971 Spiritual (1/2)

At dusk, Binhai City.

A taxi stopped slowly.

”Sir, do you need my help? You don't want to strain your back,” the taxi driver asked with concern.

”Hehe, it's okay. It's not heavy, so I can still handle it. Thank you.” A thin and handsome old man smiled and waved his hand as he took a small suitcase and got out from the taxi.

From his appearance, the old man was at least 80 years old, and he had a white beard. Although the pedestrians around him had already changed into their thin, single shirt, he still had an old-style cotton gown on like he was afraid of the cold, and he looked like he had just come out from a theatrical troupe. However, in stark contrast to his age and his old-fashioned dress, he paid the taxi fare through his mobile phone. It surprised the driver because many middle-aged people around 40 to 50 years old still only used cash payments.

If the driver were to find out that there was also an invisible cat seated in the back seat, he would be even more surprised.

The taxi drove off, and the old man dusted off his cotton robe, then looked around a little. He saw that there were no significant changes in the surrounding area from when he had left.

Meow. The cat softly meowed.

The old man lowered his head and asked with concern, ”What's wrong?”

It was a Persian cat that was completely white except for its black top, black back, and black tail. But if measured by the modern Persian cat's standard, the cat would undoubtedly be judged as a disqualified product. After all, it wasn't a cat from modern times. During the Song Dynasty, the cat that was the most popular among the upper classes was the cat from Persia.

It ran up to the old man's feet with its small, short legs; it looked like it wanted to take refuge in his cotton robe. It stared at the streets under the twilight, and its trembling body caused the old man's cotton gown to shake slightly. It seemed to be terrified.

The unusual behavior of the cat made the old man frown. He also looked suspiciously into the depths of the dim street, but he found nothing unusual.

Office workers who got off from work were dragging their tired bodies home; children released from school rode their bicycles like the wind; and the small stall owners who only ran their business at night to avoid the city management started to prepare and set up their booths. Everything was no different than normal.

He looked up at the two-story, antique building in front of him. The front of the store was a red lacquered door decorated with brass nails and a fine lacquered pillar stood on both sides. Right on the top, a blue plaque with a golden frame was hung up, and on it were the words ”Back to the Old Days.”

The red lacquered door was shut tight and locked up. There was a layer of dust on the door knocker. Since leaving the previous fall, it was his first return to Binhai City after a few months.

What interesting things had happened in Binhai City over the past few months?

Now that he was old, his body wasn't able to handle the cold anymore. So whenever winter came, he would always lock up the shop door then head to a villa further down south and hibernate indoors. He would only return when spring came, and he wasn't counting on the shop to make money.

Binhai was the retirement city of his own choice. It wasn't as noisy as a big city, it wasn't as inconvenient as a small city, and apart from the cold winter, the weather was still pleasant. Of course, there was more than one city with the same conditions. So he drew lots on the candidate cities and happened choose Binhai City. As a result, he spent half of his time in a year at Binhai City.

That wasn't the first time his cat has shown an abnormality. The last time it showed an abnormality was when someone had sent him a statue of a bronze imitation Holy Cat statue. When the cat saw the Holy Cat statue, it was terrified and would always hide a distance away, never daring to approach.

The old man liked cats very much, and he also liked things related to cats. He was very happy after receiving the Holy Cat statue, because he had touched many antiques and he saw that the Holy Cat statue wasn't just a simple imitation.

However, his cat's fear of the Holy Cat statue had made him wary.

He has been exposed to and collected lot of antiques. The antiques in the shop were just a drop in the ocean. No one would casually display those valuable antiques for just anyone to see.

Perhaps it was because of the fact that the ancients poured too many emotions into them, or perhaps it was because they existed for a very long time, some very few antiques would occasionally show abnormalities that were difficult to explain with common sense. In other words, they were ”spiritual.”

Being spiritual wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes a magical, tacit understanding could be felt with the spiritual antiques, just like bypassing time and space to meet its original owner.

However, in those very few spiritual antiques, there were some special ones that did not have good owners; they seemed to be a medium for evil spirits.

Whenever that happens, his cat would always show an abnormality and promptly warn him to stay away from the antiques that were riddled with evil spirits.