“Grave Robbers’ Chronicles”

Chapter 11: Removing Rust

Chapter 11: Removing Rust

After hearing my complaints, Boss Wang shook his head and said, "Yunfeng, you were reckless this time. In our line of work, we must be careful again and again. We're most afraid of being tracked down and caught with something against us."

I apologized and said, "I'm sorry, Boss. I'll definitely be more careful next time."

Boss Wang picked up his teacup, blew on it, and frowned, "However, you are one of my people after all, Yunfeng. What? Do you want to get revenge?"

Without hesitation, I blurted out subconsciously, "Yes, Boss. I feel like I've been wronged."

Boss Wang took a sip of tea, put the lid on the cup, and said, "We just set up our base yesterday. We must keep a low profile in our actions now. My personal suggestion for you is to endure it for now. When we finish this job and are about to leave Shunde, I'll talk to Yi Ke Zhi. She has connections in the underworld."

I immediately nodded and said okay.

There were still several bags of blue-white soil in the small warehouse of the inn we rented. However, Boss Wang didn't let me go to dispose of the soil anymore. He arranged another job for me in the afternoon. Boss Wang asked me to follow Sun Lao Da and help him deal with the batch of bronze ware from yesterday.

When I walked to the warehouse, I suddenly smelled a strong smell of cumin seasoning. Looking closely, I saw that someone had set up a charcoal barbecue grill at the entrance of the warehouse. There was meat being grilled on the grill, and a lot of seasoning had been brushed on it.

Sun Lao Da was in charge of converting the stolen goods into cash. Of course, he had to do some preparatory work before that.

"Brother Sun, I'm Yunfeng. Boss asked me to come and help," I knocked on the warehouse door.

Sun Lao Da opened the door for me. At that time, he was wearing a white protective suit, along with leather gloves and plastic goggles.

After entering the warehouse, there were several pieces of bronze ware placed on the ground. Beside them was a big white leather bucket, and there was half a bucket of translucent liquid in it. The smell was very pungent.

He threw me a set of protective gear and said, "Yunfeng, put it on."

Although I didn't understand why, I still put on the protective gear properly.

"Brother, what are you doing?" I asked in confusion when I saw him throw a bronze jue cup with red spots and mercury rust into the leather bucket.

As soon as the rusty bronze ware touched the liquid in the leather bucket, it immediately started bubbling. The pungent smell just now became even stronger, a bit like the smell of urea.

Sun Lao Da pointed at the bronze jue soaked in the liquid and said, "Yunfeng, in our line of work, what I'm doing now is called'removing rust'. The chemical formula and proportion of this water were prepared by an expert hired by Boss."

"Removing rust? What does that mean, brother?"

Sun Lao Da smiled and said, "Removing rust means removing the black layer on the surface. The mercury rust from the waterlogged area penetrates deeply, and this kind of penetrating rust covers a large area, which can easily cover up some inscriptions. If that happens, we'll suffer a huge loss."

Sun Lao Da continued, "People in the underworld in the south call this job 'killing rust', while we in the north call it'removing rust'. Yunfeng, remember this. For the bronze ware from the Western Zhou and Warring States periods, the price of a square tripod is five times higher than that of a round tripod. The ones with inscriptions are ten times more expensive than those without. For those with more than five inscribed characters, each additional character is worth an extra 30,000 yuan. This tomb is from the early to middle Western Zhou period. Judging from the structure of the ceiling, and considering that so many bronze ware were buried as funerary objects in the side chamber at once, the tomb owner was at least a minor vassal king in the southern region." Sun Lao Da analyzed it to me in an orderly manner.

"If we can wash out the inscriptions related to the identity of the tomb owner, and if we're even luckier and this minor vassal king is mentioned in historical records, then we'll really have found a great treasure!"

After hearing Sun Lao Da's explanation, I suddenly realized that there were so many details in this. And as for the barbecue stand outside the door just now, I understood now that Sun Lao Da had set it up on purpose to cover up the pungent smell during the process of removing rust.

Wearing leather gloves was because this kind of water was corrosive. This was done to protect ourselves. If the water used for removing rust on the bronze ware accidentally splashed into our eyes, it would be much worse than those copper-nickel alloys and could blind people's eyes!

We soaked the bronze ware for over twenty minutes and then used a stiff-bristled shoe brush to brush off the rust. We couldn't brush too hard, nor could we remove all the mercury rust. As long as we could confirm that there were no inscriptions on a certain part, we could stop brushing.

I put on gloves and took a shoe brush, and brushed several pieces of bronze ware in a row. I looked very carefully, but I didn't see a single inscribed character. This immediately made me feel a bit downcast.

Seeing me like this, Sun Lao Da, who was brushing a bronze he vessel, smiled and said, "Yunfeng, don't be so discouraged. This kind of thing depends on fate. When the fate comes, you'll find it. If the fate hasn't arrived yet, you can't force it."

At this time, I was brushing a small bronze dou vessel. I rubbed the inside bottom of the bronze dou vessel with the shoe brush a few times. I didn't know if I was seeing things, but I seemed to see a bit of a light golden stroke or a radical of a character.

"Huh? What's this?" I lifted up the bronze dou vessel and rubbed it a bit harder.

"Brother! Brother, look! I've brushed out some characters! There are inscriptions inside this bronze dou vessel! The strokes are quite complicated! They look like some strange symbols," I excitedly shouted to Sun Lao Da.

He took the bronze dou vessel and looked at it for a couple of times.

Looking at the several gilt inscriptions exposed on the surface of the bronze ware, Sun Lao Da frowned and said, "This... this inscription is neither bird seal script nor oracle bone script. It's the six-fold seal script of ancient golden script which is even earlier than oracle bone script... How could it appear on the bronze ware from the Western Zhou period?" There was confusion all over Sun Lao Da's face.

The ancient golden script is not the script of the Jin Dynasty. It's an ancient script, and its origin may date back even before oracle bone script, that is, before the Yin and Shang Dynasties. Sun Lao Da was very knowledgeable, and he could tell at a glance that the script on the bronze dou vessel was not bird seal script but the six-fold seal script of the ancient golden script!

After frowning, he became excited. Sun Lao Da said, "Yunfeng, you continue to brush the rest. The inscriptions in the six-fold seal script of the ancient golden script are extremely rare, and there are very few people in the world who can translate this kind of script. I must hurry up and find someone to help, to find someone to translate what these inscriptions mean."

Sun Lao Da put the bronze ware with inscriptions into a wooden box, and then he took the wooden box and went out directly.

Later, until we finished cleaning all the bronze ware, I didn't brush out any other bronze ware with inscriptions. Only that one piece had inscriptions.

During the day, we were doing these things, but at night, we still had to do our real business. When everyone else was asleep, we still had to go down into the tomb to rob it at night. However, Sun Lao Da rushed out in the afternoon and didn't come back until very late. Without Sun Lao Da, there would be one less person on lookout duty, which was very dangerous. Boss Wang didn't dare to take such a risk.

That night, Sun Lao Da didn't rush back until after twelve o'clock. He was out of breath, and he was holding a wooden box in his hand. I knew that the box contained the bronze dou vessel with inscriptions.

Sun Lao Da didn't have time to say anything. He ran to the table, picked up the teapot, and gulped down half a pot of tea.

After wiping his mouth, Sun Lao Da looked at Boss Wang and said, "Boss, I managed to pull some strings with the Archaeological Research Institute. The translation of those six-fold seal script inscriptions is out."

"Oh? What does it say?" Boss Wang asked.

Sun Lao Da opened the wooden box, touched the bronze dou vessel inside, and said with a cold face, "Jiehou Daizi."