Parasitismus-Eve

Kapitel 1

Oracle bone fragments

Introduction:

This is Na Duo's latest work. I've read Na Duo's other novels and quite like them.

Beginning in 1911, the experiments on mysterious inner powers, led by Sigmund Freud and assisted by Salvador Dalí, Stefan Zweig, and explorer Sven Hedin, continued and branched out in contemporary China. The magically powerful wizard skull became a new object of worship. Surrounded by the intense allure of a London oracle bone auction, con artists appeared, unexpectedly encountering the death of an actress. A startling truth emerged, accompanied by a series of traps. Incredible memory transmissions and a life-or-death duel hidden beneath the city's surface. The novel blends suspense, detective work, thriller, and fantasy, making reading a cautious adventure between reality and legend.

Chapter 01 Tortoise Shell Letter

"You have one last chance to take your things back. Otherwise, if I accidentally break them later, hehe, even fake things still have value, and it'll be too late to regret it then."

The host of the "Treasure Hunt" program wore a chilling smile as he waved a hammer around as if he were about to smash it down at any moment.

The fat man looked down at the treasure he had brought for appraisal on the table in front of him.

It was a grayish-yellow, unremarkable nail plate, completely incomparable in appearance to the porcelain vases and bowls next to it. Holding it in my hand, it felt light and weightless. The fat man's chubby fingers caressed the engravings on the nail plate, and as if making a decision, he put the nail plate back in its original place.

The audience below the stage were secretly amused by the fat man's behavior. Even in front of the TV cameras, one should at least act bold; why does being fat make one so timid?

The host strolled leisurely, the golden hammer in his hand already halfway in the air. He stopped in front of the fat man, smiled at him, but secretly glanced to his left.

On the left was a large blue-and-white porcelain vase depicting fish playing among lotus flowers, its slender neck rising above the tip of its owner's nose. The owner was a woman in her fifties, wearing glasses, her hands behind her back, her expression resolute.

"The exhibits here today are all very interesting, and they're a challenge for me too. For example, this tortoise shell—I might not even break it with a single blow of my hammer, which would ruin the brand!"

As the host spoke, he slowly raised the hammer. The stage lights were very bright, and the golden light reflected off the hammer made the fat man squint. Just then, he heard the hammer swish past him with a "whoosh".

"Bang"!

The hammer slammed heavily on the table, and more than half of the audience gaped in astonishment.

The host revealed his own smile, a mixture of slyness and smugness. He moved the hammer aside, revealing the tortoise shell beneath, now shattered into many pieces.

The control room was already filled with laughter.

"Quickly, quickly, point camera at the fat man, zoom in, close-up of his face!" the director shouted.

"Brother Lin is truly amazing, he's taken playing tricks on people to a whole new level. If I hadn't known beforehand, I would have thought he was going to smash the bottle next to him." The female intern with acne-covered face clutched her stomach, her expression exaggerated.

"He's using tactics like strategy and deception, even applying them to hosting a TV show. Lin Ge is amazing! Oh, look at Fatty's expression, he's really suffering, hahaha."

The fat man, whose face was zoomed in for a close-up, looked like he was both crying and laughing. He tried to put on a nonchalant smile, but forgot that he was biting his lower lip tightly, and the conflicting movements made the flesh on his cheeks twitch.

The host patted the fat man on the shoulder, sighed, and said, "What's fake can't become real, and what's real can't become fake. You had to be prepared. Listen to what our experts have to say. Even if you don't get any physical goods, take some knowledge with you; at least your trip won't have been in vain."

The fat man began to come to his senses, touching the broken pieces of oracle bone with his hands, repeatedly saying, "How could it be fake? It can't be fake, it can't be fake."

"Whether it's fake or not isn't up to you or me to decide; we have to listen to the experts."

The host gestured towards the experts' panel: "Today we have invited Mr. Zhong Dingwen, an expert in oracle bone script and bronze ware, to tell us why this oracle bone is fake and how to distinguish between genuine and fake oracle bones."

A man in his fifties sitting in the expert panel pushed up his glasses, cleared his throat, and said slowly, "Forgery of oracle bones used to be very rare, but in recent years, as the market for oracle bone artifacts has risen, forgery has become more common. In fact, true experts won't be fooled, because all the oracle bones unearthed throughout history, especially relatively complete inscribed tortoise shells like the ones here today, have a clear provenance; it's not like something that has never appeared before will suddenly emerge."

"No way!" the fat man abruptly interrupted Zhong Dingwen's explanation. "I had a friend look at it, and he said it's genuine."

"But your friend isn't an expert." This wasn't the first time the host had encountered this situation. He walked over to the fat man, intending to say something more to calm him down temporarily.

"No, he's an expert," the fat man insisted stubbornly, while turning his head to look at his family and friends in the audience.

The treasure hunter's friends and family sat in the first two rows of the audience. The fat man's friends and family consisted of only one person, a thin man who looked to be nearly thirty years old, with somewhat effeminate features and a gloomy, listless expression.

At this moment, he stood up from the second row, his gaze sweeping over the host's face and landing on Zhong Dingwen.

"I did have it appraised before, Professor Zhong, could you take another look?" He spoke casually, as if he and Zhong Dingwen, who was almost twice his age and sitting in the expert panel, were of equal status in the field of oracle bone appraisal.

The broadcast had already been stopped in the control room, and the director frowned.

"How can there be such a rule-breaker?" The intern with acne opened the door leading to the scene and was about to run down.

"Wait a minute," the director said behind her.

"you……"

On stage, the host only uttered one word before abruptly stopping. His usual smile took on a different form, appearing slightly unnatural. He withdrew his gaze from the man who had abruptly stood up and turned to look towards the panel of experts.

"Sun Jing?" Zhong Dingwen's voice came through the microphone clipped to his collar and was clearly heard by everyone present. He placed his hand on the table and slowly stood up.

Some of the other antique experts at the table recognized Sun Jing, while those who didn't understand when they saw the bronze inscription stand up. It seemed that Sun Jing was also a member of the oracle bone circle, and someone of considerable influence at that.

"You've seen this before?" Zhong Dingwen asked seriously, taking off his microphone and walking around from behind the experts' panel.

"Yes, I've seen it."

"This tortoise shell has only a large portion remaining, and it hasn't been mentioned in any previous records. You know this is very rare, and the script and engravings differ somewhat from other unearthed oracle bones. The chisel marks on the back are also different. How could you be so sure it's genuine... You must have misjudged it?"

As he finished speaking, Zhong Dingwen couldn't help but chuckle, but he quickly composed himself and decided to take another look at the fragment.

"Daxinzhuang."

Sun Jing only said three words, and Zhong Dingwen suddenly quickened his pace, rushed to the fragments, and looked down at them.

"The archaeological discovery at Daxinzhuang in Shandong, announced in 2003, was the first time Shang Dynasty oracle bones had been found outside of Anyang, the site of the Yin Ruins. The characters are slightly different from those in Anyang, but... Professor Zhong, you should have studied them as well, right?"

As Sun Jing spoke, he walked onto the stage, stood next to the fat man, and looked at Zhong Dingwen, who was frowning.

The host's face was already quite grim, and his smile had completely vanished. But he quickly forced a smile and said in a low voice, "Teacher Sun, Teacher Sun, how about we put this matter aside for now and finish recording the program as scheduled?"

The fat man immediately yelled, "How can you put it aside? You smashed my treasure with a single blow! It's the real thing, the real thing!"

A buzzing sound had already broken out below, with almost every audience member whispering to the person next to them. Seeing that he couldn't manage the people on stage, the host turned around to say something to the audience. His eyes swept across the room, and he suddenly jumped in fright. He quickly shielded the fat man and Zhong Dingwen behind him, pointed, and shouted, "Excuse me, sir, please stop filming with your phone immediately!"

A photographer standing nearby, having received a signal from the host, rushed over in a few quick steps.

Zhong Dingwen couldn't care less about the increasingly chaotic scene. This piece of oracle bone was missing a small part, with six or seven characters still remaining on it. Now, after the host smashed it into many pieces with a hammer, he sifted through it and finally found a piece with characters on it, which he then examined closely.

Sun Jing stood before Zhong Dingwen, who was bent over. Some of the people around him were anxious, some were fearful, some were curious, and some were excited, but he seemed indifferent, his expression remaining quite relaxed. However, the words that came out of his mouth were stirring up the chaotic situation.

"The number of inscribed oracle bones unearthed by the archaeological team in Daxinzhuang has been announced, though it's only a small amount. But everyone knows that since so many have been unearthed there, there must be many more hidden underground. Local residents have been digging for them for the past few years, and nobody can stop them." Sun Jing smiled at this point, "I've heard that some people have been secretly selling what they've dug up."

"I got it from an antique dealer who travels to Shandong." The fat man pounded his chest and stamped his feet, then picked up a few pieces of broken bone and showed them to the other three treasure hunters who had gathered around.

"Look, look at this thing, how could it be fake? It can't be fake." The fat man was grasping at straws, grabbing as many as he could.

Those people all frowned and sighed, but their eyes widened and their faces flushed.

"I just saw it; this earthy color couldn't have been developed in less than a few thousand years."

"That's hard to say, the techniques for forging these days are incredibly sophisticated. However, oracle bones are still a relatively niche subject, so it's rare to see someone go to such lengths to create such a realistic fake."

"Look at the chisel marks on the back, and the divination patterns on the front." The confident woman said, bringing the fragment to her nose as if she could smell the smoke, clicking her tongue twice, glancing at the bronze inscription, and then adding, "I think this thing..."

Zhong Dingwen suddenly raised his head and asked the woman, "It seems you all understand oracle bone inscriptions?"

"You know a lot," the woman smiled.

"What does Teacher Zhong think?" Sun Jing asked.

Zhong Dingwen stopped talking, took out a magnifying glass, and looked again.

The control room had been quiet for a while. None of them understood oracle bone script; they could only watch the changing expressions on the bronze inscriptions on the screen. The director's heart sank to the bottom; he knew something was wrong.

"I knew Zhong Dingwen was unreliable, but the producer insisted on using him," the director muttered to himself.

"Oh dear, we can only use this venue until 3 o'clock. What if we don't finish recording at this rate?" Acne worried.

"Is it a matter of whether we can finish recording or not?" the director turned to her fiercely. "Hurry up and call the producer over!"

"Why are you taking it out on me?" Acne turned her back, pouted, took out her phone, and walked out.

Zhong Dingwen turned the fragment over again to look at the chisel marks on the back, his fingers trembling slightly as he held the tortoise shell.

"What do you think, Teacher Zhong?" Sun Jing asked again, his tone so gentle that Zhong Dingwen wanted to throw the tortoise shell in his face.

How could I be so sure it was fake before? I certainly didn't think much of it in the direction of Daxinzhuang. But it shouldn't be like this, it's really weird, the more I look at it now, the more I think...

Zhong Dingwen was churning with thoughts. Even the most oblivious person could sense his disheveled state as he rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand while adjusting his glasses.

"I've never heard of any newly unearthed items from Daxinzhuang, this thing is very suspicious. It should be the character '母' (mother), but compared to the '母' on the Daxinzhuang tortoise shell, it's missing a horizontal stroke, and the chisel marks show only chiseling, not drilling..."

Zhong Dingwen kept rambling on, enduring the fat man's fierce gaze, trying his best to expose as many flaws as possible in the tortoise shell in his hand. The host stood beside him, nodding and making "uh-huh" sounds in agreement.

After listening for a while, Sun Jing suddenly interrupted, "Teacher Zhong?"

"Huh?" Zhong Dingwen stopped, fully prepared to deal with Sun Jing's questions in order to protect his reputation.

Sun Jing gave him a seemingly gentle smile and said, "It seems that Professor Zhong's opinion differs from mine. Let's find more experts to study it together."

Zhong Dingwen opened his mouth wide, his Adam's apple bobbed a few times, but he still couldn't utter the word "good," panting like a live fish on a chopping board.

The host pressed his forehead in frustration, closed his eyes, and groaned heavily through his nose.

"Bang!"

Suddenly, the door to the control room at the very back of the audience was pushed open, and the director rushed onto the stage.

"Let's talk in the small conference room," he said in a low voice.

More than an hour later, Sun Jing and Fatty walked out of the TV station. After turning two street corners, they stopped in front of a small alley.

"Have you ever considered changing careers to become an actor? You're wasting your talents as a magician," Sun Jing said to the fat man.

The chubby face, which had been gloomy and pale, suddenly changed dramatically after those words, and his eyebrows flew up in a smile.

"Magicians need to be able to perform, otherwise how can they distract the audience? But I can consider your suggestion, haha."

"If they review the video closely, will there be any problems?"

"No, cameras are easy to fool. I'm keeping an eye on the camera positions. Don't worry, I'll transfer the compensation to you as soon as it arrives. Remember to call me next time there's a good deal like this. What should we do with those tortoise shells?"

As he spoke, the fat man handed the brocade box containing the tortoise shell fragments to Sun Jing. With a flick of his left sleeve, another unbroken piece of tortoise shell slid out.

Sun Jing did not reach out to take it.

"Throw them all into the Huangpu River." He shrugged and waved goodbye to the fat man.

This was the most bustling commercial district. Sun Jing had only walked a few steps when a female beggar rushed out from the side and grabbed his leg. Pedestrians nearby immediately made way around her.

Sun Jing lowered his head, and the beggar looked up at him, quickly rattling off a string of demands for money. He didn't give her any expression, just stared at her for a few seconds before raising his head and walking forward. The beggar was pulled forward half a step, then immediately let go. She knew that some people wouldn't work no matter how much she hugged them, so she decided to find another one to continue her livelihood.

Sun Jing hadn't walked far when he heard someone say behind him, "Are all rich people so stingy?"

He frowned, stopped, and turned around. He was criticizing a young woman wearing sunglasses, with short hair, who was quite pretty, if only her eyes behind the sunglasses weren't too unattractive.

"Indeed, many people will give money, in order to buy their own sympathy or other people's self-esteem. Besides, I'm not a rich person." After saying this, Sun Jing decided to continue on his own path.

"No? I don't think so."