The man nodded before packing the necessary materials.
I handed the book to him and he stashed it in his bag as well.
We found a coffee place nearby and spent an hour relaying the events to him.
He did not interrupt us once but he did maintain a skeptical expression throughout our narration.
It wasn't really surprising since few would believe in the supernatural.
When it was done, I finally asked for his name.
"Li Xia," he answered, still suspicious.
"I told you so much because I need your help, Li Xia," I said.
"I understand what you're saying, but is there really such a thing in this world?" he asked.
"We can test it on a few rats now if you'd like," I offered, fishing out the watch.
"I've seen it. This has been opened up?"
Dahai and I nodded at the same time.
"There are figures in there, no? The watch did belong to my grandfather but it looks very different now. You also talked about members in Pang family appearing in the watch and that you've tested it on rats. If all these are true, I'll see all these people and animals in it, right?"
Dahai and I exchanged glances and he nodded.
"That will work," I agreed.
"There's no need to get someone else. I can do it," Li Xia proposed.
"You can?"
"Shouldn't be hard with a tool," he said before taking it out from his bag.
"Is that your grandfather's?" I asked.
"Yeah. He likes this watch very much and has fiddled with it a few times when I was around. I did not notice the patterns, however."
He began opening the watch, and we immediately knew that we've found the right assistant.
He handed the cover to us once managed to successfully open it.
He then picked the back up and inspected it closely. There were indeed a few tiny dots.
Li Xia handed me an eyepiece and after verifying it, I told him, "What you need to confirm our words is inside."
He quickly took the eyepiece and put it on. "This black figure is my grandfather."
"We have a rough knowledge of how this watch works now; it will kill everyone in a particular photograph," I explained.
"If that's true, my grandfather had sabotaged himself. But why is the leader still alive, then?" Li Xia wondered.
"Please assemble it back," I requested as I handed him the watch cover.
He nodded and proceeded to fix it quietly.
"Where were we?" he asked upon finishing.
"Why the leader is fine," Dahai reminded.
"We don't know, which is exactly why we're telling you this. We have to unravel the secret together. I'm sure you wanna know where this watch came from?" I asked before taking the watch back.
Li Xia resisted. "This belongs to my grandfather, right?"
"But your granny had exchanged it with one of my dolls so according to the market rule, this is mine."
Li Xia nodded. "It's the first time I'm hearing about the ghost market, too. I wonder how Granny found about about it. Plus, your dolls are fake but this watch is real."
"No returns. Rules are rules. I did not lie to her. She insisted on the exchange," I said.
Li Xia finally gave up the watch.
"How do we proceed from here?" he asked.
"There are two ways," I responded.
"Which are?"
"The first is for us to discover the secret of the watch directly," I started.
"It's a prize of war."
"Your grandfather mentioned it in his diary and we know that it was made in 1463. Pocket watches only came into existence in 1462 so this should be Swiss-made as well, but you said earlier that Swiss wasn't involved in WWII," I summarized.
"My grandfather fought in 1937, which is about 400 years apart from 1463. It would be difficult to gain information, but there's no doubt that the Swiss have always been a neutral country. All through WWI and WWII and even up until today."
"If that's the case, we'll need to change our train of thought. Your grandfather wrote that the watch had been seized from the Japanese. Which countries did Japan go against in WWII?" I asked.
"Quite a few if you're talking about WWII. Practically all nations since Japan wanted to expand its tiny territory. There's China, America, United Kingdom, former Soviet Union, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Myanmar, Vietnam, India… oh and Korea," Li Xia listed.
"Wait, wait. I can't remember all of those," Dahai exclaimed, wide-eyed.
"Japan was strong and they had the ability to stir fights. They won many battles."
"So the watch probably belongs to one of those nations?" I reasoned.
"Perhaps not, considering that it was so chaotic during that period. It's really hard to say, and even as a neutral country, Switzerland did have its battles."
"What do you mean?" Dahai asked.
"They resisted Germany. It was really messy as well so anything could've happened in between."
"So we can't find the watch's origin from here either?" I questioned.
"It's too challenging," Li Xia replied.
"One way left, then."
"What is it?"
"Your grandfather's former battle mates - the people in the photograph. If the watch worked on all members of the Pang family, why is the leader in the photograph still alive and well?"