. He glanced at the hot-tempered young man who looked like he was about to blow a fuse, then pointed at Zhenzhen. “You guys are all kind of rough, but this girl looks pleasant. She gets to go first.” Then Old Ming somehow pulled out a pair of white gloves and tossed them onto the table. “Wear the gloves. Be careful when handling it. If it gets chipped or dinged, selling your house won’t be enough to cover it.” That was his way of hinting at the seal’s value—not something you could just offer a few hundred bucks for.

Just as Old Ming finished speaking, the man who’d been standing at the back showed a flicker of hesitation on his face. His family wasn’t rich, just had some spare cash lying around. He’d thought about using it to buy something valuable to pass down. In peaceful times, antiques hold more worth than gold, and the past two years had brought better days for the common folk—maybe the start of a golden age. So he figured, why not buy now before prices skyrocket?

His intuition was sharp, his thinking solid, but there was one awkward issue: he didn’t have a lot of money. Though, by regular folks’ standards, five hundred yuan wasn’t nothing. But from the way Old Ming was talking, it wasn’t enough. He hesitated, then couldn’t help asking, “Old Ming, can you give us a ballpark figure for the minimum?”

Old Ming might’ve looked shady, but his eyes were sharp. He glanced over the man’s bag and grinned with a hint of mockery. “If you’ve got less than a thousand in that bag, best get going now.”

Hearing that, the man knew it was over for him. He waited until Old Ming went to take a sip of water, then slipped quietly out the back. When Old Ming put the cup down and looked up to find one less person in the room, he laughed in disbelief. “Damn, that guy actually ran off without even paying the admission fee.”

The hot-tempered young guy rolled his eyes. “I’ve bought plenty of antiques, but I’ve never seen anyone charge an admission fee to shop.”

Old Ming didn’t seem embarrassed in the slightest. Instead, he grinned and said, “That’s because their stuff isn’t as good as mine, so they’re too embarrassed to charge.”

He scratched his face again, looked around at the four remaining people, and suddenly laughed. “Actually, I think this method’s great. If none of you buy it, I’ll just charge the next group for tickets too. That should cover my food for a week.”

Though Old Ming kept rambling beside her, Zhenzhen stayed focused and carefully verified every detail she knew about the seal. There was nothing wrong with the exterior, and with her spiritual perception, she scanned every inch, even the interior. The craftsmanship and age all matched up. Zhenzhen was confident—it was genuine.

After putting the seal back, she stepped aside for the next person. Once everyone had taken a look, Old Ming closed the lid of the box, his expression finally turning a bit more serious. “Make your offers.”

The fiery young guy shot him another glare, clearly fed up with Old Ming’s antics. “At least give us a starting price.”

Old Ming thought for a moment, glanced around at the four of them, then said suddenly, “Why don’t you all pay the admission fee first? If someone buys it and the other three bail, I’ll be out a buck-fifty.”

The young guy almost laughed in disbelief. He pulled out fifty cents and tossed it over. Zhenzhen, speechless, handed over her fee as well. Old Ming happily gathered the small bills. “Starting price: one thousand.”

The hot-headed young man didn’t hesitate. “One thousand one hundred.”

The two men behind him exchanged glances, apparently surprised the bidding jumped by hundreds. They muttered to each other before one looked at Zhenzhen and said, “One thousand one hundred fifty.”

“One thousand two hundred,” the young guy shot back without pause, clearly trying to intimidate the competition with his aggression. Zhenzhen smiled faintly—when it came to money, she’d never lost. This jade seal symbolized imperial authority. It was already a rare item, and even more so because it had been used by Emperor Yongzheng. Zhenzhen actually had a soft spot for him—not just for his historical achievements, but because, in modern times, she’d read countless web novels on Jinjiang Literature City where the Fourth Prince constantly popped up as the romantic lead, hustling his way through one story after another.

The other two men still only raised the price by fifty. The young guy pushed it to one thousand three hundred. The pair hesitated for a long while before finally shaking their heads.

The young guy, seeing them give up, grinned smugly. As for Zhenzhen, he hadn’t taken her seriously at all. Even with the mask, it was clear from her eyes and build that she was a young woman—maybe even a student. She’d asked a lot of questions, sure, but never made a single offer. He assumed she was just here to watch the fun.

But right after thinking that, a crisp voice came from under the mask: “One thousand five hundred.”

The guy immediately frowned. He hadn’t expected this girl to be even more brazen than he was—raising the bid by two hundred in one go. Old Ming, on the other hand, lit up. “Girl, you finally spoke up. Just now I thought I was gonna lose it to this hothead. Scared the hell out of me.”

Zhenzhen chuckled. “What, you sell things based on who you like?”

“Of course! Who wouldn’t want to sell a treasure to someone pleasing to the eye?” He shot a look at the young man, clearly indicating he didn’t like him.

The young man’s hair practically stood on end. “Two thousand. You selling or not? If not, I’m leaving.”

Old Ming immediately turned his gaze to Zhenzhen. Zhenzhen tapped the table with her hand. “Two thousand five.”

That price wasn’t low nowadays. It was enough to buy a modest siheyuan in the capital. The young man’s eyes widened in disbelief, as if he hadn’t expected this girl to be so wealthy. Seeing that the young man didn’t make an offer, Old Ming pointed at Zhenzhen and said, “Sold to you. Pay up!”

Zhenzhen didn’t have that much cash in her backpack, but she had her spatial storage. She slowly unzipped her bag, and while doing so, secretly moved some money from her space. Stack by stack, in the blink of an eye, the money on the table piled high. The young man glanced at her backpack, seemingly confused about how she managed to fit so much cash in there—after all, he had come with a whole money box.

Old Ming might have seemed rough, but when it came to money, he was meticulous. He started checking the stacks Zhenzhen had paid. The young man, unwilling to accept that the imperial seal had just slipped away from him, looked at Zhenzhen and hoarsely asked, “Whose family are you from?”

Zhenzhen disliked the way he looked at people from above, acting like some grand master. “What does it have to do with you whose family I’m from? Even the person selling the seal didn’t ask this much.”

“Exactly,” Old Ming chimed in as he finished counting a stack of cash. “Still young, but nosier than me.”

The young man clearly wasn’t used to being talked back to. One sentence left his face flushed red with embarrassment. He turned and stormed off in anger. The other two exchanged glances and followed him out.

Zhenzhen hugged the seal to her chest. Looking at Old Ming’s greedy expression, she couldn’t help but ask, “Do you know many people who sell antiques? If you do, introduce some to me.”

“You mean guys like me who squander the family fortune.” Old Ming seemed tired from counting. He grabbed a cigarette, lit it, and blew out a ring of smoke. “There’ve always been plenty of us wastrels in every generation. But even among wastrels, there are differences.” He took a drag and added proudly, “I’m the type that knows quality. I can tell good from bad, and I know how valuable this stuff is. I can get a good price for it. Of course, there are those who’ll sell anything as long as you pay—Kangxi vases, Qianlong bowls, all going for a few bucks without a second thought.”

Zhenzhen nodded. She’d met someone like that—Feng Er. She had asked him to name a price, and he’d casually quoted twenty-one pieces for a single price. She had almost thought she’d misheard. But Feng Er thought that if someone was willing to pay that much, then the stuff must not be worthless. To him, a bowl was just a bowl, no matter where it came from. That’s what it meant to not know the value of things.

Blowing out another ring of smoke, Old Ming said, “All of us who’ve got things like this in our hands, our ancestors mostly knew each other. Back then, a lot of people fled to Jin Island together. Now, among us descendants, those who’ve done well don’t bother with us. Folks like me, well, we hang together. Times have gotten better, and people have a bit more spare cash, so now there are folks willing to buy antiques. A few years ago, you couldn’t even give them away. Anyway, I know several guys who want to sell. I can introduce them to you, but I can’t do it for free, right?”

“You haven’t earned enough off me already?” Zhenzhen gestured at the 2,500 yuan on the table.

Old Ming chuckled. “Business is business. I’m not asking for much—just one yuan per item. Once we get there, I’ll keep my mouth shut. After all, some of those bastards would sell one piece for ten bucks, and that’d cost you more if I start talking.”

“You guys really have more fragile friendships than plastic.” Zhenzhen clicked her tongue. “But your commission isn’t too high, and it saves me the trouble of looking myself. Sure, we’ll do it that way.”

Hearing her agree, Old Ming didn’t even bother counting the money anymore. He grabbed a ragged sack and swept the cash into it. “I’m off to deposit the money. Go find something to eat. Meet me under the Drum Tower at 12:30.”

Zhenzhen agreed, stuffed the seal into her backpack, and was about to leave when she suddenly paused and said, “If you know someone named Feng Er, no need to take me to him. He already sold me twenty-one pieces of his stuff.”

Old Ming burst out laughing. “That guy still brags that his ancestors worked in the Imperial Household Department, but his taste isn’t even on par with descendants of eunuchs. No wonder he’s been so generous lately—two meat dishes with his booze! Turns out he made a killing off you.”

Zhenzhen nodded, unbothered. “I got a pretty sweet deal.”

Old Ming scoffed. “Feng Er probably thinks he did, too. Last month when he talked to me, he planned to sell each item for ten yuan. I bet he said twenty to leave room for you to bargain. Didn’t expect you to take him at his word!” He laughed harder and harder, clutching his stomach and rocking in his chair.

Zhenzhen looked at him speechlessly. “Do your eunuch ancestors have a grudge against the Imperial Household or something?” Seeing Old Ming laughing too hard to speak, she checked her watch. “Make sure you really find someone with real goods this afternoon. I don’t want anything from the Republican era or folk kilns—waste of time.”

“I got it.” Old Ming finally stopped laughing and waved his hand. “Don’t worry. Anyone who’d spend this much on my seal clearly has a discerning eye.”

Zhenzhen chuckled lightly and turned to leave. She had barely walked ten meters before she noticed, through her senses, that the two men who had been eyeing the seal at Old Ming’s place were now sneakily tailing her. Zhenzhen was truly amused—no one had tried to mug her in years, and now she had two fools giving it a go.

She checked the time and saw she still had plenty before the meeting. Using her senses, she scoped out the surroundings and slipped into a narrow alley. The two men glanced at each other and followed.

The alley was quiet and secluded. Encouraged, the two men boldly caught up. One reached for her backpack while the other went for her arm, trying to cover her mouth to keep her from screaming.

Zhenzhen spun around and lashed out with a long leg. The man grabbing her bag was kicked high into the air and landed flat on his back. The other man, still reaching with both hands, hadn’t even figured out what was happening when both his arms were seized. A sharp pain shot through them, and just as he opened his mouth to scream, it was stuffed with a dirty rag. A moment later, a kick sent him flying next to his buddy.

Zhenzhen stood over them. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you? I’ve never lost a fight.”

Looking up at those bright, alert eyes above her mask, the two men almost cried. Who would’ve guessed that a girl in her early twenties could kick like a soccer player—sending a grown man flying several meters?

Sensing what they were thinking, Zhenzhen said cheerfully, “Hurts more than you expected, huh? Actually, last time I kicked something, it was a wild boar. Too bad for it—it didn’t survive the first hit.”

The man clutching his chest instinctively scooted backward, only to bump into a firewood pile in front of someone’s door. A log nearly twenty centimeters thick rolled toward Zhenzhen.

She stopped it with her toe, and her gaze turned cold. “Go turn yourselves in to the police.”

“W-why?” one of them stammered. “We didn’t even succeed in robbing you…”

Zhenzhen sneered. “That teamwork of yours says it’s not your first time. Never robbed anyone before, huh?” Seeing their shifty eyes, she tapped her toe lightly, and in a flash, the thick meter-long log shattered into splinters.

“I’ll say it one more time—turn yourselves in.” Zhenzhen withdrew her foot. “If you don’t believe me, you can try running. But if I catch you, you won’t be so lucky next time.”

Watching Zhenzhen’s figure disappear into the depths of the alley, the two men helped each other up. “Brother Ning, where’s that girl from? She’s way too fierce.”

“No idea. She doesn’t look that old. Grew up learning martial arts or something?” The other was just as confused.

“So… should we go turn ourselves in?” The first one looked nervously at the broken wooden bat on the ground. “If she catches me again, I’m pretty sure she’ll crush my bones with one kick.”

“Are you stupid?” Brother Ning smacked the back of the guy’s head. “We didn’t just rob one person. If we go in, we won’t be out for at least ten years. This job really went south. We didn’t dare hit Old Ming and ended up provoking someone even tougher.” He gritted his teeth. “No way. Let’s just head straight to the train station. We run first and figure it out later.”

Zhenzhen had already walked far away, but she heard every word they said loud and clear. People like them wouldn’t speak the truth even if dragged into the police station. Better to let them run for now. Once they’re scared out of their wits, they’ll confess everything.

And so, the desperate Brother Ning and his lackey rode the train for three days and nights until they reached Lu Province. Just as they stepped out of the train station, ready to grab something hot to eat, they saw a big-eyed girl in a face mask standing right in front of them.

Their pants nearly fell off in fright. Without a word, they turned and ran, hopping onto a southbound train to Jinling. Peeking cautiously out after arrival, they scanned their surroundings. No sign of her. Breathing a sigh of relief, they found a restaurant, ordered a salt-baked duck and six baskets of dumplings, ready to stuff themselves.

The duck had just been brought out. Brother Ning had picked up a piece with his chopsticks and put it in his mouth when he spotted a familiar silhouette at the table in front. The piece of duck fell back onto the plate with a splat. He nudged his lackey, his voice trembling. “Wang Jiu… does that back look like the killing star?”

Wang Jiu was gnawing on a duck leg. Hearing this, he turned his head in confusion—just in time to see the person in front turn as well. A white face mask covered most of her face, but her large eyes glimmered with amusement.

The two of them bolted again, duck abandoned, gasping all the way back to the train station. They hid in a secluded corner. Brother Ning leaned against the wall, panting. “What is this girl’s problem? Doesn’t she have anything better to do? Why the hell is she always following us?”

Wang Jiu, still holding his duck leg, was on the verge of tears. “Bro… Brother Ning… maybe we should just turn ourselves in.”

“Not a chance!” Brother Ning snatched the duck leg and took a furious bite. “We were too rash before, hopping on the first train we saw. That’s how she tracked us. This time, we find a place to hide, wait two days, then get on a train. No way she’ll find us.”

In the restaurant, Zhenzhen listened to their whispered plans with a smile. “Waiter, pack up three salt-baked ducks for me. I’ll take them after I finish eating.”

“Sure, but you’ll have to pay first.” The young waitress looked like she was about to cry. “I don’t want to do this either, but I left the table for just a moment and those two guys took off without paying. Now I have to cover it myself.”

Zhenzhen glanced back at the now-empty table and smiled at the girl. “I’ll pay for them.”

Ten days later, at the Huadu train station, the two men had just gotten off the train when they were dragged into a side alley.

“Ran pretty far, huh? Planning to try Hainan Island next time?”

Brother Ning collapsed to his knees, legs gone weak. “Auntie, please, stop chasing us. I’ll go turn myself in right now.”

Wang Jiu nodded while crying. This woman was scarier than the police.
—

On her way back to the capital, Zhenzhen bought a pile of clothes. Once home, she sorted them in her space and delivered them to various shops. No sooner had she stepped inside than Grandma Li caught her.

“Where’ve you been again? Took you half the day to come home.”

Zhenzhen grinned and looped her arm through Grandma Li’s. “Just went by the factory.”

“Didn’t your unit already give you leave? What’re you going to the factory for? Isn’t the director managing things? Why do you still have to run over all the time?” Grandma Li lowered her voice and said, “Didn’t I tell you not to mention the factory at home? Your fourth aunt’s got shallow eyes, and we’re not that close with those cousins-in-law. What if one of them turns out to be shameless? Don’t stir up trouble.”

“I know, Grandma,” Zhenzhen said with a smile, clinging to her. “Don’t flaunt wealth, right?”

That made Grandma Li happy. “I’m telling you, don’t go running around these next few days. I’ve got a lot to go over with you. Oh, and I told Junjie just now—you two can’t see each other the three days before the wedding. Don’t go sneaking into the garden after we’re asleep.”

Zhenzhen did some quick math and was instantly stunned. “Wait… I won’t see Junjie today?”

“Serves you right!” Grandma Li tapped her forehead. “You finally got time off, and I told you to spend time with him. But you’re even busier than when you’re working. I don’t even know what you’re so busy with. Good thing Junjie loves you—always covering for you, no matter what you do. Anyone else would’ve had enough already.” She shook her head with a sigh. “Come on, let’s get inside. Your third aunt made your favorite dishes today.”

Zhenzhen chuckled. “Third Aunt’s cooking is even better than Mom’s.”

Thinking of the main hall with its two full tables, each stacked with over a dozen dishes, Grandma Li couldn’t help but sigh. “We lost money this time. Should’ve told everyone to come the day before the wedding. So many people—just one day and they’ll eat through twenty pounds of rice.”

Zhenzhen laughed so hard her eyes curved into crescents. “Grandma, you’re so stingy.”