The mastermind behind the scenes fell into the hands of a tomb-robbing gang? ...
Although Zhang Hongliang is the director of the museum, he has always been kind and caring towards Cheng Sizhou. Last time in the hospital, the director even defended him in front of Dr. Cheng.
Coincidentally, Cheng Sizhou also had something to ask him, so he took off his gloves and hurried over.
"Mr. Zhang." The door was open. Cheng Sizhou knocked before walking in.
"Come on, sit down." Zhang Hongliang personally made him a cup of tea.
Cheng Sizhou was flattered. He stood up and took the teacup. He waited until the director sat down before he sat down.
Zhang Hongliang and Jiang Yunli are of the same generation. He is a few years younger than his master and will probably retire in three to five years.
He had dyed his hair, and there were a few unconcealable white spots on his temples. Because he was always smiling, the laugh lines at the corners of his eyes were very deep, like the deep and shallow veins on the leaves of a green radish.
"Xiao Cheng, I've been wanting to talk to you since your master's accident, but I was worried you hadn't adjusted well enough, so I put it off until today." Zhang Hongliang rested his hands on his knees and let out a long sigh. "I've known Lao Jiang for years. We talked about having tea and fishing together after retirement, but I never thought... Sigh..."
"Master Zhang, my master was murdered." Cheng Sizhou said with a firm gaze.
"What?!" Zhang Hongliang looked puzzled. "Didn't the police notice say that the accident was caused by the driver's illegal operation?"
"But why did my master go to Longji Mountain on New Year's Eve? Why did he get on a truck loaded with porcelain? Why did the truck drive deep into Longji Mountain? There are no answers to these questions," Cheng Sizhou said with increasing urgency. "Director, you and my master are close friends, and you led the team to excavate the ancient kiln ruins in Longji Mountain. You must know something, right?!"
"Don't get excited, don't get excited first." Zhang Hongliang saw that his hand holding the teacup was shaking uncontrollably and he was almost scalded by the spilled hot water, so he hurriedly said a few words to comfort him.
Cheng Sizhou didn't want to lose his composure in front of his leader, so he let go of the teacup and used his right hand, which was shaking more violently, to hold down his left hand.
He works in the restoration of cultural relics. In the eyes of his master, this job requires a calm mind even more than a surgeon holding a scalpel, but now he no longer has it.
Over the past month, he had imagined countless possibilities and harassed Zhou Han countless times. His mind was filled with scattered clues and fragments, but he could never connect them into a complete logic.
Every night, self-blame and guilt turned into thousands of arrows, piercing him with holes and causing him to bleed profusely.
"It was indeed me who led the team to excavate the ancient kiln ruins at Mutao Village in Longji Mountain." Zhang Hongliang patted the back of his hand, his gaze piercing through him, gazing into the distant horizon. "That was in 1997..."
For Zhang Hongliang back then, there was a person who must be mentioned, named Wen Duo.
Wen Duo had excellent GPAs in college, and his abilities were even more impressive after he started working. Not only were his mentors and leaders impressed by him, but many of his female classmates and colleagues also had a crush on him.
At that time, the competition among the younger generation in the institute was very fierce. Everyone wanted to make a big discovery to prove themselves. Wen Duo was no exception. As soon as he heard the news that the villagers of Mutao Village reported the broken porcelain pieces, he immediately went to recommend himself.
Zhang Hongliang is a few years younger than Wen Duo. He had just started working and it was not his turn when there were any projects. He just listened to what others said about Wen Duo.
In 1988, Na Zhao and Wen Duo led a team to Mutao Village. After digging for more than a year, they found nothing. In 1990, the archaeological team suddenly lost contact with the institute.
The institute contacted local authorities for help in the search, but Longji Mountain is covered with vast virgin forest areas. The police sent people and mobilized local villagers, but after two or three months of searching, they still found nothing.
The team members who turned back halfway confirmed that they had entered the deep mountains. In the mountains, there were no living people and no dead bodies. The chance of death was much greater than the chance of survival.
The institute had no choice but to report the missing person to the outside world and compensate the family with pensions.
Afterwards, the institute adjusted its talent training direction. In the eyes of others, Na Zhaohuan, Wen Duo, Lin Hanzhen and three other team members were most likely dead.
However, no one, including Zhang Hongliang, expected that in the late autumn of 1993, Wen Duo and his party would actually return from Longji Mountain!
They were pale and thin due to malnutrition, and Lin Hanzhen was pregnant with Wen Duo's child.
As for what happened in the past three years, Lin Hanzhen abided by the agreement with Wu Heng and did not mention anything about Beiling Village to anyone. She only said that they were trapped in the mountains and barely survived.
But Wen Duo was in a state of hesitation.
If he told it, the institute might send another team to excavate the site, and the credit would go to someone else; if he didn't tell it, all the hard work he had endured for three years would have been in vain, and he was unwilling to accept that.
However, three years is enough to change a lot of things.
Three years ago, Wen Duo was a prodigy who was valued by his leaders and admired by his colleagues. Three years later, Wen Duo had no research results and returned empty-handed. His status in the institute plummeted and no one took him seriously anymore.
Those who once envied him became even more wary of him and targeted him, not giving him any chance to make a comeback.
Wen Duo was assigned to the printing room to print materials and deliver newspapers. Even though he could only secretly study the ancient patterns painted in Beiling Village, someone secretly reported him and informed the leader.
After repeated questioning by his superiors, Wen Duo finally revealed that there might be ancient ruins near Mutao Village, but they were trapped in the mountains after entering and did not have sufficient resources to survey. If he were to do it again, he would find a route into the mountains.
The leader asked again, why didn’t you bring the photo back with you?
Wen Duo replied that they got separated after entering the mountains and he didn't know where the photo was.
After comprehensive analysis, the Institute of Archaeology decided to stop surveying and excavating due to the complex terrain and geological conditions of Longji Mountain.
As a result, Wen Duo's plans all fell through. He was unable to convince his superiors, and in a fit of anger, he resigned from the institute.
"Two years later, the Mutao Village reported again that heavy rain had washed out the bumpy foundation. For the purpose of emergency protection, the institute asked me to go and take a look. I led the team to Mutao Village and found the ancient kiln ruins just 18 meters west of the square pit dug by Wen Duo." Zhang Hongliang said with regret that he had experienced those things firsthand and only then understood what it meant to be a trick of fate.
Cheng Sizhou was overwhelmed by the name "Wen Duo" throughout the whole process. He couldn't continue listening to Zichuan's recording halfway through, but he knew that Wen Duo was Zichuan's father.
"You found the six-eared porcelain gui at the ancient kiln site in Mutao Village, right?" he asked anxiously.
The light in Zhang Hongliang's eyes dimmed as he denied it, "No, we encountered tomb robbers while cleaning the site. The porcelain gui was found in the ancient tomb."
For a long time, tomb robbers have caused devastating damage to cultural relics and historical sites for the purpose of making money.
What's worse, they use money to lure a group of ignorant villagers to help them keep watch. Once they know that archaeologists are going to a certain place for survey, they rush ahead to find the tombs and steal the cultural relics.
Therefore, domestic archaeologists and cultural relics protectors all hate tomb robbers.
In the autumn of 1998, after the rain, the mountains were covered with fog. A group of tomb robbers with hidden whereabouts entered Longji Mountain. It was not until the fog dissipated that a careful archaeologist discovered a deep rut on the muddy mountain road.
In those days, Mutao Village was a remote and poor place, and the whole village could only find two tractors. However, the ruts were obviously not from a tractor, but from a "giant" as big as a Jiefang heavy truck.
"We have fought many battles of wits and courage with tomb-robbing gangs, and we are very sensitive to such traces. We immediately ignored the prohibitions of the station and followed the wheel tracks into Longji Mountain, where we found an ancient village." Zhang Hongliang's tone was as hard and cold as a pebble sunk to the bottom of the water.
"Ancient village...Monument Spirit...Village?" The clues in Cheng Sizhou's mind finally began to connect.
"When we arrived, the ancient tombs in Beiling Village had already been looted. The tomb owner's burial objects had been looted, and the statues in the niches were severely damaged. The six-handled porcelain gui was found in the main tomb chamber, and it was completely broken when it was discovered."
"Master, did you go to Longji Mountain just for the porcelain gui? But hasn't the porcelain gui been repaired?"
"Back then, after the porcelain gui was brought back, restoration work was fraught with difficulties. First, it was unique, unlike anything seen in its time. Second, most of the burial objects in the tomb had been looted, leaving no horizontal or vertical references. A few years ago, your master privately told me that the fragments of the porcelain gui we found were incomplete, and the senior expert in charge of the restoration wasn't entirely sure. However, to quell the conflicting opinions in the academic community, he had to rush into the restoration and reach a final conclusion. This is something your master has always been concerned about."
Cheng Sizhou fell silent. Being serious and rigorous and not letting go of any problems was indeed his master's working style, but it was still wrong.
He seemed to have read somewhere that the porcelain gui was ready for exhibition after being repaired for more than a year. Why didn't the master pursue it during the eighteen years from 2000 to 2018, but chose to do so before this year's New Year's Eve?
Unless, he just happened to know at that time that the porcelain on the carriage was the same purple gold glaze as the six-eared porcelain gui.
"Director Zhang, have you seen the broken porcelain pieces found by the search and rescue team?" Cheng Sizhou knew that he had to start with the batch of persimmon-colored porcelain.
After talking for a long time, Zhang Hongliang felt a little thirsty. He picked up the cup and took a sip of tea. "Yu Ming asked me the same question last week. You two are not archaeologists, so it's not your fault that you didn't figure it out. Since there are ancient kiln sites in Mutao Village, it proves that various types of porcelain were produced in history. The locals took them to sell. If nothing else, there must be many similar remains in the Longji Mountain area, so it's not surprising to find some scattered unearthed. I think the driver was most likely engaged in resale business. When your master ran into him, he panicked and lost his way, resulting in a tragedy."
Cheng Sizhou was not sure whether Director Zhang had seen the dashcam, but his guess matched the recorded sound of slapping the car wall - Wang Jian was shocked to find someone in the cargo box behind him, and his trafficking of cultural relics was exposed. In panic, the truck lost control and fell off the cliff.
"Reselling unearthed cultural relics is illegal. Don't the police care?" Cheng Sizhou gritted his teeth.
"The driver is already dead. It took the police a long time just to confirm his identity. It will take more than a day to uncover the reselling gang behind it." Zhang Hongliang shook his head. Today's tomb-robbing gangs have stronger and stronger anti-reconnaissance capabilities, and they can only rely on the police.
Cheng Sizhou hung his head with a depressed look. If it was true as the curator said, that the mastermind behind the contact with Wang Jian was a tomb-robbing gang or a cultural relic dealer, then his master's injury would be too unjust.
Zhang Hongliang moved his chair forward, sat upright, and said, "Please come here. There is something else I want to tell you."
Cheng Sizhou stroked the wall of the cup with his fingers: "Master Zhang, please speak."
"Your master has been in trouble, and the museum's leaders are very concerned, but our work must continue. I've discussed this with your director and have decided to have you officially take over your master's position as head of the Ceramics Group and deputy director of the Science and Technology Protection Center."
"Me? Aren't you... Senior Brother Yu?"
"Don't you know? Yu Ming resigned."
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