Old Wu picked up the brush holder, examined it under the lamp for a while, then shook his head and said, "This brush holder isn't of good quality. Judging from the painting and glaze, the style is that of a late Qing or early Ming dynasty earthen kiln. Although it has no inscription, it's not very old. The color isn't good either, and there are traces of paint repair on the bottom. Although most people wouldn't notice, it still doesn't fool me. I'm just wondering, this brush holder itself isn't a valuable item, but the paint repair technique is quite good. I don't quite understand why they would go to the trouble of repairing such a worthless thing!"
Zhou Xuan had tested it with his ice energy and knew the secrets behind it. He was also very impressed with Old Wu's eyesight. If he didn't have his ice energy ability, how would he have known the reason for the paint repair? Smiling, Zhou Xuan said, "Old Wu, I spent a thousand yuan. What do you say?"
Old Wu smiled faintly and said, "You're the boss, so a thousand yuan is nothing to you. It's not a loss either. Its actual value is only five or six hundred yuan. If you're lucky, someone might want it, and you might be able to sell it for a thousand or so yuan."
Zhou Shi smiled and said, "Old Wu, I think there's some truth to what you said about the paint patching. Actually, I noticed that too. Otherwise, I wouldn't want this pen holder. I think the paint is just a cover-up. Take a look at the hollow part of the pen holder. Doesn't it seem a bit unusual?"
Old Wu was taken aback. He immediately examined the pen holder carefully, then took a ruler and measured it inside. He compared the height with the outside and exclaimed in surprise, "The entire pen holder is 27 centimeters high, but the bottom of the pen holder is only 20 centimeters high. That means the bottom is 7 centimeters thick!"
At this point, Old Wu examined the weight with his hand again and said, "Judging from the weight, the bottom layer is not solid, but hollow."
Zhou Xuan smiled and said, "Old Wu, what I want to say is that I think that paint was made to cover something up. I suppose it was meant to hide something. Anyway, this pen holder isn't very valuable, so I thought I'd buy it and see if there's anything hidden inside."
Old Wu paused for a moment, then said, "That's somewhat possible!" In his heart, he thought that this young boss had really given him some unexpected ideas. He couldn't help but notice such details. Even he hadn't thought of this. He originally thought that giving him a thousand yuan was too much, but there was another reason, so it wasn't a loss.
Zhou Xuan smiled and handed him the dagger. Old Wu took it and first gently tapped the bottom of the pen holder with the handle of the dagger, listening for the difference in sound.
After examining it for a moment, he said, "The bottom of this pen holder is partly not ceramic, which makes it sound different. It was filled with something like clay and then painted over!"
He then used the tip of the knife to pry open the small round hole at the bottom of the pen holder. Zhou Cangsong and Li Wei, who were watching from the side, were all surprised. Of course, only Zhou Xuan did not find it strange.
Old Wu put down the sharp knife, then turned the pen holder upside down, pointed the small round hole at the light, looked at it, frowned, and couldn't see clearly.
Zhou Cangsong quickly went to the inner room and brought out another flashlight. Old Wu shone the flashlight into the small round hole, looked carefully, and said, "There's something inside, it looks like a paper box. Old Zhou, find some tweezers!"
Volume 1, Chapter 208: Hidden Treasure
Zhou Cangsong quickly brought over a small hammer. Old Wu took the hammer and carefully inserted it into the small round hole at the bottom of the pen holder. After moving it around several times, he managed to clamp the paper tube inside and then gently pulled it out.
Old Wu placed the rolled-up paper tube on the table, then shone a flashlight inside to look inside, shook it, and after confirming there was nothing inside, he finally put the pen holder down.
Zhou Xuan already knew there was nothing inside, so he didn't use the ice energy to probe further. His curiosity had already been drawn to the paper tube, and he wondered what was written on it.
Old Wu held the paper tube but didn't open it first. Instead, he pointed to the fragments that fell out after prying open the small round hole and said, "These are made of ceramic raw material clay and glue. The outside is painted with black paint, so you can't see it unless you look closely. But even if most people could see it, they wouldn't know there's something special inside. I guess the owner of this pen holder instructed his descendants to pass it down as a family heirloom, which is why this not-so-valuable item has been preserved so well!"
"Sir...sir, you'd better hurry and see what's written on the note!" Li Wei was rather impatient. He was about to call the old man when he remembered that he worked at Zhou Xuan's shop, so he quickly changed his mind. He didn't dare to offend someone whom Zhou Xuan respected so much.
Old Wu, holding the paper tube, asked with a smile, "Let's all play a game of guessing and see who guesses the closest. I'll start by saying that this paper tube has been hidden in the pen holder for at least eighty years. What do you all think?"
Among those present, only Zhou Cangsong and Lao Wu were a bit older, both in their fifties, while Zhou Xuan and Li Wei were in their twenties. Of course, none of them had the feeling of that era when they came from the paper tube writing teeth. Who knows when that was?
Zhou Cangsong smiled and said, "Old Wu, this thing is probably a will left by the older generation for the next generation, but they may have died in a hurry and didn't have time to say it, so this paper seedling is still hidden inside."
Li Wei leaned closer, blinked, and asked, "Do you know any martial arts manuals? Like the Nine Yin Manual, the Nine Yang Manual, or the Great Shift of Heaven and Earth?"
Old Wu rolled his eyes at him and snorted, "You young man, you've been reading too many martial arts novels!"
Li Wei said sheepishly, "I really don't read martial arts novels!" Actually, Li Wei was wrong; he basically didn't like reading any books at all. "Old Wu!" Zhou Xuan finally said, "I was thinking, could this be some kind of treasure, or some kind of hidden treasure mother paper?"
Old Wu smiled and slowly opened the paper box. Under the light, everyone looked at the paper strip. After the box was opened, it was clear that it was made of two pieces of paper rolled up together.
Old Wu separated the two pieces of paper. One was covered in writing, somewhat cursive, and it seemed to be written in traditional Chinese characters. He couldn't quite recognize the names Zhou Xuan and Li Wei, and Zhou Cangsong, who had the least education, couldn't read them at all. The other piece of paper had a picture, but it wasn't a portrait; it looked like a map. Old Wu picked up the piece of paper with the writing and examined it carefully, then fell into a deep thought.
Li was the most anxious and kept urging, "What is it? What does it say?"
Old Wu nodded to Zhou Xuan and said, "Young Zhou's estimate is quite accurate; it really is some kind of treasure map!" As he spoke, Old Wu laid two sheets of paper flat on the table and slowly said, "This map is of a place in the East China Sea. I don't know much about this, so I can't figure out exactly where it is. Moreover, the map-making technique is from the Xianfeng era, the late Qing Dynasty, which is very different from modern methods. Furthermore, this one has writing on it."
Old Wu glanced at Zhou Xuan and chuckled, "I think this man is a national hero. His name is Zhang Hu, a skilled martial artist and excellent swimmer—a true outlaw. About 150 years ago, around the tenth year of the Xianfeng Emperor's reign, during the Second Opium War, the Allied forces of Britain, France, the United States, and Russia burned down the Old Summer Palace, looting my country's wealth. They took a large amount of gold, silver, and valuable antiques, artifacts, and paintings. Then, while the ships were being transported back to China, Zhang Hu infiltrated an English cargo ship and sank one of them. According to Zhang Hu..." It was the ship carrying the most treasure. After the ship sank, Zhang Hu reunited with the fishing boat that was supposed to pick him up. Although the ship had been blown up, the depth of the area was far beyond what they could dive to. Therefore, this cargo ship carrying a large amount of treasure remained forever on the seabed of the Yellow Sea. Zhang Hu could only draw the location of the shipwreck. Later, his descendants hid the map Zhang Hu had drawn in a specially made pen holder, and they also wrote a note and placed it together. This note explained the reason for the other map!
"So this is what treasures are like! They must be very valuable!" Although Li Wei didn't know much about antiques, he knew from his elementary school textbooks that the treasures in the Yuanmingyuan were not ordinary folk items. The Yuanmingyuan was a museum of the Qing imperial family, and it housed national treasures of the Qing imperial family. Any one of them would be a priceless treasure.
"It's more than just priceless!" Old Wu sighed and shook his head, then continued, "I'm not a historian, so I don't need to comment on the rights and wrongs of this matter. Let's just discuss the facts. I don't think this map is very reliable. First, because mapmaking at that time was neither comprehensive nor accurate. Second, Zhang Hu was familiar with that sea area and a good swimmer, but he only drew this map based on his knowledge. If it were someone else, they probably wouldn't recognize it. Moreover, Zhang Hu wasn't a very knowledgeable person, let alone familiar with coordinates and latitude and longitude. This map might have had some value at the time, but not much, because back then there were no tools to dive to depths of over a thousand meters. Even if you knew where it was, you couldn't retrieve it!"
Hearing Old Wu mention that it was a shipwreck and contained a lot of treasure, Zhou Xuan's heart skipped a beat, but then he found it somewhat amusing. The ocean was vast; how difficult could it be to find a shipwreck? Others might not know, but he himself had sailed the seas. To find a ship based on a completely inaccurate picture was "extremely difficult." And there was another reason: how many shipwrecks had been salvaged in recent decades? Perhaps this ship had already been salvaged long ago?
Anyway, he doesn't lack anything; what he's earned is enough. There's no need to go to all that trouble. Besides, salvaging a sunken ship requires a tremendous amount of manpower and resources. It's not something he can do by himself alone. Moreover, his diving limit is only about 400 to 500 meters. He can't go any deeper than that.
Of course, modern salvage technology is far superior to that of the past, with deep-sea submarines and salvage ships. However, it also has its problems. For example, once a shipwreck is salvaged, it becomes state property, unlike in other countries where the wealth of a shipwreck salvaged overseas belongs to private individuals.
"It's not very meaningful to go through so much trouble to salvage something that doesn't belong to you." "From the current perspective, finding out whether this shipwreck still exists is a big problem." After thinking about it briefly, Zhou Xuan gave up.
Old Wu carefully placed the two pieces of paper, then found some putty to seal the opening of the pen holder, and sprayed the paint can a few times. Apart from the paint being slightly inferior, there was basically no abnormality to be seen.
Then Old Wu handed the two slips of paper to Zhou Xuan and said, "Little Zhou, you can have this. Consider this a private purchase. Take it. Whether you want to go treasure hunting or not is up to you. Just leave this pen holder in the shop. We'll try to sell it if we can. It's late, go home now!"
Zhou Xuan smiled and took the piece of paper, putting it back in his pocket. Fortunately, the paper had always been sealed at the bottom of the pen holder; if it had been left outside, it would probably have weathered away after more than a hundred years.
Zhou Cangsong didn't go back and stayed at the shop, while Zhou Tao stayed at the stone factory and didn't come back. Zhou Ying still went home at night and took over for her second brother Zhou Tao during the day. Zhao Lao Er was also at the factory. The antique shop was under the supervision of the police, and Lao Wu was in charge of the appraisal, so there was no need to worry.
**Driving Lao Wu home, then going back by himself, Tong Xuan still went with Li Wei, taking Li Wei's car back to Dangcheng Garden.
Li Wei was still too embarrassed to go to Zhou Xuan's house to bother him that night, so he smiled and said, "Brother Xuan, I know you have to talk business with Xu Juncheng at nine o'clock tomorrow morning. I'll come to Yun'er at eight-thirty to pick you up. Anyway, I don't have anything else to do, so I'll just hang out with you. My grandpa will feel at ease with you and won't worry that I'll go out and fool around again. Besides, Xu Juncheng trusts me quite a bit, so my word still carries weight. Going together will definitely have some benefits!"
Zhou Xuan was still considering when Li Wei, not giving him a chance to refuse, waved and called out, "Brother Xuan, I'm leaving, bye-bye!" By the time Zhou Xuan looked at him, Li Wei had already driven off far away.
Zhou Xuan shook his head with a wry smile and went inside. Although he had a headache with Li Wei, he still liked this reckless guy. His identity was unusual, but he was straightforward and didn't bully others. He was also compassionate. Zhou Xuan was quite willing to make friends with such a person, just like Brother Hong. However, Li Wei was far less cunning than Brother Hong.
Fu Ying, Jin Xiumei, Zhou Ying (younger sister), and Aunt Liu were all watching TV and chatting in the living room. When Zhou Xuan came in, Zhou Ying scolded him, "Brother, I don't know what you do. You manage the shop so much. You don't do anything else, so why are you nowhere to be seen all day long?"
Zhou Xuan chuckled and patted her head, then sat down next to Fu Ying and asked, "What are you all talking about?"
Several people immediately shook their heads. Jin Xiumei spoke first, "Women talk about things. What do you want to ask? Son, have you eaten?" "Yes, I have!"
Zhou Xuan casually replied, "I'm a little sleepy. I'll go upstairs to take a shower first. I have to go to the stone factory to discuss business tomorrow, so I'll go to sleep now. You guys continue chatting!" As Zhou Xuan went up the stairs, Jin Xiumei winked at Fu Ying and gently nudged her. Fu Ying blushed, but still stood up silently and stumbled up the stairs.
In Zhou Xuan's room, after Fu Ying followed him in, Zhou Xuan, naturally embarrassed to close the door and take off his clothes, smiled and asked, "Yingying, is there something you want to tell me?" Fu Ying hesitated shyly for a moment, opened her mouth but then closed it again.
Zhou Xuan hummed in agreement and said, "Yingying, I know you love me to death, come on!" He then leaned forward, pointed to his left and right cheeks, and added, "Come on, I'll let you kiss these two cheeks as much as you want!"