straight to heaven

The antique city provided by the cleaning is in the suburbs, and the joint is at the gate. I have to find out which storefront it is, and I only know what it is called.He said that he had only seen it once, and he couldn't remember the name of the store.

But missing the garbage truck seemed to be a bad omen. As soon as I started the navigation and drove into the downtown area, I encountered a huge traffic jam with no end in sight.More than half an hour later, I managed to get out of it, and was rear-ended by a Wuling van on the elevated road.

I didn't violate the rules, it was Wuling's driver who held the handlebar with one hand and quarreled on the phone. He was walking in a daze, and then he got on the ass of the Lexus car.I called the police, took photos, called a tow truck, and found that the bread did not have third-party liability insurance, and the insurance company was not responsible for the claim.The owner of the car was crying, claiming that his family still owed 200 million yuan in debt, and even if he chopped off his hands, he would not be able to pay for the repairs.

After the stalemate between the two sides for nearly two hours, I really didn't have the patience to argue with this rascal. Fortunately, I called Xiaomi before, and he came to the police station to take over after me.

It was past twelve noon when we set off for the antique city again.

The sun was very strong, I just wanted to take a taxi on the side of the road, but found that the battery of my mobile phone was dead.The weather alternates between hot and cold, and the battery shrinks especially when the season changes.

All kinds of force majeure seem to be forcing me to turn back, but I am still rebellious in my [-]s, and I am not.

I don't have cash on me, but I still have a subway card.When I opened the navigation, I remembered the specific location. I walked two kilometers to Line 10. After [-] stops, I transferred to Line [-]. I got off after [-] minutes. I walked another [-] kilometers and saw "Tiandi Antique City" A few golden paint words, the sun has slipped to the west.

I passed the tobacco shop at the entrance, and saw the wall clock on the wall through the glass door.

...It is already four fifty.

In May, the temperature difference between day and night is huge. I left my coat in the camp and sweated profusely throughout the day, but now I feel dry mouth and chills.

I took a rest on the stone steps in front of the Tobacco Hotel, maybe because I looked too embarrassed, the owner took out a bottle of mineral water from the freezer and handed it to me.

"Thank you." I was a little surprised: "I'll come over this weekend and return the money to you."

The shopkeeper waved his hand: "My son is about the same age as you. He works hard in the mines on the west side. I see you as if I saw him. Don't worry about the two dollars, young man."

Hearing this, I unscrewed the cap of the bottle and poured it vigorously, and soon most of the bottle went down. After a pause, I asked: "Excuse me, are there many stores called what pavilion in this antique city?"

The shopkeeper laughed: "Can't there be too many? It's everywhere! In this hall and that hall, there are obviously a group of vulgar people who are open to money and insist on arty."

"Then," I still didn't give up, "It's not a good reputation for dumping wooden goods. Have you ever heard of such a store?"

The shopkeeper pondered, as if thinking, and counted on his fingers for a long time: "The antique city is divided into four streets, east, west, north, and south. The shops dealing in wood are relatively deep. I don't know much. If I have to say it, I heard Zhang Er in the north and Lao Wu in the west like to stick pots *digging mushrooms*."

These are all slang words, the shopkeeper probably misunderstood, thinking I was looking for "spider*".I couldn't laugh or cry, "I didn't mean that."

The shopkeeper was taken aback, and rubbed his chin in embarrassment: "Ah, then I suggest you go to the shops on South Street and East Street."

After 5 minutes, I thanked the owner and went to find someone with a half bottle of mineral water.

Turned around in the south and found nothing, and then changed to the east.The setting sun burned the clouds so hot that only half of my face was left. I finally found a store called "Penglai Pavilion" at the end of the East Street.

The boss is thin and short, with an unlit cigarette in his mouth: "Handsome guy, what do you want to see?"

There are a lot of wooden beads under the glass table, but I only noticed a towel on the wicker chair, and there is something hidden under the towel, with undulating lines, square and palm-sized.

"Boss, you don't want to hide good goods." I didn't know anything, so I pretended to show Pei Yanlai's car keys inadvertently.

Only then did he look me in the eye, and smiled hypocritically and eagerly: "Then you are in the right place. Take a look at these models, they are all priceless things, and I don't show them to ordinary people."

I didn't reply, "Don't fool me just because I'm young, there are no rare things on the table." I glanced at the rattan chair: "That towel is covered, can you show me?"

The boss looked a little subtle for a moment, but seeing my firm attitude, he couldn't bear to let go of the customer who drove the car, so he lifted the towel to reveal the box.

"What kind of treasure is this? It's just a broken beech box. Look at it if you don't believe me."

I'll take it.

After only one day, the surface of the box has a few scratches and oil stains.Worst of all, the lock was violently dismantled.This seam was too tempting for me, I hesitated for a few seconds, and then tried to cover it tightly again.

Boss: "My son bought it from other places. He has bad eyesight, so he thought it was some kind of treasure. I broke it open in the morning, but I didn't expect the inside to be even more shabby, only..."

After a day of running around, I finally couldn't control my bad mood.

I punched him in the face, his body was lighter than paper, he was lying on the side in pain, and the non-stop nonsense stopped abruptly.

"Your son?" I put the box in my pocket: "Do you know what it means to conceal the proceeds of crime? The family has already squatted in, and you are still stubborn."

After the boss was beaten, his eyes were fierce, but his arrogance faded when he heard the words: "You, what do you mean?"

I loosened my shoulders and neck tiredly, and stepped out of the store: "It means, you'd better be found out if you have nothing else to do. If you need to defend yourself, Dingrun welcomes you at any time."

Pei Yanlai's Lexus was dragged to be repaired, and the phone was still out of battery, so I had to go back the same way, and it was past ten o'clock when I arrived at the office.The leather shoes ruined my feet, and my heels were sore through the socks.

Only the first floor of Dingrun is still lit.

I opened the door and went in. Judy happened to be leaning against the front desk in the dark and making a phone call.

The conversation has come to an end, and I vaguely heard her say that the quarterly earnings are not bad.My English is not bad. When I first caught a certain word, I started to be in a trance, almost thinking it was an auditory hallucination caused by exhaustion.

Judy hung up the phone, saw me, and waved her hand: "Are you back? I've heard about everything, thank you for your hard work, Lin."

The words I just heard gradually formed a mysterious connection with some things, my mind was empty, and I couldn't hold back for a while.

"Judy," I asked hesitantly, "Lawyer Pei... Did he mention me to you?"

She was taken aback: "Why do you ask that?"

I recalled: "I introduced myself on the first day we met. At that time, your expression was not quite right."

"God!" She looked surprised: "Are you all so sharp? I have to say, in a sense, you and Pei are quite similar."

I am noncommittal.

"Well, I didn't mention it." She shrugged, rummaged through her bag for a long time, finally found a business card, and handed it to me: "Three years ago, my friend and I, and Pei, we three , invested in a bar in North America."

I took it, the light was dim, and I blinked hard to see the words on the business card.

Plain English, the owner of the business card has an authentic North American name, and the subtitle is his job, bar manager.

The name of the bar is...

"The bar is called Monticule," she continued, "Pei picked it up on the day he drank too much. Maybe I was thinking too much. I'm sorry if I offended you."

I was suddenly speechless.

Judy obviously didn't take it seriously, she looked at her watch, and snapped on the clasp of her purse: "Lin, I still have an appointment, so I'm leaving first. You study slowly."

The sound of high heels faded away, I even forgot to say goodbye.

Obviously, I was so tired just a second ago that I wanted to collapse on the spot, but at this moment, it seemed like I had been injected with an overdose of adrenaline.

I frantically connected to the public power bank at the front desk, and after successfully turning it on, I turned on the translator with cold fingers.

The home page of Chinese interpretation is expanded.

Monticule——

Montique is often translated as a small hill or hill.

Small hill……

hill?

Oh shit.

Kind of outrageous.

...But what if this is true?

At exactly eleven o'clock, the electric switch on the first floor was pulled on time. My vision was dark, but my perception became sensitive, and I could even accurately capture a trembling flying insect.

The mobile phone is automatically connected to the mobile data, and a message pops up in the mailbox that the expired files will be cleaned up.In the blink of an eye, the tentacles of my nerves extended to the corners of my long-standing memory, and an incredible idea came to my mind.

This is a very subtle premonition, similar to the divine gift in myths and legends.Swallowing nervously, fingertips trembling, I clicked on one of the emails.

It was ten seconds of utter chaos.

Ten seconds later, I dropped my phone and rushed to the second floor.

Pei Yanlai only turned on a warm yellow but dim floor lamp in the office.I slammed open the door recklessly, and the full moonlight poured in from the floor-to-ceiling windows, mixing into a very deep blue, and the taillights of cars speeding by were not far away.

Pei Yanlai stood in front of the window with a teacup in his hand.He didn't seem surprised and just looked at me.

Silence almost swallows us up.

I seem to be standing in front of a huge door. When I am unconscious, I am hesitant, frightened, and impatient because of the unknown.But in this world there are no uncorrupted sculptures or unexplorable abysses. The truth is like a keyhole gradually revealing on a door, and I grasped the key in the long-distance storm.

I held the box in my hand and half-raised it, like the first time we meet again after many years.

"Pei Yanlai," my vocal cords were extremely tense, and my voice was hoarse when I spoke: "What is this?"

Downstairs, I saw an email from my senior sister that I had ignored a few weeks ago.The palm-sized rough wooden box is almost identical except for the scribbled decorations. I made it myself when I was in college, and I left it behind when I was done, but it sold for a sky-high six-figure price at a charity auction.It's just that the buyer's surname is Feng, and he is a proxy auctioneer.

Pei Yanlai dropped the cup on the table with a muffled sound.

"Open it and have a look." He leaned against the floor-to-ceiling windows and answered irrelevant questions.

My hands were shaking, because the light in the room was too dark, I couldn't see clearly, and I turned the box upside down.

Pandora's box finally reveals the unknown inside.

Before the eyes that were dull in the dim light, the ears caught a few crisp sounds, and they hit the ground messily, and the culprit rolled to my feet.

The sound changed from loud to quiet, and soon stopped.

The sky is beautiful, the clouds are flying away, the moonlight is suddenly bright, and the moonlight is mercifully covering the cold and hard floor, everything escapes without a shadow.

What lay on the floor gleamed silver... three unchanging coins.

? Aleph Zero

[Highlight] Ma Hong's English name was changed to Judy for fear of causing misunderstanding in the following text.