“That demon mask has too much resentment.” The Boshan incense burner’s smoke trembled several times, as if expressing strong displeasure. “I really don’t know why the boss keeps that demon mask. It always makes me feel like someone is watching, disrupting the harmony within the Mute House. Not good, not good.”

“Hehe, that golden demon mask has a handsome man’s soul sealed inside! Too bad that person is still under seal and can’t come out to chat with us.” The Changxin Palace lamp’s candlelight danced joyfully—one could imagine this was a lively female personality.

No, no, the doctor quickly dismissed this thought. How could he think like this? No matter how absurd, it was still just a lamp!

“Boshan incense burner… Changxin Palace lamp… can actually talk?” The doctor couldn’t help complaining. Even if this was his dream, wasn’t it a bit ridiculous? Antique animation?

“Tsk, can’t you talk too? Is being a Nine Dragons Cup so great?” The Changxin Palace lamp spoke with deep disdain. “Also, my name is Linglong, and beside me is my little sister Linlang—she doesn’t like talking much. Ever since our sisters Langya and Jinyu got married, she’s talked even less.”

“Mar… married?” The doctor was shocked. Changxin Palace lamps could get married? To whom? Light bulbs? And weren’t Changxin Palace lamps all made of bronze? Why did they all have beautiful jade names?

“What? Looking down on us for not being married yet? Hmph! This young lady has high standards!” As if hitting Linglong’s sore spot, the palace lamp’s candlelight flickered rapidly, showing her emotional agitation. The lamp beside her burned calmly throughout—the contrast between movement and stillness was striking.

“Yes, yes…” The doctor was completely speechless.

“Grandpa Boshan, this new little brother seems strange.” A bright, young voice suddenly interrupted. “Didn’t you say only artifacts over a thousand years old can form spirits? This Nine Dragons Cup is just a three to four hundred year old little thing—there’s something odd here.”

What do you mean odd! The strangest thing is clearly this shop! What Mute House? Obviously all the antiques inside can talk! And calling it a “three to four hundred year old little thing”! The doctor suppressed his urge to roar and looked toward the voice, instinctively knowing it came from the blue-white glazed porcelain plate on the opposite treasure cabinet—he remembered the curator once saying it should be a Song Dynasty artifact.

A Song Dynasty thing with a young boy’s voice? Seriously?

“As long as there’s obsession, anything is possible.” The Boshan incense burner even quoted a popular advertising slogan.

The doctor weakly defended himself: “I’m not the Nine Dragons Cup. Before today, I was still human.” He must be confused from dreaming—he’d be fine once he woke up. Why argue with these problematic antiques?

But as soon as he finished speaking, he noticed the shop’s atmosphere wasn’t right. After brief silence, whispered conversations suddenly arose.

Though the doctor couldn’t hear clearly what they were saying, it made his hair stand on end. Within his sight, there was clearly only the boss in the shop, yet it felt like the entire place had come alive—voices everywhere but no people visible. After being horrified briefly, the doctor couldn’t help feeling speechless. He’d long known the boss’s shop contained valuable items, but never imagined so many antiques were so ancient. According to that broken plate, everything that could talk here was at least a thousand years old! So many of them!

And this was just the storefront—there was also the inner room that outsiders rarely entered… The doctor suddenly felt that broken plate’s phrase “three to four hundred year old little thing” wasn’t excessive.

“Little brother, is what you said true?” After who knows how long, the shop returned to calm, with the Boshan incense burner asking on behalf of everyone.

“It’s true. Yesterday I was still putting incense in you…” The doctor suddenly felt this dream was too bizarre. He must have woken up wrong…

“Ah! It was you who put that cheap Indian incense in my belly! You nearly fumigated this burner to death!” The Boshan incense burner suddenly got excited, its smoke spraying like a volcanic eruption.

“It should be fine… I happened to pass a fragrance shop and they gave it as a gift… I specifically checked—it was also a type of sandalwood.” The doctor carefully explained. He had specifically asked the boss, and when lighting it, the boss hadn’t said it wasn’t allowed!

“Do you know what incense the boss usually burns? It’s qinan incense! Top-grade agarwood! Only emperors could afford qinan incense! In Han times it was even said to have soul-restoring effects! In Song times, Champa qinan incense was already ‘worth ten thousand gold per piece’! How could your cheap incense catch this burner’s eye? You nearly fumigated me to death!” The Boshan incense burner transformed into a roaring emperor, echoing throughout the shop and making the doctor dizzy.

“Brother Boshan, that’s not the point right now.” When the roaring emperor emerged, no one could stand it. Linglong quickly interrupted. “You’re that doctor who’s been coming to the shop recently? This generation’s reincarnation of Fu Su?”

“Mm, seems like I’m the person you’re talking about.” Hearing he was someone’s reincarnation made the doctor uncomfortable. But he couldn’t deny it—these antiques had accompanied the boss for so many years and had definitely seen and heard plenty.

“This is bad. The person who brought the Nine Dragons Cup earlier said your body has fallen into a coma. It seems this cup has a problem.” Linglong’s tone grew increasingly grave.

“A problem?” The doctor was startled, remembering the strange person who appeared at the hospital—wasn’t he holding exactly such a cup? Could he not be dreaming but truly transformed into a cup?

“Just as people have good and bad, objects also have good and bad qualities.” The Boshan incense burner’s temper improved somewhat, its smoke becoming much calmer. It seemed he and Linglong had the highest seniority here, so when they spoke, basically no one interrupted. “Some objects are naturally created to pray to heaven, like ritual vessels for sky worship. So these objects gather craftsmen’s devout efforts and are filled with spirituality from the moment of creation, easily condensing into spirits. Many ancient supernatural novels thought what appeared were mountain and wilderness spirits, but a large portion were actually object spirits. Another type of object also easily forms spirits—those naturally created for curses and resentment. Like Chen Ajiao’s voodoo doll. Sigh… Yansheng still can’t figure it out…”

Ethereal smoke rose from the Boshan incense burner, making a lonely turn in the air, appearing quite melancholy.

“Why mention that hopeless guy? He’s been in self-isolation for over two thousand years without thinking it through. He deserved to give up his spirit for a woman.” Linglong acted like she was frustrated with his lack of progress.

The doctor remembered the voodoo doll they mentioned. Calculating, that puppet and the Boshan incense burner and Changxin Palace lamps were all Han Dynasty antiques who had spent long historical years together—they definitely had deep bonds. “That voodoo doll was sent to a museum, right? It should receive good care!”

“Hmph! Museum? That’s our graveyard. Who would want to go? Generally collected antiques are truly dead objects that have lost their spirits. Even more pitifully, some with remaining consciousness get locked up—truly living imprisonment.” The young voice clamored again, the blue-white glaze reflecting harsh white light. “I heard they recently broke a Ge kiln blue glazed chrysanthemum-mouth plate—that was my Song Dynasty brother! So pitiful, just gone like that, couldn’t even preserve a complete body. Waaah…”

The doctor was speechless. That incident had indeed caused quite a stir—even he who paid no attention to outside affairs had heard about it and naturally felt sorry.

“Ahem, back to the main topic.” Seeing the conversation had drifted far, the Boshan incense burner coughed twice. “This Nine Dragons Cup is carved from excellent Hetian jade. Jade has the effect of attracting good fortune and avoiding evil. Since you’re Fu Su’s reincarnation, you must have worn that longevity lock since birth, right?”

“Yes.” The doctor didn’t know why the Boshan incense burner brought this up. He had already placed the broken longevity lock in the coffin in Qin Mausoleum’s underground palace.

“Ancient jade has the effect of absorbing human souls. That longevity lock preserved Fu Su’s broken soul before death. Only when you accidentally broke it was it freed…” The Boshan incense burner stopped there, drawing out his voice without finishing.

The doctor was stunned and asked back: “You’re saying my soul was absorbed into this Nine Dragons Cup instead?”

“Exactly. I don’t know why this happened. Usually people’s obsessions are stronger before death, making attachment to jade more likely. You’re a living soul with a perfectly good body… could someone have interfered?” The Boshan incense burner was completely puzzled.

“So this cup must be broken for me to be freed?” The doctor began worrying. In the Mute House, could the boss accidentally break something? That was impossible!

“Not only that—ancient jade can preserve souls long-term. This Nine Dragons Cup isn’t really three to four hundred years old. I think it can only keep your living soul intact for seven days at most.” Linglong said with some regret.

Regret? What regret! He wasn’t dead yet!

The doctor became agitated. Breaking this cup within seven days while he couldn’t move at all was simply impossible!

Trapped in this Nine Dragons Cup unable to move for four days and nights, the doctor had changed from panicked anxiety to numb indifference. He’d tried countless methods but couldn’t attract the boss’s attention or move the cup even slightly.

Maybe this was his fate. Actually, he should have died long ago, shouldn’t he?

The doctor fell completely silent, listening to the shop’s antiques talking without responding. Having experienced over a thousand years, the antiques were accustomed to human life and death, so they didn’t take the doctor’s situation very seriously.

“Little brother, don’t worry. People just open their eyes, close them, and life passes by. Simple!” The Boshan incense burner emitted ethereal smoke while quoting some popular phrase from who knows where.

“It’s fine if you die—we should move and relocate anyway. Tsk, but then Fu Su’s reincarnations won’t die young anymore. Wonder if the boss will continue searching!” Linglong’s candlelight jumped as she spoke bluntly, not considering the doctor’s feelings at all.

The doctor knew these antiques didn’t understand human social subtleties. Being spoken to so rudely by Linglong just made him feel uncomfortable. Not wanting to discuss his situation, he changed the topic: “Does the boss always move?”

“Yes, staying in one place long-term with his unchanging appearance would arouse suspicion!” Linglong snorted. “But the old days were better—just changing locations and no one would recognize him. Now with advanced networks, even hiding in deep mountains risks being doxxed.”

“Small hermits hide in mountains, great hermits hide in markets.” The Boshan incense burner chuckled. “The boss is doing very well now.”

Indeed, setting up such an inconspicuous shop on this commercial street really wouldn’t attract attention. The doctor knew the Mute House always had pitifully few customers. But thinking the boss had only moved here three years ago, he could deduce that his moving frequency had increased recently—clearly his situation wasn’t good either.

Thinking of this, the doctor sighed. He could barely protect himself now—how was he worrying about others again?