Chapter 3

Chapter 3

I turned on my phone. It was 4:20 in the afternoon.

Sure enough, just as I’d expected, the latest episode of my crime analysis video had gotten a modest burst of attention.

There were over three thousand comments, most of them positive. A lot of fans and passersby had watched the video, then gone and donated money to the victim’s mother.

There was also a small group cursing me out, saying I was deliberately manufacturing a gimmick to drive traffic.

Either way, my goal had been achieved. I just hoped the lady could make it through this crisis.

…

Having only just woken up, I was still a little dazed. My mind kept circling back to the girl from the dream.

It had been too real, as if I’d met her in a past life. And she had actually known my name, like she’d been waiting for me in that dream on purpose.

I laughed at myself for being paranoid.

After taking a shower, I was drying my hair when, for some reason, my gaze was drawn to that rosewood cabinet.

In the dream, that same cabinet had been sitting in the girl’s bedroom.

Just a coincidence, probably.

They said dreams were reflections of reality. Since I’d been around this cabinet constantly for the past few days, it made sense that I would dream about it.

That was what I told myself, but I still walked over and examined the cabinet carefully.

It was about eighty centimeters tall. It had clearly been repaired at some point, and because of its age, the surface had a few dents and scuffs here and there.

I opened the cabinet. There wasn’t much space inside, not enough to hold many things.

Just as I was about to close it, I suddenly noticed what looked like a line of carved words on the lower-left inner panel.

I crouched down and took a closer look.

The words were very shallow and looked old.

“Bai Yanmei, carved at 9:00 p.m. on July 15, 1993.”

What the hell!

Back when the seller had been talking it up, he’d said the cabinet had been well preserved, with only a few tiny surface flaws that were practically impossible to see.

A name was carved into it. This was supposed to be a tiny flaw?

I took out my phone, but when I opened the purchase link, I was dumbfounded.

The shop had been shut down.

I quickly called the seller. Hah. He’d blocked me!

I was so angry I laughed. I switched to another number and called again. This time, that dumbass seller picked up.

I told him to give me an explanation.

To my surprise, the seller was even more aggressive than I was.

He said he’d made it very clear at the time that the cabinet had minor flaws. I was the one in a hurry to buy it and too lazy to go inspect the goods in person, so who could I blame?

Besides, he’d sold me an antique cabinet from the Qing dynasty for eight thousand yuan. I was the one who’d gotten a bargain.

Fuming, I politely offered my regards to his entire family and hung up.

At first, I wanted to fight him to the end, but the time cost was too high. My schedule was packed after this, and I really didn’t have the time.

Forget it. Forget it. It was my fault for not inspecting the goods carefully. I’d just take it as paying for a lesson.

In a fit of anger, I took a utility knife and carved another line beside those words:

“Han Yuanshan, tricked by a profiteer into buying this cabinet, carved at 4:45 p.m. on July 15, 2025. Fuck!”