C20 Compass of unknown use

The waiters in the restaurant had cleaned up the table, and even the tablecloths had been replaced with new ones.

Looking at the delicious lobsters and red wine, Xia Lei did not have the slightest bit of appetite. The look in Long Bing's eyes made him feel a little uncomfortable. Long Bing's eyes were very special, as if he could see through his soul and discover all of his secrets.

"Aren't you in the capital?" Why did you return to the Hai Zhu? " Xia Lei broke the silence between the two.

"I'll come back for you." Long Bing said.

"What's the matter?" Xia Lei seemed to be affected by her and his speech became more concise.

Long Bing opened her handbag and took out an ancient cast iron key.

Xia Lei was stunned, because the cast iron key in her hand was the key that he welded onto!

"Did you solder it?" Long Bing looked straight at Xia Lei.

Xia Lei nodded his head, "I welded it, but... Why is it here with you? "

Long Bing said: "I have actually been paying attention to you. I know everything you do."

Xia Lei immediately frowned, "Are you monitoring me?"

Long Bing did not admit nor deny it, but changed the topic, "The police in Hai Zhu caught the two criminals who killed Professor Zhang Bo Qing, and they also found the key. An expert saw the key you welded and called it a miracle. Even a ten year old welding engineer would not be able to perform such a welding process, he said. How did you do it? "

"Is that what you came to ask me?" Xia Lei tried to test the waters.

"It seems like a childish question, but I do want to know the answer. I'm getting more and more curious about everything about you. " Long Bing's eyes were sharp and suspicious.

Xia Lei couldn't help but laugh, "Alright, I'm getting more and more curious about you. If you tell me your true identity, I'll tell you how I did it. You can't be the only one asking questions, right? "

Long Bing said: "Now is not the time for you to know, so don't bring up this issue again. When it's time for you to know, I will let you know."

"Really without sincerity." Xia Lei had already known that she would say this, "However, although you didn't answer my question, I am also willing to answer yours. I welded this key with a wrench and a cast iron electrode. "

Long Bing was stunned for a moment, and then, for the first time, revealed a smile, "Do you take me to be a child?"

Xia Lei felt that she looked good when she smiled, but he didn't dare to say it out loud.

They drank a glass of wine.

Long Bing put down her cup, "Actually, my real purpose for coming here is to have you help me out with something."

"What do you want me to do for you?"

"It's still related to Professor Zhang Bo Qing's case." Long Bing said: "The archaeologists have already found the sunken ship, and found an iron cabin within. They used this key to open the iron hold. There is no such thing as exquisite porcelain, no such thing as gold or silver, only a compass. "

"A compass?"

"Yes, a compass. It's a very strange compass." Long Bing described. "It's actually a very sophisticated instrument, like a watch. There was a pointer on the compass, but it couldn't work because some parts of the compass were broken. I want to ask for your help to weld those broken parts together, to reprocess those that cannot be repaired, and to repair that compass. "

Xia Lei laughed and said: "I am not a Watchmaker, welding components will increase the weight, and thus affect the accuracy of the compass. If new parts were processed with a lathe, could they be fused with other parts from hundreds of years ago? Also, do you believe me that much to be willing to let me repair such an important artifact? "

Long Bing said: "I don't need an excuse, I only want the answer. Just give me an answer. Do you want to help or not? "

Xia Lei laughed bitterly, "Alright, since you trust me that much, it would be inappropriate for me to reject you. Where is the compass? I want to take a look first. "

Long Bing stood up, "Then let's go."

Xia Lei looked at the lobster on the table, unwilling to part with it, and thought gloomily, "That's a lobster, you left without even eating it … "If I knew earlier, I wouldn't have ordered it. It's such a waste!"

Although he thought that in his heart, Xia Lei still snatched the bill from the front desk. This meal cost him more than a thousand yuan, and it made his heart ache. Unconsciously, he saw Jiang Ruyi eating at another table, and Jiang Ruyi glared at him fiercely.

Xia Lei immediately changed his expression back to a more serious one as he glared at Jiang Ruyi. But this time, his left eye twitched slightly, and Jiang Ruyi, who was in his left eye's line of sight, immediately ran out of clothes. Her breasts, her buttocks, her waist, and even her long legs were revealed to him. The butt that was pressed down on the dining chair was like a piece of jelly. It had an indescribably delicate and exquisite look, and it immediately stimulated him.

"Hmm?" Long Bing looked at Xia Lei strangely, "Do you want to greet him? I can wait for you. "

Xia Lei came back to reality and looked away, "No, no need, let's go."

Leaving the dining hall, Xia Lei got on Long Bing's car and went to Hai Zhu City's Archaeology Bureau. It was an old government compound, with a four-storey brick building and a row of bungalows.

After entering the building, Xia Lei could not hold back his curiosity and asked: "Miss Long, Professor Zhang's case has already been solved, and the nature of this matter has already become archaeology. Why do you still care about this?"

The impression Long Bing gave him was that of a person who worked in a storm of bullets. He had also guessed that her identity was a very high levelled secret service agent or something similar. Why would she ask someone like him to weld a compass? Even if someone wanted to request his help, it should have been someone from the archaeology department, not her.

Long Bing said: "This case is even more complicated than you imagined, but you are not part of the police force, nor are you one of us, so I cannot tell you too much. "You'd better not ask about anything related to the case. Help me fix that compass."

Xia Lei smiled bitterly and shrugged his shoulders, "Alright, lead the way."

Long Bing brought Xia Lei to a gallery.

There was an old man in the showroom, a young woman. The old man was around 60 years old, had white hair and colorless glasses. He had the bearing of a scholar. The woman was in her twenties. She was tall and thin with a oval face and colorless glasses. She looked refined and refined.

The old man and the young woman were discussing something when, on a table beside them, a cast-iron compass was placed, along with several pieces of broken parts.

Xia Lei's gaze landed on the compass and was instantly attracted. The compass on the display table looked like an enlarged clock, very complicated. With the manufacturing technology of the Ming Dynasty, to be able to produce this compass was truly a miracle. A question arose in his mind. What was the purpose of this compass?

Long Bing walked over, "Professor Huang, Doctor Ning. Hello, I have brought the technician who repaired the compass."

Only now did the old man and the young woman realise that someone had entered, and their gazes moved towards Long Bing and Xia Lei. They must have known about Long Bing, but seeing that the "technician" Long Bing had brought was so young, both of their faces showed a little surprise.

Long Bing said, "Let me introduce him to you. This is Professor Huang, the one who holds authority in the archaeological realm in the country. "This is Dr. Serenity, she is the proud disciple of the late Professor Zhang Bo Qing." Then she pointed at Xia Lei and said, "This is Xia Lei, the owner of Lei Ma Workshop."

This kind of introduction made Xia Lei feel a little awkward. He wasn't a technician. In fact, he was just a worker on top of him who had taken a welder's license. His Lei Ma Workshop was a small shop on the street that he had just set up. It did not have any reputation at all. Long Bing purposely introduced him with the intention of raising his worth.

However, Xia Lei was able to keep his cool. He politely said, "Professor Huang, how do you do, Doctor Ning."

Professor Huang Wei Guo took the initiative to shake hands with Xia Lei, smiled, and said: "Master Lei, I wanted to see you after looking at the welding key. Before you came here, I thought you were around forty to fifty years old, but I didn't expect you to be so young, you are truly a fearsome person."

Xia Lei laughed, "Professor Huang is too polite, too polite."

The man standing beside Huang Wei Guo said with a smile, "I said, there's no need to be polite. Let's talk business."

The peaceful appearance was gentle and sweet, and the voice was gentle and pleasant. There was a gentleness and gentleness about her that only women with knowledge possessed.

Whether it was Huang Wei Guo or Serenity, Xia Lei had a good impression about them. He did not hold back and went straight to the display table to observe the compass on the table.

At this time, Serenity moved closer to Long Bing, "Miss Long, he's so young, is he really able to fix that key?"

"Dr. Ning, you are about the same age as him. Haven't you become an important figure in the archaeological field?" Long Bing said.

Quiet And Steadfast lowered his voice, "My situation is different from his. In his line of work, I have to have many years of experience."

Long Bing, however, did not speak to her anymore.

Xia Lei had actually heard the conversation between Jing Jing and Long Bing, but he did not care about the doubt Jing had against him.

The size of the compass was about the same as the Feng Shui compass used by the current wandering Daoists. However, it was divided into three layers: upper, middle, and lower. It looked like a round sandwich. On the surface of the compass was a needle that looked like gold. It had stopped spinning. There were strange patterns on the surface of the compass. They were perfectly symmetrical, but no special meaning could be seen in them.

Xia Lei's left eye twitched slightly, and the situation on the middle level of the compass entered his line of sight without any concealment. In the middle layer of the compass, there were over a hundred gears of varying sizes, rotating shafts, and some of the gears even had sand that was difficult to see with the naked eye. Finally, he looked at the bottom of the compass and saw four Chinese characters — — Emperor Yongle.