Chapter 29
Chapter 29
After Old Miao left, Yin Minmin led Qin Ying to an office.
Wen Hao, introverted and quiet, gave a quick greeting before taking his leave.
Yin Minmin was two years younger than Qin Ying, only twenty-four.
Her office wasn’t large. As soon as the door opened, Qin Ying spotted something hanging on the wall.
It was a shaman drum and a set of vibrant, multicolored divine attire.
Yin Minmin looked a bit embarrassed. “These are family heirlooms. Since we’re the Ancient Culture Protection Institute, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to hang them up!”
After her explanation, Yin Minmin pulled Qin Ying over to handle the paperwork and sign her contract.
When Qin Ying saw the salary figure on the contract, her teeth practically ached. Fortunately, she wasn’t actually relying on this salary to survive; otherwise, she might as well have just gone and hanged herself.
Yin Minmin smiled from the side. “It’s very low, but nobody comes to work here for the pay or benefits.”
Qin Ying couldn’t help but ask, “Then what’s the draw?”
Yin Minmin looked surprised. “Sister Ying, aren’t you here for the thing to treat your eyes?”
Only then did she notice that Qin Ying wasn’t wearing glasses. She asked curiously, “I heard from Uncle Laodao that your eyes suffered a very serious injury and that modern medicine has no effective treatment for it.”
Qin Ying replied without batting an eye, “I’m wearing contact lenses today.”
Yin Minmin wasn’t well-acquainted with her and didn’t know her situation, so she was easily fooled. “No wonder.”
The young girl had a pleasant personality. Her eyes crinkled into crescents as she comforted Qin Ying. “Don’t worry, your eyes will be saved after you’ve been here for a while.”
She pointed a finger at her own chest. “Don’t let my energetic appearance fool you; I actually used to have a very serious heart condition. I couldn’t even get out of bed.”
“Later, I was cured here at the institute.”
Qin Ying’s expression shifted slightly. “How was it cured?”
Yin Minmin opened her mouth, but as soon as a single syllable escaped, she immediately clamped it shut.
She pressed her palms together and gave Qin Ying an apologetic smile. “That’s classified, so I can’t say. You’ll find out later!”
Seeing this, Qin Ying gave up on prying information from her and turned to another matter. “What will I usually be doing?”
Qin Ying’s clerical job wasn’t difficult to begin with-handling documents from superiors, receiving visitors, managing archives, and the like.
However, according to Yin Minmin, there were almost no important documents to process, and visitors were a rarity. Given her current eye condition, she only needed to do some minor tasks like field inquiries for the time being.
Qin Ying was quite pleased with this.
Once the administrative tasks were finished, Yin Minmin wanted to take Qin Ying to a newly opened stinky tofu stall. However, Qin Ying politely declined, as she had an appointment for an eye exam.
Hearing this, Yin Minmin urged Qin Ying to go quickly and told her to just come back to work tomorrow.
Qin Ying stepped out of the Cultural Center’s main entrance and glanced back at the plaque above the door. From her brief interactions just now, aside from the focus on investigating mysterious ancient cultures, everyone seemed normal. No one was lying or being deceptive.
No one had discovered Qin Ying’s little secret.
However, she didn’t feel any lighter. After leaving, she dialed Qin Zhiguo’s number.
Qin Zhiguo was driving with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. On the phone, Qin Ying took the initiative to report today’s situation first.
Then, she got straight to the point. “Uncle, there’s a wooden box in Grandma’s wardrobe in the first-floor storage room. Do you know anything about it?”
“A box?” Qin Zhiguo was stunned for a moment before explaining, “That was left to you by your grandmother.”
“A long time ago, my grandfather was suppressing bandits and wiped out a gang of ‘Huzi’ who specialized in robbing the railways. He seized a piece of high-quality wood, which was passed down to my mother-your grandmother.”
“Last year, when the old lady was gravely ill, she kept thinking about leaving you something, so she had me hire someone to make a dowry chest for you.”
“After it was finished, I put it in the storage room and forgot to tell you. How did you end up finding it yourself?”
Qin Ying answered with a thoughtful sound. “Mm, I found it. The carving is really good-Uncle, you must’ve spent a lot on it, right? I’ll make it up to you.”
“Make it up to me for what? If you really want to thank me, just buy me two cartons of cigarettes.” As he said that, Qin Zhiguo suddenly choked, then erupted into a wrenching fit of coughs.
Qin Ying frowned with worry. “Uncle, why are you coughing that badly?”
Qin Zhiguo didn’t take it seriously, one hand on the steering wheel. “Just caught the wind wrong and choked. That’s it-I’ve got a call coming in.”
Before Qin Ying could tell him to smoke less, he’d already hung up.
Qin Ying shook her head and went to the ophthalmology hospital for a checkup.
When the results came out, Qin Ying’s eyes were healthy as if they’d just grown in.
Even the doctor doing the exam pushed up his glasses in amazement, wanting to ask Qin Ying for her secret to taking care of her eyes.
She, who had been half-blind yesterday, said without a hint of shame, “Use your phone less and do more eye exercises.”
On the way home, Qin Ying stopped by the supermarket and bought a whole haul of snacks, vegetables, and meat.
She also bought two packs of everything she could find that was related to Rubber Bands.
Thick Rubber Bands for bundling things, and even colorful hair ties decorated with little beads.
She planned to toss all of it into the chest and let Han Lie and the others test them one by one to see which kind could work as a substitute.
If none of them worked, she’d think of another solution.
Back in her bedroom, Qin Ying’s hand had just settled on the wardrobe handle when she caught the scent of burning Cogongrass.
Were the people inside the chest holding rituals for her again?
Qin Ying yanked open the wardrobe door and coughed as smoke surged out.
“What is this now?”
She turned her head and waved a hand to fan the smoke away.
When it finally cleared, the golden patterns in the chest’s carvings shone brightly.
In the thinning smoke were several bundled bunches of plants.
Layer upon layer of leaves clustered around vivid red fruits.
They were so tiny they looked like miniature food toys, yet they gave off an intensely rich fragrance completely out of proportion to their size.
Han Lie’s voice came from inside the chest: “Supreme Deity, these are the Yao Grass your humble servant gathered.”
“Your humble servant also received intelligence that three hundred miles south of the city, the Monstrous Beast Xingxing has been sighted.”
“Eating it grants one swift running.”
“Once your humble servant settles the affairs within the Commandery, I will depart to capture the Xingxing.”
Han Lie knelt in the Watchtower, brimming with momentum, looking like he was ready to set out at any moment.
Qin Ying stared at the sheer, stubborn drive in him and stayed silent for a long while.
To her, this chest was currently a bit of a white elephant.
She was wary of the trouble it might bring, yet she couldn’t resist her curiosity about it.
Listening to Han Lie’s honest, detailed report about where he intended to hunt Monstrous Beasts for the Supreme Deity, Qin Ying finally let out a long sigh.
She’d deal with it when it came. Maybe, just like Old Miao said, she was fated under Hua Gai-born with an overactive curiosity, destined to cross paths with this sort of thing.
She told Han Lie, “Don’t rush. First, try these and see if they can replace the Bowstring for the Powerful Crossbow.”
With that, she used a pair of BBQ tongs to grab all the assorted Rubber Bands she’d bought and drop them into the Commandery Governor’s Mansion.
Inside the chest, Han Lie had just been feeling happy at Qin Ying’s reply when, in the next instant, he saw countless colorful Tendon Ropes raining down from the sky.
They buried nearly half of the Commandery Governor’s Mansion’s Front Courtyard.
“Th-thank you, Supreme Deity.”
He couldn’t help but stammer.