dmims Chapter 63: Dimensional Reduction Attack, That's Old BJ's Rule
Chapter 63: Dimensional Reduction Attack, That's Old BJ's Rule
Iron Man lay on the ground, gasping for breath, spitting out ash water.
The private room was in chaos.
The secretary bent down to help, but as soon as her hand touched Tie Chi's shoulder, he grabbed her wrist. Tie Chi's hand, with its cracked nails, was incredibly strong, making the secretary's face turn pale.
"Water tank...don't press me..."
The secretary was so startled that she tried to shake him off but failed.
One bodyguard stepped forward and raised his hand to pry Tie Chi's hand off, while another man in black reached into his pocket and pulled out a short gun. Just as the muzzle was halfway out, Cheng Xiaojin put his teacup on the table.
With a snap.
The water at the bottom of the teacup spread across the table, encountering the pungent, cold aura emanating from his fingertips, forming a thin white ring around the edge.
Bo Bai crawled forward along the table's texture, reaching the base of Zhenhai Iron, where it stopped.
The bodyguard's hand stopped inside his chest.
Cheng Xiaojin didn't look at him, picked up the Qianlong Tongbao coin, and twirled it between her fingers.
It doesn't rotate very fast.
The money rubbed against his gauze, causing his hand to twitch in pain, but he still maintained that smug smile on his face.
"Dude, don't pull it out. If your thing goes off, the tea drinkers outside will think the club has turned into a shooting range. Old Beijinger follows the rules. If you're going to drink tea, then drink tea; if you're going to inspect goods, then inspect goods. Don't turn a business deal into a tragedy."
Boss Lin sat in the main seat, his fingers pressing on the lid of the teacup.
His ouroboros ring rested on the white porcelain, the silver snake biting its own tail, the small black stones set in the snake's eyes gleaming in the dim light.
Cheng Xiaojin looked at the ring and smiled even more warmly.
"Mr. Lin, you've set up this scheme brilliantly. First, you use 800,000 to buy the goods, then you find a madman to stage an accident in Houhai. When he touches the goods, he finds a water ghost that will haunt him. Then you say there's a problem with the goods, you want your money back, you want to keep the goods, and you don't even need to discuss the array diagram. Your plan is so well-thought-out that I can hear it all over Gulou Street."
Boss Lin didn't speak immediately.
The bodyguard dragged the iron man on the ground to the wall. He was still struggling, calling for his mother intermittently.
The shouting was terrifying.
The old man, in his seventies or eighties, managed to squeeze out the tone of a young woman on her deathbed. The secretary's legs went weak, and she could barely sit up, even while holding onto the back of her chair.
Cheng Xiaojin continued, "But you're quite an interesting person. A big boss from Southeast Asia, wearing an ouroboros on your wrist, putting on a show of politeness on your desk, talking about rules, but behind your back, having your secretary do the seventh thing in Liulichang."
"What do you think the old and young men of Panjiayuan will think if this gets out?"
Boss Lin's face darkened.
"Boss Cheng, you can't just say things like that."
"I'm a timid person, and I never speak carelessly."
Cheng Xiaojin placed the Qianlong Tongbao coin face down on the table, his fingertips about an inch away from the Zhenhai iron.
"Your secretary went to the stationery store and asked me if I was in Houhai today. That place sells bamboo paper and ink, and it's full of cheap and shabby stuff. It has absolutely nothing to do with your big business."
"But he went there anyway, and what a coincidence! The seventh pile was buried under that spot."
The secretary behind Boss Lin looked up, and in doing so, he inadvertently betrayed himself.
Cheng Xiaojin noticed the fleeting panic on his face and knew what was going on.
"Oh, so the secretary knows about the seventh one?"
The secretary's lips moved, but she didn't dare to take it.
Boss Lin raised his hand, and the secretary swallowed his words.
Tie Chi coughed up another mouthful of gray water.
Water fell on the carpet, causing a small patch of the carpet fibers to collapse and emitting a fishy smell from the bottom of a water tank. The bodyguard tried to press it with a tissue, but the edges of the tissue were grayish, as if it had been sucked in by something.
Boss Lin finally spoke.
"Old Tie is getting on in years; his old ailment may have flared up again."
Cheng Xiaojin burst out laughing.
"Old ailment? Mr. Lin, who are you trying to fool? Can an old ailment make you vomit well mud? Can an old ailment make Emperor Daoguang cry foul like his own daughter? I may be a street vendor, but that doesn't mean I'm uneducated."
"If that's your explanation, then tomorrow I could also say that I can't pay my stall fee because of hereditary rheumatism."
Boss Lin stared at him, and Cheng Xiaojin knew he couldn't back down now.
He relied on muddling through in this round.
Iron Maniac collapsed. Boss Lin couldn't figure out what was so evil about this fake Zhenhai Iron, or what tricks Cheng Xiaojin had played inside.
Especially in situations like this, Cheng Xiaojin had to put the pot back on its back, making a loud and clear sound, so that Boss Lin wouldn't dare to lift it for a moment.
He pulled his sleeve down to cover the blood-soaked gauze.
"Mr. Lin, I'm here today to give you face. Last time in Houhai, I took the money, you took the goods, and the deal was settled. You wanted to inspect the goods again, fine, I accept the rules of the trade! But the people you brought in started acting strangely right from the start, almost dragging me down with them. What kind of behavior is that?"
He raised his finger and pointed at the iron man on the ground.
"This old man has spent half his life touching metal, and today he's fallen so low. Is it because my stuff is dirty, or because the people you hired weren't clean?"
Boss Lin remained silent.
Cheng Xiaojin leaned forward slightly and lowered his voice.
"Also, your ring is quite beautiful. It depicts a snake biting its own tail. In Southeast Asia, some people call it the 'immortal ring,' while others call it the 'path of return.' People who wear this are the most believers in karma."
"If you really say that the thing Iron Man pulled out today was brought by me, then we'll have to talk about cause and effect."
Boss Lin pressed his thumb against the ring.
A waiter walked past the private room, but left again at the door. The vermilion door handle kept the smell of ash water inside tightly shut, so no one outside could hear what had just happened.
Cheng Xiaojin broke out in a sweat, and as the sweat cooled, the yin energy deep within his bones surged back up.
The red powder under the fingernails hasn't behaved yet.
Having tasted the iron man's tricks, it wanted to find another one. Cheng Xiaojin pressed it down with a Qianlong Tongbao coin, his fingers aching and numb. He dared not show it on his face, for to do so would make him look weak.
At this moment, Tie Chi on the ground suddenly opened his eyes, and Boss Chonglin crawled half a foot.
"Don't sell her..."
Boss Lin's brow twitched, and Tie Chi's voice changed again.
"Giving birth to a girl is useless; sell her to the mountains for a dowry to help your younger brother get married..."
Upon hearing this, the faces of the people in the private room turned ugly.
Cheng Xiaojin's heart sank.
Red Chopsticks' resentment stirred up old grievances in Iron Man's mind, not just about that water vat, but also bringing up other grievances about families that had no heirs.
The worst thing about this kind of karmic debt is getting involved with others.
They exploit the descendants of the deceased, sell their daughters, arrange ghost marriages, and use the lives of the living to fill the holes in their families. Old ethics, disguised as kinship, are full of cannibalistic teeth underneath.
Taking advantage of this moment, Cheng Xiaojin raised his hand and slammed it on the table.
The tea on the table rippled, causing the thin layer of ice at the edge to shatter into white fragments.
"Mr. Lin, did you hear that? The person you found is no longer suitable for inspecting the goods. If you continue inspecting them, he'll be calling out his ancestors from Southeast Asia for eighteen generations. Let's not make things difficult for the old man, and let's not make things difficult for this piece of iron."
Boss Lin's face turned ashen, and he turned to look at the bodyguard.
The bodyguard put the pistol back in his pocket, and another man lifted Tiechi up. Tiechi's legs dragged on the ground, and the tips of his shoes left two wet marks on the carpet.
The secretary asked in a low voice, "Mr. Lin, should we take Mr. Tie to rest first?"
Mr. Lin did not answer.
He picked up the teacup, and the lid tapped against the rim twice.
Cheng Xiaojin knew that Boss Lin was calculating.
Iron Maniac is finished. Glasses King gave a vague conclusion that no one can confirm the iron is fake in a short time. What's worse, Iron Maniac went crazy on the spot, and Boss Lin himself was also stunned.
Whether the other person believes in ghosts or not is irrelevant; everyone in this line of work believes in one word: evil.
The more mysterious and profound the origin of a talisman, the less it should be handled lightly. What Boss Lin needs now is not just to inspect the goods, but also to understand the third matter, the seventh matter, and how much Cheng Xiaojin actually knows.
Cheng Xiaojin leaned back in his chair, as if he had everything under control. In fact, his left hand was pressing down on his right wrist under the table to prevent his fingertips from trembling too noticeably.
He smiled at Boss Lin.
"Mr. Lin, you're a big businessman, let's not beat around the bush. You sent people to Liulichang, wasn't it all for those few pile sites? Now that I'm here, I don't intend to talk to you about just a piece of iron."
Mr. Lin slowly put down his teacup.
The room was quiet for a moment.
Iron Man was being held up by the wall, still muttering "water vat, water vat" under his breath.
Mr. Lin's chest heaved slightly, and he gestured for his bodyguards and secretary to step back to the door.
"Boss Cheng has some impressive skills."
He looked at Cheng Xiaojin, all the politeness in his eyes completely gone, leaving only the scrutiny of a businessman who had encountered a tough opponent.
"Since there's nothing wrong with the items, let's talk about the array diagram for the third item."