Xing Ye and Jingzi returned to their residence. It was around nine in the morning, when the sun was at its brightest. Xing Ye took down the wooden windows of the small, dilapidated house to make the house brighter and to dry the items in the house.
This time, Xing Ye looked carefully at his dilapidated house and found that there were many shops near his home.
According to this structure, he should live in a commercial area, but the location is very remote, the house is very small, and the storefront is extremely dilapidated. There is no plaque and it looks more like a warehouse.
There was a large open space in front of the door, but no guests came or went in front of it.
With the help of a mirror, Xing Ye struggled to take out the old things in the house.
He was more like a junk collector. There were many parts in the room, such as hands and eyes, but they were probably all worn out and needed to be replaced. There were also many tin man bodies, which were very heavy and took up a lot of space.
He kept on looking through the house until the afternoon, and after winding up the clockwork several times, he was able to barely clean it up. Xing Ye used the wooden boards, nails, hammer and wrench from the sundries to make a simple shelf, and placed the small items on different shelves according to categories. Large items such as the puppet's body were placed at the bottom of the shelf to fix the shelf.
Once the items are sorted, they become clear at a glance.
"The room is filled with all sorts of spare parts from the new Tin Man, as well as tools and rags," Xing Ye said, his chin in his hand. "It seems I'm a very ambitious puppet who really wants to have a new puppet body. Since I have no money, I go around picking up discarded items, hoping to have a new body someday."
Looking at his current body, Xing Ye understood the original owner's thoughts very well. He was really too old.
Xing Ye: "The bronze mirror figure should have been found by the original owner while collecting scrap, but I don't know where he found it. Maybe there are clues to Master Benedict in it."
The mirror had no neck and could not nod, so it knocked its chest hard to show its agreement.
"It's a pity there's no paper or pen in the room. The original owner didn't have the habit of keeping a diary. I don't know where he found the bronze mirror man."
The clue ends here.
Xing Ye checked the mirror again and this time he made a discovery. He found algae in the gaps of the mirror.
"You probably fished it out of the river," Xing Ye said. "There's a net here. It seems the original owner often went to the nearby river to collect waste... Throwing items into the water would pollute the water resources. Even if the puppets don't need to drink water, it's not a good habit. Master Benedict is obsessed with making puppets, but he himself may not have environmental awareness."
Xing Ye analyzes Master Benedict's character based on the existing clues, hoping to find the master in the small town.
The mirror was particularly sad. He had tried his best not to think about his ugliness, but now he found that he had been fished out of the river, rusty, dirty, ugly, and covered with algae. This was the worst time for him.
In the previous world, even if it was a makeup mirror, Xing Ye would still help him wash his body after every shower.
In addition to the river, there should also be repair shops and oil shops where the original owner collected waste, and he seemed to have friendships with these people.
After analyzing these things, Xing Ye decided to go to a nearby motor oil shop to test the waters.
In the morning, he and Mirror tried their best to avoid the sight of the puppet in the motor oil shop, hiding behind the thin wooden wall to eavesdrop, and did not formally show their faces in front of the owner. It seems that they need to show up this time.
Seeing that it was getting late, if they didn't act now it would be dark and they would not be able to see anything.
Xing Ye appeared in front of the engine oil shop owner's door, and when the owner saw him, he immediately said, "There's been a new batch of discarded parts recently. Customers threw them away when they dropped them while oiling. Some of them still have some not-so-old engine oil on them. You can use them to oil your car."
His tone was friendly, completely different from how he treated customers in the morning.
Xing Ye accepted the package he handed over. The engine oil shop owner said, "Don't always think about changing your body. Master Benedict is gone, and no one will help the puppet change its body. Even Old Nick from the repair shop can't do it. He only knows how to fix things."
Is Master Benedict gone? It seems that the people in the town don't know that Master Benedict is still alive. So he must be hiding in the city as a puppeteer, watching over every puppet he created.
The puppet in the motor oil shop took out a notebook, took out a pen, wrote a few words on it, and handed it to Xing Ye: "Yes, sign the bill. Second-hand goods also need to be purchased with the original ore. You can record it in the account, and you can't not give the original ore."
Xing Ye flipped through the account book, which showed that he had been owing the oil shop puppet for 20 years. Sometimes he would pay back one or two pieces of raw ore, but more often he would owe it. Including the parts and old oil he owed this time, he owed the other party 24 pieces of raw ore.
That's a huge sum of money.
There was no name in the signature area, only fingerprints. Xing Ye pressed his fingerprints on the new bill.
At this moment, a female puppet with long hair and a beautiful dress came into the store. The voice of the motor oil shop puppet immediately became flattering: "Ms. Linda, are you here to change the oil?"
"I took my sister to Uncle Nick to repair her arm, and I came to your place for an oil treatment." Puppet Linda shook her long hair, which was a wig planted on her head one by one.
Sister, repairing the arm, Uncle Nick...it sounds familiar, as if it is talking about Cao Qian.
This is not a coincidence; it's normal for oil shops and repair shops to be located close to each other.
Xing Ye observed Cao Qian's second sister Linda. He couldn't tell the appearance of the puppet, but Linda's body was indeed delicate, her fingers were very flexible, and she even had eyelashes on her eyelids, which was much more delicate than other puppets.
Linda extended her hand, and the motor oil shop puppet politely took her hand into the room and found a female puppet employee to help her with the motor oil care.
Seeing Xing Ye staring at Linda's back, the engine oil shop owner said, "What are you looking at! That's not a beauty you can dream of. The city lord's son has been pursuing Linda for thirty years, and Miss Linda may not even like him. You? Humph! Hurry up and go collect junk from Old Nick!"
Thirty years... Do the residents of Puppet City calculate time in units of ten?
Unable to see what was going on inside, Xing Ye had no choice but to leave carrying the sack of waste.
Just now, when the owner of the motor oil shop mentioned Old Nick, he pointed to the southeast. This was a subconscious action, which meant that Old Nick's shop was most likely there.
Now that I have a reasonable reason, it would be a good idea to go and see Cao Qian. Maybe I can find some new clues.
Xing Ye took two steps and saw that the mirror was still staring blankly at the engine oil shop. He comforted him and said, "When I have money, I will come here to do your engine oil care."
He felt like a poor boy who could only make empty wishes.
"No," the big mirror whispered. "I think Linda is so pretentious. Just now, when the oil shop owner wanted to hold her hand, her eyelashes trembled two millimeters, and she looked very reluctant. And the way she moved her hair was particularly... well... how should I put it, it was like she wasn't used to the length of her hair. It wasn't a very graceful gesture, but... it was a movement that was troublesome and uncomfortable because she shouldn't have long hair. The difference is very subtle, and I can't explain it clearly.
According to my true eyes, I think she is a player, originally with a body and short hair."