“I don’t know how to describe it.” Chen Xiao shook his head and said seriously, “I think she is very mysterious. There are so many things about her that I can’t understand or see through. She is like…” He thought for a moment and looked up at the sky, “like this sunlight, which makes me feel very bright, warm and comfortable, but I can’t touch it or grasp it.”
Old Tian looked at Chen Xiao, but Chen Xiao's gaze was resolute. Finally, Old Tian gave in and sighed helplessly, "Alright, what do you want to know?"
"You know everything." Chen Xiao looked at Lao Tian without flinching.
Old Tian smiled and winked at Chen Xiao: "First of all, don't worry, she's very young, about the same age as you. She's definitely not like Zhu Rong, who looks young but is actually a hundred years old."
Old monster...you yourself are an old monster over four hundred years old, aren't you?
Chen Xiao couldn't help but smile.
But Lao Tian suddenly stopped smiling. He subconsciously patted his pockets, probably looking for a lighter, but couldn't find it. He couldn't help but sigh, "Sigh, at times like this, I wish that guy Zhu Rong was by my side."
Then, as if it were nothing more than casualness, he pointed and said, "Let's go. Let's find some fire."
He seemed to just casually point to a spot, but Chen Xiao was stunned when he looked in the direction he was pointing.
The place Lao Tian was pointing to was none other than another shop on the unfinished street!
It's the one that's never been opened before!
Watch shop!
The shops on the unfinished street include Zhu Rong's cigar shop, Gong Gong's wine shop, Lao Tian's auto repair shop, and the coffee shop that Chen Xiao is currently managing.
Besides these, there was also a watch shop on the unfinished street that had always been closed. Chen Xiao had heard Zhu Rong mention it when he first arrived. It seemed that the owner of this watch shop was a friend of theirs, but later left for some reason.
This watch shop has always been closed and has never opened. And when the old guys on the abandoned street get together, they never mention this place in their conversations, as if they are always avoiding talking about this unhappy thing.
But at this moment, Lao Tian...
Before Chen Xiao could react, Lao Tian had already walked straight towards the watch shop, even turning back to wave at Chen Xiao: "Come on, what are you standing there for?"
The clock shop was closed, the lock on the door was rusty, and the rolling iron door was covered in dust.
Old Tian looked up and glanced around like a thief, then quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out a key!
"Hehe, neither Zhurong nor Gonggong know that I've always had the key to this place." Old Tian said, inserting the key into the lock, giving it a gentle twist, and with a click, the lock opened.
"Don't tell them!" Old Tian gestured for them to shut up, then quickly opened the door and slipped inside. After Chen Xiao followed him in, Old Tian quickly closed the door, and only after confirming that no one had seen him did he seem to breathe a sigh of relief.
The rolling doors blocked out the sunlight, making the shop dark. The air was a little stuffy, but it didn't feel dirty or murky.
Even the shop windows and counter glass inside weren't dusty at all.
“Actually… I often come here alone, secretly, without Zhu Rong and Gong Gong’s knowledge, to clean this place.” Old Tian seemed to smile, then walked behind the counter, fumbled around for a while, and found the light switch.
*Smack*
The lights were on, and the shop was brightly lit.
The clock shop was about a hundred square meters, with the walls covered with clocks of all shapes and sizes—square, round, flat, angular—as well as two old-fashioned pendulum clocks. However, due to their age, all the clocks had stopped, and the hands on their faces pointed in different directions, looking rather chaotic.
In the adjacent shop window, there were also various small and exquisite clocks.
It was clear that this place was more like a watch and clock collectibles shop. Chen Xiao noticed several classic, vintage-style designer watches in the window.
Here, I even saw a few vintage mechanical Swiss watches.
"An 1980s Tissot? Huh? Is this a Titoni watch? It looks so strange. Wow, this looks like Bulgari's first watch! Could it be a replica?"
Besides some modern clocks, the further inside the display windows you go, the more antique pocket watches, wall watches, and other similar items are displayed.
Chen Xiao stared in disbelief at the items in the shop window.
If these items weren't replicas but genuine articles... then their value would be truly astonishing! It's unbelievable that so many priceless watches are displayed here, yet they're simply kept closed by a mere metal roller shutter door...
Old Tian stood beside Chen Xiao, quietly looking at everything in the shop window, his expression and eyes somewhat complicated.
Chen Xiao turned around: "Old Tian, this place..."
Old Tian raised his hand, pointing to the wall on the upper left: "This watch shop has a history of over a hundred years. In recent years, the last owner moved here. You can see that the walls there are full of photos of the previous owners of this watch shop."
Chen Xiao looked in the direction he was pointing, and was stunned after just one glance!
A row of photos hangs on the wall.
The first image is an old, yellowed black-and-white photograph. Judging from its clarity, wear and tear, and technical aspects, it is clearly a very old photograph.
In the black and white photograph, an Eastern woman smiles gently. Although the primitive photography technology severely distorts her beauty, the woman's smile in the photograph is still so graceful and moving, and her eyes are as bright and clear as the moon.
What surprised Chen Xiao the most was that this woman's appearance was 90% similar to that of a phoenix... If you didn't look closely, you would almost think she was the phoenix herself!
“This is the first owner of this watch shop.” Old Tian stared blankly at the woman in the black and white photo, his eyes filled with a hint of infatuation and fascination, and said softly, “Her name was Mingyue.”
Chapter 110 [KING!!]
Bright moon...
It's a very touching name, just like the smile of the woman in the photo.
Old Tian looked up at the smiling moon in the photograph and slowly began to speak, his voice carrying a tenderness rarely heard in his daily life: "I remember it very clearly. When I first met her, I was over three hundred years old, and she was only seventeen. We ran to West Lake together to drink in the misty spring, and we chased deer together on the vast white snowfields..." As he spoke of these things, Old Tian's eyes seemed to shine, but then, that gleam gradually faded.
"...I remember it very clearly. I remember every day I met her very clearly. Those days were the happiest years of my life."
Old Tian's voice was filled with emotion, and then he whispered, "I remember once, on my birthday, she told me that she would celebrate my birthday every year from now on. Unfortunately... I lived too long!"
The final phrase, "lived too long," is filled with a bitterness and vicissitude that Chen Xiao could not comprehend.