Liang En's rhythmic knocking echoed through the empty corridor. After several minutes, the door slowly opened, revealing an elderly man with graying whiskers.
“Young man, what brings you here?” the old man asked as he put on his reading glasses to get a better look at the young man and woman standing at his door.
“Hello, Mr. Sergei. I’m Liang En, the one who called you earlier,” Liang En stepped forward slightly, shaking hands with the old man before continuing, “I’m here for—”
“Ah, I remember now.” Sergei, the elderly man, stepped aside to let Liang En enter. “Let’s talk inside. This isn’t the best place for such discussions.”
Sergei, an elderly clergyman, also served as a middleman in the antique trade. The Golden Dawn had spent considerable effort and over a thousand euros to connect Liang En with this reliable informant.
Upon entering the room, Liang En noticed its unique decor, a blend of various woods, leaning towards a European court style. Every detail was meticulously crafted, from the intricate parquet flooring, where floral patterns added a touch of color to the wooden boards, to the elegant simplicity of the living room furniture. Even the chairs were covered in soft silk, with delicate lace trim that made them appear quite beautiful.
Indeed, the Russians had a certain aesthetic taste when it came to art. Despite Russia's reputation for being somewhat uncivilized, the country had produced countless top-tier artists, evident in Sergei’s well-decorated home, showcasing his love for art and antiques.
“Did you bring the item?” Sergei asked after they were seated on the sofa in the living room. He poured each of them a cup of tea.
“Yes,” Liang En replied, taking out a box and revealing a jade pendant, which he placed on the coffee table, pushing it toward Sergei.
This was something they had previously discussed. Honestly, if it hadn’t been for the guarantee provided by the Golden Dawn, Liang En would never have brought the original piece.
“Let me take a look.” Sergei reached into the box and carefully examined the jade pendant.
Although it was unclear how skilled Sergei was, his inspection appeared very professional, much like the jade experts Liang En had encountered in China.
However, Sergei’s examination took longer than expected. Nearly ten minutes later, he returned the jade piece to the box, finishing his inspection, and looked up at Liang En.
“Your previous assessment was correct. This piece is indeed an antique made by the Huns, crafted by a Han Dynasty artisan. It’s not a replica.” Liang En nodded in agreement.
“I also received information that this jade belt buckle was unearthed near this city in 1973 during the construction of the highway leading out of town.”
“That’s why I’m here—to investigate and hopefully find some clues about this item. After all, such an object is unlikely to appear in the wild on its own; it should have been found at an important site.”
“Ah, then you’ve come to the right person. Not many people remember this incident, but I’m one of them,” Sergei said with a smile.
“Although I was just a child at the time, I heard about the discovery and even went to the site to watch the commotion.”
“I still remember arriving at the site to find a large pit about two to three meters deep and seven to eight meters in diameter. At the bottom, there were some coins, sculptures, and gold.”
“As soon as the gold was found, the workers started looting, and even though the authorities confiscated many items, not everything was recovered.”
“Large items like gold or significant bronze artifacts were all successfully handed over, but smaller objects weren’t. For example, I have a bronze arrowhead and a coin from that dig.”
“So, if nothing unexpected happened, this jade piece likely went missing during that time. Other than the Chinese, no one values such semi-precious stones, so it wasn’t noticed.”
“Could you take us to the excavation site?” Liang En asked excitedly upon hearing that Sergei knew its location. He had previously inquired about it through the Golden Dawn, but no one knew the exact spot.
This was mainly because too much time had passed, and it wasn’t an event that significantly impacted the local area, so few people remembered it.
“Of course, I can take you there, but I can only guarantee that it’s the genuine excavation site. Whether you find anything depends purely on luck,” Sergei said seriously, though with a smile.
“In fact, if I recall correctly, because of the gold found there, some people have tried searching the area, but they found nothing.”
“Someone searched before?” Liang En asked curiously, “Could you tell me more about how they searched?”
“How else? They wandered around with metal detectors, sometimes digging pits in the ground, and worse, they didn’t fill them back in. One of my neighbor’s sheep broke its leg in one of those pits.”
Talking about those who had recklessly dug pits made Sergei quite angry. After all, those indiscriminate diggers had severely impacted the lives of the locals.
However, this also indicated that those illegal diggers hadn’t found anything significant, or they would have revealed such information.
Indeed, while illegal excavation can sometimes remain hidden, it’s nearly impossible to keep it secret for decades in a densely populated area. So, the fact that there’s been no news suggests that nothing major was discovered there.
After all, hiding a relic site requires a lot of time, effort, and money. If the goal was profit, the excavation would be reasonable, but burying the items again after excavation would make no sense.
So, this was good news, indicating that if there was an important site nearby, it was still undiscovered, rather than being an already looted ruin.
“Then let’s head out immediately,” Liang En said excitedly to Sergei after confirming that their target was still intact. “You just need to take us to the site, and we’ll handle the rest.”
Thank you for reading this far! You can access more chapters from HERE by joining my Patreon community. You'll gain exclusive early access to the COMPLETE NOVEL.
As a member of my Patreon community, here is what you'll get:
- Early access to the COMPLETE NOVEL.
- You also get access to all the novels I'm translating, you can find them here HERE.
- You Get Ad-free Chapters.
- Plus, you can Cancel your membership at any time.
