Chapter 18
Chapter 18: A Neighbor’s Suspicion
Dai Wang Nian showed up before long. The heat was brutal; sweat slicked the top of his bald head. When he wiped with a tissue, it tore and left little paper flecks clinging to his skin.
Dai Heng Xin opened the door, handed him a clean wet wipe, and pointed him toward the bathroom. “Go wash your face.”
By the time Dai Wang Nian came back out, he no longer looked so miserable. His breathing had steadied, and the frantic sheen in his eyes had cooled into focus.
He took the magnifying glass, tilted the gold ingot under the light, and examined it with practiced speed.
Xiao Ying Chun watched without speaking.
Dai Wang Nian set the loupe down, then the ingot. He nodded once. “It’s real.”
Dai Heng Xin didn’t haggle. He paid 3.2 million on the spot.
Xiao Ying Chun’s goal was met. She rose to leave.
“I’ll take you,” Dai Heng Xin said, already moving.
“No need. I’ll call a car.” She reached for her bag.
Dai Heng Xin lifted the sports bag without asking, his tone turning flat. “You’re carrying this and you still want to take a cab? What were you thinking?”
Xiao Ying Chun hesitated only a heartbeat. “Then I’ll trouble you.”
Dai Wang Nian had been sitting there drinking tea. The second he heard that, he knew the bag held something good. His eyes lit up, darting from Dai Heng Xin to the bag, like a starving man watching someone walk past with a steaming bowl.
Dai Heng Xin pretended not to see his uncle’s expression. “Uncle, watch the shop.”
He walked Xiao Ying Chun out.
Xiao Mei, still outside, watched Dai Wang Nian stride to the counter and understood at once: there really was something valuable, and the boss hadn’t been fully sure until he called backup to confirm it.
Then Dai Heng Xin personally drove Xiao Ying Chun home. He even got out and opened her door.
That sealed it.
When Dai Heng Xin returned to the shop after dropping her off—and after setting a time to pick her up later for dinner—Dai Wang Nian’s eyes were practically bulging with curiosity.
“What is it that you had to drive her home yourself?”
Dai Heng Xin paused. “A lacquerware piece. Inlaid with gold and silver wire and mother-of-pearl.”
He added, almost as an afterthought, “Agarwood.”
Dai Wang Nian’s eyes nearly popped out. “That good—and you didn’t let me see?”
“She wasn’t planning to sell,” Dai Heng Xin said. Then, with a cool look at his uncle, he added, “Even if she dared to sell it, would you and I dare to buy it?”
Dai Wang Nian fell silent.
He loved antiques the way some people loved air, but he knew there were red lines you didn’t step over—not even with both feet.
He leaned back on the rosewood sofa, arms folded. “So who is this little girl, really? How does she have this kind of stuff?”
Dai Heng Xin thought for a moment. “She’s from my grandfather’s village. Her family ran a little convenience store. Her parents died in a car accident last year…”
He relayed what he’d dug up from his grandfather, skimming the details but keeping the gist.
Dai Wang Nian got it. “No way her parents left her something like that. So where did it come from?”
“I want to know too.” Dai Heng Xin picked up his phone. “I told her I’d treat her to lunch. Can you watch the shop for me?”
Dai Wang Nian’s chest heated like someone had poured boiling water into it. He didn’t care whether it looked undignified for a PhD mentor to guard a little storefront.
He jabbed a finger at Dai Heng Xin. “Listen. She definitely has more good things. Watch your mouth—don’t offend her.”
He spoke faster, excitement sharpening every word. “If she sells you anything, as long as it doesn’t cross the red line, you buy it high. Don’t be stingy if you want a next time.”
Dai Heng Xin smiled. “I know.”
If he hadn’t been thinking that way, how could he have paid 3.2 million today without even blinking?
Antiques weren’t like other goods. The more there were, the less they were worth. A gold ingot with only one known surviving piece was a completely different thing from an ingot with a dozen cousins floating around in the world.
The nature of it was different.
…
Xiao Ying Chun had just stepped out of the car, key in hand, when someone pushed into her shop.
It was Ye Yu Bin.
Same T-shirt. Same baggy shorts. Same flip-flops. But his face was so grave it startled her.
“Xiao Girl,” he said, eyes locked on her, “who was the person who just brought you back?”
Xiao Ying Chun jolted and nearly dropped the sports bag.
When she recognized him, she clutched her chest and sucked in air. “Uncle Ye, you scared me to death!”
Ye Yu Bin didn’t answer. He just stared at her with an expression that said he wouldn’t leave until she spoke.
Warmth flickered in her chest—he was worried—but it immediately turned into nervousness. She couldn’t let him find out about the gold ingots.
She forced herself to think fast and chose a truth that could pass as harmless. “That was Grandpa Zhao’s grandson.”
“Zhao Ji Ping?” Ye Yu Bin asked, surprised.
Xiao Ying Chun nodded.
He seemed to turn it over in his head, then asked, “What does his grandson do?”
“Pawnshop,” Xiao Ying Chun said, half true, half not. “At the corner over there. I heard he graduated from a 985 university.” She added quickly, “He came to see Grandpa Zhao that day and bought something in my shop, so I recognized him. We’ve run into each other a couple times before…”
Ye Yu Bin’s eyes shifted, and she could practically see his thoughts skidding off in the wrong direction. “I see…”
Xiao Ying Chun’s grip tightened on the bag. She was still holding something worth twenty million and hadn’t had the chance to put it into System Space. Her heart hammered too fast.
“Uncle Ye,” she said, keeping her voice light, “if there’s nothing else, can I go upstairs for a minute?”
But Ye Yu Bin called her back, his worry cutting through her attempt at casualness. “Xiao Girl… I know this past year after your parents passed, you haven’t had it easy. But you can’t go down the wrong road.”
Her spine went cold.
He’d heard the neighbors talking, he explained. The convenience store had been unusually busy these past few days—truck after truck unloading goods. Yet no one ever saw trucks hauling anything away. If something did leave, people guessed it must be late at night, under cover of darkness.
“What kind of business needs to hide like that?” Ye Yu Bin said, voice low. “It sounds like something that can’t see the light.”
He’d been saved by Xiao Ying Chun once. With her parents gone, he felt it was his duty to keep an eye on her, to warn her if she looked like she was heading for trouble.
And then, as he approached today, he’d seen a million-yuan Mercedes-Benz bring her home—broad daylight, a young woman stepping out with luggage in hand.
How was he supposed to not worry?
Xiao Ying Chun’s fingers went numb around the handle. In a twisted way, he wasn’t wrong. Those trucks really were “in but not out.” The goods went in through the front and out through the back… except everyone knew the back door led to a dead end.
To an outsider, that looked suspicious as hell.
She inhaled slowly and made her face serious. “Uncle Ye, thank you for reminding me. I didn’t tell anyone, but I started an online shop recently. Business picked up a little.”
She pushed on, weaving the explanation tightly. “Sometimes I get orders and end up working late into the night. That’s why I’m closed a lot.”
Ye Yu Bin’s shoulders eased a fraction. “You young people have quick minds. I’ve heard e-commerce can make real money… just don’t go down the wrong road.”
He nagged a while longer, like a man trying to push worry out of his own bones.
Xiao Ying Chun endured it, coaxed him gently, and finally saw him off.
The moment she was alone, she slipped the valuable things into System Space, then paused, thinking.
She messaged Dai Heng Xin and asked if he had any connections to help her rent a warehouse nearby.
His reply came instantly: “I have a friend who does warehousing and logistics. I’ll ask for you.”
Before she could type back, her phone rang—his voice call.
“He definitely has space,” Dai Heng Xin said. “Not sure if it fits what you need, though. How about I take you to see it in person?”