Chapter 7 Gold Foil Book
"Eh...this feel..." Suddenly, Gao Mingcheng's expression became serious. He pinched the book cover over and over again, feeling that the feel was a little wrong.
It is common sense that the cover of a book is thicker than the pages.
Gao Mingcheng had never doubted it before, but now he had the experience of his previous life. When he held the thing in his hand, he instinctively realized that something was wrong.
But he looked at it over and over again, but couldn't see anything new.
He also tried to tear the cover of the book into pieces, but he didn't know what the cover was made of, but it was surprisingly tough.
Finally, his eyes fell on the burning kerosene lamp.
The wick absorbed the nourishment of kerosene and blossomed into a dazzling and colorful flower of flame. When people stared at the flame, they felt that the flame was alive and swaying.
An idea sprouted in Gao Mingcheng's mind. He looked quite hesitant, but finally he carefully brought a corner of the book cover close to the flame.
He moved extremely carefully, fearing that the flames would instantly ignite the entire book. After all, he only wanted to burn a little bit to check if there really was a layer as he thought.
Thanks to the tomb robbery in his previous life, Gao Mingcheng handled some antiques and learned some related knowledge. He knew that in ancient times, there was a kind of interlayer technology, which could put some important things in other things, such as the interlayer in wooden boxes, the interlayer in porcelain, and the interlayer in calligraphy and painting, etc.
As a corner of the book cover approached the flame, the cover was instantly ignited, and the flame quickly spread from one point to more surfaces.
Gao Mingcheng was well prepared. The moment the book cover was ignited, he suddenly pulled the cover out, then blew at the flame on the cover and blew it out.
The flame had gone out, leaving a dark spot on the corner of the book cover.
Gao Mingcheng stretched out his fingers and rubbed the burnt area, rubbing off the ashes bit by bit, and then carefully observed the situation from the burning surface.
But he didn't see anything wrong at all, which made him a little disappointed.
He touched the cover of the book repeatedly, but still felt that something was wrong.
So he decided to burn more book covers to verify it.
As usual, he approached the flame carefully, and the book cover was successfully ignited. Gao Mingcheng planned to count to three in his mind and then blow out the flame.
However, at this moment, a black shadow suddenly rushed past him.
Gao Mingcheng's eyes instinctively followed the black shadow, and his heart skipped a beat when he saw clearly that it was a mouse.
He looked away, only to see that the cover of the book had already been half burned. He was instantly flustered and hurriedly blew out the flame on the cover.
"Damn rat!" Gao Mingcheng couldn't help but curse.
Looking at the book cover that had one-fifth of it burned, Gao Mingcheng suddenly didn't hope that there really was any interlayer.
Otherwise, if you knew that some treasure was burned due to your carelessness, it would be a psychological burden.
After taking a deep breath, Gao Mingcheng came to check the situation.
Because the book cover is relatively thick, the flame will not burn too quickly, and the ashes after burning will not fall directly to the ground, but will condense together, and the color is black instead of grayish white.
This is because the paper of the book cover has not been completely burned.
Gao Mingcheng rubbed the ashes away with his fingers, and the black ashes fell off, revealing a dazzling golden color.
This golden light, like the morning sun, shines directly into Gao Mingcheng's heart.
His heart began to beat rapidly, and a bold guess formed in his mind.
With his fingers covered in black ash, he excitedly stroked the piece of gold, and a feeling of ecstasy spread in Gao Mingcheng's heart.
He wondered if there was a layer in the book cover, and also wondered if there was a silver note from the Ming or Qing Dynasty inside, as he had encountered before.
Silver bills are also paper and are most afraid of fire, so when too much of them are accidentally burned, he would rather have no interlayer inside.
But he never expected that there was indeed a layer inside the book cover, and the thing inside was actually gold!
Of course, to be able to be sandwiched in the book cover, the gold must be extremely thin, probably gold foil.
Chinese people love gold, and it is engraved in their bones and blood.
Gao Mingcheng is naturally no exception.
Knowing it was gold, he became bolder and tore the entire cover off the book. He wanted to burn it, because real gold is not afraid of fire.
But when it was about to burn, he hesitated.
Real gold is not afraid of fire, but this gold foil is too thin and I’m afraid it will melt.
Did the original owner of this book put the gold foil in the book cover just to hide some gold, or did he have some other intention?
Is there any important information on this gold foil?
Thinking of this, Gao Mingcheng immediately remembered that in the antique business, antiques with inscriptions are much more valuable than those without inscriptions!
By the same token, if there is no information on the gold foil, then it can only be regarded as ordinary gold, but if there is any important information on the gold foil, then it is an antique!
Its value is far greater than gold!
With an excited heart and trembling hands, Gao Mingcheng fetched a basin of water and then sank the entire book cover into it, allowing the water to soak the cover.
After about two or three minutes, Gao Mingcheng estimated that it was almost time, so he fished the book cover out of the water and then tore off the soaked paper bit by bit.
As the paper was tough and he was afraid of damaging the gold foil, he tore the paper very gently. It took him ten minutes to tear off the paper completely.
Looking at the two pages of gold foil in his hand, Gao Mingcheng couldn't help but smile with relief.
He first picked up a page of gold foil and looked in the direction of the kerosene lamp. The light shone through the gold foil, emitting a charming golden glow.
As for what information was on the gold foil, it was completely impossible to tell.
But Gao Mingcheng was not discouraged. He suspected that it was a problem with the light and planned to wait until tomorrow during the day to observe again.
He had just put the gold foil back into the book when he heard the sound of a door being pushed open behind him.
Before I saw who came out, a familiar voice of scolding rang out: "Why aren't you sleeping so late at night? And you're still lighting a kerosene lamp! Kerosene doesn't cost money!"
"Whoosh!" A figure came to the kerosene lamp as quickly as the wind and blew it out, leaving only a wisp of green smoke rising up.
Under the moonlight, Gao Mingcheng's mother's face was full of heartache, as if the kerosene lamp was not burning kerosene, but her hard work.
She would have been asleep, but due to her health, she would get up once or twice every night to go to the bathroom.
"You have to work on the railway tomorrow. Why are you not sleeping so late at night?" Gao Mingcheng's mother Luo Xiaohua scolded again.
Gao Mingcheng didn't argue anything. He just said something and went to sleep.
Then he got up and returned to his room.
Luo Xiaohua had no choice but to put away the kerosene lamp with a heavy heart and go to the toilet.
The next morning, the Gao family got up very early, and Luo Xiaohua cooked a big pot of porridge early. Because they had to do heavy physical work on the railway, the porridge today was thicker than usual.
But while eating, Gao Yuanjian looked around and found that his second son Gao Mingcheng had not gotten up yet.
So he frowned and said to his third son, "Is your second brother still awake? Go wake him up!"
The third brother Gao Mingwan said, "Second brother is already up! When I woke up, he was no longer in bed!"
"This bastard!" Gao Yuan was so furious that he wanted to beat Lao Er with a stick.
"Look at your good son. He's almost twenty years old, but he's still idle all day. He finally gets a job to make money, but he dares to run away!" Since the second son was not around, Gao Yuanjian couldn't beat or scold him, so he had to vent his anger on his wife Luo Xiaohua.
Luo Xiaohua didn't like this unpleasant second son in the first place, and he immediately scolded him: "I don't know what's wrong with the second son. He didn't sleep late last night and actually lit a kerosene lamp in the yard! Damn it, there's so much less kerosene in the lamp!"
Luo Xiaohua stretched out his hand and gestured exaggeratedly.
(End of this chapter)
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