Hearing what Mr. Guo said, the eyes of the other old men lit up again. Yang Jing said straightforwardly, "Third Master, how about you take down these two scrolls for us to have a look?"

Although Mr. Huang was tempted, he still said, "Xiao Jing, this is not a good idea, right? Although the quality of this painting is very average, it is a Song Dynasty painting after all, and it is well preserved. If you take down the scroll, it will destroy the mounting. The core of this painting cannot withstand another mounting."

Yang Jing shook his head and said, "Mr. Huang, I know what you mean. You are worried that taking down the scrolls will damage the painting. It doesn't matter. I always feel that there should be something hidden in these two scrolls, and the hidden things are not ordinary. If we don't find out whether there is something hidden in them today, I'm afraid you won't be able to sleep at night, right? Besides, we are just taking down the scrolls, not damaging the painting, it doesn't matter."

After all, Yang Jing is the owner of this painting. Since he doesn't care, it's hard for others to say anything else.

Not to mention, these five old men actually wanted to see if there was really something hidden in these two scrolls. After all, such a thick scroll was really too weird, and this painting was handed down from the Northern Song Dynasty. The things that Zhao Lingrang could hide must be extraordinary.

Mr. Guo is a cultural relic protection expert, and he is more efficient than Mr. Xiao in taking the scroll.

"Then I'm going to get the scroll!" Mr. Guo looked at his old friends and then at Yang Jing.

Yang Jing nodded, asked Mr. Liu a few questions, and then ran into another room and took out a set of tools. Although Mr. Liu's villa was uninhabited, it was fully stocked with tools.

Mr. Guo worked hard for more than 20 minutes before he finally took down the two scrolls. But one has to admire Mr. Guo's craftsmanship. Although taking the scrolls would damage the mounting of the calligraphy and painting, in Mr. Guo's hands, this damage was minimized. If you don't look carefully, you can't even tell that the scrolls of the painting have been taken down.

After taking down the two scrolls, Mr. Guo weighed them separately and said with certainty: "There is indeed something inside the scrolls, and the weight is different. Which one should we open first?"

Several old men looked at Yang Jing. Although Yang Jing was a junior, the painting belonged to him after all. Even his four masters could not make the decision for him.

Yang Jing pointed to the heavier scroll and said, "Third Master, please open this scroll first. Since this scroll is heavy, it means there are more things hidden inside. Let's take a look at what is hidden inside."

Mr. Guo laughed and said, "Then I did the knife, didn't I?"

Several old men said at the same time: "You, Mr. Guo, are so anxious. You are not anxious when you should be anxious." After saying that, the old men all burst into laughter.

A scroll is a material used to mount calligraphy and paintings, also known as an axis head. In ancient times, sandalwood was often used for scrolls, as sandalwood can keep out moisture, smells fragrant, and can keep out moths. However, sandalwood, especially red sandalwood, is relatively heavy, so when making scrolls in ancient times, the sandalwood was usually split in the middle, then hollowed out and joined together, so that a hollow scroll was completed.

Although this scroll painting of "A View of the Jiangning River" is made of rosewood and is somewhat frighteningly thick, it is actually not heavy because both scrolls are hollow.

Mr. Guo looked at the scroll carefully, and then said with certainty: "This painting has not been touched since it was framed. I can be sure of that!"

After saying that, Mr. Guo slowly took down the scroll, then found the marks on the scroll that had been cut, and began to pry it gently, little by little, with a tool. After a short while, this particularly thick scroll was pried into two halves.

Once the scroll was torn open, the contents inside were completely revealed - a roll of something wrapped in a layer of colorless silk.

"This..." Several old men looked at each other and saw the irrepressible excitement in each other's eyes.

At this point, everyone actually understood that the things that Zhao Lingrang hid in the scroll must be good things. At the very least, they must be more precious than the "Jiangning River Map" that Zhao Lingrang painted. Otherwise, given Zhao Lingrang's status, he would not do such a thing to hide things.

Cai Yi said: "Should we do some preparation? This thing has been hidden in the scroll for who knows how many years. Is it okay to open it directly like this?"

Mr. Guo said, "It's not a big problem. This scroll is not sealed tightly. The object hidden inside has always been in contact with the outside air. Otherwise, the silk wrapping outside would not have faded to this extent."

As he spoke, Mr. Guo carefully unwrapped the outer layer of silk, revealing what was inside...

PS: I would like to thank "The Taste of That Summer" and "The Flowers Were Not Blooming at That Time" for their 100-yuan reward.