Short, Light, Free Chapter 194: Ghost Market Part 3 II

Uncle Fu walked into a room, leaving the door open behind him for us.

We noticed that the people behind us did not follow.

"You're not coming?" Dahai asked them.

"It's Uncle Fu's personal space so no one's allowed in there," a lady replied faintly.

"What's in there?" I questioned.

"Only important guests know," she answered before walking off.

Dahai and I entered the room. The special thing about wooden rooms is that they block out sunlight.

Uncle Fu flipped a switch and his work desk lit up.

We finally caught a glimpse of the interior of the room. It wasn't big and its decor was minimal and plain, but everything that was necessary was present.

From razor knives to magnifying glasses, from cleaning clothes to alcohol burners, Uncle Fu has them all in his workstation.

"Bring it over," he said, pointing at the watch. "What do you want me to do?"

"You fixed it before, right? How did you do it?" Dahai inquired.

Uncle Fu opened the watch up and nodded. "This is the one I've fixed for him previously."

"Just briefly explain the steps to us and what you saw when you opened it up," Dahai continued.

"There was something strange inside this but Pang Guang only told me to get it fixed so I did not mention it to him."

"Strange? How so?" I immediately asked.

"He brought this watch over and asked a bunch of questions that I really don't remember now. However, I remember getting a shock upon opening it because there were many odd inscriptions on the inner sides. It is a pointless design, especially since it's an old model and the inner sides can't be seen anyway," he shared.

"Pointless design," Dahai repeated.

Without responding, Uncle Fu put on an eyepiece and started dismantling it.

He opened a small crack and said, "You'll understand soon."

After prying both sections open, we saw that the inner sides were black.

"Look at this," Uncle Fu called out.

Uncomprehending, Dahai asked, "What about it?"

Uncle Fu took his eyepiece down. "Clip this on and you'll see even more clearly.

After trying it, Dahai's eyes widened and he quickly handed me the eyepiece.

I got a shock too, upon realizing that there were black silhouettes.

"What are these?" I questioned.

"Human figures. This watch seems rather old and it doesn't look fake, but isn't this redundant? I was surprised too when I opened this," Uncle Fu explained.

Dahai turned to me and murmured, "These figures are so vivid. Do you remember Pang Guang's looks?"

"Big bald head?"

He pointed to the inside of the watch. "Look at this black silhouette."

I followed his finger and felt every hair on my body stand up.

It was exactly the same as Pang Guang's figure.

"I'm not sure if I'm remembering correctly, but there are a lot more black figures now," Uncle Fu mused in confusion.

I quickly diverted the topic by pointing at the meter dial. "How did you fix the needles?"

Uncle Fu pointed at a display wall and said, "I opened up another similarly sized watch for its needles."

Dahai leaned in again and whispered, "He said that the shapes have changed. I think the additional figures are all members of the Pang family."

I shuddered at his conjecture.

"There's something else that's different about this watch," Uncle Fu supplemented.

"What else?" I asked.

"Its inner sides are extremely exquisite like it's man-made"

"Aren't pocket watches all like that?" Dahai said.

"This is an old craftsmanship. Modern pocket watches are not quite the same, but regardless, all watches usually come with inscriptions of the manufacturing time, location, and date. There's nothing on this watch, however, and I suspect that it is different inside. The gold outside must've been artificially added, but since it belongs to Pang Guang, I was in no place to cut it open."

"You mean this outer gold-plated shell is added later on?"

"It's very possible," Uncle Fu affirmed.

"Can you open it now that we're requesting you to?" Dahai tried.

Uncle Fu replied, "I'll need an hour."

"We'll wait for you. Go ahead," Dahai said. 

I handed the eyepiece back to Uncle Fu.

He then put it on and started grinding the watch with a sanding tool.

"Can I use the paper and pen here?" Dahai asked.

"Use anything you need."

Dahai turned to me. "You remember her appearance, don't you? The grandmother? Draw it."

"Me?"

"Of course!" Dahai laughed.

I took the pen and started to draw.

"The nose is too high," he commented.

"How would you know?"

"I was beside you. I saw her, too."

"Why am I the one drawing her, then?"

"Because I can't draw," he answered simply as I continue to draw. I'm not gifted in this department so even after an hour, there was only a 60% resemblance. It was barely recognizable.

"I'm managing the market now so I can easily get the southern side to take note."

"That's great,"

"It's done," Uncle Fu called and we dashed over to him.

The whole watch was now pitch black. Holding the watch face, he informed us, "The words are a little unclear now that I've scraped a bit of them off. There's no manufacturing location but the date is there. 1463. The first pocket watch was made in 1462, so you can tell how much of an antique this is."

Dahai and I were shocked at this piece of information.

Uncle Fu turned the face around. "The pattern on this side is simply terrifying."

Our backs turned cold as we caught sight of an eye.

Uncle Fu hasn't cleaned the surface but that eye was already clear and distinct.

It was open and extremely frightening.

"They had this in the past?" Dahai exclaimed.

Uncle Fu shook his head. "I don't know much of the history of foreign items." 

"How do we settle this?" Dahai asked me quietly.

I took a few pieces of paper from the side and wrapped the watch in them before stowing it away in my pocket.

"What do we do?" Dahai persisted.

"We need to some research while we wait for that grandmother to appear in the market again."

Chapter end