WWY Chapter 48

Chapter 48: Dragon-patterned Jade Disc – Can’t Museums Have Fakes Too?…

Chapter 48: Dragon-patterned Jade Disc – Can’t Museums Have Fakes Too?…

To prove his point, Yishi Pan turned and pulled a thick, large-format book from the bookshelf. He flipped through the catalog to a page in the middle, and pushed it towards the two police officers opposite him. “Here, look!”

The registry was filled with densely packed handwritten text, reflecting the meticulousness of a cultural relics worker. At the top of the page, two paper clips held a photo corresponding to the artifact, which was the dragon-patterned jade disc, exactly as Lan He had drawn it.

Shengbo Xia leaned closer to Tuxi Ling, who was frowning deeply. “Ling, Lan He said he saw it in a museum abroad, didn’t he?”

Tuxi Ling gave him a “wait” look and asked Yishi Pan, “Curator Pan, are there any imitations of this artifact?”

“Imitations?” Yishi Pan’s face turned red, and coupled with his hair, meticulously fixed with hairspray, he looked like a firecracker. “Are you saying there are fakes outside posing as our museum’s items? Who’s doing this? Is it the person who drew this picture? How shameless! This is simply an insult to traditional culture!”

Tuxi Ling quickly said, “Don’t get excited, I just want to verify whether this collection is still in your vault.”

Yishi Pan became even angrier. “Are you doubting my professionalism! It’s in the vault. I’ll take you down there!”

The museum itself was an ancient building from the Qing Dynasty. The internal and external structure and decoration were maintained as close to the original as possible. They walked through the wide exhibition hall, passed a long corridor, and went down to the vault on the lower floor. Shengbo Xia felt a chill all over his body, as if the surrounding walls were emitting a faint coldness.

Curator Pan greeted the vault manager, completed the registration, and took them inside. According to the catalog index, he found a square box among the rows of neat shelves.

He wiped the dust off the box lid with his sleeve, carefully placed it on the table, and opened it only after carefully checking the integrity of the box.

Everything indicated that this museum was serious about its work, and this curator genuinely loved cultural relics.

“Officer Ling, look, this is the dragon-patterned jade disc from the Warring States period. Isn’t it exactly the same as the one in your phone?”

Shengbo Xia took out his phone and carefully compared every detail, exclaiming, “It really is!”

Tuxi Ling, however, sensed something was wrong. He took the phone and looked at it again, then asked Yishi Pan, “Curator Pan, you said this artifact was repaired, but I can’t see it. Where is it?”

“Oh, look here!” Yishi Pan pointed to an almost invisible crack on the jade disc. “This is exactly Old Qiu’s handiwork. How about it? If you don’t look specifically, can you see it at all?”

Shengbo Xia was completely impressed and nodded vigorously. “Wow, amazing!”

Tuxi Ling turned off the screen and nodded. “Indeed, very impressive.”

On the way back to the criminal investigation team, Shengbo Xia was still immersed in the charm of the ancient objects. He drove the car erratically, luckily there were few cars on the road during the workday, turning the road into his own personal playground.

“Ling, you said, this treasure is clearly in the museum, so what did Lan He see abroad? Could it be someone made a fake to scam foreigners?”

“It is indeed a fake,” Tuxi Ling stared at the photo on his phone, unconsciously swiping back and forth. “And a high-quality fake.”

“High-quality fake?” Shengbo Xia “pfft” laughed. “Does this stuff even have A-grades?”

Tuxi Ling glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. “Didn’t you notice? The jade disc in Lan He’s painting also has that repaired crack.”

“What?” Shengbo Xia couldn’t wait to pull over to the side of the road, picked up his phone and looked at it. This time, he looked for a full minute before finding a small, crack-like thing in the complex pattern of the circular jade disc. He exclaimed, “Wow, that’s what you call professional!”

Professional, indeed professional. The person who faked the jade disc was very professional, and Lan He, the painter, was equally professional.

Tuxi Ling bit the bullet and dialed Lan He’s phone number.

Although last night’s episode ended with a “joke,” Tuxi Ling still hadn’t quite recovered from it. Lan He was so serious at the time, he could feel that some of what he said came from the heart.

Three years ago, if his willpower had been a little stronger, that would have been great.

Just having a bowl of noodles together, then very gentlemanly taking him back to the hotel, casually leaving contact information, simply smiling and saying goodbye to him, afterwards, he might have missed him, contacted him, and then pursued him. After all, he was so sunny and handsome, and such a warm and reassuring person. He would have definitely fallen in love with him back then.

But now, what to say?

The scenes after waking up were like a curse, appearing in his mind every time, making him immediately and subconsciously reflect on himself, automatically withdrawing from him, almost becoming a conditioned reflex.

What was the situation at the time? What would Lan He have thought? Was he passively accepting it? And what was his own performance like? Was he very rough with him in an unconscious state? Even, forceful?

Lan He was a tolerant and generous person, he could let bygones be bygones, but he felt that it was a huge stain on his character, one that he could never wash away in his lifetime. He felt that he was always inferior in front of him.

“…Officer Ling? Hello? Officer Ling? Speak up, Tuxi Ling!”

He didn’t notice when Lan He answered the phone, he kept calling his name, his voice becoming increasingly anxious.

Tuxi Ling finally came back to his senses and replied, “I’m here, sorry, I was a little preoccupied just now.”

“You still call me when you’re busy!” Lan He complained, but his tone relaxed again, and he asked with a smile, “What are you calling me for?”

As if nothing had happened last night.

“Yesterday you said you saw the dragon-patterned jade disc abroad before?”

“Yes!”

“Which museum, do you remember?”

“I can’t remember that.”

“But I learned today that the dragon-patterned jade disc is being kept in the vault of the City Museum, and it’s been there all along. It’s unlikely that you saw it abroad.”

“Is that so? Oh…then maybe I saw it in a magazine?”

“Magazine? Are you sure?”

“Maybe? I was young at the time, there are bound to be memory deviations.”

“Okay, then that’s it for now.”

Just as he was about to hang up, Lan He stopped him. “Officer Ling, I’m sorry about last night, I lost my composure, and I left without saying goodbye.”

Tuxi Ling knew he was talking about beating up Si’nian He. Speaking of which, that punch seemed more like he was standing up for him, but they were brothers, so it wasn’t appropriate for an outsider like him to comment.

“I really couldn’t tell, you have quite the temper.”

“You haven’t seen the bigger one, ha!” Lan He feigned arrogance. “Want to experience it?”

Tuxi Ling quickly pretended to admit defeat and beg for mercy. “Forget it, forget it! I’m scared!”

Lan He laughed for a while, picked up a ballpoint pen and said, “Consider yourself lucky you know what’s good for you,” and hung up the phone.

Can’t museums have fakes? What an idiot!

He shook his head. The bangs that had just grown out two centimeters couldn’t be shaken at all, so he scratched them with his hand a couple of times, and continued to stare at the stack of paper with gray and white squares drawn on it, letting out a breath.

Eight rows and eight columns each, a standard chessboard, miniature version.

There were already a few words on the paper. Each word occupied one square, and they were disjointed, like a primary school student who had just learned to write was practicing writing in a Tian Zi Ge (Tianzi grid) character practice square, very casual.

Lan He stared for a while, then picked another square and wrote the character “Bo” (bó, elder brother). He looked at it left and right, and after feeling satisfied, he closed his eyes again.

He could draw those antiques after seeing them once, and he could also remember the poems Qin Man wrote after seeing them once, except, he remembered those 25 pages of poems as paintings. One page was one painting, and his mind palace stored every detail, and when he took it out to use, it needed time to depict it.

If he wanted to, he had the ability to have a photographic memory.

After filling in all the squares with words, he read it once, and when he felt it was smooth, he marked a “10” in the position of the page number to indicate completion, and put the things on the desk into the drawer.

He was going to visit Han Dan now.

Minhu Luo sent a WeChat message in the morning saying that Han Dan had received the news of Na Qiu’s death last night, and his blood pressure suddenly shot up. He passed out on the spot.

–

The facts were clear, the chain of evidence was complete, and Qing Gu was transferred to the procuratorate.

In addition, the clues provided by Lan He regarding the smuggling boat played a significant role. The coast guard squatted overnight, and sure enough, caught the snakehead the next day. After more than a month of investigation, they arrested more than a dozen guys who specialized in profiting from smuggling and human trafficking.

On the day the second squadron of the criminal investigation brigade was commended throughout the system, Tuxi Ling wanted to send him a banner, but was ridiculed by him. He wanted to apply for a “Good Samaritan and Good Citizen” award for him, but he refused.

The reason was sufficient, he said he was afraid of being retaliated against.

Tuxi Ling thought the matter was over, but unexpectedly, early this morning, Yaojin Ke, the captain of the first squadron, rushed over to him like his butt was on fire.

“Ling, hurry, hurry, hurry!”

Tuxi Ling waspā, lying prone on his desk, with half of a fried dough stick in his mouth. He raised his head. “What’s wrong?”

Yaojin Ke flicked the information in his hand. “The coast guard sent a message saying that a snakehead bit his colleague to strive for meritorious service, confessing the ship that was transporting antiques that we were investigating. It was indeed a smuggling boat! It usually has an operating permit. The hull should have had a ship number, but the ship looked tattered because someone deliberately peeled off the paint!”

Tuxi Ling threw the remaining fried dough stick into the soy milk. “Did they confess the ship owner’s information?”

“They weren’t familiar, they only knew the ship owner was called Maohu Li, a local, with a criminal record. The specifics are being checked with the ship registry!” Yaojin Ke hooked his fingers. “What about it, Ling? Are you going, or are we going?”

Tuxi Ling straightened out the entire case, from the burglary to the transportation of stolen goods, and said, “Shouldn’t we take a two-pronged approach?”

“That’s right, we’re still visiting the deceased’s social relationships. The lead came out here, so otherwise…”

“I think you should continue, leave this to us. I have a gut feeling that the murderer isn’t this Maohu Li, at least not acting alone.”

“That’s right, okay, then it’s up to you!” Yaojin Ke put the thin information on his desk and made a fist gesture. “Go for it, Ling, don’t let me down!”

As soon as he left, Shengbo Xia, who was writing the closing report with a one-finger typing method, came over. “Ling, can we directly arrest people?”

Tuxi Ling stood up. “Get ready, I’ll go to Director Liu for an arrest warrant.”

The police never showed mercy to marginal elements who made a living from the black market.

Tuxi Ling took four people to Maohu Li’s house, a very dilapidated old building. The corridor was the kind that was commonly used outdoors. Hearing the neighbors say that there was someone at their house, they went up and knocked on the door first.

The person who came to open the door was a middle-aged woman with rough skin, a bloated figure, and a more laborious appearance than the working class.

Shengbo Xia, who was standing in the front, pulled the person out, and before she could scream, a group of police officers wearing bulletproof vests rushed in with guns, only finding a ten-month-old baby in the two-bedroom apartment.

Shengbo Xia sternly asked, “Where’s Maohu Li?”

The woman looked at the muzzle of the gun in panic, ran to the bed and picked up her child. “He hasn’t come back, that damn man hasn’t come back for almost two months, what are you doing!”