After hearing my complaint, Old Wang shook his head and said, "Yunfeng, you were too rash this time. In our line of work, we must be cautious, doubly cautious, and then cautious again. The last thing we want is for someone to follow the clues and catch us off guard."
I apologized, saying, "I'm sorry, Boss. I'll definitely be more careful next time."
Old Wang picked up his teacup, blew on it gently, and frowned. "But after all, you're one of my people, Yunfeng. So, tell me—do you want to reclaim your pride?"
Without hesitation, I blurted out, "Yes, Boss. I feel like I've been wronged."
Old Wang took a sip of tea, placed the lid back on the cup, and said, "We just set up our base here yesterday. Right now, we need to keep a low profile. My personal advice to you is to lie low for now. Once we finish this job and leave Shunde, I'll have a word with Red Mole. She has connections in the underworld."
I immediately nodded in agreement.
There were still several bags of blue-and-white soil in the small warehouse of the inn we had rented. However, Old Wang didn't ask me to dispose of the soil anymore. That afternoon, he assigned me another task—to follow Old Sun and help him deal with the bronze artifacts from the previous day.
Walking to the warehouse, I suddenly caught a strong whiff of cumin seasoning. Looking closer, I saw that someone had set up a charcoal grill at the warehouse entrance, where meat was being roasted and generously slathered with seasoning.
Brother Sun was responsible for converting the artifacts into cash, but of course, proper preparation was needed before that could happen.
"Brother Sun, it's Yunfeng. The boss sent me to help," I said, knocking on the warehouse door.
Brother Sun opened the door. At the time, he was wearing a white protective suit, leather gloves, and plastic goggles.
Inside the warehouse, several bronze vessels were laid out on the floor. Beside them was a large white plastic bucket half-filled with a semi-transparent liquid that gave off a pungent odor.
He tossed me a set of protective gear and said, "Yunfeng, put this on."
Though I didn't quite understand why, I suited up as instructed.
"Brother, what are you doing?" I asked, watching as he dropped a bronze jue cup covered in red-spotted rust stains into the bucket.
As soon as the rusted bronze touched the liquid, it immediately began to bubble and fizz. The pungent smell grew even more intense, somewhat reminiscent of urea.
Brother Sun pointed at the submerged jue and explained, "Yunfeng, in our line of work, what I'm doing now is called 'finishing.' The chemical formula and ratio of this solution were specially prepared by an expert hired by the boss."
"'Finishing'? What does that mean, brother?"
Brother Sun smiled and said, "'Finishing' means removing the black patina. Mercury rust from waterlogged sites can penetrate deep into the bronze, and when it covers a wide area, it can easily obscure inscriptions or markings. If that happens, we'd stand to lose a great deal."
He continued, "People in the southern part of the trade call this process 'rust killing,' while we in the north call it 'finishing.' Yunfeng, remember this: for bronze artifacts from the Western Zhou and Warring States periods, square ding vessels are five times more valuable than round ones. Those with inscriptions are ten times more valuable than those without. For inscriptions with more than five characters, each additional character adds thirty thousand yuan to the value. This tomb dates to the early to mid-Western Zhou period. Judging by the structure of the ceiling and the fact that so many bronze artifacts were buried at once in the side chamber, the tomb owner was likely, at the very least, a minor feudal lord from the southern region." Brother Sun analyzed the situation with great authority.
"If we uncover inscriptions that reveal the tomb owner's identity, and if we're really lucky—if this minor feudal lord is actually recorded by name in historical texts—then we'll have truly struck gold!"
After hearing Boss Sun's reasoning, it finally dawned on me. So there was so much to it. And the barbecue stall outside earlier—I now realized Boss Sun had set it up deliberately to mask the pungent smell released during the "killing" process.
The reason for wearing rubber gloves was that the liquid used was corrosive, a necessary precaution to protect ourselves. If this solution for "killing" the bronzes accidentally splashed into the eyes, it would be far more dangerous than copper-nickel alloys—it could blind a person!
After soaking for over twenty minutes, we used stiff-bristled shoe brushes to scrub off the patina. We couldn't scrub too aggressively, nor could we remove all the mercury patina. We only needed to scrub until we were certain there were no inscriptions, then we could stop.
With gloves on, I scrubbed several bronze items one after another, examining each carefully. But I didn't find a single inscribed character, which quickly left me feeling disheartened.
Seeing my disappointment, Boss Sun, who was scrubbing a bronze he vessel, smiled and said, "Yunfeng, no need to be so discouraged. These things depend on fate. When fate allows, it'll happen. If fate isn't on our side, we can't force it."
Just then, as I was scrubbing a small bronze dou vessel, I noticed something after a few brushes inside its base. I wasn't sure if my eyes were playing tricks on me, but I thought I saw the faint golden stroke of a character radical.
"Huh? What's this?" I lifted the bronze dou and scrubbed more vigorously.
"Boss! Boss, come quick! I've found characters! There are inscriptions inside this bronze dou! The strokes are really intricate, like ghostly scribbles!" I excitedly called out to Boss Sun.
He took the bronze dou and examined it for a moment.
Frowning at the few gilded characters revealed on the bronze surface, Boss Sun said, "This... this script isn't Bird Script or Oracle Bone Script. It's Ancient Bronze Script, specifically the Six-Fold Seal Script, which predates even Oracle Bone Script... How could it appear on a Western Zhou bronze?" His eyes were filled with confusion.
Ancient Bronze Script isn't the script of the Jin Dynasty but an ancient form of writing whose origins may even predate Oracle Bone Script, tracing back to before the Shang Dynasty. Well-versed in such matters, Boss Sun immediately recognized that the script on the bronze dou wasn't Bird Script but the Six-Fold Seal Script variant of Ancient Bronze Script!
After his initial frown, excitement took over. Boss Sun said, "Yunfeng, keep scrubbing the rest. Six-Fold Seal Script inscriptions in Ancient Bronze Script are incredibly rare, and those who can decipher them are few and far between. I need to act quickly and find someone to help translate these characters."
He placed the inscribed bronze into a wooden box and hurried off with it.
Later, after we finished the cleaning process, I didn't find any more bronzes with inscriptions—just that one piece.
We worked on this during the day, but at night, we still had our real job to do. Once everyone was asleep, we had to go down into the pit to loot the tomb. But Boss Sun had rushed off in the afternoon and hadn't returned. Without him, we were short one lookout, which was very risky. Old Master Wang didn't dare take such a chance.
That night, Boss Sun didn't return until after midnight. Out of breath, he was still carrying the wooden box—the one with the inscribed bronze dou inside.
Without a word, he rushed to the table, picked up a teapot, and gulped down half of it.
Wiping his mouth, Boss Sun looked at Master Wang and said, "Boss, I called in some contacts from the archaeological research institute. Those Six-Fold Seal Script characters have been translated."
"Oh? What do they say?" Master Wang asked.
Boss Sun opened the wooden box, stroked the bronze dou inside, and coldly uttered four words:
"Marquis Jie's heir."