"Tell me, or do you want me to do it myself?" Meng Zitao looked at the old man who was still in a dull tone in his tone.

The old man came back to his senses and laughed dryly: "The old man admires his brother's skills very much, but about the Source Pavilion, I can't tell you." ”

"Oh, it looks like you're trying to die!" Meng Zitao's expression began to darken.

The old man smiled bitterly: "Of course I don't want to die, but in comparison, it is much better for me to die alone now than for my whole family to die together." ”

Meng Zitao stared at the old man coldly, domineering, but in the blink of an eye, the old man's heart became more and more frightened.

"Hmph, give me news from the fierce master as soon as possible!"

In the end, Meng Zitao did not persecute too much, and after putting down this sentence, he regained his momentum and walked out of the back room with the cricket jar.

The guy in front obviously didn't expect Meng Zitao to come out by himself, and couldn't help but be stunned, so that Meng Zitao took another piece of porcelain on the shelf, but he didn't react, and when he felt that something was wrong and came back to his senses, Meng Zitao had already walked out.

The guy didn't care about chasing it, because it wasn't worth much, and he was most concerned about what was going on inside.

The man ran to the back room in a hurry, and saw two big men lying on the ground with broken blood and an old man sitting on a chair looking frightened. He couldn't help but be stunned, and hurriedly asked, "Shopkeeper, what's going on?"

The old man was excited, there was still deep fear in his eyes, the momentum that Meng Zitao exuded just now gave him the feeling of facing a beast that was about to devour people, and the heart that had been cultivated for so many years almost collapsed, and he wanted to tell Meng Zitao everything in one go.

"Who the hell is this person, and why is he so terrifying! He asked what the Fountain Pavilion wanted to do!"

The old man kept asking questions in his heart, but most of all, he still wanted to know who the young man was.

"By the way, his last words before leaving, what news do you want from the fierce master, who is this fierce master?"

The old man pondered for a while, stood up, and said to the man, "You take care of them all, I'll visit Mr. Tian......"

Meng Zitao walked out of the antique shop with two things and laughed.

In fact, this Source Pavilion is actually an external organization of the Origin (the internal code name of the mysterious society where Meng Zitao belongs, taken from the origin), mainly for the purpose of searching for all kinds of treasures of the people, as well as some news. It's kind of like a secret service.

Like Huan Ye, there are many people who work for the Fountain Pavilion, but they are only on the periphery, responsible for acquiring cultural relics and finding out the news, and they don't understand the essence of the Fountain Pavilion, so they only regard it as a gray or even black organization.

Every once in a while, the Fountain Pavilion will hold an exchange meeting, which is also known as the "opening". Presumably everyone can guess that this exchange meeting is a trade fair, and although there will be some things coming out of the Source Pavilion, they are not the point, and even if they are treasures, they will be re-bought, and they will rarely be left outside.

The focus of the exchange meeting is what the guests bring, because every guest who can participate in the exchange meeting has been carefully selected in advance, and the utensils they bring are at least treasures, and many of them are heavy. Some of these artifacts will be bought on the spot by the shadows of the Source Pavilion, and those who are not bought will also be recorded, and then find an opportunity to buy them, at least they must not be allowed to spread abroad.

Previously, Meng Zitao had met the general person in charge of the Yuanquan Pavilion at the headquarters of Benyuan, and he told Meng Zitao about some things in the Yuanquan Pavilion, as well as some situations in the capital and Jiangnan branches, and also mentioned the person Huan Ye, saying that this person has more eyes on his mind now, and he wants to find an opportunity to knock on it.

It just so happened that Meng Zitao met this Huan Ye today, took the opportunity to do the above things, and rubbed oil, he felt funny when he thought about it.

Meng Zitao looked at the things in his hand, there is no need to say much about the cricket jar, as for the other piece of porcelain, of course, it is not a leak, this thing is a real fake, so why did he take it? Mainly because this porcelain is somewhere, it is the place where Xiao Likai is now troubled in the process of imitation, maybe this fake can bring inspiration to Xiao Likai.

Meng Zitao walked to Shen Liwei's antique shop with his things, he was communicating with a middle-aged man at this time, and when he saw Meng Zitao coming in, he was very happy and got up to say hello.

Meng Zitao responded politely and said directly: "Shopkeeper Shen, I'm going to visit an elder tomorrow, I don't know if you have a suitable literary game here." ”

"I don't know what type you want?"

"It's best to have a study related to the boutique, the price is not too expensive. ”

Shen Liwei thought for a while and said, "I have an ink bed here, I'll bring it to you to see." ”

"Okay, I'm sorry for you. Meng Zitao said with a smile.

Shen Liwei laughed and said, "What's the trouble here, you can sit down for a while." ”

Meng Zitao sat down with a smile and nodded to the middle-aged man with a smile.

The middle-aged man also smiled at Meng Zitao, a thoughtful look flashed on his face, and then, he asked a little excitedly, "Excuse me, are you Teacher Meng Zitao?"

Meng Zitao said yes with a smile.

When the middle-aged man received an affirmative answer, his excited face turned a little red, and he hurriedly took out his business card and handed it to Meng Zitao with both hands.

Meng Zitao took the business card and looked at it politely, and there was only his name and phone number on the business card.

The middle-aged man's name is Lin Xuanming, so I heard him say: "Hello Mr. Meng, I am in the calligraphy and painting business, and I have opened a book gallery in Bianliang, which is a bit of a nickname in the local area. ”

Meng Zitao said politely: "I am fortunate to meet ......"

While the two were talking, Shen Liwei came over with something, a beautiful ink bed.

The ink bed, also known as the ink rack and ink table, is one of the traditional study utensils. It is a small case frame specially used to hold ink ingots. After the ink is polished, it is easy to defile other things, so the ink bed is made to hold the ink, and the wet place of the ink will be naturally dried, and then the ink block is put into the box for preservation, which is favored by the literati and ink writers of all dynasties.

The ink bed is shaped in ink, usually not too large, no more than two fingers wide and no more than three inches long. The shape is multi-case frame shape, seat support shape, book shape, Bogu frame shape, or tortuous, or concise, mostly made of wood, jade, porcelain, the shape or bed type, or several case type. Hence the name Ink Bed.

"Teacher Meng, can you take a look?" Shen Liwei put the ink bed in front of Meng Zitao.

This ink bed is a hollow carved coral painted with gold, and there are pastel character stories on it. There is a brocade letter ancient book in the upper left of several seats, and there is a three-character compilation book of "Leshantang" in gold paper and white text on the face of the letter. A few times lined with pine green glaze and coral red. With rosewood rectangular four-legged wooden base.

After Meng Zitao observed, he said with a smile: "This is a rare green pastel, this can't work, so how can it be done." ”

During the Qianlong period, the source of enamel color materials was affected to a certain extent, so after that, enamel color porcelain began to decline. During this period there was a transition period between enamel and pastel, and there were also many transitional products. Some products are mainly enamel, with a small amount of pastel. Some products are mainly pastel materials, and enamel colors are supplemented with one or two colors.

But the best is to use pastel material to work finely, completely imitate the method of copper enamel, with a green glaze lining and a new vessel called "green pastel". This innovation was appreciated by the imperial court, so it was very popular at the time, and it was rare for ordinary people to see it. Even in the Qing Dynasty, both players and collectors regarded the green pastel of the Qianlong period as a "treasure in porcelain".

Just the "green pastel" adds a lot of color to this ink bed, not to mention that it is also a fine product made by the court in the Qianlong period, although it is small but fine, Meng Zitao is quite satisfied.

Shen Liwei smiled: "Haha, you can just think it's good." ”

Lin Xuanming was also very knowledgeable, knowing that the two were discussing the price, so he went out to avoid suspicion for a while and then came back.

Next, everyone chatted for a while, there was Meng Zitao, a great calligrapher known as the contemporary grass saint, the topic was of course inseparable from calligraphy, Meng Zitao took some of his own experience in cursive writing, and listened to Shen Liwei and Lin Xuanming fascinated, quite listening to the words of the king, better than reading ten years of books.

Meng Zitao took a sip of tea, moistened his throat, and saw that it was not early, so he was ready to leave.

It's just that before Meng Zitao could speak, Lin Xuanming patted his forehead: "I listened so engrossively that I almost forgot one thing." ”

As he spoke, he took out a box from his pocket, took out a translucent piece of paper from it, and carefully unfolded it, only to see that it was densely written with fly-headed letters.

Fly's head Xiaokai refers to the size of the fly's head in italics, which is just a fan, generally speaking, the size of the italics below one centimeter, can be called the fly's head Xiaokai.

Lin Xuanming said: "This is what I found in an ancient book by chance when I came back to the capital, and it was exquisitely written. At first, I thought it was entrainment, but I found that it was written in a paragraph about the ancient kingdom of Khotan. Of course, this is not the focus of my attention, the point is, I have seen Xu Xiake's handwriting before, I think they are very similar, could it be that the content on this piece of paper is written by Xu Xiake?"

Who is Xu Xiake, I believe there is no need to introduce much, about his handwriting is rare, this is because in the year of the fall of the Ming Dynasty, the slaves of the Xu family launched a riot, endangered the Xu family, and then set fire to the Xu family, Xu Xiake's travelogue manuscript was basically burned in this fire.

At present, the only handwriting of Xu Xiake that has been handed down in the world is a regular script calligraphy now stored in the South Yunnan Museum, which is a poem written by him to the monk Miaoxing of Jizu Mountain during his lifetime. Other than that, no one has seen his other works.

Therefore, listening to Lin Xuanming say that he had seen Xu Xiake's handwriting before, it made Meng Zitao very curious.

"Mr. Lin, I don't know where you saw Xu Xiake's handwriting?" Meng Zitao asked.

"It's from a friend of mine, and I have a picture on my phone. Lin Xuanming took out his mobile phone, called up the picture, and gave it to Meng Zitao to enjoy.

Meng Zitao had seen the photo of the authentic work in the Southern Yunnan Museum, so when he looked at the work on Lin Xuanming's mobile phone, he felt that something was not right, not only him, but also Shen Liwei felt that there was something wrong.

"Lao Lin, I think there is something wrong. Shen Liwei said.

"What's the problem?" asked Lin Xuanming.

Shen Liwei explained: "Xu Xiake is so famous that modern people only know him as Xiake, but they don't know that his name is Hongzu, the word Zhenzhi, and the name Xiake. And this 'number' was given to him by his year-old friend Chen Jiru, and the first time they met was in the fourth year of the Apocalypse. And the inscription of this work is the first year of the Apocalypse, let's not talk about calligraphy, just in this regard, this work should have some problems. ”

Lin Xuanming was stunned, he really hadn't thought about this problem, if this is the case, there must be something wrong with this painting, if you want to say that it is possible, and then print it after the seal is engraved, it is not possible to say that it is not possible, but under normal circumstances, it will definitely not be done.

Lin Xuanming smiled bitterly: "Hey, since there are problems with the authenticity of the works, I think there are also problems with my guess." ”

"Not necessarily. Meng Zitao said: "I have seen the authentic painting in the Yunnan Museum, and the calligraphy on your mobile phone photo is still remarkable compared with the real one, and there is no conclusive evidence, and it cannot be said that it is a fake." As for who wrote the fly-headed block on the paper, it will only be known after identification. ”

Lin Xuanming laughed: "Then please ask Teacher Meng to help with the identification, I am grateful." ”

"Don't be so polite, I'm actually quite curious about it. Meng Zitao smiled, put on his gloves, and then began to appreciate it.

The material of the paper should be silk, very light and thin, ordinary people should not be able to afford it, Mencius Tao checked the silk paper, and then began to read the text on it, which does record the history of the ancient kingdom of Khotan.

As early as the 2nd century BC, the city-state of Khotan had already emerged. It was originally a mixed land, and the early inhabitants were mainly Scythians, Indians, and Han Chinese from Iran. But how did these people build a new kingdom? There's a legend here.

Legend has it that a prince of Dongtu was also exiled for his conviction and stayed on the eastern border of present-day Khotan. Later, a small country was gradually formed, and the prince of Dongtu became the king of this country in accordance with the will of the people.

But at this time, the crown prince of Ashoka of India was framed by Princess Ashoka, and his eyes were gouged out. Emperor Ashoka was angry with his ministers and expelled their entire clan north of the snow-capped mountains. Those who had been exiled and migrated slowly reached the western borders of Khotan. These people also established a small state, and elected people of both moral and moral ability to be the head of the state.

As the saying goes, "one mountain cannot accommodate two tigers", the kings of the two countries met in the wilderness while hunting, and each wanted to annex the other and make himself the king of the entire Khotanese region. And so, a fierce battle unfolded in the wilderness.

Later, the Western Monarch was defeated, and in the process of leading his men and horses to flee north, he was beheaded by the Eastern Monarch's soldiers. The monarch in the east collected the defeated soldiers and horses, pacified the subjects of the fallen country, and allowed the two tribes to merge, communicate, and intermarry with each other, so that, over time, a new state was formed, the state of Khotan. Perhaps influenced by this, the ancient kingdom of Khotan was also a country of worshipping Buddha.

Unfortunately, in 962 A.D., Khotan began a war with the Qarakhanid Dynasty, and soon after the defeat of the war, the Khotanese state disappeared.

In addition to the history of the ancient Khotanese kingdom, as well as some customs, there are also some legends of the ancient Khotanese written on the silk paper, but the silk paper is damaged, and the legend is only a beginning, and there is no more, but one of the words makes Mencius very interested, and at the same time feels a bit like a fantasy.

Because the text says that the ancient kingdom of Khotan may be the "Garden of Eden"!

Mencius wanted to laugh a little, how could the ancient kingdom of the East have anything to do with the Garden of Eden, isn't this nonsense? However, this is not the first time he has heard this statement, and the last time he looked up some information on the Internet, he also read this argument, and what he said was still true.

But in the end, it was just some inferences, and Mencius did not believe in this assertion. It's just that what makes him curious is what makes it say that Khotan is the Garden of Eden? And if it was indeed written by Xu Xiake, it would be somewhat interesting.

Thinking of this, Meng Zitao used the ability, and the results showed that it was not Xu Xiake's handwriting, as for the time of writing, it was in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, as for who wrote it, it is unknown because there are too few clues.

What intrigues Mencius is, for what reason did the author write these things in the first place, and also deliberately wrote them on such a thin silk paper, and did there be any basis for some of the things written on it?

"Teacher Meng, do you think this could have been written by Xu Xiake?" Lin Xuanming asked with some hope.

"I'm sorry, I don't think it matches Xu Xiake's handwriting. Meng Zitao explained.

"Hey, I knew I didn't miss my life. Lin Xuanming sighed regretfully.

Shen Liwei said with a smile: "Even if it wasn't written by Xu Xiake, it still has a certain value, besides, you didn't pick up this thing!"

Lin Xuanming smiled: "Hehe, it's just that I'm a little disappointed in my heart." ”

Because of curiosity, Meng Zitao originally wanted to buy the things, but after thinking about it again, he had just done the appraisal, and he and Lin Xuanming had just met, so as not to make Lin Xuanming think more.

Lin Xuanming didn't say that he wanted to sell it, he carefully put it away and put it in his pocket.

"It's nothing, then I'll go first. Meng Zitao got up and said goodbye.

Shen Liwei invited: "Teacher Meng, why don't we have a light meal together in the evening before leaving." ”

"Nope. Meng Zitao waved his hand: "My friend is still waiting, I won't bother this time, next time I will have a treat." ”

"Then don't use it, I'm embarrassed to pass it out......"

After a few polite words, Lin Xuanming didn't know where to take out a small brocade box, and said with a smile: "Teacher Meng, thank you today, be careful, not respectful." ”

Meng Zitao hurriedly refused, but in the end, he accepted it because of his hospitality.

Lin Xuanming said with a smile: "Teacher Meng, if you go to Bianliang, you must inform me, I will do my best to be a landlord." ”

"No problem. ”

Meng Zitao agreed, and then he took his things and left.