Your uncle here has added more useless features again.
Wen Mang snorted.
Thirteen Station was a good platform.
But Uncle? That was debatable.
Endless flashy events, pointless gimmicks—pure nonsense.
Without thinking too much, Wen Mang tapped the two new options in the submenu and exchanged them. The red notification dot vanished instantly.
Ah. Inner peace.
Now then—
Step one: confirm whether this person is a scammer.
Following the address given on the phone, Wen Mang took a taxi. After passing through the reassuringly serious gates of Sichuan University, he asked around until he finally found the place:
Sichuan University Archaeology Teaching & Research Laboratory.
"Hello, Qin Shi Huang," a woman said with a smile.
"Just call me Dongfang Ye."
She stood straight, neat and capable—more like a graduate student than a professor.
She shook Wen Mang's hand lightly.
"So? Doesn't look like a pyramid scheme headquarters, does it?"
Wen Mang's face turned red.
"I… may have been a bit too cautious earlier."
"Caution is a good thing," Dongfang Ye said meaningfully.
She pulled out a few printed photos.
"These," she said, "are the pictures you posted on Thirteen Station."
Wen Mang recognized them immediately.
"Judging by the luster," Dongfang Ye continued, slipping into professional mode, "this matches the coloration of real gold."
As she spoke, she brought out more photos—horseshoe gold ingots and Five-Zhu coins from museum archives.
"These are provided by the Shaanxi History Museum. When we compare the casting details and tool marks, even the micro-irregularities align. There's a strong possibility they came from the same mold batch."
Wen Mang was stunned.
She pointed at areas that looked like pure blur to him.
This was his first time truly understanding how terrifying professional expertise could be.
"So," Dongfang Ye concluded, "if possible, I'd like you to bring the items in for metallurgical and process dating."
You're the expert. I'm just a guy with anxiety.
Wen Mang had no objection.
He wasn't completely ignorant either. Horseshoe gold and Five-Zhu coins, while valuable, were often burial goods. Many had been unearthed from Han tombs and were not prohibited artifacts.
When they left the lab, Dongfang Ye personally walked him out.
Students along the way greeted her respectfully:
"Professor Dongfang."
"So you're a professor," Wen Mang said, a little stunned.
"Didn't I say so?" she smiled, tucking hair behind her ear.
"Save my number. If anything comes up, contact me."
Then, casually:
"Oh, by the way—I saw online that you also received a piece of calligraphy by Zhuge Liang?"
"That's fake," Wen Mang laughed.
"If 'Glory Belongs to the People' were written by Zhuge Liang, then Xiao He chasing Han Xin by moonlight must be real too."
That'd be ridiculous.
"I see," Dongfang Ye nodded.
"If you have time, let me take a look anyway. The imitation has about thirty percent of the original spirit."
…Strange professor.
Public Security County
Sun Qian sat upright in the side hall, posture immaculate.
Nearby, Jian Yong whispered to Mi Zhu.
"The light-screen already ended. Why hasn't everyone left?"
Instead, it looked like they were preparing to sleep on the floor.
"There must be a reason," Jian Yong said confidently.
Sure enough—
Zhao Yun, Liu Bei, even Kongming himself—all looked at Jian Yong with faint smiles.
Exactly the same expressions they'd worn when Jian Yong first saw the light-screen.
History repeats itself.
Before long, the light-screen unfolded once more.
Hah, Jian Yong thought. You want to see me lose composure? Not happening.
"The calligraphy entered the light-screen?!"
That was Jian Yong's voice.
Zhang Fei dug at his ear with his pinky.
"Doctor Jian. Dignity. Scholar dignity. It's just a calligraphy piece going in—what's the big deal?"
He hadn't even mentioned that his wine went in too.
Everyone focused.
[Thanks for the support! This Kongming calligraphy fits the video perfectly—I'm dying laughing.
Also, this paper? It's leather paper. Not cheap at all. Much appreciated. Next episode I'll pour my soul into it.]
[+1 to dying laughing. Question: what's leather paper?
If I'm not mistaken, this should be Linqu leather paper. One roll goes for over 300 online.
This is basically Zuo Bo paper from the Three Kingdoms era—he improved papermaking by adding mulberry bark and made a fortune.
Funny thing is, he was actually a calligrapher.
Did side hustles, became immortalized. Amazing.
But to truly complete papermaking, you need my Great Song Dynasty—movable type printing is the perfect partner!
Four hundred years between block printing and movable type still blows my mind.
Ancient people just didn't value technology enough. The only dynasty that did—the Song—got beaten nonstop.
And yet even while getting beaten, Song still crushed everyone else with 38 technology progress points.
Wait—weren't we talking about leather paper?]
Kongming copied every word carefully, smiling faintly.
So you won't let me ask directly?
Fine. I'll circle around.
Inference, cross-reference, partial truths—thinking is allowed, isn't it?
Zuo Bo… immortalized not for calligraphy, but for improving papermaking.
Kongming paused.
So the later ages truly valued craftsmanship.
Then perhaps those "moving territories"… were also crafted by human hands?
Such near-divine work—Yueying would love this.
Meanwhile, Zhang Fei counted on his fingers.
"Jin. Sixteen Kingdoms. Tang. Song. Ming. Qing. Oh—and that future no-emperor era."
"What are you calculating?" Liu Bei asked.
"Big Brother," Zhang Fei said seriously,
"Just from what the light-screen mentioned, that's already seven dynasties."
"That's seventeen hundred years between us and the kid."
"Doesn't that mean… each dynasty only lasts about two hundred years?"
Kongming shook his head.
"It wouldn't be evenly divided—but even so, every two centuries means chaos, war, displacement."
In this regard, the Han could scoff a little.
Four hundred years still beat two hundred.
"If the later world is so powerful," Jian Yong murmured,
"and values technology so highly… could strength lie there?"
Mi Zhu objected immediately.
"But the comments said Song had the most technology points—yet still got beaten constantly. So technology alone can't be the answer."
Kongming raised a hand, silencing them.
"These matters are premature."
"Today, we focus on paper."
"And printing."
[Technology progress points refer to major recorded technological breakthroughs in ancient history.
Excluding Shang, Zhou, Qin, and Han:
Wei–Jin: 26
Sui–Tang: 19
Song: 38
Ming: 18
Qing: 4]