The Young Boss Qian, An Unbelievable Truth

The artist at the Pei residence was undoubtedly skilled. Following Lu Xiaofeng's description, the lifelike portrait of a face was completed after only two revisions.

Zhou Ming, watching from the side, asked curiously, "Who is this you're drawing?"

Lu Xiaofeng countered, "Don't you think this face looks a little familiar?"

"Really?"

Zhou Ming examined the portrait from all angles. "Hmm... it does seem a bit familiar. Who is it?"

"Never mind!"

Lu Xiaofeng took the portrait, thanked the artist, and left.

With friends all over the world, Lu Xiaofeng had plenty of channels to find someone.

He went to Grandpa Guisun.

Grandpa Guisun took one look at the portrait and said, "Isn't this Boss Qian?"

"What? It's Boss Qian?!"

Lu Xiaofeng was shocked.

How could that be?!

The young man in the portrait was the same person he'd met at the city gate last night.

He felt the man looked familiar but couldn't recall where he'd seen him.

His intention today was to find this person and ask about last night's events.

But unexpectedly, it seemed the person he was looking for, according to Grandpa Guisun, was the answer!

But how was that possible?

One was a stout, middle-aged man.

The other was a lean, young man.

How could they be the same person?

Could it be that Boss Qian was also skilled in disguise?

But he'd only ever heard of disguising oneself from thin to fat, never from fat to thin.

When disguising as a thinner person, one could add padding to appear fatter.

But disguising as a thinner person... did that involve surgically removing flesh?

"Yes," Grandpa Guisun said. "Boss Qian looked like this twenty years ago. He was very thin back then."

Lu Xiaofeng picked up the portrait and examined it from every angle, finally realizing that the persistent sense of familiarity he felt seemed to stem from the resemblance between this portrait and Boss Qian's current features.

It was just a matter of thin versus fat.

Coupled with the age difference, Lu Xiaofeng hadn't considered that possibility at all.

"Grandpa Guisun, have you ever heard of a disguise technique that can make a fat person look thin?"

Grandpa Guisun replied, "It depends on how fat. If the difference isn't too great, perhaps."

"This..."

Lu Xiaofeng considered the difference in build between Boss Qian and the young man from last night and couldn't help but shake his head.

Yet, he still couldn't bring himself to believe that the person was Boss Qian.

"Grandpa Guisun, how many people in this world do you think would recognize this portrait?"

"Probably quite a few."

Grandpa Guisun said, "Boss Qian joined Datong Money House when he was very young. He managed branches in various places over the years before becoming the head manager. He knew many people in his youth, and many should still remember him."

"Oh..."

Lu Xiaofeng visited several more places, but the more he investigated, the more anxious he became.

It seemed everyone who had known Boss Qian in his youth could recognize him from that time.

Those who couldn't simply said they didn't recognize him.

He also consulted many experts in disguise about the issue of changing body shape.

But everyone told him it was impossible for someone to disguise a two-hundred-pound fat man into a hundred-pound thin man in such a short time.

"Could it be... could it be..."

The more he investigated, the more the truth seemed to point towards the suspicion in his heart.

But Lu Xiaofeng truly didn't want to admit it was true.

"Eliminate all impossibilities, and the remaining possibility, however absurd, must be the truth!"

"And there is only one truth!"

Lu Xiaofeng suddenly snapped back to reality, realizing he had walked to the entrance of a teahouse without noticing.

Inside the teahouse, a storyteller slammed the table, recounting the convoluted and bizarre case stories from 'Famous Detective Lu Xiaofeng'.

"Heh heh heh… the truth?" Lu Xiaofeng chuckled softly. "I never thought I'd be educated by a book written by that Zhou Ming fellow! That's right! As unbelievable and unimaginable as it is, that young man must be Boss Qian!"

Even though all the master disguisers said it was impossible.

But Boss Qian himself had already accomplished something nearly impossible before.

He had managed to maintain a state of fake death after a dagger was plunged directly into his heart, and he had passed the examination by Luo Ma and Jiang Long.

Lu Xiaofeng had never heard of such a technique for faking death.

Since that was the case, what was another unheard-of event?

Lu Xiaofeng stopped dwelling on this point and made peace with himself.

But there was one thing he still couldn't understand.

If Boss Qian truly possessed such miraculous disguise skills, then why did he disguise himself as Lu Xiaofeng in his youth?

Given the circumstances at the time, he could have disguised himself as anyone else and avoided Lu Xiaofeng's pursuit.

"Could it be that he wanted to reminisce about his… youth…"

Lu Xiaofeng's expression changed. "No way…"

He arrived at the entrance of the teahouse, where a book stall was set up, displaying various popular novels. The most prominent were copies of 'Famous Detective Lu Xiaofeng'.

This was a sales strategy launched by Wenzong Bookstore. Storytellers would perform inside, while the bookstall outside sold the books.

It was a mutually beneficial arrangement that resulted in a very high conversion rate.

Lu Xiaofeng picked up a copy of Famous Detective Lu Xiaofeng and opened to the first volume, first chapter.

"Young Detective Lu Xiaofeng: The Lantern Festival Poison Returns to Youth"

Towards the end of this chapter, Lu Xiaofeng was ambushed from behind by another man in black and knocked unconscious.

Recognizing him as the recently renowned Lu Xiaofeng, and to prevent any investigation, the man in black produced a type of poison.

From their conversation, it was revealed that this poison, once ingested, would cause a natural death, leaving no visible abnormalities!

After forcing Lu Xiaofeng to ingest the poison, the two men in black quickly departed.

Under the full moon, Lu Xiaofeng's body convulsed with pain. When he regained consciousness, he had transformed into an eight-year-old child…

In an era where Journey to the West and Investiture of the Gods had already been published, all stories, even those based on reality, had to incorporate elements of mythology and fantasy.

For example, the opening of Water Margin described Hong Taishi mistakenly releasing demon stars.

And in Dream of the Red Chamber, the past lives of the main characters were all extraordinary.

Compared to those, 'Famous Detective Lu Xiaofeng', which was also based on reality, only added the effect of rejuvenation to a single pill at the beginning. It was truly too childish.

Let alone comparing it to mythological themes like Journey to the West and Investiture of the Gods, it couldn't even be mentioned in the same breath as realistic themes like Water Margin and Dream of the Red Chamber.

Those protagonists… no, forget the protagonists, even the supporting characters were demon stars descended to earth, or reincarnated deities!

And your protagonist… just took a pill that made him younger?

How pathetic!

But at this moment, Lu Xiaofeng, who was reading this passage for the third time, still felt an immense, indescribable shock!

Rejuvenation!

If… if the truth was like this, then perhaps… everything could be explained!

"Customer, customer!"

Lu Xiaofeng snapped back to reality.

"That will be five taels of silver."

"Oh, alright."

Lu Xiaofeng handed over the silver and tucked the book scroll into his embrace.