Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
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Staying home idly while others go out on missions— this feeling was very uncomfortable for both Li Yuebai and Ye Qing.
It was like going from a world-saving hero to a rare, protected plant, needing to be carefully nurtured in a greenhouse, covered in a glass dome, and secured with multiple combination locks.
After receiving the system notification in the morning, Ye Qing carefully reviewed the details of the Yongfeng Company robbery and reported the situation to the bureau.
The report stated that a group of robbers planned to break into the Yongfeng Company headquarters this afternoon with guns, and that there were dormant vampire bodies in the Yongfeng Company warehouse, requiring extra vigilance.
When reporting, Ye Qing naturally wouldn’t mention that this information came from the system, nor would he say he was a transmigrator. He used his identity as a computer genius as cover, saying he intercepted all the information from someone else’s server.
Because Ye Qing had solved several vampire-related cases, his reports were taken seriously, and a large force was immediately dispatched to guard the area.
“So, this time we’ve gotten away with it?” Li Yuebai felt the matter had been resolved too easily. “It’s the first time I’ve encountered something so simple that I could resolve it just by staying home and not running around…”
He flopped onto the sofa, hugging a cushion. “Ah… is this what safety feels like? Teacher, it’s been so long since I’ve felt this way…”
“It’s just safe for now,” Ye Qing calmly reminded him. “Gao Chengyu’s men could come back for revenge at any time, so you’re not safe…”
Li Yuebai had no choice but to put down the cushion and sit up, smoothing his hair and sighing. “Hey Ye, can’t you let me be happy for a little while longer?”
He had no choice but to get up and continue his deduction.
Based on their previous speculation, Gao Chengyu was currently in Europe.
Therefore, domestic affairs were naturally left to his remaining followers.
Strangely enough, Gao Chengyu had considerable influence in the city, with a large number of men under his command. How come none of them had come to cause trouble for Gu Xisha (Li Yuebai) yet?
Gu Xisha had already collected a considerable amount of criminal information on Gao Chengyu, enough to fill a bookshelf. Later, to avoid danger, Li Yuebai reviewed all the information on his subordinates and memorized it.
Now, these people were all quiet and hadn’t caused any trouble.
Were they waiting for something?
Li Yuebai, holding the information, fell into deep thought. Before long, his gaze was drawn to Ye Qing’s computer screen.
Ye Qing’s screen was displaying the city’s breaking news.
“Hello everyone! This afternoon, a batch of newly unearthed Ming Dynasty artifacts will be exhibited at the City Museum!” On the screen, the female host beamed with excitement, her voice brimming with enthusiasm: “These artifacts were recently unearthed in the suburbs of this city. They date back to the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty, during the Longqing era, and include inscribed gold ingots, kingfisher feather headdresses, jade plaques, jade hairpins… and gold wine pots, etc…”
Ming Dynasty artifacts… Li Yuebai glanced at them a few more times, involuntarily recalling the book “Examination of Blood Charms” in his hand. The photographer hadn’t disappointed either; the camera panned across a dazzling array of artifact photos, very captivating. Li Yuebai could almost picture the scene of people eagerly buying tickets to see them.
Having learned from their previous cases, the two of them instantly tensed up at the mere mention of “artifacts.” Ye Qing tapped a few keys on the keyboard, and all the other information about the exhibition appeared on the screen.
Pictures, videos… interviews with the archaeological team… they reviewed them one by one, finding nothing suspicious.
“Anything else?” Li Yuebai was still a little worried. “The official video didn’t show all the artifacts. What if there were paparazzi or something…”
“Yes.” Ye Qing found a freelance journalist’s blog.
This blogger was an exceptionally fast freelance journalist. Whenever there was a big news story, he would try his best to sneak in and take photos, then publish them on his blog. Because his blog was relatively private and not many people saw it, it hadn’t been shut down. This time, he had managed to photograph some unreleased artifacts.
The photos were large and clear, seemingly taken at the cleanup site after the excavation. The archaeological team members had laid everything out together, and the photo showed a group photo— they were indeed all genuine and valuable items, a dazzling array of gold and jade. The most eye-catching were the gold pots and jade plaques that had been officially announced.
Next to them were several pottery figurines, which looked much simpler, not to mention that one of the figurines seemed to be carved from wood, even more rudimentary.
That thing was about the size of a palm, brightly colored, and looked like a human figure.
“Zoom in here.” Li Yuebai jumped up from the sofa, pointing at the human figure.
“This really is just a statue, not a dormant entity.” Ye Qing frowned but obediently paused the zoom. He could see clearly that this was definitely not a dormant entity.
These past few days, the two of them had been obsessed with dormant entities, constantly searching for them in videos. Li Yuebai had probably become overly sensitive, assuming every human figure he saw was a dormant entity.
“No, teacher, am I that stupid?” Li Yuebai said speechlessly, “I know it’s just a wooden carving, but the style is clearly wrong!”
After zooming in and making some adjustments, the image of the wooden carving was finally clearly revealed to the two of them.
It was a smiling human figure, colorful, wearing a pointed hat and pointed shoes, with loose, comical clothes. Its nose was high, pointed, and slightly hooked, and its mouth stretched wide when it smiled. Strange patterns were carved on its face, making it look somewhat frightening.
“This is not a Chinese artifact at all,” Li Yuebai asserted.
History and literature were intertwined; although he wasn’t a professional in this field, he could still discern the stylistic differences. No matter how he looked at it, this wooden carving was clearly a clown from late medieval Europe.
A clown, or Joker, Fool… was a figure used by rulers in ancient courts for amusement, often played by dwarfs or oddballs, sometimes translated as “jester.”
There was also a video on the freelance journalist’s blog, which Ye Qing also watched.
The video was blurry, but it showed archaeologists routinely scanning the artifacts with a metal detector. Whenever the detector detected metal objects, such as swords, gold or silver wine jugs, it would beep.
The clown carving was placed with other ceramic figurines, and strangely, when the metal detector scanned them, it also emitted a faint beeping sound, which quickly disappeared, and the archaeologists didn’t pay much attention to it.
“Very suspicious,” Ye Qing admitted.
Could there be some metal component hidden inside the clown carving?
“It’s nine in the morning.” Li Yuebai glanced at his watch. “The news said the city museum exhibition starts at three in the afternoon. There’s plenty of time.”
“Three in the afternoon?” Ye Qing asked, a little confused. “There’s something wrong with that time.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I just checked the city museum’s internal website and found that their original exhibition time was 2 PM, but it was changed to 3 PM before the announcement.”
“Postponed?” Li Yuebai thought for a moment, “Logically speaking, it’s common to postpone the time due to insufficient preparation… but it still feels a bit strange…”
This matter was strange in every way, and they must go to the scene to investigate.
The main force of the Municipal Bureau had already gone to guard Yongfeng Company, so of course, they had to go to the museum themselves.
“Let’s go, let’s go, take our weapons, let’s go to the museum.” Li Yuebai called to Ye Qing.
“Going out?” Ye Qing frowned in confusion, “Aren’t you afraid of encountering danger?”
Just now, Li Yuebai had been vehemently instructing Ye Qing to stay at home and hide, absolutely not to go out and cause trouble, and absolutely not to give the dormant entity a chance to invade him.
“It’s not that we can’t act, but we can’t act alone.” Li Yuebai considered it seriously. “It’s safer to be together.”
In his more than twenty years of life, Li Yuebai had always followed a passive defensive approach, only moving when the enemy moved. But in this world, that wouldn’t work. Something was likely to happen at the museum, and if that happened, he would face even more trouble. It was better to take the initiative and stop what shouldn’t happen.
At ten o’clock in the morning, they arrived at the city museum.
The city museum was large. After entering the gate, there was a clean little square. The exhibition halls were divided into three sections, with a simple and grand architectural style. Behind the three exhibition halls was an office building with excellent security measures.
There were very few people there this morning, and it was deserted everywhere.
Ye Qing and Li Yuebai quickly found the curator.
The curator was about to retire and had an exhibition to worry about in the afternoon. So he hadn’t planned to see anyone, but when his secretary informed him that it was the police officer who had called last time, he decided to meet him.
“After much thought, I realize I’ve still troubled you with what I discussed on the phone last time.” The curator, with his refined appearance and undiminished demeanor despite his age, said, “This minor incident, without any loss of life or property, really isn’t worth your police resources. I apologize, officers.”
“Not at all,” Li Yuebai replied solemnly. “Although there’s no immediate loss of life or property, there’s no guarantee it won’t trigger further repercussions. Therefore, we will thoroughly investigate the matter and give you a satisfactory answer.”
“That’s good, that’s good.” The curator said, “So, what brings you two here this time…”
“Regarding this afternoon’s exhibition, we received intelligence that some criminals might be eyeing the exhibited artifacts.” Li Yuebai fabricated the story without batting an eye. “So, we wanted to consult the curator about the specific details of the artifacts.”
“Oh.” The curator frowned. “These artifacts unearthed from the Ming Dynasty tombs are indeed valuable, but our security measures are quite stringent. Of course, it would be even better if we could get help and support from the Municipal Public Security Bureau.”
“I have a question I’d like to ask the curator,” Li Yuebai said, pulling out some documents. “The documents show that the city museum’s previous exhibitions all started at 2 PM. Why is today’s exhibition starting at 3 PM?”
“Oh, it’s nothing,” the curator replied. “Because these are newly unearthed artifacts, many of them are damaged. So we’ve temporarily invited experts from the National Museum to do the restoration work. Since the restoration work still needs some finishing touches, we’ve postponed the exhibition by an hour.”
Restoration work…
Li Yuebai’s heart tightened again.
When the artifacts were unearthed, there were no unusual reports from the archaeologists.
If there was a dormant entity inside that clown wood carving, it should have sought a host. Since it didn’t choose archaeologists as its host… then its next target was very likely the restoration experts closest to it.
“Could we observe the artifact restoration process? It would also help us better protect the artifacts this afternoon,” Li Yuebai suggested.
The curator readily agreed.
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