"Brother? What are you looking for him for?" Zhou Yacheng asked, puzzled.
This Tian Meng was clearly an unreasonable person, ignorant and stubbornly opinionated.
Even a single extra word to him felt like it would make him angry.
If it weren't for the fact that he was Tian Lingli's uncle, with his temper, he would have already started a confrontation.
"Brother Chonglou probably can't stand to have sand in his eyes, right?" Huang Jian agreed with Li Chonglou on certain matters.
Upon seeing these counterfeit coins, his first thought was to find the counterfeiter and ask why they were making such things.
In fact, counterfeiting was rampant in the antique trade.
Not to mention the rampant counterfeiting during the Republic of China era, but even in the eighties and nineties, there were countless imitations and fakes. It was all driven by profit.
That was understandable. There were always people in this world who wanted to take shortcuts and strike it rich.
Even if they were police, they couldn't manage it all and were unwilling to get involved in such matters.
But counterfeiting coins and selling them to the elderly villagers in the mountains... that was truly a betrayal of conscience.
Although it was true that greed led to being deceived, cheating the farmers was particularly detestable.
"Yes and no," Li Chonglou said with a slight smile.
Huang Jian was correct; he did want to meet the person who was counterfeiting and selling the fake coins.
However, it wasn't to vindicate Tian Meng. There were too many trivial matters in this world, and he couldn't manage them all, especially not for someone as greedy and foolish as Tian Meng. Defending him would be exhausting.
The reason he wanted to meet that person was because places that counterfeited coins often possessed genuine molds.
These fellows had made so many Da Qi Tong Bao coins; did they have genuine samples of Da Qi Tong Bao?
It seemed unlikely.
Da Qi Tong Bao coins were a rare treasure. It was highly improbable that they would fall into the hands of these counterfeiters.
But what about other coins? Perhaps there was a slight possibility.
After all, this sort of thing had happened before. In his previous life, in Shangjing, he had assisted the police in dismantling an underground factory that counterfeited coins. These people possessed quite a few genuine molds.
Some were extremely precious.
It was because of this that those people retaliated against him later, leading to the car accident where Xu Lie sacrificed himself to save him.
Therefore, it was better to kill the wrong person than to let a guilty one go.
"I'll take you, I'll take you, but you have to promise to buy all my coins too." Tian Meng was helpless. Li Chonglou was the only expert he knew.
When he had previously taken these coins to the county town for others to see, they had all shaken their heads, not even commenting on their authenticity, only saying they wouldn't buy them.
In fact, if it weren't for his relationship with Tian Lingli, Li Chonglou wouldn't have said so much to him.
As expected, poverty had its reasons.
He even tried to use this to extort Li Chonglou, demanding that he buy all the fake coins he had acquired.
"I can't guarantee that, but I can try my best to get the person who sold you the coins to buy them back," Li Chonglou said, not intending to argue about authenticity anymore. This was the furthest he could go.
"I'm not selling them back, if I sell them back, I won't be able to buy them again!" Tian Meng was clearly extremely confident in his own judgment.
Seeing his attitude, Li Chonglou said no more.
Perhaps out of fear of offending Tian Lingli, Tian Meng, though unwilling, finally made a phone call.
He told the other party that he wanted to buy another batch of coins and arranged to meet at the town's hotel at three in the afternoon.
Of course, these were the words Li Chonglou had taught him, to avoid arousing suspicion.
After the call, Tian Meng grumbled a few times, his attitude towards Li Chonglou becoming much colder.
However, he became even more enthusiastic towards Tian Lingli, which made her very uncomfortable.
She was well aware that few of her relatives from her hometown were not opportunistic.
When she hadn't made money in the past, they had treated her with indifference, but now they were all fawning over her, as if they wanted to treat her as their own daughter.
Seeing this, she felt disgusted.
Li Chonglou smiled. It was human nature; people were like this, and he never cared about it.
Otherwise, he would be driven to his death.
He only had to think of how the Jiang family had treated him back then.
Use people when needed, discard them when not – this was an eternal truth.
Without delay, the group drove with Tian Meng to Longhu Town, twenty kilometers away, on the other side of the lake.
Longhu, a 5A-rated tourist attraction, used to be quite popular.
But in the last two years, its development had lagged, leading to a decline in popularity.
As a result, countless restaurants in the town were deserted.
In front of the seemingly upscale hotel on the street, there wasn't even a single car.
However, it was the twelfth lunar month, the off-season for tourism, so it was understandable.
"Boss, one room," Li Chonglou said, booking the room as arranged.
Then they settled in, ordered a deck of cards, and played "Guandan," a very popular local game.
The four of them played, and Li Chonglou watched from the side.
He had never been interested in playing cards.
*Knock, knock, knock!*
Less than half an hour later, there was a knock on the door.
"Who is it?" Tian Meng shouted.
"It's me, the delivery guy!" the person outside said, lowering their voice.
"Coming." Tian Meng immediately put down his cards and got up to open the door.
But Li Chonglou stopped him and went to open it himself, dragging the person in and pinning them down in one smooth motion.
The person outside hadn't even reacted before being pressed onto the bed by Li Chonglou, unable to move.
Their face turned purple.
"Boss Li, what are you doing..." Tian Meng was startled by Li Chonglou, his face full of shock.
Weren't they here to talk business?
Why the immediate aggression?
"What are you doing? Let me go, who are you?" The person on the bed, their face flattened, gritted their teeth and shouted.
Li Chonglou sized up the man's appearance: sharp features, rat-like eyes, high cheekbones, and sunken cheeks.
He looked like someone who specialized in petty theft and trickery.
No wonder he would sell counterfeit coins.
Without further ado, he interrogated, "We are from the Public Security Bureau. We've found out you're selling fake coins."
"You'd better be honest!"
Upon hearing that they were from the Public Security Bureau, the man immediately fell silent, his face full of misery. "I surrender... I surrender..."
Why did people in this line of work not stay in big cities but come to these remote villages? It was precisely to avoid the police.
He knew selling fake money was illegal.
But he hadn't expected to get caught here.
Seeing him raise his hands, Tian Meng's face turned extremely unpleasant. "What do you mean? The coins you sold me are fake?"
"What else? My brother clearly told you, and you didn't believe him. How do you feel now?" Zhou Yacheng sneered with contempt.
"You heartless scoundrel, how dare you cheat me?" Tian Meng's face changed instantly, his eyes burning with anger. He stepped forward and slapped the fake coin seller hard on the head.
He had placed great hope in that pile of money, hoping to get rich from it.
He hadn't expected to be deceived.
Being deceived was secondary; the main issue was that the fortune he was supposed to make was now gone, and he couldn't possibly feel good about it.
"Uncle Tian, Uncle Tian, stop hitting him. Let Mr. Li interrogate him," Huang Jian said, quickly stepping in to break up the fight.
Li Chonglou didn't bother with him. After Huang Jian pulled Tian Meng away, he asked coldly, "What's your name, where did the fake coins come from? Confess honestly."
"Otherwise, you'll have to wash your backside and spend your life in prison!"