Although these words were still lies, Cheng Yu had a clear conscience. He did not have any intention of taking advantage of others. In fact, his actions indirectly helped Ji Manzi and his tribe to maintain the foundation of the crown.
Ji Manzi nodded after hearing this, seeming to believe Cheng Yu's words, while the old lady, still smiling, picked up the wine bottle and helped the two of them add a little more wine.
"If you take this thing out, you can sell it for a lot of money, right?" Ji Manzi pointed to the base with the cigarette rod in his hand.
Cheng Yu scratched his head and said with some embarrassment: "I mainly value its historical value. I don't know much about the market price of this thing. I don't know if you know that in the official history, the Ming Dynasty emperor Zhu
Youtang could not find the clansman of his biological mother, so he could only build a temple for his grandparents in Guilin. But if it is authenticated, it is proved that the phoenix crown is now scattered outside, as well as the one in front of you.
The base was really given by Emperor Zhu Youtang of the Ming Dynasty to his biological mother's clan, so this history would obviously have been rewritten. To be honest, I didn't originally think that this base would be a treasure. I just wanted it for the future.
I came here with a hidden history, but now that I saw this thing, I realized that not only the phoenix crown, but also the base is something that is sought after by collectors. Considering that this is probably produced by the Ming Dynasty court, and also by the Su
The craftsmanship and the material itself have a certain value. If you insist on asking me to estimate the value, I think this base can be sold for at least two to three million. Of course, I am more conservative.
It is estimated that collections often do not have an accurate price, and it is normal to double the price if you are lucky."
I thought that this kind of old man who had never been out of the mountains in his life and whose daily income was very meager would be shocked when he heard the number of two to three million, but unexpectedly, Ji Manzi was as calm as a still lake, with ripples.
Not surprised.
"Two to three million, haha, if it is a personal artifact, it would be quite impressive if sold. But this thing belongs to our entire clan. Although the clan has declined now, there are still dozens of families left, and one family only has a few people.
It’s only 10,000 yuan. Even if it were doubled, it would only be 100,000 yuan per family. It’s really a lot of wealth in our remote mountains, but if we bring it to the city, I’m afraid we might not even be able to buy half a house. It’s a pity.”
Seeing the old man's sad look, Cheng Yu felt that he really wanted to sell the base, not for the money, but in the hope that he could use this dead thing to give the people in the village a better future.
"It's really a pity. This base is already worth a lot of money. Now I really don't know what the phoenix crown will look like. If the phoenix crown is still there, with this base, it can be worth thousands of dollars at least. If this is the case,
Each of your tribesmen can get two to three hundred thousand yuan, which is actually enough to make a living by doing some small business in the city, without being trapped in the mountains."
Ji Manzi nodded slightly and sighed again: "Yes, they all blame me. If I had watched him more closely... ugh..."
Hearing this, Cheng Yu couldn't help but feel a little guilty.
Although the person who stole the crown was not him, he had something to do with him. That person had been dead for twelve years, but after all, he was the person who had the same system as Cheng Yu.
Cheng Yu was thinking, how can he help the old man realize his wish? The old man obviously did not do it for money, but hoped that the people of the tribe could live a better life. Of course, he himself had no problem with life in the mountains. Those in the village
There is probably no problem for the elderly, but those villagers who have left the mountains and live the lowest life in the city are more illustrative of the problem. They do not want to be trapped in the mountains like their ancestors. They not only long for
Go out and even take action already, but with no knowledge and no money, life is still very miserable even after entering the city.
No matter what, Cheng Yu made up his mind. After this mission was over, he must find a way to help the old man realize this little wish.
As for the specific method, Cheng Yu still needs to think further, and this is not something that can be figured out in a short while.
"Old man, don't blame yourself too much. He disappeared like this completely out of nowhere. Even the police are helpless about it. This is not your responsibility."
Ji Manzi drank the wine in the shallow bowl in one gulp and said: "I understand the truth, but after all, this holy object was lost in my hand. Otherwise, as you said, it could be sold for more than 10 million now, Zhai
Among these people, each family can get two to three hundred thousand or even more, which means that my position as patriarch is not in vain. Society is developing too fast, and our tribe cannot continue to live in such isolation.
The young people have now moved into the city, leaving us old people alone to guard the green mountains. I know that the young people in the village are also having a hard time in the city!"
"It will get better, it will definitely happen." Cheng Yu comforted the old man.
Ji Manzi was in a daze for a while, taking two puffs of dry cigarettes from time to time. When he could no longer smoke, he came back to his senses.
"Xiao Zhong, so you study history?" The old man seemed to get rid of the guilt.
Now Cheng Yu can only continue to climb up the pole. He said: "Well, I am studying this. I want to understand this matter in order to write my graduation thesis. My tutor is serious about Ming history. I
I just want to write a paper in his research direction just to suit his interests."
"Are you still a student?"
Cheng Yuxin said it was normal for me to be a student at my age, but considering that the old man rarely communicates with the outside world and has been sitting in this room for a long time without even watching TV, the old man's way of obtaining information is probably in the corner of this room.
That little radio in there.
"Well, college students are about to graduate."
Ji Manzi pondered for a moment and then said: "You are still a student, so it seems that you will most likely have no chance to see that phoenix crown, but that doesn't matter. If you just want to understand history, I, an old man, can still help you.
Busy."
While talking, the old man stood up and walked towards the back room.
"Wait a minute, I'll go find you something."
Cheng Yu sat at the table, tasting the dishes prepared by the old lady, and patiently waited for Ji Manzi's return.
The sound of wood squeezing when the hinges were opened and closed came from the back room. It was probably the old man looking for something in the cabinet. Not long after, the old man came out with a biscuit barrel that had disappeared from most people's lives many years ago.
.
This biscuit barrel was probably several decades old, and many of the paint-off parts were already covered with rust. When Ji Manzi placed it on the table, rust was still falling from those parts.
The old lady glanced at Ji Manzi angrily, took the biscuit barrel from his hand, held it aside and patted it gently until rust flakes stopped falling from it.
Taking a bamboo stick, the old lady pried open the lid of the biscuit barrel and carefully took out the contents.
They were two book-sized objects wrapped in coarse blue cloth. After Ji Manzi took them, he spread them in front of Cheng Yu and unwrapped the coarse blue cloth.
The first package, after being unwrapped, appeared in front of Cheng Yu in the form of a book. To be precise, it should be several books stacked together. The cover of the book on the surface had the four characters "Genealogy of the Ji Family" written on it.
.
"This is the genealogy of our clan. Starting from Empress Ji, all the descendants of the past five hundred years are here. It is not far-fetched to say that we are Empress Ji's clan. At least it was confirmed by the emperor himself. It's just that
However, due to certain considerations, it was not made public.”
Cheng Yu opened a genealogy and found that it was all printed out. He couldn't help but feel a little confused.
"The previous genealogy was so old that I didn't know how many times it had been copied over the past hundreds of years. Five years ago, Ava came to the village to change things. I was about to copy the genealogy again and asked him to copy it.
The next time I came here, I brought some paper for me. Then Ava told me that people in the city rarely write by hand anymore, and they all use something called a computer to print it. They say that the handwriting is clearer and easier to save, and they can be downloaded after saving.
Every time I just need to add new content, it can be printed directly without having to re-copy it. I don’t know much about it, so I entrusted Ava to help me with this matter. He took photos of our family tree and spent a few days
When he came back later, he brought me these genealogies. I checked them one by one, and there were no mistakes at all, and it looked really more organized. Oh, he also gave me this thing..."
Ji Manzi opened another cloth bag and took out a small USB flash drive.
"He said that all these genealogies are stored in this thing. Next time, I just need to write down the newly added list and give it to him together with this thing, and he can help me update our genealogy."
Cheng Yu explained: "This is called a USB flash drive, which is a medium for storing computer files. As long as you plug this into the computer, the contents inside will be displayed. Paper can last for hundreds of years, and this thing will not be a problem for tens of thousands of years.
.”
Another cloth bag had been opened, and Cheng Yu saw that there were many developed photos inside.
Ji Manzi took it out and placed it in front of Cheng Yu.
"These are the photos that the young people in the village brought back with their cameras when the phoenix crown was still there in the early years. Most of them are photos of our sacrifices, but there are also a few photos specifically taken of the phoenix crown. This can make
You have some intuitive understanding of sacred objects, so if you ask me to describe them to you, I can’t describe them clearly either.”
"Thank you very much, old man."
Unexpectedly, Ji Manzi also hid photos of Feng Guan. Cheng Yu quickly found a close-up photo of Feng Guan from those photos.
Perhaps because the base was so stunning, when Cheng Yu saw the phoenix crown, he felt that it was not that strange. It was nothing more than an extremely fine and complicated crown made of gold.
Because this is not a phoenix crown worn by a living queen, the parts of the phoenix crown that should have been made of feathers of various rare birds are instead made of gold, and are inlaid with gems of various colors to represent the feathers.
Cheng Yu estimated that this phoenix crown weighed at least ten kilograms more than the real phoenix crown worn by others. If this thing were to be worn on any queen, her neck would be broken on the spot.
Except for these peripheral modifications, the main body of the entire crown has almost no gold base. It is densely inlaid with various gemstones. Even in the photo, you can feel the brilliance of those gemstones.
After a few simple glances, Cheng Yu thought to himself that the gemstone on the crown would be worth a thousand yuan just by picking it out. It seemed that the valuation he gave for the crown was really a bit of a frog in the well.
For this reason, Cheng Yu couldn't help coughing twice, and said with some embarrassment: "Old man, I still underestimated this phoenix crown just now. I conservatively estimate that the value of this phoenix crown is more than 30 million."
Ji Manzi, on the other hand, was neither arrogant nor impetuous: "No matter how high the value is, it is still a mirror image. It's all my fault."