roccoschili Chapter 27: Two Meetings
Chapter 27: Two Meetings
Cheng Xiaojin hung up the phone and stood at the entrance of the alley for thirty seconds without moving.
His first thought was that Master Qi's information was wrong, or that Boss Lin had deliberately created a smokescreen by pretending to leave the area, and that the person had never actually left Beijing.
Then he dialed Master Ma's number.
"Mr. Ma, Boss Lin just called me."
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone. The sound of scraping tea foam from the enamel mug lid could be heard even through the receiver—clink, clink, clink, three rounds of scraping.
"What did you say?"
"They want me to go to our usual spot in Houhai tomorrow afternoon. They say they want to show me something."
"That's all?"
That's all. They didn't mention the Zhenhai Railway at all, and their tone was remarkably calm.
Master Ma stopped lifting the lid of his teacup.
"He didn't contact you because of counterfeit goods."
How did you determine that?
"If he discovers it's fake, the first thing he'll do isn't call you to meet him, but have you crippled. That's the rule among smugglers: if you've been cheated out of your goods, you take action first, then reason with him. The fact that he's calling to ask you to sit down and talk means he hasn't suspected the last deal yet."
Cheng Xiaojin's back relaxed slightly, but her mind remained tense.
"So what does he want to do?"
"Think carefully about what you did in Houhai last time that left a deep impression on him."
Cheng Xiaojin closed his eyes and recalled for a moment.
"Frictional conduction sound method".
"Anything else?"
"Uncle Zhou's Story".
"Anything else?"
Cheng Xiaojin remained silent for two seconds.
"I stared at his ouroboros ring for a long time."
"By the way," Master Ma lowered his voice even further, "your performance in Houhai exceeded the level of a street vendor in Panjiayuan."
"An ordinary vendor selling lumps of iron wouldn't know about the friction conduction sound method, wouldn't know the complete origin of the Yongle Zhenhai Iron, and certainly wouldn't stare at an ouroboros ring for so long. Boss Lin is an old hand; he saw through it."
"What did you figure out?"
"He's wondering who you really are. A young man surnamed Cheng, knowledgeable about Zhenhai Iron and Dragon Roar, staring at the Ouroboros like he's never seen you before. He wants to find out if you have any connection to the Ouroboros organization."
Cheng Xiaojin went over these words in his mind.
"So he's testing me?"
"pretty close."
"Should I go or not?"
Master Ma didn't answer immediately. The sound of the enamel teacup being placed on the stone table came from behind him, a crisp sound.
"You have to go, but you have to do three things."
"Please speak."
"First, you can't carry anything related to your father, and you have to hide all the family's belongings. Here's what we'll do: lock the tattered scroll and the notes here with me, and go there with nothing on you."
"clear."
"Secondly, whatever he asks you, just talk about the craft your grandfather taught you, don't mention your father, and don't mention the name Cheng Shouyi. You don't know how much he knows about your father, but you can't steer the conversation in that direction."
"And the third one?"
"Third, whatever he shows you, don't act like you understand it too well. If you don't understand it, just say you don't understand it. Don't try to be clever. Last time in Houhai, you acted too smart, which piqued his interest."
Cheng Xiaojin replaced the earpiece of his phone.
"Mr. Ma, I'd like to discuss something with you."
"explain."
"He wants to find out about me, and I want to find out about him too. I need to find out what that ouroboros ring on his hand is connected to. The ouroboros was the key to the lead my father was investigating back then, and if we miss this opportunity, we may never have another one."
There was a long silence on the other end of the phone.
Master Ma finally spoke, and there was something in his voice that Cheng Xiaojin rarely heard.
"Xiao Jin, that's what your father thought back then too."
Cheng Xiaojin tightened his grip on his phone, but didn't reply.
"I am not my father."
"I know." Master Ma paused, "That's why I'm letting you go, but you need to leave yourself a way out."
After hanging up the phone, Cheng Xiaojin didn't stop. He stood at the entrance of the alley and made three phone calls in a row.
The first call was to Tong Kexin.
"Kexin, arrange for two people to be near Yinding Bridge on the north bank of Houhai Lake tomorrow afternoon. They don't need to do anything, just stay there. If they see any unusual people or cars heading towards the alley with the vermilion lacquer gate, send me a text message."
Tong Kexin's voice was stiff and unnatural.
"Are you going to Houhai again?"
"Something came up."
"What makes you absolutely have to go to that place?"
"Meeting someone."
There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone, followed by the sound of a spatula tapping against the edge of a pot.
"I asked Aunt Zhang next door and Sister Zhou who sells pancakes around the corner to go. They've been strolling around that area for twenty years, and they're more inconspicuous than a street lamp when they sit there."
"terrific."
"Stop joking with me. If you get hurt, I won't be responsible for you."
The second call was to Tieguai Li.
"Old Li, tomorrow afternoon, go to the teahouse at the second intersection west of Yinding Bridge in Houhai. I've reserved a seat for you by the window."
"Something else?"
"Just in case, we might not need you, but you have to be here."
Tieguai Li grunted on the other end of the phone.
"Should we bring weapons?"
"Don't bring that, just bring your hex wrench, put it in your pocket."
"OK."
The third call was made to Zhou Banxian.
"Uncle Zhou, while I'm away tomorrow, could you please keep an eye on Panjiayuan for me? Send me a text message if anything seems amiss."
Zhou Banxian's voice was slurred and indistinct, tinged with the smell of alcohol.
"What are you staring at?"
"Keep an eye on Fatty Sun. He's been too quiet these past few days; it's not like him."
"Okay, I'm just sitting here in Gulou anyway, I'll go take a look around tomorrow."
After making the arrangements, Cheng Xiaojin rode his bicycle to Master Ma's house and locked the incomplete copy of "Tiangong Kaiwu" and his grandfather's five handwritten notebooks into the hidden compartment of the rosewood bookcase.
Master Ma stood beside him watching him lock the hidden compartment, holding an enamel teacup but not drinking from it.
"Little Jin".
"Um."
"If Boss Lin asks you to look at something, then look at it. After you're done, no matter what he says, just reply with one sentence."
"What did you say?"
"I need to go back and think about it."
"Just these six words?"
"Just these six words: No agreement, no refusal, no stance. Buy yourself time."
Cheng Xiaojin nodded and rode his bicycle from Master Ma's house to his rented room in Fengtai.
By the time I got downstairs, it was completely dark, and the streetlights made the concrete area in front of the building entrance look hazy.
As he went upstairs, he habitually glanced through the crack in the door first.
The tape didn't break.
He put on this transparent tape a couple of days ago, diagonally from the door frame to the door panel. If someone opens the door, the tape will inevitably break.
The tape was stuck there perfectly intact; no one had touched the door.
Cheng Xiaojin took out his key to open the door, and the moment he pushed the door open, a smell wafted into his nose.
It has a very faint sandalwood scent, but they never burn incense at home.
Cheng Xiaojin's foot was stuck on the threshold and she didn't step in; instead, she took half a step back.
He re-examined the door frame and lock.
There were no pry marks on the door frame, no scratches on the lock cylinder, and the tape was intact.
He pushed the door open to a wider angle, and the light from the streetlamp shone in from behind, casting a rectangular patch of light on the floor.
Near the window, at the edge of the light spot, there was a very faint shoe print.
The sole has a very fine tread pattern, arranged neatly, and it's not a sports shoe.
leather shoes.
Someone came to his house, but they didn't come in through the door.
Cheng Xiaojin's eyes shifted to the window.
The window latch was fastened from the inside, just as it had been before he left.
But there was a very shallow scratch on the windowsill, probably because something was placed on it and then taken away.
He came in through the window, walked around, and then went out through the window again, even locking the latch from the outside.
This work was so clean that it didn't seem like something someone like Fatty Sun would do.