Scapegoat, perhaps he really was pushed to the front as a scapegoat...
Wen Zichuan and Pinault initially thought that the poem with their names hidden in it was written by a certain poet, or that their mother missed her father too much, so she wrote down the poem written by Wen Duo.
But they later learned that the poem was written by Lin Hanzhen when she was trapped in Beiling Village. Although she was not sure whether she could leave at that time, she always believed and had expectations, and continued to encourage the others in the team.
Since his mother and sister had decided to let go of their differences and recognize each other, Wen Zichuan should serve as a bridge between them. So he gently encouraged Pinot: "Give it a try, okay?"
Pinot nodded, then looked at Lin Hanzhen: "Mom, Mom..."
Lin Hanzhen hugged her tightly, tears streaming down her face like beads from a broken string: "Zhou Zhou, I'm sorry...! It's Mom who's sorry for you... For the past twenty-four years, I've missed you every day, but I didn't dare to think of you..."
Pinault also cried. Her teacher once told her that fathers and mothers play different roles in family education. She didn't understand at the time. She didn't know what it felt like to have a mother, and how a daughter and mother should get along.
"I, I have a bad heart. I always go to the hospital to see a doctor and take medicine... But my job is as a screenwriter. I can't produce manuscripts as quickly as others..." Pinault said with a frown. She didn't even know why she suddenly said this to Lin Hanzhen.
But Lin Hanzhen understood everything as soon as she heard it. She was talking about how she was different from ordinary people. She was abandoned because she had congenital heart disease and was difficult to raise. But twenty-four years later, her mother could only recognize an unhealthy daughter.
"I know, I know everything. You are unique. You don't have to be like everyone else," she said, patting Pinault on the back and coaxing her. "Just do what you want."
Wen Zichuan suppressed the urge to cry, and then hugged them tightly: "I can testify to this, Mom is very open-minded in this regard, you don't have to feel pressured, it's okay to take it slow."
For him, the presence of his younger sister had given him immense strength. That day, when Cheng Sizhou fainted and his parents had cornered him, Yu Jue, who had taken him in anger, unexpectedly gave him a younger sister. The overwhelming sense of loss was offset by a sense of gain, giving him a newfound courage and responsibility, allowing him to heal and continue on his journey.
Although today's reunion was not in Fengbo's hometown, it was a true "reunion". Almost all the most important people in Wen Zichuan's life were there, which made him feel unprecedented peace and comfort.
After a while, the waiter started serving the dishes.
Wen Zichuan could see that his mother and sister had a lot to say, but his time was too scarce, so he could only chat while eating, synchronizing the latest developments with them, and then see if his mother had any way to identify the real culprit behind the scenes.
"Sally has already reported back what you asked me to look up last time." Pinault pulled a stack of documents from his backpack. "Destin and Seiner are a leading antiquities trading group, specializing in imported artifacts from East and South Asia. This DES shape is their group's logo."
"Is he from Destin?" Wen Zichuan was referring to Wen Duo.
"Yes, Aldrich and Destin have maintained a long-term cooperative relationship. Not only in the auction of South Pearls, but also in many cultural relics transactions handled by Destin, there are traces of Aldrich's involvement." Pinault's description was objective and calm, as if she was talking about someone who had nothing to do with her.
Lin Hanzhen knew all this beforehand, but when she heard the brother and sister talking about their biological father in this way, she couldn't help but feel depressed.
"Xiaochuan, didn't you say that there is evidence proving that he is not your father?" she asked hesitantly.
"For Destin to have achieved such a large scale, it's impossible that there was only one person in charge." Pinault had heard the story of Beiling Village and gave her a reassuring look. "He must have been pushed to the forefront."
Wen Zichuan immediately reacted: "You mean, scapegoat?"
When the news about Destin was sent to Seno, the somewhat forgetful Sally finally remembered an old story.
In 2012, after she brought a photo of the purple-gold-glazed six-eared porcelain gui to Qin Zhihan, Qin Zhihan asked her if she knew the special meaning of the number "twelve".
She didn't understand her boss's intention, so she went to ask the oldest colleague on the team for advice.
The colleague said that as early as fifteen years ago, Qin Zhihan had come across a set of very rare Chinese cultural relics. The other party was afraid that the news would leak out, so what he showed him was a box of purple gold glaze porcelain fragments.
Qin Zhihan was heartbroken by the destruction of the cultural relics and wanted to buy them back, but the other party offered a price of one million yuan each, a total of eleven pieces, worth eleven million yuan, and they were not sold individually.
At that time, this was almost a sky-high price. Although this piece of porcelain looked rare, it was not worth that much.
Qin Zhihan questioned the quotation and privately inquired with Destin, who was negotiating with him, and learned that the price was given by a professional named Aldrich, so there was a record in the file.
At that time, everyone around him thought that Destin offered such a price, which clearly showed that he didn't want to sell it. Instead of spending all his money to buy it, he might as well buy something else.
There are so many cultural relics flowing out. We cannot empty our family assets just for a business deal. That would be extremely irrational.
Qin Zhihan took everyone's opinions into consideration and believed that if there were multiple cultural relics flowing out of China, it would not be a set of eleven pieces, and the other party must be hiding something.
Finally, he wrote a letter to Destin, saying that he believed the set of porcelain consisted of at least twelve pieces, and he was willing to pay 100 million yuan to buy the entire set. If bought individually, the maximum price for each piece would be 100,000 yuan.
Unfortunately, Destin did not reply to the letter and seemed to have disappeared out of thin air and could no longer be contacted.
"Did Mr. Qin contact Destin again later?" Wen Zichuan asked.
"Of course," Pinault replied. "Around the turn of the millennium, the Destin Company had become somewhat well-known in Sinodang. Qin's father contacted them again, but they flatly denied ever showing him the box of porcelain fragments. Foreigners in this business don't value what the Chinese call integrity, so they denied it, and everything just ended there."
This is why the whereabouts of the porcelain gui are not marked in the archives left by Qin Zhihan.
Not only the destination, but even the name of "Purple Gold Glaze Six-eared Porcelain Gui" seemed to have newer ink, as if it was added several years later after seeing Sally's photo.
"I understand." Lin Hanzhen, who had been silent on the side, finally spoke. He looked at Wen Zichuan and said, "Xiaochuan, do you remember that your father came back once during the trip?"
"Yeah." Wen Zichuan thought, how could he forget such a thing.
"In the year 2000, the kidnapping of the Dengyuan girl caused a huge stir, and I also heard the news in Fengbo. Of course, your father was far away abroad, so it took him a long time to get the news. He overcame all difficulties and returned to China just to see how we were doing, but he also suspected that his negligence led to the death of the Jiang family's daughter."
"He overcame all odds? Does he care if we're doing well?" Wen Zichuan was furious when he heard this. "Mom, stop making excuses for him! Even if he didn't participate in the kidnapping and murder, didn't he reveal the information about the ancient tomb? Didn't he participate in the trafficking of cultural relics? Didn't he abandon us and live carefree overseas for more than 20 years?"
"At the time, I thought the same thing as you." Those past events were like a scar on Lin Hanzhen's heart, so ugly and hideous that she even wanted to carry them to her coffin and never tell anyone about them. "I persuaded him to surrender himself. Whether he turned himself in or not, the police would give him justice. But the way he spoke to me was very strange. I didn't notice it at first. Then you said you were kicked by the woman in the car. Then I realized that the woman who seemed to be his fiancée was actually sent to monitor him. Your father has always been under surveillance."
"This is just your guess. It can't be used as evidence, right?"
"More than that, your father came empty-handed, saying he hadn't brought any gifts and was deeply ashamed. I knew he was an exceptionally good calligrapher, so I asked him to give me a piece of calligraphy. He wrote, 'Poor night of the third day of the ninth lunar month, the dew like pearls and the moon like a bow.' This line, describing the scenery, originally had no special meaning. But the third day of the ninth lunar month in the millennium, also known as September 30th, was the day Jiang Anyi was murdered. I knew he had come back for this reason."
"Then how do you prove he's being monitored?!"
"In Beiling Village, the days were long and boring. The only book we brought with us was a collection of novels. Three years was enough time to memorize them by heart. On page three of Chapter 9, the protagonist was imprisoned and under surveillance. This was how he explained his situation to me."
Wen Zichuan still felt that this reason was too far-fetched. Could a poem explain the problem? Could a poem clear everything?
"The real mastermind and those with vested interests should have hidden themselves after the millennium, instead of suddenly reappearing and making me suspect that I was the cause of everything. That's what Teacher Cheng said, the motives were wrong." The more crucial the moment, the calmer Pinault's expression became. "So I think maybe he really is a scapegoat."
Trafficking in cultural relics is a criminal act in many countries, but in Sinodang, there are such lawless criminals everywhere who value money over their lives. Qin Zhihan has come into contact with them a lot and knows that they have a strong anti-reconnaissance awareness. Pinot grew up next to him and has heard some of them.
She speculated that if the two cases were really investigated together, the mastermind behind the scenes would definitely put all the blame on Wen Duo, who seemed to be the most suspicious.
Moreover, when Wen Duo returned to China, it seemed as if it was arranged. He returned to his hometown, confused the public, and fled for fear of being punished. However, the manipulators behind the scenes were afraid that he would say things he shouldn't say or do things he shouldn't do, so they sent people to monitor him.
After Pinault's analysis, Wen Zichuan also realized that because of his prejudice and hatred, he found it difficult to remain calm whenever he mentioned Wen Duo. He always focused on the details and ignored the key points.
"Okay, since he's not the one, let's just ignore him for now," he turned to Lin Hanzhen, "Back then, you all went to Beiling Village. Who else knows about the ancient tomb? Can you narrow it down further?"
Lin Hanzhen shook her head. "There were only five of us who made it to Beiling Village. Besides Zhao Huan, your father, and me, there were two other teammates. When we left, we all swore to Wu Heng that we would never reveal the secrets of Beiling Village."
Wen Zichuan and Pinot looked at each other. Young people nowadays are no longer superstitious. If swearing an oath was useful, the world would have been united long ago.
"Is it possible that it was those two teammates?" asked Pinot.
"Probably not. After leaving Beiling Village, one of them returned to his hometown to farm. I happened to hear news about him two years ago. He was said to have advanced lung cancer and had passed away. The other one was in a similar situation to your father. He also left his original unit and was later transferred to a cultural relics management office in the suburbs, where he has stayed ever since." Lin Hanzhen said.
"It will be easy if we have specific information. The police can investigate and everything will be clear." Wen Zichuan asked for the man's name and unit and sent it to Zhou Han.
"But I always feel that he shouldn't be from the archaeological team." Lin Hanzhen's eyes were serious. "After your father returned to the institute, he was ostracized everywhere and couldn't even find a seat. He brought a table himself, but he could only barely place it at the door of the printing room. There are people coming and going there, and anyone can look at the materials on his table. And most of that information is related to Beiling Village. If anyone can see it, doesn't that mean everyone is a suspect?"
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