A dimly lit room with curtains blocking all light. An old man sat in a chair with his head buried deeply.

"Master, there are a lot of good jades in the world, why do you have to find this piece?" a young man in his early twenties asked the old man with a photo.

The old man sighed and said, "Da Chuanzi, don't ask so much, let you look for it, and when you find it, you will naturally know."

_________________ introduction: "My name is Ling Yue, after graduating from college, I was too lazy to look for a job, and my family contributed some money, and I raised some of it myself and opened a seal shop in the antique market in the city.

I don't know how I chose this industry in the first place, but it's mostly because of my hobby. I've been interested in seals since I was a child, and when I was in elementary school, I was able to engrave words on turnips. Later, he stole his father's private seal, and made a copy of wood, and was caught and beaten fatly. When I was in middle school, I gave the blacksmith a box of cigarettes in exchange for a real carving knife, and I have loved it ever since.

For me to open such a store, my family neither said support nor opposition, and all the choices are in my hands. Modern people have fewer opportunities to use seals, and nine and a half out of ten people do not have private seals. Now the seal also exists in the company, the government department. But after all, there are several chapters used in that kind of place, and if you don't change them for ten or eight years, you can't drink it if you count on that little bit of work to eat.

The reason why I opened my shop in the antique market was because I set my sights on ancient seals. As the saying goes, gold is hidden in troubled times, and antiques are hidden in prosperous times. As soon as people's living conditions are good, they naturally start to enjoy them. Enjoyment can't just be about eating and drinking, it's about having a plaything. Some people look to antiques. This thing can not only set off their own taste, but also can appreciate in value, usually at home, a friend to see, their face also has light. Although some people discovered the good thing of antiques and started to collect them, most of them were laymen, and they started to do it as soon as their heads were hot.

Speaking of which, I also have a hot head, I know more about seal carving, but I also know little about antiques. After a long time, I have suffered losses and been deceived, and I slowly understood. Antiques are the only ones that have been left for generations, and the good things are either in museums, or in the bottom of a box in an old farmer's house, or in the grave of an ancient person. And most of the things on the market are fake, modern people imitate the craftsmanship of the ancients and then make it old, at first glance there is no problem, understand the eye, through seeing, touching, smelling, asking a few methods, it is easy to distinguish.

Look, that is, the process of seeing the goods. The ancients said that they were meticulous and meticulous, and they were rough and rough, but they always revealed an artistic conception, and they were all handmade, and some flaws would be retained. Now the imitations, some of which are also really hard work, a little bit of handmade, the degree of simulation of these goods is relatively high. Some cheats are directly made by machinery and made in batches, and the result can only be hehe. Most of these coarse goods are relatively cheap, and some buyers think that they have gone to the shit luck, and they are happy to buy it, only to know that they are not even worth a brick when they go home, and the bricks can still be used to pad the table feet.

Touch, mainly the technology in the hand, touch the goods in the hand to know the authenticity. It's the same as discernment. For example, if you take a scroll, you say that it is the authentic work of Wu Daozi of the Tang Dynasty. As a result, when you touch it, you drew it on last year's calendar paper, which is not reliable. Smelling is the work of the nose. Many antiques are in an extreme environment when they are faked, which inevitably leaves a peculiar smell. For example, someone buried the bronze ware in the dung pit to make green rust, but the rust was there, but it brought out a smell of dung, even if it was put for ten days and half a month, it could not be completely removed. Another example is to use sulfur to steam paper and make old calligraphy and paintings, the smell is also pungent, and this smell penetrates into the paper and is difficult to remove. And the real antique has its own inherent atmosphere.

Ask, is to ask the owner for some information about the goods. Generally, I ask those retail investors, like those who squat on the side of the road, tear up pieces of cloth and pile up bottles and jars, saying that they are digging up the building and selling them without telling the foreman. Most of the cases are fake, which so many jars are dug out by you, the plot has already been explored and dug out before the slotting and digging pits, and the fish that have slipped through the net are only a few after all. So most of these people are liars, liars in the guise of simplicity. Some people will say that it is their own family heirlooms, and some familiar retail investors do not ask, because they know each other that these people are tomb robbers.

How deep the antique industry is, I'm afraid no one can say. Grave robbers are the industry's largest suppliers. In addition to selling things, my shop also collects some goods. After a long time, I have accumulated several suppliers, and as long as they succeed, they will come to me to ship. Strictly speaking, I am buying dirty, or rather, I am buying dirty without knowing it.

Lao Zhao is one of my suppliers, in his forties, with black and shiny hair, a straight suit, shiny leather shoes, and a down-and-out appearance, no matter what, people will not think that he is a tomb robber, I believe that he is a civil servant of a certain unit. In addition to some things in my place, Lao Zhao occasionally took away one or two gadgets from me, and asked him what he was doing, he only said that he was giving it away, but some things were taken away and sent back to me a few days later, saying that he was disgusted, and I had a grass, and I ate steamed buns for nothing.

On this day, he came to my store again, brought an inch square jade seal to me, I took it and started to have a feeling of cool silk, and then looked at it, it was really a good thing, the perfect texture of mutton fat white jade, one inch square, carved on a turtle with its head, the crystal white jade and the bottom of the ink mud want to be integrated. Looking at it on the other hand, there are several small seals engraved on the chapter: Late Spring Lanting Qushui Liuzhen.

Lao Zhao looked at me and said, "What can you see?"

I thought about it, this is to test me, how can I, Senior Young Master Ling, let you pass the test. I've been in the industry for so long, and I'm more or less half an old fritter. Even if you don't know, you can make a few words.

I cleared my throat and said, "Authentic mutton fat white jade, the best of the best", Lao Zhao nodded when he heard this.

I continued: "Judging from the eight characters of Late Spring Lanting and Qushui Liuzhen, the owner of this chapter has a high level of literary accomplishment, and at least it can be regarded as a vassal elegance." , Lao Zhao nodded when he heard this, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

As soon as I saw Lao Zhao's expression, I knew that what I said was all right, and I couldn't help but be complacent. Lao Zhao then asked me, "Do you know who the master of this chapter is?"

I said: "Late Spring Lanting, Qushui Liuzhen These eight characters come from Wang Xizhi's Lanting Collection Preface, I think Wang Xizhi likes these two sentences of his own, and specially carved them." It can be inferred from this that the owner of this chapter must be Wang Xizhi himself. ”

Lao Zhao listened to it and asked me: "There are thousands of people who like Wang Xizhi's character paintings, how do you know that it is not Wang Xizhi himself?" Besides, before Wang Xizhi's death, it was impossible to expect that he would be held up to the position of a book saint, and how much effort did he have to pick up these two sentences that are not adjacent? It would be too arbitrary to draw conclusions based on this. ”

I couldn't find a reason to refute it for a while when I heard him say this, but I was not happy in my heart, and suddenly I saw the turtle on the chapter again, and blurted out: "Wang Xizhi's surname is Wang, so this chapter is engraved with a Wang Ba ......."

Lao Zhao didn't wait for my words to land, a mouthful of tea squirted out, and then laughed and said: "You kid is a strong word, and besides, it's not Wang Ba on this, you can see what it is carefully."

As he spoke, he handed me the seal on the table. In fact, I just want to be quick to talk, and I can't make sense at all, so I won't refute it anymore. After taking the seal, I found that this was not a simple turtle, there was a snake winding on the turtle's back, which came out from under the tortoise shell and finally escaped into the tortoise shell, and finally only half of the snake's head was exposed, which was easy to ignore if you didn't look carefully.

I have an impression of this, this is one of the four divine beasts, Xuanwu. The green dragon and white tiger Xuanwu Vermilion Bird are the four legendary divine beasts. Legend has it that the four sacred beasts each guard one side, among which the green dragon is in the east, the white tiger is in the west, the Xuanwu is in the north, and the Vermilion Bird is in the south. The gate of the ancient palace city has the shadow of these four divine beasts, which correspond to each other in the east, west, north and south. The palace sits in the north and faces south, the south gate is the Suzaku Gate, and the north side is the Xuanwu Gate. Today, the Shenwu Gate in the north of the Palace Museum is the original Xuanwu Gate. During the reign of Emperor Kangxi, in order to avoid the "Xuan" character of the emperor "Xuanye", it was changed to Shenwumen.

Lao Zhao saw that I was fascinated, so he simply snatched the seal from my hand and said, "I don't see anything yourself, so I'll tell you about it." When I heard it, I was so happy. Anyway, there were usually few people in the store, so he simply closed the door and called Lao Zhao to come to a hot pot restaurant near the antique city. The owner of the shop is from Sichuan, and when he saw that he was a regular customer, he smiled and took me into the private room. After a while, Lao Zhao and I pushed the cup to change the lamp, and we were already a little drunk. Lao Zhao only then talked about this seal.

Lao Zhao was mysterious, and said a little bit: "Tell me, which is the biggest dynasty in Chinese history."

I said in my heart that this question will only be asked if I drink too much, and of course it is the Yuan Dynasty established by the Mongols.

Lao Zhao continued: "How many years did the Yuan Dynasty exist?"

I said that for more than a hundred years, I picked up the wine glass and poured another cup of Lao Zhao, and said, "Don't sell it, say it quickly." Lao Zhao smiled and said: "The Yuan Dynasty that you said has existed for more than a hundred years refers to the time when the Mongols entered the Central Plains and was finally driven out of the Central Plains by Zhu Yuanzhang. Mongolia retreated to the steppes, not since it has disappeared. ”

I said, "What does this have to do with this seal?"

Lao Zhao took a sip of wine and said, "This seal is the property of a prince at the end of the Mengyuan Dynasty."

As soon as I heard him, I couldn't help but pick it up and take a closer look. Lao Zhao continued: "The Mongols stayed in the Central Plains for more than 100 years and received the influence of Han culture. Therefore, it is not uncommon for the prince of Mongolia to fall in love with Wang Xizhi's calligraphy and paintings. ”

I listened to it and said, "It's a pity that there are too few authentic works of Wang Xizhi, so I have to engrave a seal to talk about **?"

Lao Zhao shook his head, "This is not just a matter of talking about **, this seal should be a miniature map." ”

"Maps?" I was taken aback. Lao Zhao snorted and said, "That's right, this seal is a map indicating the location of the prince's tomb."

Hearing this, I smiled and said, "Lao Zhao, don't cheat me, the Mongolian tradition is to bury in the sky, and the corpses are eaten by eagles and wolves, which represents a return to nature." Legend has it that even Genghis Khan's body was not preserved after his death, and today's Genghis Khan's Mausoleum is a place of worship. What are you talking to me about the tomb of the Mongolian prince? What's more, with these eight words, even the neighborhood committee can't be marked clearly. ”

Lao Zhao replied: "The sky burial you said is indeed true, but that was before the Mongols accepted Han culture. The Mongols have been influenced by the Han culture for a hundred years, and there have already been examples of thick burials, especially some princes and nobles, who also learned from the emperor and ministers of the Han nationality after death, and built an underground palace with the intention of continuing to enjoy after death. And the prince I'm talking about now is a nobleman in the late Yuan Dynasty, is there anything unusual about building a mausoleum? ”

As soon as I heard what Lao Zhao said, it made sense, and it was reasonable. Lao Zhao saw that I didn't speak, and was about to continue, when the people in the private room were suddenly pushed away. Lao Zhao reacted super quickly, and with a stroke of his hand, he put the jade seal into his chest pocket, like a nobody.

As soon as I saw the people who came in, I was happy. The person who came was called Niu Xuejing, and my hair was small. The two of us have been classmates since elementary school, eating meat together, fighting together, and being good brothers who live and die together.

Niu Xuejing is relatively small, and he is a little fat, I often call him fat, Niu Xuejing is not convinced, saying that although he is fat, he is not fat, and he can't be called fat. So let me change my name to him and call him a gentleman. I called for a while, and I didn't feel like my mouth, so I called him Pit. He asked me what I meant, and I said that at your height, standing in the crowd, you are a pit. Niu Xuejing heard that it made some sense, so I kept calling him a pit.

As soon as Niu Xuejing came in, he pointed at me and scolded: "Lao Tzu knows that you are here, Sun Monkey, you can't escape from my flower monk's Five Finger Mountain."

As soon as I heard this, I hurriedly beckoned him to sit down, and when I saw that someone else was there, I also restrained myself.

Then I introduced the two of them to each other, and the pit called Brother Zhao respectfully, but the old Zhao Le said: "This Niu brother is very lively."

The pit looked naïve, touched the back of his head and said, "Niu Xuejing, Niu Xuejing."

Lao Zhao nodded, and chattered again: "Niu Xuejing, Niu Xuejing, Niu Xuejing, all the cows have learned well this year."

After listening to the pit, I looked embarrassed, and my heart was happy, and finally there was a time when you kid suffered a dumb loss.

I quickly adjusted the atmosphere and said, "How do you know your dad is here?"

The pit glared at me and said, "Your father." I went to your store to look for you, and found that there was no one, and when I thought about people like you, it was absolutely impossible for me to go out with my sister to have fun, and I must have come to eat hot pot. So here I am. ”

I thought to myself**Where to find me, do I have anything to do with my sister, you have to be a bachelor to eat hot pot? Then he pretended to be serious and said, "What are you looking for me, haven't you seen me busy?"

The pit was not in a hurry, so he called the waiter to add a set of utensils, ate it, and said while eating: "You have to let me eat first."

Lao Zhao stood up and said, "Brother Ling, it's unfortunate today, I still have some things, so I'll miss the company first."

I knew that Lao Zhao wanted to avoid suspicion, so I didn't force him to stay, and asked him to come to my store another day, and then chat. After Lao Zhao left, there were only two of me and the pit, and the pit ate for a while, poured a glass of wine, and said to me: "Dude, I want to rob the tomb."

I heard a man who almost fell off his chair and said, "** The brain is burned out, and there is nothing to do to steal the grave."

The pit family is very wealthy and has a good father. The pit itself has a restaurant and a large game hall. The game hall is next to the hotel, and every day a group of people go to the restaurant to eat when they are hungry from the game hall, and then go to the game hall when they are full. The pit is called a one-stop service.

Pit explained: "I just got a girlfriend recently, and I'm very beautiful"

I said, "But she's a female ghost, so let you move in with her?"

The pit smiled: "If it's really a female ghost, it's not bad, it's a female pervert."

I said in my heart that the skin of this pit is getting thicker and thicker.

He continued, "I'm just thinking about what to send as a token of love."

I squeezed him and said, "Kidney Bao, she's good for you."

The pit said, "Can you be serious!"

This grandson also scolded me for being indecent, obviously he mentioned some female pervert first.

The pit then said, "I'm thinking, gold and silver are nothing rare, and I want to give her an ancient jade."

I said, "I have it in the store, go get it."

The pit muttered: "People don't want to show their sincerity, so they must go on a trip by themselves."

"Then you're looking for me to do it?" I then asked him.

The pit approached me and said, "Little brother, there are shipments in your store, isn't it just a drill dragon, introduce me to take me back." The Drill Dragon is our name for tomb robbers, similar to the slang of the charlatans.

My heart said that this is a matter of bringing it? If this was a matter of fairness, it would have been possible to advertise jobs on TV without acting at night. But I've always had the idea of pits. I always pick up their goods for a long time, and I feel more and more mysterious. The more mysterious a person is confronted with, the more interested he becomes. I want to find out.

The pit asked me, "What did that person do just now?"

I said, "Lao Zhao, he is the Drill Dragon you are looking for."

Pit Zi slapped his thigh and said anxiously: "Then you shouldn't have let him go just now."

"You're mysterious, who knows what's going on with you. Besides, it's not certain whether people accept it or not. ”

The pit looked remorseful and said, "Missed the opportunity, the missed opportunity." If you ask him out again another day, you must help your buddy once. ”

The pitiful eyes of the pit, like a dog looking at a bone that can't gnaw it, feel funny when you look at it. I wasn't going to pay attention to him, but when he pleaded so hard that I was about to make a personal promise at last, I decided to help him again, and it would be up to him to see if he was created. In fact, there is also a little curiosity of mine at work.

Later, after eating, I called Lao Zhao again and asked him to meet at the hot pot restaurant at noon the next day.

There was nothing to do for a day, and at nine o'clock the next morning, the pit came to me at home and drove a broken Jetta. Shouting on the street in the early morning, I don't think this product is drugged, why do you get up so early. After washing up, I ate something casually, and when I saw that it was almost ten o'clock, I didn't plan to go to the store. I laughed at him and said, "You stole this broken car from the museum, and the money earned by the game hall and restaurant is reluctant to spend?"

"This is called low-key, you can't show your wealth if you have money." ”

I said, don't wear pants when you go out.

The pit snorted and said, "If you don't wear pants, you won't be a hooligan, but you can consider not wearing underwear, which is cost-effective and comfortable."

I broke out in a cold sweat when I heard this, this is a calculation. It's shameless to the extreme.

All the way to the hot pot city, because the lunch time is still early, there is no one in the store, the owner of the hot pot city saw me come in, smiled and didn't say anything, I also smiled as a greeting, and then went directly into the private room with the two of them.

After ordering the meal, drinking tea and waiting until after eleven o'clock, Lao Zhao came in from outside. As soon as I entered the door and saw that the pit was there, I froze it a little and said with a smile: "Brother Niu is also here."

The pit was full of smiles, and he went up to hold Lao Zhao's hand and said, "Brother Zhao is good, but I can look forward to you."

Lao Zhao was a little panicked, and he couldn't figure out what medicine was sold in this pit gourd. I thought to myself, even if it's a ghost, I don't know what this thing thinks in its heart. Three glasses of wine were down, and each of them let go. The pit pestered Lao Zhao to talk about the tomb robbery, but Lao Zhao couldn't resist the pit, and talked to us while drinking.

According to Lao Zhao, tomb robbery has a far-reaching origin and has existed in Chinese history. Famous tomb robbery incidents, such as after Wu Zixu broke through the capital city of Chu, he opened the tomb of King Chuping and pulled King Chuping out to whip his body. Although Wu Zixu's purpose was not to find the gold and silver treasures in the tomb of King Chu, this act of digging up the tomb and taking the corpse was still a tomb robbery. This famous tomb robbery incident is mostly due to political factors, and later after Emperor Shunzhi of the Qing Dynasty took office, he dug up the tomb of his uncle Dolgon and whipped the corpse, which is the same reason. In the early days of the Republic of China, Sun Dianying used explosives to blow up the Qing Emperor's Mausoleum and take away the treasures in Cixi's tomb, purely to satisfy his own gold and silver**. Under normal circumstances, the vast majority of tomb robbery activities are hidden, and no matter whether they succeed or fail, they will not publicize anything. It was only when archaeologists opened a tomb for salvage excavation that multiple of the tomb's robbers were revealed.

Lao Zhao told us that tomb robbers are generally three or five in a group, not too many, if there are really more than ten or twenty people, then they have to act separately, and the goal of more than a dozen people is too big. Tomb robbers generally have their own native vegetables, the so-called native vegetables, refers to a tomb robber can only take a kind of things in the tomb, some people specialize in robbing the porcelain in the tomb, some people specialize in robbing the bronze in the tomb, some people also specialize in staring at the gold and silver in the tomb, and some semi-tomb robbers, specializing in stealing the stone statues in front of the tomb. This kind of person generally steps on the spot during the day, and then drives to pull it at night when no one is around, and runs when he gets into the car, and its mobility is quite large.

The pit asked Lao Zhao what his native vegetables were, and Lao Zhao said it was jade. The pit nodded and said that he had found the right person, which confused Lao Zhao. Authentic Drill Dragons will follow the rules of local cuisine and will never set foot in other people's fields.

The pit wondered, "What if there are no such things in the tomb?"

Lao Zhao replied: "Then pick a coffin board down to show that the thief is not empty."

The pit did not give up, and said, "What if there is no coffin?"

Lao Zhao said, "Then grab a handful of soil from the tomb and sprinkle it on the ground."

It sounds like dust to dust. The pit then asked, "Aren't you scared down there?" Have you ever encountered any ghosts or gods? ”

I said in my heart that I was obviously a materialist, and I started an idealist again. Lao Zhao took a sip of tea, and then said to us: "Why aren't you afraid, I went down to Tucheng for the first time at the age of fifteen, that is, the tomb, I was scared to pee my pants before I went down, and I refused to go down, and then I was forced into the thief hole by the master." The pit said, "Then your master is ruthless enough." Lao Zhao snorted and said: "It's ruthless enough, but it's all for my good, I don't even dare to steal holes in this business, so how can I eat this mouthful of food."

I asked, "Then how is your master and his old man doing?"

Lao Zhao sighed and said: "Eight years ago, I entered the tomb of a Ming Dynasty prince with my master, but the tomb was not clean, and the master was poisoned by the corpse at that time, although he escaped at that time, but then his health became worse and worse, and the corpse poison accumulated in the body tortured him all the time, and he went after five years."

I know with the pit that Lao Zhao's "unclean" is definitely not that the tomb is unhygienic and simple, but that there is something unsightly in the tomb.

After that, Lao Zhao told us about that experience.