"During this period in April 1894, China was indeed in a state of deep sleep. It deceives itself with the illusion of great and powerful prosperity that does not in reality continue to exist, and in fact all that remains is a large population, a vast territory, a heavy burden, and an illusory assumption that it remains the central empire, the center of the world, and, like a leper, tries to avoid contact with foreign countries. When I was able to begin to look more closely at China and meet for the first time with the Prime Ministers, I was amazed at how ignorant, arrogant, and isolated the Manchu-Han Empire was, with a rudely 'Don't touch me' warning. ”

The French ambassador Schalain recalls the Qing government in 1894 and uses this description, but in another of his memoirs, we see some of the actions he carried out at the same time as a political figure that are still inconclusive.

In 1894, the French ambassador Sch Allan carefully concealed a batch of documents written on parchment, in 324 volumes, in thirty suitcases of personal luggage that he had transported to China on merchant ships. Wrapped in various ledgers and drafts of architectural plans, it passed through the customs of China. It is registered as a blueprint for the official residence of the French Chamber of Commerce in China. In August of the same year, under the introduction of the Qing royal family's designer Style Lei family, Shi Alan met the patriarch of the Huainan Su family at that time. As a famous craftsman at that time, the Huainan Su family made a living from the exquisite design of royal utensils, and Shi Alan displayed the three hundred and twenty-four rolls of parchment in the Su family's compound, which is said to have a design drawing of one thing.

In the genealogy of the Su family in Huainan, the scene at that time was secretly recorded, when the compound was closed, and all the people below the current generation of the Su family were stopped outside the compound, and the patriarch of the Su family took several of the most accomplished craftsmen in the family to watch the drawings in the compound without saying a word.

Because there are no other records and records, only corresponding records in Shi Alan's memoirs and Huainan chronicles, there is no other information, and we cannot know the meaning and purpose of these design drawings. However, we may be able to deduce some directions from another identity of Shi Alan who was in his entourage at that time, the document conservation adviser of the French Academy of Sciences.

Before leaving for China, Ma Deleng had been helping the French Academy of Sciences to organize and preserve the ancient books in the libraries of French monasteries, but could the drawings have been found in the underground library of one of the ancient monasteries where he worked? What exactly are the design drawings on the drawings used to design, and why do you need the help of Chinese craftsmen?

Come, and let me start at the beginning.

My involvement in this story was purely an accident, my name is Anfen, is my real name, my father is called Safety, he used to work as a fitter in the factory, because of his name, he was always appointed as a safety supervisor by the team leader, so his nickname is called Safety First, unfortunately, people are not as good as their name, a production accident A worker violated the rules, missing three fingers, my father was inexplicably criticized, he was really angry and resigned and went to the sea, started with 40 yuan, and opened a watch shop.

My father was a quiet man, and I didn't know much about him, and he died when I was about ten years old. Now that I think about it, my father chose the name Anfen, probably because he hoped that I would keep to myself and do some healthy small business like him to benefit the neighborhood. But people are not as good as their names can be inherited, I was very poor at reading, and by the time I was in high school, I could barely understand what the teacher was saying, so I had to come out and mix with society, and because of my weak personality, I was not successful in mixing society, and in the end, I could only barely survive with some petty theft.

At that time, the most time was to go to the construction site to steal scrap steel bars, which was a harvest of three or four yuan a day, eat a pancake, drink a bottle of beer, and then buy a pirated magazine on the side of the road to read. For a while, there were a lot of small books of martial arts novels on the roadside, and I also looked forward to the opportunity for me to live a chivalrous and legendary life of petty thieves in the future.

Of course, when such an opportunity really came, I also understood that the reason why a thief is a thief is because he is a chivalrous man first, and I am a thief first, and I can never become what I hope to be.

That autumn, after a long period of muddy days, I was living in my rented house in the rural-urban area, and when I looked up, I could see that the leaves of the big plane trees outside the courtyard had begun to turn yellow again.

I often think that if people could not see themselves on the surface of the lake and perceive the laws of the four seasons, then most of their lives should be carefree, but unfortunately, human beings are creatures that can look beyond the finite to the infinite, and I don't know what kind of power designed this ability for us, so that we can never get peace. And even if I understand this, I have to work hard for my limitations, and I hope that before winter comes, I can save some money and go home for the New Year.

I had a goal in mind, and I had been planning for a long time, and I didn't dare to steal from people's homes, except as a last resort, and most of the time, I was willing to steal some unguarded, low-value scrap. In the town where I live, there are a number of ancient buildings that have been preserved for three or four years, but the government has no money. It has not been developed, because there is no living and no one developing, and the house is getting older. It looks very dilapidated.

The pattern of this old building area is very strange, I think there must be a master to participate in the design, all the houses are leaning against one by one, forming a circle, there are several layers of ancient houses inside and out, a circle around a circle of concentric circles, on Google Maps, like a target, at that time, the first phase of the project, was repaired with the old Ming and Qing Dynasty buildings, the beams and timbers of the wooden structure are there, but some steel bars and pipelines are reinforced. When I went in the middle of the night, I walked through a dozen old houses of all sizes and circular streets outside, and walked between dark and eerie old houses. Didn't see a single person. Only in one of the courtyards in the center of this old building area, there are lights.

It was a three-entry house, very dilapidated, the white walls were all putty, revealing a large piece of variegated bricks inside, the walls were slanted, reinforced with wooden sticks, with a lot of words written on it, and there was a telephone pole on the left outer wall.

It was the most unsafe, I stepped on a telephone pole to climb to the top of the wall, there was a big tree in the yard, I climbed down the tree.

The room with the lights on was on the second floor, the old-fashioned carved windows, the paint had faded away, the distance between the windows was large, it was obvious that the window frames had rotted and deformed, and the roof tiles were full of weeds, and the light came out from the inside. No human figure can be seen. If you don't look at the neon high-rise buildings outside the entire complex, this place is simply the Lanruo Temple in A Chinese Ghost Story.

I observed it, and it was very important to observe this line, because the windows on the first floor were not closed, and I could see that the furnishings were very large, and there was a lot of porcelain at a glance, and it should be difficult for me to take them away.

And next to the room on the second floor, there is another room, which is dark, and in this room, there may be valuable things, mobile phones, computers, wallets, and pads. These are easy to get your hands on, or maybe some jewelry if it's a woman.

So I crept up and the tiles were loose, and I was not weighing much, and I used my hook to pick the latch of the old window, and jumped into the dark room.

The moonlight outside came in and it was dim, but I still knew at a glance that there was nothing in this room.

It was completely empty, only on the floor in the middle of the room, in the area in the center three meters wide and five meters long, there were many intricate lines and patterns, which looked like they were some years old, and the nicks were already pulped. In the center of the pattern, there is also a concentric circle, which is carved very carefully. The lines are connected to each other to form patterns, and the overall appearance looks like some kind of design or map.

I couldn't help but look up at the ceiling, what was going on with this big target and a small target in my heart. When I looked up, I saw a man hanging upside down on the beam, looking at me.

This is the first time I've met Sue as a person. In the following 20 years, I often thought about this scene, and it was a moment that changed my life and, ultimately, people's understanding of the world.