The new apartment was large, spacious, and bathed in sunlight. Six-year-old Lin Han ran around the wide room. Mother Lin watched him anxiously from the side, worried that the boisterous Lin Han might fall and hit his head against the wall.
Lin Zhijun followed his grandfather to the bedroom and looked out the large window at the bright world. This apartment was so much better than their home. Lin Zhijun felt cheerful, and a smug expression spread across his face.
"Did you really buy this place?" Grandpa looked at Lin Zhijun's smug expression and understood something.
"I did. If I hadn't, Zhao Shicheng wouldn't have taken the bait."
"Did you plan this from the start?"
Grandpa sensed his son's intentions and, unable to contain himself, asked. Hearing this, Lin Zhijun's demeanor softened slightly. He smiled and said, "Dad, I'm doing this to help you. We'll sell this place later."
"Sell it after this whole thing is over?" Although Grandpa had an inkling, he still hoped his son wasn't that kind of person.
"No need to rush. We'll live here for a few years. We can't let the leaders upstairs think you and Zhao Shicheng are in cahoots."
"That much money, the leaders will investigate."
"Dad, what are you afraid of? I'm in business, and managing accounts is easy. Let them check the books; this is money I earned. Let's not dwell on this. The national treasures come first. Zhao Shicheng has done so many things; he must be trying to steal the general's head. What we need to do now isn't thinking about repaying Zhao Shicheng, but how to protect the general's head. Let me tell you, Zhao Shicheng has already contacted a mysterious person and plans to sell the assassination of Qin Shi Huang by Jing Ke."
Indeed, national treasures were of utmost importance. Grandpa believed that educating his son could wait; the crucial element now was to prevent the national treasures from falling into foreign hands.
As expected, not long after Lin Zhijun delivered the news to his grandfather, Zhao Shicheng invited Grandpa for drinks at a lamb hot pot restaurant. Upon meeting, Zhao Shicheng was beaming and cheerfully said, "Old Lin, I heard your son bought that apartment."
"Mm!"
Seeing Grandpa's affirmative reply, Zhao Shicheng took a red envelope from his pocket and handed it to him: "Old Lin, it's not much, just a token of my regard for your housewarming."
"I can't accept this."
"We've been friends for so many years, Old Lin, why are you being polite? Your nephew is moving into a new place; he needs to buy a 18-inch color TV."
"Where would I get the money to buy a color TV for the child? We're not newlyweds. I won't handle appliances; let the child buy them himself."
"How can that be? You only have one son. Imagine how shabby it would look if the house were bare."
Hearing Zhao Shicheng say this, Grandpa forced a wry smile, as if acting: "Old Zhao, I can't possibly borrow any more money from you. I still don't know when I can repay the fifteen thousand."
Zhao Shicheng laughed heartily: "Just kidding. Let me calculate for you. Old Lin, your monthly salary is six or seven hundred. Your wife is a housewife with no job. If you save diligently every month, you can put aside over four hundred. That's about five thousand a year. I won't even count interest. You work hard and suffer, and you can repay me in three years."
Grandpa sighed, picked up his wine glass, and was about to drink. Zhao Shicheng reached out and stopped him: "Old Lin, don't worry. I have a solution, and you won't have to repay this fifteen thousand."
"What solution?"
Zhao Shicheng looked around, then quietly handed Grandpa a white cloth bundle about twenty centimeters long. He then nodded solemnly. Grandpa opened it and trembled, then stared into Zhao Shicheng's eyes: "Are you crazy!"
Inside the long white cloth bundle was a bronze dagger. The most crucial problem now was that, with Grandpa's experience, he found it difficult to determine if the bronze dagger was fake.
"Can you tell it's fake?"
"It's fake?"
Grandpa had thought Zhao Shicheng had already stolen the bronze dagger from the warehouse. He hadn't expected that this bronze dagger before him was actually a fake.
"Yes!"
"Who made it? It's so convincing!"
"Xun Chong!"
Grandpa knew Xun Chong was a highly capable technician in the archaeological team. For the museum's exhibition needs, he would often ask Xun Chong to replicate antiques. He did a good job, but never to the point of being indistinguishable from the real thing.
"He has such skill."
"He always has."
"How come I never knew?"
"The museum's bonuses aren't high, and if the replicas are too perfect, people might gossip."
Grandpa was greatly surprised but had to continue the charade. He asked seriously, "Old Zhao, you plan to sell this bronze dagger to the mysterious person."
"No, Old Lin, I want you to perform a 'magpie replacing the prince' swap. Use this fake to swap out the real bronze dagger from the museum's warehouse."
"You want me to steal a national treasure?"
"Exactly."
"I won't do it."
Seeing Grandpa's refusal, Zhao Shicheng's smiling face turned grim: "Old Lin, don't refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit. You have to go, whether you want to or not. Let me put it this way: if you don't steal it, someone else will. After the swap, I'll have someone report you. Then, Old Lin, your reputation will be ruined."
"Are you threatening me?"
"I'm not bluffing. When you knew so much about the bronze dagger and advised me to recover the national treasures, I did some digging. The batch of bronze burial objects returned to Pit Two was handled by you for warehousing."
"Yes, that's right. I have nothing to hide. Go ahead and report me."
"If it's proven that this fake is in the warehouse, no explanation will help. The investigators will see that national treasures have been swapped, and you've inexplicably acquired fifteen thousand to buy an apartment. Do you think you can explain that clearly?"
Grandpa's eyes widened: "Old Zhao, speak with a conscience. That fifteen thousand was a loan from you."
"Did I give you a IOU? Who can prove it?"
This was a meticulously planned trap, one that Grandpa had known about all along and had willingly fallen into. At this moment, Grandpa glared at Zhao Shicheng with a ferocious expression: "You've set me up."
"The reform and opening-up has begun, and we old guys need to keep up with the times. Life in the future is impossible without money."
"You want to sell the assassination of Qin Shi Huang by Jing Ke, was that information fake?"
"Information, real or fake, doesn't matter as long as someone believes it. Old Lin, don't think that a desperate gamble will protect the national treasures. The country pays you six hundred a month; is it worth risking your life for?"
"If I help you swap out the bronze dagger, will all our accounts be settled?" Grandpa asked seriously.
"Of course."
"Fine, I'll swap it. I'm telling you, Zhao Shicheng, this is the first and last time."
Zhao Shicheng's familiar smile returned. He said kindly, "Old Lin, as long as you bring out the bronze dagger, I'll agree to anything you ask."
Grandpa relayed this information to his son, Lin Zhijun, and told him that once Zhao Shicheng contacted him for the transaction, he should notify him. Then Grandpa would contact the police to apprehend Zhao Shicheng. Lin Zhijun agreed without hesitation. Grandpa didn't suspect anything, as this was all part of the plan. However, things didn't go as Grandpa had envisioned. There was a leakage. Grandpa, going against his conscience, swapped out the bronze dagger from Qin's seventh year unearthed from Pit Two in the museum's warehouse using the 'magpie replacing the prince' method. After handing the bronze dagger to Zhao Shicheng, he immediately told his son Lin Zhijun to contact him as soon as Zhao Shicheng proposed the transaction. But after two days, Lin Zhijun had not contacted Grandpa.
"Has Zhao Shicheng contacted you yet?" Grandpa felt something was amiss and, finding Lin Zhijun after work, pressed him. "No!"
"Could something have happened?"
"It shouldn't have."
"Could Zhao Shicheng have found a buyer other than the mysterious person?"
Hearing Grandpa's question, Lin Zhijun shook his head confidently: "No, on the market, apart from the mysterious person X, no one else would pay a high price for the assassination of Qin Shi Huang by Jing Ke."
"Why isn't Zhao Shicheng selling it?"
"I don't know. I really don't know."
The next day at work, Grandpa specifically went to the Terracotta Army pits. He noticed that Zhao Shicheng's complexion was very poor. So, Grandpa pulled Zhao Shicheng to a secluded spot and asked seriously, "Old Zhao, what's wrong? Your complexion is off."
"My home was burgled."
"What happened?"
It turned out that after Grandpa had swapped out the bronze dagger, Zhao Shicheng had also used the fake general's head made by Xun Chong to swap out the real general's head.
This way, the set for the assassination of Qin Shi Huang by Jing Ke was complete. Just as Zhao Shicheng was about to sell it to the mysterious person and pocket a million, his house was robbed. The bronze dagger unearthed from Pit Two and the general's head had vanished. Usually, when one's home is burgled, they report it to the police, and perhaps the lost valuables can be recovered.
But Zhao Shicheng dared not report it to the police. What would he say? 'I procured a general's head and then lost it.' Wouldn't that be digging his own grave? Moreover, Zhao Shicheng understood clearly that those banners were not hung for show; stealing national treasures was a serious crime.
Hearing Zhao Shicheng's account, Grandpa was stunned. What now? The planned trap had failed to catch anyone, and he himself had fallen into it.