Chapter 60: Do You Want It?

They were taking the county road, where there were many large vehicles, so Wang Qi Zhi and Lin Sicheng took turns driving.

Ye Anning sat in the back row; as soon as she got in the car, she started eating steamed buns, and after finishing the buns, she ate snacks, handing a bit to Lin Sicheng from time to time.

She didn't speak either, quiet, peaceful, and elegant.

After eating, she started to sleep... she slept for three hours straight, until they arrived at Qishan.

Upon reaching the county seat, the two got out of the car, and Wang Qi Zhi opened the back door: "Eat and sleep, sleep and eat, just like a pig!"

Ye Anning kept her eyes closed, muttering: "Little Uncle, I can hear you."

Nonsense, if you couldn't hear that, you might as well just die.

Wang Qi Zhi grabbed her by the ear and pulled her awake: "We still have to pick someone up, make room for Lin Sicheng!"

"Oh, oh~" Ye Anning hurriedly sat up straight and smiled sheepishly.

Lin Sicheng sat in the back seat, and after driving for a few more minutes, they stopped under a building.

Subsequently, a middle-aged man came up, and Wang Qi Zhi introduced him: the man's surname was Du, the Museum Curator of the county museum, who had once held a post at the Baoji Bronze Institute.

The chicken-fat yellow 【porcelain】 they were going to see today was introduced by him.

After getting in the car, Museum Curator Du pointed the way, and after about ten minutes, they arrived at a place called Zhou Village.

Just after getting out of the car, Ye Anning pointed into the distance: "Little Uncle, what is that for?"

A mountain ridge was entirely enclosed with netting, and many excavators and loaders were parked below. One could vaguely see dense crowds of people on the ridge.

It seemed there were even Police?

Wang Qi Zhi was whispering with Museum Curator Du, looking quite impatient: "I don't have time, ask Lin Sicheng!"

Ye Anning rolled her eyes and made a face at Wang Qi Zhi's back.

Lin Sicheng smiled: "It's the Zhougong Temple!"

Ye Anning was startled: "The tomb of the Duke of Zhou?"

"No, it's just the fief of the Duke of Zhou, so many descendants are buried here. There are also tombs of other nobles from the late Shang and early Zhou dynasties... more than fifty in size, it is the largest Zhou Dynasty tomb complex discovered to date!"

And the span is long enough: from the late Shang to the early Eastern Zhou, nearly five hundred years.

There are also enough Cultural Relics; the most influential are the more than 15,000 pieces of Oracle Bone Script from the late Shang to the early Eastern Zhou, among which more than 2,600 characters can be identified.

How many are there in the entire Chinese character system?

So it is very important, as it happens to play a connecting role. It can be said: without these oracle bones from the Zhougong Temple, ancient script Experts would have needed at least a dozen more years of translation to fully understand the Shang Dynasty Oracle Bone Script.

The key is the impact on history: nearly half of the content was not recorded in the Records of the Grand Historian.

Secondly, more than a hundred pieces of yellow-glazed porcelain were unearthed. This means that the origin of porcelain firing in China dates back at least to the Zhou... this is ironclad proof.

Next, it was the turn of more than two thousand pieces of Bronze, thousands of pieces of Jade, and countless grey Pottery... it is called the greatest archaeological discovery to date, on par with Yinxu.

Ye Anning listened with great interest, and Museum Curator Du, who was walking in front, suddenly turned his head back, his face full of surprise: "How do you know?"

"Read it in the newspaper!" Lin Sicheng thought for a moment, "Starting from last year, China News Service has reported on it almost every quarter!"

"China News Service... that's an external media outlet?"

"There are internal ones too: the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' *Archaeology*, the Provincial Archaeology Research Institute's *Archaeology and Cultural Relics*, and Peking University's internal journals have all reported on it, though with a slight delay!"

Museum Curator Du was stunned for a moment, not knowing what to say.

The Zhougong Temple site was organized by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and jointly hosted by the Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology and Peking University; whenever there was a new discovery, these three units would certainly report it.

The problem is, who would read every single issue without fail?

He was even a member of the local support group for the Archaeology Team, yet he didn't know as much as this young man?

In his astonishment, Du Hai looked at Wang Qi Zhi, and the latter returned a reserved smile: stay calm, don't be agitated.

Ye Anning was truly a bit impressed: how much free time must one have to read so many idle books?

Is that why he fails every subject?

But they weren't very familiar yet, so it wasn't appropriate to be too presumptuous, otherwise she definitely would have asked... really, she was too curious!

The road was paved with yellow earth and filled with gravel, hard and flat. Walking along the street entrance, they arrived in front of a house.

A tiled house with a gabled roof, red brick courtyard walls, and the iron gate was tightly shut; they shouted for a long time but no one opened it.

An old woman sat on a small stool, squinting, leaning against the doorpost to bask in the sun. Her hair and eyebrows were all white, her figure hunched, and she was leaning on a cane; she was at least eighty years old.

"The old lady is the seller's mother, she's a bit hard of hearing, you don't need to mind her!"

Museum Curator Du said this and went to the side to call the buyer, while Lin Sicheng watched the old woman, his eyes narrowed slightly.

There was grime on her hands, and spots on her face and neck; at first glance, one might think it was just poor hygiene and age spots on an elderly person.

But Lin Sicheng knew at a glance that the grime was rust and the spots were mineral deposits, all seeped into the skin... how many times had she been down into a pit?

The key was, she was an old lady?

Subconsciously, Lin Sicheng turned his head and looked at the mountain ridge in the distance.

Then he turned back and looked at the old woman's hands: since the seller was her son, could it be that he inherited his mother's profession?

Then, would the items they were going to see today be Raw Pit Goods?

Just as he was about to warn Wang Qi Zhi, the old lady opened her eyes.

Her gaze swept back and forth, fixing on Lin Sicheng's face, and she grinned, revealing bare gums:

"Child, you're quite sharp, how old are you?"

Lin Sicheng was taken aback: "Twenty!"

"Are you into the 'paste' business?"

Lin Sicheng's eyelids twitched: has this old lady become a spirit?

This was jargon, and Guanzhong jargon at that: 'flipping' means to flip, 'paste' refers to splicing and Artifact Restoration; put together: flipping antiques and restoring them. It just so happened that Lin Sicheng was involved in both.

He hurriedly smiled: "Your eye is sharp!"

"I'm not what I used to be!" The old lady stood up with a smile and handed the cane to Lin Sicheng, "Hold this for me, I'll open the door for you!"

As she spoke, she pulled out a ring of keys, muttering to herself:

"Child, don't be afraid. My boy doesn't do Grave-robbing, he's just a middleman. All his goods are perfectly legitimate. Come here whenever you have time; I guarantee you'll find a treasure every single time..."

Good heavens: he had only stared at her for a few moments, yet this old lady had already guessed what he was worried about?

He had encountered an expert...

Lin Sicheng squeezed out a smile: "Alright!"

It was a string of underworld jargon, spoken in a local dialect, and Ye Anning didn't understand a single word. Wang Qi Zhi only understood about half, but put together, it still amounted to not understanding at all.

The two of them blinked their eyes, looking at Lin Sicheng, then looking at the old lady: wasn't the old lady hard of hearing? How was she chatting so well with Lin Sicheng?

Just then, Du Hai finished his phone call, his face full of disappointment: "He said his old mother didn't agree, and told us to come another day... Huh?"

Wasn't it his old mother blocking the door and refusing to let them in? How had she opened it?

The old lady picked up her stool and stepped over the threshold: "Come in!"

Lin Sicheng nodded and returned the walking stick, but just as he handed it forward, he froze subconsciously.

It was ordinary old elm wood, smooth and shiny. The tip of the stick was wrapped with a piece of tire rubber held by wire, but the head of the stick was inlaid with a piece of ancient jade.

There were no decorative patterns, the fish-shaped body was covered in mineral stains, and the jade quality had already turned dark.

The key was the shape: nine times out of ten, this was a jade sword pommel from the Shang Dynasty.

The old lady glanced at Lin Sicheng and took it into her hand with a smile: "Child, do you want it?"

Lin Sicheng's eyelids twitched violently, and he hurriedly shook his head twice.