reverse travel

Gao Qiong looked up at the enamel street sign in front of him.The red street sign is a bit old, with four bright characters on it: Jixiang Hutong.

Because of the rain, there was no one around, some knocking sounds, and some aroma of food came from afar in the rain and fog.

"Why activate Chen Shiyi?" Gao Qiong looked stern, "You can't use Chen Shiyi for space transition without permission."

Zhang Xiao, who had taken the inhibitor, wiped off his nosebleed, but was also at a loss.

He didn't know what "activating Chen Shiyi" was at all, it was just arranging ink characters in the protection area.

Seeing his confused face, Gao Qiong probably guessed that the guide Ying Changhe was determined to snatch over might really be rather ignorant, so he lost interest in continuing the discussion with him.

After I go back, I will definitely report criticism. I don't want to be angry with people now.

"The person I'm looking for is in Jixiang Hutong." Gao Qiong said, "You must follow me, and you can't leave me casually."

Zhang Xiao thought that I would not leave you even if you drove me away, so she stood close to Gao Qiong.

Gao Qiong: "...too close."

Zhang Xiao took two steps back with a smile on his face.

If Gao Qiong hadn't caught Chen Shiyi then, Zhang Xiao would be the only one who came to 1918 now.From another point of view, Gao Qiong saved Zhang Xiao's life: If Zhang Xiao was allowed to come here alone, Zhang Xiao doubted that he would either die of old age with the normal timeline, or die in the subsequent war.

Zhang Xiao followed closely behind Gao Qiong, looking at the scenery in the alley curiously.

Alleys are full of courtyard houses, with different sizes and sizes.Those big ones seem to be the houses of rich people, with stone lions lying on their stomachs, and locust trees with new leaves protruding out of the yard in a zigzag way, with a kite with a broken string entangled on it.The small ones have their own characteristics, red doors, black doors, the Spring Festival couplets on the doors are brand new, and the door gods are also like stone lions. Occasionally, one or two red lanterns that have not been taken down are shaking in the wind. It was astonishingly red as if it had been washed through by the rain.

The only strange thing is that there are no people walking around in the alley, it is too quiet.

"The alley needs to be cleaned up now." Gao Qiong said, "Some people died of tuberculosis, and those who were not sick all left."

Zhang Xiao understood what he meant: "Here is the person you are looking for, is he sick?"

"The goal of the mission is Ou Qing's manuscript, "Notes on Auspicious Hutong." Gao Qiong said, "This manuscript records the whereabouts of many cultural relics. We only have the first half of the first volume, and the remaining one and a half. We have been looking for it for a long time. I couldn't find them. The first half of the notebook was actually written by Ou Qing before his death. The first half is all about his life experience and the major events that happened in his life. The day when the pen was written is today, the second day of the lunar calendar On the fourth day of the lunar month, we checked the records of Jixiang Hutong and found that Ou Qing was among the corpses cleared from the Hutong the next day."

"This person... died of illness today?" Zhang Xiao stopped walking.

Only now did he feel a strange sense of reality.He went back to the past time, back to the time when all the turmoil had been recorded in historical materials.What is not recorded in the historical data is the life and death of the bustling crowd, which is the only unknown for future people.

"Let's go." Gao Qiong urged him, "He added content to the manuscript before he died, we can rush over to see where he hid the manuscript."

"So who is Ou Qing?" Zhang Xiao asked.

Ou Qing is a dealer in cultural relics, to be precise, he sells stolen goods.

Jixiang Hutong is located on Di'anmen East Street. In the old days, it was the place where eunuchs in the imperial palace lived. Some people's houses are full of riches and nobles, while others are so poor that they can't even redeem their own treasures.But most of them spent their whole lives running around in the Forbidden City. In the end, they were implicated in an innocent disaster, and their bodies were rolled up in straw mats and thrown into mass graves.

Ou Qing is not a eunuch, he is the eunuch's son.

His adoptive father was a father-in-law in the palace.After the Wuchang Uprising, people in the palace were panicked and became more and more unstable.Ou Qing lives with her adoptive father in Jixiang Hutong, and every now and then she sees her adoptive father quietly bringing good things out of the palace for him to hide.

At the beginning, I brought small items, stuffed in the thick winter robes, hidden in the food box, and brought out safely.Later, it became more and more chaotic, and the items brought out became larger and larger. The imperial vases, ornaments, jade rabbits and jade lions were all poured out desperately.Although Ou Qing didn't mention the name of his adoptive father in his manuscript, he seemed to be very disgusted, but he really lived a prosperous and prosperous life because of selling these treasures from the palace.

Later, the Qing Dynasty died, and the adoptive father also died of illness. When Ou Qing cleaned up the relics, he found a cellar in the adoptive father's house. After trying to open it, he found that it was full of inestimable treasures.

There are crystal vases and white jade ornaments for the big ones, and there are all kinds of small ones, ranging from pearl hairpins worn by women to silver spoons used by adults in the palace to eat and drink soup.Ou Qing followed her adoptive father in this reselling business for many years, but was also shocked by the treasures in the cellar.He immediately realized that it might have been smuggled out by his adoptive father, thinking about how to return home for retirement in the future.They are low-class eunuchs, but they are more keenly aware than the princes and wives in the palace that the big tree of the Qing court is about to fail.

Since he couldn't support himself, he couldn't shade himself, so he simply stroked the bark from the tree before leaving.

Ou Qing counted and recorded these cultural relics one by one. This is the most important part of his "Notes on Auspicious Hutong".

And Ou Qing is a dealer of cultural relics, since he has so many goods in hand, he definitely has no reason not to sell them.

"What was sold, when was it sold, how much was it sold for, and who bought it, Ou Qing has all been recorded in the manuscript." Gao Qiong led him into the alley, "Ou Qing is keeping this manuscript for future use." For the road. He wants money, but he also wants security."

Gao Qiong talked more than ever before.Zhang Xiao listened very carefully.

After talking about the auspicious alley, Gao Qiong looked at Zhang Xiao, perhaps because there was a serious and sincere audience, Gao Qiong didn't stop talking.

"During the Republic of China, there were no laws governing cultural relics, and there were no regulations to limit the loss of cultural relics. At that time, many foreign resellers came to China, and the number of cultural relics lost outside was beyond count." Gao Qiong frowned slightly. The eyelids seem to be recalling, "As big as a Buddha statue, as small as one or two pearls, as long as it is a mysterious gift from an ancient oriental country, there must be a big market abroad. Many foreigners do not understand cultural relics, nor do they understand They speak official language, so they have to rely on local cultural relics merchants."

"People like Ou Qing, help sell our cultural relics outside?"

"More than that, they sell ready-made cultural relics as well as non-existent cultural relics. For example, a foreigner saw that his friend bought a double-eared tripod, and he wanted one. The bid was 50 yuan. But there is only one double-eared tripod in the world. , how to sell it again? They will fake it.”

Zhang Xiao was fascinated by what he heard, and nodded repeatedly.

"There is another situation where there is more than one cultural relic of the same type, and they will keep one and destroy the rest."

"Extraordinary goods to live in." Zhang Xiao quickly answered.

He seemed to see Gao Qiong smiling.But this movement was too subtle, he didn't catch it all at once, and after thinking about it, he didn't dare to confirm it.

Gao Qiong must really like this job.Zhang Xiao thought to himself, he said so much, so much, and it was with himself.

"However, Ou Qing is a bit different from this kind of cultural relics dealer. He doesn't do business with foreigners." Gao Qiong led him on, "I don't know if it's because of his adoptive father, or because he has been close to the emperor since he was a child." Cheng Gener grew up and experienced the guns and cannons of foreigners, so he was hostile to them. In short, Ou Qing wrote a lot of bad things about foreigners in the manuscript, saying that they are smelly, they can’t understand their speech, and they like to pretend to be experts. Ou Qing What Qing hates the most is the way they swagger and go shopping in Beijing."

Zhang Xiao felt that this Ou Qing was a bit interesting: "Isn't he also reselling stolen goods?"

"Both sold stolen goods, sold to wealthy businessmen or warlords, and sold to foreigners, each of them felt that they were much superior to each other." Gao Qiong stopped in front of a courtyard gate, "Here we are."

This is the end of Dongjixiang Hutong.The courtyard in front of us is not too small, but there is only one of the two stone lions at the door.The remaining one still had a vicious expression, but it looked much less imposing, and it was actually a bit funny.

The courtyard door was half open, and there was no door god on the door, let alone newly posted Spring Festival couplets.Half of the whitish red paper hadn't fallen off, and it was dangerously stuck to the wall. The words "Gathering wealth in all directions..." were blowing back and forth with the wind, but I couldn't find what was written on it.

Gao Qiong walked in first.Zhang Xiao's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly pulled him: "Wait! Just go in like this?"

"...Are you going to take inhibitors?"

"No, we are like this, if we go in, we will be kicked out as foreigners." Zhang Xiao pointed to his clothes, and took the opportunity to touch Gao Qiong's arms twice, "And your leather clothes, which are not available in this era Such material."

"They can't see it." Gao Qiong withdrew his hand and patted the non-existent dust on his sleeve, "We can't touch everything here, and they can't see us."

Zhang Xiao was about to faint again: "Why?"

"Haven't Yuan Yiwei told you?"

"Yuan Yiwei left this matter to the senior sister, and the senior sister asked you to teach me. What did you tell me?" Zhang Xiao's dissatisfaction temporarily overwhelmed the raging infatuation, and his tone was a little resentful.

Gao Qiong was silent for a moment, skipping the question.

"It's like two liquids with different densities. Even if they are placed in the same container, they will not fuse in a short time." He explained to Zhang Xiao, "We are outsiders at this time point, we are intruders. Those who should not exist here are aliens. People who live at this point in time can only see what exists at this point in time, we are not, so they cannot see it. In the same way, it is impossible for us to touch Any object at any other point in time."

"But... this is too real." Zhang Xiao pointed to the persimmon tree beside him.There is a dried persimmon hanging on the branch, crumbling.

"Because everything here is real. It's just that we can't enter the time that has passed, we can only observe it as a bystander..."

Halfway through the conversation, the persimmon, which was overwhelmed by the wind and rain, finally broke away from the branches and fell straight to the ground.

Zhang Xiao was right next to Persimmon, subconsciously reaching out to pick it up.

He got it.

Zhang Xiao: "..."

Gao Qiong's words also stopped abruptly.

Zhang Xiao pinched the shriveled persimmon in disbelief: "Didn't you say that you can't touch it..."

Gao Qiong stepped in front of him, hesitatingly stretched out his hand, to touch the ugly and crumpled persimmon.

The skin is rough, with damp rain, it seems to have moldy.

He immediately withdrew his hand.

Zhang Xiao was also at a loss.He was a little afraid of the way Gao Qiong was looking at him at this moment.

The two were in a daze when someone pushed the door open from the house.

"Who?" A middle-aged man stood there, staring vigilantly at the two weird strangers in the yard.