"As long as money isn't an issue, this is easy. Leave it to me!"
Those were Lao Xi's exact words, delivered with a thump of his chest, when Lao Changhai contacted him.
Lao Changhai approached him that day, and Lao Xi procured over a dozen pieces of women's jewelry that very same day. They were tracking artifacts, ingeniously crafted to be difficult to detect.
As for easily detected tracking artifacts, Lao Xi boasted that he could get thousands upon thousands at any time.
After personally examining the jewelry, Shi Chun found that a painstaking inspection could still uncover the hidden modifications. They were nowhere near as good as the ring the Red-Clad Woman had given him. Even knowing that ring was suspicious, he could find no flaw however closely he examined it. Still, since the wearer would not be on guard against these pieces, they should pose little problem.
Lao Xi had originally brought them over for them to choose from. They could buy whichever pieces caught their fancy, and he would return the rest.
Once Shi Chun learned that Lao Xi would earn a commission rather than work for nothing, he waved a hand and bought the lot, thinking they might come in handy later.
Naturally, that gave Lao Xi another little cause for celebration.
For the time being, Lao Changhai took all the purchased jewelry to put it to use.
Lao Changhai immediately took it to see which piece would catch the eye of Nian Xiu, the Shopkeeper's Wife at Stone Story. Any choice would do, and it would save him the breath of recommending one. That was the advantage of having plenty to offer.
There was no need to try a second approach after the first failed.
Everything went extremely smoothly. Disguised as a peddler, Lao Changhai