The dome of the British Museum was bathed in the afternoon sun. Tang Ren gulped as he stared at the Tang Sancai in the glass case. The bronze bell suddenly made a muffled sound, shaking the display case slightly. He took a closer look at the Ming Dynasty sea-patterned bell and found that half a piece of gold leaf was stuck in the tongue of the bell.
"This, this is the groove for the hammer!" Qin Feng pointed to the wear marks on the inner wall. When they borrowed tools from the repair room to open the top cover, the clockwork device was wrapped with a burnt bill of lading, and the word "Yangon" could be identified on the edge.
During a night visit to the old Thames pier, Tang Ren was tripped by a rusty anchor. Qin Feng scanned the anchor chain with a flashlight and suddenly stuttered: "This, this is Victorian forging craftsmanship!" The inside of the iron chain buckle was engraved with "East Star 1897", which was the name of the ship on the cargo list.
Suddenly, a whistle sounded on the river, and we jumped onto the cargo ship that was about to set sail. The lower cabin was filled with camphorwood boxes. Tang Ren pried open one box, and inside was bundles of raw Burmese jadeite. We picked up palm leaves between the gravel, and on them we painted the outline of the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon with tar.
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When the freighter docked at Yangon Port, it was the Water Splashing Festival. The men mixed in the crowd to track down the jade buyer. Tang Ren's water gun sprayed the corner of the monk's robe, revealing the snake tattoo on his wrist - exactly the same as the mark of the Q organization in the Bangkok case.
Sneaking into the Shwedagon Pagoda late at night, Qin Feng found that the Jade Buddha's right index finger was broken. Qin Feng found half of a jade nail in the gap of the lotus seat, and the broken surface was stained with beeswax. He lit the incense stick he brought with him, and the smoke gathered into an arrow in front of the Buddha's altar, pointing to the direction of the Irrawaddy River.
As the chartered boat sailed downstream, Tang Ren's fishing rod suddenly bent into a full bow. What he caught was not a fish, but a rusted iron box containing a yellowed nautical journal. Qin Feng used lemon juice to smear the incomplete page, revealing the words "Anchored at Emerald Island on a Full Moon Night".
A sudden rainstorm hit, and the people took shelter on the island in the middle of the river. Tang Ren kicked away the vines at the entrance of the cave, revealing a stone tablet with the word Q engraved on it. The inscription recorded the shipwreck of 1897, and the signature was actually the seal of Su κΏ» Trading Company - that was the Nanyang trading company founded by Tang's great-grandfather!
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Back at the Guandi Temple in Chinatown, the incense burner under the feet of the deity was filled with fresh ashes. After turning the burner handle three and a half times, a confession letter popped out of the secret compartment. On the yellowed letter paper, the robber admitted that he was instructed by a mysterious person three days ago, and at the end of the letter was a sketch of Emerald Island.
In a stormy night, they raided a seafood warehouse and found gold bars with Q labels under boxes of frozen shrimps. Qin Feng found that the numbers of the gold bars were exactly the same as those in the robbery case, but Tang Ren stared at the can of hot sauce in the packaging box and said, "This tastes the same as the sauce I ate in Emerald Island!"
Tracking the hot sauce factory in the Gulf of Siam, 23 ceramic jars were fermenting in the basement. When the lid of the first jar was opened, it was not hot peppers, but a whole corpse in a navy uniform! The pocket watch on the corpse stopped at August 14, 1897, and the key hanging on the watch chain just happened to open the iron box we were looking for in Yangon.
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The rented fishing boat followed the GPS signal and headed for Emerald Island. The radar suddenly showed a Q-type freighter. Tang Ren used a telescope to look at the Q-shaped paint on the hull. The deck was piled with lost cultural relics from various countries.
During the night raid on the freighter, Qin Feng cracked the mechanical combination lock of the captain's room. In addition to the account book, there was an old photo in the safe - on the deck of the East Star in 1897, a businessman in a long gown was shaking hands with his great-grandfather, and behind them were boxes of jadeite rough stones.
The freighter suddenly exploded, and the crew jumped into the life raft holding their accounts. In the flames, a signal flare sounded in the direction of Emerald Island, and the night sky was reflected in a strange emerald color. After drifting for three days, the outline of Bangkok's coastline appeared in the morning mist, and the customs pier was hung with lanterns for the "Mid-Autumn Festival"...
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