HHH Chapter 21

“Truly lucky,” the woman listened with fascination, “Who saved you?”
“Someone powerful, at the top of the pyramid,” Ningma gazed at the ceiling, as if piercing through time, “She has an auction house abroad, considered top-tier in the industry, but her name is almost unknown, except in upper circles.”
“So she’s very rich?” The woman’s eyes lit up, “Uh, you mean ‘she’ as in a woman? I bet you won’t tell me her name, will you?”
“At the time, she was on the rooftop taking an important call and happened to see me planning to end it all. She directly called me down, asked for the reason, and then promised me that if I worked for her for five years, she would help me pay off the debt, so I wouldn’t have to jump.”
“Five years?” The woman immediately asked, “You owed a lot of money back then?”
Ningma exhaled, “About 40 million.”
“40 million? Five years?” The woman clicked her tongue in wonder, “My god, I can’t even imagine it. That’s 8 million a year. What can you do to earn that much?”
“Broker,” Ningma seemed to anticipate the question, “A high-end term for it is art broker.”
“What?” The woman looked puzzled, “What kind of broker?”
“Intermediary, facilitator, agent, economic, introducer, middleman,” Ningma turned his head, “Pimp.”
“This…” the woman shrank back, “You’re saying you’re a shill?”
“Jewelry, ornaments, jade, antiques, collections,” Ningma didn’t deny it, “All of it is contraband, dirty goods, stolen goods, excavated goods, in short, goods that can’t circulate in the open. You’re responsible for finding those who have no intention of buying, and then sell them at a higher price.”
“Sounds not bad,” the woman leaned in again, “Should be able to earn a lot of money, right?”
“It’s not that simple,” Ningma seized the woman’s hand, “For example, my hand is so beautiful, it’s worth a small fortune, but the hand is mine, how can it be traded?”
The woman subconsciously tried to pull back, but found that the other party was holding on tightly, and asked with a bit of shock, “Can hands be sold too?”
“Why not,” Ningma said while playing with it, “My hand will be found by someone through some means, and you are responsible for finding buyers, determining the transaction method and price, until you transport those comparable to the bank vault is also insured collection room.”
“There are all kinds of buyers,” Ningma continued, “Arms dealers, drug lords, gangsters, as well as politicians, financial groups, real estate tycoons, monopolizing capitalists, private individuals, families, second generations who spend money like water, big shots who own oil fields or mines, as long as they like it, I am responsible for getting it.”
“Oh my god, that’s too exaggerated,” the woman let Ningma hold her hand, “Sounds scary.”
“Exaggerated?” Ningma’s mouth curled up slightly, “It’s just buying and selling, essentially no different from buying a cabbage.”
“How is it not exaggerated,” the woman still had some lingering fear, “Sounds like something filmed in a movie, no, it’s even more exaggerated than in the movies.”
“It’s not as extreme as you think,” Ningma let go of the woman’s hand, letting her shrink back, “Basically, the vast majority are just some rare cultural relics, those that have disappeared in history, hidden by people, sealed in basements that never see the light of day, until they reappear and—”
Saying that, he lowered his voice: “According to certain countries’ sensitive points, private transactions are not allowed, this kind of thing will make that gang of rich people flock to it.”
“You mean national treasures?” The woman reacted quickly, “Are there many like this?”
“Of course,” Ningma had no expression, “Every few months, one always pops up, if it’s placed in a museum, it’s basically a national treasure level, and it’s an official national-level museum.”
“For example?” The woman listened with great curiosity.
Ningma glanced at her and said casually, “The golden bird of ancient Inca, the scepter of the British royal family, the Star of Vasu of ancient India, and so on.”
“Wow,” the woman covered her mouth, “Any one of them is at least a sky-high price, right?”
“A few hundred million,” Ningma added, “USD.”
“Tsk,” the woman looked envious, “Did you handle all of these?”
“Of course not,” Ningma smiled back, “Several cases are handled by the boss herself. In the company, you can only be considered an ordinary, possibly slightly higher, rank, and you can’t access this type of core task.”
“Then you…” the woman took the initiative to hand over her hand this time, “Coming here, it can’t be a transaction, right? As far as I know, this is just a five-A rated tourism area. There aren’t any big bosses like you said, right?”
“Is that so?” Ningma asked back, “Can’t I just come out to relax?”
“Ah,” the woman giggled, “I knew it, you’ve done too many bad things, you’re here to find a Lamaist Temple to atone for your sins.”
Speaking of “Lamaist Temple”, Ningma immediately remembered, “By the way, how long have you been here?”
“Me?” The two were almost touching, and more than half an hour had passed. The woman said, “Almost a year, here, besides a few plateau lakes, the rest are endless pine trees. Other than that, there isn’t even a movie theater. Who would stay here if it wasn’t to make some money?”
“Then have you ever heard of a Lamaist Temple called ‘Chiming Temple’?” Ningma interrupted the woman’s complaint and asked.
“Where? ‘Chiming Temple’?” The woman asked, afraid she had misheard, “You mean the Chiming Temple that houses the relics of ‘Master Lotus Heart’?”
Ningma’s eyes flashed, “You also know ‘Master Lotus Heart’?”
“Not only me,” the woman’s mouth showed a playful smile, “Everyone here knows Chiming Temple’s Master Lotus Heart.”
“…” Unexpectedly, the answer was that everyone knew. Ningma didn’t know what to express at the moment…
“But it’s all fake,” the woman saw Ningma’s surprised expression, and then mentioned, “Chiming Temple, you go out of the hotel along the scenic area road for about 5km, there is a sign on the right hand side for ‘High-Altitude Pine Demonstration Base’, turn in, drive for about 2-3km and then get off the car and walk. After passing through a forest area, there is still a mountain road.”
“And then?” Ningma asked impatiently.
“Don’t worry,” the woman sat from the chair to the bed, the two were almost only separated by clothes, “Follow the mountain road for 2 hours, there is a fork in the road, to the left is ‘Chawa Village’, walk for another two hours into the village, just ask anyone and they will tell you.”
“So simple?” Ningma’s attention was all focused on the man’s narration, unknowingly the two were close to each other, and even could feel each other’s body temperature.
“Heh, it’s almost become a public secret,” the woman put her hand on Ningma’s thigh, which was right next to her, “In the first half of the year, I went there once with a colleague out of boredom, what ‘enlightened monk’, what ‘nirvana relics’, when I went to see, there were only two stone houses like broken tiled houses, the so-called ‘relic pagoda’ wasn’t even as high as a telephone pole, let alone any ‘relics’.”
“…” Ningma frowned slightly, knowing that the “Heart Bead” he was escorting was an invaluable treasure among Gzi Beads. If he let an unclear Lamaist Temple take over, it would be no different from throwing it on the side of the road.
“So,” the woman coquettishly reached up to Ningma’s lower body, “Why are you going to Chiming Temple?”

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