Read Skillful Celestial P by Stewed meat pot dish - Chapter Chapter 1: Ambush in a Transaction

Chapter 1: Ambush in a Transaction

er husband so drunk left Xiao Yu in a state of bewilderment. She knew that her husband's alcohol tolerance was at least one catty (Chinese unit), and during the night before Xiao Yu's departure to the...Chapter 1: Ambush During a Transaction

In October in Central South Province, it is the harvest season. The corn stalks in the fields tower high, their leaves beginning to turn yellow. Large ears of corn hang limply on dry and brittle stalks, signaling a bountiful year.

At around 8 PM in a field ten kilometers southeast of Yunfeng City, darkness had already set in. The tall stalks surrounding the area blocked people's view and even shielded them from the crisp autumn breeze, making the environment abnormally stifling.

"Too expensive... Can't you lower the price"

"I can't reduce it... It was just dug up..."

From a remote cornfield came faint voices of negotiation.

Xiao Yu stood by and watched Wei Jun bargaining with two men who looked like rats. Behind these rat-like men lay a burlap sack, and Xiao Yu's eyes were glued to it; he gripped the password box tightly in his hand. This box contained 700,000 yuan in cash. Normally, Wei Jun would come out accompanied by his shop assistants, but since it was approaching the Mid-Autumn Festival, both of them had taken leave. Due to the urgency of the seller for this batch of goods, Xiao Yu had been pressed into service by Wei Jun.

As their haggling neared its end, a look of relief spread across Xiao Yu's youthful face. Perhaps because tomorrow was Mid-Autumn Festival, he found himself missing home.

This year, Xiao Yu is 25 years old and comes from an ordinary single-parent family in a small county under Yan Zhao City, Central North Province. Standing at six feet tall, with slightly tanned skin and a somewhat slender build, his smile exudes warmth and harmlessness.

During university days, Xiao Yu could be considered a prominent figure, but after graduating, finding work led to him being isolated by colleagues due to his prominence and betrayed by what he thought were his closest colleagues. They framed him for stealing underwear from a female colleague and hiding it in his wardrobe. As a result, not only did he lose his job, but also the girlfriend whom he had dated for two months. All these misfortunes led him to reflect on himself; since then, Xiao Yu spoke less and wore a smile that projected warmth and harmlessness when interacting with people. He practiced this smile for over two months until facial muscles strained from constant smiling.

Overnight, it seemed as if Xiao Yu had matured and become more composed. The nocturnal owl-like tendencies he used to have now saw him spending more time reading history books—official histories of the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing dynasties, along with their unofficial accounts and legends. Recently purchased Zhong Kui's Biography was so engrossing that Xiao Yu wanted nothing more than to read it without stopping for meals.

Xiao Yu, who graduated from a renowned medical school in Deep Sea City in 2010, found it was not too difficult to find work in his hometown. However, when he first entered university, Xiao Yu liked painting, and his grandfather, an old traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, had taught him medical skills since childhood. But as Xiao Yu's interest did not lie in the field of medicine, he memorized everything his grandfather taught him out of filial piety so that his grandfather would not be disappointed. Despite memorizing it all, because of his lack of interest, he never practiced any medical techniques. After graduating from high school, Xiao Yu thought he could finally do things according to his own will! However, just before graduation, his nearly centenarian grandfather fell seriously ill and wished for him to inherit his medical skills before passing away. Reluctantly, Xiao Yu gave up the Central Academy of Fine Arts and chose a famous traditional Chinese medicine college in Deep Sea City.

When his grandfather was explaining traditional medicine techniques to Xiao Yu, he found that his grandfather was also very proficient in emergency care, making him curious about his grandfather's experiences from childhood. But every time he asked, his grandfather would say he was just a barefoot doctor in a village.

In modern Chinese medical universities, the curriculum has essentially changed, mostly focusing on Western medicine courses, despite being called "Chinese Medicine University". Xiao Yu had been exposed to traditional Chinese medicine since childhood and showed no interest in it; let alone Western medicine. As expected, his academic performance was always at the bottom third.

Although Xiao Yu did not perform well academically during university, he excelled in basketball as a key player for the school team, making several good friends, Wei Jun being one of them.

In 2010, college students were no longer guaranteed jobs by the state like those from the '80s and '90s. They had to find their own way after graduation. After returning home, Xiao Yu worked as an intern doctor at a private hospital. To enter official medical institutions, regardless of whether he was just a bachelor's degree holder or even a PhD, it wouldn't work without connections. Working for two months in the private hospital, not only did he dislike his job, but with a monthly salary of 1500 yuan that didn’t fit his aspirations, Xiao Yu saw no hope and decided to leave.

After returning to Deep Sea City, Xiao Yu found a sales job and dated a girlfriend. Everything seemed to be moving in the right direction until he was framed by a colleague who envied him; not only did he lose his job but also his girlfriend. Unable to find new work for over two months, it was finally Wei Jun, his captain of the university basketball team and close friend from Deep Sea City, who helped Xiao Yu secure a position as a small doctor in the medical room at an antique market.

The so-called medical room where Xiao Yu worked was actually one of the smallest clinics possible. Located in the most remote corner of the antique market, this 10-square-meter space would cost over ten thousand yuan per month even in such a prime location. This medical room was established by the new general manager of the antique market after he took office as part of an image project.

Upon learning that Xiao Yu was still jobless, Wei Jun recommended him to the new general manager of the antique market who was delighted to hear that Xiao Yu graduated from Deep Sea's Traditional Chinese Medicine College. The general manager just wanted to use his degree to boost the reputation of their establishment; regardless of academic performance in school, as long as they had a graduation certificate, everyone would be considered qualified upon entering society.

Moreover, this medical room did not treat any serious illnesses; it only provided medicine for occasional colds or fevers. More severe cases would go straight to the nearby hospital. Thus, Xiao Yu found his work here quite easy and even took on nursing duties.

Wei Jun owned a medium-sized antique shop in the market which frequently visited central and southern provinces as well as Shaanxi Province to collect old items or purchased them from treasure hunters who claimed they were recently unearthed.

Talking about antiques, now that there is peace and stability, collecting has become something for ordinary people. In the past, the antique industry was mostly fake with only a small portion being genuine. However, due to the craze of collecting driven by CCTV's treasure hunting programs and Treasure Appraisal TV shows from central and southern provinces, while promoting the collection fever, counterfeiters have also innovated various ways to produce forgeries, causing now there might be hundreds or even thousands of fakes for every single genuine antique.

This time, Wei Jun received a message that two rats in the Central Southern Province had a batch of newly excavated goods for sale. However, it was approaching the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the shop assistants were on leave. Wei Jun didn't have anyone else he could trust. Because the seller was very eager to sell their items, Wei Jun feared missing out and dragged Xiao Yu along with him.

Xiao Yu thought that there wasn't much for him to do here anyway. Moreover, Wei Jun had helped him a lot in the past. Now that Wei Jun needed help, Xiao Yu took a few days off and followed Wei Jun to the Central Southern Province.

According to 'Race Kid', Xiao Yu and Wei Jun arrived at a cornfield on the outskirts of Yunfeng City. Two rat-like men pulled out over ten items from a snake-skin bag and placed them on the ground. Wei Jun took out a small flashlight, crouched down, and examined the items with its light. Following the dim light from the flashlight, Xiao Yu roughly made out the appearance of these dozen or so items; however, he didn't understand what they were. Unlike Wei Jun, who had been learning about them since childhood under his father's guidance, Xiao Yu only knew some terms related to antiques after working at an antique market and picking up a few things by osmosis. Identifying the authenticity of these items would be like a blind man lighting a candle—useless.

Wei Jun went through each item one by one: there were bronze tripods, bronze swords, etc. A wooden box caught Xiao Yu's attention; Wei Jun opened it and found an oversized brush, a book, and a foot-long wooden sword inside. He glanced at them briefly before closing the box, already concluding that these items were fake goods mixed in by the two rats to deceive people. "How could a brush, a book, and a wooden sword buried underground for hundreds of years still look brand new Even those two country bumpkins couldn't make such good fakes," he thought.

Unlike Wei Jun, Xiao Yu wasn't ignorant about antiques despite his lack of knowledge. His grandfather had started teaching him to practice calligraphy with a brush when he was three years old, and over the past twenty years, Xiao Yu could discern the quality of a brush just by looking at it once. At first sight, he fell in love with this brush because it was undoubtedly an excellent wolf-hair brush. Although he couldn't tell whether the other two items were genuine or fake, his intuition told him that they weren't ordinary objects either.

After examining the items, Wei Jun began to bargain with the two rats.

As the bargaining neared its end, Xiao Yu grew increasingly vigilant. On August 14th, the moon should have resembled a jade plate, but it now looked like a shy maiden hiding in the clouds. Looking at the tightly packed corn stalks around them, Xiao Yu felt an ominous premonition.

The two stopped talking to each other; apart from the chirping of crickets and the rustling sound of wind blowing through the corn stalks—“whoosh… whoosh…”—there was no other noise. It was eerie and silent. The upright corn stalks in pitch darkness seemed like ferocious beasts lying in wait, ready to pounce on their prey.

"Xiao Yu, bring over the box!" After finishing his bargaining, Wei Jun whispered to Xiao Yu standing there.

Wei Jun took the briefcase Xiao Yu handed him and opened it, taking out two bundles of money which he put into a small handbag. He then gave the rest to the two rat-like men, saying, "I'll take everything except for what's in the wooden box; total amount is 500 thousand yuan, please count."

The shorter man among the two rat-like figures, who was around 160 centimeters tall, received Wei Jun's briefcase and opened it to check if the money bundles were properly counted. The taller one took out a small note counter from his pocket, carefully examining each bundle of notes—checking some notes in every package. After their inspection, they exchanged nods before taking out the wooden box from behind the snake-skin bag and handing over the rest of the items to Wei Jun.

"How much for this wooden box" The two gophers, who were packing up their things, looked up at Xiao Yu when they heard him speak.

The two exchanged glances. They had doubts about the items themselves as well; how could a brush, book, and wooden sword from several hundred years ago still look so new Yet these items were definitely excavated from an ancient tomb. So they mixed them with other objects, only to find that no one wanted these things after seeing them. This time, they decided to give it another try, but when Xiao Yu showed interest in the box and offered a price, they hesitated before accepting his offer.

"Alright, I'll take it." After a moment's thought, Xiao Yu said. Then he turned to Wei Jun and said, "Brother Jun, lend me 10,000 yuan; I will pay you back when I get home."

"Xiao Yu, this item isn't real…" Before Wei Jun could finish his sentence, Xiao Yu waved him off and said, "I know. I just really like that brush!"

Seeing how determined Xiao Yu was, Wei Jun knew it would be futile to try persuading him; they had been friends for more than two years, so Wei Jun understood Xiao Yu well. Once this guy made up his mind about something, he wouldn't easily change his stance.

Sighing helplessly, Wei Jun took out a stack of money and handed it to Xiao Yu, saying, "Think carefully before you make any decisions."

"Alright."

Xiao Yu accepted the money from Wei Jun and gave it to the shorter gopher. He then picked up the wooden box from the gopher.

The two men, who resembled gophers, pocketed the money Xiao Yu handed them in their cash box and quickly disappeared into the pitch-black cornfield.

"Cuckoo… Cuckoo… Cuckoo…"

Immediately after they left, several cuckoos' calls were heard from the direction where the gophers had vanished. At the same time, a rustling sound was also heard as something passed through the corn stalks around Xiao Yu and Wei Jun.

"Oh no, have we walked into an ambush"

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"How much for this wooden box" Two gophers were packing up their things when they heard Xiao Yu's voice and looked at him.

The two exchanged glances. Actually, they also doubted the value of these items; how could a brush, book, and wooden sword from several hundred years ago be so new But these items were indeed excavated from an ancient tomb. So they mixed them with other objects, only to find that no one wanted these things after seeing them. This time, they decided to give it another try, but when Xiao Yu showed interest in the box and offered a price, they hesitated before accepting his offer.

"Alright, I'll take it." After some thought, Xiao Yu said. Then he turned to Wei Jun and said, "Brother Jun, lend me 10,000 yuan; I will pay you back when I get home."