Chapter 174
Hearing Chu Yue's words, Zhang Nan smiled at her, then she looked at the people behind Chu Yue.
Several men stood together, with the most burly man at the head. Understanding Zhang Nan's intention, the most burly man pulled a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and walked out. Seeing him leave, the rest of the group followed him.
After everyone else left, Zhang Nan looked back at Chu Yue, looking her up and down. Then, she turned around and said, "Come in too."
Chu Yue was upset by her actions. She didn't know if it was her illusion, but she felt that Zhang Nan was a little cold towards her.
She walked in with a feeling of trepidation. The environment that had made her feel relaxed just a moment ago had become tense again. She had been imprisoned by her own family for a few days, and then sent to Ding Boyun's house arrest. Ding Boyun hadn't gotten angry with her, but every time she saw him, Chu Yue felt terrified. She didn't dare to look him in the eye, and could only pretend to be nice to him every day.
Chu Yue wasn't completely foolish. She knew she was useful, so she refused to tell Ding Boyun what he wanted to know most. She also deliberately told him a lot about what Ding Boyun had done in his past life and the consequences. Because those things really happened, Ding Boyun had to believe them no matter how much he didn't want to. Chu Yue said these things partly to get revenge on him for locking her up, and partly to buy time and find a chance to escape.
It was also an unintentional achievement. She didn't expect that what she said would subtly touch Ding Boyun's nerves. He was already worried about everything going wrong recently. Now after listening to Chu Yue's words, he wondered if he was repeating his old ways.
This was the aftereffect of being with Chu Yue for three years. Even though Ding Boyun had been reminding himself in his heart not to trust Chu Yue completely, the prophecies that had been confirmed one after another over the years had been subtly changing his mind.
He himself didn't even realize that as long as Chu Yue said "prophecy", he would believe it and be affected uncontrollably.
It was because he was influenced that Zhang Nan was able to find the opportunity to secretly take Chu Yue away.
Chu Yue felt that Zhang Nan was saving her, but in fact, she was still Zhang Nan's tool. There were some issues that Zhang Nan always couldn't help but care about, and she would feel uncomfortable if she didn't ask clearly.
Chu Yue is still useful, but her role has changed, so Zhang Nan's attitude towards her has also changed. In the past, she had to coax her because only by coaxing her could she get what she wanted, but now, coaxing her is useless, and scaring her is the most efficient way.
Coincidentally, this is what Zhang Nan is best at.
Sitting on the chair, looking at Chu Yue standing at the door, Zhang Nan laughed softly, the ridicule and contempt in his smile almost overflowing.
…
Zhang Nan thought Chu Yue could only hold on for half an hour, but he never expected that she could hold on until the evening.
Ding Boyun tortured her mentally. After all, he had to cooperate with Chu Yue for a long time, and he didn't dare to do anything to Chu Yue. But Zhang Nan was different. She just wanted to know a few answers. Even if she killed Chu Yue, she wouldn't care. It was a bit incredible that she could hold on for so long under the double torture of mental and physical torture.
Zhang Nan's methods were mostly threats, and she would only resort to them when she needed to let Chu Yue know that these threats would come true. Even then, Chu Yue would cry out in pain. When she saw Zhang Nan coming, she was like a mouse seeing a cat, with fear in her eyes and her body trembling. She trembled and said to Zhang Nan, "I don't know, I really don't know..."
The door had been closed for a long time. Two motionless figures appeared outside at some point. They were guarding outside, turning a deaf ear to the movements inside. Chu Yue only realized now that she should have trusted her intuition. She should not have gone with these people when they appeared.
Ding Boyun is a beast, and Zhang Nan is a devil. They are not good people.
She always fails to judge people well. It was like this in her last life, and it is still like this in this life.
She no longer had time to think about these things. She cried and hid backwards. It was not that she couldn't run, but Zhang Nan was holding a gun in his hand, and she didn't dare to run at all.
Listening to her crying and seeing that she looked like she wanted to burrow into the ground as long as she could get away from him, Zhang Nan looked at her seriously for a long time.
Suddenly, she smiled a genuine smile.
"I knew you had a secret."
"People who don't know won't just keep repeating 'I don't know' over and over again. They'll get more excited and say more. I'm even more curious now. If you'd rather be beaten than tell the truth, then this truth must be something more than just an ordinary truth."
She squatted down and lifted Chu Yue's chin with the muzzle of the gun. Just this one action frightened Chu Yue so much that her whole body trembled. Chu Yue looked up in panic and found that in addition to curiosity, Zhang Nan's expression also contained a hint of hidden fanaticism.
The two looked at each other. Zhang Nan didn't mind at all that Chu Yue saw her true face. She smiled and pulled Chu Yue's hand, holding her index finger tightly, making it impossible for her to break free. At this time, Zhang Nan's coaxing voice rang out.
"Come, dear child, tell your aunt your secret. Is it about your ring?"
This time, Chu Yue did not tremble. She froze and looked at Zhang Nan in disbelief, as if she was looking at something that shouldn't exist.
In fact, Chu Yue also thought so. She felt that no one would know that the ring had a secret. Maybe Nie Bai would know it, but Zhang Nan and Nie Bai were two people who could never have any intersection.
After seeing Chu Yue's reaction, Zhang Nan suddenly felt that other answers were no longer important.
Her hand holding the gun loosened and she muttered a few words to herself.
“It’s actually true.”
"So you weren't lying to me."
With her eyes downcast, she said these two sentences. Suddenly, she stood up and pointed her gun at Chu Yue coldly: "Tell me everything you know, or I will kill you now, take your ring, and study it slowly. After this afternoon, you should know that I am a man of my words, right?"
…
This night was definitely an unforgettable one for Chu Yue.
In her two lifetimes, she had never encountered such a dangerous scene, nor had she met such barbaric and terrifying people.
He was just an ordinary person. His trump card was seen by others and his vital point was pressed. Naturally, he could only accept the control of others. Even if she knew and told everything, she would probably die. But she didn't care about that. She wanted to live a little longer.
Her story was dull and lengthy, with no real meaning. Even if it was a rebirth that others would never experience in several lifetimes, after she had experienced it, it would become quite boring to others' ears.
At eleven o'clock in the middle of the night, Zhang Nan came out. She asked someone to go in, tie up Chu Yue, and then lock her in the cellar.
Under the moonlight, Zhang Nan didn't say anything, and the people around her didn't dare to talk to her. Only the leader could say a few words to her.
"Cousin, what should we do with this woman?"
Zhang Nan replied: "Shut her mouth, feed her one meal a day, and don't let her run away."
The big man nodded. Zhang Nan raised her eyelids and said, "Don't call me cousin from now on."
The big man hesitated. He called her "cousin" to appear affectionate, but they were actually about five generations apart. Since Zhang Nan said so, he readily changed his tone. After all, Zhang Nan was rich. As long as she kept paying him, he was willing to stay by her side and work for her, even if she asked him to call her "mom."
After watching them arrange Chu Yue and making sure that there would be no more accidents, Zhang Nan went back under the stars. The people here could only help her with some physical work, and as for the mental work, she had to find someone else.
As she hurried to her residence, she silently repeated a name in her mind.
Nie Bai, Nie Bai, Nie Bai.
If Chu Yue didn't lie, the necklace was most likely on Nie Bai, but he was the regiment commander and lived in the military area, so her hands couldn't reach that place.
It’s okay, don’t worry. As long as he is not alone, there must be a breakthrough in him.
——
As soon as Chu Jiujiu woke up, she rushed to the hotel and had breakfast with the exchange group.
The exchange group arrived in the middle of the night. They hadn't adjusted to the jet lag and didn't sleep well. Today was their first day here, so it was quite special. In the morning they had to meet with our leaders, take some photos, and be interviewed by reporters. Then everyone else could leave, but the person in charge had to stay and continue to greet the leaders.
In the afternoon, other members of the exchange group will have free time, and will go on various tours when everyone is together tomorrow.
Their itinerary had already been arranged by the reception teacher, and had been constantly revised, in an effort to ensure that they could eat and drink well and have the most enjoyable trip.
However, these people were obviously not used to such a tight schedule. There were a total of 18 people in the exchange group, and only three of them could speak Chinese, one was a level 10 Chinese master, and the other two were half-baked.
Logically speaking, this master is the most popular, however, Chu Jiujiu is the one who annoys her the most.
There are too many questions and too many ideas, and they come out one after another.
We cannot refuse him because it is said that he is the person with the lowest position but the most assets in this industry, which is what people often call the boss.
…
All the expenses for the exchange group come from him, and no one dares to offend him. As for Chu Jiujiu and the others, they cannot offend him even more. After all, this is a two-way exchange, and they also hope that this boss, who is stupid and rich, can pay part of their travel expenses.
The boss was an American named Mike. He acted like a troublemaker during breakfast, ordering a bunch of food, tasting each one, and wasting the rest. Chu Jiujiu was so angry seeing this that he got furious. It's true that one doesn't know how hard it is to get food until they work in the fields. A man like him would definitely not survive an hour in the countryside. He was beaten to death during the first welcoming banquet!
Chu Jiujiu doesn't like the boss, but the boss likes her very much because she speaks English well and surprisingly has no accent, which is almost exactly the same as American pronunciation. In addition, when she pretends to be enthusiastic, it is quite genuine, so he always comes to Chu Jiujiu to ask questions.
When meeting with the leader, the boss was quiet for a while, but when it was time for lunch, he started to act up again.
He insisted on eating local snacks and what ordinary people were eating. The teacher was annoyed by him. Finally, she took them to book a small restaurant. At the lunch table, the teacher sincerely pleaded with him not to cause trouble for everyone anymore. Of course, the teacher's original words were not like this. What she said was more acceptable.
After hearing this, Boss Mike nodded and said that this was just the first time and he would never go out to eat casually again.
The teacher was happy for just a few minutes when he heard him announce again that he wanted to go to Panjiayuan for a visit.
…
I don't know which local he'd heard about Panjiayuan from. He'd first told the Chinese people he absolutely had to see it, and then he'd explained it to the group. When they heard it was an antique distribution center, everyone's eyes lit up. Chu Jiujiu's mouth twitched, and she wondered if the Eight-Nation Alliance had behaved in the same way.
When I heard the word "antique", my eyes started to glow blue.
…
Just go, anyway, Panjiayuan has a mixture of real and fake items, and the real ones are basically from the Republic of China and the late Qing Dynasty. At the very least, they are copper coins from previous dynasties. These things are indeed antiques, but they are not very valuable in the antique world.
There are too many left and the rarity is too low.
The chances of the average person stumbling upon a good item are incredibly low. Chu Jiujiu considers herself exceptionally lucky. Having been there so many times, she's only managed to find two Qing Dynasty official kiln teapots, both from the same batch and looking identical. If she were to sell them, two hundred would be the most she could get.
Not to mention anything else, just talking about physical strength, Chu Jiujiu really admires this group of foreigners. They have been busy all morning, but they are not tired at all.
Chu Jiujiu was tired, but she had no choice but to follow, and had to deal with various problems from this group of people along the way.
She was just annoyed that her well-made plans had been completely ruined, and the teacher leading the team was just anxious.
She was afraid that something might happen if the exchange group traveled around like this, especially in a place like Panjiayuan where all kinds of people mixed together. They didn't bring any bodyguards with them, so she was more prepared for the worst.
The teacher was worried about spies causing trouble, but the spies hadn't anticipated the exchange group's capriciousness and their unconventional approach. As a result, the entire journey was relatively safe. It was only after arriving at Panjiayuan that a minor incident occurred.
Boss Mike was cheated.
He was a husky, and he disappeared as soon as he let go. No one saw him at all, and he ran away. He happily bought back an official seal. He told his colleagues that this was the official seal used by Wang Anshi, a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty, and it was more than a thousand years old. After that, he showed everyone the traces of wind and frost on it.
The teacher glanced at it but said nothing. The translator glanced at it but also said nothing. Chu Jiujiu glanced at it and, unable to hold back, said, "Wang Anshi was from the Song Dynasty, which was less than a thousand years ago. Besides, the inscription on it doesn't say an official title. It reads 'Prince's Treasure', which means it was something used by the Crown Prince."
The boss was stunned for a moment, "You mean, this is the prince of the Song Dynasty..."
Chu Jiujiu looked at him with a hint of pity in her eyes. "Do you think someone would use the real Crown Prince's seal to pretend it was a small official seal used by many people?"
boss:"……"
After three seconds of reaction, he finally realized what was going on. Then he turned around angrily and yelled in the local dialect: "Damn it, I'm going to find him!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
