Volume One: The Eight Coffin Corpse Field, Chapter 89: Jiaqing Cash Coin

I glanced at my uncle, who seemed completely absorbed, and then followed his gaze.

According to the traditional Chinese arrangement, a classical painting hung in the center, with a pair of vertical couplets on either side. The upper line read, "A host who loves guests fills the hall with spring; the lower line read, "He shines the moon of honesty and courage through the court." It was written in a graceful clerical script, airy and unrestrained, clearly the work of an accomplished hand. As for the painting itself, it showed three figures: an old man with white hair and a childlike face, clad in plain robes, kind yet dignified, leaning on a cane as he handed a long scroll to a middle-aged man. That man wore brocade and a jade belt, with a gentleman's cap on his head, and was respectfully reaching out to take the scroll. Beside the old man stood a youthful attendant with bright teeth and rosy lips.

On the left side of the painting was a signature and inscription. It read that this was a Picture of the Transmigration Scripture, painted in the winter month of the year of the Earth Dog during the Guangxu reign, by Zijun. I knew nothing about painting or calligraphy, and had no idea what kind of artist this Zijun was. To my untrained eye, the piece seemed unremarkable, no different from the old paintings and calligraphy one might find at an antique street stall.

My uncle stared for a long while, then suddenly stepped forward as if preparing to take the painting down.

I hurried to stop him. "Uncle, that doesn't seem proper. It's not as if they refused to pay us. Taking their painting without asking isn't the act of a gentleman."

He shot me a glare. "Get lost. Who said I was going to take the painting?"

With that, he pushed me aside and began feeling along the artwork, especially over the man in brocade and jade.

At last his hand stopped at the man's jade belt. Hanging from it was a silk tassel with a jade buckle attached.

My uncle pinched it with his fingers and actually pried open the spot where the buckle was.

Then he felt something inside the painting and drew out a copper coin. The coin fit the size of the jade buckle opening exactly; it had actually been hidden beneath the buckle.

He hurriedly held the coin up and examined it in the sunlight. On its face were four clearly stamped characters: Imperial Prosperity Treasure.

So it was a coin from the reign of that emperor. How strange—why would such a coin be hidden inside an old painting? I could not make sense of it no matter how hard I tried.

My uncle looked thrilled. He pinched the coin between his fingers and lifted it over his head, angling it toward the sun.

I thought to myself, amused, what, it's not paper money. You think you're going to spot anti-counterfeit marks on it or something?

Who knew that as he looked, my uncle suddenly cried out, startling me badly. I hurriedly asked, "What is it?"

"Royal coin... royal coin... damn it, this really is a Five-Emperor Royal Coin, nephew! We nearly missed it! If I hadn't noticed the word transmigration in that Picture of the Transmigration Scripture and remembered what Jue Ming said about transmigrating through several lifetimes to renew an old bond, I wouldn't have examined this painting so carefully. It seems everything has its fate, everything is heaven's will, all of it, all of it. Buddha bless us, Amitabha..."

My uncle was flushed with excitement, talking wildly and waving his hands, his fingers trembling around the coin.

"How do you know this is a royal coin? Is there really some kind of anti-counterfeit mark?" I asked in astonishment.

"There is. Look for yourself." My uncle handed me the coin.

Curious, I took it and copied his manner, tilting my head back toward the sunlight.

This time I indeed spotted something unusual: faint golden threads were wound through the coin. In truth, those threads could be seen even without sunlight, only not as clearly.

I held the coin in my palm, and under the sun those delicate golden strands gleamed with a blinding radiance.

"See? This kind of Five-Emperor Royal Coin was made for the emperor to wear, and it was also the dynasty's first circulating coin, so gold thread was woven into it. The craftsmanship of these thread-inlaid coins is very hard to fake. That's the difference between a royal coin and an ordinary copper coin," my uncle explained from the side.

"That's too much of a coincidence. We just got the Five-Emperor Lamp, and now we've found a Five-Emperor Royal Coin. You were just saying this was harder than fishing a needle out of the sea, and yet it doesn't seem that hard after all. Is this really reliable?"

My uncle nodded. "You're right, nephew. Finding this kind of thing is seventy percent luck and thirty percent effort. I figure this royal coin was probably obtained by that Vicious Tiger fellow and then placed in the main hall to ward off evil and protect the house. When he killed Wanqing back then, he wasn't afraid of her vengeful spirit coming for his life. Part of that was because his own malice was strong, and part of it, I suspect, was because he was confident the royal coin could suppress evil. In any case, we have the royal coin now. If you don't believe me, we can test it."

With that, my uncle took out the Five-Emperor Lamp for worshipping the Buddha. It bore five coin-shaped impressions, one of which matched the Imperial Prosperity Treasure coin.

My uncle placed the Imperial Prosperity Treasure in his hand onto the corresponding impression. With a soft click, as though a magnet had been hidden there, the coin stuck securely in place without the slightest damage.

At the same time, a dim glow sprang from the rim of the coin and shot straight toward the Buddha's head on the lamp.

My uncle then pried the coin back off and said, "See? Once all five royal coins are gathered and the five blossoms gather at the crown, this lamp will be tremendously useful. I think its function is not as simple as merely lighting your destiny lamp. The contents recorded in this sheepskin scroll are only part of it. As for the missing portion, we still don't know what was written there. So, the matter of the Five-Emperor Royal Coins and the worship lamp must stay between us. I'm worried others may also be searching for these royal coins."

My uncle spoke with unusual seriousness, and I nodded in agreement.

Looking at the painting again, I asked him, "But if we took something from them, shouldn't we at least tell them?"

My uncle promptly returned to his shameless self and declared brazenly, "We settled such a huge matter for them, and only charged them five hundred thousand. That's already doing them a favor. What harm is there in taking one copper coin? Don't you dare mention this to anyone."

"Fine." Seeing how utterly shameless he was, I had nothing more to say.

After the two of us finished the cleanup and purification work, we arranged to meet Fei Yao and Xu Ruoxi at a coffeehouse.

When we saw Fei Yao and Xu Ruoxi again, both of them looked much better. Especially Fei Yao, who no longer had that exhausted look from the past few days; there was color in her face now, and with her naturally elegant bearing, she seemed like a completely different person from two days ago.

Xu Ruoxi was the same. She was already a woman of fine bearing and striking appearance, though her personality had always annoyed my uncle and me. During this time she had also been put through quite a lot, and now dressed in a qipao, she looked dazzling indeed. As soon as the two of them entered, they drew the attention of many customers.

As soon as Fei Yao sat down, she thanked us repeatedly, saying she had not had that nightmare again over the past few days and had been sleeping very well.

My uncle nodded and briefly told her about how we had dealt with the attic, also explaining the matters that needed attention afterward. Under normal circumstances, after nine days of purification, the house could be occupied again.

Fei Yao nodded. "This house is an ancestral property, but it was once occupied by the Di family through my great-grandfather. I plan to sell the attic and donate the proceeds to charity. It will be my way of contributing something to the country after returning home. From now on, I also intend to stay in China and build my future here."

The End

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