The feeling of being praised by others was something I was a little unaccustomed to. I gave an awkward smile and said nothing. In fact, no one knows my true abilities better than I do. If it weren’t for Grace Cooper explaining everything in great detail on TV last night, I would have been completely in the dark, unable to tell truth from falsehood.

After settling things here, I took the bus back to the siheyuan at Qianmen.

My parents were at work and not home. I spent three hours confirming it and finally accepted the fact that I had returned to last year’s summer vacation.

To say I wasn’t shocked would be a lie, but what followed was an indescribable excitement.

Maybe the heavens heard my innermost wish to “become rich” and deliberately gave me this opportunity.

This is a chance!

This year, the stock market is volatile, and housing prices are unstable. It’s obviously unrealistic to make money from these. Thinking it over, collecting might be a good way to earn money. A year isn’t too long or too short, but for me, it’s enough. In fact, this is exactly the result I wanted, because during that summer vacation, I also worked at Beijing Antique City, where I picked up a lot of insider information here and there—memories still fresh. If I had really gone back two, five, or even ten years, I wouldn’t have remembered so many events, which would have ruined things.

I took a deep breath and eagerly picked up a pen, recalling stories of lucky finds I’d heard or seen on the news or TV.

From a stamp worth a few hundred yuan to the nationwide sensation of a jadeite discovery.

Pottery and porcelain, Ming and Qing furniture, dressing accessories, ancient coins, the Four Treasures of the Study, cigarette labels and posters...

I believe that in four hundred days, everything will be different.

Chapter 3: [Ming and Qing Jade Plaque Buried in the Earth]

A new day began.

“Xiao Jing! Xiao Jing!” It was my mom’s voice.

I snapped back to reality and found that I was biting half a tea egg, my left hand holding a porcelain bowl of soy milk in midair, and the tip of my chopsticks in my right hand stuck straight into the plate of pickles, motionless. I blinked blankly and saw my mother, sitting on the round stool opposite, staring at me with a “gritted teeth” look.

I gave a couple of dry laughs and buried my head in breakfast.

“You’ve held that pose for a whole minute. I really admire you—how can you zone out even while eating!” At that moment, the old Changhong 29-inch color TV on the TV cabinet started playing an appraisal show featuring Grace Cooper as a guest. After scolding me, my mom glared fiercely at my dad, who was watching TV on the sofa, and slammed her bamboo chopsticks on the round table: “Grace Cooper! Grace Cooper! All you know is Grace Cooper! Your eyes are bulging like a cow’s! You’re about to crawl into the screen, aren’t you?”

Dad pursed his lips, leisurely picked up his pipe, and took a couple of puffs.

Mom snorted and glanced at both me and Dad: “You two are hopeless! Little James’s dumb look is all from you! Look at other people’s kids—aren’t they all lively and energetic? Now look at your son!”

Dad tapped his pipe in the crystal ashtray. “Rabbits are lively and energetic! If you’re so capable, give birth to one yourself!”

“Michael Brooks! I’ve had it with you!”

I was used to this kind of scene. I finished my meal, tidied up the dishes, and got up to leave the north room, turning into a small room less than eight square meters next to my parents’ room in the courtyard. Seeing the clock’s hands getting closer to eight, I changed into some relatively clean sportswear and got ready to go out.

As I brushed past the Chinese toon tree with its dense branches in the center of the courtyard, Mom opened the door and called after me.

“I’ve already asked my old classmate. Are you going to work at the Antique City or not?”

I rubbed my nose apologetically. “Suddenly don’t feel like going.”

Mom looked at me. “Go if you want, don’t if you don’t. Your dad thinks the same anyway. He’s just afraid you’ll be clumsy and break something. Anyway, your dad and I are going to work soon. Heat up the leftovers for lunch—there’s still half a plate of fish-flavored shredded pork from yesterday.”

At Qianmen Station, I got on the subway and headed toward school.

Originally, if history hadn’t changed, I should have been going to the Antique City for an interview today and officially started work tomorrow. I remember very clearly that on my first day of work, I called my dormmate Eric Foster to ask if he needed a ride to the train station. He wasn’t a local, had bought a ticket but hadn’t had time to go home yet. When he heard I was at the jade shop, Eric Foster told me something: a guy from a dorm on the same floor as ours had picked up a piece of jade at a construction site not far from school yesterday. Eric Foster had seen it and said it looked pretty good.

By my calculations, that’s today.

But at the time, he was vague about the details. I didn’t know where the construction site was or what kind of jade it was.

But as far as I remember, there was only one place under construction near the school, so it must be there.

After getting off the subway, I transferred to a bus and arrived at the Xiaoying campus of Beijing Information Science and Technology University. I headed north for about two kilometers, and the banner for “Fengrui Phase II Project” came into view. Even a year later, the building still hadn’t been completed, as construction was halted for a long time due to some disputes. On the west side of the intersection, the deafening sounds of construction rang out—it seemed they were digging the foundation for a new building. After crossing the traffic light, I covered my nose to avoid the dust kicked up by the trucks. Seeing that no security guards stopped me, I followed the dirt slope into the construction site.