Chapter 6

True and False

Perhaps he really had rubbed off some of the vendor’s luck. Today, despite clearly not many tourists, Nan Shi managed to sell exactly thirteen wristlet strings, along with various small trinkets. It wasn’t enough to fill his coffers, but he did make three to five thousand in gross profit.

That pile of five emperors’ coins still lay on the counter, he hadn’t even had time to set aside his hands to string them.

It was already past 3:30 PM, the cold temperature overcoming the warm sunlight, making the entire street turn chilly and gloomy. Nan Shi had only sat for a moment, his cup of tea not even half-finished, when he felt his toes getting slightly cold. He hurriedly shut the window, turning on the store’s heating. The warm air from the air conditioner swept across his hair, leaving behind a bit of comfortable warmth.

He saw that there were no more customers coming—this pedestrian street didn’t have any restaurants worth specifically visiting, and tourists wouldn’t choose this time to come strolling. Moreover, in the dead of winter, few people liked self-punishing by coming out at night; the pedestrian street visibly became deserted.

Nan Shi thought about the exam he had to take today, wishing he could immediately put on an act of collapsing to the ground, falling unconscious, so he could just sleep through the day. But he had a 99% certainty that if he did this, when he woke up, he’d be at home, and even his shixiong would be sitting by his bed. As soon as he opened his eyes and explained why he fainted, it would be time for the exam.

He thought for a moment, then grudgingly took out a copy of the Yi Jing and spread it open on the table. While silently reciting it line by line, he strung together the five emperors’ coins. Whenever he forgot a part, he leaned over to take a peek at the book—cramming at the last minute was indeed ineffective, but not attempting it at all was equally untenable.

This classic of several thousand characters, Nan Shi had recited many times before. Even if his memory was uneven and incomplete, his muscle memory remained, making it easier to pick up again. Once he had strung together four or five sets of the five emperors’ coins, he would be able to recite it smoothly without any hitches.

He lifted his eyes to glance at the nearby Western clock, noticing that an hour had passed. Although his body didn’t want to move an inch, he still stood up to slowly pace within the shop under the threat of being forced into nighttime exercise if he didn’t move now. Along the way, he turned on his phone and ordered some takeout to fill his stomach.

As for the milk tea and egg waffles he had just finished less than two hours ago… well, those were snacks; his stomach for main meals was still empty.

Ten minutes later, Nan Shi sat down again. With the five emperors’ coins right in front of him, he casually picked up a few of the same-sized Qianlong Tongbao coins, pushing the others aside. He then tossed them back and forth on a thin layer of felt cloth. As for the subject of divination, he could use the tourists passing by outside the door.

“What is the background of the girl in yellow from her previous life…?

Qi represents heaven, with all three lines being yang trigrams. Wide… all yang, an auspicious, extremely high-level reading! Could she have been an emperor in her previous life? No, no, she’s probably just a wealthy, important person!”

“Does the wife of the man wearing a green padded jacket suspect he’s cheating…?

Land over Water, Yi, smooth despite risks… He hasn’t cheated, but there seems to be some conflict with his wife recently.

“Red Clothes…”

Nan Shi had seen three people. From the divination figures alone, he couldn’t tell if his readings were accurate or not. To determine this precisely, one would need to use the subject’s birth time to construct a natal chart, supplemented by physiognomy. But it wasn’t practical to rush out and pull people aside to ask for their birth times, right? If he didn’t get called a nutjob, he’d be doing well.

This was akin to doing problems with no answers. He could do the work, but wouldn’t know if he was right or wrong.

Moreover, Nan Shi felt vaguely that he must have gotten many wrong, making him want to bash his head on the ground in frustration. But there was nothing for it; he could only continue calculating. With more practice comes more skill.

If all else failed, he could always go back and pull out the surveillance footage to show his shixiong Chi You. At worst, he’d get a lecture and a couple of slaps on the hands. Surely he couldn’t be stuck here flailing like a headless fly, right?

When counting to the ninth, no more visitors were visible outside the door. Instead, there was a takeout delivery person riding a motorbike who had dashed past. Nan Shi’s fingers relaxed, and the copper coin fell, showing a sign with great misfortune.

Nan Shi instantly got up and ran outside, shouting at the takeout delivery person stopped diagonally opposite, waiting for his milk tea and egg waffles, “Bicycles aren’t allowed on the pedestrian street—! Yes, yes, it’s you! Did you hear me? If you ride again, I’ll call the traffic police!”

The takeout delivery person turned his head to glance at Nan Shi, then shot an impatient glare at him, wrenching his head back, acting as if he hadn’t heard.

Nan Shi silently closed the door. He could only remind the man to this extent; if he made it clearer, he’d have to endure punishment.

To tell the truth, if a stranger charged up to him and said, “Great calamity is upon you! If you don’t die, you’ll be crippled!” even if he had a bit of a temper, throwing a punch would be understandable.

From just the takeout delivery person’s turn to look back, Nan Shi saw his eyes shaped like triangles, and the eyes were somewhat red. In the industry, this kind of eye is called a “fire eye.”

From the perspective of physiognomy, triangular eyes naturally tend to be suspicious, have a bad temper, and are difficult to get along with, making for a facial appearance prone to invite murder and disasters. Adding a fire eye makes it even more inauspicious.

Flame Eyes refers to the white part of the eye being filled with blood vessels, resembling a sickness. From a traditional Chinese medicine perspective, the eyes are associated with the liver; redness indicates excessive internal heat in the liver meridian. When people encounter someone angered, they always advise, “Anger harms the liver,” or when describing inexplicable outbursts of temper, they self-mock as having “liver fire rising.” It is evident that Flame Eyes signifies a person who is extremely prone to anger.

Combined, it becomes a powder keg, ready to explode with a single spark.

Upon seeing this pair of eyes, Nan Shi felt that if he said a few more words, Papa Heaven might use the delivery person’s hand to teach him a lesson.

Having done his part, he left the rest to fate.

Nan Shi sat back down, a little tired of braiding the Five Emperors Coins. He picked up that tassel, wielding scissors to trim away the already-faded threads. He chose a steady-looking turquoise-colored thread to replace it, just as he had finished braiding the beginning, the doorbell rang. There was a visitor inside.

Nan Shi didn’t get up, calling out, “Please feel free to look around, if there’s anything you want to try, give a call.”

The two visitors were middle-aged men, their attire suggesting they were locals. Their hands carried two plastic bags—somewhat familiar, it was the same type commonly used by the antique vendors next door.

They were very easy to recognize, somewhat like the thick black bags used to buy fish, waterproof and lightproof, with high load-bearing capacity, suitable for holding various types of antiques, without fearing they would be dropped.

“Boss, could I have a sip (of water)?” One of the middle-aged men walked forward, still holding a thermos in his hand, twisting it as he walked. Nan Shi responded with a sound, got up, and took the thermos: “Yes, wait a moment.”

“Thank you!”

The two didn’t hesitate, sitting at the glass display cabinet and casually picking up a string of five emperors’ coins that Nan Shi had just finished making to look at. One of them looked at it front and back, nodded, and said: “The technique is quite interesting; it’s rare for them not to be in the wrong order.”

The so-called five emperors’ coins were round copper coins with square holes, which due to the esoteric meaning of the heavens being round and square, corresponding to the five elements, and corresponding to human nature, have the effect of warding off evil and bringing blessings in traditional culture. In short, they are Feng Shui coins.

The commonly used set of five emperors’ coins are respectively Shunzhi Tongbao, Kangxi Tongbao, Yongzheng Tongbao, Qianlong Tongbao, and Jiaqing Tongbao. These five emperors’ reigns were all peaceful and prosperous times, with a large number of coins produced, and relatively recent, making them easier to obtain.

The Five Emperors Coins were quite well-known, with most people having heard of them. Their sales were good, so naturally they wouldn’t be sold less, and whether they were genuine or fake, well, that went without saying. It was simply too common a phenomenon.

The main issue was that most shopkeepers wouldn’t pay much attention when bulk purchasing, so they might end up with some Five Emperors Coins with disordered emperor sequences, or perhaps there would be duplicated Five Emperors Coins. Proper Five Emperors Coins should be arranged according to the order these five emperors ascended the throne, and the more exquisite ones would be formed into a plum blossom shape, head-to-tail connected, with a focus on the Five Elements’ principles of mutual generation and suppression.

Nan Shi had spent his own money to buy these Five Emperors Coins, so he could guarantee they were genuine. Moreover, he had personally arranged them, so naturally he would do it in the most aesthetically pleasing way, forming them all into orderly plum blossom shapes. Only then did someone praise him briefly.

The water dispenser was right nearby. Nan Shi filled up his thermos and smiled. “I tied these together myself, just for fun.”

He handed the thermos to the other person, then asked another individual, “Would you like to add some water?”

“Oh, I’m okay, I still have some left,” the person replied politely, before asking in turn, “Excuse me, how much do you sell these Five Emperors Coins for?”

Nan Shi pointed at the pile of Five Emperors Coins on the table. “One hundred per string. I just tied them myself. If the knots come undone later, you can come back and I’ll tie you another one.”

“If you don’t like the ones already made up, you can also pick five from inside that you like, and I’ll make them for you—although it’ll be a bit slow in terms of time, you’ll have to wait twenty minutes.”

Upon hearing this, the two men were immediately tempted. One of them scooped up a handful of coins, which clattered down with pure metallic sounds, making it clear to anyone who heard that they were real.

“Then I want a string! Old Wang, do you want one too?”

Old Wang rummaged through the coins with interest. “Then I’ll choose five… Hey! This one’s not bad! Boss, you can’t get out of it now!”

Nan Shi walked over to take a look and saw it was a relatively intact and new Yongzheng Tongbao—strictly speaking, Old Wang had still managed to pick a small slip-up. A Yongzheng Tongbao in this complete condition could sell for at least twenty yuan.

He smiled. “Don’t regret it. You can pick freely.”

“Alright!” The middle-aged man picked out five coins and handed them to Nan Shi. “I also want a red string, for good luck!”

“No problem. Do wait a moment.” Nan Shi had already made quite a few strings of Five Emperors Coins today, and his hands were already skilled at the task. While he worked, he even had the mind to chat with his customers. “You two can look around the shop. If you see anything you like, I’ll give you a discount.”

“Then we’ll look for ourselves,” the two men replied.

Nan Shi then focused on braiding his Five Emperors Coins, no longer paying attention to them—the jianghu has its rules, if the buyer takes something without asking, and it turns out to be broken, it’s on the buyer!

Ten minutes later, Nan Shi still had one tassel left to finish. He had just taken out a small comb, planning to comb the threads, when he heard the two men whispering and arguing:

“This isn’t Master Xuan Wei’s work, is it?!”

“What are you thinking! It definitely isn’t! Some apprentice must have copied it?”

“Bullshit! Old Xia, are you really blind! Look at this carving work! This atmosphere! Can it be copied?”

“Hey old Wang!, don’t talk nonsense! If you don’t believe it, let’s ask the boss to come and look. Shall we bet? What do we do if it’s real?”

Old Wang’s face was flushed, either from anger or excitement: “I’ll bet! If it’s real, I’ll lose you a hundred? If it’s fake, you lose me a hundred?”

“Pfft! At least a thousand!”

“Deal!”