Book 1: Chapter 128

Book 1: Chapter 128

It was an old Guangming Daily with a picture laying on top of it. I looked at the picture and realized that it was a Dai Jin (1) painting of a bird sitting on a pine branch. The Guangming Daily was torn on all four sides like it had come from one of those old houses that had newspapers stuck on all of its walls.The source of this content nov(el)bi((n))

We were in deep waters. I wasnt familiar with Dai Jins works, but the rice paper was very old. Someone may have found some old rice paper and asked an artist to paint on it using old ink. I remembered that some people forged fake certificates of authenticity in the past, and in order to find the paper at that time, they bought countless old books from that era and copied them. Nowadays, forgeries made using fine-painting technology looked almost identical to printed products. But Chinese paintings were very difficult to copy.

I didn't speak as I examined the newspaper carefully. All of the details told me a story.

When it came to the old houses here, courtyard houses in particular were subletted by many people. Newspapers were usually posted on all of the walls. Someone found an old painting in an old house and wrapped it in the Guangming Daily. This painting was later discovered when the house-owner was moving and sold to the shop. When the boss saw it, he realized that it was a Dai Jin painting.

I might have hesitated if the Guangming Daily hadnt been here, but this old newspaper was too deliberate. It naturally made me wary.

I didn't ask for the painting, but told the old fat man to keep the forty thousand yuan in the shop as credit. When he had any good products, he would send me photos and I would come and give him the rest of the money.

The old fat man was very happy and even walked me out of the shop with his iPad in hand. When I went out and explained everything to Bai Haotian, she scratched her head, "I thought you had to look at the things themselves to see whether they were real or fake."

There was nothing that night, so I hid the beeswax and forced myself to go to sleep while trying not to think about Poker-Face's situation.

In the end, I still ended up thinking about it for a few seconds. If they didn't die, then I needed to calculate how much time they had left. If they did die, then I figured they were probably as soggy as fried dough sticks now. I didnt know how I would face those two if they really did look like fried dough sticks.

After sleeping for a few hours, I heard someone knocking on the door. I turned over, but all I could hear was the very faint knocking sound. I wasn't expecting anyone, so I had no idea know who it was.

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TN Notes:

(1) Dai Jin (1388-1462) was a Chinese artist best known for being the founder of the Zhe School of Ming dynasty painting. More info here.

(2) Knife money is the name of large, cast, bronze, knife-shaped commodity money produced by various governments and kingdoms in what is now China. Knife money circulated in China between 600 and 200 B.C. during the Zhou dynasty. More info here.