"He doesn't look like someone with a low IQ at all!"
Li Yu watched Yang Chen meticulously appraise the antiques, her conviction growing stronger with every glance.
"Xiao Chen, move all these antiques to my office. I don't feel safe leaving them here."
"Yes, ma'am!"
Without much thought, Yang Chen made three trips, carrying the more than ten antiques to Li Yu's office.
"Manager Li, it's done. I'll head back..."
"Wait."
Li Yu sat back in her chair, crossing her legs and casually lifting her skirt, revealing a pair of perfectly straight, long legs.
*Gulp.*
Yang Chen gritted his teeth and swallowed, trying his best to suppress any sound.
"The sheer stockings don't match this skirt. Go get me a pair of fishnet stockings."
As she spoke, Li Yu shifted her legs, her skirt offering fleeting glimpses that made Yang Chen's eyes dart.
Li Yu noticed Yang Chen's reaction and her suspicion intensified, urging him, "Hurry up!"
"Oh... oh..."
Yang Chen reluctantly averted his gaze and turned towards the changing room, murmuring to himself:
"See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil... Manager Li is sacred and not to be defiled..."
"Wait, that's not right!"
"In my memory, Manager Li isn't someone who flaunts herself. Her behavior just now was unusual... something's off!"
"Could it be... she saw my reaction and became suspicious?"
Yang Chen decided to be cautious. He retrieved a sealed pair of stockings from the changing room, maintaining a vacant, simple-minded expression.
Seeing Yang Chen's "dumb and dumber" demeanor again, Li Yu found herself puzzled, "Did I misunderstand him?"
However, having come this far, Li Yu was determined to thoroughly uncover Yang Chen's secrets. She reached for her thigh and slowly began to pull down the sheer stockings.
This was agonizing. So seductive!
Yang Chen's heart rate suddenly spiked, as if it were about to leap out of his chest. He quickly forced his eyes into a cross-eyed stare, rendering him unable to clearly see the scene before him.
"Hmph, still pretending!"
"I will definitely break through your facade and reveal your true self!"
Li Yu could clearly sense Yang Chen's body trembling as he desperately tried to hide his desire.
Yang Chen's mind was in turmoil. He mentally recited the names of deities and Buddhas before managing to slightly suppress the surging desire, which felt like a spring welling up.
Suddenly, Li Yu flung the stockings she had pulled down directly onto his face.
"Hold this for me."
"Oh, oh..."
Taking the stockings from his face, Yang Chen felt their residual warmth. He suppressed a perverse urge to sniff them, though his nose twitched involuntarily.
"There's definitely something wrong with him. A seven-year-old child wouldn't have such perverse thoughts!"
Observing Yang Chen's micro-expressions, Li Yu slowly stood up and pretended to walk towards him, feigning a stumble and lurching forward.
"Manager Li, be careful!"
Yang Chen quickly reached out to support her, but his hand grasped at empty air. Li Yu's hand snagged on his crotch.
"Ah!"
Yang Chen let out a shriek of a higher octave.
"How could this happen?!"
Li Yu immediately let go, her mind filled with a thousand doubts. The feel was completely different from what she had imagined.
"He... he's just like a child. Truly no reaction at all!"
"Am I not attractive enough, or did I really misunderstand him?"
While Li Yu pondered her confusion, Yang Chen secretly felt relieved.
"Thank goodness I was prepared, or I would have been exposed!"
He had, in fact, pressed the Shenshu acupoint behind his waist the moment he saw Li Yu feign a fall.
This acupoint is connected to the kidney meridian. If the meridian is blocked, even a 'pillar of heaven' will revert to a soft loach.
"Manager Li, it hurts... it hurts! You pulled where it hurts me so much!"
Yang Chen clutched his crotch, hopping around and wailing in apparent agony.
"I... I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to."
Li Yu, flustered and embarrassed, opened a drawer and pulled out some chocolates to appease him, saying,
"Don't... don't cry. Have some candy. Stop crying."
"Heh heh... Chocolate, I like it."
Yang Chen immediately stopped crying, snatched the chocolate, and began to bite into it, wrapper and all.
Seeing his dazed state, Li Yu inwardly shook her head, "Chocolate has more charm than me. If he were a normal man, I must have been overthinking things."
"Xiao Chen, I have a question for you. Answer me honestly."
Yang Chen, looking content with his candy, nodded and said,
"Mhm, go ahead."
"How are you so good at appraising treasures? You're even better than... Zhang Chi!"
After all, Zhang Chi was a nationally certified Level 1 appraiser, and she had paid him a generous salary of 300,000 yuan plus commission to hire him. Yet, Yang Chen had managed to foil Zhang Chi's scheme and easily found the fake Zhang Chi had swapped in. His appraisal skills were clearly superior to Zhang Chi's!
"Of course. When Zhang Chi used to appraise items at the counter, he'd take half a day to figure it out. I could tell real from fake with just a glance from afar."
"Ah!"
This time, it was truly Li Yu's turn to be incredulous.
"You... how did you learn that?"
"Zhang Chi would tell others how to distinguish the real from the fake when he appraised things. I remembered it after he told me once. Later, I could appraise items faster and more accurately than him."
"Ah!!"
Li Yu's exclamation grew louder, "You remembered something so complex after just one explanation?"
"Complex? Not at all, it was easy to remember."
"But... but your brain isn't..."
*Slap!*
Yang Chen feigned anger, throwing the chocolate on the ground, and began to cry and fuss, "My dad said... I'm not stupid. I... I just react and move slower than others."
"My memory is very good. From the company back home, I walk 189 steps then turn left, then walk another 367 steps... I remember everything. I'm not stupid!"
"If you call me stupid, I won't play with you anymore!"
Li Yu was stunned. She had never expected Yang Chen to remember the exact number of steps to walk home. She was astonished:
"His memory is truly heaven-defying. Normal people's memories can't even compare to his!"
"Is this what they call 'When God closes a door, he opens a window'?"
Little did she know that Yang Chen's claims about the number of steps were pure fabrication. He didn't believe Li Yu would actually walk the route and count each step.
Li Yu took another bar of Dove chocolate from the drawer, trying to placate the crying Yang Chen.
"Xiao Chen, don't cry... please don't cry. Sister will give you chocolate, this one is even tastier. Sister promises not to call you stupid anymore, so don't be angry."
"It's... it's delicious. I'm not angry anymore."
"Do you want to have chocolate every day from now on?"
"Yes!"
"If you do, then be good and listen to sister. You'll be the head appraiser in my shop from now on."
Yang Chen's heart trembled violently. He never imagined Li Yu would entrust such an important position to him!
His heart surged, but he maintained his dazed expression.
"What is a head appraiser?"
"It's like Zhang Chi. You'll be responsible for identifying the authenticity of antiques."
"Okay, I can do that. And... and I won't have to clean the toilets anymore?"
"No."
"That's great, I'll be the head appraiser!"
Yang Chen danced with joy, jumping and skipping like a child. Li Yu had even less doubt that he was faking his stupidity, and said with a smile,
"Then go clean up the things you just broke. An important guest will be arriving soon, and you need to entertain them warmly."
"Yes!"
Yang Chen turned and left the office. As soon as he closed the door, bright red blood gushed from his nose like a woman's period. He quickly pinched his nose with one hand and vigorously rubbed his Shenshu acupoint with the other.
This was the side effect of forcibly sealing the kidney meridian when desire resurfaced!
Of course, a large part of the nosebleed was also due to Li Yu's incredibly hot figure, which made it incredibly difficult to endure!
"Thank goodness I passed. If I had stayed a minute longer, I would have burst!"
...
Yang Chen first went to the restroom to wash the blood from his face and then cleaned up the fragments of the fakes.
*Ding, ding...*
The bell on the door rang. He instinctively called out,
"Welcome!"
Looking up, he saw a stunningly beautiful woman enter. She had a tall figure and exquisite features, as beautiful as a photoshopped model on Douyin.
"Could this be the important client Manager Li mentioned?"
The beauty walked in, glanced around, and asked with her chin raised, "Where's Zhang Chi? Call him out!"
"What business do you have with Manager... Manager Zhang?"
Yang Chen was unsure of the woman's identity and dared not say that Zhang Chi had been fired. What if she was also a wealthy patron who had bought a fake? That would be a huge problem.
"I've already told your boss, Li Yu, that I wanted Zhang Chi to come with me to look at something... Hurry up and call Zhang Chi out!"
This time, Yang Chen was certain the beauty before him was the important client Li Yu had mentioned. He smiled and said,
"Manager... Manager Zhang is out on some business. I can help you with your matter."