"If this Ghost Seal is glowing, fine... but why is the Mother Bell joining the fun?"
The three of them sat around the sofa, looking at the Ghost Seal and the Mother Bell on the table.
The Ghost Seal was glowing, and the Mother Bell was clanging. At first glance, it looked like an antique get-together.
Amidst the festive atmosphere, the Black Gold Ancient Blade was eager to make its presence felt, attempting to emit a blade's hum even from within the flour sack, but Zhang Qiling pressed it down directly. It regretfully withdrew from this antique team-building event.
"Is there a possibility that they're like a turtle looking at green beans, falling in love at first sight?"
Fatty was still using his unchanging thought process to speculate. In just a few days, he had already played matchmaker for himself and the monkey, paired the Black Gold Ancient Blade with the worms, and now, feeling restless, he intended to forge a marital bond between the newly met Ghost Seal and the Mother Bell.
"...Good heavens, I think you don't need to consider your post-retirement career anymore. You should just apply to be a matchmaker!" Wu Tianzhen was speechless and retorted, "Your enthusiasm for pairing people up is so great that even the 'Annual Outstanding Matchmaker' would feel ashamed."
It wasn't right for the Ghost Seal to remain perpetually dim. Seeing Zhang Qiling staring at them in deep thought, Wu Tianzhen helplessly grabbed a rag and roughly scrubbed away some of the dirt from the Ghost Seal.
Honestly, it was already impressive that he could control himself from throwing this Ghost Seal into the trash can outside the door. He couldn't possibly be expected to be gentle with this thing.
As he wiped, his hand pressing the rag suddenly got stuck in a gap, startling him.
Taking away the rag, he saw that a piece of the ghost head carving on one side of the Ghost Seal was missing, revealing an incomplete flaw.
"What... what's going on?"
For a moment, Wu Tianzhen almost thought he had used too much force and broken off the ghost head himself. He quickly stood up and shook the rag, trying to find the missing piece.
But soon, Fatty, whose attention was drawn, also voiced his confusion as he stared at the Ghost Seal.
He picked up the Ghost Seal, turned it over and over, scratched his head, and marveled, "...No, that's not right. Is this how the patterns on the Ghost Seal are arranged? Fatty remembers that the ghost heads used to circle clockwise around the base, but now they've reversed?"
"What, does this thing have a rebellious phase?!"
"Is that so?" Wu Tianzhen took the Ghost Seal and looked at it again. However, at the time, he was only focused on Zhang Qiling's condition and had a poor memory of the Ghost Seal. So, although he vaguely felt that it did seem different, he couldn't be sure. "Fatty, are you sure about this?"
"Damn it! You're looking down on Fatty's skills!" Fatty jumped up almost three feet high. He patted his chest loudly and said, "Fatty's eyesight for treasures and beauties is top-notch. One glance is all it takes, without any oversight. He can remember it clearly even after thirty years!"
"If you don't believe me, Fatty will break down the height, build, and facial features of that waitress from Lou Wai Lou back then, so you can get a good look!"
"No, no, please spare me!" Wu Tianzhen repeatedly refused, as he really didn't want to participate in Fatty's rather vulgar activities.
However, after Fatty's words, he also believed that the Ghost Seal was different.
"So... is it possible that this Ghost Seal and the one Little Brother got before are not the same one at all?!" He thought carefully and slowly said in disbelief.
...The previous one was still nowhere to be found, and now another one appeared. Wu Tianzhen couldn't help but curse, "Damn it, how many more of these unlucky things are there? Will it ever end?"
At this moment, he finally understood why the shopkeeper had seemed so dismissive of this Ghost Seal, allowing it to gather dust on the edge of the shelf.
The material of this Ghost Seal was unknown, and its only value was its superb craftsmanship. Now that a piece was missing, its value had plummeted, and it was normal for it to be left in a corner gathering dust.
Hearing Wu Tianzhen's analysis, Fatty glanced at Zhang Qiling, who was nestled with the furball and slowly stroking the Mother Bell, and whispered to Wu Tianzhen:
"...Since this isn't the same one, and it's missing a corner, do you think it can still—" Fatty made a shape of a door with his hand, "—still find that thing?"
"How should I know?!" Wu Tianzhen was a little annoyed. He looked at the persistently glowing unlucky Ghost Seal in his hand and couldn't console himself by saying it was useless.
...If it had no guiding function at all, why was it glowing?
Could it really have fallen in love with something and was here to court it?
Just then, Zhang Qiling, who had been studying the Mother Bell, suddenly said faintly:
"...There's no bell clapper."
He flipped the Mother Bell in his hand. It turned out that the lower part of the Mother Bell was a solid block of iron, completely lacking the bell clapper that would produce sound when struck, as in a normal bell.
It remained motionless, yet it continued to emit sound without interruption.
"Holy crap, Fatty only just noticed this!" Fatty leaned over to take a look, and in disbelief, picked up the Mother Bell and shook it frantically.
As he shook it, the clanging of the Mother Bell did not fluctuate at all, maintaining a frequency consistent with the changes in the Ghost Seal's brightness.
"Although we've seen a lot of unscientific things with Tianzhen, this is too outrageous?" Fatty stroked his chin, put the Mother Bell back into Zhang Qiling's hand, and then suddenly realized, "Damn it, could it be that there's an ancient sound system sealed inside or something?"
"You might as well say there's a black-haired fierce ghost sealed inside, preparing to possess your Fatty body!"
Wu Tianzhen, afraid that overly loud noises would attract the attention of people outside, mocked Fatty while walking to the door to close it.
The furball had long harbored ill intentions towards the key Wu Tianzhen had taken out to open the door. Seeing him take it out, it suddenly pounced out and, with lightning speed, crunched down and swallowed the key and its chain!
Wu Tianzhen only heard a snap, and the key was broken into two pieces under the furball's steel teeth.
"Holy crap, are you starving to death?!"
The door had just been locked. Without a key, they would have to rely on Little Zhang to break open the lock with his bare hands, or wait anxiously by the litter box for the furball to excrete it again.
Wu Tianzhen's head ached at the thought of that scene. He grabbed a stool from the ground and chased after the furball.
Wu Shan Ju had been subjected to wave after wave of furball attacks, and now various items were scattered everywhere, looking messy. The furball leaped and jumped, and with one careless move, it head-butted a fallen side door panel, hitting it so hard that stars appeared before its eyes, vividly demonstrating the saying "waiting by the stump for a rabbit."
Fatty, who had successfully caught the "rabbit" by the door, picked up the furball with one hand and the key fragments spat out due to the impact with the other.
The fragments were quite large and relatively easy to piece together. Perhaps with some effort, they could still be used.
Fatty casually wiped his hands on Wu Tianzhen's clothes, wiping off the furball's saliva from the key onto Wu Tianzhen's back, and then pushed the key together, saying with a trusting expression:
"Tianzhen, Fatty's clumsy hands can't handle piecing keys together. The organization has discussed it and unanimously decided to assign this glorious and arduous task to you. Don't let the organization down!"
"No, who did you discuss it with?!" Wu Tianzhen slapped Fatty's hand away and picked up the key fragments with two fingers disdainfully. "Little Brother is still inside! When did you reach a consensus with him?!"
He turned to seek Zhang Qiling's support, but as he looked over, he met Zhang Qiling's gaze directly.
Zhang Qiling slowly looked at the key fragments, his eyes momentarily vacant, as if recalling something.
He slowly traced the Mother Bell with his two Fafaqiu fingers, then suddenly applied force—
With a crack, the Mother Bell, on which the Zhang family had placed great expectations, shattered into pieces in Zhang Qiling's hands!
Wu Tianzhen and Fatty: ??? Little Brother—! You don't need to learn this from the furball, ahhhh!