Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
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The artifact restoration room looked like a laboratory, or a factory workshop, filled with strangely shaped machines.
Several restoration experts, wearing white coats and masks, bustled about.
They not only had to remove the dirt and grime from the artifacts’ surfaces but also piece the fragments back together. This work was meticulous, technically demanding, and very labor-intensive.
A team of bodyguards stood guard inside and outside the restoration room at all times, not only to prevent criminals from breaking in, but also to monitor the experts and prevent them from making a mistake and secretly taking away the artifacts. It seemed the curator was right; the security measures here were indeed adequate.
“Hello, gentlemen, I am Wang Wen, the head of the restoration team.” A tall, thin man greeted them, shook hands with Ye Qing and Li Yuebai, and guided them on a tour: “Our museum attaches great importance to this batch of artifacts, so we specially invited the artifact restoration expert team from the Capital Museum…”
“Hello, Team Leader Wang, it must have been very hard work for you to handle such a special project!” Li Yuebai said with emotion.
“Oh, not at all, Officer, you should say that to the experts. I’m just a gofer, I don’t have any real power, I’m hardly a leader,” Team Leader Wang smiled modestly, pointing to the experts working at their desks and introducing them one by one: “This is Expert Li, who once restored the silk scroll with the character ‘Longevity’ in the Forbidden City. That Sister Zhang is a master of jade restoration; after she pieced together the jade fragments, not even a single crack or flaw could be seen…”
Li Yuebai listened casually to the introductions, glancing around the entire restoration room.
Some of the priceless gold and jade artifacts were being meticulously cleaned on the worktables, some sat quietly in glass cabinets, and others were being carefully examined by the experts.
After searching for a while, he finally found a few dusty ceramic figurines on a table in the corner of the room.
The wooden clown carving was nowhere to be seen.
“Officer, do you also study cultural relics?” Team Leader Wang asked.
“No, I don’t know anything about them,” Li Yuebai answered honestly.
“Then the officer is truly remarkable,” Wang Wen chuckled. “If an ordinary person came to the restoration room, their eyes would be glued to the gold and jade artifacts, but the officer only glanced at them. Instead, he kept glancing at the ceramic and wooden figurines, completely ignoring the jade and gold. He’s really different.”
“No, I just wanted to ask, Team Leader Wang, are there any particularly special items among those ceramic and wooden figurines?” Seeing that Team Leader Wang had already gone this far, Li Yuebai decided to follow up and tentatively ask.
“This…” Wang Wen thought for a moment, hesitated, and finally shut up: “Sorry, I can’t say.”
Li Yuebai stared at his face, trying to find the reason in his expression.
Wang Wen probably knew about the clown wood carving, but for some reason, he couldn’t say where it was.
“Team Leader Wang, please trust us,” Ye Qing smiled.
“It’s not that I don’t trust the officer, it’s just… the interpersonal relationships in our restoration team are a bit difficult to manage, and some things are hard to say.” Wang Wen sighed.
A group of technical people together, how could interpersonal relationships be difficult? This was the biggest joke Li Yuebai had ever heard.
Everyone knew that the most complex and cutthroat interpersonal relationships throughout history had always been found in government offices— places where politics reigned supreme and no technology was involved.
This artifact restoration team— everyone’s focused on practical work, like programmers— what could be so difficult to handle? Wang Wen seemed like a gentleman, considerate and capable; how could someone like him be unmanageable?
Just as Li Yuebai was completely bewildered, a string of curses erupted from the restoration room.
“Idiot, are you blind? Where are you sticking the glue? Let me tell you, this thing you’re holding is worth ten million! You couldn’t afford to pay for it even if you sold yourself! Intern, intern, you piece of trash, you think you deserve to be an intern here? Even kindergarteners are better than you! What are you? Go home and farm, do what you’re supposed to do, don’t cause trouble here!”
The string of curses was crisp and unpleasant, the standard tone of a Beijing thug, sending chills down Li Yuebai’s spine.
Following the sound of the cursing towards the center of the restoration room, one could see a young man with dyed red hair, legs crossed, hurling insults.
He was also wearing a white lab coat, but it looked incredibly awkward on him; the buttons weren’t fastened properly, revealing what appeared to be a black T-shirt underneath, and he wore some kind of exaggerated necklace. He looked every bit the scoundrel. The one being cursed was an intern, a small boy with black-rimmed glasses, cute-looking, but with a timid expression. As the red-haired man’s curses intensified, the intern shrank back in fear, looking quite pitiful.
The other experts seemed oblivious, continuing with their work as if it were commonplace.
But Wang Wen, as the head of the restoration team, couldn’t stand idly by. He immediately stepped forward to mediate: “Hey, hey, Expert Zhuo, stop being so temperamental! There are police officers here visiting; it’ll have a bad influence if word gets out… Calm down, calm down.”
Then, Wang Wen, with a stern face, criticized the intern in a low voice: “Xiao Yang, this is wrong of you. You’ve been learning from the experts for several days now, how come you’re still so clumsy? Cultural relics can’t be taken lightly; you need to keep working hard!”
Such obvious bias was simply too unfair.
What’s more, the red-haired guy didn’t buy it at all. He turned around with a shrug, aimed his anger at Wang Wen, and started cursing arrogantly again: “Team Leader Wang, don’t pretend to be a good guy here! What are you? You’re just wielding your authority like it’s nothing. What do you know about cultural relics? You have no skills, no education, you’re just a temporary team leader assigned to this project? You dare to talk to me about influence? This is my temper; it has bad influence, so what can you do about it?”
Li Yuebai felt a throbbing pain in his temples.
Wang Wen, as expected of the appointed team leader, remained unperturbed by the red-haired guy’s unreasonable and domineering behavior. Instead he quickly calmed things down and brought Li Yuebai and Ye Qing over, introducing the red-haired guy to them: “This is Zhuo Zhuo, a key technical member of our restoration team.”
The name Zhuo Zhuo was indeed fitting; Li Yuebai felt like he was about to be blinded by the red-haired guy’s bright red hair.[1]
It seemed this man’s arrogance had some basis; his technical skill was so high that others naturally gave him leeway.
Outsiders might not expect that someone with such high technical skills would have such a bad temper and be so foul-mouthed; it could only be explained by the fact that even geniuses were hard to please.
Zhuo Zhuo arrogantly turned his head, giving Ye Qing and Li Yuebai a once-over: “From the Public Security Bureau? Do you have a badge?”
Ye Qing calmly flicked his name tag with his long, slender fingers.
Zhuo Zhuo rolled his eyes, barely managing to pass muster, but the moment he saw Li Yuebai, his expression exploded.
“Oh ho! I thought it was just some police officers visiting, but it turns out you’re a big celebrity!” Zhuo Zhuo glared at Li Yuebai while recalling, “Aren’t you that Gu something… Gu Kaisa who was on the news? The one who killed someone, and you’re still not in jail?”
The news of Gu Xisha shooting Gao Chengyu dead had indeed spread like wildfire, but those not sensitive to the news wouldn’t know. For example, the curator, the secretary, and Team Leader Wang all vaguely knew about it, but couldn’t recognize Gu Xisha’s face, so they weren’t particularly surprised. Zhuo Zhuo, however, had a sharp eye and was very news-sensitive; he recognized him immediately.
“Not yet, you’ll be disappointed,” Li Yuebai replied with an even more arrogant smile.
In terms of assertive personality, Gu Xisha had never lost to anyone.
“How can we trust someone like you to come here for a visit? What if you get upset later and shoot Team Leader Wang?” Zhuo Zhuo snorted. Even with
Despite Wang Wen’s good temper, being constantly teased like this was getting to him.
“Expert Zhuo, the police have a question for you.” Wang Wen simply threw the question he had just asked Zhuo Zhuo: “Is there anything special among these pottery and wooden puppets?”
“Team Leader Wang, you’re trying to bring the police in as allies, aren’t you?” Zhuo Zhuo sneered: “Of course there are special things, but why should we show them to you?”
Li Yuebai, hearing his words and seeing his expression, knew that he must know the inside story.
“We received a tip that a criminal gang is very interested in a wooden carving among the unearthed artifacts and may come to rob it,” Li Yuebai said sternly. “This is no small matter. We hope everyone can cooperate and provide detailed information.”
In reality, there was no criminal gang or any tip. Li Yuebai only used this high-sounding excuse because he suspected that the clown wooden carving contained a dormant organism.
“So, you want us to hand over the wooden carving to you?” Zhuo Zhuo sneered. “Get this straight, you’re not a police officer anymore. You’re just a murderer on bail. Besides, even if that Officer Ye next to you came to ask me for it, I wouldn’t give it to you! These artifacts belong to museums now, and more broadly, to the state! Why should we hand them over to your small municipal bureau?”
“Expert Zhuo, calm down. The police officer isn’t asking us for the wooden carving; he’s just inquiring about the situation…” Wang Wen wiped away his cold sweat.
“You think you can just casually reveal the secrets of cultural relics? Are you so great just because you’re a police officer?” Zhuo Zhuo persisted. “Besides, do you have any official documents? Do you have a search warrant?” After a long, heated exchange, Li Yuebai finally understood.
The clown wood carving was indeed in the restoration room, but he hadn’t seen it because Zhuo Zhuo had hidden it.
Inside the restoration room was a small room with a safe, exclusively for the restoration expert team. It was divided into many compartments, one for each person, each with their own password, where they could store their valuables without worrying about loss.
A few days ago, when the restoration expert team saw the unearthed artifacts, they were immediately drawn to the clown wood carving.
The experts specialized in local Ming and Qing dynasty artifacts and were unfamiliar with imported items, especially the clown wood carving, which was clearly a foreign import. They all wanted to get a closer look, but Zhuo Zhuo, for some unknown reason, had unilaterally locked the clown wood carving in his safe.
The other experts, who had worked with him for years, knew he was arrogant and difficult to deal with, so they didn’t bother with him and focused on restoring other artifacts.
Wang Wen, however, couldn’t stand it and tried to reason with him several times, all to no avail.
Therefore, the clown wood carving remained quietly locked in Zhuo Zhuo’s safe.
This was also why Wang Wen initially told Li Yuebai that “our interpersonal relationships are rather complicated.” Wang Wen was shy and felt that exposing this matter to the police would make the restoration team appear disunited, the experts unreasonable, and his management skills as the team leader seem poor… In reality, the so-called complicated interpersonal relationships simply meant that Zhuo Zhuo was a difficult person to deal with.
“Expert Zhuo, can’t you just listen to my advice?” Wang Wen was exasperated. “The exhibition starts at 3 PM this afternoon. It’s not appropriate for you to keep hogging that wooden sculpture.”
“Tch, do you think I don’t know? The exhibition promotion doesn’t mention the clown sculpture at all. It doesn’t have to be on display!” Zhuo Zhuo persisted. “The real cultural relics haven’t even been fully restored yet. Who cares about that? Team Leader Wang, don’t argue with me here. I’m telling you, that clown sculpture can only stay with me. I don’t trust anyone else with it!”
Wang Wen shook his head and walked away.
“It’s locked securely in my cabinet. What problems could possibly arise? No one but me can open that cabinet.” Zhuo Zhuo continued arguing with Li Yuebai. “You want to take it back for research? Do you even know anything about cultural relics? What can you possibly research? Let me tell you, without a search warrant, you won’t even get a clod of dirt from me!”
Zhuo Zhuo’s attitude made one wonder— was he being controlled by the dormant entity within the clown sculpture?
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[1] He said this because Zhuo Zhuo literally means bright and brilliant in Chinese.