By the time I regained my sense of self, it was noon the next day.

I found myself sleeping in a gorgeous European-style bed, air-conditioned, and the sunlight shining in through the tulle window was a little harsh.

"Well, last night...... Drunk? ”

I muttered to myself, and my right hand subconsciously pressed to my chest, but I felt empty.

I touched my neck again, but it was still empty, and I didn't touch anything!

I suddenly had a thrill, and the whole person jumped up from the bed!

After a few seconds, my back was drenched with sweat—

The blood jade hanging around my neck is gone!

I took out my phone and it was 11 o'clock at noon — but I couldn't remember how I fell asleep last night......

All I remember is the majestic hall lights, the courteous maiden servants, the table full of wine and food, and the scene of the host and guest enjoying themselves, but there is no memory of drunkenness and falling asleep.

I immediately opened the door and ran out of the room, and found that I was on the second floor of the villa, and when I ran to the stairs, I happened to see the old knife standing in the living room downstairs, talking to a maid.

"Old knife!" I shouted, completely unruly, "What's going on?!" ”

When I went downstairs to the old knife, he was just finished talking to the maid, who bowed slightly to us and walked away.

I saw the old knife's face turn blue and sweat on his forehead—an ominous omen surging up from the bottom of my heart, making my already restless heart beat even more violently.

"Yu Wei, it's fake." The old knife said in a stiff tone almost like a robot.

I tried my best to control my tone: "What do you mean? ”

"She's not Yu Wei at all! Her identity was faked. I've just confirmed, you see-"

The old knife handed me his phone.

I saw that the content on the phone screen was a photo of a woman, also a charming lady, but her face was completely different from "Yu Wei".

"It's ...... The real 'Yu Wei'?! The ...... who had dinner with us last night."

"She is not Yu Wei, and this villa does not belong to the real Yu Wei or Su Yu Group at all, but rents it...... Everything here is rented temporarily, and these servants are also hired temporarily. When I woke up, she was gone, and I called her and it said it wasn't on. The old knife's expression was very complicated, his eyebrows were covered with gloom, and his eyes were suspicious, "Why did she lie to me?" Why not say goodbye? ”

"Because...... She wants this. ”

I pulled down my neckline, revealing an empty neck.

The old knife's eyes slowly widened: "That piece of blood jade of yours ......"

"Do you remember how you got drunk last night?"

The old knife shook his head: "No impression." ”

"Me too. So the wine must have been drugged. I reasoned, "Then, she stole the blood jade from me—before inviting me to the banquet yesterday, she did everything she could to see the blood jade, in fact, to determine if I had it with me. ”

The old knife shook his Adam's apple with difficulty, and his voice was dry: "Why? ”

When he asked me this, he looked at me with a look in his eyes, in addition to incredible, but also a little unwilling and hopeful.

It's like a traveler in the desert, trapped in quicksand, with that desperate and pleading look.

I could scarcely bear to make cold inferences for a moment.

If the result is reversed, then this fake "Yu Wei" has gone to such great lengths to get close to Lao Dao, first deceive Lao Dao's emotions, and then use this layer of relationship to make me lose my vigilance...... The obvious reason is to steal blood jade, which is already a fact that does not need to be explained.

However, the deeper reasons are unknown to us for the time being.

"Everyone has their own reasons, and maybe she has her own struggles." I can only comfort the old knife like this.

"Maybe." The old knife smiled bitterly.

If everything is acting, Lao Dao is the only character on the stage who is too deep into the play.

But after a few seconds, his face turned serious.

"If it's something else, I can give it to her, but this piece of blood jade doesn't belong to me, and it's still related to your safety...... So, Aji, I will definitely help you recover the blood jade. ”

"Hmm."

I answered, and in a blink of an eye, I caught a glimpse of the old knife guy secretly observing my face, and I said angrily: "Lao Tzu is thinking about things - who is as fucking as little chicken as you...... Besides, I can't blame you about this matter, people are well-designed, one move 'borrowing strength' and one trick 'storytelling', which broke our defenses layer by layer, and this is a success in one fell swoop. ”

"Really not mad at me?"

"If I can get the blood jade back when I'm angry, I can try."

Lao Dao sighed: "You are really right, I am carried away by love, how can pie fall from the sky?" ”

"That's your own words, I didn't say that."

……

Of course, we didn't just leave the villa, and we immediately conducted an investigation, but there were no useful clues left in the house, not even Yu Wei's personal belongings - it seems that this is not her usual stronghold.

After that, we contacted the owner of the villa through the maid in the villa, who told us that the use of the villa was managed by an intermediary company, and that the other party did not know anything about what was happening in the villa.

We had to contact the real estate agent, and after identifying the detective, the agent's receptionist came up with the lease contract.

As the tenant of Party B, the signature is "Anlisi", and there is no copy of the ID card and other relevant documents - but the receptionist said that the other party is only a three-day short-term rental, so the contract is not strictly enforced.

That is, we worked in vain and found out almost nothing.

"However, at least we have a very clear message - this fake 'Yu Wei', she knows blood jade very well, and may even be more familiar than us."

In addition, I suddenly remembered something, and quickly took out my mobile phone and made a call to Shen Tangzhi.

Shen Tangzhi was also quite surprised to learn that my blood jade was stolen, but then, after understanding the cause and effect of the whole thing, she quickly regained her composure.

I thought to myself, and asked her, "Is this the 'opportunity' you were waiting for?" ”

"It's not certain yet - we'll meet in your shop, I'll show you something, and you'll understand."

"What's that?"

Shen Tangzhi had already hung up the phone.

"Hello? Feed! ……”

I put away my phone depressedly and complained to Lao Dao: "Do you think that after Shen Tangzhi disappeared for three months and came back, it has become a little different." ”

"Oh, is it? However, I've been busy falling in love recently, so I haven't paid much attention to Shen Tangzhi's figure - what's the matter, it's getting bigger again? ”

"I'll you big-headed ghost! Why are you so obscene, you have nothing to do and look at people's boobs all day long? And what does this 'again' mean?! ”

"I didn't say that—huh? Why do you know so specifically? ”

I finally deflated: "To be serious, I think she likes to sell Guan Zi more and more, she can tell me the whole thing directly, but I have to wait a minute, I don't know if it is a bad mistake to learn from Hyde's beard." ”

The old knife snorted twice, and I didn't know if it was.

However, I know this old boy, he now seems to be back to the state of running the train with his mouth full, as if he has stepped out of the shadow brought to him by the fake "Yu Wei", but in fact, he is just hiding his negative emotions temporarily.

The old knife did this because he didn't want me to be distracted.

Emotionally speaking, Lao Dao felt ashamed of me in his heart - the meaning of blood jade to me was not simply a precious antiquity, it was the key to my search for a series of mysteries including the "Netherworld Palace", and it may also be a major clue to the method of removing the veins on my back, and Lao Dao had seen the pain of the veins on my back many times, and also understood that the veins were a sling around my neck, which could threaten my life at any time.

Therefore, I don't plan to take the initiative to expose Lao Wang's scars in the future, we maintain this tacit understanding with each other - as if this is a fraud that has nothing to do with feelings, we are just accidentally invited into the urn.

An hour later, we met Shen Tangzhi and Hyde in front of my grocery store.

Everyone went up to the second floor and sat down on the sofa, I hurriedly poured a glass of water for everyone, and then hurriedly urged Shen Tangzhi: "That, do you want to hurry up?" ”

"Ace, give that picture to Yoshimitsu."

Shen Tangzhi sighed lightly on the rim of the cup with his lips expressionlessly, and took a sip of water.

She was wearing a light gray slim T-shirt and short skirt today, and I don't know if it was because of the words of the old knife before, I glanced at Shen Tangzhi's chest as if I couldn't control my eyes-

Feel...... Does it seem a little bigger?

Is it because the slim T-shirt on her body shows off her figure?

Wait a minute!

- What the hell is this nonsense on my mind?!

As if sensing something, Shen Tangzhi's gaze was projected at me through the silver-framed glasses on the wing of his nose, and I quickly looked away before my eyes met, and coughed twice in a weak heart.

I felt a little hot at the base of my ears, as if I had been caught red-handed by an adult by stealing candy from a sugar jar when I was a child.

Fortunately, Hyde had already pulled out a photo from the satchel he was carrying and placed it on the coffee table, and I took the opportunity to look down to check the contents of the photo.

It was a black-and-white photo, the size of the most common photo, which is a five-inch photo.

The original is protected by plastic film, the corners are slightly worn, and slightly faded, which looks very historic.

The content of the photo is a group photo of a man and a woman, the clothes of the characters should be from the Republic of China, the background is a little blurred, as if in a wilderness, but there are things similar to ridges on the ground.

At the moment when I saw the faces of the men and women in the photo, Lao Dao and I stood up suddenly!

The appearance of the woman in the photo looks very much like the fake "Yu Wei"!

For a while, Lao Dao and I were dumbfounded, almost speechless.

"Judging by your reaction, it should be right." Shen Tangzhi didn't wait for us to ask questions, and put down the disposable water cup in his hand, "Jiguang, I can tell you the complete information that K left me now." ”

I swallowed a mouthful of saliva to calm myself down a little, and the old knife on one side was more excited than I was, and his hand holding the picture trembled a little.

"Sit down first, old knife." I pulled the old knife and sat down, and at the same time I took a deep breath and said to Shen Tang, "Say it." ”

"K contacted me after Hyde and I set off for St Clees' University in the UK to find what Dr. Findlay had left us. The way to contact me was by email, and it was hacked directly into my email and sent an email to myself with my own email address. ”

I'm not surprised by this: "We've all seen what K is capable of in the online world, and it's not surprising. (See "The Game of Eternal Life" for details)

Shen Tangzhi nodded: "In the email, he mentioned some things that happened to us recently, and I think what he wants to express is to tell us that he knows our actions well." ”

When he said "we", Shen Tangzhi stretched out a jade-like finger, pointed at me and the old knife, and finally tapped his chest - of course, my eyes didn't dare to follow.

Shen Tangzhi didn't notice my abnormality, and continued: "K said in the email that I said that the notebook I found abroad and the situation related to it, after I return to Jinguan City, I can't disclose it to anyone for the time being, otherwise it will put you in an extremely dangerous situation, and only when someone shows up and let that person get his wish, I can hand over the clues to you to continue your investigation." ”

"No wonder you haven't been in touch with us much during this time, and you thought you were making some kind of emotional play to disappear, so that's it."

In fact, in addition to Shen Tangzhi, there are also Hyde who play disappearing, but Lao Dao and I usually don't take the initiative to contact Hyde, so we don't pay much attention.

Shen Tangzhi and Hyde's approach is undoubtedly very wise, they have this photo in their hands, once they meet this girlfriend who is new to Lao Dao, they will know that this so-called 'Yu Wei' is fake, and it is the person they are "waiting to appear", and at that time, the situation will be very embarrassing.

Rather than having to deceive me and the old knife when the time comes, it's better to avoid it in the first place and wait for it to change.

I asked, "The text message you showed me from K was K's proof to you that he had some kind of 'foreknowledge' ability, so it made you determined." ”

"In the email, K said that he would prove to me that everything he had predicted would be true."

"Why would K help us? Or do you think he's really helping us? ”

Shen Tangzhi shook his head: "I can't answer your question—especially after hearing that you lost that crucial piece of blood jade. However, I made this choice, and I will bear the consequences. ”

"What are the consequences and not the consequences...... That was not what I meant. ”

"Don't be so naïve, I'm not a child, I won't feel guilty about you for this - I will definitely help you recover that piece of blood jade as a way to make amends."

Well, for the first time, it was called "childish" like this.

Perhaps, from another point of view, it is naïve for me to be overly tolerant of the "possible faults" of others, right?

But—

"We're friends, right? So there is no need to be so one-size-fits-all...... It's tiring to settle accounts all day. ”

Shen Tangzhi showed the same look as if she was seeing me for the first time, and then, her eyes flickered, and she took the initiative to avoid looking at me for the first time.

"Hmm...... Maybe. She said.

Then, at once, she raised her head again, and gave orders again in a firm tone, as usual.

"Ace, take out that notebook." She said to Hyde.

But even for a faint moment, it happened.

It's like a cold wind passing over an iceberg, so maybe it comes from the warm Jiangnan, right?

At least that's what I thought.

Moreover, I suddenly found that because of the theft of that piece of blood jade, the old knife and Shen Tang Zhidu had a feeling similar to apology for me because of this incident.

Maybe that's some implicit benefit?

"Ahem...... Listen to me—"

I explained to them in all seriousness that I didn't need to blame myself for the theft of the blood jade, and I didn't mean to anger them at all.

I even swear by God.

"Childish."

Lao Dao and Shen Tangzhi invariably came out of their mouths with this word.