Li Zhiyuan held up the Black Book, waving it in the direction of the fish pond.
Even though he didn’t know if it could "see," he needed to make an effort to convey his intentions.
*Now, there were a lot of things and distractions at hand that he had to handle one by one.*
"Brother Runsheng, come and take these things."
Run Sheng walked over, picked everything up onto his back, weighed it a bit, and a satisfied smile appeared on his face.
The array flag could be left aside, but this set of corpse recovery tools was his favorite treasure. *He couldn’t even dare to think about it when he woke up that day; just thinking about it broke his heart.*
"Xiao Yuan, where are they?"
"We’re going home too."
When he got home, Li Zhiyuan went straight to the second floor and entered his room.
The desk was neatly stacked with many books. Li Zhiyuan pulled out one book each from the six sets: "Jianghu Chronicles," "Righteous Demon Extermination Records," "Yin Yang Face Reading," "Life Chart Calculation Theory," "Liu’s Qi Observation Technique," and "Qin’s Jiao Observation Method."
Then he searched for a blank space at the edge of the book pages, picked up a chisel, and cut off a thumb-width strip, obtaining a total of six strips.
After hesitating for a moment, he also opened the Black Book he just got and cut off a strip.
He found a piece of white paper, wrapped these seven strips in order, and then found a black plastic bag to place the gold ingot inside.
Carrying these things, he went downstairs to the east room.
Liu Yumei had just finished her bath, sitting by the coffee table, her silver-white hair still damp.
Seeing the boy come in, she pointed to the closed door of the room and said, "Alii is taking a bath."
"Grandma Liu, I’m here to find you."
"Oh? Then make some tea."
Li Zhiyuan put the things down and started making tea.
"Xiao Yuan, Grandma really likes watching you make tea."
When the two of them each took a sip from their teacups, Li Zhiyuan put his cup down and took out the paper package:
"Grandma Liu, I know you are an expert in paper and cloth. I have some strips of paper here, can you take a look at them for me?"
Liu Yumei’s greatest interest was designing clothes for Alii. She was often seen holding a brush and sketching. Even though she was just drawing clothes, there was a unique charm in the details, not at all inferior to the famous retirees from the academy in the family estate.
Unsurprisingly, Aunt Liu’s painting skills should have been taught by her, and Alii also had a deep foundation in painting.
This kind of expert in painting often had a lot of research on paper materials.
"Sure, I’ll take a look for you."
Li Zhiyuan first took out two strips of paper and placed them in front of Liu Yumei, coming from "Yin Yang Face Reading" and "Life Chart Calculation Theory."
Liu Yumei reached out and felt the two strips of paper, asking, "Do you want to know what material and method were used to make them, or what era they are from?"
"I see you have some understanding of antiques, but can’t tell the age of ancient books?"
"Grandma, you’re joking. I’ve just seen a lot before, but actually don’t understand."
"Indeed, ancient books are considered a relatively small branch in the antique trade."
Li Zhiyuan quietly waited for the answer.
"These two, are from the Republic of China."
"The Republic of China?"
"If I’m not mistaken, the words written on them should be neat and small, suitable for recording and filling."
"Your eyes are sharp."
Li Zhiyuan then brought out the paper strips from "Qin’s Jiao Observation Method" and "Liu’s Qi Observation Technique" and laid them out.
There were no words on them, so he was not worried about Liu Yumei being able to tell what books they were from. Of course, even if the words were cut along with the paper, she probably wouldn’t understand.
These two books, the more they went on, the more the writing became abstract and uglier. At first, Li Zhiyuan could guess the words from the context, but later, it seemed as if he was familiarizing himself with the unique symbols created by the writer.
Of course, these ugly characters had a deeper meaning. It could even be said that it was because of these ugly characters that made this "bootleg version" far more valuable than the original version.
Liu Yumei picked up the two strips of paper, gently rubbed them, brought them to her nose to sniff them, and then put them down, saying, "Ming and Qing Dynasties."
"If you brought me the part with words, I could determine a more specific era."
"Should I go and fetch the book then?"
Liu Yumei shook her head, "No need."
Li Zhiyuan smiled, as if he already knew the answer.
Next, he laid out the strips from "Jianghu Chronicles," "Righteous Demon Extermination Records," and the Black Book.
Actually, what he really wanted Liu Yumei to look at were these three books.
Li Zhiyuan had been modest earlier; he could tell the approximate era of the previous four books.
But with Wei Zhengdao’s books, he couldn’t quite grasp the era, only assuming they were from the Ming and Qing Dynasty based on the quality and preservation status.
But now came a problem, that entity in the fish pond was from the Six Dynasties, about fifteen hundred years ago.
The Black Book given to him had handwriting identical to Wei Zhengdao’s.
Li Zhiyuan could tell whether the handwriting in the book was written by the person himself or intentionally mimicked by someone later.
Because whether it was "Jianghu Chronicles" or "Righteous Demon Extermination Records," there was a sense of "self-satisfaction" throughout the text.
This was also present in the Black Book.
This meant that the three sets of books by Wei Zhengdao in his hands were not copies by later generations but the originals.
However, if the timeline were stretched back fifteen hundred years, the preservation of these original books was astonishingly good.
Initially, Liu Yumei casually glanced at the three strips of paper. Then her expression froze, and she immediately reached out, grabbed the three strips, and asked: