Chapter 16: The Professional Price

Sitting in front of the computer in his studio, Du Qiu was pondering.

The incident that happened this afternoon, although Tang Wenhai only mentioned the “Wolf Kiss” situation, had already alerted Du Qiu.

After all, he knew that his crystal pillow was a treasure.

The way to unlock it was so unique that not everyone might know how to open it.

However, the pillow was delivered to him by someone his father sent before this year’s Spring Festival and came with his father’s words that it might be an heirloom of the Maya civilization.

But what puzzled Du Qiu was how the security department got involved?

The intelligence capability of Tang Country’s security department is very powerful; all international mercenary organizations with a bit of fame have their member information in the hands of Tang Country’s security department.

As soon as these people enter Tang Country’s territory, they are easily discovered under the Sky Net system and facial recognition, and thus caught red-handed by the security department.

Tang Country can be the safest country in the world not only because of its strong army that ensures territorial security but also because of covert frontline personnel who eliminate some potential threats, guaranteeing the peace and comfort of the people.

Du Qiu’s eyes suddenly fell on the ultra-thin synthetic human skin gloves on the workbench; this synthetic human skin was indeed very delicate, almost identical to real skin.

The key was its good breathability. Wearing it, even if the skin underneath sweats, it can still perspire normally, making it unnoticeable that something is being worn.

“This is really a good thing. I have to find a way to analyze its composition. If I can also make it, then if I develop synthetic robots in the future, this synthetic skin would be much better than the existing ones,” he thought.

Du Qiu carefully stored the synthetic skin gloves and continued to think about the entire incident.

Judging from Ning Shuangshuang’s performance, the security personnel probably don’t know what they are looking for. Assuming they know it’s the crystal pillow, they probably couldn’t force him to hand it over.

No, one cannot hope that they won’t take it; what if they find a reason to take it away?

Even if they really know about it and ask him for it, Du Qiu also wanted to find a way to hand over the crystal pillow as late as possible.

According to the knowledge Du Qiu remembered in his dream last night, for every additional night, he could learn a lot more.

As long as he thoroughly understood the super machine, even if the thing was handed over, he would still gain enough.

He believed with the unique way to unlock the crystal pillow, it was not certain that they would be able to study it and understand its essence; they might treat it as an ordinary cultural relic and return it to him.

Wait, his grandfather once said that the best way to hide a true cultural relic in the collecting world was to make similar counterfeits.

Under the situation of mixing the fakes with the real, the genuine relics often remain hidden.

Think about it; the crystal skulls of the Maya civilization were also initially unable to be verified as genuine or fake, especially since these types of mineral objects could not be precisely dated using the carbon-14 method.

If he were to create a counterfeit, others definitely wouldn’t be able to easily judge it as fake.

As for “Wolf Kiss” or the security personnel knowing that the crystal pillow could enter a magical dream and descend into a super machine, Du Qiu wouldn’t believe it for a moment!

He only slept on it because it could treat headaches and only after a month of sleeping did the dreams begin to change.

Du Qiu took out his phone and took pictures of the crystal pillow from all angles, then began to search on Taotao Web for stores with crystal gift processing factories.

After some comparisons and screening on the internet, Du Qiu chose a local shop in Magic City and immediately sent a message.

Upon hearing Du Qiu’s request to make a crystal pillow craft gift, the shop immediately indicated they could accept the custom order but required a design picture.

When Du Qiu sent the photos, the shop said they could absolutely produce a crystal item exactly like the one in the pictures.

Once Du Qiu confirmed they could create it, he continued to make requests.

“I have another request; I wonder if you can do it?”

“What request?”

“I hope you can arrange production right away; I need to receive the goods within two days.”

“We can do it, we meet all the requirements our customers can meet!”

“You really are professional!” Du Qiu couldn’t help but praise.

“Of course, professional service will have a professional price. Therefore, the unit price for your customized crystal pillow is 49,999 yuan, and you need to prepay half of the payment as a deposit. The remaining half can be paid by placing an order for any gift item in our store,” the shop stated.

[Darn, that’s really the price of professionalism!] Du Qiu cursed inwardly, but outwardly he asked, “Can you give a little discount?”

“Dear, are you hoping for not very professional service? Understand that you’re in a tight timeframe, and besides our shop, I don’t think any other can do it,” the shop replied.

Du Qiu thought: [Of course, only your shop is in Magic City.]

“Okay, then give me your prepayment treasure account number, and I’ll transfer the deposit to you later,” Du Qiu still placed the order.

“Dear, once we receive the deposit, we will immediately arrange production and guarantee that you will absolutely be able to receive the goods within two days!”

Hearing this promise, Du Qiu felt that the professional price was somewhat worth it.

Afterward, Du Qiu transferred half of the payment, and taking care of this matter, he felt a little more at ease.

While Du Qiu was making preparations for defense, a meeting was being held in a conference room inside the Magic City Security Bureau.

The presiding person was Ning Shuangshuang.

A young man was reporting, “That guy codenamed ‘Big Stick’ finally confessed; his real name is Park Yonghwan; he’s a Korean, now holding an American green card…”

“Xiao Zhou, if this basic information of these people is consistent with previous intelligence, there’s no need to repeat it. Speak specifically about his mission in Tang Country,” Ning Shuangshuang directly interrupted the young man Xiao Zhou.

Xiao Zhou nodded and said, “Yes. Park Yonghwan confessed he and another accomplice named Ruan Dan from Southern Vietnam came to Tang Country to perform a mission to search for a crystal cube.

This means Park Yonghwan was not pursuing our initial guess; his target wasn’t the shipyard.”

Xiao Zhou’s words immediately sparked discussions among the participants.

Originally they thought they caught a big fish, but who expected to mistake Feng Jing for Ma Liang; now where does this case go from here?

“Quiet down!” Ning Shuangshuang knocked on the table, “Let Xiao Zhou finish the situation.”

Xiao Zhou continued, “Park Yonghwan said the crystal cube they are looking for should have been obtained by recently deceased peace officer Zhang Shangqing from his assigned country and then brought back as his personal effects.

Since Zhang Shangqing’s relatives in Magic City only include his wife, children, and a sister, and they live separately, they were not sure where the object was located.

After multiple reconnaissance observations, they divided their tasks the night before last; he was responsible for Zhang Shangqing’s sister, Zhang Mingliu, and Ruan Dan was responsible for Zhang Shangqing’s wife, Qin Yun.

Qin Yun is currently working as a chief accountant in a shipyard’s finance department, and she’s recently received a disciplinary action that seems like a demotion.

We took specific measures because Park Yonghwan was stalking her, thinking that foreign forces wanted to infiltrate.

During the operation the night before last, because Ruan Dan used a mask as a disguise, we ignored him and captured Park Yonghwan.”

A colleague asked, “Did he confess what the crystal cube is for? To whom does ‘Wolf Kiss’ answer in seeking this object?”

Xiao Zhou explained, “He says he’s just an executor and completely unaware of the source and reason behind the mission as an executor.”

“Xiao Zhou, why didn’t Park Yonghwan disguise himself with a mask like Ruan Dan?” Ning Shuangshuang asked.

Xiao Zhou smiled and said, “Well, Park Yonghwan is a Nationalist from a big stick country, used to being arrogant. He thought he had never been to Tang Country before and wasn’t worried that Tang Country’s security personnel would recognize him right away.”

At this remark, everyone in the room laughed.