Deadly Game: Almighty Boss’s Guide to Making Money

Chapter 1346. Yunjin Tailoring Workshop (3)

Immediately afterwards, she untied the number five ruyi knot, and a faint footstep sound came from the backyard, as if something had been touched.

"Unfasten the three knots, and the backyard door opens?"

Ye Hanzhou excitedly tried to run to the backyard, but was stopped by Lao Qiu.

"Don't worry, there might be other clues in this shop." Old Qiu pointed to the five remaining cheongsams on the wall. "Of these eight cheongsams, only three have been untied. Are the remaining five useless?"

Hahaha, Ye Hanzhou is quite cute.

—You think he's cute because this instance isn't too dangerous.

—Exactly, if he had something more exciting, he would have died countless times.

That's how young people are—impulsive.

—Aren't 123 young?

—Xu Youyou is quite young!

Xu Youyou also had a slight impulse, but thankfully...

Lin Xi picked up a pair of copper scissors from the counter. The blades were very sharp and engraved with the words "Jinxiu Tailor Shop".

The handle of the scissors has three small grooves, which correspond to the shapes of the three types of Chinese knot buttons.

"These scissors are probably for processing fabric, but the grooves on the handles are strange, like they're for securing fasteners."

Han Xinyi walked to the remaining cheongsams and examined the base of the number four gourd buckle. She discovered that there was a small round hole on the side of the base that she hadn't noticed before.

"Look, the size of this round hole looks like something can be inserted into it."

Lin Bei took out a hairpin from her backpack. Lin Xi recognized it; it was the one her sister sometimes wore.

When she's not working, her sister likes to wear some classic-style clothes.

Lin Bei inserted the hairpin into the round hole and turned it gently. With a "click," the collar of the gourd-buttoned cheongsam automatically unbuttoned, revealing the lining inside.

—It was opened with just a hairpin.

— Surprisingly, I didn't need to look for anything.

—I find that strange too!

—I can tell that the person who designed this instance is quite kind.

—It looks like it was designed by a girl; it's either a cheongsam or something.

The lining is embroidered with a small character for "thief," and next to it is a blurry mark, like some kind of seal.

"There's a mark!" Bai Yueming leaned closer. "It's the character 'thief'! Could it be that the thief who stole the brocade left a mark?"

Lin Xi examined the blurry mark with a magnifying glass and discovered it was a small plum blossom pattern.

"The number one cheongsam is embroidered with plum blossoms, the base is numbered one, and the markings are also plum blossoms... What's the connection between these?"

Just then, Ah Zhen suddenly spoke up.

“The plum blossom is the family crest of the Shen family, and Miss Shen’s cheongsams are always embroidered with plum blossoms.” She hugged her knees, her eyes slightly evasive. “The stolen brocade cheongsam also has plum blossoms embroidered on the collar, just like the number one cheongsam.”

"Then why is there a plum blossom mark on the lining of the number four cheongsam?" Lu Ze pressed.

Ah Zhen shook her head.

"I don't know, I'm just minding the shop, the boss told me not to ask too many questions." Her voice trembled slightly, her eyes drifting towards a small door behind the counter. "The storeroom is in the backyard, you should go check there, the boss said there are important things there."

Old Qiu glanced at Ah Zhen, sensing she was hiding something, but didn't press further. Lin Xi also glanced at her, but remained silent.

"Now that we've untied three knots, the back door should be open. Let's go check out the storeroom first."

Everyone followed Lao Qiu to the backyard, passed through the inner hall of the tailor shop, and arrived at a vermilion wooden door.

When I untied the number five ruyi knot just now, the door unlocked automatically and opened with a gentle push.

The backyard is a small courtyard with an old locust tree in the middle, its dense foliage blocking out most of the sunlight.

There was a side room on each side of the courtyard. The door of the left room had a plaque that read "Storehouse" on it, while the door of the right room was locked and covered in dust.

"Go to the warehouse first."

Old Qiu was the first to push open the warehouse door, and a strong smell of camphor wafted out, even stronger than in the front room.

The warehouse contained more than a dozen wooden shelves piled with various fabrics, threads, scissors, rulers and other tailoring tools, as well as several unfinished cheongsams hanging on the racks.

"Look here."

Zuo Ting pointed to the innermost shelf, on which was a piece of dark blue brocade. Although it was not embroidered with any patterns, its texture was delicate and its luster was soft, clearly indicating that it was a top-quality product.

"Is this the stolen Yun brocade?"

Lin Xi walked over, picked up the brocade and examined it. She found a small plum blossom mark on the corner, exactly the same as the mark on the lining of the number four cheongsam.

“It should be; this mark matches the Shen family crest.” She noticed that the edge of the brocade had been cut, “It looks like a small piece was cut off.”

"Could it be that the boss found the stolen brocade and hid it in the warehouse?" Ye Hanzhou asked疑惑地. "But why doesn't he come back?"

Lin Bei looked around the warehouse and found a hidden compartment under the shelf, covered by a wooden board.

She moved the wooden planks aside, revealing a mahogany box hidden in a secret compartment.

Upon opening the box, one finds an account book and a yellowed photograph.

The ledger recorded the tailor's order information, and the order for the seventh day of the third month was indeed from the Shen family. The remarks column read, "One bolt of brocade, with a pattern of a hundred birds paying homage to the phoenix, and a deposit of fifty silver dollars."

The records show that after the brocade was stolen, the owner went out to investigate on the tenth day of the third month and has not returned since.

Who is the person in the photo?

Lin Bei picked up the photo. It showed a man and a woman. The man was wearing a long gown and the woman was wearing a cheongsam. They were standing at the entrance of the tailor shop with gentle smiles.

The woman's cheongsam was embroidered with plum blossoms, exactly the same as the number one cheongsam.

“This man must be the owner of the tailor shop,” Han Xinyi said, looking at the photo. “The woman might be a young lady from the Shen family?”

Lin Bei examined the photo closely and noticed that the woman's collar buttons were arranged in three styles: double rings, butterflies, and ruyi (a type of auspicious symbol), which matched the order of the "囍" (double happiness) character written on the letter.

“The arrangement of these buttons is ‘ring on top, butterfly in the middle, and meaning at the bottom,’” she suddenly realized. “We only untied three buttons just now, shouldn’t we fasten them back in this order?”

Bai Yueming walked to the clothes rack in the storeroom and picked up an unfinished cheongsam.

“Look at this piece. The frog buttons are only half sewn on. They are also of the three styles: double ring, butterfly, and ruyi, but the order is messed up.”

Lin Xi was flipping through the ledger when she suddenly pointed to one of the pages.

"It is recorded here that the buttons on Miss Shen's cheongsam must be arranged in the order of the strokes of the character '喜' (xi, meaning happiness). The double ring button corresponds to the upper part of the character '喜', the butterfly button corresponds to the '口' (kou, meaning mouth) in the middle, and the ruyi button corresponds to the '口' and '心' (xin, meaning heart) in the lower part."

"Then we solved it in the right order, but why did we only find a part of the brocade?" Lu Ze asked, puzzled. "And where did the boss go?"

Just then, the warehouse door suddenly slammed shut.

Xu Youyou shuddered in fright.