Chapter 79: Too Useful

In the blink of an eye, a disaster had fallen from the sky, but in the time it took to turn around, the great disaster had transformed into a monumental merit, smashing right onto his head?

Guan Xingmin's face was flushed, his heart thumping wildly.

"Can you determine the approximate identity of the person buried with these items!"

"Of course!" Lin Sicheng nodded, "No more than ten people!"

"What about the excavation range?"

"The range is even smaller: Qing Dongling plus Qing Xiling, then the Jingjiao, and at most add Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang... whoever's tomb wasn't looted before the founding of the nation, that's who it is..."

"Enough!"

Guan Xingmin clapped his hands in excitement, "I'm going to report to the leaders!"

He reported it as soon as he thought of it, pulling out his phone to make the call. But just like a donkey turning a millstone, he paced in circles around the forensics room while he spoke.

Section Chief Shen's face was flushed; the beautiful police officer stared at Lin Sicheng, stars in her eyes.

It was clear just how excited she was.

Actually, it was quite normal: it was a disaster looming, but suddenly it turned into a blessing—who wouldn't be excited?

What wasn't normal was the content of Guan Xingmin's report to the leaders; as he spoke, the tone changed: Don't worry, leader, I will definitely keep the person here...

You aren't investigating the case, you're keeping a person?

I just want to ask, who exactly do you want to keep?

Wang Qi Zhi gave a look, Lin Sicheng understood in a second and gave a slight nod.

Once Guan Xingmin hung up the phone, Wang Qi Zhi reached out his hand: "Director Guan, what needed to be appraised has been appraised, so we will take our leave first!"

"Secretary Wang, don't be like that?" Guan Xingmin not only didn't reach out, but he even took a step back, "The bureau leaders will be here any second!"

It is precisely because the bureau leaders will be here any second that we are in such a rush to leave.

The merit is set in stone; what belongs to whom is theirs, it won't run away, right?

The key is that the leaders are too enthusiastic, and furthermore, police officers all share a common trait: they seem rough and straightforward, but are full of twists and turns. If one gets half-drunk, then gets coaxed: Little Lin, you're graduating soon, right? Look, the Municipal Bureau is quite good...

If Lin Sicheng dared to hesitate for even a moment, he could use that opportunity to brush the topic aside, and then the next day he would dare to go to the school to find the school leaders...

What Wang Qi Zhi worried about was that Lin Sicheng, at twenty years old, how could he be a match for these old foxes?

It was better to leave early...

Guan Xingmin's face was full of smiles: "Secretary Wang, I'm not lying to you, the leader gave a death order: if I can't keep the person today, I'll have to go home and rest tomorrow... please help me out!"

Keep pretending!

Keep pretending!

Just based on this bronze incense burner today, the leader wouldn't have enough time to record a merit for you...

Wang Qi Zhi didn't take the bait at all, his face all smiles: "Director Guan, there will be plenty of opportunities in the future... You don't need to call the leaders to report anymore, just say something when they arrive. Otherwise, I'll have to make a call too..."

What does this have to do with whether you make a call or not?

Guan Xingmin turned it over in his mind several times before revealing a bitter smile: public is public, private is private; I can't have you help me, and then have to keep the person here, right?

So, you had better not use underhanded tricks, otherwise I will use external ones... That was exactly what Wang Qi Zhi meant.

"I understand, Secretary Wang!" Guan Xingmin reached out his hand, glanced at Lin Sicheng, and sighed, "You helped with such a big thing, yet you didn't even get to drink a cup of tea?"

"Isn't that simple?" Wang Qi Zhi shook his hand and smiled again, "You go ahead and get busy, we'll arrange it after you finish these few days!"

"Good!" Guan Xingmin shook his hand vigorously and patted Lin Sicheng's shoulder with a hint of gratitude.

You couldn't blame him for being mushy; it was truly because Lin Sicheng had helped too much: not only did he help him escape a disaster, but he also steadily delivered a merit.

He personally saw them downstairs and into the car; even when the Jeep Grand Cherokee had driven out of the gate, he was still waving.

Just as the Jeep Grand Cherokee turned a corner, it brushed past an Audi and a Toyota SUV.

Deputy Bureau Chief Chen and the Director jumped out of the car, glaring at Guan Xingmin on the steps: "Where is the person?"

Guan Xingmin sighed: "Leader, it's not that I didn't want to keep them, but I couldn't: Secretary Wang hinted that if we dare to have designs on Lin Sicheng again, he will make a call to report our misconduct!"

"Huh?"

The Bureau Chief took off his hat, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and chuckled, "Not easy to fool, huh?"

The Director nodded along: "Coming from the big compound, their brains really turn fast!"

"No rush, we'll think of a way later." Bureau Chief Chen put on his peaked cap, "Handle the case first!"

Right, handle the case first!

The group of over a dozen people marched into the building in a flurry...

The Jeep Grand Cherokee drove out of the police station and pulled over to the side of the road. Lin Sicheng glanced at the rearview mirror and let out a breath.

"Almost got blocked in?"

"Don't worry, even if we were blocked, it wouldn't matter! If I, your teacher, can't play the bad cop, can't I play the good cop?"

Wang Qi Zhi let out a "ha" laugh, "Don't blame the leaders for having crooked ideas; it's truly because you are too useful!"

And not just ordinarily useful.

The first time with the Inverted Pot, the second time with the jade Paperweight—those two times could still be called coincidences or accidents, but this time?

From beginning to end, completely and utterly, Lin Sicheng relied on hard strength.

If it were himself, with more effort, he could certainly see that this bronze incense burner was authentic. But he certainly wouldn't have associated it with "washing goods," let alone imagined that there was something else hidden inside the furnace chamber.

Consequently, he wouldn't have discovered that "Sutra of Rebirth," let alone deduced the origin of this bronze incense burner, the excavation range, and the specific identity of the tomb owner.

Therefore, if it were Wang Qi Zhi or other Experts, they would at most appraise it to the level of "this bronze incense burner is indeed authentic."

But why make the real look fake, that is the business of the public security organs.

Xijing is the capital of the province, and the Municipal Bureau is surely full of hidden talents. Even Guan Xingmin could think that this bronze incense burner was a product of criminals washing goods.

But it stopped at "thinking," because the clues were pitifully few, with only this one Incense Burner.

Even if someone had a sudden flash of inspiration and suspected there was more to the inside of the Incense Burner, then stripped away that layer of rust and discovered that passage of the Rebirth Sutra, they would still have to search bit by bit and unravel it piece by piece:

First, they would have to invite an Expert proficient in Sanskrit and Tibetan Buddhism to translate it, and a trip to the Potala Palace or Beijing would be a certainty.

But when could they contact an Expert, and when could it be translated?

Estimating conservatively: half a year.

After it is translated, it would then have to be taken to Beijing to request that an Expert from the Forbidden City or the Cultural Relics Bureau evaluate the specific identity of the person buried with it. But it is very difficult to invite an Expert from the Forbidden City, and even harder to invite one from the Cultural Relics Bureau. Even if one could be invited, there would be a very, very long queue.

Wang Qi Zhi estimated conservatively for them again: four to six months. Back and forth, and a year would have passed; by then, the opportunity would have long since slipped away.

The Municipal Bureau could only try to find a way themselves first, to investigate the approximate era of the Incense Burner, the general area where it was unearthed, the approximate identity of the person buried with it, and the general path of its provenance... to put it plainly, they could only first investigate where it was dug up from.

But to be honest, it is no easier than looking for a Needle in a haystack.

Because no one knows whether this Incense Burner was bestowed upon someone by Kangxi or subsequent emperors. After it was bestowed, how many generations did it pass through, and were there any incidents in between, such as a family's decline, that caused this Incense Burner to end up among the common people?

During the peak of the Manchu Qing dynasty, there were four hundred million people; could you really investigate every single person's ancestral grave?

But Lin Sicheng peeled back the layers to find that scripture inside the furnace, instantly narrowing the Incense Burner's excavation site to an extremely small range: from the time of Kangxi to the fall of the Manchu Qing, how many people of high status—such as Crown Princes, Prince, or Imperial Concubine—were there in total?

Added to the carbon-14 dating interval of "220-300" years, it points directly to the three generations of the Qing dynasty.

Across three generations of emperors, those who meet the specific criteria number less than one hundred. The key is that they are buried in highly concentrated locations.

Coupled with the "unearthed no more than ten years ago" window that Lin Sicheng determined, every lead is accurate.

It is equivalent to digging straight to the root, and then one just needs to follow the vine to find the melon; how much police manpower and funding has this saved the public security organs, and how many hairs has it saved for the leaders?

Of course, Lin Sicheng's judgment might not be one hundred percent accurate, but who told him to end up with a teacher like himself?

There was no need for half a year plus another half a year; Wang Qi Zhi only made two phone calls: one to a Sanskrit Buddhist Expert and one to a Qing History Artifact Research Expert, and that was that.

There was also no need to queue: it would be sent to Beijing tomorrow, and the results would be out in a week at most.

Whoever is in a leadership position would inevitably have crooked thoughts: it is just too damn useful...