Part 2 Chapter 17: Cooking a Pot of Soup
When Qin Yiheng heard me ask, he groaned and shook his head. I didn't know if he wanted to express that he didn't know or didn't want to say it. Then, he picked up the shoe that was still by the door, knocked it on the ground twice, and a small object actually fell out of the shoe.
He handed me the thing that fell out without explaining it, but carefully moved to the other shoe, looked around, picked it up, and knocked it on the ground twice. However, nothing fell out of this shoe.
His action stunned me . Could it be that there were some detachable parts hidden in my shoes? I took the thing in my hand and looked at it. It was not big, black, and I couldn't tell what it was made of by the feel. Judging from the weight, it should not be metal. There were points on all sides of the thing, and it was roughly a rhombus.
I pinched it with my fingertips and it was quite prickly.
My shoes are a famous brand that are handmade in Italy. This thing obviously shouldn't be in my shoes.
After thinking about it, I understood that this thing must have been put in there by Qin Yiheng.
And as things stand now, isn't it obvious that this thing is harmful to people?
If this is placed in a shoe and someone steps in it without knowing it, it is inevitable that a hole will be pierced on the sole of the foot.
I pointed at the thing in my hand and asked him. Sure enough, he nodded and said, "I put this thing in here specially last night." After that, he came over to take the thing, and then said that this thing has a great origin and many people rarely see it. In the art of alchemy, this thing is called "Zhuangcier" and is made of old jujube wood. Although it is not a very difficult object, because its use is really special, many people, even those in the industry, have only heard of or seen it, but almost no one has used it.
According to legend, this "Zhuangcier" is specially used to stop the ghost messengers from passing by and submit petitions. The user roughly calculates the place where the ghost messengers pass by through the method of exploring the ghost, and arranges the "Zhuangcier" in the shape of the five elements and places it in the middle of the road. It is said that if a ghost messenger passes by and steps on the "Zhuangcier", he will be blocked here and stay for a while. At that time, the person who arranged it will throw a handful of paper money into the sky, judge whether the ghost messenger is here by the direction of the paper money flying, and then quickly burn the petition in front of the "Zhuangcier". You must close your eyes when burning, and you cannot wear any red clothes on that day, otherwise the person may have been hooked away before the petition is burned.
In ancient times, no metaphysical scholar would use this trick unless they had no other choice, because it was too dangerous. Not to mention that provoking the Yinchai was already a matter of life and death, and the "Zhuangcier" could also stop a passing evil spirit. The person who filed the petition could not carry any evil-repelling items or use ghost-exorcising techniques, so if he ran into an evil spirit, he would basically sacrifice his life. Therefore, the method of petitioning with "Zhuangcier" was only used during years of drought or when plague was rampant. People were forced into a desperate situation and were willing to take the risk and sacrifice themselves for others.
He put the "thorns" in his shoes as a workaround. If someone really came to put on his shoes in the middle of the night, he would definitely be caught, or at least leave some clues.
After saying that, Qin Yiheng picked up the touched shoe and put it away, and asked me to pack my things and go back to the hotel.
In fact, there was nothing much to pack. There were only two folding chairs in the living room. They were not valuable, so there was no need to take them back. Besides, I didn't know if I would have to come back watch, so it was better to leave them here just in case.
I went to the bathroom to wash my face briefly, then followed Qin Yiheng back.
When I was leaving, I wanted to pick up my other shoe and take it back, but he shook his head and told me to put it down, saying that it was of no use in taking it back.
His tone was still very serious. I thought this thing might be dangerous, so I had no choice but to give it up with reluctance. I felt so painful inside.
When we got back to the hotel, Qin Yiheng didn't do anything. Instead, he asked me to go to bed first and said we could talk about everything after I woke up.
I was also extremely tired, so I fell asleep as soon as I lay down. When I woke up, it was almost evening.
He was sitting on the edge of the bed, as if waiting for me. When he saw that I woke up, he told me to get dressed quickly and then took me to a short-term rental apartment.
I was completely confused by him. He had already booked a room in the hotel, so why did he need to find another place to stay? At first, I thought something had followed us to the hotel and we needed to hide, but when we got to the short-term rental apartment, I realized that he wanted to use the stove here.
The short-term rental apartment that Qin Yiheng rented is a common small apartment with fine decoration. I still have a few similar houses on hand. The room is not big, and the layout is actually similar to that of a fast hotel. The only difference is that there is usually a semi-open or separate kitchen.
The kitchen we rented was semi-open, with only a glass partition. Qin Yiheng walked into the room and went straight to the stove. He looked at it carefully and said that the pot here was not big enough, so he asked me to go to the supermarket to buy another one.
I had no choice but to run to the supermarket and buy the largest pot I could find there, a stainless steel pot that could be used for both steaming and boiling. Qin Yiheng took the pot, first carefully rinsed it with rice water, then filled it with water, put the pot on the stove, lit the fire and waited for the water to boil.
The more I watched, the more confused I became. Was he trying to show me his cooking skills or something?
I've never heard that he can cook. When I asked him, he gave me a weird smile, then actually took out my shoe from his bag, looked at it twice, and put it directly into the pot.
Then I understood what he meant when he said there was no need to bring back the other shoe.
It turns out he had planned this from the beginning, so this pair of shoes is useless.
I hurried forward to take a look at the "remains" of the shoes. The water was boiling at that time, and the shoes were about to turn over in the pot.
But I didn’t see anything wrong. What exactly were the clues that Qin Yiheng was talking about?
I asked him a question. He lit a cigarette and told me not to worry. Then he turned the stove to a low heat and told me to watch the pot and not let the water splash out.
He took out a brush from his bag, came back, dipped it in some water from the pot, and was about to hit me in the face.
This is completely the behavior of a psychopath. Even though the shoes are mine, you can't use the water used to boil the shoes to rub someone's face.
I took a step back, dodged his brush, and said, "What the hell do you want to do?"
Qin Yiheng then told me: "These shoes are yours. After all, they are stained with your popularity, and the experiment we did last night was obviously evil. I was afraid that you would be targeted by filth, so I called your name this morning. I waited until you agreed before I opened the door, just to help you calm down. Now I am rubbing the water from boiling shoes on your chin, which can be regarded as taking back the popularity on the shoes. It's not a big deal if you don't agree, but you may sprain your ankle or have leg cramps recently."
Since he said so, a sprained ankle wouldn't kill you, but it could easily delay things. I thought about it for a moment, and reluctantly let him wipe the line on my chin.
After Qin Yiheng finished, he threw the pen out of the window and said, "This medium should be thrown as far as possible, otherwise it will be useless. Usually, we have to ask someone to throw it to another place. However, it is okay to throw it downstairs temporarily. Anyway, we have to return to our own city sooner or later."
After saying that, he went back to the pot, looked at it for a while, said it was almost cooked, then turned off the fire, sat on the sofa and waited for the water to cool down. When the water was completely cool, he used a large empty Coke bottle to fill some of the water in the pot, shook it twice, and told me that he would go to the house again in the evening.
The quality of my shoes is really good. Even after boiling them like this, the color didn’t fade much and the water still looks very clear.
I took the Coke bottle and tried shaking it to observe it, but still couldn't see anything. However, I guessed that the label on the Coke bottle had been torn off by Qin Yiheng. Maybe I would be able to see something dirty if I looked through the bottle?
Anyway, it's useless to think about it now, so let's wait until the evening to see the result. Qin Yiheng and I packed up our things, had a quick meal, and went straight back to the house.
After taking the elevator upstairs, Qin Yiheng did not open the door first. Instead, he unscrewed the Coke bottle, poured some water on the ground, then took out a piece of rag from his bag, bent down, and wiped the floor tiles with the water bit by bit in a nearly prone position.
I was watching from the side and almost fainted. Was he here to imitate Lei Feng and do good deeds? When I asked him about it, he was very focused and didn't say anything. I didn't want to make myself look bad, so I just stood by and smoked and waited for him.
Qin Yiheng mopped for about ten minutes, from the door to the floor tiles in front of the elevator, almost all of them were mopped. Fortunately, the other residents on this floor hadn't returned yet. If someone saw this in the middle of the night, they would definitely be scared to death .
Qin Yiheng stood up after drinking almost half the bottle of water. He frowned and looked very unhappy.
I was shocked by his expression and thought, 'What kind of filth has come?'
I tapped him and he finally came to his senses. He let out an "ah" and pointed at the floor tiles and told me, "Come and see the legendary clues."
When I heard him say that, I quickly looked over there. The floor was polished by him, but there was nothing there, no trace of anything. I thought it might be because of my posture, so I also knelt down like him, but I still saw nothing.
I looked up and wanted to get mad. Is this a prank?!
But from his expression, it was clear that he was very serious. I asked him, "There's nothing on the ground!"
Qin Yiheng then exclaimed "Ah" again, rummaged through his bag, found a few incense sticks, lit them, folded a banknote at an angle, and collected the ashes. When some of the ashes had fallen, he walked to my side, squatted down, and carefully scattered the ashes on the ground, and finally blew them gently with his mouth, then pointed with his chin: "This is it."
I looked where he pointed, and my heart suddenly tightened.
I saw a faint mark left by the incense ash on the floor tiles. The mark was very light, and the color of the incense ash was very light. If I hadn't looked carefully, I probably wouldn't have noticed it. But now my face was almost touching it, so I could see it very clearly. The mark was not big, and I couldn't tell what it was. If it was a pattern, it looked a bit like a very abstract flower.
It seems that this is the reason for the commotion in this house, but what is this thing?
