Chapter 38

·

·

·

Protagonist:

Chen Yi

Every day, on Earth with its six billion people, all sorts of storms rage. For people, only storms that directly concern them can bring real shock.

Just like now, although the gentlemen from the Vatican are busy to death, the instigators, two German professors, and Chen Yi, who was just making up the numbers, sat in the museum's living room drinking tea.

Professor Lang sat beside him, acting as translator while freely drinking the fine Biluochun tea sent by the museum, praising in English: "Same doctor (PhD), Chinese PhDs can only drink tea, German PhDs can drink good tea, so unfair."

After saying that, he winked at the two Germans: "If it weren't for you two, I wouldn't be able to drink such good tea."

Chen Yi laughed when he heard it. Professor Lang's fat hand pinching a small two-liang teacup was truly amusing, and his humorous personality made him full of elements that made people happy.

Karl replied in English: "If we stay in Jiangning for a month, I'm afraid we wouldn't have such good tea."

He knew Chen Yi could understand simple English.

"Guests always get the best treatment," Professor Lang said, finishing the tea in his cup in one gulp, then pouring more: "Jiangning Museum, besides dinosaur fossils, is most famous for its tea."

Everyone laughed.

After finishing the whole pot of tea, Professor Lang patted his straight belly and said: "It's time to set off. Lu Zai Yuan must be waiting impatiently. Actually, appraising artworks should be left to appraisers. Finding an appraiser and still not being at ease—this is just being an official. Sorry for troubling the three of you."

"Being careful is appropriate, especially after what happened the day before yesterday," Andre said sympathetically in English: "The Vatican sent gifts, and no one dares to accept them. Truly sad."

"Indeed sad," Professor Lang laughed heartily. They were precisely going to appraise some artworks the Vatican had gifted to the Chinese government. Although they were free, for the museum side, signing meant risk. If they were later found to be counterfeits, it would be more than just embarrassing.

Therefore, upon hearing that even the famous Samothrace Column was suspected of being a thousand-year-old forgery, the originally happy museum Hall Master Lu Zai Yuan couldn't sit still. He begged and pleaded with Professor Lang to help appraise. It was a good idea—there weren't many domestic experts who could speak on this, and Professor Lang was one of the more prestigious ones. So as long as he said they were genuine, ordinary experts wouldn't dare to challenge it.

As for Chen Yi, he was a high-level coolie brought by Professor Lang. Unlike pure low-level coolies, he was qualified to drink tea and chat with the three professors. Although he couldn't insert many words in English, he was much more comfortable than Lu Fan and the other miscellaneous graduate students.

Hall Master Lu Zai Yuan was indeed waiting anxiously in the Side Hall outside, pacing in front of a group of graduate students without caring about his image, like a dog that hadn't been out for two days.

Professor Lang greeted him in a seniority-pulling manner. Lu Zai Yuan, needing help, kept his posture very low, smiling as he pulled over two people behind the sofa and introduced: "Several professors, this is Mr. Duan Rong, our Jiangning's first-class Appraiser. This is Cui Ju, our Jiangning Museum's Researcher."

Chen Yi hid behind the three heavyweight professors, basically counting as one of the "several professors." Looking at the others' humble appearance, he felt surreal—when did he become qualified to appraise historical relics and artworks alongside world-famous professors? Not to mention the vastly different ages, even their knowledge levels were worlds apart.

However, this feeling was very good.

Cui Ju and Duan Rong were humble and even restrained because they were awed by Professor Lang and the others' knowledge level and academic status. This low posture was completely different from the gentlemen under his father.

Chen Yi followed the three into the museum.

Behind the heavy steel door, many neatly arranged cultural relics could be seen, mostly sculptures and stele inscriptions, totaling around 500. As for colorful paintings, there were only a few dozen. Logically, the total number of artifacts gifted by the Vatican was already one of the larger overseas gifts in recent years, but in terms of total value, it wasn't very high—around ten million dollars.

Hall Master Lu wrinkled his face and said: "For these two days, I'll trouble you all."

The others already knew. Professor Lang turned to Chen Yi: "You seem to be taking the College Entrance Examination soon. These two days, if you want to look, look; if you want to do something else, that's fine too. Don't be restrained."

Chen Yi smiled and nodded: "It's fine. This is also a rare opportunity."

But his gaze wasn't on the Vatican's artifacts; instead, he looked toward the Storage Room in the distance. It was piled with prehistoric fossils of all sizes—Jiangning Museum was famous for this. The quantity used for exhibitions alone claimed first place in the country, and there were even more stored in the Vault.

From his direction, besides dinosaur skeletons of all sizes, there were complete fish, bird, and plant fossils. Some special prehistoric creatures, like trilobites and other "name stones," were placed in inlaid boxes on stainless steel shelves. If needed, through a mechanical transmission device, they could automatically replace other fossils on display. The same technology was used in museums like the Smithsonian in the United States, and it wasn't cheap.

Larger items, or collections with less exhibition value, were mostly sorted and piled under oilcloths. Except for a few lucky ones, they hadn't seen sunlight since being unearthed.

The others were already busy. Chen Yi looked at the cool, comfortable Storage Room, which was a thousand meters long and wide, and couldn't help but ask: "Do you have Archaeopteryx fossils?"

"Archaeopteryx?" Researcher Cui Ju almost laughed. Although he mainly studied Renaissance artworks, his knowledge of fossils wasn't small at Jiangning Museum. Considering Chen Yi was young, he kindly explained: "Only 10 Archaeopteryx fossils have been found in total, most in Germany. They're considered national treasures there. We can hardly see them."

He puckered his lips at the two foreigners: "They have the Archaeological Holy Land Solnhofen. Professor Lang should have been there several times. Archaeopteryx fossils were basically all unearthed there."

"Those two are indeed from the Solnhofen Research Institute; they met there before," Professor Lang nodded with a smile, in a slow tone: "You've had little contact with archaeology. Germany's Solnhofen has unique geological conditions. The mud at the lake bottom is a natural preservative for fossils. As soon as an animal carcass enters the mud, it can be preserved quickly. They even found an Archaeopteryx feather once. Quite remarkable."

Hearing this, Chen Yi finally understood the key point. He smiled and couldn't help but ask: "Are there other similar fossils? From the same era, or of the same type?"

"If Mr. Chen is interested in fossils, after we finish, I can give you one," Hall Master Lu, walking in front, worried about wasting the professors' time, said while racing against time.

Chen Yi smiled without ceremony: "Then thank you."

Lu Zai Yuan was stunned, then laughed too.

After formally entering the appraisal procedure, Chen Yi voluntarily requested to, along with several graduate students, make preliminary judgments on various artifacts.

Since it was only a preliminary judgment, he only appraised the age. Anything whose age didn't match the records was listed separately.

This way, he actually found three non-compliant items.

The professors only thought he specialized in age, so they didn't mind. Although real appraisers are required to have deep attainments in an artifact's style, background, age, material, etc., in actual operation, except for a few top experts who can meet this requirement, most people specialize in one item and have general knowledge of others.

Chen Yi could use his strengths and leave what he wasn't good at to others, which actually earned the experts' praise. Especially since his accuracy rate was extremely high. After just half a day, others rarely asked about age issues anymore.

Lu Fan looked at him admiringly and asked for the fifth time: "How did you judge it?"

Chen Yi casually tossed aside a Dark Ages noble wine vessel and answered for the fifth time: "The key is feeling. Actually, I can't explain it."

Lu Fan seemed to gain something, nodded excitedly, and then carefully helped Chen Yi clean the artifact beside him with a brush. He began operating instruments like other graduate students. But soon, he naturally became Chen Yi's scraps and continued asking questions he couldn't get answers to.

Of course, no matter what Chen Yi answered, he could actively think and brain-supplement to perfect it.

This was the kind of child teachers liked most.

…