"This is not a suitable place to talk about cooperation. I'll take you somewhere," the man said as he took out some money and gave it to the driver to compensate for the damage to his car. Then he led me and Fatty into another car.
Having no way to refuse, we had no choice but to go with him. The atmosphere was a bit strange all the way. Fatty resented this man because of what had just happened. As for me, I was completely in the dark.
"My name is Yan Yan," the man introduced himself. "You're related to what we've been investigating recently. We need your cooperation."
Investigation? Related to me? What on earth was he talking about!
I interrupted him. "Mr. Yan, I have no idea what you people do. But you must have a reason to find me. Telling me now that it's related to something is hardly an explanation."
Yan Yan seemed to have anticipated my question and continued, "We've checked your information and sent people to follow you. Even when you went back to your ancestral home, you were under surveillance." Yan Yan said this as if surveillance was perfectly justifiable.
"You've been surveilling me?!"
"We noticed something fishy, so we surveilled you. There was no ill intent. I believe you've already obtained the Yin - Yang Manuscript." Yan Yan looked at me like a boss in control of the whole situation.
"I don't know where the jade bottle came from. You received the jade bottle, and I received the fragments. I think someone is manipulating everything behind the scenes, trying to obtain something."
The fragments were in Yan Yan's hands? Sent by an unknown person? Exactly the same as the bottle I received.
"You suspect someone is using us."
"Yes. You received something, and I received the same kind of thing."
For no apparent reason, I suddenly had a connection with this man named Yan Yan. There seemed to be an invisible hand pushing us together.
Fatty watched our conversation like an outsider. Not knowing what to say, he just stared at us.
Some things suddenly made sense.
"I also need to tell you one thing. I was the one who had your shop burned down."
"It's okay. We're on the same boat now. Wait, what did you say! You burned down my shop! I'll strangle you!" It took me a while to understand what he said. I was so angry that my hands were shaking.
That was the shop I had been carefully running!
This Yan Yan, aside from talking about this incident, said nothing else! What a taciturn guy! It was so infuriating!
"So, now we need to cooperate because someone is using us, right?"
"Yeah."
"You're not the mastermind behind this, right?"
"Yeah."
"Damn it, what's with your attitude?" Fatty was so angry at Yan Yan's evasive answers. Why was this guy so arrogant? Just because he had some skills.
Yan Yan looked at Fatty but said nothing. Fatty was seething with anger. "Only our Brother Mu has such a good temper. If it were me, I'd rather die than cooperate with this taciturn guy."
Having obtained important clues, there was nothing more to say. "Mr. Yan, since we've reached an agreement, I, Chen Mu, won't go back on my word. I'll do what I said. Now I need to go back to the antique shop. Goodbye."
I opened the car door and walked away. Fatty got out of the car right after me.
"Brother Mu, why didn't you refuse him?" Fatty asked me. "That guy is not a good person. We could have refused to cooperate with him."
"Fatty, this is not a coincidence. It's a premeditated plot. We need a strong partner. You heard what Uncle said. Bad luck will keep coming." I said calmly. "Yan Yan is not a bad person. That's my intuition."
Fatty didn't say anything else and just followed me back to the antique shop.
The walls were covered in black ash. Many antiques had been burned, but fortunately, most of them were saved. Liu Er said it happened so suddenly, but it was already a great achievement to have saved so many.
Yan Yan's move was really ruthless!
"Boss! You're finally back!" Liu Er pushed the door open and saw me and Fatty. He asked where we had been.
"Liu Er, do you know where the fire started?" Liu Er was the first to discover the fire, so he should know.
Liu Er averted his eyes and stammered, unable to speak clearly.
I looked at Liu Er angrily. "I trusted you, Liu Er. But why did you do this!" The incident was so sudden. I hadn't been in the shop recently, and there was nothing for Liu Er to deliver. And he wasn't my neighbor. It was simply impossible for him to discover the fire so quickly.
"Boss, listen to me. A man in black told me that you had offended bad luck recently, and burning the shop would solve the problem. So, I did as he said," Liu Er explained.
Sure enough, Yan Yan hadn't lied to me. He had arranged this.
"Liu Er, by doing this, you were ruining my interests for others. You can go. I won't need you to deliver things for me anymore." At this critical moment, the fewer people involved, the better.
Liu Er looked at me regretfully. For their safety, I had no other choice. "You can go. Don't come back again."
Fatty looked at me in surprise. Logically, things shouldn't have been like this.
"Boss, I did this for your own good," Liu Er said. "I know I was wrong. Please don't let me go."
"Fatty, give him the money and let him go." I didn't look at Liu Er anymore and turned to tidy up the messy items.
Fatty took Liu Er out and comforted him. "Wait for him to calm down in a couple of days. It's okay. He's been through a lot recently. Don't take it to heart."
Liu Er left half - believing and half - doubting after taking the money. Fatty came back and helped me tidy up the antiques that were hardly recognizable.
"Brother Mu, you already knew it was Yan Yan who sent someone to do this. Why did you still fire Liu Er?" Fatty was very curious about my decision.
"Fatty, not too many people should be involved in this. Liu Er has come into contact with the jade bottle," I explained. Fatty nodded and said, "I see."
This incident was clearly aimed at me. It wasn't good to involve others. Fatty was already involved in the incident, so there was no need to worry about him. But others shouldn't be dragged into it.
I've seen many strange things in my life, but this kind of unrecorded incident was the first for me. I was going to cooperate with someone I didn't know well. Although I wasn't sure how things would turn out, judging from Yan Yan's skills, there shouldn't be any major problems.
"Fatty, go to sleep after you're done tidying up. We'll meet up with Yan Yan later."
Fatty stood up, patted the dust off his body, and looked at me meaningfully. Then he turned and left.
I took out the Yin - Yang Manuscript and flipped through the adventure experiences of my ancestors. I was about to embark on an adventure myself. I could even write my own experiences in this book later.
I kept flipping through the Yin - Yang Manuscript. The records on it were closely related to what I was about to do. Yan Yan also had something similar.
I didn't know exactly what to do, but at least this wasn't a bad thing. I'd find out about the bad luck that Uncle had never been able to escape from!
After flipping through it for a while, I couldn't resist the drowsiness. I closed the manuscript and covered it with a thick book.