A thousand years of history sealed, unknown to the world. When was it that on this vast and barren land, golden armor and iron horses, heroes everywhere. Which general escorted the princess of the previous dynasty, and why was she buried in this desert of yellow sand? Was it love? If so, I think it must have been a tragic beauty.

  Yangguan City was no longer as prosperous as it used to be. Cha Wenbin stood up and said, "If I spend the rest of my life here, it wouldn't be a bad choice."

  I also stood up and stood beside him, just like the brotherhood we had been through all along, and said, "Why be so sad, I firmly believe he is still alive."

  "Definitely!"

  A quiet night, the two of them sleepless, returned to Nanhu Township already at dawn, early in the morning there were people waiting, originally an old man holding a long cloth package, seeing Zha Wenbin come over was exceptionally happy, repeatedly came forward to hold his hand and said: "Little brother go to my house to sit for a while, I'll show you this treasure." He patted the cloth package in his hand while pulling Zha Wenbin towards the courtyard, I could only follow along.

  As soon as we entered the house, the old man brewed a pot of tea for us. The steaming hot tea was just right to drive away the chill of the previous night. He said it was made with Snow Mountain water, although the tea itself wasn't top-grade, the water was exceptionally good. I took a sip and a sweet flavor spread from the root of my tongue, invigorating me instantly.

  The cloth package was opened, and inside was a long, rectangular brocade box. The old man specially went to close the doors and windows tightly before carefully opening the box that had raised my expectations. Inside, it turned out to be an unsheathed precious sword.

  It's a sword, but not quite a sword. It's more similar to the Japanese samurai sword, with a hilt that's half the length of the blade. Unlike the samurai sword, it doesn't have any curvature and is straight from top to bottom, with a single-edged blade and a triangular tip. This peculiarly-shaped weapon was something he had never seen before. The old man carefully took it out and presented it to Zhang Wenbin, saying: "Take a look, gentlemen. If you think it's still worth something, give me an offer."

  I have no feeling for things like knives and guns, but if it were Fatso, he might like it. Zha Wenbin took the sword in his hand and weighed it, very heavy. The blade was snow-white with a hint of black, and the decoration was extremely simple, with only one white jade on the handle, similar to the size of an ordinary Go stone. Zha Wenbin casually picked up a newspaper and lightly wiped it across the blade, instantly splitting into two pieces, extremely sharp.

  After finishing, Wen Bin returned the sword to the old man and said: "This is a Tang knife, the knife is good, why does the old gentleman want to sell it?"

  The old man was a bit embarrassed by the question, and he said with some tension: "This knife was passed down to me by my father. When he was young, he herded sheep for a wealthy family and found this thing at an antique stall. If it weren't for my wife being bedridden and waiting for money to save her life, I wouldn't have taken out this heirloom from my father to sell. Many years ago, someone offered me 10,000 yuan, but I refused."

  "I said: 'Ten thousand yuan, that's not a small amount.'"

  "This is one thing, that's another. Selling this to some people would be courting disaster. I'm about to retire soon, having spent my whole career in this grassroots organization. I don't want to end up being accused of selling cultural relics illegally. So, I usually don't dare to speak out." He leaned down again and whispered to Cha Wenbin: "I can tell you're not a bad person at first glance, and you're from Hong Kong too. That's why I'm asking you, if you have a kind heart, would you consider giving me a discount in exchange for some money to save my wife's life?"

  Cha Wenbin turned around and looked at me, he was asking for my opinion. I directly said to Zhu Zihao: "The Tang knife craftsmanship has long been lost, it is the strongest existence in China's cold weapon era. With this kind of weapon, the Tang Empire conquered the south and north without fail. As far as I know, such a well-preserved Tang knife is rare even nationwide."

  "Then just buy it!" Zhu Zihao slapped his thigh and said with relish:

  Anyway, this guy is not short of money now. The trouble he stirred up in Hong Kong still makes me angry to this day. So I'll let him play the role of Lei Feng and support the lives of people in poor areas. I opened my mouth and said: "In my opinion, since this knife is so precious, why don't you give 100,000 yuan for it? What do you think, Brother Zhu?"

  "One hundred thousand?" Zhu Zihao hesitated for a moment, then Cha Wenbin said: "Give twenty million, I just saw an inscription on one side of the knife, which reads: 'Imperial gift to Huaihua General', this shows that the knife was given by the emperor at that time, with royal craftsmanship, and paired with a third-grade general, twenty million is not excessive."

  "Really?" Zhu Zihao stood up and picked up the sword, he wanted to take a closer look at this treasure. Everyone in the antique world knows that there is a difference between having an inscription and not having one, those few words, each one is worth thousands of gold.

  "As expected, alright, 200,000 is 200,000, old sir, will you sell at this price?"

  "Two hundred thousand?" The old man was also shocked, he had probably never seen so much money in his life. He suddenly grasped Zhang Wenbin's hand with tears streaming down his face and said: "My wife will be saved, thank you, bosses."

  "Huh, there's another line of text here." As he read out those few words, I suddenly felt as if a thunderbolt had struck on a clear day: "Shi, Gan, Dang! Isn't that Shi Tou Xiong's name? What a coincidence!"

  "What?" Chai Wenbin and I both reached out to grab it at the same time, almost letting that knife cut our hands. Zhu Zihao pointed to the white jade on the hilt of the sword: "This one seems to be carved by himself."

  Those few words were engraved on a jade, and if you didn't look carefully, you really couldn't see them. It felt like they were randomly carved with a sharp object like a dagger. The handwriting was crooked and twisted. I took a glance and my mind went blank for a moment. I've worked with Fatso for so many years, and his signature is naturally something I've seen plenty of times. This guy's handwriting is even uglier than mine! I can guarantee that this handwriting is definitely Fatso's!

  "It's his, no doubt!"

  Cha Wenbin was also very excited, he repeatedly emphasized to me: "Are you sure?" "Sure!"

  "Old man, has anyone handled this Tang sword before or let others play with it?"

  "No." The old man said affirmatively: "This knife has always been in my hands, even if others want to see it, they can only observe from a distance and cannot get close. Are you talking about the inscription on it? This is also something I've never understood. Since my father picked up this Tang knife, there have been these characters. The biggest contradiction is that all other parts of the knife can be confirmed as early Tang dynasty relics, but these characters are in modern simplified Chinese. However, I dare to guarantee that this knife is absolutely not a fake or imitation. If it's fake, heaven will strike me with lightning!"

  The knife is real, and I can be sure of that. Some things just can't be faked, like the subtlety and sedimentation. I don't know how to describe my mood at this moment, I'd rather believe it's just a coincidence. I also believe Fatso has never been here before, nor would he have had the chance to come into contact with this knife. Maybe there was someone else who shared the same name as Fatso.

  "We'll take the knife, and the money will be delivered this afternoon." Zhang Wenbin took the knife and was about to leave. Although the old man hesitated, he didn't stop him. 200,000 yuan, in that era, was an astronomical figure, enough to buy a lakeside villa by West Lake!

  Zhang Wenbin didn't even turn his head back and got on the car, only urging me: "Go to the museum, quickly!"

  "I asked in doubt: 'Where are you going? To identify the authenticity?'"

  "No, it's real. The moment I held it in my hand, I knew it was an antique and had been stained with blood. I want to ask what the characters on it mean and when they were engraved. Also, has there ever been a general named Shi Gandang in history?"

  Sitting in the passenger seat was none other than Zhu Zihao, who is now my name card. With a Hong Kong businessman like him by my side, it will be much more convenient to enter and exit official places. I saw that his eyes kept glancing at the rearview mirror, so I said: "Brother Zihao, how about considering the money for buying this knife as borrowed from me?"

  "This kid is quite sensible, and magnanimously said: 'What's the need to borrow from each other? Besides, what's mine is yours. If it weren't for you and Cha Ge, I wouldn't be sure if I'd already fallen to the point of selling off my ancestral property. Just tell me what you like, as long as it's something that can be solved with money, it's no big deal.'"

  "Then don't be polite, just consider this thing as a gift to Wenbin. Don't worry, he won't let you lose out." I looked at him and said: "Later, have him divine your fortune and point out a way for you to make money, and you'll earn back many times over."

  "Ah, yes, yes!" Zhu Zihao laughed repeatedly.

  Having this old man as a signboard is indeed useful, Dunhuang is a cultural ancient city with rich historical connotations. The museum here is much larger than those in general areas. Two staff members from the county cultural bureau have been waiting and directly took us to the office, saying that local experts have arrived.

  An oval office, piled with various artifacts waiting to be repaired, several old men wearing white coats and thick glasses were carefully studying the Tang knife that had been sent over, the one in the middle who kept nodding was the authority of this museum, also a famous professor from Beijing who was specially assigned to work on Dunhuang cultural relics: Su Qing.

  He put down the magnifying glass in his hand, first looked up at us and saw a hint of vigilance in his eyes. He tapped on the table and said: "Our country has regulations that all cultural relics unearthed from underground belong to the state, and no individual or organization is allowed to possess or sell cultural relics."

  I thought to myself, this old man is really boring, speaking so harshly. Why don't you go stroll around those antique markets on the street? I immediately had a bad impression of him. But since we have something to ask of him, I could only explain: "Professor Su, we are not dealers in cultural relics, this is a treasured sword passed down from our friend's ancestors."

  "Whether it's ancestral or not I don't know, what evidence do you have?"

  "What evidence do you have to prove it's not an heirloom?"

  The atmosphere in the conference room seemed to be a bit off, so the two attendants hastily mediated: "Professor Su is a nationally appointed senior scholar. The loss of cultural relics in the Dunhuang area is also very serious. Professor Su has been heartbroken during his stay here these days. However, these gentlemen are all patriotic entrepreneurs from Hong Kong who have come to invest in the economic development of Dunhuang. They have heard of Professor Su's great name and have come specifically to seek your advice."

  This flattering remark was quite good, giving both sides a step down and giving enough face to Old Su. He finally opened his mouth and said: "The thing is indeed from the early Tang Dynasty, using the hundred-steel folding technique. Such a knife requires repeated hammering of steel strips millions of times to take shape, with excellent toughness. Even if it's a skilled craftsman making such a knife, it takes five years." He put down the knife with some reluctance and said: "This hundred-steel folding technique has been lost for hundreds of years. The blade is not integrated, but is made by inlaying knife pieces one by one. However, the seams of the inlays are invisible to the naked eye, making it a rare treasure. The inscription on the back clearly reads 'Imperial Gift', indicating that this knife was made by the imperial palace's master craftsman. The handle is made of thousand-year-old cold iron with He Tian jade decoration. The user of this knife was a third-rank general. If I must insist, I can say that currently in the country, there has not been a Tang Dynasty imperial knife that is so well-preserved and has such superior craftsmanship, it can be considered a national treasure."

  "May I ask, Professor Su, have you seen the characters engraved on that jade stone?"

  Su Qing put down her eyes and immediately turned black, saying: "I just wanted to ask, who would actually destroy such a national treasure, and be so bored as to carve their own name on it?"

  "It's said that this character and this sword have existed at the same time."

  Su Qing shook her head and said: "Impossible, this is modern simplified Chinese characters, it's obviously carved by later generations."

  I also stood up and said, "This is one of the purposes we came here today: We want to ask Professor Su to carefully help us take a look, can you see how long the inscription was written, and whether there was a general named Shi Gandang in the history of Dunhuang?"