Artifact Reading Inspector

Shenzhen is very close to Hong Kong. However, it still takes quite some time to get there.

Haejin arrived in Shenzhen after two hours. He checked in at a nearby business hotel, had dinner at ease and started to work on a plan.

He knew the location and the terrain, but he couldn’t just go and dig with his own hands. He needed the equipment and a car.

He could get the equipment from a local supermarket and a hardware store, but the car was the problem. After thinking for a long time, he recalled one person: Byeongguk.

“Hello?”

“Huh? Is this Haejin? You should be abroad now. Why did you call?”

“I need to ask you a favor. Would that be possible?”

“What favor when you are not even in the country? I will do it if it’s something I can, so tell me. Do you need money? You should already have a lot of money.”

Most of the problems can be solved with money, but sometimes money just doesn’t work.

“I am in Shenzhen, China, and I need a car and some equipment.”

“Car? You should rent one, and equipment? What equipment? Are you talking about the equipment to rob graves?”

“Yes, but I am not going to rob a grave. The place is neither a grave nor a historical site. However, I need grave robbing equipment. So, I cannot rent a car. I cannot leave any traces.”

“So, you need a clean car.”

“Yes, a clean car that is owned by a Chinese. An SUV. I also need the equipment.”

“Hmm…”

Byeongguk thought about it and carefully asked, “You’re really not going to rob a grave, right? Grave robbing is not easy at all. Even though you have experienced a lot with your father, you have never done that before.”

Byeongguk was right to be worried.

“Don’t worry, I don’t rob graves. I don’t have to. It’s just… what if there’s something really important in a mountain where no one cares about? Will you just let that stay there?”

“Well then… finders keepers, of course.”

“Exactly.”

“Okay. Go on the opposite side of the road of the Chicago Suite Hotel by 10 a.m. tomorrow. Then, someone will give you the car and the equipment.”

Haejin hoped that Byeongguk would be able to help, but he gave him what he needed immediately like a CIA agent.

He had expected Byeongguk to introduce him to someone he knew, but he didn’t imagine that he would take care of everything so perfectly.

“What? How can you prepare things so fast?” ƒ𝘳ee𝔀e𝚋n૦𝐯el.c𝗼𝓂

“I don’t go to China unprepared when I go there. There is a network your father and I have used till now. I am temporarily using it. They will think that I am the one who would use them…”

“Then, how do I return the car and the equipment?”

“Just remember the place where you parked the car for the last time and tell me. Of course, the further it is from the car’s provider, the more he would charge, but you won’t have to go back to return it. That’s huge.”

“Of course.”

“You should also discard the equipment in a mountain or forest that has nothing to do with the place you’ll work at. Equipment is always for single use. You shouldn’t use it again. And, how are you going to come back? Do you need a ship?”

“Can you get me one? That would be great.”

Byeongguk was so thorough. That was how he didn’t get caught by the police.

“Then, go to Zhengzhou Port at Xiamen when you are done. Among the customs workers in there, there is a man named Tanshao. He is small and has lots of gray hair. Money works on him, but you have to give him at least 30,000 yuan, so prepare cash.”

“Okay, thanks.”

“However, don’t just give him the money on the site like an idiot. Find him on the evening of the day before and give it to him in secret. No traces… got it?” 𝗳𝗿𝐞ℯ𝙬𝗲𝗯n𝗼νel.𝒄𝑜𝘮

“Hhh… I shouldn’t make a mistake after receiving this private lecture.”

“That’s good. But, what is it? What is it that you are going through all these troubles? I guess it’s not an ordinary artifact. If it’s in Shenzhen, is it porcelain of the Song or Ming period?”

“I can’t tell you on the phone. I will show it to you first when I meet you in Seoul. Anyway, thanks.”

“Oh… my curiosity is killing me. Anyway, be careful. Sujeong is looking forward to going to the auction with you.”

“Okay. See you in a few days.”

Haejin was planning to consider what he would do for the next few days; however, Byeongguk took care of everything, so he decided to start working tomorrow.

He wanted to move now, but he didn’t have a car nor the equipment, so he couldn’t…

Haejin then went to a nearby shopping center and bought some clothes, a hat that was in a different style from what he usually wore, and he even prepared a mask.

He spent the night in excitement as if he were about to go on a picnic. Next, he ate breakfast and went to the Chicago Suite Hotel.

He was wearing the clothes, a mask, and the hat he had bought the day before, therefore no one would be able to remember him.

He was on the other side of the hotel, but no one approached him, so he started to get nervous.

However, a car stopped in front of him at 10 a.m. sharp.

A man in his 50s got off from the huge SUV that was perfect for the off-road and threw the key.

Haejin caught it. The man said one thing and turned around.

“Two days. No more.”

It meant Haejin couldn’t borrow the car for more than two days, but it didn’t matter, anyway. If he spent more than two days, it would mean that there was something wrong.

He went back to his hotel, checked out and went to his destination, Guao Ling Mountain. It was about an hour away to the east from Shenzhen. Although it was in the land, it was right next to the sea, so it had been a strategically important point during the war.

He ate at a nearby restaurant and waited at a parking lot for the sun to set.

Haejin kept waiting for the sun to be gone because there were still many people going by. Long after midnight, he parked his car at a desolate place near the mountain and started to climb with his equipment.

The memory he had gotten through magic was clear like a video. So, he could find that place without hesitation.

As people didn’t walk through this road, it was dangerous, and sometimes he would slip because of the piled-up leaves. However, he went forward.

After about two hours, he reached his destination.

“Huu… here…”

He stopped at a very small cave near a stream. He could hear the sound of the running water. From the outside, the cave looked so small. People would have thought of it as a temporary shelter for the animals to get away from the cold rain.

Haejin knelt down to take a closer look. He was trying to find traces of someone visiting the place in the past but, as he had imagined, it was the same as what it had been when the Japanese officer left.

He put down the luggage, took out a pickaxe, and went to the cave’s entrance. Then, he struck down with all his might.

The sound of the pickaxe hitting the sand was different from that of naturally blocked land or hardened soil.

The officer had blocked that place so well that the soil kept coming out. After about an hour of work, the soil piled up nearby.

Finally, the pickaxe started to hit the rocks instead of soil.

Haejin wiped off the debris and struck again. After a few times of that, he suddenly saw a dark hole.

“Hup…”

Grave robbers have some kind of taboos and rituals. It is like the routine of the athletes, and one of them is to not breathe the first air from the places they rob.

If there were bodies inside, the gas would have been cumulated for a long time, and rumors said that if you breathe the gas of that corpse, you will die.

Most of the grave robbers who robbed Tutankhamun’s tomb in Egypt died, and the stories of that were so dramatic that people called it the curse of Tutankhamun.

However, most think that they died because they had been infected by a virus. Because of that, grave robbers tried to enter only after the air circulated for a while.

Haejin held his breath, took about a dozen steps back and sat down on a small rock.

“Oh, my back hurts.”

He took out a small water container from his bag, quenched his thirst, took some rest and went back to the cave when he thought that some time had passed.

He used his LED lantern to look inside, but he couldn’t see anything. He knew the treasures were deep inside, so he wasn’t disappointed. He crouched down and moved forward.

The entrance was bigger than he had thought, so he kept crawling in. The air was wet and smelled of dust, but it didn’t smell like something rotten.

After about 20m, he came to a place big enough for him to stand without hitting the ceiling.

“Please, please…”

He looked around with his lantern. It had been taken out from there…

“Found it.”

Haejin usually didn’t talk to himself, but he kept saying things today, probably because he was nervous or because he was excited about finding a treasure.

His eyes sparkled as he walked to the deepest corner of the cave. Finally, he saw a box of considerable size.

It came up to his knees and was about a meter long. As it had been painted with paint and varnish, it hadn’t been too damaged by time.

He opened his bag, took out a lever and put it between the crack of the box.

Creaaack!

The sound was horrifying, but Haejin didn’t even blink an eye.

The iron lid opened slowly. Haejin then slowly removed it and shone the light on the box with his lantern.

“Ohh…”

What he saw first was Claude Monet’s Haystacks. More accurately, it was ‘Haystack at Dusk, Weather with Frost’. It was one of Monet’s Haystacks series.

Haejin knew he had to take it and leave as soon as possible, but he couldn’t help admiring the painting’s forlorn mood and the red sunset.

However, that was only for a moment. He rolled up the painting and put it in the painting container he had brought. Then, a book, that was the size of a child’s torso, came out.

Its cover said 藝 苑 淸 賞. Haejin wanted to open the book because he was curious, but he resisted that temptation. He couldn’t risk the chance of the book getting crumbled.

He carefully picked it up, wrapped it with vinyl, and wrapped it again and again with newspaper. He put it in a file he had prepared so that it wouldn’t be crumpled. Although the book stuck out as it was bigger than the file, it was better than nothing.

After that, Haejin put the paintings in the containers without even looking at them. He didn’t have the time to, and he was worried that someone might see the equipment scattered on the ground outside and come in.

His father had spoken what to do when robbing tombs. It was not to teach his son but to teach the ones who worked with him. He said the most thing you should be on guard of while robbing graves is greed.

He repeatedly said that trying to take a little more can expose you to danger, so you must be fast, accurate and without hesitation when you work.

Because of that, when the iron box was empty, Haejin should have turned around without any hesitation. However, he couldn’t just leave, maybe because he had never done this before, or because of some kind of gut feeling.

When he had seen this place through magic, he remembered that the painting was hidden in the iron box and being recovered, but he couldn’t see whether the Japanese had hidden more treasures nearby when he hid this box.

Haejin thought the officer might have had hidden something else in the cave. So, he looked around thoroughly with his lantern, but he only saw bugs and moss.

He looked around once more in disappointment and suddenly realized that he hadn’t seen the lower side of the lid.

As there was no light in the box, he would not have been able to see it even if there had been something inside the lid.

“Four O’clock…”

Even if he left now, he would reach the car after 6 O’clock. He thought it was time to leave, but he also knew that he would regret it if he did.

Eventually, he lifted the iron lid with all his might. When he then flipped it…

“Just as I thought…”

His hunch wasn’t wrong.