Chapter 603: Just Wash Up and Go to Sleep

"General Manager Lin, what do you want to say?"

"What I want to say is, those two passages General Manager Feng just read!" Lin Sicheng pointed at the photo, "Here, and here!"

Feng Laien glanced over subconsciously.

At first, he didn't pay any attention, thinking Lin Sicheng was out of options and was deliberately running circles around him.

But when Lin Sicheng's finger pointed to two specific characters, Feng Laien's pupils suddenly shrank.

One was the character "Yuan," the other was the character "Hui."

Under the "Yuan" character, there was no vertical hook; inside the "Mu" component of the "Hui" character, the bottom-most dot was missing.

If it were before, he might have had to think about what these two characters meant. But a minute ago, Lin Sicheng had forced him to read Zhu Zi's name: Zhu Zi is Zhu Xi, courtesy name Yuanhui, pseudonym Huian.

Yuanhui—Yuanhui?

Feng Laien lunged forward, staring fixedly at the photo.

This was one of the five photos not entered into the catalog; it did not capture the entire manuscript, but only a section. That is, it only captured the part with the small handwritten annotations.

There were not many characters, so it was very clear: in total, there were four sentences, the character "Yuan" appeared six times, and the character "Hui" appeared four times. But no matter which instance: the "Yuan" character lacked the vertical hook at the bottom, and the "Mu" component of the "Hui" character lacked the bottom-most dot.

If it only appeared once, it could still be called a coincidence, such as ink skipping during printing, or perhaps the ink fading due to the passage of time.

But all ten times were like this; there could be no accident: these two characters were deliberately missing strokes because of naming taboos.

Staring at those two characters, Feng Laien looked back and forth seven or eight times, then blankly raised his head, staring straight at Lin Sicheng.

The expression on his face was as if he had seen a ghost.

No matter how much of a layman he was, no matter how little he understood, he at least knew what these two characters being subject to naming taboos meant: no ancient person would avoid their own name, so these annotations were definitely not written by Zhu Xi—

Everyone could see the change in Feng Laien's expression, including Lin Yi, Lang Qingxiang, and Jin Yuzhen.

A second ago, Feng Laien was still mocking Lin Sicheng, but the next second, his complexion changed abruptly, his face full of disbelief.

Lin Yi looked suspicious, leaning her body forward: "General Manager Feng?"

Feng Laien acted as if he hadn't heard, as if he had frozen.

Lin Sicheng shook his head: "General Manager Feng, I have a suggestion: you had better call a professional Lawyer over, at least one who understands Cultural Relics! Otherwise, you will only make the verification messier—"

Feng Laien woke up as if from a dream: "Legal—Legal department?"

The legal counsel was also there, just a bit further away. She hurriedly stood up and walked to Feng Laien's side.

Feng Laien pointed at the photo, gritting his teeth: "There are taboo characters in the manuscript, why didn't you discover them?"

The legal counsel looked bewildered.

Lang Qingxiang and Jin Yuzhen were even more bewildered; the two of them also stood up and stood behind Feng Laien.

The Police did not stop them, because they could see that the outcome was about to be revealed—

Five heads gathered in a circle, staring at the photo.

Feng Laien pointed to them one character at a time:

First passage: The Master says: The original mind is bright, but desires obscure it—one "Yuan" character, one "Hui" character.

Second passage: The Qian-Yuan, the beginning and the prosperous. Yuan, means great—two "Yuan" characters.

Third passage: This passage is only because of the Yuan and Hui characters, so the Master explains it—one "Yuan" character, one "Hui" character.

All of them had missing strokes, all of them were taboo characters.

In an instant, Lang Qingxiang's face turned as white as paper.

His wife's did too.

The legal counsel stammered, not knowing how to defend herself.

She had indeed been negligent, but was she the only one who had been negligent?

The original appraisers, the Appraiser, the senior manager who filed it for auction in the middle stage, and finally General Manager Feng who was responsible for the review, who had seen it?

Looking at the expressions of General Manager Lang and his wife, they were even more surprised than them. This showed that even the owner of the original manuscript hadn't discovered this issue.

Once revealed, such a large loophole, how could no one have discovered it? They couldn't all be blind, could they?

However, one had to consider the actual situation: in these nine pages of manuscript, whether it was the original text or the annotations, characters with missing strokes appeared from time to time. I wouldn't dare say what percentage, but for every hundred characters, at least six or seven were missing strokes.

And many were characters with very high daily usage frequency: the "Wang" inside the "Kuang" character lacked the bottom horizontal stroke, the "Yin" character lacked the bottom vertical hook, the "Xiu" character lacked the diagonal stroke, the "Zheng" character lacked a vertical stroke.

The "Shu" character had a "Kou" at the bottom, the "Xu" character had a "Kou" on the right, the "Kou" in the "Ji" character wasn't sealed at the bottom, the "Shen" character only had one leg, the "Yun" character lacked a lift stroke, the "Xun" character lacked a fold, the "Rui" character lacked a hook.

Such things, at least twenty per page, nearly two hundred missing-stroke characters across nine pages, who would notice two of them?

Why were there so many?

Because there were already many taboo characters in the Song Dynasty: the nine emperors of the Northern Song Dynasty plus the nine emperors of the Southern Song Dynasty, eighteen emperors in total, meant there were over four hundred characters subject to direct or indirect taboos.

And how many Chinese characters were in normal use?

If you ask what is an indirect taboo?

Gaozong was named Zhao Gou, so the character "Gou" was a direct taboo. Characters that were homophones or written similarly to "Gou" were indirect taboos. For example, Gou (purchase), Gou (ditch), Gou (hook), Gou (hook), Gou (dog), Gou (medlar), Gou (dirt), Gou (enough), Hou (meet), Gou (hook), Ju (sentence)—

These were just the common ones; there were even more uncommon ones. In the Southern Song Dynasty, for just the character "Gou" alone, one had to avoid over sixty characters.

Come, want to try?

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang setting the generations and character sequences for his descendants in advance has been praised by later generations for seven hundred years—

As if a mute button had been pressed, there was not a sound in the conference room.

Feng Laien stared at the photo, the corners of his eyes stretched into two brackets. His eye sockets expanded uncontrollably, and a terrified light flickered in his pupils.

Lang Qingxiang's legs were taut, his body leaning forward forcefully, his brows tightly knitted into a ball, several blue veins bulging on his forehead.

Jin Yuzhen grabbed the man's arm with both hands, her painted nails seemingly wanting to pierce through the clothes and dig into his flesh.

Only Lin Yi, in her confusion, carried suspicion, and also revealed a few traces of nervousness.

Although she didn't know what had happened, she could see: how ugly the expressions of the three involved parties were.

Lin Yi tugged on the legal counsel's sleeve, signaling with her eyes. The legal counsel explained it once using the briefest words possible, but ones sufficient for Lin Yi to understand.

As Lin Yi listened, she thought: Could it be a coincidence?

After all, there were so many characters in the Song Dynasty that required avoidance of naming taboos; could it be that two of them just happened to clash with Zhu Xi's name?

But as soon as the thought emerged, it was dismissed by Lin Yi.

It was true that she was from Hong Kong and had not studied deep historical knowledge, but she at least knew: what the consequences were for having the same name as the Emperor.

Either change it, or die. It was impossible for a situation to arise where Zhu Xi needed to avoid naming taboos when writing his own name.

Therefore, there was only one possibility: these annotations were not written by Zhu Xi, but by his descendants or students.

After figuring this out, almost in an instant, Lin Yi cleared up her thoughts: this manuscript was fake, or at the very least, it was certainly not Zhu Zi's Authentic Handwriting.

But she could not figure out: even if the manuscript was a counterfeit, it shouldn't be as if the sky were falling.

Just consider this: which auction house had not experienced such things?

If she were to tell the truth: more than half of art auctions—oh no, the vast majority of auctions had similar situations: passing off inferior goods as superior, or even passing off fakes as genuine.

Every year, there were so many people who reneged on bids due to the authenticity or quality of auction items, but how many bidders actually won their lawsuits in the end?

Including before they prepared to sue Zhou Zhilin and Li Chengkai, they had specifically discussed: if the manuscript had this or that problem, such as the material, the era, or even the author, would it cause the Judge to be biased toward the defendants (Zhou Zhilin and Li Chengkai)?

Everyone unanimously agreed that it would not, because there was a disclaimer.

Existence is reasonable; as long as the auction house clearly stated it, they could avoid more than eighty percent of the liability.

Besides that, after the auction ended, the auction company and the bidder signed another Agreement, most of which were supplementary clauses to the disclaimer.

With the statement and the Agreement, they could almost avoid over ninety percent of the auction house's liability.

To put it bluntly: unless the item was obviously fake at a glance, to the extent that even a layman could see the problem, the auction house did not need to bear any legal responsibility.

On the contrary, they could demand that the bidder continue to fulfill the Contract and compensate for losses.

So Lin Yi did not understand at all, what were they worried about?

Even if these nine pages were not the Zhu Zi Manuscript, they were at least Cultural Relics, completely within the scope covered by the "Disclaimer"—

In a flash, Lin Yi stood up. She felt that she at least had to ask clearly: why these three were so nervous.

Organizing her wording, Lin Yi took a step forward, inadvertently meeting Tan Zheng's gaze.

It was complicated and subtle, but Lin Yi could read it: ridicule, mockery, and even a hint of pity.

She could understand the first two, but what did this trace of pity mean?

Lin Yi narrowed her eyes: "Lawyer Tan, what do you want to say?"

"Nothing, I just want to give Lawyer Lin two pieces of advice. First: next time you take such a case, it is best to do your homework first!"

"Second: you may not understand Cultural Relics, but at least you must understand the law: if you want to argue a case, don't you have to grasp the main point first?"

Tan Zheng smiled: "Lawyer Lin, if you haven't thought it through yet, first recall the questions Teacher Lin asked General Manager Feng, and then, recall the relevant legal articles—"

Lin Yi's face was flushed with anger again: I graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science; do I need you to teach me?

That's right, the manuscript did have some problems, but the scope of the disclaimer Agreement was so large that it could completely cover it.

Just as Lin Yi was about to retort, she suddenly froze: No—isn't this woman trying to provoke me?

She forced herself to calm down, recalling in her mind the process of Lin Sicheng questioning Feng Laien.

Lin Sicheng asked three questions:

General Manager Feng, does Bonhams bear any guarantee liability for the authenticity and quality of the auction items?

Feng Laien said they do not bear it!

Lin Sicheng asked again: General Manager Feng, does the auction company bear any guarantee liability for the defects of the auction items?

Feng Laien still said they do not bear it.

Lin Sicheng asked again: Can Bonhams bear the necessary disclosure obligation for the key defects and major defects of the auction items, and guarantee that they will truthfully disclose known defects?

This time Feng Laien hesitated, because there was no such clause in the disclaimer. It was she who reminded him: this is a mandatory clause; even if the auction house declares a disclaimer, the court will deem it invalid.

The first two were of course no problem; the problem was the third question: major defects.

Just consider this: if the manuscript had significant, clear evidence that the annotations were not in Zhu Xi's handwriting, would that count as a major defect?

Thinking of this, Lin Yi's face turned pale bit by bit.

She indeed did not understand Cultural Relics, but she was a Lawyer, and a top Lawyer at a well-known large firm.

She had basic judgment, and even more so, legal cognition: major defects refer to obvious flaws that can be determined as fakes with the naked eye and basic tools.

Key defects refer to obvious flaws sufficient to overturn the transaction price, collection value, circulation attributes, and legal holding qualifications of the collection.

Including imitation marks, later additions, ghostwriting, fake seals, fake signatures, etc.

There were two key points: determinable by the naked eye, and obvious flaws that can be clearly determined as fakes.

In the nine pages of the manuscript, there were a full ten places where it could be determined that the characters "Yuan" and "Hui" had obvious missing strokes; did this count as determinable by the naked eye?

Any collector—no, anyone who knows a little history knows that no matter how strict the Song Dynasty's naming taboo system was, and no matter how many characters needed to be avoided, it was never so strict that one had to omit strokes even when writing one's own name.

A full ten places where "Yuan" and "Hui" had missing strokes; did this count as an obvious defect?

Without any controversy, this was a major defect, and a key defect at that.

Lin Yi finally knew why the faces of Feng Laien and Lang Qingxiang were so ugly.

Since it could be clearly determined that the annotations were not in Zhu Xi's handwriting, what reason did you have to auction this manuscript as a relic of Zhu Xi?

This was no longer a question of whether there were defects or not; this was self-contradictory.

But if it was auctioned, and even without any disclosure or warning, how should that be counted?

The "Auction Law" and the "Measures for the Administration of Artworks" clearly stipulate: if an auction company or sales unit knows of major defects, should have known but concealed them, and did not clearly disclose them, the overall "no guarantee of authenticity" standard clause is directly invalid.

At this point, it could basically be determined that the auction Contract was invalid, and the auction house must return all funds and commissions to the bidder, and compensate for certain losses: such as appraisal fees, travel expenses, litigation costs, and Lawyer fees.

But the problem was, Bonhams and the consignor had done more than just that.

They discovered that the paper of the two versions of the manuscript had color differences, and fearing it would affect the auction, they acted cleverly: they only displayed the four older, more aged ones in the promotional materials. The five that were slightly newer and slightly brighter were not displayed at all.

And just so, the ten places where "Yuan" and "Hui" had missing strokes were in those five pages.

What is this supposed to be?

It is clearly deliberate concealment plus false advertising.

Article 148 of the Auction Law: If an auction house knowingly conceals major defects and uses false advertising to cause a buyer to fall into a mistaken perception and bid at a high price, it constitutes sales fraud.

The Contract is voided, the auction payment must be refunded, and compensation must be paid in accordance with relevant laws—if based on the Consumer Protection Law, it is at least triple damages for a fake item.

What, you say you did not know? Article 61 should apply: If the auctioneer is unaware, it can be considered as having no major negligence.

If you were unaware, why did you only display the four sheets without the "Yuanhui" in the promotional materials?

Even if Feng Laien grew a mouth all over his body, he would not be able to explain it clearly; this lawsuit is even less likely to be won—