Chapter 294: The Expert, Zhang Jiulin (1/2)
I don't know just how much Xiaotao had eavesdropped so I frantically explained, ”I know my motives are selfish but I can’t watch you put your life in danger!”
”I hate it when people make decisions on my behalf without my accord, even if it’s for my own good!” Xiaotao retaliated, glaring angrily at me. “From now on, I won't speak to you outside of work, and you’re no longer allowed into my home!”
She folded her arms and turned away, as if too infuriated to tolerate looking at me. I scrambled to salvage the situation, lengthy apologies spilling from my lips in an attempt to coax her into calming down.
In truth, Xiaotao wasn’t as angry as she pretended to be, but at the time I was completely deceived by her impressive acting skills. In my state of confusion and worry, I thought I had committed a terrible blunder and was anxious to make amends.
With much grovelling on my part, Xiaotao eventually snorted, ”Okay, okay. I’ll let this matter go for the time being. I’ll punish you later. So how are you going to look for the Yin object dealer?”
”You believe in the existence of Yin objects?” I asked in surprise.
”In the past, my thoughts on the matter would’ve mirrored Director-General Cheng’s, but after all the strange things we’ve experienced together, I’m not surprised to learn of Yin objects.”
I was awash with relief at her words. ”Then let's look for him.”
The three of us walked to a nearby telecommunications store where I paid for my phone bill and asked for the call list. The last number on the list was the one we were looking for–the number Pockmark Li dialled the other day.
When I called, Pockmark Li and the Yin object dealer were together. I introduced myself and my profession which drew surprise from the man. ”Traditional Coroner?” he exclaimed. “This profession is very strange.”
”Can we meet up to talk?” I asked.
”Yes, come to the nearby teahouse,” he said. “I’ll treat you to some Longjing tea.”
At the teahouse, Song Xingchen waited for us downstairs, while Xiaotao and I were taken to a private room by a waiter. Just before we entered the room, Xiaotao whispered, ”The last time I met a Jianghu master, it was some fortune teller my father took me to. The old Daoist spoke a lot of nonsense, claiming that I was born under the Greedy Wolf Star and would live in turmoil my whole life. I was advised to marry a man born in the year of the tiger during the Yin hour to suppress the effects. He said that the tiger and wolf complement each other and would surely accomplish great things together. Don’t you think it’s ridiculous to ask for someone’s birth date before you go out on a date?”
My jaw dropped in shock. In fact, I was almost named Song Erhu because I was born in the year of the tiger during the Yin hour.
Xiaotao stared wide-eyed at me upon noticing my odd reaction. ”You’re not, are you?”
”I knew it! How could there be such a coincidence?” scoffed Xiaotao. “He’s just another Jianghu charlatan!”
The middle-aged man and Pockmark Li were leisurely drinking tea in the room. When we made our presence known, he held out his hand to Pockmark Li and sniggered, ”What did I tell you, eh?”
Pockmark Li pulled out a hundred yuan and reluctantly handed it to him. The two must have bet on us showing up or not, which suggested he wanted to cooperate with us as well.
The middle-aged man invited us to take a seat before describing a little about themselves. Pockmark Li and the middle-aged man, named Zhang Jiulin, came from Wuhan. They ran an antique shop and usually travelled around the country collecting Yin objects, having experienced enough to write a whole book about their adventures.
Zhang Jiulin poured us some tea and said, ”Speaking of writing a book, I just remembered that I actually wrote a book about myself. Of course, all of the names were pseudonyms. Would you like to have a look? Just search for ‘The Underworld Merchant’ on the website, Mars Novels.”