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It was absolutely impossible for Gu Jiuque to pay the five hundred thousand yuan restoration fee.

Bai Yuesheng had lost money before even getting started. Furious, he hugged his things and led the police back to settle accounts with the stallholders who had sold him the Bamboo and Rocks Painting and the yellow-ground famille rose cloud-and-dragon openwork hat stand.

Gu Jiuque followed behind, watching Bai Yuesheng insist that the two stallholders had swapped his goods for fakes, yet unable to explain the difference between the genuine items and the counterfeits.

The two stallholders were perfectly in sync, adamantly claiming that what they sold had been antique-style handicrafts. They also stated that once goods left their hands, the transaction was final and no returns would be accepted. They even asked Bai Yuesheng whether they had not agreed on that when he bought the items.

Bai Yuesheng had come with the mindset of finding overlooked bargains. Of course he had been willing to accept a final sale at the time. But times had changed—now he was the one who had been scammed!

In his fury, Bai Yuesheng inevitably spoke without thinking and inadvertently revealed quite a bit of information he should not have disclosed. He did not notice it himself, and the onlookers did not fully understand it either. Only Gu Jiuque, who had been reborn and knew the original plot, faintly came to a realization.

Standing outside the crowd, he coldly watched Bai Yuesheng frantically confront the vendors and gave an inscrutable smile.

On the way back from West City Antique Street to the Old City District, Gu Jiuque asked Bai Yuesheng again, "Do you remember anything about the person who tampered with my dad's car?"

Bai Yuesheng was sulking as he held the counterfeit goods he had spent the entire morning gathering. Hearing that, he said impatiently, "I already told you, I don't remember much. What else do you want to ask?"

Gu Jiuque said flatly, "Nothing. If you can provide a useful clue, I can restore your family's Lightly Outlined Blue-and-White Porcelain Bowl for free. I can also value it at one hundred and fifty thousand and buy it outright."

Bai Yuesheng's eyes lit up, but he immediately said in dissatisfaction, "Only one hundred and fifty thousand?"

"Is that too little?" Gu Jiuque glanced at the antique-style handicrafts in Bai Yuesheng's arms and said with a smile, "A few words are worth one hundred and fifty thousand. After running around all morning, have you made one hundred and fifty thousand?"

Bai Yuesheng: "..."

Bai Yanliang, who was sitting in the back playing with a snuff bottle, eagerly leaned forward. "Son, if you have any clues, just tell them. There's no harm in saying it. If you keep it to yourself, no one's going to pay you for it."

The neighbors in the car chimed in as well. "Exactly! We're all old neighbors. If you noticed anything, just say it. Maybe if the Gu family is happy, they won't sue you!"

Bai Yuesheng looked at Gu Jiuque hopefully.

Gu Jiuque merely smiled and said nothing. Clearly, one clue for one hundred and fifty thousand, plus a broken Lightly Outlined Blue-and-White wide-mouthed bowl, was already Gu Jiuque's bottom line.

Bai Yuesheng rolled his eyes. He had originally thought appraising antiques and picking up overlooked bargains would be easy and quick money. But after the whole morning's turmoil, he realized it was not so easy after all.

At least, without an ability to appraise treasures, finding overlooked bargains was harder than climbing to the heavens. One careless move, and people might even target him for a scam.

Thinking about it that way, merely offering a clue for one hundred and fifty thousand seemed like a pretty good deal.

Anyway, the information he revealed now would not affect anything that happened later.

Bai Yuesheng blinked and finally made up his mind. Scratching his forehead as though trying to remember, he stammered, "I remember that person seemed to be wearing a black T-shirt and jeans, with a black baseball cap. He wasn't very tall, had an average build, neither fat nor thin. I couldn't see his face clearly."

Bai Yuesheng thought carefully. Just in case, he would not reveal that person's specific information, lest the man got wind of it and came to retaliate against him. Besides, he had no way to explain why he knew a man he had never even met.

Still, the information he had provided should be enough to exchange for one hundred and fifty thousand, right? He had even thrown in a Lightly Outlined Blue-and-White Porcelain Bowl. Though it had been pieced together from broken porcelain shards, with Grandpa Gu's skill, it would still be worth quite a bit if it was truly restored. He had spent fifty thousand yuan just buying the shards!

Thinking of that, Bai Yuesheng felt as though he had gotten the short end of the stick again.

Gu Jiuque stared at Bai Yuesheng's conflicted face and suddenly asked, "When did you see him tampering with my dad's car?"

Bai Yuesheng answered instinctively, "The day your house caught fire."

Gu Jiuque asked in return, "Weren't you with me that day?"

Bai Yuesheng froze, then stammered, "Then it was in the morning, or maybe before dawn. I happened to run into him on my way to your house to find you."

Gu Jiuque said, "You saw someone tampering with my dad's car early in the morning?"

"I think so. Maybe he thought tampering with it in broad daylight made him less likely to be noticed?" Bai Yuesheng added, "If it hadn't been early in the morning, I wouldn't have been so unwary. If I'd seen someone lingering around your dad's car at night, I definitely would have told you long ago."

Gu Jiuque looked straight into Bai Yuesheng's eyes. "But early that morning, my dad had already driven out. He didn't come home until that evening. Did you forget?"

Bai Yuesheng's expression changed sharply. He opened his mouth, wanting to explain, but he could not say a single word.

But Gu Jiuque already had his answer.

Bai Yuesheng said that Father Gu's brake line had been cut on the day of the fire. In truth, Gu Jiuque believed that too. Before that day, there had been nothing wrong with Father Gu's car. Afterward, Father Gu had been too busy shuttling between the hospital and home to have any chance to drive. Combined with the car accident from his previous life, the culprit could only have cut the brake line amid the chaos while the fire was happening, causing the accident.

Bai Yuesheng had been lured in by Gu Jiuque. He wanted to provide a clue, but he did not dare expose his own secret, so he could only fabricate a story about personally seeing the person tampering with Father Gu's car. Yet the timing of that person's actions happened to be the very moment Bai Yuesheng was trapped in the sea of flames and unable to be in two places at once.

In other words, Bai Yuesheng had no opportunity to personally see the person who tampered with Father Gu's car, yet he could still accurately describe that person's appearance and build.