Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
At midnight, Zhao Yu and Cui Lizhu were still busy working away at the desk. They were both excited and nervous. They didn’t know what they would find in the box left by Tao Xiang. Cui Lizhu carefully cut the outer skin of the box with a knife and checked the inside boards, trying to find any hidden clues. Zhao Yu checked the contents of the box one by one, and looked through the old books as well as Tao Xiang’s notes.
“Boss…” Cui Lizhu looked at the surface of the box using the magnifying glass function of her mobile phone as she asked curiously, “Does my father’s plan have anything to do with gold? I’ve heard him mention it many times.”
Zhao Yu looked carefully at the books. Without raising his head he said, “Really? In my opinion, it seems normal for a thief to talk about gold a lot.”
Cui Lizhu began to let her imagination run wild. “Boss, maybe my dad discovered some amazing secrets? For example, Golden City is not just a name but it refers to the fact that there is really gold buried under the city,” she said.
Zhao Yu put down an old book and picked up another notebook. “I heard Miao Ying say that the name of Golden City comes from the golden chrysanthemum outside the city.”
“No, when I was at school, I heard people say that the city was built by the Yellow Towel Army after they retreated northward,” Cui Lizhu said hastily. “The army was very famous at that time. Do you think they might have possibly left their treasure in the city? Did my dad get a clue about where it was located?”
“Although I am the discoverer of the Golden Buddha Treasure, I can tell you sincerely there are few treasures in this world,” Zhao Yu responded. “Besides, the Yellow Towel Army was of the Eastern Han Dynasty. That’s the Three Kingdoms time. It was so many years ago.”
“It was only 1800 years away from ago,” Cui Lizhu said. “I know that the history of Golden City isn’t longer than the Ming Dynasty, but history is not absolute. Maybe there was an ancient city 1800 years ago, and it disappeared later. Maybe my dad got inspiration from the city name.”
Before Cui Lizhu finished, Zhao Yu interrupted her, pointing to the black notebook in his hand as he asked, “Wait. Here… What is this?”
“Huh?” Cui Lizhu quickly put down her work and went over to Zhao Yu. Zhao Yu was reading a notebook. Cui Lizhu glanced at it, then became lost in thought for a moment. “Boss, this notebook, I remember it. When I was in Golden City, I saw it on my dad’s desk. He had drawn something on it with a ruler.”
Zhao Yu opened the notebook and saw that the first dozen pages in it were copies. He looked it over carefully and discovered that the copies were glued to the notebook. Zhao Yu asked, “What is this?”
Cui Lizhu looked it over as well and said, “I guess this is someone’s memoir or letters. This looks old, and this kind of paper seems to be from a long time ago. Is it rice paper made for drawing?”
“Not likely…” Zhao Yu stroked the paper and found that the paper was very soft and thin. He wanted to identify its material with an Invisible Analyzer but was distracted by the words on the paper. The characters were all traditional style, and there were notes as well as some symbols in red under them. Obviously, the notes most likely had been written by Tao Xiang.
Cui Lizhu pointed to a spot on the page and said, “See that? Gold… Here.” She pointed to another place and said, “Gold again.” Zhao Yu also noticed the word gold. He turned several pages and found that the occurrence of the word was very high, almost on every page. “My God. Is it really gold? My father, he… What on earth was he looking for?” Cui Lizhu asked, both surprised and excited.
Zhao Yu recognized several words. “Look here, these two characters mean ‘treasure’,” he said.
Cui Lizhu grabbed Zhao Yu’s shoulder excitedly. “Gold and treasure… Boss, had my dad been looking for gold treasure?” she wondered.
Zhao Yu felt that this was an important discovery, although he didn’t agree with Cui Lizhu. He turned another few pages and saw that they were not made of the same sticky, old paper. He found Tao Xiang’s notes. Tao Xiang’s handwriting was beautiful and clear. There were drawings and maps on the last few pages, which confirmed what Cui Lizhu had just said about the ruler. Zhao Yu returned to the ricer paper and found a name at the end, Liu Dianchen.
“Liu Dianchen…” Cui Lizhu pointed to a small line behind the name and said, “It says ‘interrogation notes’? What is this?”
Zhao Yu snapped his finger as he said to her, “I don’t know everything. Google it, ok?”
Cui Lizhu did as she was told and in less than ten seconds, she found the answer. “Oh, this guy was a massive traitor,” she said.
“Ah? Traitor? What do you mean?” Zhao Yu wondered.
Cui Lizhu pointed to her cell phone as she said, “During the War of Resistance against Japan, this man was the director of the Ministry of Construction in the Puppet Manchukuo Government, as well as the chairman of the People’s Associations, and several chambers of commerce. After Japan’s surrender, he was captured by the military command and secretly executed.” Cui Lizhu frowned, asking, “Is this guy the traitor, or a person with the same name?”
Zhao Yu carefully read Tao Xiang’s remarks. “Look, here it says ‘interrogation’. I think it’s probably the same person. The interrogation records of a traitor? What are these notes about?”
“I guess this is what the prisoner wrote when he confessed to his crimes,” Cui Lizhu answered.
“Big traitor and gold treasure?” Zhao Yu asked. “The Puppet Manchukuo Government should have been in the northeast of China, where the Golden City is, so…”
“Is that the last thing my dad wanted to tell me? What did he find exactly?” she asked excitedly.
Zhao Yu was very excited as well. “Maybe the treasure has something to do with the Japanese,” he said.
Cui Lizhu pointed to the notebook, saying, “Although it’s traditional Chinese, we should be able to figure out what it says using my dad’s comments.”
