Chapter 1: Ambush in the Transaction

  In October, the harvest season in Henan Province, the corn leaves have turned yellow and withered, and the large ears of corn are drooping from the dry and cracked stalks, indicating a bumper harvest this year.

  The sky was already dark at 8 o'clock in the evening, and the tall straw bales in the fields ten kilometers southeast of Yunfeng City were like iron walls that blocked people's sight and the cool autumn breeze, making it extremely hot.

  "Too expensive...... cheaper......"

  "Can't be cheaper... just unearthed..."

  In a remote cornfield came faint whispers of conversation.

  Xiao Yu stood beside, watching Wei Jun and the two rat-like men haggle over prices. Behind the two rat-like men was a snakeskin bag. Xiao Yu's eyes were fixed on the snakeskin bag as he tightened his grip on the password-locked box in his hand, which contained 700,000 yuan in cash. Normally, Wei Jun would go out with his store partners, but with the Mid-Autumn Festival approaching, the two partners had taken time off and the seller was pressing for a quick sale, so Xiao Yu had been roped in by Wei Jun.

  As they were nearing the end of their haggling, a relaxed expression appeared on Xiao Yu's young face. Perhaps it was because tomorrow was Mid-Autumn Festival, Xiao Yu felt a little homesick.

  Xiao Yu is 25 years old, born in a ordinary single-parent family in a small county town under Yan Zhao City, Zhongbei Province. He is 1.8 meters tall, with slightly dark skin and a somewhat thin build. When he smiles, he gives people a sense of simplicity and harmlessness.

  Xiao Yu in college could also be considered a charismatic figure, but after graduating and finding a job, he was ostracized by several colleagues because of his overwhelming presence. He was even framed by a colleague he considered to be his best friend and brother, who secretly put a female colleague's underwear in Xiao Yu's locker. As a result, not only did Xiao Yu lose his job, but also his girlfriend of two months broke up with him. The series of unfortunate events forced Xiao Yu to reflect on himself, and from then on, he spoke less and wore a harmless smile whenever he was in front of people. He practiced this smile for over two months until the muscles on his face were stiffened by it.

  Xiao Yu seemed to have matured overnight, and the original night owl Xiao Yu now spends more time reading historical books. The orthodox history, unofficial history, and mythological history of Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties are all Xiao Yu's favorite reads. Just a few days ago, he bought a set of Zhong Kui's biography and couldn't bear to put it down even for meals.

  In 2010, Xiao Yu graduated from a famous medical school in Deep Sea City. Finding a job back in his hometown wasn't too difficult for him, but when he first entered university, he had a passion for painting. His grandfather was an old Chinese doctor who taught him medicine since he was young. However, his interest didn't lie in medicine, and because he was very filial, he couldn't bear to disappoint his grandfather, so he memorized everything his grandfather taught him about traditional Chinese medicine. He managed to get through high school with this mindset, thinking that after graduation, he could finally do what he wanted. But just as graduation approached, his nearly 100-year-old grandfather suddenly fell ill and expressed his wish for Xiao Yu to inherit his medical skills before passing away. Under these circumstances, Xiao Yu gave up on the Central Academy of Fine Arts and chose a famous traditional Chinese medicine school in Deep Sea instead.

  When his grandfather explained medical skills to Xiao Yu, Xiao Yu found that his grandfather was also very skilled in first aid, making him curious about his grandfather's experience from a young age. However, every time he asked his grandfather, he said he was just an ordinary rural barefoot doctor.

  Modern TCM universities have actually changed in essence, they are called TCM universities but most of the courses are Western medicine, Xiao You has been exposed to TCM since childhood and is not interested in TCM, let alone Western medicine, so Xiao You's grades in school can be imagined, always among the last three.

  Although Xiao Yu's grades were not very good during his university days, he was exceptionally good at basketball and was the main point guard of the school team, thus getting to know a few good friends, including Wei Jun.

  In 2010, university students were not like those in the 80s and 90s who were assigned jobs by the country. Nowadays, university students have to find their own way. After graduating, Xiao Yu returned to his hometown and worked as an intern at a private hospital. To get into a regular state-run medical institution, it's not just Xiao Yu with a bachelor's degree, even a PhD wouldn't be enough without connections. After working in the private hospital for two months, Xiao Yu didn't like it, and the monthly salary of 1500 yuan made him see no hope, so he bid farewell to his mother and returned to the ocean again.

  After returning to the deep sea, Xiao Yu found a sales job and had a new girlfriend. Everything was going well, but because he was too popular, he was framed by his colleagues. Not only did he lose his job, but his girlfriend also left him. After more than two months of unemployment, Xiao Yu finally got help from Wei Jun, the captain of the university basketball team in the deep sea and a good brother, and became a small doctor in the medical room of the Deep Sea Antique City.

  The clinic where Xiao Yu is located, it's actually a small clinic that can't be any smaller. The clinic is located in the most remote corner of the entire antique city, with an area of about 10 square meters. In a place like Deep Sea Antique City where every inch of land is worth its weight in gold, even in such a remote location, the rent would still start at tens of thousands of yuan per month. This clinic was actually one of the image projects that the new general manager of Antique City came up with after taking office this summer.

  The Wei army heard that and thought of Xiao Ye who was still unemployed, so they recommended Xiao Ye to the new boss of the antique city. The boss was very happy to hear that Xiao Ye graduated from the Deep Sea University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. What the boss of the antique city wanted was Xiao Ye's identity as a graduate of the University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. It can be said that introducing high-end talents is also a way to introduce them, so who cares about your grades in school? Now, as long as you have a graduation certificate, once you leave school, no one cares about your performance in school, even if you were a poor student, giving gifts to teachers at graduation will make them give you a passing grade.

  Moreover, such a clinic wouldn't treat any serious illnesses, just occasionally someone with a cold or fever would come here to get some medicine. If the illness was a bit more severe, they'd all rush off to the hospital next door. It's precisely because of this that Xiao Yu felt very relaxed here, and even let Xiao Yu take on some nursing work.

  The Wei army has a medium-sized antique shop in the ancient city, often running to some central provinces, Shaanxi Province's countryside to collect some old things, or collecting 'just unearthed' things from the hands of Mo Jin Xun.

  Talking about antiques, in today's peaceful and prosperous world, collecting has become a common hobby for ordinary people. If it was said that the antique industry used to be 90% fake and 10% real, now due to the national craze for collecting, CCTV's "Pursuing Treasures" and other TV shows such as "The Gate of Appraisal" have been broadcast, creating a collecting frenzy while also leading to an increase in counterfeit goods, making it even harder to distinguish between genuine and fake items in the antique industry.

  This time, Wei Jun received a message that there were two ground mice in the middle province who had a batch of freshly unearthed goods for sale. However, as the Mid-Autumn Festival was approaching, the shop assistants were on holiday, and Wei Jun didn't have any other trustworthy people to turn to. Because the seller was selling very urgently, Wei Jun was afraid of missing out, so he pulled Xiao Ye along with him on this trip.

  Xiao Yu thought that there was nothing to do around here anyway, and the Wei army had helped him a lot in the past. Now that they needed his help, Xiao Yu took a few days off and followed the Wei army to Zhongsheng Province.

  Xiao Yu and Wei Jun arrived at a cornfield on the outskirts of Yunfeng City, following the directions of "Pao Dao Er". Two old men, like mice, took out over 10 items from a snakeskin bag and placed them on the ground. Wei Jun took out a small high-intensity flashlight and squatted down to examine them. As he shone the light, Xiao Yu also got a rough look at the items, but he didn't understand what they were. Unlike Wei Jun, who had learned about these things from his father since childhood, Xiao Yu only knew some basic knowledge of antiques from working in the antique city, and couldn't tell whether they were genuine or fake.

  Wei Jun looked at the over ten items one by one, including bronze tripods and bronze swords. Among them, a wooden box caught Xiao Yu's attention. Wei Jun opened the wooden box, inside which were placed a thick brush pen, a book, and a foot-long wooden sword. After glancing at them, he covered the box again, thinking that these items were fake goods mixed in with two earth moles trying to deceive people. He thought, "How could a brush pen, book, and wooden sword buried underground for hundreds of years still look new? Even two earthworms wouldn't be able to fake it."

  Xiao Yu was different, although Xiao Yu didn't understand antiques, his grandfather had been teaching him to practice calligraphy with a brush since he was three years old. After more than 20 years, Xiao Yu could tell the quality of a brush just by looking at it once. The moment he saw this brush, Xiao Yu fell in love with it deeply. This must be an extremely high-quality wolf hair brush. As for the other two items, although Xiao Yu couldn't tell whether they were genuine or not, based on his intuition, he felt that these two items were also extraordinary.

  After watching the goods, Wei Jun started haggling with the two mice over the price.

  As the haggling drew to a close, Xiao Yu became increasingly vigilant. The August 14th moon, which should have been like a jade plate, was now hiding in the clouds like a shy little girl. Looking at the dense corn stalks standing around her, Xiao Yu had a growing sense of foreboding.

  Both sides stopped talking, and except for the sound of crickets chirping and the rustling of the wind blowing through the straw, there was no other sound. The eerie silence was oppressive, and the stalks of grain standing upright in the darkness seemed like a ferocious beast lurking in wait, ready to pounce on its prey.

  "Xiao Yu, bring over the box!" Wei Jun said in a low voice to Xiao Yu who was standing there after they finished haggling over the price.

  Wei's army took over the password box handed over by Xiao Yu, opened the box and took out two packages of money from inside and put them into his personal bag. He handed the rest to the two moles and said: "Except for the things in the wooden box, I want everything else. There are 500,000 yuan in total, count it."

  Two mole-like men, one of whom was about 1.60 meters tall, took over the box handed over by Wei Jun, tore open the packaged money, and randomly pulled out a few from inside. The other slightly taller mole took out a small bill validator from his clothes and carefully checked it. They would inspect several in each package, and after checking, the two looked at each other, nodded, and took out a wooden box from the snake skin bag behind them, handing over the rest to Wei Jun.

  "How much is this wooden box?" Two groundhogs who were collecting things looked up at him when they heard Xiao Yu speak.

  Two people exchanged a glance, and in fact they also had doubts about this thing. Several hundred years old brushes, books, and wooden swords couldn't be so new, but this thing was indeed brought out from the ancient tomb. So they mixed it with the rest of the goods, not expecting that many people looked at it but didn't want it. This time they thought to try again, who knew someone just took one look and didn't want it either. The two were disappointed, suddenly heard Xiao Yu's question, thinking selling a little is better than nothing! Someone wants it, that's enough, after all, it's better than having it stuck in their own hands. The short mouse looked at the tall mouse, gritted his teeth and said: "One hundred thousand... if you want it, take it for one hundred thousand!"

  "Alright, I'll take it," Xiao Yu said after a moment of thought. He then turned to Wei Jun and said, "Brother Jun, lend me 10,000 yuan, I'll pay you back when I return."

  "Xiao Yu this thing..." Wei Jun was just about to tell Xiao Yu that it wasn't true, but was interrupted by Xiao Yu waving his hand and saying: "I know, I just really like that pen!"

  Wei Jun looked at Xiao Ye with a determined face, knowing that it was useless to persuade him. Having been together for over two years, Wei Jun understood his brother very well. Once his brother had made up his mind about something, he would never easily compromise or change it. With a sigh of helplessness, he took out a stack of money and handed it to Xiao Ye, saying: "You think carefully about it yourself!"

  "Uh-huh"

  Xiao Yu took the money and handed it over to the little mouse, then took the wooden box from the mouse's hand.

  Two mole-like men took the money handed over by Xiao Yu, put it in their money box, exchanged a glance, and quickly disappeared into the cornfield where one could not see his hand.

  "Cuckoo...... Cuckoo....... Cuckoo.........."

  In the direction where the two disappeared, several calls of quails suddenly came, and a rustling sound of objects passing through the corn stalks suddenly came from the cornfield around Xiao Yu and Wei Jun.

  "Trouble, could there be an ambush in the middle?"

  Xiao Yu and Wei Jun were shocked, a bad premonition surged up in their hearts. They exchanged a glance, both seeing anxious expressions on each other's faces. The two picked up the things on the ground and fled into the dark cornfield.