Tinker Not With Relics Chapter 5

I believe that anyone who wakes up in the middle of the night and finds themselves sleepwalking would be scared to death, and Erick Qi is no exception.

The moment he realized where he was, reality and dreams were mixed and intertwined, and he couldn't even figure out whether it was the dim dream just now that caused his sleepwalking behavior, or whether the behavior was projected into the dream.

Of course, either way, it's bad.

Erick Qi closed his eyes and exhaled, calming his heartbeat that was like a drum.

"Have you come back to life?" A deep voice suddenly sounded in my ears, with a hint of impatience as always, making people wonder if this person has been suffering from excessive anger all year round.

Erick Qi was so shocked that his eyelids twitched. He suddenly opened his eyes and turned to look to the side: "Why are you here?!"

Under the street light at the corner, Team Leader Nathan looked at him with a sour face.

The dim light fell on him, outlining his prominent brow bones and straight nose. This man obviously had a pair of very beautiful eyes, but he preferred to look at people with his eyes half-closed, as if he was always looking down on them. Even though this was due to his tall stature, it was definitely due to the added effect of his tone of voice, as if he was born to be beaten.

He snorted coldly, thinking that Erick Qi's question was simply brainless: "Was it a ghost who woke you up when I was not around?"

Erick Qi laughed dryly: "I thought it was just a dream." Just like the repeated low and hoarse voices of old women, it was probably the only place where the dream and reality did not overlap.

Team Leader Nathan said unhappily, "Yes, you dreamed that I slapped you on the forehead, right? Why don't you think that the touch in a dream can be so real?"

Erick Qi explained seriously: "I once dreamed that someone climbed in from the balcony and cut off one of my legs. It felt very real."

Team Leader Nathan: ...

Erick Qi: "I also climbed a mountain of knives and rolled over a board of nails, with blood all over my body and face."

Team Leader Nathan: ...

Erick Qi: "Throw it in the oil pan, cook, fry, and stir-fry---"

"Stop, stop, stop!" Team Leader Nathan's mouth twitched: "What kind of nonsense are you dreaming about?!"

As a result, just as he finished speaking, he saw Erick Qi pursed his lips and seemed to smile very lightly. Then he realized that the first half of his words might be credible, but the rest was probably nonsense.

So Team Leader Nathan rolled his eyes at him harshly.

In fact, if it were any other day, with Erick Qi's calm and reserved personality, he would never talk to someone like this after just knowing them for a day. Especially since he and the other person didn't get along well at all during the day, as if they didn't get along at all.

However, Erick Qi had not yet completely recovered from his earlier panic. When he thought he was standing alone in the middle of the night, any familiar person who appeared next to him would make him feel extremely friendly and pleasing to the eye, even though a few hours ago he had classified the person in front of him as a "lunatic named Long" in his heart.

And in this situation, Team Leader Nathan's naturally annoying temperament actually made it particularly easy for Erick Qi to calm down his emotions.

Erick Qi, who seemed to be gentle and calm on the surface, was actually a very useless fence-sitter in some aspects, and his class stance was extremely easily shaken. In just a few minutes, he had already released "The psychopath surnamed Long" from the "Can't afford to offend, but can afford to avoid" blacklist, and quietly moved it to the "Occasionally offend" group.

Of course, Team Leader Nathan, who was owed 8 million every day, had no idea what Erick Qi was thinking. He still had an impatient expression and said, "If you have time to talk nonsense here, why don't you move your legs and leave!"

After saying that, he really didn't care whether Erick Qi followed him or not, he turned around and walked away, saying coldly as he walked: "Why am I so free?"

He was tall and had long legs. He walked with big strides and had already walked a distance while he was talking. Seeing that Erick Qi hadn't caught up with him, he stopped again and turned to the person behind him and said, "Are you stupid? Why aren't you leaving yet?"

Erick Qi coughed and looked at him innocently: "My feet are numb from the cold."

Team Leader Nathan wiped his face and said angrily: "Stomp!"

Erick Qi: "Hehe...stomping."

He bent down and rubbed his calves to warm them up a little, then moved his feet until his toes, which had been almost numb, finally regained feeling, and then he stood up.

Then I saw someone who had walked a distance away standing in front of me again: "...Why are you walking back? I can catch up with you in a moment."

Team Leader Nathan said coldly: "I came to see if your feet were frozen or not."

... Erick Qi: "It's a bit regrettable that it regained consciousness."

Team Leader Nathan snorted, looked down at Erick Qi from head to toe, and sneered: "Seeing you wearing this, I thought you were strong and not afraid of the cold. Why don't you just wear some shorts?"

Erick Qi looked down at the cotton long-sleeved T-shirt and home pants he was wearing, and laughed dryly: "Next time I sleepwalk, I will remember to change my clothes and wrap myself in a scarf before coming out."

Team Leader Nathan: ...

Erick Qi was awake now, and his body functions also woke up. He had not felt the coldness in his sleep before, but now it all rushed up, drilling into the cracks between his bones one after another. In just two sentences, his voice was already nasal, and his nose and eye sockets were already red from the cold, which was very obvious against his fair skin.

Seeing how cold he was, Team Leader Nathan sighed, then took off his woolen coat and threw it to Erick Qi: "Put it on!"

Erick Qi was so cold that he was a little slow to react. He didn't have time to catch the coat, but was covered by the coat directly, and was immediately surrounded by warmth.

"Give me what you want to wear? I'm already so cold, I'll just go back and make some ginger tea to get by. If you take off your clothes and give them to me, won't I freeze to death? It's not worth it." Erick Qi was covered in his clothes, and the first half of the sentence was spoken in a muffled voice.

Team Leader Nathan looked at him with a strange look as he struggled to pull the clothes off his face: "I really admire you. You still have time to think about whether it is cost-effective or not. Do you think I am a piece of paper like you who will have a runny nose when it's cold? Hurry up and put on your clothes and leave, so much nonsense!"

Besides, this guy would probably explode again, so Erick Qi stopped being pretentious and quickly followed the person covered in thorns as he walked towards the company while wrapping himself in his coat.

He was not short, according to the form he filled in during the physical examination, he was 1.78 meters tall, and he was usually shameless enough to round up to say he was 1.80 meters tall, but he was still half a head shorter than Team Leader Nathan. In addition, he was a bit thin, and the little muscles he had gained by Ryan Xu in the gym during college were only a thin layer now, which was not visible when he wore loose clothes, let alone compared to Team Leader Nathan.

So the coat seemed to be bigger when wrapped around him, making him look even thinner.

Team Leader Nathan seemed to be really not afraid of the cold, and he continued to walk with big strides. Erick Qi could hardly keep up with him, and gradually fell behind by more than two steps.

He saw the man walking in front of him turning his head while walking, with a look of impatience on his face. He opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something to urge him, but somehow after looking at him twice, he felt guilty and swallowed his words back. Then he sighed with disgust and helplessness and slowed down his pace.

After walking a few steps, he seemed to remember something and said to Erick Qi: "Did you remember what I said to you on the stairs last night?"

Erick Qi couldn't remember which sentence: "What?"

"Tsk---" Team Leader Nathan felt as if his patience in this life was almost exhausted, and said with a sad face: "Can you replace the tofu pudding in your head with brain pudding? Listen to people with your brain, not your face."

Erick Qi calmly ignored the string of personal attacks: "What did you say?"

Team Leader Nathan: "I told you not to hang around outside at night! There are enough people wandering around in the city, and they don't need your popularity. If you get involved in some mess, you'll be crying for your parents."

Wrapping his coat tighter, Erick Qi turned around and asked in confusion: "Do you still believe this?"

"Who do you believe?" Team Leader Nathan replied indifferently, "Just listen to me, there's no need to waste your time."

Erick Qi nodded: "I don't usually like going out at night unless I have something else to do."

After walking for a while, Erick Qi continued the previous topic: "I don't really believe this, because I have never encountered anything like this in my life, but I have heard some stories from others. Have you encountered it?"

He saw that Team Leader Nathan glanced at him in silence and said casually, "Too many."

Erick Qi tilted his head to look at him, seeming very curious: "Tell me about it?"

Team Leader Nathan: ...

Erick Qi pointed to a section of road ahead and said seriously: "It's enough to briefly mention one or two."

Team Leader Nathan twitched his lips: "Now is not the time for you to be shaking with fear just now, right?!"

"I wasn't trembling with fear just now." Erick Qi said calmly: "In fact, I have sleepwalked a few times before. It is said that it happens when you are under great pressure or the environment changes suddenly. I guess it is similar. But this is the first time I woke up in the middle of the sleep, and it is indeed a bit scary."

Team Leader Nathan glanced at him and said, "The ones who should be scared are probably the ones who saw you sleepwalking."

"But how did you see me sleepwalking?" Erick Qi asked, looking at his coat.

Team Leader Nathan said, "I was just heading to the monitoring room, and I saw you wandering out like a ghost."

Erick Qi: ... You're not sleeping at 2 or 3 in the middle of the night and you go to the supervision room? Does Director Frank know that you are so dedicated to your job...

Team Leader Nathan angrily said, "Why are you looking at me? Take that evil look away! You are the one who is sick!"

Erick Qi innocently said: "...I didn't say anything."

The night deepened, and the cold was even stronger than in deep winter. The first snow of the year in David Jiang fell silently at this moment.

When Erick Qi woke up in the morning, he found that he had indeed been tricked. He felt dizzy, stuffy, and weak all over. With his head feeling particularly heavy, he quickly boiled a small pot of strong ginger tea, drank a cup himself, and filled the rest in a newly bought thermos cup, intending to take it to the office for Team Leader Nathan.

The climate in David Jiang is a bit humid. The snow from last night has not stopped until this morning, but there is not much accumulation on the road. Only a thin layer of ice chips is left after being trampled by people passing by, making it very slippery.

As he walked into the front door of the office building with his thermos cup in his arms, he saw a colleague in the yard almost slipping, but he managed to maintain his balance with his amazing flexibility and stood up straight. Another person walking side by side with him sighed: "Those who use whips have good waist strength..."

... Erick Qi felt that he might have misheard because of the severe cold and the tinnitus.

Employees of companies like Guanghe, which deal with cultural relics, always pay much more attention to industry news than others. As long as it is related to something dug out of the mud, even if it is just some trivial matter, they will reflexively pay more attention to it.

However, what Erick Qi heard in the office that day was not some trivial matter, but that the museum had been robbed.

"It's the city museum across from Ceylon Square. What's missing is the gold-inlaid white jade bracelet that was dug out in Baihe a while ago. There's news online." Lisa Hong finished speaking to Erick Qi and turned to ask Team Leader Nathan behind him, "Hey, is there any news from the Director?"

Team Leader Nathan frowned and sniffed the ginger tea Erick Qi brought, and replied: "No, what's the matter? You just rested for a while and your bones are itchy all over?"

"What the hell is this smell? I don't want to drink it!" He pushed the thermos cup aside in disgust, "I'm in good health, why should I drink this stuff!"

Erick Qi had just searched for the news online and was reading the link. After hearing what Team Leader Nathan said, he asked with a heavy nasal voice without even turning his head: "Are you afraid of spicy food?"

Team Leader Nathan probably felt that any comments related to the word "fear" were a great insult to his personality. He was immediately provoked and picked up the thermos cup and drank a whole cup of hot ginger tea. Then he stood up and slammed the cup on Erick Qi's desk with a "bang". He snorted coldly and left the office, saying, "I'm going to the supervision room to find Lao Hu." Then he disappeared.

Erick Qi glanced at the thermos cup with amusement, then turned his attention back to the web page---

According to the news, the museum was broken into last night. The man sneaked into the exhibition area of   the cultural relics unearthed in Baihe and stole the gold-inlaid white jade bracelet without triggering any anti-theft devices. The camera only captured a very blurry figure before it malfunctioned, leaving only a large piece of snowflakes.

There were several pictures at the end of the news. The first two were photos of the gold-inlaid white jade bracelet, and the last two were screenshots from the surveillance video.

Erick Qi scanned the two pictures in front of him and found that the stolen item was the bracelet that Ryan Xu had shown him that day. He turned to the next page to see the surveillance video, but he was stunned when he saw it.