Tinker Not With Relics Chapter 3

"What's going on?" Little Blackie muttered.

"Something seems to be wrong..." Before Erick Qi could finish his words, he was dragged over by Xiao Hei.

They stood behind the crowd and looked inside. They saw a private car parked on the side of the road. The owner had already gotten out of the car and was standing in front of the car. He said to a middle-aged woman with some anger and helplessness: "You said you didn't even look at the traffic lights when crossing the road? Are zebra crossings just painted for fun?! You just jumped into the middle of the road all of a sudden. Fortunately, I reacted quickly and didn't have a heart attack. Otherwise, if you were hit seriously, would it be you or me who would be unlucky?! And is your leg really okay when you stand? Just a scratch? If there's no problem, I'll leave..."

"No... I didn't mean to do it. I... I don't know how I ended up in the middle of the road." The woman was obviously frightened. She explained incoherently, clutching the shoulder bag that had slipped off her shoulders with both hands.

The side of her tweed coat was scratched, the hem of her sweater and her legs were covered in dust, and her socks were torn at the knees, but she seemed not to care about any of this. She kept repeating these words in panic and numbness.

A young girl supported her and pulled her to the side of the road, saying, "Sister, do you have your family's phone number? Contact them and ask them to pick you up?"

"My family? Yes, yes! I came here to eat. I just came down to buy something. I didn't want to cross the road... I, I felt a little dizzy, and then someone called my name, and then... then it seemed like someone was pulling me away, and when I reacted, I, I was already bumped into." The woman was still explaining.

Her face was so pale that it was a little scary. After being reminded by the young girl, she hurriedly lowered her head to rummage through her bag. Her hands were still shaking when she took out the cell phone. She lost her grip and the phone fell to the ground with a "bang".

"Hey - you..." After listening to her explanation, the car owner looked at her strangely, as if he thought she was a little mentally unstable. Then he picked up the phone and handed it to her, shaking his head and said, "I have something urgent to do. Are you sure your leg is okay? Ok, I'll go first. Don't stand here on the side of the road. Ask your family to pick you up." After that, he drove away.

As soon as the car owner left, a man who seemed to be the woman's husband hurried over. He crossed the road and ran straight here, walked through the crowd to the woman, supported her, took her bag, and nodded to the girl who had been supporting the woman, saying, "Excuse me, excuse me! Let me do it."

"Huh?" The girl was a little surprised, "I haven't called yet..."

"We were actually eating on the second floor of that restaurant." The man turned around and pointed to a second-floor restaurant across the street. "She told me she was going to the supermarket next door to buy some things. I went to the bathroom and saw she hadn't come back yet, so I looked down from the window and saw them gathered here, so I hurried downstairs."

When the woman saw her husband coming, she immediately grabbed the man's sleeve in panic, looking like she was about to cry: "I, I am like this again, what should I do? She called me again, with that voice again! I really didn't walk over there by myself! What should I do, what should Ming do..."

"It's okay, just go back and have a good sleep. You must be tired from running around in the museum these two days." The man patted her and comforted her, then said to the girl: "Thank you, I'll take her home now."

...

When Erick Qi and Leo Xiao saw that there was nothing they could help with, they turned around and left to eat.

"Oh, right." When Erick Qi arrived at the food city, he suddenly seemed to remember something, patted Leo Xiao and said, "What did you tell me before?"

Leo Xiao looked confused: "Which one?"

Erick Qi: "Before I heard the shout, you asked me something. I was distracted at the time and didn't hear it clearly."

The little black man glanced at Erick Qi and said innocently: "I was interrupted and I can't remember what I was going to say."

Erick Qi: ...Are you a goldfish? !

So what happened at noon became an insignificant episode that quickly faded away and no one took it seriously.

Erick Qi thought he would be sharing a room with the bad-tempered Team Leader Nathan in the afternoon, but he didn't see him when he arrived at the office. The desk at the back was still empty, with only the computer on standby and the empty coffee cup indicating that the owner had been back before.

Erick Qi heard that the company had just finished a job before he joined, and it was still in the final stages these two days. Compared with the team members, the team leader was much busier. Except for Erick Qi, there were few people in this separate office most of the time.

"Long - eh?" Lisa Hong, the head of the logistics team, rushed in wearing high heels that were more than ten centimeters high. "Xiaochen, are you the only one here? Shouldn't Team Leader Nathan be back by now? Where is he? Have you seen him?"

"Sister Ming." Erick Qi greeted her and said, "I saw Team Leader Nathan come in with coffee before dinner, but I didn't see him after dinner."

"What about you? Has anyone seen where Team Leader Nathan went?" Lisa Hong turned and asked the group of people sitting outside.

Someone said, "I saw him and Team Leader Hu going to Block B. I think they were going to the supervision room."

"He went to the supervision room right after he came back?" Lisa Hong asked in surprise, "Oh, was it the rat poison he ate at noon? When did he become so obedient!?"

Erick Qi: ...

"Xiaochen, are you busy?" Lisa Hong patted the stack of documents in his hand. "I have to go out. Can you help me run to Block B? Do you know the supervision room? It's the second room to the west in the corridor."

Erick Qi innocently said: "West is left or right?"

Lisa Hong said as if it was a matter of course: "North is up, south is down, west is left, east is right. West is of course left."

Erick Qi: ...What you said makes a lot of sense.

"Let Team Leader Nathan sign these documents, and then put them on my desk." After giving a few instructions, Lisa Hong stuffed the documents to Erick Qi and turned away in her high heels. Her big curly hair almost hit Erick Qi's face.

After finishing the work at hand, Erick Qi took the small stack of documents and left the office.

Guanghe Company's offices, conference rooms, reception rooms, etc. are concentrated in Building A, while the archive room, supervision room, etc. involving the company's internal information are arranged in Building B. The two buildings are connected by an indoor corridor on the second floor.

Erick Qi walked along the corridor towards the other side, while lowering his head and flipping through the documents that needed to be signed by Team Leader Nathan -

The first few sheets were normal A4 printing paper, with the company letterhead on the front, and the company seal on the bottom right corner of the last sheet. The text on the next few sheets was the same as the previous ones, but the paper used was very special, light yellow, slightly astringent to the touch, thin and transparent.

If it is said to be two copies, the letterhead of the latter copy is also very strange. It is not the common logo of Guanghe Company, but a totem-like pattern. The last copy is not stamped with an ordinary company seal, but a square seal with seal characters on it.

He was just about to see what was engraved when he heard a deep male voice suddenly sounded in front of him: "Why are you standing there in a daze? Why are you standing in the middle of the road? Are you a crab?"

The sound is still very elegant in terms of timbre, but when combined with the speaker's tone...

hehe.

Without even looking up, Erick Qi knew who was coming. But how could this person walk without making any sound? Did he have pads on his shoes? He was really good at pretending to be a ghost!

He closed the document in his hand and handed it to the person who was visiting: "Team Leader Nathan, I just happened to be looking for you. I have a document that needs your signature."

Team Leader Nathan didn't even look at the document. When he saw that it was sent by Erick Qi, he snorted and turned his head away with a look of disgust: "I'm busy!"

Erick Qi: ... How can this person be so childish!

Seeing that he hadn't turned his face around yet, Erick Qi said "Oh" numbly, and said in a flat tone: "Sister Ming said that this is the application for various subsidies for your business trip this time. If you don't sign, you basically can't apply for it. She also said that your suggestions are also in it. Are you sure you don't want to sign it? Then I'll take it back and tell Sister Ming--"

"Wait!" Team Leader Nathan finally turned around. He snatched the small stack of documents, glared at Erick Qi, then turned around and took two steps to stick the stack of documents on the wall. He took out a pen and a seal from somewhere, and signed on the last page of the first document in a flamboyant manner, and then stamped on the last page of the second document in a simple and rough manner.

Erick Qi extended his hand respectfully, waiting to receive the signed document, feeling very much like a eunuch serving his master.

As a result, Team Leader Nathan took the pen and seal, glanced at him, took the documents and walked around him and left, almost saying "hello".

Erick Qi: ...

A day ago, he thought that he and Team Leader Nathan were not in the same team and would not offend him. Now that he thinks about it, he is too... naive...

Guanghe Company has a standard nine-to-five work schedule. According to Leo Xiao, when there is work, it is common to work overtime and even travel overnight. When there is no work, they have so much free time that they leave work on time without delay.

As soon as five o'clock arrived, everyone in the office packed up their things, turned off their computers and left.

Erick Qi calmly sent a WeChat message to his friend, then put on his coat and walked around with a navy blue scarf. Leo Xiao walked beside him with a bag on his shoulder, and cordially invited him to dinner.

"I made an appointment with my college roommate. He accompanied me twice to move luggage and tidy up the dormitory. I will treat him to dinner today." Erick Qi said apologetically to Leo Xiao.

Leo Xiao nodded in understanding: "Oh, of course, you go ahead, I'll go to the cafeteria to eat." After that, he followed the crowd to the basement.

Erick Qi thought that the internal cafeteria must have discounts, so even if the taste is outrageous, there are still so many people eating there. But Leo Xiao said that not only is there no discount, but on average each meal is much more expensive than outside. I don’t know what the colleagues who choose to eat in the cafeteria every day think, are they masochists?

A new self-service barbecue restaurant has opened in Ceylon Plaza on the east side of Jiayang District. It is said that the meat and vegetables are fresh and the sauces are fragrant. Erick Qi and his roommate Ryan Xu met here. It is very close to Ryan Xu’s workplace and only a little more than one stop away from Guanghe Company.

Erick Qi didn't have to wait for a while before Ryan Xu arrived.

"Luckily you got off work early. I just saw people outside starting to take numbers and wait for a table." Ryan Xu put his coat and scarf aside, rolled up his sleeves, and poured some warm water to rinse the cups and plates while speaking.

"It's not too late today. What's up? Have you sorted out the new batch that came into your restaurant?" Erick Qi had already brought over a few plates of meat. After the waiter put the oil paper on the plates, he began to spread the meat on the paper one by one.

Ryan Xu worked at the museum across the corner from Ceylon Square, and was the only one in their dormitory besides Erick Qi who stayed in David Jiang. They were already close, so they naturally became closer, and they would complain about each other on WeChat almost every day.

Erick Qi had heard that a tomb was dug up in a village called Baihe on the western outskirts of David Jiang, and a small number of funerary objects were cleared out and sent to the museum where Ryan Xu and his team worked. They had been organizing and arranging the exhibition area for this small number of funerary objects over the past two days.

"Well, it's all ready. It will be open this week. Some of the things are really beautiful. I took photos when I was arranging them. I'll show them to you later. I'm going to pick out the sauces first. I'm starving." Ryan Xu said as he got up and went to the sauce area.

The batch of thin meat slices that Erick Qi had placed on the oil paper were already cooked, sizzling softly and smelling alluringly delicious.

Erick Qi shrugged his nose, thinking that he and Ryan Xu were family, so there was no need to be polite, so he stretched out his paw and started using the chopsticks.

Ryan Xu selected the sauce dishes according to his own taste, and took a few plates of meat dishes. When he returned to his seat, he saw Erick Qi holding a piece of meat covered with a thick layer of sauce and wrapping it in fresh and crisp lettuce leaves. He took a bite, then looked at him with one cheek puffed up, looking innocent.

There was already an empty plate on the table, and a batch of freshly placed meat slices had been placed on the oil paper.

Ryan Xu: ...

Seeing him eat, Ryan Xu became even hungrier... So he took out his phone, scrolled through the photo album, and flipped to the latest photos. He opened it and handed it to Erick Qi: "Foodie! Look at the photos first, this plate is mine!"

Erick Qi put down his chopsticks sadly, took the phone and started looking through the photos taken by Ryan Xu.

Because strong light can damage cultural relics, the lighting in the museum is always very dim and flash photography is not allowed, so the photos taken by Ryan Xu are not very good. Although the focus is on the cultural relics in the display cabinets, he is not close to them and there are always various staff members who can't avoid intruding nearby.

"Look at that bronze mirror and that jade bracelet..." Ryan Xu said while eating.

Erick Qi hummed, and slid his thin fingers across the photo: "Gold-inlaid jade bracelet? I remember that the tomb we dug this time was not that of a noble family... The craftsmanship style looks very similar to the one that came out of Hejia Village in the early years - eh?"

As he was talking, he scrolled to the next photo, and was stunned after taking a look: "Is this woman from your museum?"

"Which one?" Ryan Xu looked at the phone handed to him by Erick Qi with a puzzled look, and saw him pointing at a woman in a pink knitted sweater behind the cultural relics display cabinet.

"Oh - Sister Olivia, we're from the office next to each other. How come? Do you know her?"

Erick Qi shook his head: "Not really, I just happened to see her on the side of the road when I was having lunch today. She said she didn't know how she suddenly ran into the middle of the road and was hit by a car. She didn't seem to be in a good mental state. Later, she was picked up by her family."