Shen Le was at a loss for tears.
There was no grudge between them, no bad blood, and yet he'd left a huge patch of ink lines all over their door.
Anyone who knew the truth would know the Ink Marker had gone berserk. Anyone who didn't might think I'd brought it along and invented some new way for thieves to case a house!
In the middle of all the chaos, he activated his Spirit Eye and took a quick look. The Lead Weight and Ink Line were practically bubbling with energy. Little Ink Marker was clearly hopping mad, worked up beyond belief;
But the ink lines left on the door held only a faint trace of energy, barely visible. They were nothing compared to the furniture back home.
Shen Le felt that these few ink lines shouldn't be enough to harm the people living in the apartment...
It was too late to look for a rag and wipe the ink lines away. Footsteps were already approaching the door. If the owner opened it and saw him wiping away the lines...
It would be an absolutely beautiful sight!
"Let's go!"
He grabbed the Lead Weight with his left hand and wrapped the Ink Line around his right hand several times. After a few rounds of tug-of-war, he finally dragged the line and the Lead Weight back.
Struggling to stuff them into his backpack, he turned around and hurried downstairs.
He tiptoed, trying to make as little noise as possible, while keeping his ears pricked for any sounds from inside the apartment.
He listened and listened. All he heard was the husband's muffled cough and the wife's quiet sobs. Thank goodness, they hadn't noticed...
Like a thief, Shen Le slipped out of the residential complex, went to Heavenly Fragrance Restaurant to pick Xiao Ling up after her shift, and headed straight home. As soon as they got there, his phone buzzed with several messages:
"Mr. Shen, has anything unusual happened with the toolbox you bought these past few days?"
"Mr. Shen, the family who sold you the toolbox reported another incident today. Have you noticed anything unusual?"
"Mr. Shen, sorry to bother you. If the toolbox acts up, please be sure to contact us."
Oh, the Special Affairs Duo on WeChat. Shen Le expressionlessly swiped the messages away, pretending he hadn't seen them—
After all, WeChat wasn't DingTalk. It didn't show when you'd read a message and failed to reply.
The toolbox acted up? I saw it. I watched the whole thing. Apart from shooting out a few ink lines, it didn't do anything strange. It didn't rush into the apartment to strangle anyone, and it didn't hit anyone with the Lead Weight.
I'll take responsibility for Little Ink Marker!
Shen Le rolled up his sleeves and went back to wrestling with the Jujube Wood Devil's Work Ball.
Little Puppet poked its head out nearby, handing him a carving knife, an Electric Drill, and a Chisel. It swept the wood shavings off the workbench with a little broom, and every now and then, it poured Shen Le a glass of water.
Shen Le felt deeply gratified:
Ah, Little Puppet was such a good kid. Look at how much it had helped him already. Unlike the Ink Marker, which only ever got him into trouble!
After putting down his carving knife once more, Shen Le took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and regulated his energy, planning to use his "internal strength" to give his fingers a rest. Before he could steady his breathing, his phone suddenly blared at full volume. Shen Le glanced at it:
"..."
He couldn't ignore this one.
Shi Guangbing, the young police officer responsible for this area, was calling him?
"Hello?... Yes... No, there's nothing wrong with the toolbox... A lot of ink lines appeared on their door? That has nothing to do with me!"
"Mr. Shen." The young officer's voice turned more serious.
"We checked the surveillance footage. Between the time they got home and the time they discovered the ink lines on their door, you entered the doorway to their apartment."
"..."
Shen Le fell silent for a moment. What could he say? Could he tell him Little Ink Marker had dragged him there, then slipped out on its own and shot ink lines all over their door?
"...Please tell them the ink lines won't hurt them, and that nothing like this will happen again. That's all. I'm busy, so I'm hanging up!"
He hung up and immediately grabbed the Ink Marker. He shook it twice, jostled it twice, then knocked it twice.
"Are you ever going to stop? Why did you do that? Why?!—Not going to say, huh?"
He snatched up the Copper Fragment and pressed it viciously against the Ink Marker. A wave of heat surged from his fingertips into the fragment, then from the fragment into his mind.
His vision went black.
It was a distinctive kind of black, as if a sheet of black cloth were fluttering in front of him.
Shen Le steadied himself, then did so again. He realized that there really was black cloth fluttering before him, one strip to the left and another to the right.
Between the black cloth strips, a black-and-white portrait was enshrined. The old man in the photograph smiled warmly at him.
...This memory hadn't landed in quite the right place. He was too close—he'd nearly bumped into someone's memorial portrait...
Shen Le took two steps back and looked around. The room where the portrait was displayed was very familiar. Several of the memories he'd seen before seemed to have taken place here.
On the sofa opposite the portrait, an elderly woman with a head of silver hair gazed silently up at her husband's picture.
After looking at it for a long while, she struggled to her feet and picked up an Ink Marker from the table beneath the portrait, gently stroking it.
"Old man..."
The elderly woman spoke slowly. Her voice held little sorrow, only a tender stream of remembrance:
"You've been gone for so many years, and I've grown old too. I've kept these tools in good repair, taking them out to look at them every day, wiping them down and sharpening them often. Now, I'm almost too old to keep taking care of them..."
"Xiaohua uses electric tools now, so there's no need for these anymore. When I'm gone, I don't know if anyone will remember them, or if anyone will know how to use them..."
Xiaohua?
Shen Le pricked up his ears at once. He'd heard that name before. It belonged to the husband in the couple who'd been arguing.
So the couple who'd fought so badly they were about to divorce really were the old couple's son and daughter-in-law?
One by one, she took the tools out of the wooden case and spread them across the table. After taking out seven or eight, she was already a little short of breath. She had to drag over a stool and sit down before continuing her work.
She carefully wiped each tool from end to end with a soft cloth. She applied rust-preventive grease to the metal parts, then gently ran a fingertip along each blade to make sure it was still sharp.
As she wiped them, she smiled faintly, the corners of her eyes lifting as they filled with endless memories:
"You designed this Alien Compass. You added a part to one of the legs used for drawing...
"With this extension, it's much easier to draw circles on flat surfaces, curved surfaces, spheres, and irregularly shaped pieces..."
"You designed this Planer too. It has a curve here, specially made for planing curved surfaces...
"We took on a batch of orders back then, and the curved surfaces were especially troublesome. We wouldn't have finished that batch without the Planer you designed. We even got a five-yuan bonus..."
"And this bent Chisel Knife. I was pregnant with Xiaohua then, and when I was that far along, it was hard for me to draw the plans. You drew them for me..."
"And..."
Shen Le stood beside her without making a sound, watching her carefully wipe and maintain the tools one by one. She could tell the story behind every single one, and each one carried a shared memory of the old couple.
So this was true love...
A love that could cross time, a love that even death couldn't erase...
How beautiful...