35: Chapter 35 Auction Invitation

When Tang Zhiwei received the invitation, she was listening to a project report in the foundation's meeting room.

The assistant placed the black-and-gold envelope by her hand and lowered her voice: "President Tang, it's a private invitation with no return address. The sender only said you would understand once you saw it."

Tang Zhiwei did not open it on the spot.

There were seven or eight other people in the meeting room. The project manager was presenting the funding budget, displaying a beautifully designed spreadsheet on the screen that made everyone sleepy. She slid the envelope under her folder, but when her fingers brushed against the seal, the inner side of her right wrist suddenly burned slightly.

The Mark of the Torch was warning her.

Tang Zhiwei's expression remained unchanged as she simply said, "Continue."

Once the meeting ended, she returned to her private office, locked the door, drew the curtains, and took a pair of thin gloves out of a drawer.

The envelope was made of high-quality material, feeling like textured parchment. There was no wax seal, only an extremely faint, embossed watermark. Ordinary people might think it was just a decorative pattern, but Tang Zhiwei had seen too many things left behind by the Old Object Chain to know that the more beautifully hidden a pattern was, the less likely it was meant for appreciation.

She pressed down on her Mark of the Torch and opened the Xin Huo Interface.

[Do you wish to submit an anomalous item scan?]

Tang Zhiwei selected confirm.

A wisp of grayish-white Purifying Flame cascaded down along the edge of the interface, covering the surface of the envelope like a thin layer of firelight. The next second, the watermark on the back was magnified, its lines twisting into a fragmented longevity pattern.

[Identification Result: Suspected Old Object Chain screening mark.]

[Associated Risk: Longevity Society.]

[Recommendation: Do not attend the meeting alone.]

Tang Zhiwei looked at the last line, her lips twitching slightly.

"Do I look like someone who wants to throw their life away?"

The Xin Huo Interface did not respond.

However, Tang Zhiwei did not laugh for long. She knew very well that the only reason she could still joke was because this invitation had not actually hurt anyone yet. But others who received similar invitations might not react the same way. Some would lock it away in a safe, some would take their entire family to the banquet, and some might even willingly open the door to anomalies just for the words "rare life extension."

She picked up the intercom on her desk, intending to have her assistant cancel all of her plans for tonight, but she changed her mind at the last second.

"Clear my schedule starting tomorrow night. Write down 'unwell' as the reason."

The assistant paused on the other end: "President Tang, do you need me to contact a doctor?"

"No need." Tang Zhiwei stared at the black-and-gold envelope on her desk. "It's just that some people are far sicker than I am."

Only after hanging up the phone did she open the invitation.

The inside page was beautifully written.

West City Old Industrial Park, Private Old Object Exchange. Attendance is limited to invited collectors only. Exhibits include antique utensils, folkloric old objects, house-protecting Legacy items, and rare life-extending collectibles.

Those last two words made Tang Zhiwei's gaze freeze.

Life extension.

She was all too familiar with the weaknesses of the wealthy elite.

Some believed when they were young that money could buy anything, only to realize as they aged that money could not buy time. As long as someone packaged "life extension" with enough mystery, countless people would gamble both their sanity and their lives on it.

Without touching the inner page of the invitation again, Tang Zhiwei submitted the entire invitation directly to the Grey Net.

Deep within the Xinhuo Hall, Zero received the scan record.

Lu Chen was currently reviewing the recent concentrated flow map of old objects. The grey dots in the West City Old Warehouse District were growing denser, like someone dumping a batch of sparking charcoal ashes into a single spot. Once Tang Zhiwei's invitation came through, the Grey Net connected the two lines.

[West City Underground Old Object Exchange.]

[Number of anomalous old objects: At least seven.]

[Suspected deep infiltration by the Longevity Society.]

[Suspected entry of official observers.]

[Recommendation: Establish a special mission.]

Lu Chen did not approve it immediately.

He first had Zero analyze the invitation's watermark.

The first layer was an Advanced invitation that the ordinary wealthy elite could understand.

The second layer consisted of screening symbols that old goods dealers and buyers of anomalous old objects could understand.

The third layer, hidden deep within the grain of the paper, was a nearly erased longevity pattern. It did not harm people directly, but it recorded the reactions of those who touched it. Who was afraid, who was greedy, and who could identify contamination—all of this would become part of its screening process.

"It's filtering people," Lu Chen said.

Zero responded: "Assessment confirmed. The invitation possesses low-level observation capabilities, which have been isolated by the Mark of the Torch."

Lu Chen then pulled up Tang Zhiwei's real-world identity evaluation.

One of the heads of the Tang Foundation, she possessed sufficient credibility among the wealthy elite. Having previously attended private old object previews, she had a natural identity to enter the outer circles. Her logistics clearance was stable, with no record of unauthorized access.

This meant she could serve as an entry point.

But she could not simply be thrown in as bait.

Tang Zhiwei also quickly submitted her own opinion.

[I can enter.]

[But I do not accept acting alone.]

[I require a Safe House, evacuation vehicle, medical backup, and on-site protection.]

When Bai Ya saw this synchronized record, he was pretending to be a regular customer in a teahouse on Old Goods Street. He could not help but send a short message.

[President Tang knows the rules better than certain newcomers.]

[Who are you talking about?]

Zhao Ye quickly replied with two words.

Bai Ya did not reply again.

This minor, insignificant exchange was recorded on the periphery of the Grey Net. When Lu Chen saw it, he actually felt that the team seemed a bit more human. At least not everyone was coldly submitting standardized answers.

He focused his attention back on the invitation. The Grey Net could detect the longevity pattern, but it could not yet discern the complete rules of the grand finale auction item. It was not an omniscient map and could not reconstruct all the arrangements of the underground auction based on a single invitation. Real-world identities, Old Goods Circle clues, official movements, and fragments of local gazetteers all needed to be pieced together bit by bit.

Lu Chen was in no hurry to push the draft mission to everyone. The higher the risk of a mission, the less they could afford to throw people in based on a single hint.

"Check the records first," he said. "Have Zhou Yan look for records related to the longevity lamp."

Upon receiving the request for research assistance, Zhou Yan immediately plunged into the Archives' old records room.

Two hours later, he submitted a fragmented record through the Xin Huo Interface.

In ancient times, a wealthy man in a certain region fell gravely ill. At night, he lit a bronze lamp, but the lamp did not burn oil. The servants, maids, and concubines in the household aged rapidly over several days, while the wealthy man briefly regained consciousness. The local gazetteer did not mention demons or spirits, only recording cryptically: "The lamp does not burn oil; it burns life."

Zhou Yan wrote down his assessment at the end of the record.

[The so-called longevity is suspected to be life-transfer. This item does not create lifespan; it only plunders the life force of those around it.]

As the Grey Net identified this assessment, the marker for West City turned from grey to dark red.

In Tang Zhiwei's office, a line of black text suddenly emerged on the originally blank final page of the invitation.

[The grand finale auction item of this session: longevity lamp.]

At that moment, the firelight at the edge of the Xin Huo Interface flared up brightly.

[This item is suspected to possess characteristics of a high-risk source of contamination.]

[There is a possibility that the mission Rank will be upgraded.]

Tang Zhiwei stared at the words "longevity lamp," unable to fully control her expression for the first time.

She thought of those elderly people at cocktail parties who half-jokingly said, "I'd pay any amount to live another twenty years," and she also recalled the eyes in the old object previews that masked their greed under the guise of collecting.

This time, what the Xinhuo Council was about to step into was not just an anomalous scene.

Rather, it was a stage set up for the anomaly by the dark side of a city.