False evidence

Chapter 463 Painted Skin (13)

I wolfed down the spicy beef noodles, soup and all, and when I checked the time, it was already 3 a.m.

Xiao Hong was probably asleep by now. Seeing that Old Man Sun was dozing off behind the counter, we didn't want to linger any longer, so we said goodbye and went back to the back room.

After entering the room, Yan Fengwei casually locked the door from the inside and immediately said with a sly look, "That ugly woman is probably mentally ill. Although I was tricked by her this time, I have gained something unexpected."

I asked him what he had discovered.

He lowered his voice even further: "Did you guys notice the floor tiles in the shop in front?"

I said, what's so special about floor tiles?

He clicked his tongue. "Are you still drunk? Have you forgotten what I do for a living? If it were just ordinary stuff, would it catch my eye? Let me tell you, the entire row of floor tiles in the front room, from the main entrance all the way to the back door, aren't ordinary tiles, they're gold tiles!"

"Are you sure?" I was startled.

Although I am not an expert on antiques, I know that the "golden bricks" he mentioned were not forged from gold, but were bricks fired in ancient royal kilns, specifically used to build palaces.

Yan Fengwei whispered, "There's a rule in our line of work: if you see something you like, you can't show it off for too long, otherwise the owner will figure it out and demand a higher price. But I'm sure of it; there are nine in total, and none of them are obviously damaged. If we can successfully acquire these nine gold bricks and resell them to an expert, we can get at least this much!"

I glanced at the number he showed and didn't continue the conversation.

The so-called "land grabbing" means trying to buy gold at rock-bottom prices, sometimes resorting to deceptive tactics.

I'm an outsider, and I'm also on good terms with Yan Fengwei, so it's best not to comment or get involved in this kind of thing, lest I really disapprove and hurt our brotherly relationship.

Cao Xinyun suddenly leaned over and said, "Hey you two, don't you notice anything's wrong?"

I said, "It's been noisy all night long. Anyone who isn't an idiot would find it strange."

"I'm not talking about the past, I'm talking about now!"

Cao Xinyun grinned, "I'm asking you two, don't you notice anything different now?"

Yan Fengwei and I looked at each other and shook our heads.

Cao Xinyun nodded: "If neither of you two, who are so clever, noticed it, then it really is strange."

I told him to just say what he wanted to say, otherwise he'd lose his nerve and was already exhausted.

Cao Xinyun plopped down on the bed and crossed his legs.

Yan Fengwei slapped his bald head: "Hey, I didn't know you had this kind of hobby. No wonder you insisted on having three people in one room. But you've picked the wrong person, Sanqi and I are only interested in women!"

"Do not make jokes!"

At first, I also found Cao Xinyun's behavior a bit strange, but I quickly realized that something was wrong.

The previous downpour was quite heavy; we were soaked to the bone, or at least completely drenched.

I was wearing sneakers, Yan Fengwei was wearing leather shoes, and Cao Xinyun, the young owner of the tailor shop, was wearing a pair of cloth shoes with multiple layers of soles.

Right now, my shoes are all wet inside, and my socks are sticking to the soles. It's incredibly uncomfortable.

Why isn't there any wet mud on the soles of Cao Xinyun's raised feet?
I touched the soles of his shoes, and they were indeed dry. The uppers, however, were damp.

Touching himself again, he realized he was still soaking wet. Understanding the situation, Yan Fengwei immediately asked Cao Xinyun when he had changed his shoes.

Cao Xinyun ignored him and instead asked, "Have you seen the clothes Old Man Sun was wearing?"

Yan Fengwei said he hadn't really looked closely; ever since he discovered the nine gold bricks paving the floor, he hadn't paid any attention to anything else.

I don't know if it's because I got caught in the rain, but I'm feeling a bit dizzy right now. I'm trying hard to remember, but I can't recall anything special about what Old Man Sun was wearing.

Cao Xinyun's face had been looking grim for a while, and now his expression was even more grave.

He said, "It's normal that you didn't notice, but I make clothes for people. The first time I saw Old Man Sun, I felt something was off. I always felt that the clothes he was wearing didn't look like his own. Later, I took a closer look and finally figured it out. He wasn't just wearing one set of clothes, but several layers on top and bottom!"

Yan Fengwei said, "As people get older, they are more sensitive to the cold, so it's normal to wear more layers."

“Wearing two or three extra layers is normal, but I looked closely, and secretly counted, and he was wearing seven layers of clothing on top and five pairs of pants!” Cao Xinyun exclaimed, his eyes wide. “Do you still think this is normal?”

Yan Fengwei shook his head, "Seven on top and five on the bottom, isn't that just dressing up a dead person...?"

Before they could finish a sentence, all three of them seemed to be frozen in place, looking at each other, and for a moment the room was quiet except for the sound of breathing.

I've heard Xiao Shen Sanbai say that dressing the dead is different from dressing the living. The burial clothes for the dead are always an odd number, with a difference of two layers between the top and bottom. Usually it's seven layers on top and five on the bottom, or nine layers on top and seven on the bottom. The most common is eleven layers on top and nine layers on the bottom, meaning eleven layers of clothing and nine layers of trousers. That's the most solemn way to send someone off.

This method of dressing the body wasn't just a custom; the main reason was that if a corpse was left unburied for too long, it would become smelly and rotten, with the upper body and abdomen decomposing faster than the lower body. Multiple layers of clothing helped to make the body appear less unsightly before burial.

Cao Xinyun said, "Everyone says that teenagers dress haphazardly, but Old Man Sun has lived to such an old age, he couldn't possibly not know this! And... and have you noticed that he walks without making a sound!"

"Holy crap, this is truly bizarre—it's incredibly bizarre!"

As Yan Fengwei spoke, he kicked another single bed.

"Boom!"

He kicked the bed with a loud thud, followed by another strange noise.

It sounded like something under the bed was shaken.

It was at this moment that he and I watched as the bed frame under Cao Xinyun's buttocks seemed to collapse.

Cao Xinyun also heard the two noises just now. He was stunned for a moment and didn't react. He slid down the sinking bed frame and fell to the ground.

Looking at the bed he had just been sitting on, the surface had been restored to its original flatness, with no signs of collapse or sinking.

I was still feeling a bit dizzy when a thought suddenly popped into my head, and a fine layer of cold sweat instantly broke out on my forehead.

I first pulled Cao Xinyun up and made him and Yan Fengwei stand to the side. Then I kicked the mattress of the bed he had just been sitting on.

I didn't actually use much force, but when I kicked out, the mattress easily slid to the side and, in a slow motion, slid off the bed.

As soon as the bed board was exposed, three people started hurling insults at each other.

While cursing, Yan Fengwei uncovered the mattresses of the other two single beds.

This so-called triple room isn't furnished with beds at all; it's basically three coffins side by side!

(End of this chapter)