Guanzhong Tomb Robbery Notes

My knuckles made a popping sound, which made Boss Dong look at me in surprise.

"Hey, why are you clenching your fists so tightly?"

"You don't want to hit Zhang Hao, do you?"

"I wanted to tell you all this at first because I thought you happened to know a history professor named Zhang, who might be Zhang Hao's father."

"Later, I felt it was not good to talk about people's privacy behind their backs, so I kept silent."

"You forced me to say it."

"Now he's acting like he has a grudge against you."

"Hey, you two don't really have a grudge against each other, do you?" Boss Dong suddenly stepped on the brakes and asked me.

The sudden braking caused me to lean forward, nearly hitting my head against the windshield.

"There's no grudge, I was just thinking of something else." I said perfunctorily.

"That's good. Let's go over there and ask him to help make the invisible words visible. We can talk about it after we finish our personal matters."

Boss Dong gave a few more instructions.

I was afraid that I would become emotionally unstable when I saw Zhang Hao.

The car started again, and I looked out the window, wondering how I should ask Zhang Hao about Professor Zhang's whereabouts.

Is it a straightforward approach or a roundabout one?

Boss Dong saw that I was silent.

So he chatted with me about all sorts of things.

I knew what he was worried about, so I put my mind at ease and started chatting with him.

"Brother Dong, you just said that you asked Zhang Hao to develop porcelain repair materials?"

Antiques, whether buried underground or circulating in the world, will most likely suffer various kinds of damage.

For example, bronze artifacts can be damaged by rust, tomb collapse, and geological changes.

Many of the complete bronze artifacts seen in museums were actually broken when they were unearthed, and only after very meticulous restoration were they restored to their original state.

For example, calligraphy and paintings may be affected by moisture, mold, insects, etc., and need to be repaired by means of unmounting and repairing.

For example, porcelain may be bumped or even broken into many pieces, and it will be repaired using porcelain mending techniques.

Put the broken porcelain together, then drill holes in the porcelain with a diamond drill, and then use rivets to rivet the broken porcelain.

Well-moldable porcelain is not afraid of hot or cold, and soup or water will not spill.

The old saying goes, "Don't take on a job without the right skills," refers to porcelain mending.

In the domestic antique trade, porcelain that has been mended is considered defective and its price is greatly reduced compared to a complete piece.

However, many people abroad believe that mended porcelain demonstrates miraculous traditional craftsmanship and is therefore more valuable.

From the 1990s to the early 2000s, many foreigners who visited Panjiayuan would pay high prices to buy the brazed porcelain.

The price of those porcelains is calculated according to the number of rivets.

The more rivets there are, the higher the price.

The antique shop owner made a lot of money.

However, the repair materials that Boss Dong mentioned are not traditional crafts such as porcelain mending.

It's a technological repair method.

After restoration, it can be restored to its original state and cannot be distinguished by the naked eye.

This material is usually divided into two types.

One is aggregate, which is used to fill the cracks in the debris.

The second is glaze, which is used to restore the broken glaze surface.

Once this kind of restoration material flows into the antique trade, it will cheat a lot of collectors.

This leads them to buy defective products as complete ones.

Later, someone discovered that when irradiated with 365-wavelength ultraviolet light, the repair material would have a fluorescent reaction.

Therefore, many porcelain players will use a UV lamp to search inside and out when they collect old items.

However, more advanced restoration materials have been developed, and they don't produce any fluorescent reaction at all...

"Yes."

"Porcelain is too fragile. It will break if you are not careful on the road."

"If ordinary products break, it's fine, but if a fine product breaks, it's too painful, so I asked him to help develop the materials."

"The materials he made are very useful, and after repairing them, it's almost impossible to tell they were ever broken."

"I'm also planning to ask him to develop other restorative materials."

"From now on, whenever you dig up something good, don't worry about whether it's broken or not, just bring back all the pieces!"

"Ship it back to Hong Kong Island and repair it properly, hehe!"

Boss Dong is an expert in everything he does.

Not just thinking about collecting antiques.

He also wanted to repair damaged antiques and sell them at high prices.

Influenced by him, I later got involved in the restoration of damaged antiques and even set up a restoration center...

After chatting for a while, the car drove into the University of Hong Kong.

Boss Dong took me into the laboratory building.

I met a young man in a suit at the stairs.

She is in her thirties, with sleek hair and elegant clothes, looking like a teacher.

There is some resemblance between his features and those of Professor Zhang.

A bit like Zhang Nan.

From his appearance, it can be confirmed that he is Saito Akihiro.

Boss Dong took two quick steps forward and shook his hand: "Xiao Zhang, I'm going to trouble you again."

"It's no trouble... Who is this?"

Saito Akihiro looked at me curiously.

Just as I was about to introduce myself, Boss Dong stood between us.

"It's my brother."

"I just came from the countryside and haven't seen much of the world."

As he spoke, Boss Dong waved his hands behind his back at me, motioning me to give him the booklet.

It seems that he doesn't want me and Saito Akihiro to talk early.

I shook my head slightly, took out the booklet and put it in his hand.

Boss Dong withdrew his hand.

He smiled and stuffed the booklet into Saito Akihiro's hand.

"It's this booklet. I suspect there's invisible writing on it."

"Please check it out."

"See if you can make the invisible words visible."

Saito Akihiro didn't take the booklet: "So, there might be something important written in the booklet."

"Giving me the whole book...it's probably not appropriate."

"Just tear off one and give it to me as a sample."

Boss Dong turned around and looked at me, asking for my opinion with his eyes.

I think this is a good suggestion.

Nod to indicate yes.

Boss Dong hesitated for a moment, then leaned over and whispered, "Which page do you want to tear?"

"If there's nothing written on the torn page, then there's no way to test it!"

This is a problem.

The booklet has hundreds of pages, and it is impossible for Old Man Su to write invisible words on every page.

If you tear it incorrectly, all your efforts will be wasted.

I closed my eyes and thought for a moment.

I wonder if I were Old Man Su, on which page would I write the invisible words?

Is it written on the blank page at the back?

Or does it cover the previous transaction records?

"One page is definitely not enough. I think we should tear three pages."

"Page one."

"The last page."

"And the last page of the last transaction record."

Snapped!

Boss Dong clapped his hands excitedly: "Yes! Just tear it up like this!"

Chila Chila.

He swiftly tore off the three sheets and handed them over.

Saito Akihiro took it with a smile and looked at me deeply.

We stared at each other for four or five seconds.

He lowered his eyes first, turned around and led us to the office area.

"Laboratory regulations prohibit outsiders from entering."

"I can only ask you to drink tea and wait in the office first."

He opened the office door and invited us in.

And poured two cups of tea and placed them on the table.

He then left the office to conduct tests.

Holding the teacup, I glanced at the clean desk. There were basically no personal belongings on it.

Then he walked towards the bookcase against the wall.

The bookcase is filled with chemistry books, and there is a photo frame in the corner.

The black and white photo in the frame is of a family of four.

Professor Zhang, Saito Akihiro, a middle-aged woman, and Zhang Nan, who is still an elementary school student!

That’s right!

Saito Akihiro is Zhang Nan's brother!

Just as I was about to pick up the picture frame, the door handle suddenly turned slowly.

Boss Dong immediately pulled me aside.

He whispered, "Something's wrong!"

"Get down quickly and hide under the desk!"