The painter at Pei Manor was undeniably skilled. Following Lu Xiaofeng's description, he produced a lifelike portrait after only two revisions.
Zhou Ming watched from the side and asked curiously, "Who did you draw?"
Lu Xiaofeng replied with a question. "Don't you think this face looks a little familiar?"
"Does it?"
Zhou Ming examined the portrait from every angle. "Hmm... it does seem a little familiar. But who is it?"
"Forget it!"
Lu Xiaofeng took the portrait, offered his thanks, and left.
With friends everywhere, Lu Xiaofeng had no shortage of ways to find someone.
He found Grandpa Guisun.
Grandpa Guisun took one look at the portrait and said, "Isn't this Boss Qian?"
"What? He's Boss Qian?!"
Lu Xiaofeng was stunned.
How was that possible?!
The young man in the portrait was the very person he had encountered at the city gate last night.
He had found the man familiar, yet could never remember where he had seen him before.
Today, he had intended to find the man and ask him about last night.
But unexpectedly, it seemed that the person he had been seeking was, according to Grandpa Guisun, the answer itself!
But how could that be?
One was a fat, middle-aged man.
The other was a lean young man.
How could those two people be the same person?
Could Boss Qian also be skilled in disguise?
But people had only ever heard of thin people disguising themselves as fat ones. Who had ever heard of a fat person disguising himself as thin?
A thin person could add things to his body and make himself look fat.
But for a fat person to disguise himself... would he have to carve the flesh off his body?
"Yes," Grandpa Guisun said. "Boss Qian looked like this twenty years ago. He was still very thin then."
Lu Xiaofeng picked up the portrait and examined it over and over before finally realizing that the familiar feeling he had always had came from the resemblance between the portrait and Boss Qian.
It was simply that one was thin and the other fat.
Coupled with the difference in age, Lu Xiaofeng had never considered that possibility.
"Grandpa Guisun, have you heard of a disguise technique that can turn a fat person into a thin one?"
Grandpa Guisun said, "That depends on how fat he is. If the difference before and after the disguise isn't too great, perhaps it can be done."
"This..."
Lu Xiaofeng thought of the difference in build between Boss Qian and the young man from last night, and could not help shaking his head.
Yet he simply could not bring himself to believe that man was Boss Qian.
"Grandpa Guisun, how many people in this world do you think would recognize the person in this portrait?"
"Probably quite a few."
Grandpa Guisun said, "Boss Qian joined Datong Money House when he was very young. Over the years, he served as a manager in many different places before eventually becoming the chief manager. He knew many people in his youth, and quite a few should still remember him today."
"Oh..."
Lu Xiaofeng went to several more places, but the more he investigated, the more frightened he became.
It seemed that every person who had known Boss Qian in his youth could recognize him.
Those who could not recognize him merely said they did not know him.
He also asked many masters of disguise about altering one's body type.
But everyone told him that it was impossible for someone to turn a two-hundred-pound fat man into a thin man of around one hundred pounds in such a short time.
"Could it be... could it be..."
The more he investigated, the more the truth seemed to point toward the suspicion in his heart.
But Lu Xiaofeng truly did not wish to admit that it was real.
"Once all impossibilities are eliminated, whatever remains, no matter how absurd, must be the truth!"
"And there is only one truth!"
Lu Xiaofeng abruptly came to his senses and discovered that he had somehow wandered to the entrance of a teahouse.
Inside the teahouse, a storyteller slapped his table as he told one of the twisted and bizarre cases from Famous Detective Lu Xiaofeng.
"Heh heh heh... the truth?" Lu Xiaofeng chuckled. "I never thought there would come a day when I'd be taught a lesson by a book written by that fellow Zhou Ming! That's right! Though it's unbelievable, though it's hard to imagine, that young man must have been Boss Qian!"
Although so many masters of disguise had said it could not be done.
Boss Qian himself had already accomplished something nearly impossible before.
A dagger had plunged straight into his heart, yet he had maintained a state of feigned death and passed the examination of both Luo Ma and Jiang Long.
Lu Xiaofeng had likewise never heard of such a technique of feigned death.
If that was the case, what did it matter if there was one more unheard-of thing?
Lu Xiaofeng stopped dwelling on it and made peace with himself.
But there was still one thing he could not understand.
If Boss Qian truly possessed such miraculous disguise techniques, why had he disguised himself as his younger self?
Given the situation at the time, he could have disguised himself as anyone at all and escaped Lu Xiaofeng's pursuit, could he not?
"Could it be that he wanted to reminisce about his youth... youth..."
Lu Xiaofeng's expression changed. "No way..."
He came to the entrance of the teahouse, where a bookstall had been set up. It displayed all kinds of miscellaneous books, though the greatest number of them were Famous Detective Lu Xiaofeng.
This was a sales strategy introduced by Wenzong Bookstore. The storyteller performed inside while the bookstall sold copies outside.
They promoted one another, resulting in an exceptionally high sales rate.
Lu Xiaofeng picked up a copy of Famous Detective Lu Xiaofeng and opened the first volume, first chapter.
The Young Famous Detective Lu Xiaofeng, the Lantern Festival Poison That Restored Youth
Near the end of that chapter, Lu Xiaofeng was ambushed from behind by another man in black and knocked unconscious with a blow from a staff.
After recognizing him as Lu Xiaofeng, whose fame had recently risen, the man in black took out a poison to prevent any investigation.
From their conversation, it could be learned that after taking this poison, one would appear to have died naturally, and no one would be able to detect anything unusual!
After making Lu Xiaofeng swallow the poison, the two men in black quickly departed.
Beneath the full moon, Lu Xiaofeng's entire body convulsed in agonizing pain. By the time he regained consciousness, he had become an eight-year-old child...
In an era where Journey to the West and Investiture of the Gods had already come into being, all kinds of stories, even those based on reality, had to include some mythological or fantastical elements.
For example, Water Margin began with Marshal Hong accidentally releasing the demon stars.
Or Dream of the Red Chamber, where the past lives of every major character were far from ordinary.
Compared to those, Famous Detective Lu Xiaofeng, also drawn from reality, merely gave a pill the effect of restoring youth at the beginning. It was utterly childish.
It could not be compared with mythological works like Journey to the West and Investiture of the Gods, nor even with realistic works like Water Margin and Dream of the Red Chamber.
Their protagonists... no, forget the protagonists. Even a whole crowd of supporting characters were demon stars descending into the mortal world or reincarnations of immortals and gods!
And your protagonist merely took a pill that restored his youth?
How pathetic!
Yet at this moment, though it was already the third time he had read this part of the story, Lu Xiaofeng still felt an enormous, indescribable shock!
RESTORED! YOUTH!
If... if the truth was really this, then it seemed... everything could be explained!
"Sir, sir!"
Lu Xiaofeng came back to his senses.
"That will be five taels of silver."
"Oh, right."
Lu Xiaofeng handed over the silver and tucked the book into his robe.
Before you continue