On the mountain road, I heard a middle-aged man outside the car call my name, and my heart skipped a beat.
Just a minute ago, I thought these people were antique dealers who had failed in their scheme and were now trying to rob the artifacts by force.
But the other party clearly called out my name, which means that this scheme was not aimed at Monkey. Rather, the other party had found out about our relationship and knew that if Monkey needed something, he would definitely come to me, so they used him to set this trap for me.
But I'm just a small pawnshop owner. I've never made enemies with anyone, nor have I ever withheld any valuable items. What are these people's motives for coming to me?
When the monkey heard someone outside call my name, he reacted even more strongly: "Shenxing, we're brothers who've been through thick and thin together, how could you team up with outsiders to cheat me out of my money?"
I glared at you and cursed, "Get lost! If I really wanted to scam you, I could just make up a story and sell you the glass ashtrays in the store for 200,000! Why go through all this trouble? Do you think someone as stupid as you is worth me going through all this trouble?"
The monkey thought for a moment and inexplicably felt that what I said made a lot of sense: "That's true! If you need me, I'd even give you my life, let alone money! So what are they trying to do?"
"I don't know, these people probably have shady dealings!"
I looked around, but there wasn't even a weapon in the car for self-defense. All I could do was keep waving my phone, hoping to find a signal as soon as possible.
At that moment, someone outside bent down and poked around a couple of times before pulling open the car door.
The middle-aged man who called my name saw the car door open, grabbed my shoulder with one hand, and pulled me out.
Seeing how violent the other person was, I knew he meant no harm. As I was being dragged out of the car, I punched him in the face.
When I was a child, my grandfather taught me some traditional martial arts. Although I was not very good at it, I never lost a fight during my school years because of my rudimentary skills, and I was quite famous in school.
But this middle-aged man was a master; his reaction was far faster than mine. He simply tilted his head slightly to dodge my fist, then grabbed my wrist and twisted it, causing my body to be turned around, and a tearing pain shot through my shoulder.
"You bastards, how dare you bully my brother!"
When the monkey saw me being dragged away, it rushed to the car like a crazy teddy bear, jumped up and delivered a flying kick to the middle-aged man.
Immediately afterwards, he had a burly man grab his collar in mid-air and lift him up in his hand.
"monkey!"
I saw that the monkey was also being controlled, and I turned around to try to break free, but the middle-aged man slammed a pair of handcuffs onto my wrists, pulled me toward the SUV, and said in a deep voice, "We don't want to hurt anyone, so you'd better behave yourself and not force me to take action!"
When the monkey saw me being dragged away, it shouted, "Hey! Aren't you trying to rob me? Don't hurt my brother! I'll give you money, and you can drive the car away too!"
Judging from their skills, I knew they were no ordinary people. Struggling, I asked the middle-aged man, "Who are you? Why are you arresting me?"
"I've been asked to see you."
As soon as the middle-aged man finished speaking, his companion rushed up and taped my mouth shut, then put a hood over my head and shoved me into the car.
Before I was pushed into the car, I heard voices outside asking, "What should we do with this Chihuahua?"
"Let's take them together!"
...
I was wearing a hood, and as the vehicle swayed constantly, my vision was completely black.
Apart from the engine, the car was unusually quiet; the people who had arrested me did not exchange any words.
At that moment, my heart was pounding with nervousness.
Now it seems that the other party's purpose is very clear: they set a trap for the monkey, using him as bait to lure me out to take a look, confirm that I was in the car, and then set an ambush to arrest me.
On the way to my kidnapping, I went through all the bad things I had done in my life, but I couldn't think of anything that would make my enemies go to such lengths as to kidnap me.
The vehicle bumped along for more than ten minutes before gradually becoming stable. Judging from the time, we should have already left the village.
I had absolutely no idea where these people were taking me.
After what seemed like an eternity, the shaking of the vehicle finally stopped, and I was helped out of the car.
Throughout this process, no one communicated with me.
Walking, stairs, elevator.
I was helped along the way, and I felt the handcuffs being unlocked. Then I was pushed forward a few steps, and I heard the sound of a door closing.
After removing the hood and looking around, I saw a dimly lit room, about ten square meters in size.
The room is square, with a table in the center. There are no windows on the walls, but there are four identical doors.
The monkey was pushed into the room with me. He took off his hood and looked around blankly: "Shenxing, what's going on? Where have we been taken?"
"I don't know!"
I was completely confused at this point. When the middle-aged man kidnapped me, he clearly said that someone wanted to see me.
But there's not a soul in sight here, so who could be here?
"Could we have been kidnapped and taken to a mental hospital?!"
The monkey appeared very uneasy in this unfamiliar environment, and walked to the nearest door, as if to turn the handle.
"Monkey! Don't touch the door!"
I suddenly spoke up, calling out to Monkey, and looked at him with a serious expression: "This room is a bit eerie. Don't do anything reckless, or you'll get yourself into trouble!"
The monkey jerked its hand away from the handle as if it had been electrocuted, and asked with a wild imagination, "Young Master Duan, don't scare me! Are we still in the mountains and have run into some evil spirit?"
"Don't guess wildly, we were indeed taken away, but the layout of this room is strange!"
At this point, my attention was focused on the table in front of me.
There are eight items on this table.
A bronze incense burner with upturned ears, a sandalwood paperweight with a qilin design, a black crystal plaque symbolizing peace and tranquility, a red agate official's hat-shaped bead, a jade pendant depicting pine trees and cranes, a bamboo-carved fan with floral design, and a bronze Buddha statue with three heads and six splits.
The seven items mentioned above are arranged in a ring and are all genuine artifacts of high artistic value. Although they are all from the Ming and Qing dynasties, any one of these seven items could easily fetch at least 200,000 to 300,000 yuan.
Especially the Qilin paperweight and the Xuande incense burner, which would be considered "treasures" in an ordinary antique shop.
Besides these seven items, there is an hourglass in the very center of the table, with sand slowly falling from it.
The monkey was also attracted by these things. It picked up the Buddha statue on the table and examined it for a moment. Then it looked at me in surprise and said, "Young Master Duan, this bronze statue has a purplish-brown patina and raised cinnabar spots. It looks like an antique that has never been exposed to water or soil!"
I nodded: "Everything on this table is a genuine, high-quality product."
After hearing my words, the monkey stared wide-eyed at the things on the table: "Damn! What do these robbers mean? They haven't even shown themselves, yet they've put out so many antiques and specifically asked for you by name. Could it be that they've gone to all this trouble just to avoid paying for the appraisal and have you kidnapped to be their free appraiser?"
I had a rough idea of the kidnappers' intentions: "They're not here for authentication! The antiques on this table correspond to the Eight Gates of Qimen Dunjia."
The monkey scratched his head: "Eight gates? But there are only seven antiques on this table!"
My gaze swept over the antiques on the table, and a passage from the notes flashed through my mind: "The arrangement of these objects is the Human Plate of Qimen Dunjia, corresponding to the Bagua of this Palace. This kind of formation with one missing gate is called the Seven Missing Life Sha. If the person affected wants to escape, they need to find the missing Death Gate."
The monkey was somewhat horrified by what I said: "After all that talk, isn't it just... courting death?!"
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