Volume 1 Chapter 17 One Eye

  "This, this..." Jin Tian Xing's question was really too difficult to answer. Looking at his eager and expectant eyes, Lan Xin Lin didn't know how to respond. She could only perfunctorily say, "Maybe... maybe... she has returned." Jin Tian Xing asked in a hoarse voice, "But why hasn't she come to see me?" Lan Xin Lin couldn't think of an appropriate explanation at the moment and randomly said, "How would I know? Maybe she encountered some problem and will come to see you after she's dealt with it." Jin Tian Xing responded with a soft "oh" and stopped speaking, lowering his head as if lost in thought.

  Lan Xilin thought he was a bit redundant here, "Then I'll go first." Just as she walked to the door, Jin Tianxing called out to her, "Wait for me for a moment, I'll be fine soon. I've already wasted a whole day's time. Today we need to investigate the Tianyan token. Did you bring the token?" "In order to prevent it from being stolen, I carry the token with me at all times. But is your current state suitable for investigation? Why don't I go by myself and you rest at home." Jin Tianxing walked into the bathroom. "I'm fine, I'll just wash my face, wait for me for a few minutes." He turned on the faucet, scooped up a handful of cold water and splashed it on his face. The cold water shocked him, and he shivered. Jin Tianxing felt much better. He wiped away the water droplets from his face and whispered to himself in front of the mirror, "Don't daydream, it's definitely not Luo Yi who came back. If you want her to come back soon, then solve all the puzzles." Lan Xilin saw that he had been inside for half a day without coming out, worried that something was wrong with him, and urged, "Are you done?" "Done." Jin Tianxing wiped his face dry and walked out. "Where should we start investigating? This is your territory, you're more familiar with it." "Let's go to Gu Shui Street first. There are many vendors selling cultural relics on that street. We can ask around, maybe someone recognizes the token." They set off immediately, hailed a taxi, and half an hour later, they stood on Gu Shui Street. Gu Shui Street was only about 300 meters long, named after the many vendors who gathered there to sell cultural relics. In the past, it was just a few small vendors selling worthless items to make a living, sometimes going ten days or half a month without any customers. In recent years, with the rise of cultural relic collecting fever, more and more vendors had appeared on Gu Shui Street, with genuine and fake goods mixed together, and the flow of customers was astonishing. Those who could make a living on Gu Shui Street were not ordinary people.

  "Hey, you two come over here and take a look. I have some top-quality antique jade carvings that are genuine and reasonably priced." A small vendor spotted Jin and Lan and enthusiastically invited them over. Blue Heart Orchid nodded to the two of them to go over there.

  "Looking at you two, you're new to collecting, right? Let me tell you, if you buy something from me for 10,000 yuan, I guarantee it's all authentic. If there's a fake, I'll pay you back ten times the price."

  The small vendor next to him intentionally disrupted the conversation, "Don't listen to his nonsense, if he had real goods, pigs could climb trees! If you want to buy authentic goods, come take a look at mine. I don't boast that my goods are all authentic, but I rely on my expertise. Take a look at that item, I'll sell it to you cheaply, the price is absolutely reasonable. His name is Jia Sanbiao, do you think he could have real goods?"

  "Luo Laoer, stop talking nonsense! The things you buy are all fake, don't think I don't know where your goods come from, they're not clean!"

  As the saying goes, "same trade, same enemies", Jin Tianhang saw the two small vendors arguing fiercely and quickly waved his hand, "You two, stop fighting, we're not buying anything."

  "What did you come here for?" The two small vendors who were just arguing stopped suddenly and stood on the same side, staring at Jin Tianhang with a fierce attitude.

  "I have something here, I don't know what it's for, and I'd like to ask two of you to take a look." The two vendors immediately became interested. Luo Lao Er asked, "Is it old?" Jin Tian Xing nodded, "It's old, has some age on it." Jia San Biao urged impatiently, "Then quickly take it out and let us see!" Lan Xin Lin took out the Tian Yan Ling Pai and handed it to Jia San Biao, staring at him with great vigilance.

  Jia Sanbiao's face changed greatly as he took the token, turning it over and over in his hands, muttering to himself, "This token is neither gold nor jade, nor wood nor stone, what a strange thing." Luo Lao'er snatched the token away from him, "If you can't tell what it is, then don't pretend to be an expert, or we'll lose face for our ancient Water Street." He took a few minutes to examine it, his brow furrowed in concentration, shaking his head repeatedly.

  "Did you notice?" "This is a token, the age can't be seen, the material is extraordinary, where did you get it from?" "It was passed down from my family." Blue Heart Lin took back the token and kept it close to her body.

  "Token, you can't sell it, I'll give you 500,000 to buy your token." Blue Heart Lin shook her head, "This was left by my grandmother, not for sale." Jia Sanbiao shouted, "I'll give you 1 million, sell it to me!" Blue Heart Lin said impatiently, "I told you, this is a family heirloom, no matter how much money, I won't sell it." After finishing speaking, she pulled Jin Tianxing and was about to leave.

  Before leaving, Jin Tianxing asked, "Who has the broadest vision and the best eyesight on this ancient street?" "Of course it's Du Yan!" The two vendors chimed in unison, "Du Yan is more formidable than those experts. He can spot one accurately with just a glance. It's said that he grew up touching antiques since childhood. If you ask him about it, he'll definitely know what this thing is." Luo Lao'er interrupted, "What you're saying isn't right. I heard Du Yan used to be a tomb raider and even raided the emperor's tomb, which is why he's so formidable." Jin Tianxing was overjoyed, "How old is Du Yan? What does he look like? How can I find him?" "Du Yan is around fifty or sixty years old. He often wears a gray cotton robe and carries a round-framed glasses, with an air of elegance and refinement, looking like a Taoist priest. If you can't find him, you'll have to wait for him." "Wait for him? What do you mean?" Jin Tianxing asked.

  "He's a mysterious figure, like a god. Nobody knows where he lives on this ancient water street. If you want to find him, you can only wait for him here on the ancient water street. He occasionally comes out and takes a stroll around, if you're lucky, you might see him after walking just two steps. But if you're unlucky, you might not be able to see him even in half a year."

  "Thank you both." Jin Tian Xing's gaze began searching for someone wearing gray robes. The two of them searched the entire ancient water street but still couldn't find anyone wearing black robes with sunglasses.

  Unable to wait any longer for Du Yan (独眼), the two of them entered a large antique shop and showed the Tian Yan token to an expert who was bald and wore glasses. The result they got wasn't much different from what they had heard before - nobody recognized it, and they were told to go find Du Yan if they wanted to know more.

  As they walked out of the antique shop, Jin Tianhang felt a bit anxious. "Why don't you contact Captain Han and ask for his help in finding Du Yan?" Lan Xinlin sighed, "This is a vast ocean, I think even if we get Captain Han to help us find Du Yan, it's not certain that we can find him. We don't even know what his surname is or what he looks like, how are the police supposed to investigate?" Jin Tianhang thought for a moment and nodded in agreement. "If we can't find Du Yan, then we'll take the Tianyan token to Beijing. I'm sure the experts there will be able to figure out what it is." A passerby who had overheard their conversation chimed in, "Going all the way to Beijing is such a hassle! If you're looking for Du Yan, he's even more amazing than an expert. There's nothing in this world that he doesn't know about." Jin Tianhang smiled wryly and said, "We can't find Du Yan, and we can't delay any further. We have no choice but to go to Beijing." The passerby pointed ahead and said, "I see Du Yan over there, just up front." Lan Xinlin followed the direction of the passerby's pointing finger and saw a group of people gathered around something. "Is that really Du Yan?" she asked. "The one in the middle is him," the passerby replied. "Those people surrounding him are all here to ask him to appraise their antiques." Jin Tianhang and Lan Xinlin thanked the passerby and quickly ran over to the crowd. As they pushed their way through, they saw an old man with a thin build sitting on a small stool, wearing a long grey robe made of coarse cloth. He was appraising antiques for people, but his method was very strange - he would simply hold the antique up to his nose and sniff it, then nod or shake his head depending on whether it was genuine or not. He didn't say a word, but whenever he nodded in approval, the owner of the antique would be overjoyed. His appraisal speed was incredibly fast, and before long, he had finished appraising all of the antiques that people had brought to him.

  No one else came to offer antiques, and Du Yan was about to get up and leave. Jin Tianxing held him back, "Old man, I have something in my hand that I'd like you to take a look at." Du Yan didn't say anything either, just stretched out his hand.

  Lan Xinglin immediately took out the Tianyan token and placed it in Du Yan's hand.

  One-eyed only touched the token once, with a look of surprise on his face, took off his sunglasses with one hand, and carefully sized up Jin and Lan, asking after a while, "What is the relationship between Cai Qingqing and you two?" I want no pop-up window.