Reading Agreement

At eight o'clock in the evening, it was raining heavily.

In the corner of the residential area of ​​Yuncheng, there is an old enclosed courtyard. It used to be the former residence of a foreign couple. Now it has been bought and remodeled, and it has become a private banquet hall that can only be entered by appointment.

The wabi-sabi-style box, two cement gray sofas, an old coffee table with mottled wood grain, and a few old things scattered around, revealing an indifferent attitude towards time. In this almost unmodified scene space, To accept the mottled, faded, old, simple, and unpretentious age marks.

The lights are dim and dazzled on everything, adding to laziness and idleness.Bubbles bubbled in the teapot, and the fragrance of tea overflowed, falling in every empty corner.No one poured the tea, as if what was boiled in the teapot was just incense and atmosphere.

It was raining heavily outside, and the large floor-to-ceiling glass windows were covered with water droplets, which were coated with a layer of gold rims by the lights, which became the most precious decoration in this space.

At half past nine, Shi Zhen sat down on the sofa and brought "Twelve Branches" at the same time.

"Is this the 'Twelve Branches'?" Huang Xing sat opposite Shi Zhen, glanced at the twelve contracts stacked on the tea table, then at the lucky bag containing twelve, and the twelve lucky lottery poured out of the lucky bag.

"Yes, exactly twelve lucky draws and twelve contracts." Shi Zhen answered briefly, looking at the floor-to-ceiling glass, it was pitch black outside, and he couldn't see anything, but when he came in, he clearly saw a pond and a small bridge there , and there were small lights dotted the road to and from, but now the whole group is in pitch blackness, not even an outline left.

"When will the middleman come?" Shi Zhen asked directly. He didn't expect Huang Xing to find the middleman until tomorrow.

"It should be here soon." Huang Xing glanced at his watch, "It's probably ten o'clock." After speaking, he took a piece of silk blue cloth and covered the things on the table.

"Oh." Shi Zhen nodded. Sure enough, today's acceptance and handover can be completed in one go.Waiting was a little boring, the sofa cushion was as hard as a stone, he reached out, pulled out the cushion from behind, and threw it aside.

"I'm sorry to trouble you to come alone." Huang Xing said nothing.

"No trouble." Shi Zhen returned, seeing Huang Xing about to pour tea for himself, he stopped him and said, "I won't drink it, I can't sleep with tea at night."

"Oh, hehe." Huang Xing withdrew his hand in embarrassment. He didn't want to drink it himself, so he continued to let the water in the teapot bubble "bobobo" and emit fragrance.

"Luony helped a lot this time, you have found the right helper." Shi Zhen said casually.

Huang Xing was a little embarrassed, always felt that the other party was blaming him for not trusting him, so he explained: "I was too worried, so I invited the Luo family..."

Shi Zhen smiled and resolved the embarrassment: "It really helped, nothing else."

"Hehe." Huang Xing smiled and stopped mentioning it.It turned out that the Luo family was asked to help, firstly because they were afraid that Shi Zhen would not do well here, secondly because he was afraid that he would not help wholeheartedly, and thirdly because he was worried that he would need to clean up the mess after being rescued, so he asked the Luo family who had been in Yuncheng for help. .It's just that I didn't expect that things developed a little fast, and Shi Zhen quickly found twelve. All his worries seemed to be very cautious at the moment.

"Has your bodyguard followed?" Shi Zhen asked casually.

"Old Ding? Here you go, in the car outside." Huang Xing said, "Today it's just you, me, and him, the three of you. You're here, and I know what you got. I'm a little confident."

"Understood." Shi Zhen nodded.

Huang Xing said: "I've already made an appointment with the intermediary to check and accept. I sent 'handover' and got a reply right away. It's scheduled for tonight. It might be a bit rushed, sorry."

"It's okay, inspect and receive quickly." Shi Zhen didn't care, and things were as expected, both the receiver and the inspector were in a hurry.

"Thank you for understanding." Huang Xing smiled, keeping everything in silence.

Afterwards, the two of them chatted without saying a word, it was all about the company's business matters, the chat was neither salty nor dull, just to pass the time.

It was less than 10:30, and someone came to the appointment.

The door was gently pushed open. It was a tall and thin man, wearing a decent gray suit, tie neatly tied, and hair meticulous. Even the black mask he was wearing looked like it had been ironed, and every wrinkle was written straight of.

"Mr. Zhong?" Huang Xing immediately got up politely when he saw the person coming, and gave up his seat on his side, and then sat on Shi Zhen's side.

"Yes." Mr. Zhong nodded and sat down.

The surname of the middleman is Zhong?Which screenwriter is so irresponsible?Shi Zhen was playing with his mobile phone. He glanced at the person who came, and saw the carved wooden box in the other person's hand. It was full of prosperity and blooming. All kinds of rich and precious flowers in the world crawled all over the box, and smelled a faint fragrance. He thought: What is it? The middleman surnamed Zhong also carried a different suitcase from others.

"Who is this?" Mr. Zhong sat down, and when he saw the casual Shi Zhen opposite him, he felt that this man had an extraordinary personality, and his status must be unusual.

"My friend Shi Zhen helped find the 'Twelve Branches' together." Huang Xing introduced.

"Okay." Mr. Zhong nodded to Shi Zhen, who still treated him indifferently, just nodded perfunctorily, and did not take Mr. Zhong seriously.

"How about inspecting the goods first? Look at the things!" Huang Xing smoothed things over.

"Very good." Mr. Zhong smiled, indicating that Huang Xing could take out the things.

"Here. Twelve contracts, twelve lucky lots, and an emerald lucky bag." Huang Xing lifted the silk cloth from the tea table, and carefully pushed the contents to Mr. Zhong.

"Okay, please wait a moment, let me check." Mr. Zhong said politely, took out a pair of gloves, put them on, and started to operate.

He first opened the combination lock of the carved wooden box, and with a crisp sound of "pop", the wooden box shell flicked, and Mr. Zhong opened the box cover.

The box opened, revealing a triangular translucent purple hollow box.The material of the box is unknown, like jade, like crystal, and the surface is specially carved with layers of knife-cut lines. From a distance, it looks like a steep mountain growing out of the weight of the box, which is unique.

Mr. Zhong carefully took it out and put it in the middle of the coffee table.Looking closely, the box is covered with irregular hollows, and there is no rule at all in the horizontal and vertical directions.The surrounding area is hollowed out, decorated with fine gold threads, and the shapes of flowers, branches and leaves, and vines are drawn. Under the leaves, there seem to be faintly engraved characters.

At this time, the lights in the house were dim, and in such an unknown environment, the box was able to glow slightly, showing some colorful colors.Although the inside of the box is still dark and unclear, it can be seen from the outside and weaves a very beautiful work.

"Purple skin?" Shi Zhen glanced at it and said casually.

"Know the goods." Mr. Zhong was a little surprised. Purple skin is a rare ore. It is rare and hard to find, but because it is not very valuable, no one cares about it.The young man on the opposite side could recognize the "Purple Skin" with just a glance, which surprised him a bit, and he couldn't help thinking to himself, no wonder Huang Xing invited him to inspect the goods together, he really wasn't an ordinary person.

"What skin?" Huang Xing was a little confused.

"A rare and worthless ore." Shi Zhen replied casually.

Huang Xing looked at the triangular box and exclaimed, "It looks pretty good."

"This was specially made by a master craftsman, and it took half a year." Mr. Zhong patiently introduced: "Mr. Shi is right, purple leather is actually not suitable for handicrafts, and it does not have much collection value. Generally, purple leather stones, There are not many that can cut out the purple part, and its texture is difficult to polish, fragile, easy to crack, and the stone is cold, so it is not suitable for making jewelry or handicrafts. You can see its skin like a knife, it is making The cracked stones that fell by themselves during the process were not intentionally polished."

"So that's it." Huang Xing looked at it carefully again, and he really felt that the skin was a little rough, and the purple light also had a gloomy taste.

Shi Zhen added: "This box is not made of a whole material, it is assembled after all the parts are made. Those gold threads are used for linking and decoration, and the carvings are to cover up the splicing lines. However, the craftsmanship of this master craftsman Very first-class, almost seamless, there is no trace of splicing."

Mr. Zhong laughed and praised: "Mr. Shi is really a man of knowledge."

Shi Zhen only raised his eyebrows, but didn't answer.Just now, he clearly heard the other party say that the box was made half a year ago, but these twelve contracts were signed more than a year ago, and the explosion occurred last year, and it is only more than three months from now.The box was made before the mine exploded, so when did the planning for the kidnapping start?At least half a year earlier, or even earlier, this kidnapping case could be said to have been planned for a long time.

"I'm starting to check." Mr. Zhong set his eyes on the twelve lucky lottery, greeted them politely, and took out a silver-rimmed magnifying glass from the inside pocket of the box.

"Please." Huang Xing nodded politely.

Mr. Zhong stretched out his hand, gently took one of the eleven lucky sticks, and put it under a magnifying glass to examine and confirm it carefully.

"Every day is full." Mr. Zhong said softly, and his eyes fell on the hollowed-out triangular box, and he still used the magnifying glass to search in every building decorated with flowers.Soon, the magnifying glass was fixed at a hollowed-out position near the top. Mr. Zhong made a gesture with the "Ri Riying" lucky lottery in his hand, and carefully embedded the lucky lottery according to the shape and direction of the hollowed-out.

There was a crisp sound of "click" in the empty room, and the golden vines around the hollow automatically moved half a millimeter to the middle, and the lucky lottery was perfectly inserted in an instant, and could not be taken out again.

"Yes!" Huang Xing was a little excited, feeling that there was hope for his son to be rescued.

"You didn't make a mistake." Mr. Zhong also let out a sigh of relief, with a smile on his face.He took a lucky lot again and looked for the corresponding position on the box.

The room was silent, and the three pairs of eyes were fixed on the triangular purple leather triangular box.As the silence is broken with a "click", the hollow of the box is gradually being filled.

"The last one." Mr. Zhong took the last lucky lottery, still took a picture under the magnifying glass, and said silently: "Every day is full." Finally, he inserted it into the only hollow on the box.

"Slap." The familiar No.12 sound sounded, and the entire triangular box was completely filled.There is no hollowing out, no light leakage, purple box, gold silk patterns, and jade inlays, they are strangely integrated, and they have a streamer effect in the dark room, showing layers of colorful colors.