Chapter 38: Jiangning Museum

  Every day, the Earth with a population of 6 billion is surrounded by all kinds of storms. For people, only the storm that is closely related to them can bring real shock.

  Just like now, although the gentlemen of the Vatican are busy to death, the two German professors and Chen Yi who made up the numbers were sitting in the museum's living room drinking tea.

  Professor Lang sat beside him, acting as a translator while drinking the fine Bi Luo Chun tea provided by the museum, and exclaimed in English: "Same doctor, Chinese doctors can only drink tea, German doctors can drink good tea, it's not fair!"

  After finishing speaking, he winked at the two Germans and said: "If it weren't for you guys being here, I wouldn't be able to drink such good tea."

  Chen Yi couldn't help but laugh. Professor Lang's chubby hands, pinching a small tea cup that was only two taels in size, were truly comical, not to mention his humorous personality, which made him a person full of elements that brought joy to others.

  "Should we stay in Jiangning for a month, I'm afraid there won't be such good tea," Karl replied in English.

  He knew Chen Yi could understand simple English.

  "Always the best treatment for guests," said Professor Lang, finishing his tea in one gulp and refilling his cup. "The Jiangning Museum is most famous for its dinosaur fossils, but also for its excellent tea."

  Everyone burst out laughing.

  After finishing the whole pot of tea, Professor Lang patted his straight stomach and smiled: "It's time to set off. Lu Zaiyuan is probably already waiting anxiously. Actually, identifying art pieces should be left to appraisers. But even with an appraiser, you're still not at ease - that's just how officials are, making three people labor in vain."

  "Be more careful, especially after what happened the day before yesterday." Andrei said sympathetically in English: "The Vatican gave gifts, but nobody dared to accept them, how pitiful."

  "It's indeed pitiful." Professor Lang burst out laughing. They were going to appraise some artworks given by the Vatican to the Chinese government, although they didn't have to pay for it, but for the museum, just signing would mean risk, if one day someone checked and found them to be fake, it wouldn't just be a matter of losing face.

  So, after hearing that the famous Samo cylinder was suspected of being fake a thousand years ago, the originally happy museum director Lu couldn't sit still and asked Professor Lang to help with authentication. It was also a good idea, as there aren't many domestic experts who can speak on this matter, and Professor Lang is one of the more prestigious ones, so if he says it's genuine, those ordinary critics wouldn't dare to casually dispute it.

  As for Chen Yi, he was considered a high-level laborer brought in by Professor Lang, different from the purely low-level laborers. He had the qualifications to drink tea and chat with the three professors together. Although he couldn't say more than a few sentences in English, it was much more comfortable than Lu Fan's miscellaneous research students.

  Director Lu Zaiyuan was indeed anxiously waiting in the small hall outside, disregarding his image as he paced back and forth in front of a group of graduate students, looking like a dog that hadn't been let out for two days.

  Professor Lang, with a flattering smile, greeted him and introduced the two people behind him on the sofa: "Professors, this is Mr. Duan Rongduan, our first-class appraiser from Jiangning, and this is Cui Ju, a researcher at our Jiangning Museum."

  Chen Yi hid behind three heavyweight professors, and was basically considered one of the "few professors". Looking at the humble appearance of others, it felt like an illusion - when did he have the qualifications to appraise historical artifacts and artworks with world-renowned professors? Not to mention the vastly different ages, but also the knowledge level was far apart.

  But this feeling is really great.

  Cui Ju and Duan Rong were humble to the point of being overly cautious because they felt constrained by the knowledge level and academic status of people like Professor Lang, this low profile was completely different from that of the gentlemen under my father.

  Chen Yi followed the three people and walked into the museum.

  Behind the heavy steel door, you can see a large number of cultural relics arranged in an orderly manner, mostly carvings and inscriptions, with a total of around 500 pieces. As for the paintings that shine with a soft glow, there are only about a dozen or so. Although the total number of artifacts donated by the Vatican is one of the largest ever given to a foreign country, their overall value is not particularly high, estimated to be around $10 million.

  The director of the building frowned and said, "In these two days, I will have to trouble you all."

  Others already knew that Professor Lang turned to Chen Yi and said, "You seem to be about to take the college entrance exam. In these two days, you can watch if you want to watch, or do something else, it doesn't matter, don't be restrained."

  Chen Yi smiled and nodded: "It's okay, this is also a rare opportunity."

  His eyes, however, were not on the artifacts of the Vatican, but looked far ahead to the warehouse in front. There were piles of large and small prehistoric fossils - Jiangning Museum is famous for this, and the number used for exhibition every year is claimed to be the first in the country, and there are even more stored in the vault.

  From his direction, in addition to large and small dinosaur skeletons, there are also whole slabs of fish, birds, and plant fossils. Some special prehistoric creatures, such as trilobites, are placed in inlaid boxes on stainless steel shelves. If needed, they can be automatically replaced with other fossils on display through a mechanical transmission device. The same technology is also used in museums like the Smithsonian in the United States, at no small expense.

  Larger, or less valuable items are roughly categorized and piled under canvas, and except for a few lucky ones, they have not seen the sunlight since the day of their excavation.

  Others had already gotten busy, Chen Yi looked at the warehouse which was thousands of meters long and wide, cool and comfortable, and couldn't help but ask: "Do you have fossils of the ancestral bird?"

  "Archaeopteryx?" Researcher Cui Juxian almost laughed. Although he mainly studied Renaissance art, at the Jiangning Museum, his understanding of fossils was not lacking. Considering Chen Yini's young age, he explained kindly: "There are only 10 Archaeopteryx fossils in total, most of which are in Germany and are considered national treasures, it's hard for us to even see them."

  He said to the two foreigners, "They have the archaeological site of Solnhofen, Professor Lang should have been there several times. The ancestors of birds are basically all unearthed from there."

  "They both come from the Solnhofen Research Institute, and I met them there before. Professor Lang smiled and nodded slowly, saying: "You have less contact with archaeology, but Germany's Solnhofen has a unique geographical environment, the mud at the bottom of the lake is a natural preservative for fossils, as long as animal carcasses enter the mud, they can be preserved quickly. They even found a feather of Archaeopteryx before. It's quite impressive."

  He said that Chen Yi finally understood the joint, smiled and asked: "Are there other similar fossils? Of the same era or of the same type?"

  "If Mr. Chen is interested in fossils, I can give you one after we're done." The director of the museum, who was walking ahead, hastily said, worried about wasting the professors' time.

  Chen Yi smiled bluntly and said, "Then thank you."

  Lu Zaiyuan was taken aback for a moment, then burst out laughing.

  After formally entering the appraisal procedure, Chen Yi proactively requested to make preliminary judgments on various cultural relics with several graduate students.

  Because it was only a preliminary judgment, he only made an appraisal based on the age. All those with ages that did not match the records were listed separately.

  As it turned out, he really found three things that were not up to standard.

  The professors thought he was only good at dating, and didn't think much of it. Although a true connoisseur requires a deep understanding of the style, background, era, material and so on of an artifact, in actual practice, except for a few top-notch experts who can meet this requirement, most people are still mainly specialized in one area and studying others as secondary.

  Chen Yi was able to play to his strengths and leave the areas he wasn't good at to others, which earned him the praise of the experts. His accuracy rate was extremely high, and after just half a day, the others rarely asked questions about the dynasties again.

  Lu Fan looked at him with great admiration and asked for the fifth time: "How did you judge?"

  Chen Yi casually threw down a dark period noble wine vessel and replied for the fifth time, "The key is feeling. Actually, I also can't say it clearly."

  Lu Fan seemed to have gained something, excitedly nodding his head, and then carefully helped Chen Yi clean up the cultural relics on the side with a brush. He started operating instruments like other graduate students. But soon, he naturally became Chen Yi's peripheral material and kept asking some unanswered questions.

  Of course, no matter what Chen Yi answered, he could always think positively and supplement it with his brain.

  That's the teacher's favorite student.

  ……