The object’s exterior was badly corroded. Even the tiny decorative details on its surface looked so fragile that the slightest careless touch might make them fall off.
When Li Ming heard this, he couldn’t help thinking that this girl must have secretly learned from someone. Her eye for antiques had improved tremendously!
“It is bronze, but unfortunately, the exterior is severely corroded, and the whole thing has also been crushed and deformed. It’s difficult to tell which period it came from, and the inscriptions are even more impossible to make out…”
Bronze artifacts were different from rhinoceros horn cups and blue-and-white porcelain from the Ming Dynasty.
Because of their distinctive age and function, as well as the inscriptions that might be found on them, every bronze artifact unearthed had the potential to add more detailed written evidence to the history of China.
Shen Sangyu could sense the meaning hidden behind Li Ming’s unfinished words.
Every antique carried the traces of one particular person, or perhaps several people, who had created it, owned it, or held it in their hands hundreds or even thousands of years ago.
It had traveled across the vast river of history, becoming a collision between different eras, a tangible connection that had crossed through time itself.
Li Ming’s regret and sighs had nothing to do with its monetary value.
What he longed for was the weight of history contained within it.
Shen Sangyu picked up a magnifying glass and pretended to examine the bronze vessel carefully.
In reality, she was using the relic eye to see whether the damaged artifact could still be restored.
What she hadn’t expected was that even an artifact this badly damaged could possess such a powerful aura!
That dense aura of the artifact passed through the magnifying glass and instantly surged into Shen Sangyu’s right eye.
Holy crap!
Although Shen Sangyu’s expression remained completely calm on the outside, she had actually been startled badly.
The artifact’s aura was far stronger than that of the antiques she had encountered before, and not by just a little.
The lotus bud in her dantian rapidly condensed a crystal-clear dewdrop.
Shen Sangyu silently pulled back the finger she had just been about to extend.
If she restored this bronze artifact right in front of Uncle Li, wouldn’t she end up being taken away and cut open for research?
After thinking it over, Shen Sangyu turned to Li Ming and tried to negotiate.
“Uncle Li, would you sell this bronze vessel to me? I’d like to take it home and study it. Is that okay?”
Although it was now covered in rust and so badly deformed that it was almost impossible to tell what kind of vessel it had originally been, if she could restore it, wouldn’t it be the perfect object for her to study?
Li Ming didn’t hesitate for even a second.
“No problem! There’s no need to sell it. Take it home and study it, practice with it a little. That’ll be good for you.”
The thing was damaged far too badly. Even if it were taken to a museum, no one would accept it.
Shen Sangyu didn’t stand on ceremony with Li Ming either.
Once Uncle Li found a collector interested in the rhinoceros horn cup, they could settle everything together.
…
Shen Sangyu hadn’t expected her luck to be this good today.
She had stumbled upon a priceless treasure. Becoming a millionaire was practically within reach now!
“I heard the temple here is really effective. I’m going to pray to Guanyin later and ask her to bless me so I can pass my exams this year and finally get into university…”
“…Did you bring your ID card? Remember to give Guanyin your ID number so she can locate you precisely…”
Shen Sangyu was speechless.
Since when did praying to Guanyin require an ID number?
After returning to Qinan Restaurant to put away the bronze artifact, Shen Sangyu was heading out when she overheard the girls sitting around the small table near the entrance discussing temples and praying to Buddha.
Well, I suppose people really have stopped worshiping teachers and switched to worshiping Buddha instead.
Shen Sangyu secretly thought to herself.
She remembered that in her previous life, that bone sarira had apparently come from a temple in Haishi and had later been loaned to a museum in the capital for an exhibition.
It couldn’t possibly be such a coincidence, could it?!
Shen Sangyu hurriedly took out her phone and searched for information.
Just two streets away from Qinan Restaurant, there really was a temple with an extremely strong incense offering, Chongfu Temple.
It was a Han Chinese Buddhist temple that had been established during the Tang Dynasty.
That meant it had stood for more than thirteen hundred years.
Chongfu Temple had suffered extensive damage during a turbulent period in history. Almost all of the Buddhist statues in the main hall and side halls had been restored or rebuilt afterward.
At present, essentially only the architectural framework of the temple had survived intact.
After that troubled period ended, Chinese archaeologists conducting field surveys discovered that a subterranean palace was hidden beneath the temple.
A large number of Buddhist scriptures, seal carvings, and that genuine ancient sarira were unearthed inside.
Experts speculated that the items had been hidden away by the monks of the temple during the Tang Dynasty’s persecution of Buddhism.
The scriptures and seal carvings were taken away by the relevant cultural heritage authorities.
Only the genuine sarira remained.
At the strong insistence of the monks at the temple and the Haishi Tourism Bureau, it had continued to be enshrined in the temple’s main hall ever since its discovery at the beginning of the century.
For decades, it had been worshiped by countless pilgrims.
The moment Shen Sangyu saw this information, she jolted.
If that was the case, then the sarira from her previous life was now inside her eye.
So in this life, was the sarira still being enshrined at the temple?
Shen Sangyu felt as though her brain had turned into a tangled mess.
“Forget it. I’d better go take a look!”
She could even give them her ID number while she was there and pray to Guanyin.
Hahahaha.
Chongfu Temple was located near Haishi Park.
Built beside the water, it was an impressive sight.
A relatively short path paved with blue-gray stone bricks led directly to the temple gate.
When Shen Sangyu arrived, it was already afternoon.
The sky was slightly overcast, and combined with the biting chill of winter, the scattered ginkgo leaves throughout the temple and the thin wisps of incense smoke rising into the air made Chongfu Temple look almost like a celestial realm.
She had just picked up the incense sticks in her hand.
She planned to worship at the side halls first, then go to the main hall to see the genuine sarira.
Just then, a calm, serene voice filled with the quiet wisdom of Buddhism sounded behind her.
“Young friend, have you come to see the genuine sarira?”
Although it was phrased as a question, Shen Sangyu could hear the certainty in his voice.
She turned around.
Behind her stood a monk dressed in a patchwork robe.
Judging from his long, graying beard, he appeared to be a highly accomplished monk who had spent many years in spiritual practice.
Shen Sangyu pressed her palms together and nodded.
With a respectful tone, she answered, “I was just about to go through the side halls and take a look…”
The master seemed to understand immediately. His eyes were filled with wisdom, as though nothing could escape his notice.
“Amitabha. Young friend, please come with me first.”
With that, he turned and walked toward the depths of the temple.
Shen Sangyu had no idea what was going on, but she didn’t hesitate.
She followed behind him, keeping a respectful distance as they continued forward.
The farther they went, the fewer people there were.
The surroundings also grew increasingly quiet.
It seemed that the only sounds remaining were the occasional tolling of a bell and the chirping of birds perched beneath the temple’s eaves.
After walking for about ten minutes, just as Shen Sangyu was about to ask where they were going, the master, who had been walking several steps ahead, pushed open the small door of a side courtyard’s mountain room.
“Young friend, please sit.”
The master pointed toward a meditation cushion beside a low table, clearly indicating that he had something he wanted to discuss with her.
The place he had brought Shen Sangyu to was a meditation room.
Unlike the bustling and lively parts of the temple, this room was rather plain.
Apart from the low table and several meditation cushions, the only other thing inside was the countless Buddhist scriptures filling the bookshelves.
Shen Sangyu took a sip of hot tea.
The master slowly spoke.
“Young friend, aren’t you curious about what I want to say to you?”
“From the moment I entered the temple, you came over and spoke to me. Clearly, you already knew I would come here. You must have been waiting specifically for me.”
Shen Sangyu had already begun to suspect as much on the way there.
She had been inside the temple for barely two minutes.
If the master hadn’t been waiting for her in advance, how could he have picked her out of so many visitors the moment she arrived?
“You are indeed perceptive, young friend.”
“How did you know I would come? Or rather, why me? Why not someone else?”