The Lost Tomb Vol. 7

Chapter 9: Memories (Part I)

When I immediately grabbed it and took a closer look, I found that there were only two pages in the beautiful cover. The first page was a welcome message, and the second page had a large photo pasted on it. It was of a seal with a square base that had been carved into complicated shapes. It was a very deep lusterless cyan, and looked a little familiar.

There were a few lines of handwritten text below it, numbers detailing the size of the things in the photo, and a line of small characters at the bottom: Gui Niu Longyu Yuxi [1], from Baiyanping, Guzhang County, Hunan province.

The carvings on the seal were very complicated, and I could make out several main shapes. There were several towering evil spirits, and the other parts had scales, but I wasn't sure whether they were fish or dragons. I couldn't see anything strange in the photo even after looking at it for a long time.

I took a deep breath. This thing was a bit big, unlike ordinary people's seals. And looking at the style of the "knob" [2], it should have been from the Warring States period. That was the only time when private seals started appearing. I had seen them on the market three times before. All of them had been animal knobs, but a seal with a ghost knob had never been seen before.

Private seals from the Warring States Period were very rare, but they weren't the best. A small one- or two-centimeter seal could be bought for a hundred thousand yuan, but the square seal here was four centimeters in size and had a peculiar shape, so it was probably an official seal. I was particularly concerned about its name, however, because it was called "Longyu Imperial Seal".

The name must have been given by the seller because the dragon character he mentioned was very important. Once there was a dragon on any seal, it gave rise to the question of whether it was a royal seal or a regular imperial seal. Either way, it was something that could be counted in history, and even a small imperial seal was priceless in this world.

In our country, all unearthed cultural relics automatically belonged to the state. On the surface, it appeared that cultural relics before the Qing Dynasty weren't allowed to be sold, but they could be collected. Moreover, if collectors destroyed their collections, they would be sentenced. In other words, in China, antiques dating back to the Qing Dynasty were like ticking time bombs. If you had them, it was better not to let others know since it wouldn't end well once they found out.

This seal must have been something grave robbers stole. That meant this wasn't a normal auction, but an auction of stolen goods, so now we were all breaking the law in this semi-public auction. If this thing was really valuable, then the authorities may react outrageously. Let me give an exaggerated example. Say we went back twenty years, and you came across an auction like this. If you started shooting an AK-47 at the people on the second floor, you may be praised for serving justice.

I had done a few things that were quite out of line before, but I was in the city of Beijing right now, and right at the emperor's feet. It was common for the average person to conceal any number of small bad things, but with such a big thing taking place, the boss of this restaurant must have grown up eating bear bile. I suddenly thought of Granny Huo's background and thought, shit, she didn't call the police, right? I'd have to run when the cops arrived, and that meant she wouldn't have to tell me about the Yangshi Lei house.

On second thought, that wasn't right either. She didn't want me to sit in this seat at that time, as if the person sitting in this position would have special treatment.

Basically, it seemed like this was the only item being sold today, so all these people had come prepared to win. Thinking that, I looked at Pink Shirt, who wasn't far away. He was no longer playing with his phone, but arrogantly sitting on a western-style sofa, and staring at the ceiling with his arms crossed.

I closed the roster and handed it to Poker-face, who had been playing the role of a cold-faced bodyguard very faithfully. Fatty may have given him a supplementary lesson before coming, but he looked completely indifferent compared to Fatty and me. He didn't look at the roster, but put it aside.

Fatty turned pale and whispered to me, "Did you recognize it? It seems we're in the right place."

Although this imperial seal was very powerful, I didn't particularly like this kind of thing, so I wasn't as excited as Fatty. I whispered to him: "Don't distract me, you son of a bitch. I keep feeling like things are going to be bad. You have to take care of this for me. In case we can't, we'll have to withdraw."

Fatty was shocked: "Why are you still thinking about it? Didn't you see what this thing is?" As he said that, he immediately brought the roster back to me and opened it. "Take a closer look at it. Where have we seen this thing?"

"What?" Although I also felt that it was a little familiar, I didn't think about it because of the old lady's strange attitude. After Fatty mentioned it, however, I went to look at it again.

With just a glance, that kind of feeling appeared again. I had apparently seen something similar to this imperial seal before, and had thought about it more than once.

I thought about the previous goods and cultural relics I had seen before, but this wasn't one of them. The more I tried to recall, the more panicked I felt. It seemed as if this memory touched something in my heart that I didn't want to face.

When the memory finally surfaced, I involuntarily broke out in a cold sweat. That moment... it was at the bottom of Changbai Mountain, in the depths of the Heavenly Palace. The person who had been holding it was now standing behind me despite walking into the huge bronze door in the thick fog.

No way, I said to myself, what's going on?

How did this thing appear here?

I didn't know what it was used for, but Poker-face had been holding it, and I was very impressed. To be honest, it was smoky at that time, and there was some distance between us. I wasn't sure whether the seal on the photo was exactly the same as the one he had taken, but even if they were different, there had to be a connection between the two seals.

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Notes:

[1] It's a Ghost Knob Dragon Fish Imperial Jade Seal.

[2] The wording is kinda weird but it's basically the head of the seal, like what you hold onto.