Chapter 53 If You Don't Know How to Speak, Keep Your Mouth Shut in the Future

After a brief overview of the procedure and a few polite words of gratitude from the leadership, the official authentication process commenced.

Throughout the proceedings, Wang Qizhi was completely absent-minded. No sooner had they seen the leaders off than he dragged Lin Sicheng aside the moment they stepped into the evidence room.

His thick eyebrows knitted into an inverted V, his pupils constricted slightly, and his Adam's apple bobbed up and down continuously. His eyes were full of sheer disbelief:

"Lin Sicheng, come here and let me take a look. Do you have lasers installed in your eyes? What the bloody hell is going on—how can you identify a radiation source with the naked eye?"

Guan Xingmin was startled, but Lin Sicheng gave him a reassuring look.

With the kind of watch Wang Qizhi wore on his wrist, was there anything he couldn't ask?

"Professor Wang, it's not as exaggerated as you make it sound. At best, it was just a coincidence combined with a bit of deduction!"

"Come on, tell me in detail. How did you deduce it?"

Lin Sicheng roughly recounted the sequence of events:

Suspecting something was wrong with the item because the price was too low...

Suspecting forgery because of a color discrepancy...

Suspecting the use of high technology because the authentication report was too comprehensive...

And finally, bluffing a confession out of them...

His expression remained calm, and he delivered the narrative in a flat, straightforward tone without any embellishment. However, Wang Qizhi let out a sharp "Ha!" and shot him down with a single question: "Was Professor Lin present at the time?"

Lin Sicheng opened his mouth, completely speechless.

Present? Professor Lin was still lying in the hospital bed at that very moment.

So, didn't Professor Lin suspect that pot was problematic? Didn't he notice the color discrepancy and consequently suspect advanced technology had been used?

He did, didn't he? Then why didn't he deduce whether that pot might contain radioactive materials? He was a renowned ceramic expert, after all...

What's more, that pot had been sent to Beijing and to the Shanghai Museum, undergoing every single test and appraisal required. Why hadn't any of them suspected anything?

His nostrils flared uncontrollably and his cheeks twitched slightly as Wang Qizhi looked at him with an expression of intense exasperation: "Lin Sicheng, how can you speak so casually about a matter of such magnitude and severity?"

A coincidence? Coincidence your head!

"Professor Wang..."

"Shut your mouth for a second!"

Wang Qizhi whipped his head around: "Director Guan, does this mean that pot flowed from abroad into Guangzhou, from Guangzhou to Singapore, from Singapore to Hong Kong, then back to Guangzhou, and finally ended up in Xijing..."

"In other words, that item left the country and re-entered, entered and left again, and then entered yet again?"

Guan Xingmin paused and nodded gently.

"And then it was sent to Beijing for carbon-14 dating and accelerator mass spectrometry?"

Guan Xingmin nodded again.

"After that, it was sent to the Shanghai Museum for thermoluminescence testing!"

Guan Xingmin nodded once more.

Wang Qizhi pressed on relentlessly: "And what were the results?"

Guan Xingmin remained silent and sighed. Did the results even need to be stated?

Wang Qizhi let out an eerie laugh: "So, all in all, that thing must have taken more than ten airplane flights back and forth, right? Are we to believe that foreign customs, our own customs, and the testing centers at all those airports were completely useless?

"Or did the Cultural Relic Authentication Center, the Shanghai Museum, and both the provincial and municipal authentication centers all accept bribes from those two counterfeit traffickers?"

"No... Professor Wang, aren't you shifting the goalposts here?"

Before Guan Xingmin could finish, Wang Qizhi waved his hand dismissively: "Director Guan, don't misunderstand. Didn't Lin Sicheng just mention that foreign terrorists openly smuggled nuclear materials last year and foreign customs were equally clueless until afterward?

"So, the problem lies within the system... What I'm trying to express is that Lin Sicheng is too young and therefore doesn't understand, but you should all know what this 'coincidence' of his truly signifies."

Guan Xingmin nodded heavily: "Secretary Wang, I understand... I just didn't mention it because I was afraid it would frighten him!"

What did it signify?

It signified that all these institutions possessed massive security loopholes, especially customs security checkpoints: how could something capable of building atomic bombs and causing rapid cancer be allowed to pass in and out so blatantly, back and forth?

And these were merely cultural relic traffickers. What if they had been extremists?

They wouldn't even need much—just plant a little in an airport restaurant, a little more in the restroom... The picture was too horrifying for Wang Qizhi to even imagine.

Thus, simply because Lin Sicheng had "coincidentally" harbored a suspicion and "coincidentally" made a deduction, the customs and public security systems nationwide were now being forced into emergency reforms?

And delays were out of the question.

To put it more officially: how massive was the loss he had prevented for the country and its people through this coincidence?

To be frank, they hadn't known Lin Sicheng was coming. Had they known, did he believe that the person attending the authentication center today would have been at least a departmental leader?

"Professor Wang..."

"What do you know? Shut your trap!"

The moment Lin Sicheng opened his mouth, Wang Qizhi snapped at him, cutting him off before turning back with a beaming smile: "Director Guan, the kid doesn't know any better, but surely we can't just brush this off as a mere coincidence, can we?"

Guan Xingmin opened his mouth, unsure how to respond.

Was Wang Qizhi asking on behalf of "us"? He was speaking for the municipal bureau, and even the provincial department.

Setting aside the higher echelons for the moment, and leaving aside which institution's memorandum the name "Lin Sicheng" would be written into, or which offices and leaders would take note of him—let's ask this:

If not for Lin Sicheng's "coincidence," would that pot have entered a cultural relics company, then the provincial museum, and finally gone on public exhibition?

Most crucially, that pot had passed through the provincial department's own equipment first before being sent to Beijing for authentication. Therefore, shouldn't the first and heaviest scapegoat blame be borne by the provincial and municipal public security systems?

Just from this perspective alone, how much damage to your reputations had he averted, and how many people's positions had he saved?

You couldn't just have the bureau leaders shake your hand and say "Good job" before calling it a day, could you?

Of course it wasn't over, but Guan Xingmin didn't dare to speak casually.

Being able to understand the origin of the matter so clearly with just a single phone call—could this possibly be an ordinary professor?

After pondering for a long while, he said, "Rest assured, Secretary Wang, once the case investigation concludes, there will certainly be commendations!"

What kind of commendation? A certificate of merit?

Were they trying to pacify a toddler?

Wang Qizhi chuckled: "Professor Guan, I didn't mean to make things difficult for you. I was just a bit emotional and used the opportunity to vent..."

Making things difficult... Why did he phrase it so strangely?

As Guan Xingmin felt a brewing surge of suspicion, Wang Qizhi took out his mobile phone again: "You guys go ahead with the authentication; I'm going to make another call to check on something..."

With that, he pointed a finger at Lin Sicheng: "If you don't know how to speak properly, open your mouth less often from now on!"

Lin Sicheng was left completely bewildered by the scolding: That was a radiation source... If I hadn't claimed it was a coincidence, would anyone have believed me anyway?

Watching Wang Qizhi's retreating figure, Guan Xingmin narrowed his eyes and fixed his gaze on the watch on the man's wrist: "This Secretary Wang of yours—he must have quite a background, right?"

Lin Sicheng nodded: You can drop the "right" and remove the question mark.

Wang Qizhi had already dropped hints that were obvious enough: *Director Guan, I'm not making things difficult for you...* Since they were peers in rank, what right did Guan Xingmin have to make things difficult for him?

*I'll make another call to check on something...* No normal person spoke like that.

Guan Xingmin muttered thoughtfully: "That watch of his looks a bit familiar. It looks like the very first calendar watch produced in Shanghai—an A-something, isn't it?"

Lin Sicheng sighed: If you suspect something, just say it!

"A623!"

Guan Xingmin was startled, his mouth hanging open for a long time: He had thought it looked familiar!

It was the very first domestically produced mechanical calendar watch, featuring a unique "gilded relief lettering" dial, with a total production run of only 1,048 pieces.

Why such a precise, odd number?

Because the founding of the People's Republic of China saw the very first batch of 1,048 officers receiving their military ranks...