Chapter 104: Fancy Archaeological Discovery

The next afternoon, at the Oniru Tower and the Nanakamado Research Center.

The assistant team in charge of the physical examination plan worked tirelessly for several days and finally sorted out the detailed information of all the examinees.

Suzuki Sonoko had no idea why she couldn't sleep in at home in broad daylight and was ordered to come here to squat - but this didn't stop her from looking through some information for personal gain in between playing games, secretly studying the height, weight, bone density and so on of these "genius teenagers".

I had only turned two pages when the old man who had been in charge of taking care of her recently pushed the door open.

Yuanzi immediately sat up straight and pushed the document back to its original place as if nothing had happened.

The old man's wise eyes swept across the not-so-tidy footer. Instead of being angry, he was very pleased: His Highness Suzuki actually took the initiative to pay attention to the work!

So he asked kindly, "The junior high school tennis team's training camp is about to begin. Do you want to go and see it?"

Yuanzi thought about it and said sincerely: I was ignored so badly last time that I have a psychological trauma.

"Is it okay not to go?"

——These guys are causing too much trouble. If you have this free time, you might as well go to class and start that seasoning factory.

——Besides, their family has not yet found its next generation, so visiting a sperm bank and looking at freezers is more reliable than going to a tennis match to watch junior high school students.

The old man listened to her calmly and then became curious: "If you're not interested, why are you secretly looking at other people's information?"

Suzuki Sonoko was so choked by the word "secretly rubbing" that she coughed on the spot.

This sentence sounded as if she only wanted to use the information channels of the Yuzhu Tower to find a date through the back door, but was unwilling to take on the responsibilities assigned to her.

Although she did think so, but...

Miss Suzuki quietly defended herself in her heart: It wasn't that she was really just trying to take advantage, but from the very beginning, she felt that all the work assigned to her by the people in Yuzhu Tower was too superficial.

——They seemed to be committed to having her appear before all parties as a representative, and to tying her tightly to the label of Yuzhu Tower from the public level (of a specific circle).

Yuanzi's intuition kept calling out to her. She always felt that if she followed the arrangements of this group of people, some magical development would occur that she absolutely could not accept.

The target is the King of Gold, so she definitely cannot fall out with him. After thinking it over again and again, Ms. Suzuki could only be thick-skinned and act out non-violent non-cooperation.

What she meant was: On the day of the training camp, she did go as the old man suggested, but her plan was to just be a passerby, wander around the corners of the base, take in the scenery for a while, and then come back.

Two days later, Nanchuan Tennis Training Base.

Suzuki Sonoko, wearing a short robe embroidered with eight-eyed dragon horn patterns, was leisurely strolling on the tree-lined path in the back garden of the base. As she walked, she couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

She thought again about the strange attitude of the people in the Royal Pillar Tower towards her.

——What do you think those people want from her? As for cooperation, with the power of the Golden King who is known as the incarnation of the country, it doesn't really matter whether they cooperate or not. If they need to choose someone, there are more than a dozen rich daughters who are qualified. Even if they are not as rich as the Suzuki family, their personal qualities can basically kill her in seconds.

What exactly does Guo Changlu Dajue like about her?

The more Sonoko thought about it, the more she felt that the Golden King's patience with her was abnormal. She didn't know whether his ultimate goal was good or bad, and she was very worried.

She walked about three hundred meters in the wind and rain, and saw her own shadow through the glass of a roadside telephone booth.

I don’t know if the blur is equivalent to a beautifying filter, or if the narrow cross-section of the glass makes her look thinner. At first glance, the long-haired girl in the glass actually has a certain literary and artistic beauty even in her melancholy.

Wow, I'm so beautiful...

After being infatuated for two minutes, Suzuki Sonoko's mind wandered and she thought: According to the plot of ordinary TV dramas, in this situation, a handsome boy in a white shirt should be running to the end of the boulevard!

The first person that popped into her mind was Yato, which instantly scared her awake.

Just the two of them, one in a long coat, the other in a tracksuit, jumping and hugging each other facing each other - is this a funny meeting?

Suzuki Sonoko sighed with an indescribable expression. It had been a long time since she had been infatuated with a girl. She wasn't very proficient in her job. Her imagination was too worrying. The world was full of handsome faces. No, actually, Yato looked very handsome at certain moments...

Not only did Suzuki Sonoko suddenly feel that Yato was handsome, but she also spent a long time recalling Yato's name: she could only recall the handsome part!

Thinking of this, she was shocked: When did I go blind?

Yuanzi was startled when he suddenly heard a rustling sound and a murderous aura suddenly came from not far to the left!

She subconsciously turned sideways and was about to retaliate with a Black Tiger Heart-Rip attack, but in a flash, a light-colored figure whizzed over the bushes, and Yuanzi almost stopped in mid-air, and was grabbed by the man's outstretched right hand!

"you--"

For a moment, time seemed to stand still.

Suzuki Sonoko remained in the strange position of being held in place by one hand, looking at the boy who suddenly appeared in front of her panting, and said in surprise and doubt:

“——Brother-in-law?!”

=====

Let’s go back an hour.

In the collective training, especially the [collective training] which is essentially for screening young people with super powers, those who can get a place must be elites.

The gathering was entirely based on schools. Although they had just fought to the death in the national competition not long ago, there was surprisingly no tension between the elites of each school. Yuushi Ozuki got off the school bus, walking slowly while looking down at his notes.

It's a thick book filled with dense writing, but it has nothing to do with tennis.

If you look closely, you'll see they're all cut-out pictures and archaeological materials.

What archaeology?

Archaeology [Did he have a princess and a previous life during the Warring States Period?].

This task can be said to be extremely complicated. In that isolated era, there were still many small forces living in seclusion in one area. It was normal for one chicken to die and another to crow. Some small towns that disappeared in a flash did not even leave behind any unofficial history.

Driven by his romantic sentiments, Yuji Oshitari willingly devoted himself to the cause of archaeology. Although it was very interesting in itself, the process was indeed cumbersome, and the parts he examined had little overlap with the history textbooks. In addition to consuming a lot of personal time, it couldn't even earn him more points in history class.

Atobe Keigo followed him down with an expressionless face and kicked him in the knee without saying a word.

"Even if you're being foolish, consider the situation." The perpetrator, not feeling guilty at all, crossed his arms and gave him a look of mercy. "There will definitely be training matches in the later stages of the training camp. If you get distracted and affect Hyotei's chances of winning, you'll bear the consequences at your own risk."

Ozuki Yuushi smiled helplessly, sighed while holding the notebook, and said with a sigh: "Atobe-kun has a really good mental state." His tone was three parts true and seven parts false. "Even though we are secretly in love, it has never affected our performance in the game."

Atobe Keigo paused, but calmly replied, "What I learned from her is to cherish the present and live up to myself. The days when I can devote my heart and soul to tennis are few and far between, so there's no time to waste on idleness."

Ninzuka couldn't help but let out a "wow".

"That sounds really positive," he said, writing down the time at the end of the information. "But the latest rumors aren't very good. It seems that Miss Sonoko from the Suzuki family has found true love."

"Are you stupid?"

Atobe rolled his eyes unmoved, "People should live for themselves. As long as you follow your heart, there's nothing wrong with doing anything. But everyone has responsibilities, so we must learn to compromise."

It's just that her compromise was too tragic...

Thinking of this, Keigo Atobe hallucinated a whimpering sound in his ears, and seemed to see the girl squatting beside the pit to bury him again.

——She cried so hard at that time, her living environment must not be as easy as it looks from the outside. A person's psychological defense line is like a spring, which will inevitably break when stretched to the limit.

Keigo Atobe always felt that it was superficial for Oshitari to unilaterally define his feelings for Suzuki Sonoko as a "secret crush." ​​From the first day he heard about this, Keigo Atobe was unusually calm.

Under the influence of Oshitari, Hyuga Takeru has always had some misunderstandings about him. Lately, he often looks at him with a look that says, "Wow, your true love is with someone else. You're so pitiful! You need to calm down."

——But rather than being “crazy about love”, he was in a state of “very worried” most of the time.

Bu had also heard about the Suzuki family's heir's deeds of turning the world upside down for true love. Compared to the "true love theory" that everyone was more willing to spread, he felt that this abnormal behavior that seemed like madness was more like a rebound after the spiritual world was suppressed to the extreme.

It's not that she fell in love with an incompatible person, but the fact that she fell in love with an incompatible person gave her the channel and courage to vent her repression.

Once the suppressed anger was released, all that was left was an unmanageable mess. At that time, given Miss Suzuki's tearful personality, she would probably have no tears even if she wanted to cry.

The thoughts here are too complicated. For someone like Inuzaka, who can only accept literary and artistic love movies, he probably cannot understand this seemingly plausible entanglement.

Fortunately, Atobe was too lazy to explain to him that it was just a delusion (after all, he was researching his past life every day), so what was there to worry about?

However, Oshitari's archaeological activities were highly academic. In order to collect rare information, he even used his connections with the medical university to get in touch with many prestigious industry experts.

When Atobe had nothing to do, he followed him and gained a lot of knowledge, which could be considered as broadening his horizons.

So he changed the subject: "Any recent results?"

Atobe glanced at the notebook in his hand.

Oshitari thought for a moment and said, "I contacted a private auction."

"Where?"

"Professor Maeda recommended it."

Oshitari explained, "Half a month ago, fishermen fished out a drowned middle school student near Neihe. He was the Gao Liyao who was in the news. He had been missing for a long time..."

"Selling people?"

Atobe-kun, holding his tennis bag, retorted, "Be careful when participating in this kind of activity. I don't want to see news about Master Oshizuka in the social news."

Oshitari rolled his eyes. "Rescuing him was just a side job. The kid seems to have been kidnapped by an antiquities trafficking organization. He hasn't been seen in years. This time, there might be a conflict within the group. It's said that the entire ship sank. Many priceless artifacts were salvaged from the sea near where the kid left the water."

“…Is this true?”

"Anyway, there's no problem identifying the age," Oshitari Yuushi took out the notebook and flipped through it. "It's anywhere from five hundred to one hundred years old, and there's no record of it. It's in perfect condition, so we can just display it right after we buy it."

After saying that, he pulled out a photo from the compartment, held it between two fingers and held it in front of Atobe Keigo.

Atobe stared at the photo for a while, his brows slightly wrinkled, "Are you sure there is nothing wrong?" It was obviously a wooden jewelry box, and it was salvaged from the sea, but there was no sign of sea water erosion.

Oshitari shrugged nonchalantly. "They say it didn't sink that long... but I didn't intend to buy it from the beginning. I went there mainly for the 'Warring States Period' cultural setting."

With his status, as long as he doesn't deliberately cause trouble, it is absolutely safe for him to watch the fun.

Atobe looked at the photo for a while and reluctantly believed that it was real - his grandmother's birthday was about to come, and the prices of goods on such occasions were generally much lower than the market price. If the origin was really safe, it would be an option.

"When exactly?"

"Three days later, Jingwu is going too?"

"Um."

"...Aren't you worried that my invitation is for a single person? It's only natural, young master."

The eldest young master saw Supervisor Sakaki's raised gesture from afar, and he didn't even bother to reply to him. He waved his hand to signal Inuzuka to leave quickly, as he had important things to do now.

Inuzaku smiled indifferently, and seeing that the surrounding environment was nice, he, a young man who had been immersed in literature and art for a long time in his past and present life, suddenly felt a sense of melancholy for no reason. He slowly separated from the large group of people of Bingdi and stepped onto the tree-lined path with his thick notebook.

Cicadas chirped in his ears and the sun was shining brightly in front of him. As he walked, Yuushi Ozuki slowly turned to the cover of the notebook.

Compared to the colorful inner pages, this side looks clean. There is only a simple portrait on the eight-fold paper.

Oshitari's painting skills are not outstanding, and the awakening of past life memories itself is not very scientific, so his [past life memories] are also very vague.

Even if he exhausted all his artistic cells and performed dozens of percentage points beyond his normal level, he still only had a condescending four-fifths profile.

He filled in the slender shoulders, neck and waist according to the approximate proportions, and outlined the unclear patterns on the clothes. He also chose a set of colored pencils for color adjustment and added the dark green eyes that were highlighted against the white background.

It looks like a frame from a girls' manga.

The young man with navy blue hair held the portrait horizontally in front of him, and as he looked at it, he sighed lazily: There is only such a vague shadow, where can I find you, Your Highness Princess?

After completing his daily routine of sighing, he was about to put away his notebook and find a way to gather at the venue, but when he glanced around, he saw a slow-moving figure suddenly flash by in the corner that his eyes had swept over!

Yuushi Oshizuka was nailed to the spot by this look for no reason.

He was stunned for almost ten seconds before he suddenly regained his breathing instinct and raised the notebook back to his eyes.

He looked at the slowly moving silhouette, then raised the notebook and looked at the figure in disbelief: She had already walked far away by now, and from the side and rear angle - damn, it looked even more like her!

The young Oshitari boy's eyes followed the figure intently, and he subconsciously raised his hand to touch his chest.

First it was boom, boom, boom.

Then boom, boom, boom, boom.

He took five deep breaths on the spot before realizing that his body had some uncontrollable reactions and even the tips of his five fingers were shaking.

He wiped his forehead and seemed to have some cold sweat.

There is indeed a problem here...

Yuushi Ozuki thought: His awakening of the memories of his past and present lives was indeed the arrangement of fate. Judging from his uncontrollable reaction, perhaps at this moment, there was a residual soul of Yuushi Ozuki who was a samurai in his previous life, affecting his body deep in his soul.

But at the same time, he was mentally calm.

The physiological reaction was a bit extreme, making Oshitari suspect that he was afraid of something!

Before he could finish complaining in his heart, his legs had already started running uncontrollably. The sound of the wind passing by his ears almost drowned out his throbbing heartbeat. He staggered over the gutter and crossed the garden, protecting his head with both hands and pushing aside the branches. In a posture that was both cool and painful (after all, it scratched his hands), he recklessly crossed the obstacles.

At the moment when the sunlight and the back figure came into view almost at the same time, he reached out his hand eagerly and grabbed her wrist which was swaying gently as she moved.

"I'm talking to you—"

His question, which was only a breathy sound due to the wind entering his throat, dissipated silently in the wind.

It was the girl who was shaken by the sudden force, and then, in Yuushi Oshitari's visual world, which was almost a hundred times slower: the figure with a familiar pattern embroidered on the shoulder turned from back to front, frame by frame, until the end of the brown hair brushed the fabric and circled along the line of her arm, and the slightly confused face just caught his eye.

Then he frightened both of them to the point of being stunned on the spot.

Yuushi Oshizuka looked at this very familiar face, feeling the uncontrollable excitement in his heart. On his retina, the horrified expression that Suzuki Sonoko had twisted into an emoticon was reflected, and then he called out to him in surprise:

"Brother-in-law!?"

=====

To be honest, Yuanzi was so scared by him that she almost questioned her life.

——Hasn’t this person been brainwashed?

——Why do you seem to still remember who I am?!

Based on the basic trust in Yuzhuta's business capabilities, although Suzuki Sonoko was shocked and doubtful in her heart, she managed to remain calm.

After a moment's thought, she decisively bowed, pretending the resounding "brother-in-law" (a name reserved for internal ridicule) hadn't even occurred. She greeted him with a pleasant demeanor, "Is it... Oshitari-kun? Even if you need help, could you please let go of my hand?"

She shook her arm calmly: "It hurts."

It sounds like the truth.

Because of his cousin Ken'ya, Oshitari had seen photos of Suzuki Sonoko a long time ago. However, at that time, in the impression of the young men in the Oshitari family, she was equivalent to a rich landlord who raped women, and her face was hateful no matter how he looked at her.

Unexpectedly seeing the real person this time, Yuushi Ozuki suddenly let go of his hand and put it behind his back awkwardly.

His fingertips were trembling.

At this moment, the girl in front of him was obviously not so beautiful that would make people stunning at first sight, but Inuzaka's whole body was stiff and completely out of his control. This feeling made him inexplicably overlap with the protagonist in a horror movie who was about to commit suicide, and a chill ran down his heels.

But perhaps after going crazy to the limit, he calmed down. Oshitari Yuushi in the skin unexpectedly discovered: Miss Suzuki's expression was not complicated. Although it was concealed, in his eyes, he could almost see through it:

She was surprised just now.

It wasn't a surprise that came from fear, Inuzaka thought. There was a hint of worry mixed in with the surprise. She seemed to be worried that I would discover something.

But what could I find out from her?

He even subconsciously wanted to touch his cuffs - Oshitari originally wanted to explore what was hidden inside, but with a whistle, the howling of Mukaitake suddenly came from a distance.

"Yushia ...

"Where the hell have you been going?!"

The tones rise and fall, and the ending notes echo.

His unreliable partner was too lazy to even go out to look for him. He squatted on the terrace outside the second-floor venue with nimble movements and shouted his name so loudly that most of the park could hear it.

Oshitari was completely stunned by this operation of finding someone.

The next second, Taketo Mukai issued an ultimatum.

"It was the supervisor who called for the assembly!"

He shouted at the top of his lungs, "Atobe said this! If you dare to make everyone wait for you, he will assign you to clean the kitchen—!"

"ha?"

"Sweep the kitchen?!"

Oshitari wanted to yell back at that moment, but when he turned around in a hurry, there was only a blank space around him: Miss Suzuki, who seemed to have a strange attitude towards him, had hurriedly disappeared around the corner.

The empty tree-lined avenue was filled with sunlight. The young man Oshitari stood there in a daze, feeling lost. It was not until ten full minutes later that he came to his senses.

At this moment, he belatedly remembered the threat of "sweeping the kitchen" and walked towards the venue with a sigh.

On the other side, Suzuki Sonoko ran into the shadow of the bushes with his back straight, looked around for a while, and when he saw that no one was chasing him, he breathed a sigh of relief in a particularly exaggerated manner.

Then she touched her cuffs with a serious expression, took out her cell phone from the secret pocket on her left side, and made a direct call to the Nanakamado Research Center.

The person who answered the phone was the old man who had been fooling her every day recently.

"Is there anything wrong, Your Highness Suzuki?" The old man seemed to be smoking.

"Something's up," Suzuki-sama said in a rare serious tone. "Is your memory erasure equipment...reliable?"

The old man said of course it is reliable!

"There are hundreds of cases of paranormal activity every year, and thousands of onlookers need to be dealt with. We've erased memories tens of thousands of times, and not a single one has failed."

Suzuki Sonoko's mind was still lingering with the indescribable look of Oshitsuki, which made her chest feel suffocated by her confident tone - but one of her life creeds was to leave professional matters to professionals - and now the professionals swore that there was no problem.

Then...

Then just assume it's fine.

Following this logic: Since Yuushi Ozuki no longer has the memory of encountering a ghost in the corridor and being studied miserably, why would he suddenly react so strongly to her?

If he still remembered, this hesitant reaction didn't seem right...

Sonoko squatted in the bushes and thought for a while, and could only come to a self-comforting conclusion: After all, Kenye Inuzaka came from afar to transfer to the school for a blind date, which was not easy, but he was rejected after just one meeting. This temporary brother-in-law might have just suddenly recognized her and was so angry that he wanted to beat her up to vent his anger!

As she thought about it, she actually began to believe it a little, to the point that she couldn't help but worry about her personal safety.

Or I'd better leave. Sonoko remembers several boys in the Hyotei Tennis Club. Although they are all tall and strong, they are all good kids.

——It was indeed the Suzuki family who were unfair at that time. If those kids had done something bad to retaliate against her, and were then retaliated by bad luck and suffered irreparable injuries, it would have been too pitiful!

=====

At the same time, at the gathering point on the second floor of the training base.

A group of seeded players lined up according to their schools, waiting lazily for the person in charge to speak.

Before the show started, Keigo Atobe had been standing by the window, looking out every now and then. Fuji observed him for a long time but couldn't figure out what he was looking at.

"Is Xiao Jing waiting for someone?"

Atobe gave him a lazy look.

Fuji-kun smiled as still as a mountain, walked closer and teased him: "Speaking of which, I'm a little surprised that you didn't go on stage and give a grand speech before the assembly. After all, last time—"

"Last time, I paid for the event, but not this time." The young master rolled his eyes elegantly and said, "The bulk of the money came from that woman from the Suzuki family."

When he read out the surname, he unconsciously blurred out the specific syllables, so Fuji Shusuke hardly heard any useful information. He was stunned for a moment and considerately changed the subject.

"So it wasn't Hyotei who arranged the training camp? No wonder the schedule is so strange," he said with a thoughtful smile. "There are only three weeks of training courses in total, but the first week is all physical examinations?"

At this moment, Mukai Taketo, who had finished howling at Oshizuka, jumped into the battlefield.

He put his arm around Bu Er's shoulder in a familiar (and unforgiving) manner and complained, "A week-long checkup? I wonder how amazing the training plan they came up with will be..."

Similar laughter and noises could be heard everywhere. However, knowing that Yuushi Oshitari was missing, he pushed open the door of the venue with sweat all over his forehead. Until the supervisors of each school started distributing the number plates according to the arrangement, Keigo Atobe did not see the sponsor lady this time, and there was no intention of her showing up for the formalities.

Don’t you even care about being perfunctory?

The eldest young master uttered a nonchalant sound, and there was even a hint of a gentle and strange smile in his voice.

"Suzuki Sonoko... has truly become a strange flower."

=====

Three days later, in the basement of a private club.

What is going to be held here is the private auction (which is actually illegal) that Oshitari had heard about.

Atobe and Oshitari, each wearing a flashy black mask, found their own cocoon-shaped box under the guidance of the guide.

This auction was really private. You hardly met any other customers except the staff. Not to mention that you were allowed to cover your face, voice changers were also provided in the private room.

Even the auction items were not formally introduced to the guests by white gloves until five minutes before the auction officially started.

The photos that Oshitari got from the middleman, Professor Maeda, were only a few small pieces, and the information was limited to "the sunken ship was salvaged" - even the clue character named [Takashi Kaname] was well-known because he appeared in the social news a few years ago.

It is said that there was a tsunami when he disappeared, and this time he appeared was also accompanied by a tsunami.

——It's a pity that this rare Black Kirin accidentally opened the Eclipse when he went berserk. When he returned from the Twelve Kingdoms, he not only used the energy shock to cause himself to lose his memory, but also made a mess of the place where he fainted (which was the palace of Yan Kingdom, the palace of Prince Yan Xiaosong Shanglong), and even a bunch of Prince Yan's beloved royal items followed him through time and space.

——Then it became the remains of a shipwreck owned by so-called antiquities dealers.

However, at this moment, the auctioneer, who knew nothing about this, first greeted all the guests enthusiastically, and then suddenly pulled open the curtain to show everyone the real auction items of this exhibition.

"Gentlemen!"

The man spoke passionately, "Our collection is actually much richer and more diverse than you might imagine, because what we salvaged this time wasn't just a boat!"

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a slight commotion in the box.

The man waved his hand and said dramatically, "We found a lost city from this ship!"

As the images flashed on the big screen, the origin of everything was pulled back to a village near the Seto Inland Sea that had been rebuilt several times.

"The shipwreck salvage site and this village are a million miles apart. How could they be the same thing?"

"Where's the evidence?"

The evidence is in that village.

More than 500 years ago, this village was called Komatsu Castle.

Komatsu Castle has a low presence in history. It is a victim of the phenomenon of one chicken dies and another crows. After several wars, not many traces are left.

But there is a village nearby that was buried by a mudslide. It is well preserved. What is rare is that the village chief is literate. He not only records the names and dates of birth and death of everyone in the village, but also has a habit similar to writing a diary.

The last few pages of the record contained words like "The birthday of the sea god is coming soon", "We have prepared an unprecedentedly beautiful bride for the sea god", "Master Shanglong's servants came to the village today", "The bride was taken away by the master, will the sea god be angry?"

The village is dependent on the city and is not a vassal, so it has no right to be called lord. But since he can be called master, the city that their village is dependent on is most likely to belong to this "Shanglong".

Some people originally speculated that this Master Shanglong was just passing by by chance - after all, considering the context, he seemed to be quite romantic and chivalrous, and he even took away a girl who was almost sacrificed to the sea god.

"But we found other evidence in the ruins!"

Komatsu Castle was destroyed in war. Five hundred years later, only a newly built fishing village remains. However, villagers occasionally dig up some Warring States Period utensils in the village.

"The most valuable one among them is this!"

The white gloves snapped their fingers crisply, and with a slight mechanical sound, the center of the stage sank and then rose again, and a glittering glass display case appeared in its place.

A scroll was carefully placed in the cabinet. It was made of rare thick silk paper. Originally, the ink marks should have been clear and the colors bright, but because of the way it was preserved, all that was left were blurred lines, and only the signature on the corners was clearly visible.

But just based on these few points, we can see that the style of this painting is a very standard "female portrait".

In that era, it was a "business card" that the woman's family used to show to her husband's family before getting married.

What is different from ordinary [female portraits] is that this painting is not signed by the woman's family, but [Shanglong].

“These broken chains of clues form a rather moving story!”

"In the village under his rule, the young master Shang Long rescued a young girl from drowning. The two fell in love, and he decided to marry her. Unable to resist the elders' insistence on formalities, he chose to represent her family, so he personally painted this picture for her and gave it to his parents, sealing the engagement."

"And this woman in the painting," he said, pointing to the blurry figure in the painting, "is the wife he is going to marry!"

However, this is of no use.

Not to mention Atobe who came here to buy something, even Oshitari who was just watching the fun didn't take this thing seriously.

——No matter how touching the story here is, firstly, Mr. Xiaosongcheng and Mr. Shanglong are unknown in history, and secondly, the things are too badly damaged and have no collection value at all.

Are you spending money just to buy that Komatsu Naotaka’s autograph?

Just as Atobe was getting dissatisfied with what he thought was an unreliable underground auction, White Gloves snapped his fingers again with confidence. Following the clear sound of pulleys, another large display cabinet slowly appeared next to the blurry scroll.

"Gentlemen, this," he said, opening his hands to show them, "is the key point of why I'm telling you this love story, even if it means wasting your time!"

It was a very large screen, the kind suitable only for the highest-quality palaces.

"This screen comes from the salvaged shipwreck, although the hull has not yet been found."

"Although that antique reselling gang—assuming such a group really exists—may not know the origin of this treasure, they only treasured it because of its material and craftsmanship. However, now that it is in our hands, combined with these seemingly useless archaeological materials."

He pointed to the portrait next to it, especially the signature part, and then suddenly moved the picture to the large screen!

The main body of the screen is based on a painting. It is larger than you can imagine and depicts a magnificent sunset outside the window.

But in the foreground, in front of the windowsill, there is a portrait that occupies nearly a quarter of the picture.

That was a woman.

A woman sitting leisurely on the couch, leaning against the window to watch the sunset.

The perspective of the painting is from behind the figure, as if looking at the painting she is making. Only one-fifth of the woman's profile is drawn, but it is unexpectedly very vivid.

The woman's hair was lazily scattered behind her, and the golden hair accessories on it were clearly made of real gold. The pattern on the gold ring that tied the end of her hair was an extremely delicate relief, and each rice-sized hollow space was perfectly inlaid with a corresponding gem.

It seems that as long as people today can take it off the screen, they can give it directly to a lady as a headdress.

"She" was dressed simply, with smooth calves visible under a solid-colored robe. Each piece of fabric was painted with lively dark patterns. Her feet, half hanging down from the hem of her robe, hung leisurely on the side of the stone couch.

The girl was not wearing shoes, and the part representing her skin seemed to be a whole piece of jade that had been thinly cut and inlaid. The lines from her calf ankle to the sole of her foot were seamlessly integrated, and she looked very beautiful and lively.

On the ankle, there was a golden anklet hanging lightly, suspended in mid-air, as if to entice the person in front of Hua to raise his hand to grab it before it fell.

"In fact," White Gloves said ambiguously, "the artist might have actually spent some extra time helping her put the anklet back on during his painting breaks."

The voice is quite lingering with its ups and downs, leaving endless room for imagination, almost forcing people to imagine how the fallen table was "put" back on!

This is a treasure.

The characters are complete, the composition is beautiful, and it has both a story that is left untold and the coolness and heat that a summer evening should have!

Coupled with the eye-catchingly exquisite decorations and materials, the maker must be a member of the so-called "aristocratic class", which means that the "bloodline" of this object itself is absolutely "noble" enough!

White Gloves sighed and said, "The wood of the bottom frame is close to ebony, which is a rare treasure in itself. Moreover, it is not spliced ​​together, but carved from a single piece of wood. It is no less precious than the treasures specially made for the royal family (in fact, it was originally made for Prince Yan's personal use)..."

"And here!"

He shifted the camera's focus to the lower left corner of the frame.

There was a flowing signature, four light Chinese characters.

Naotaka Komatsu.

The image split in two, the signature on the tattered portrait and the signature on the screen framed in the same frame. White Gloves declared passionately, "We've gathered together a wide range of experts, exhausted every possible means, and conducted a detailed comparison. We can guarantee you 100% accuracy!"

"These two works are definitely from the same hand!"

In other words...

Komatsu Castle really existed!

The young man Shanglong actually married the girl in the portrait and loved her forever. After their marriage, he even painted a picture like this and ordered craftsmen to use it as a model to make a priceless screen for her.

"From this point of view, Komatsu Castle must be very wealthy," Oshitari pondered, holding his archaeological notes. "I'm afraid it was destroyed because it had money but couldn't fight. Its army is really rubbish."

But these sighs are no longer important.

No matter how short-lived the existence of Komatsu Castle was, as long as it is confirmed that it did exist in that period, coupled with such a love story, and the premise of such excellent quality, even the theme of "boudoir collection" that seems to be shrouded in a pink halo has become the confidence for the price to double again and again.

As the introduction came to an end, the auctioneer tactfully left the remaining time to the guests who were eager to try. The huge screen was unusually quiet, with only clear images of a magnified part of the screen flashing across the screen frame by frame.

It seems even more refined when viewed up close.

Oshitari was so scared that he threw the notebook away immediately!

This hair!

These dark green pupils!

This one-fifth side face!

——Looks so familiar!

Not to mention her appearance, but her figure and temperament are really similar to that of the princess!

And the princess warrior and all that...

Yuushi Oshitari subconsciously covered his chest: He originally thought it was a story about a samurai who died tragically in the arms of a princess, but it turned out to be a story about the lord of a fallen country and his beloved wife who were separated from each other by death?

Oh my god, I'm even more touched!

Speaking of which...

The young man Oshitari enlarged the Chinese characters on the signature thoughtfully: So my name was Naotaka Komatsu in my previous life?

The author has something to say: Oshitari's physical reaction comes from the suspension bridge effect, which is a physiological instinct.

The first time he saw Suzuki Sonoko was when he encountered a female ghost in the stairwell, which was roughly equivalent to Xu Xian seeing Bai Suzhen who had drunk realgar wine. Although he lost his memory in the end, his body would naturally reproduce the fear reaction when he saw the big white snake.

Your heart beats faster and you break out in cold sweats. If you don't know the previous situation, it really feels like you're in love. This is also the origin of the suspension bridge effect.

In the second half, those who have not read Twelve Kingdoms may not understand the foreshadowing.

Shang Long was originally the third son of a city in the normal world (the same one he had done when he saved Yuanzi from sinking into the sea). After his country was destroyed, he traveled through time and space to the Twelve Kingdoms under the leadership of Qilin, ascended the throne and became King Yan, and served as a wise ruler for five hundred years.

Gao Li wanted the Kirin from Thailand. At this point in the 21st century, he drifted from the Twelve Kingdoms to Japan and grew up like a normal student. When he reached old enough, he was brought back to the Twelve Kingdoms to serve as a Kirin to assist the king (which was when the article said he disappeared). Later, the country was in civil strife, and he was stimulated and opened a time-space gate to run back to modern Japan (which was the time of the second tsunami and the auction in this article). After losing his memory, he continued to be a student.

In the original ending, it seems that Shang Long understood the Twelve Kingdoms and continued to be a Qilin...

I always feel that if I update the book one chapter at a time, I can mark it as finished before twenty chapters.

Finally, as usual, please leave a message. There should be another chapter soon.