By the third quarter, I gradually weeded out a group of partners who weren’t quite suitable for me, replacing them one by one with those who were. Although things weren’t as prosperous as they were in Uncle’s time, the operation was running very smoothly.

Watching the cash flow in continuously, I slowly gained some confidence in my own abilities. I realized I wasn’t as useless as I used to think—success actually has its methods, and it’s not that difficult.

After finishing with the traditional channels, I started training while making plans for the future, and went to visit some old acquaintances. The easiest to visit, of course, were Little Grace and his group. Little Grace is still recuperating in the hospital; previously, because I was feeling down, I hadn’t paid much attention to his injuries. He’s a very important person, and at that time, I actually knew nothing about his experiences with that team.

Grace has been taking care of Little Grace all along. One reason I didn’t go to see Little Grace was also because of her—the incident with Mrs. Huo had hit her very hard. But while running Uncle’s shop, I learned many valuable qualities, such as facing pain. I know that when the time comes, avoidance is the worst solution.

Pain only lessens when it’s let out; suppressing it doesn’t help much. Once pain reaches its peak, it will inevitably subside.

After several visits, Grace gradually got used to me again. I stayed in Beijing for a while, specifically to help Little Grace handle some family affairs. Because I was gradually gaining some influence in the south thanks to my connection with Uncle, I also had more qualifications to help others.

In fact, I didn’t really need these qualifications, but once I had them, it seemed impossible to let them go.

Once everything was sorted out, I finally started discussing everything that had happened with Little Grace and the others. I mentioned some details from the Zhang family’s ancient building that I hadn’t told them before: the Tibetan ornaments found in the coffin, those two rings, and the final story of Sam.

After hearing it, Little Grace was quite moved. He seemed a bit tired of all these mysteries. He told me that he usually doesn’t feel this way; for him, his whole life has been something he never wanted to experience. From taking over the family as a child, to being involved in all kinds of struggles, he’s already been through all sorts of disgusting things. He’s no longer bothered by any particular way of life, but now he’s feeling this way again, which shows how serious things are.

I showed Little Grace the Tibetan-style jewelry I’d brought out from the coffin, and for those I hadn’t brought, I drew them. After looking at them, Little Grace said to me, “These are all ornaments from the Tibetan Buddhist system. All it shows is that the owner of the coffin seemed to be interested in Tibetan things, nothing more.”

I said to them, “Since these were in the coffin, I think these burial items must have some special significance, more or less. For example, if it were Little Sam, his burial item would definitely be the black-gold ancient knife. If it were Andy, maybe it would be an iron egg. From the burial items, we should be able to deduce some information.”

Little Grace said, “You mean he might have Tibetan blood?”

I said, “Maybe he spent a long time in Tibetan areas.”

Little Grace sighed and said, “The Zhang family’s influence is enormous. Sometimes they operate in Tibet, so it’s not surprising.”

I said, “I’m not saying it’s strange. I just think this kind of jewelry is very common. Since these were chosen as burial items, maybe there are clues on them that we don’t know about. If you know anyone who understands these things, you can have them take a look. We can’t overlook any place that might hold clues.”

Little Grace clearly thought the chances of success were slim. I don’t know why he had this premonition. Maybe, after all that’s happened, being able to maintain my kind of curiosity is itself a kind of sickness.

However, he didn’t stop me.

We carefully examined all the jewelry. These Tibetan ornaments were all very large, and their craftsmanship was wild and rough. Most of the details were traditional Tibetan symbols of good fortune. On closer inspection, many of them actually belonged to Bon, not Tibetan Buddhism.

We tried to find something in these ornaments that was completely different from ordinary Tibetan jewelry. Most of them were just like the most common types, but there was one thing that caught my attention: among all the jewelry, especially the beaded necklaces, there was always a strange red bead embedded in them.

We all knew that most Tibetan jewelry is made from red dzi beads, red agate, red amber, or red coral, but this one wasn’t made from any of those materials.

I asked Little Grace, “Can you find someone to figure out what kind of stone this is?”

The Xie family is quite skilled at appraising jewelry, but clearly Little Grace wasn’t particularly familiar with this field. He grew up in a very harsh environment, and his main focus wasn’t on learning how to distinguish antiques. That’s something only specialists in the family could handle. So Little Grace handed the items to Grace and asked her, “Take a look—what do you think this is?”