Lu Huaizhang knew he shouldn't ask, but he couldn't suppress his damned curiosity: "Why is Cui Jingya carrying an axe?"
Li Yiming said with an air of seriousness, "The storyteller at Tianjiekou said that Pangu used an axe to create the world."
"Is Cui Jingya Pangu?"
Li Yiming said smugly, "I heard from storytellers that one of Pangu's eyes became the sun and the other became the moon..."
"Cough cough cough! Cough cough cough cough cough cough!"
Lu Huaizhang coughed violently and glared at Li Yiming: "If you keep talking so recklessly, Di Ting will kill you sooner or later. I can't stop him."
“I know,” Li Yiming said matter-of-factly, “that’s why I took his gun.”
Lu Huaizhang closed his eyes tightly for a moment, inwardly blaming himself for being foolish: "What about these people below? Are they also members of the bureau meeting?"
“Yes,” Li Yiming explained enthusiastically, “Besides you, the richest person in the room is Section Chief Bai Jing’an. Don’t let his shabby appearance fool you, his clothes are all made of good material. Next is Secretary Jin Heming. Captain Shen and Di Ting are both penniless, but the poorest is Cheng Daiqing, whose clothes are patched inside…”
Li Yiming spoke with great enthusiasm, while Lu Huaizhang's face grew greener and greener as he listened.
"Alright, alright, stop talking." Lu Huaizhang shook the notebook, its pages filled with all sorts of symbols, not a single Chinese character. "Is this all you wrote down? What about the meeting minutes?"
"Ah." Li Yiming's eyes widened. "I haven't learned any of those slang terms you're using."
A dangerous glint suddenly appeared on Lu Huaizhang's round face: "Secret language?"
Li Yiming nodded: "In Lao Rong's (thief's) line of work, everyone uses slang and code words to keep accounts. A dot inside a gourd means 'a tough one,' a spiral means 'about to act,' a corner means 'fat sheep,' and a big fish means..."
Lu Huaizhang: "..."
Lu Huaizhang asked incredulously, "You say you can read, but is this all you know?"
"What else?" Li Yiming scratched his face with his finger.
Lu Huaizhang persisted, saying, "When I asked you to write, didn't you write the five characters 'Yunjiang Grand Teahouse'? And you wrote them very quickly."
Li Yiming chuckled: "My shack is right across from the Yunjiang Teahouse. I've been looking at it for over ten years, and I know these characters by heart. I wouldn't know how to write anything else."
Lu Huaizhang took two steps back and plopped down in the chair.
Li Yiming shrugged, showing no remorse: "I've never studied any of those supernatural and ghostly things you're talking about, so I don't know how to remember them. Don't be angry, sir. I've written down other things too, haven't I? Once you see this notebook, you'll immediately know who the corrupt officials and honest officials under you are..."
"Enough!" Lu Huaizhang's forehead was splattered with sparks. "Are you quite proud of yourself?"
“Hey, no,” Li Yiming retorted, “Why are you taking it out on me? I told you long ago that I didn’t want to be a stenographer, and that I wanted you to choose a job that suited me.”
Lu Huaizhang retorted sarcastically, "It's a real pity that the Ninth Bureau doesn't have a pickpocketing unit, Director Li!"
Besides showing everyone that "Li Yiming is still alive" and keeping her away from secrets, Lu Huaizhang had another unspoken reason for appointing Li Yiming as a stenographer.
Handwriting reveals a person's level of education. If Li Yiming really is a thief, then even if he can write, his handwriting certainly won't be very good.
Li Yiming can deliberately disguise his handwriting when he is writing normally; but shorthand is extremely fast, and once he writes too fast, many things will be exposed.
Who would have thought that this little thief had absolutely no level of education!
Lu Huaizhang felt a sense of unrequited love, and collapsed into his chair as if his bones had been removed, letting out a long sigh.
"well--!"
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