NR | Chapter 5

I’m a low-key person. Even if Fourth Brother hadn’t warned me, I would have naturally kept my mouth shut. In the outside trade, the thing most in short supply is a master who truly understands mechanisms. Even someone who only knows a little gets called in to work all the time, let alone someone like me, who has been learning for more than ten years.

Whether it was Grandpa or Fourth Brother, they were completely aligned on the question of whether I should enter the trade. I was too prone to simplifying certain problems, and Grandpa felt that I sometimes didn’t pay enough attention to details, which was obviously a huge disadvantage when it came to feng shui.

I silently retreated to the screen and lowered my head without saying a word.

That sly bastard Tan must have spent a lot of time appraising antiques. He looked at the casket for two minutes before pinching it back into his palm and drawing his gaze away. He gave Fourth Brother an evil smile. “This thing has been floating around overseas for so many years, its whereabouts unknown. Every time we go looking for it, it disappears again. How did it end up in the hands of some little brat?”

Then he snarled, “Or are you people from the Gan family trying to keep it for yourselves?! Maybe whatever’s in this casket was already swapped out by you!”

I was furious enough to grind my teeth, but Fourth Brother didn’t care at all about his aggressive questioning. He walked over to him, and somehow with a flip of his palm, in the next instant the jade casket was already in Fourth Brother’s hand.

“Tan, don’t go around spouting blood with a mouth full of teeth. Just because something shows up in my Gan family’s hands, does that prove it was found by the Gan family? What if it was some troublemaker who likes stirring up chaos, who stole the casket and hid it in my house to frame innocent people? Take a look at the Nine-Ring Deadlock on it. My Gan family knows nothing about Qimen Dunjia[[1]] or the Mohist mechanism arts[[2]]. We don’t have some amazing master who can crack this thing.”

That was a roundabout jab if I’d ever heard one. I sighed inwardly. In the past few years, Fourth Brother had really sharpened his tongue. He was so much better at this than I was.

Tan heard that and got so angry smoke seemed to pour out of all seven apertures. He cursed, “You fucking little brat, don’t you dare be so ungrateful! The box shows up in your hands, so you can’t get away from this. I saw with my own eyes that your brother brought it over. You think I’m blind?!”

As he spoke, Tan reached out to grab me, but my Fourth Brother caught his outstretched arm in one motion and shoved it forward without the slightest mercy. Tan stumbled from the force, and only managed to steady himself when one of his own hired hands caught him.

“This kid just came back not long ago. Dragging an outsider into this isn’t how things are done.” Fourth Brother smiled and swept his gaze across the hired hands blocking the door. He stood with his hands behind his back in front of me, like an iron wall.

Tan looked like he wanted to flare up again, but Fourth Brother cut him off with a wave of his hand and cupped his fists.

“My shifu[[3]] has been in retirement for many years. After he passed away, every time you all came as guests I treated you with proper courtesy. Hand on my heart, I’ve never wronged any of you. Since this casket appeared on Gan family ground, I naturally have no intention of shirking responsibility. The place you mentioned before, I can go.”

The trouble was caused by me. I heard what he meant. These people who had suddenly shown up were probably here for some matter or other, specifically to ask Fourth Brother to come out of retirement. After all, counting and counting, among the Gan family’s descendants, I was the only outsider. Grandpa had passed all his skills to Fourth Brother.

“But this has nothing to do with him. If you want to use a Gan family kid as your target, I guarantee none of you will make it out of here.” Chen Si said.

My grandfather, Gan Rukui, was a fairly famous feng shui master in the Central Plains. He never put on airs because of his reputation when helping people choose a home, and was cheerful and easygoing all day long. The few disciples he taught from childhood had more or less inherited his manner.

If the matter hadn’t truly touched their bottom line, they would never have said something this harsh. My mood started to sink as well. It wasn’t that I was afraid of being hurt. More than anything, I was regretting the awful situation I had brought down on Fourth Brother.

This was my fault. If I hadn’t opened that cabinet, none of this would have happened.

When Tan heard Fourth Brother say that, his arrogance dropped quite a bit, and he closed his mouth, no longer daring to be as arrogant as before.

Yu Jingzi, wearing a qipao and drinking tea, finally spoke.

“Tan Qiu, enough. We still have proper business to handle. No matter how this casket came to be here, it’s back in our hands now. I advise you to put away all that nonsense in your head. Once the Nine-Ring is opened, it can’t be restored. Since the casket is intact now, there’s no possibility it was swapped.”

Tan Qiu gave a cold snort. “For such a worthless broken casket to drag us all the way here, there has to be a share of whatever’s inside for our Tan family. Tian Yuqing, do you have anyone on your side who can crack this thing?”

Tian Yuqing put on his gloves in a very particular way, and only then did Fourth Brother hand the casket to him. He held it in both hands and examined it up and down.

I couldn’t read this man’s thoughts. We did the most business with their family. People like them were usually reserved, handled things by the rules, and could even be stubborn to the point of hitting their head against a wall.

In the end, I heard Tian Yuqing sigh. He set the casket down on the redwood table with both hands, took off his glasses, and shook his head. “I’m ashamed to say that this jade casket is exquisitely made, and the mechanism inside is far too complex. Fully unlocking it probably won’t be something that can be done in a day or two.”

Yu Jingzi set down her tea. I didn’t know if it was my imagination, but I felt her gaze sweep toward Fourth Brother. Still, she did it so naturally that it didn’t seem out of place. She said, “Even someone as well-traveled as you says it can’t be opened, so I suppose no one in this world can open it.”

But Tian Yuqing slightly lifted his head and said with feeling, “If Grandpa Rukui were still here, perhaps there might still be some way.”

After he said that, his eyes moved toward me. His gaze was gentle. Such a rare display of goodwill made me feel a long-lost sense of reassurance. This Tian Yuqing was far more likable than Tan Qiu, who only knew how to yell and curse.

Fourth Brother let out a long breath. “If it really can’t be helped, then we’ll have to make a trip east. Maybe that old Yin woman has some way.”

“That Yin woman?” Tan Qiu gave a cold snort. “Whether that family even has any descendants left is still up in the air! No one’s heard any movement over there for years. A bunch of lunatics, like they’re dead or something.”

After he said that, the atmosphere turned awkward.

“Damn it. Discuss, discuss, and after all that discussion there’s still no result. Isn’t it just opening some broken box? What’s so complicated about it?” Tan Qiu suddenly lost his temper. He stepped forward and snatched the jade casket from the table. “I’ll just smash the damn thing. The stuff inside gets split between the three of us!”

My body instantly went rigid. If I hadn’t guessed wrong just now, this casket had gone through hundreds or thousands of years without anyone smashing it open, which meant there had to be some reason it couldn’t be forced apart by violence. Thinking of that, I unconsciously took a step forward, only to be blocked completely by my Fourth Brother.

Tan Qiu had just lifted his hand when Yu Jingzi stood up. Her phoenix eyes tilted slightly, her voice not loud but carrying absolute pressure. “Something handed down by the ancestors, and you think you can just smash it because you say so?”

I stared in shock as she strode over to Tan Qiu and snatched the jade casket from his hands. Her eyes pinned him so hard he didn’t dare move. Then Yu Jingzi said something to him in a low voice.

When he looked up again, Tan Qiu had swallowed his anger and forced himself down the steps. He found an escape hatch for himself and said, “Chen Si! I’ve got some things to take care of on my end today, so I won’t bicker with you any further! Anyway, anyway, get ready as soon as possible. We’ll set out in two days. This casket is definitely connected to that place!”

I watched the hired hands open the door layer by layer, then usher Tan Qiu out, but in my heart I couldn’t help admiring that woman Yu Jingzi’s methods. Someone like Tan Qiu staying here clearly wouldn’t do anything good for how this was going to develop. Getting rid of him quickly was absolutely the right call.