Chapter 288: Encountered a Master

While Lu Shijing was busy planning their future, Gu Shengsheng immediately threw herself into her work.

She hadn’t given any of that a thought at all.

Instead, she received a message in the middle of the night. She didn’t know who it was from; it was just a string of digits that looked like a number from Eagle Country.

The message contained only one sentence: “Miss Gu, are you interested in Huaxia artifacts? For just 199, you can take one home. http…”

The link was followed by another string of numbers, making it look exactly like some kind of junk ad.

Normally, she would have glanced at it and ignored it. But the phone she was using abroad was different. It had been processed and encrypted by the Ministry of State Security. They had told her it was completely secure.

A phone like this shouldn’t be receiving random junk messages.

Gu Shengsheng instinctively clicked the link. It didn’t lead to some shady shop, nor was it a local shopping app.

Instead, it led to a domestic second-hand marketplace app.

The advantage of listing items on this app was that there were no processing fees, and it seemed anyone could post things for sale.

Whether anyone would actually buy them, however, was another story.

This time, clicking the link took her to a very ordinary account homepage. As she browsed, she saw the page was filled with such items for sale, mostly common antiques.

At first, everything seemed normal. But then Gu Shengsheng randomly clicked on a few photos to take a closer look, and her palms instantly started to sweat. Based on her experience, at least the few she had looked at were genuine.

Moreover, the seller had listed many items. Gu Shengsheng clicked through them one by one, then followed the seller’s account.

Now, there was no way she could get to sleep.

‘There’s one possibility,’ she thought. ‘These artifacts were all taken by one person, and that person is from Huaxia.’

If this was truly related to Huaxia, then she would need a top-tier lawyer.

At the very least, they would need a defense to ensure the safety of the artifacts, verify their authenticity, and guarantee her own personal safety.

It would be completely inappropriate for Gu Shengsheng to rashly go and ask the seller if they were selling stolen artifacts.

She had to find someone to help her investigate.

With that in mind, she messaged Lu Shijing while rushing over to the Da Ying Museum.

“Shengsheng?” His voice was cheerful. “Are you asking me to breakfast?”

Gu Shengsheng paused for a moment. “I’ve already eaten. You go ahead and eat by yourself.”

“I just wanted to ask you something. Do you know anyone who can look up IDs and information? Or could you help me find someone? I’m not very familiar with how things work here. Of course, if it’s too much trouble, then never mind.”

“It’s no trouble,” Lu Shijing said.

His tone immediately became serious. “This is what I do. I know a little about this kind of tech.”

When he said it like that, it was with an air of confidence. And since Gu Shengsheng didn’t want to make a big deal out of this matter, the fewer people who knew, the better.

Entrusting it to Lu Shijing was fine; Gu Shengsheng had complete faith in his character.

Then Gu Shengsheng said, “Alright, I’ll leave it to you then. I’ll send you the information in a bit. It’s for a shop on that second-hand app. Take a look inside. Also, do you know any reliable lawyers here?”

“Never mind, a lawyer from here won’t work. I should probably ask a lawyer from back home. If you can’t help, I’ll ask Zhao Dehai for assistance,” Gu Shengsheng said anxiously.

He immediately replied, “I can. I know someone. He’s a university professor and has some dealings with Professor Zhang Zhengyi. The lawyer is top-tier and very famous. If you need a defense attorney, don’t worry.”

By now, Lu Shijing had already opened the link. He saw it was a seller specializing in antiques and connected it to the incident at the Da Ying Museum. Being a sharp man, he understood some things were better left unsaid.

Then he continued, “Don’t rush, Shengsheng. I’ll investigate it thoroughly first.”

Gu Shengsheng had thought she would need to explain, but she didn’t expect him to be so direct. It was obvious he had already guessed some of what was going on.

She nodded. “Okay.”

Gu Shengsheng arrived at the entrance of the Da Ying Museum in a hurry. This time, however, she wasn’t there as a tourist.

She came in her capacity as the director of a private Huaxia museum.

Because arrangements had been made in advance, when Gu Shengsheng arrived, the museum’s director, Jack, was waiting with a group of people.

At first, when they saw the name, they just assumed it was someone with the same name as that blasted young woman from yesterday.

After all, many people in Eagle Country share the same name. Who would have thought it was the same person? When they saw Gu Shengsheng arrive, the last of their hopes was crushed.

Jack, the museum director, looked at Gu Shengsheng and managed to squeeze out a smile. “Miss Gu, you Huaxia people have an old saying, don’t you? Something about not knowing each other until you’ve had a fight!”

Gu Shengsheng replied, “The Da Ying Museum has criticized me before, so I assume you’ve seen my videos. Whether you were face-blind yesterday or just pretending not to recognize me, who knows.”

“Director, you can spin it however you like. I must say, I’ve rarely seen anything like it.”

Many media members were present, taking photos. Hearing Gu Shengsheng’s blunt remarks, the people from the Da Ying Museum were stunned.

‘Are they going to start fighting right at the beginning of the meeting? Is there no need for even a little initial civility?’

Besides, he really couldn’t justify his actions in this matter. He couldn’t very well claim he hadn’t seen the livestream, since he was the one who had confronted Gu Shengsheng.

If he tried to make excuses, it would only make things worse and risk sounding like he was just arguing his way out of it.

In the end, the Da Ying Museum director cut straight to the chase. “Well, there’s nothing to be done about it. After all, Miss Gu, you run a small-time operation. You privately mess around with some things that happen to overlap with ours. For a museum like us to defend our rights, I think that’s perfectly normal, don’t you?”

“As the director of your own little workshop, Miss Gu, I’m sure you can understand a large institution like us, can’t you?”

Hearing this, Gu Shengsheng smiled. “Yes. But a large institution should act like one. If you have fakes in your collection and even accuse my ‘little workshop’s’ Ru Kiln Bowl, then I’m going to be unhappy too.”

“It doesn’t matter if I lose face, but the Da Ying Museum is so famous. You’ve already lost so many items. If you lose face as well, you won’t even have a fig leaf to cover yourselves with.”

As she said this, Gu Shengsheng put on a very concerned expression.

The Da Ying Museum’s director was speechless. “You have an interesting way with words, Miss Gu.”

“How could it not be interesting? Every word is a jab to your heart.”

“Miss Gu!”

He snapped, clearly at the end of his rope and in disbelief. ‘What on earth is this Gu Shengsheng’s background that she dares to be so bold?’

‘It’s like she thinks she can just walk all over me!’

‘This is absurd!’

He had been the director for so many years; getting to where he was today proved he was no pushover.

‘Being bullied like this by a young woman like Gu Shengsheng is the greatest indignity!’