The people who were sitting further away couldn’t see Su Qiubai23Su QiubaiProtagonist, a taxi driver with a powerful and mysterious navigation system. Sometimes written as the old driver in this novel.’s gift clearly, but the few standing next to him were wide-eyed, staring at the gift.
This is… a scroll! And there’s more than one…
Everyone glanced inside the box, then at Su Qiubai. Even Gu Chengya29Gu ChengyaAlso written as Cheng Ya or Miss Gu. The mistress of the Gu family; Grandpa Gu's favourite granddaughter. felt curious.
What is written on the scroll? There are so many!
However, she felt that she shouldn’t open the scrolls at that time. Curious as she was, she thought that if she opened it, and if the guests thought that it was relatively ordinary in terms of its worth, they would definitely continue to publicly shame Su Qiubai, which was the last thing she wanted to see.
But before she could speak, Yuan Pengqing had already spoken, “I wonder what’s written on it? Isn’t it better to open it and let everyone see it?”
Since he had already offended Gu Chengya, he didn’t care if he had to do it another time. If Su Qiubai’s scrolls were indeed normal, he could at least save some of the reputation that he had lost earlier.
Fang Hongcai5Fang Hongcaikid from Bei Du, chasing Gu Chengya and Guan Taiping4Guan TaipingKid that had a conflict with SQB at Gu Chengya’s party also agreed with Yuan Pengqing. Some other guests close by didn’t say anything, but it was obvious that they all wanted Su Qiubai to open the scrolls.
Gu Chengya was anxious, but Su Qiubai grinned and said, “Alright. I just casually made them anyway. Let me open it for everyone to see.”
Having said that, Su Qiubai had already taken out the first scroll. All the emperors at the corner rolled their eyes in unison upon hearing his words.
The heck… You casually made them? Shame on you……
Of course, Su Qiubai didn’t know what those ancestors were thinking about. Even if he knew, he probably wouldn’t care about it.
He opened the first scroll before everyone’s gazes.
To their surprise, it was a calligraphy work, and it was obviously pieced together. Just that all the papers were really old while the sense of calligraphy for each word was also completely different.
Happy Birthday!
Gu Chengya read each word out loud. She smiled after reading it aloud.
She received many gifts on this day: diamond, necklaces and other similar gifts. They were simply countless. But only this odd-looking gift expressed the earnesty to wish her a happy birthday. But that was just how Gu Chengya viewed it. The guests, who were anxiously watching, didn’t think that it was spectacular at all.
“Haha, this? This is your gift?” Yuan Pengqing glanced at Su Qiubai with a sneer forming on his lips.
“This was obviously a cut out from an unknown ancient book, then you placed the pieces together to form these four characters. You dare to give a present like this?”
Guan Taiping’s voice was rather taunting. Others next to him had almost the same expression and attitude. Xiao Xuan3 Xiao XuanXiao Yun’s older brother, knows about SQB but not here to trouble him, who was standing far behind, also didn’t think that the gift was rare, but since Su Qiubai was the one giving it, he was cautious and alert.
“Hold on!”
Just when Su Qiubai was ignorantly enjoying the ridicule from the guests, Gu Chengya’s expression suddenly changed. She squinted at the bottom right corner of the artwork.
There were four similarly pieced seals. Carefully looking at it… Gu Chengya’s expression changed drastically. She couldn’t recognize two of them, but she could identify the other two.
Aixinjueluo Hongli was written on the first seal. The second one was Li Shimin16Li ShiminTang Taizong or Emperor Taizong!
Is this a joke?
Gu Chengya’s exclamation shocked everyone. She didn’t even care about the diamonds and the necklaces she had received earlier, and even ignored the ancient piece of jade from the Han Dynasty given to her.
But why is she so surprised at those few words?
For a moment, Yuan Pengqing and the rest also felt quite confused.
After some time, more people started looking confused.
Those people grew up in rich families, so however playful they were, they had certainly received some cultural lessons.
Besides, calligraphy and antiques were always of great interest to everyone, especially now, when the economy was good and the world was peaceful.
They had just casually glanced at the words earlier, but after looking at it carefully… they noticed some clues!
The four words might not explain anything, but the seals indeed looked familiar to them.
The group of people in front of the stage suddenly came together to study the calligraphy on the scroll. The audience were even more confused.
Everyone was scrambling to find out what had happened, but there were too many people and the hall wasn’t really suitable for a crowd. Then the hall fell silent.
Finally, Gu Chengya recalled something and walked towards Gu Tian. Then, she bowed to an old man next to him.
“Teacher, please verify these, I… I’m not sure.”
Having heard that, the curious old man slowly stood up.
The guests were becoming noisy again. If anyone had thought that Gu Chengya was deliberately trying to raise the value of Su Qiubai’s gift so to save his reputation, then they wouldn’t think so now.
Mr. Dongfang was a famous calligraphy artwork collector in China, and he was the only one who knew how to identify and appreciate the artworks.
In the past, Gu Chengya had studied calligraphy with him; that was why she addressed him as her teacher.
The two returned to their seats while the artwork was handed over to Mr. Dongfang, who started to study it carefully and silently.
As time passed by, everyone was getting nervous, except Su Qiubai, who felt a little bored.
If he had known that it would be so boring, he wouldn’t have done that.
Finally, after ten minutes or so, Mr. Dongfang slowly lifted his head and took a glance at Su Qiubai. His eyes were full of doubt and shock.
“Mr. Dongfang, is this thing… real or fake?”
Yuan Pengqing naturally recognized that highly respected old man. Now that he finally looked away from the artwork, Yuan Pengqing couldn’t help but ask this. Many other guests too had the same question. After all, everyone had been waiting so long for the result.
“I don’t know… but this kind of thing is priceless!”
Mr. Dongfang had an unexpected response. All the guests fell silent.
What do you mean? You don’t know if it’s real or fake… but it’s priceless?
“Young man, may I know if these two seals belonged to Ying Zheng9Ying ZhengQin Shihuang10Qin ShihuangYing Zheng or Emperor Yingzheng or Emperor Yingzheng and Liu Che20Liu CheEmperor Wu of Han Dynasty22Emperor Wu of Han DynastyEmperor Liuche, Liu Che, Emperor Liuche21Emperor LiucheEmperor Wu of Han Dynasty, Liu Che?”
Mr. Dongfang suddenly directed this question to Su Qiubai.
Several people were stunned for a while, before finally recalling who Ying Zheng and Liu Che were. Their jaws dropped!
Qin Shihuang and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty! Oh my goodness!
Everyone looked at Su Qiubai with wide eyes. When they saw him nodding his head, they felt like their heart had jumped out of their mouths.
What the heck is this!
The piece of artwork had four seals on it. The first two were those of Emperor Qianlong and Tang Taizong1 Tang TaizongLi Shimin or Emperor Taizong15Emperor TaizongLi Shimin or Tang Taizong. Then, the other two were of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and Qin Shihuang?
Could it be that each one of them wrote one word each?!
“Alright, then I can confirm that the seals aren’t fake. The last two words are indeed Li Shimin and Qian Long’s handwriting. As for the first two… Ying Zheng and Liu Che had no existing works, so I’m not sure.”
Mr. Dongfang made the final decision.
“Can I open the other scrolls?”
The old gentleman had loved calligraphy his whole life. Seeing that there were two more unopened scrolls, he hesitated before asking Su Qiubai this.
Su Qiubai nodded, then turned to Gu Chengya as she slowly unfolded the remaining two scrolls.
Good health…Prosperity and luck!
Although these were common wishes, no one dared to look down on it now, especially seeing the traces that the words were obviously pieced together. Who knew which ancient book Su Qiubai had gotten the pieces from?
Finally, after Mr. Dongfang’s inspection, they were exactly the same as the previous scroll.
What he exclaimed next was even more shocking to everyone.
“This is such a priceless gift… It could be a national treasure!”
Hey… a national treasure as a birthday present!
Mr. Dongfang actually felt slightly upset.
After some thought, he realized that since Su Qiubai could piece together these few words, it was obvious… He must have the four emperors’ handwritten artworks and seals in his hands!
But this idiot actually cut it and pieced them together for this gift…
However, the most depressed person among the guests was Zhou Zile2Zhou Zileonly here for Gu Chengya’s party.
Watching Su Qiubai on the stage, he secretly swore at him.
Darn it… Your gift is really worthless… or more like priceless!
