Chapter 2581: Unbearable Oblivion
Ten minutes later, Xu Huo and the others arrived at a hotel on the other side of the city. Judging from the city’s layout, this hotel was practically at the edge of town. Probably because it usually had few guests, the staff were quite happy to see people show up in the middle of the night. They enthusiastically led them to their rooms and even brought them a late-night snack plus breakfast for the next day.
The You sisters kept an eye on the announcements from the local government, but after a whole night, the government still hadn’t released any further information related to Cultural Street, and there were no concentrated missing-person or death cases on the Collection of Information Terminal either. They therefore concluded that this should be a relatively targeted instance, with the location confined to the vicinity of Cultural Street.
Xu Huo wasn’t entirely at ease and told the Girl in the painting and the others not to go near Cultural Street again. Since transportation was so convenient, they could go to the neighboring city during the day. As for him, he would stick to his original plan and pay a visit to the writer Jing Shi.
After two in-depth conversations, Jing Shi suggested introducing him to that watch master—not to have him become an apprentice, but to let him watch the master’s process of making a watch.
"Things can resonate with each other. Sometimes I call that sudden burst of resonance ’inspiration,’" Jing Shi said. "Thirty years ago, I was still just a small writer making money off weird, sensational stories. By pure chance, I witnessed an Artifact Maker polishing a Prop watch. In that instant, it was like some power tapped my mind—I was flooded with countless ideas utterly different from anything I’d had before. That was also the turning point of my life."
She fixed her gaze on Xu Huo. "I hope you can have that kind of luck as well."
Xu Huo certainly didn’t refuse and thanked her solemnly. When Jing Shi learned that he wouldn’t be leaving for the next few days, she simply invited him to stay at her place, so that once she got in touch with her grandson’s teacher, she could take him over at any time.
Xu Huo frankly said that he still had a few friends staying at a hotel, so it really wouldn’t be convenient for him to impose on her, and he declined tactfully.
Jing Shi didn’t insist, only saying that he could come by to chat anytime.
Xu Huo didn’t leave until after lunch. He found a quiet place and started searching the Artifact Maker rankings for this zone on the Collection of Information Terminal.
But the search results left him a bit disappointed, because according to some organizations, the Artifact Maker rankings weren’t very reliable—some Artifact Makers were all name and no substance. In contrast, the watch master rankings were relatively authoritative and had won recognition from all sectors of society.
The rankings were publicly visible, and many online platforms had dedicated discussion boards. As expected, Xu Huo saw an account called "World’s Number One" madly tearing into these rankings on every platform. He dragged the watch masters on the list out one by one to "review," not only attacking their professional skills but also digging up their scandals: things like "a home in every city," or threatening association members into accepting shameless demands in exchange for orders and rankings, and so on.
In "World’s Number One"’s view, practically every member of the Clock Association who made it onto the rankings was up to no good. The key point was that many of his exposes were backed with facts; if people took a closer look, they actually seemed to be true. So although his words were harsh, the account still had quite a few followers.
Seeing those lines of dirt and the flame wars with the watch masters’ fans, Xu Huo immediately pictured an old man with sparse white hair, staying up late to glare at his terminal and trade insults online.
No need to guess—this old man was definitely Mr. Xi. No wonder his shop had gotten sealed so many times he was used to it. He went at them both online and offline. Even if he didn’t resort to extreme actions, his nasty mouth alone was enough to make others seize any excuse to go after him.
However, this "World’s Number One" account never mentioned his own grudges with the Clock Association.
Instead, someone dug up his identity and obliquely brought up an unpublished lawsuit from more than twenty years ago.
The plaintiff was Mr. Xi. He had sued the Clock Association and its then-president for stealing his teacher’s work. As for what that achievement was, it wasn’t specified.
Mr. Xi’s teacher wasn’t anyone famous. Forget being on the rankings; he wasn’t even well-known in his own city. His only claim to fame was having trained Mr. Xi as a disciple. Over twenty years ago, Mr. Xi was already very famous, ranking high on both the watch-making rankings and the Artifact Maker rankings, with plenty of people from the Outer Zone coming from afar to commission Props from him.
"Mr. Xi probably wanted to leverage his own reputation to arm-wrestle with the Clock Association and seek justice for his teacher, who had just passed away. But the outcome wasn’t ideal. After losing the lawsuit, Mr. Xi angrily withdrew from both the Clock Association and the Artifact Maker Association, declaring that until the truth came to light, he would not make any Props for the government or the associations."
The fact was, the world kept turning no matter who went missing. At first, the Clock Association and the Artifact Maker Association still went to invite him a few times, but when they saw how stubborn he was, they had no choice but to give up. Outsiders couldn’t place orders with him through the associations, and when they tried to visit him in person, he still refused to accept orders. Over time, fewer and fewer people came looking for him.
Many who didn’t know the inside story thought he had retired because of old age. In reality, he opened a small shop by himself and lived off his old savings. His life was passable; after all, he had once been a famous Artifact Maker, had contributed to District 001, and with his age, the government provided him some welfare.
But he and his teacher ended up the same way: forgotten.
It wasn’t that they were defeated or framed, but that they were treated as insignificant and forgotten.
When the enemies you’ve fixed in your mind don’t even bother to acknowledge your existence, that kind of disregard is enough to infuriate someone, to make them lose their composure.
Back when Mr. Xi first became famous, he had a bad temper too, but he could still maintain basic courtesy—not like now, swearing at heaven and earth on the Collection of Information Terminal.
Yet what difference did it make if someone made his past public? At most, it elicited a sigh from outsiders—"none of my business."
He had just finished reading some of Mr. Xi’s life story when a call like a debt-collection reminder came in. The old man’s face appeared in the projection, and he impatiently urged, "Have you decided yet? What Prop do you want? I’m free right now—might not have the time in a few days."
"Do you have materials?" Xu Huo asked. "All the customers who walk into your shop get cursed out. Do you have money to buy anything?"
The old man snapped, "Who are you looking down on? I can take any one of my Props out there and people will fight over it. You think I’m short on money for materials?"
But he added a caveat, "Like I said before: Advanced Items. Don’t get too picky."
Xu Huo smiled. "I can provide the materials for the Prop. Didn’t you participate in making the Super Instruments? Making a Rank A Prop for me shouldn’t be a problem, right?"
The old man thought it over. "You’ve helped me twice. Making a Rank-A for you is fine. But I don’t use just any material. Don’t bring out that low-grade stuff and embarrass yourself."
Xu Huo laid a few Secondary Stones on the table.