Chapter 314: They... have really returned!

At the same time, the live stream chat was in an uproar!

All sorts of comments flooded the screen in an instant, crackling and popping!

【Holy crap, did they really disappear?!】

【Can someone tell me how this was done?!】

【Are you still going to say this isn't magic?】

【If this is a magic trick, I'll eat it!】

【Good heavens, I, for one, am calling it good heavens!】

【This is unbelievable! Amazing!】

【Have all these cultural relics returned to the country?】

【What a magical trick!】

Beijing, Forbidden City, early morning.

Security guard Li Jianguo had just brewed a cup of strong tea, preparing to face the silence of the late night.

As usual, he scanned the large surveillance screen; Taihe Gate Square was empty, with only the stone bricks gleaming coldly under the moonlight.

Suddenly, at the edge of the screen, the air on the bluestone imperial path in front of Taihe Gate seemed to distort.

Immediately after, a blurry outline appeared out of thin air and rapidly solidified—it was the Yixian Sancai Arhat Statue he had seen countless times in catalogs!

Life-sized, with a serene glaze, it "sat" there abruptly and steadily on the centuries-old bluestone slabs.

Li Jianguo froze abruptly; the mouthful of hot tea he held in his mouth was forgotten, and it flowed down the corner of his lips.

Thinking he was hallucinating from staying up late, he rubbed his eyes hard.

At that very moment, a strange phenomenon occurred on the screen.

As if an invisible hand had opened the door to another dimension, one object after another "emerged" onto the square, accompanied by a faint, almost inaudible humming sound, with elegance and precision.

The famous Kanghou Gui, bearing the heavy green rust of bronze, landed steadily with a soft "thud"!

Several primitive-looking scrolls, including the legendary Tang Dynasty Admonitions of the Court Instructress, drifted down gently beside the Gui as if supported by a breeze!

The smooth, glazed surface of the Xing Kiln White Glazed Bottle reflected the moonlight like a lost pearl!

The Dunhuang Guiding Bodhisattva Silk Painting stretched out and hovered for a moment before slowly covering the scrolls;

The Hongshan Culture Jade Pig Dragon, the Shang-Zhou Bronze Gong, the Dragon Pattern Glazed Tile...

Countless national treasures whose names he had only heard but never seen emerged from the void as if obeying a silent command, filling the open square in an orderly fashion!

They were displayed there quietly, bearing the labels of foreign museums and the dust of having crossed the oceans, yet they formed a scene that was both absurd and incredibly harmonious with the vermilion palace walls and golden glazed tile roofs behind them!

"Clang!" The enamel mug in Li Jianguo's hand fell to the ground, splashing tea everywhere.

He was completely oblivious, only opening his mouth wide, his throat emitting a wheezing sound; he felt as if he were nailed to his chair, his blood seemed to freeze instantly, and a chill rushed from the soles of his feet to the top of his head!

What is going on?

After a few seconds of deathly silence, he practically lunged at the console, rubbing his eyes while staring straight at the artifacts that had "fallen from the sky" on the screen!

After confirming it several times, he dared not delay, hurriedly getting up and leaving the surveillance room, covering the distance to the square in two or three steps!

As it turned out, he wouldn't have known if he hadn't looked, but one look gave him a fright!

The square, which had been empty, was now piled with all sorts of unheard-of cultural relics!

The Admonitions of the Court Instructress, hailed as the "treasure of the opening scroll" in the history of Chinese painting.

The Yixian Sancai Arhat Statue, of which only 10 exist in the world!

The Kanghou Gui, the Dragon Pattern Glazed Tile, the Xing Kiln White Porcelain, the Hongshan Jade Pig Dragon.

The Double Ram Zun, the Owl Pattern Gong, the Han Dynasty Jade Bi, the Tang Dynasty Stone Bodhisattva Statue,

The Northern Qi Limestone Buddha Head, the Sui Dynasty Amitabha Seated Statue!

As a staff member of the Forbidden City, Li Jianguo naturally knew the origins of these relics; after just a rough glance, he realized the gravity of the situation!

"My God, what on earth is going on?!"

In his shock, he finally came to his senses, returned to the surveillance room at once, and then grabbed the internal phone with trembling hands; his fingers pressed the wrong number twice before he finally got through to the home of Vice Director Zhao Zhenhua!

"D-Director Zhao!!"

As soon as the call connected, his voice turned shrill and distorted: "Taihe Gate! In front of Taihe Gate..."

"Xiao Li?" Zhao Zhenhua, who was at home, recognized Li Jianguo's voice.

"D-Director Zhao..."

"Xiao Li, what's wrong? Tell me slowly."

Judging by his tone, Zhao Zhenhua seemed to realize something, and he spoke into the receiver in a deep voice.

"Director Zhao, Taihe Gate, Taihe Gate, it's—it's haunted!! You have to come and see!! Those cultural relics... they've all, all come back!!"

"What cultural relics? Speak clearly?"

"The ones in the British Museum! They've all come back, and they're lying right here in Taihe Gate Square!"

"British Museum?"

Zhao Zhenhua was completely bewildered by what he said, and after a moment of thought, he said, "Wait for me at the museum, I'm coming over right now!"

After hanging up the phone, Zhao Zhenhua's wife turned over and asked sleepily, "What's wrong, Old Zhao?"

Zhao Zhenhua replied while putting on his clothes, "Something might have happened at the museum, I have to go over there, you go back to sleep..."

Half an hour later, Yanjing Forbidden City!

Vice Director Zhao Zhenhua's car crashed through the night, coming to a screeching halt in front of Shenwu Gate.

He pushed open the car door, not even having put his coat on properly, and rushed toward Taihe Gate Square under the incoherent guidance of Li Jianguo.

When he rounded the last palace wall and saw the scene before him, this old scholar, who had dealt with cultural relics his whole life and was deeply learned, felt as if he had been struck by a bolt of lightning and stopped in his tracks immediately!

His body swayed involuntarily twice.

To keep from falling, he subconsciously grabbed the white marble railing beside him to steady himself.

Before his eyes was no longer an empty square, but a dreamlike, open-air treasure vault that condensed five thousand years of Chinese civilization!

The cold moonlight happened to spill onto the compassionate face of the 【Three-Color Arhat Statue】, onto the solemn patterns of the 【Kang Hou Gui】, and also illuminated the beginning of the *Admonitions of the Court Instructress* as it slowly unfurled...

Zhao Zhenhua's lips trembled violently; he wanted to say something, but did not know what to say!

He walked forward step by step, his footsteps as unsteady as if he were treading on clouds.

Circling past the white porcelain of the Xing Kiln and avoiding the silk paintings of Dunhuang, Zhao Zhenhua's gaze locked firmly onto that Kang Hou Gui.

He slowly, extremely slowly, crouched down and reached out his right hand, but stopped a few centimeters away from the body of the vessel, his fingertips trembling violently and uncontrollably.

He was somewhat afraid to touch it, fearing that this was merely a dream that would shatter at a single touch.

He looked around at the dazzling array of treasures.

The next second, his gaze shifted from the vessel and landed on that scroll of the *Admonitions of the Court Instructress*.

On the painting, the figures from the brush of Gu Kaizhi had fluttering robes, as if they were smiling toward the palaces of their homeland.

At this moment, two lines of hot tears rolled down Zhao Zhenhua's wrinkled face without warning.

He no longer tried to control himself, letting the sobs break through his throat.

"They have really come back..."

He muttered to himself, his voice hoarse but carrying an indescribable sense of piety and ecstasy, "They have really... come home..."

Li Jianguo stood behind him, looking at the old dean's trembling back and the miraculous scene before his eyes, and finally could not help but raise his hand to wipe away the tears that had welled up in his eyes.

The moonlight grew brighter, shining upon the Forbidden City, and shining upon these wanderers who had drifted for a hundred years and finally returned home!