Chapter 116: Damn! What is he doing? A beauty trap?
The gilded plate was not on the return list of the Provincial Museum; nor was it on the Zhengzhou Museum; nor was it on the Kaifeng Museum; nor was it on the Nanyang Museum... In four days, they ran around Henan, but none of the eight first-level museums found any trace of the gilded plate.
For the past four days, they'd been visiting museums together during the day and finding their own meals at night. But tonight, they could only have dinner together. The question was whether to postpone their flight tomorrow morning.
"What do you mean? Xiding and Atongshan are both third-level museums. Do you want to go there? If you want to go, ask the office to issue a red-headed document tomorrow, and then go there after the document arrives." Tang Zhixu rolled up the stewed noodles with chopsticks and stuffed it into his mouth.
"Go directly and try it with your identity."
Tang Zhixu laughed: "You think highly of me. Why these two families? Are they close to the Han family's ancestral home?"
"It's here too, take a look."
Tong Zhongyuan finished his words and ate his noodles in silence. He didn't bother to explain. Tang Zhixu wasn't Qin Tian, so there was no need to show off in front of him.
Tang Zhixu knew he was just being perfunctory. With Qin Tian gone, he didn't even want to pretend anymore. Fine, forget it. He'd already looked around, and there was basically no hope. There was no point asking, he was probably just taking a quick look.
The Xiding Museum, located west of Ruyang County, looked old, but there were no plans for renovation. The exterior had a strong sense of the times. Tang Zhixu glanced at Tong Zhongyuan. If he hadn't said he wanted to come, he wouldn't have known about the museum. Even though he was from Henan, he had never been there.
A staff member skeptically checked Tang Zhixu's work ID. The Shanghai Museum was renowned, and a small museum like Xiding had no connection to it. And yet, two people suddenly showed up looking for information. He politely asked them to wait while he made a few phone calls, finally calling a woman in her 50s.
"Sister Zhou, this is a staff member from the Shanghai Museum. She'd like to ask about our collections. This is Sister Zhou, both the collection manager and the information manager. She's worked here for over 30 years. Ask her about the collections."
Tang Zhixu explained to her his purpose, which was to check the museum's collection catalog and the records of the entry and exit of cultural relics from that year.
"Oh, you said you guys, cataloging the collection isn't difficult. Just look around the entire library and you'll find basically everything. But you asked about materials from fifty or sixty years ago. How are we going to find them? You shouldn't ask me for this. Ask the administration department to look through the old files."
Tang Zhixu knew this was going to be a tough sell. The eight museums he'd visited were all well-established, first-class museums, well-managed and clearly divided. Director Wang had also made advance arrangements, so everything went smoothly and smoothly. But the West China Museum, on the other hand, had no connections with the Shanghai Museum and its management was chaotic. Whether or not they could find the information was a matter of a single word from Sister Zhou. If she truly couldn't find the information, he couldn't force her to look for it.
Tang Zhixu subconsciously glanced at Tong Zhongyuan. He had no idea why he'd specifically come to this place. If he absolutely had to get the file, given the current situation, he'd have to go the proper way and ask the Shanghai Museum for a certificate to request it. But the Shanghai Museum's documents were only useful to those who needed them. Frankly, the Shanghai Museum wasn't a government agency that could issue an administrative order for a catalog to be handed over. It was all just a matter of camaraderie and face.
Tong Zhongyuan caught Tang Zhixu watching him from the corner of his eye. He'd been quiet for the past few days. This wasn't his home turf; Tang Zhixu was enough; he didn't need a presence. But it was he who suggested coming to the West China Expo, and now that Tang Zhixu had hit a wall, he had no choice but to give it his all.
Tong Zhongyuan took off his coat and smiled brightly at Sister Zhou.
"Miss Zhou, we're new here, unfamiliar with the place, and have no one else to turn to. It's fate that I met you today, right after arriving at the West China Museum. Such old archives are difficult to find, and they're noisy, time-consuming, and laborious. I know this is a very arduous task, but if you don't mind, I'd like to lend a hand and be at your disposal. Of course, if you really can't help, that's fine too. Let's just consider it a friendship. Are you free at noon? Let's have lunch together."
Tang Zhixu was stunned. How could he do this? Did Qin Tian know this side of him? When he returned, he would expose his true face.
The older sister was so flattered that she was all smiles. But because she had just gotten so high up, she couldn't get down. She needed a ladder.
"I don't have to eat. I still have to go home and cook for the kids at noon. It's just this thing. It's really difficult to do."
Tang Zhixu made up his mind and smiled as brightly as a summer flower.
"Sister Zhou, please do me a favor. I'll buy you some milk tea now. Do you want some cake?"
Tong Zhongyuan slowly turned around and looked at him, his expression indescribable.
Just 15 minutes later, Sister Zhou arrived, carrying a pile of old documents, all the way back to where she was talking about. Tang Zhixu and Tong Zhongyuan thanked her profusely and began to search for them themselves. Besides the matching dates, the pile contained a wide variety of documents, including gift lists and receipts for New Year's goods.
After Tang Zhixu finished reading a book, he folded it back into its original form. Tong Zhongyuan, on the other hand, sorted the books as he went along. By the time he finished, the files were already filed.
Tang Zhixu was starving from his search and was about to suggest they continue their search in the afternoon when Tong Zhongyuan stopped flipping through his pages, pulled out his phone, and started taking photos. Tang Zhixu's heart tightened, and he put down the documents in his hands and stepped forward to look. Tong Zhongyuan had spread out on the table an old manuscript containing a list of donated cultural relics, accompanied by a yellowed and faded old photo. The blurry pattern in the photo was the gilded plate.
Tang Zhixu looked at Tong Zhongyuan in shock. It couldn't be such a coincidence! Such a well-known cultural relic was actually found in a third-level museum. Tong Zhongyuan didn't pay attention to him. After taking the photo, he checked the content of the line word by word.
Large gilded bronze plate from the Western Han Dynasty. Donated on December 3, 1966.
The donor name and contact number were two ink blobs, and the information had been blurred out.
"Ms. Zhou," Tong Zhongyuan knocked on the door with the information. Ms. Zhou looked up and asked, "Why are the donors and contact numbers blacked out on this information?"
"Well, that is to say, if we get it, we will paint it over."
"Did you receive it?"
"It wasn't after the Cultural Revolution that many cultural relics were returned in response to the nation's call. They were returned to whoever had handed them in. If something was returned, of course it would be painted over."
“Isn’t there a refund list for refunds?”
“Some have, some don’t.”
"Why?"
Sister Zhou had never thought about this question before, and was a little confused by his question.
"Well, who knows. I wasn't in charge back then. Maybe there were too many items to return, so later on I just kept it simple and just painted it."
"Who was the person who handled it back then? Can we still contact him?"
Sister Zhou laughed, and crow's feet appeared at the corners of her eyes.
"It's a coincidence that you asked. I actually know him."
Tong Zhongyuan looked at her with a smile on his face, neither anxious nor impatient.
"It's my father. He retired and I took over his job," said Sister Zhou.
I could hear Sister Zhou's voice on the phone outside the office. Her voice was loud, and even though there was a door between us, her voice still came through.
Tang Zhixu couldn't sit still any longer and walked to the door to listen more closely. Although the conversation was loud, Sister Zhou spoke in dialect, making it difficult to understand. Tong Zhongyuan was still studying the page of the catalog, holding it up to the light and turning it over. Tang Zhixu walked back and finally couldn't help asking, "What did you see?"
Tong Zhongyuan handed the paper to Tang Zhixu.
"Take a look, is the donor's name Xu Ming?"
Tang Zhixu picked up the paper and stepped into the sunlight to examine it. The signature had been written with a pen, but the black smear had been applied with a flat brush, presumably to facilitate the use of a brush. Looking closely, there were indeed some scratches.
The door opened and Sister Zhou came back.
"Well, my dad said it's been too long and he really can't remember."
"Thank you for your hard work, Miss Zhou. Let's put these documents aside for now. We'll go through the rest after dinner."
"OK."
Tong Zhongyuan and Tang Zhixu left the museum and found a small shop nearby to eat. After they sat down, Tang Zhixu said, "Sister Zhou didn't tell the truth. Her father just told her not to meddle in other people's business on the phone. Maybe it's not that she can't remember, but that she doesn't want to talk about it."
Tong Zhongyuan pondered and said, "Is that name Xu Ming?"
"Yes, that's right."
"In the donation catalog, there are more than one artifact donated under this name, but only the gilded plate is blacked out. According to Ms. Zhou, if it's not blacked out, it's either in the collection catalog or on the return list. I'll look through the return list this afternoon to see if it matches. If not, it would be best if I could meet her father."
"Okay. I'll think of a way."
After dinner, they returned to Xibo. Tang Zhixu dragged a chair and started chatting with Sister Zhou, and from time to time, Sister Zhou's laughter could be heard.
That's what he meant by finding a solution. Tong Zhongyuan put on his headphones and began to review the return list. The list included the name of the cultural relic, the name of the donor, the return date, and the signature of the recipient. He read it from beginning to end. This record... was rough and bold, full of loopholes. He glanced at the door. Tang Zhixu and Sister Zhou were chatting happily, and no one was paying attention to this side. He took out his laptop and started typing.
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