Free Web NovelChapter 336: Chapter 336: Rare Treasure
The students, seeing Ren Yong’s worried and distressed expression, mercilessly mocked him.
The few students who had arrived with Ren Yong took advantage of the chaos to quietly slip away.
But before leaving, they made sure to get a good look at Wang Hao’s face, determined to avoid him in the future.
While they were mocking Ren Yong, these students also felt a twinge of loss; they all still lusted after Qi Shihan, but now, compared to Wang Hao, their already fragile self-esteem suffered yet another serious blow.
By now, they had all internally acknowledged that Qi Shihan belonged to Wang Hao, and the others should abandon any delusional hopes. freeweɓnovel.cѳm
In this way, Wang Hao had unwittingly defeated a whole host of rivals.
With the security team leader and Ren Yong having received their deserved punishments, Qi Shihan also felt relieved and hurried off to class.
Professor Shen took Wang Hao into the principal’s office.
"Assistant Li, please step out for a moment, I have important matters to discuss with Mr. Wang Hao. Do not let anyone enter without my permission!"
As soon as they entered the office, Professor Shen sent his assistant away.
Assistant Li, clearly well aware of Professor Shen’s status, said nothing; he just gave Wang Hao a glance before leaving, closing the door behind him.
"I only have this simple tea here; I hope Mr. Wang Hao doesn’t mind!"
Professor Shen seemed rather approachable and personally brewed a large cup of Longjing tea for Wang Hao.
Looking at the light green tea, Wang Hao couldn’t help feeling somewhat emotional; if such fine Longjing tea was considered plain, what then would be considered good in Professor Shen’s eyes?
"Mr. Wang, since old Wen trusts you so much, I won’t beat around the bush,"
said Professor Shen.
"Old Wen must have told you that I am the one who asked him to investigate the jumping case at Xiangtan University. You’ve heard that this matter has been blown out of proportion by the outside world."
"There are even rumors of a ghost at the school. I’ve been keeping it under wraps until now; revealing it would surely damage the school’s reputation, and I also have my reasons for not wanting too many people to delve into this matter."
Before, Wang Hao had found it strange why Wen Yonglin would investigate the jumping case at Xiangtan University, but now that he knew Wen Yonglin’s old friend was the principal of Xiangtan University, it made sense.
"Alright, you can rest assured, I will not reveal a single word of the investigation results to anyone without your permission,"
Wang Hao assured him.
"Haha, excellent!"
Professor Shen said with a smile.
"As expected of someone old Wen values, I trust you as well. He also mentioned that you possess some very rare and valuable items. I didn’t believe him at first until he showed me a piece of animal skin with ancient script on it."
"After examining it, I was truly astounded; I couldn’t doubt it even if I wanted to!"
Wang Hao smiled politely, but he felt quite embarrassed on the inside.
Because Wen Yonglin trusted him so much, yet what he had provided was only a small portion of the entire animal skin.
"Old Wen also told me that you have more scrolls of animal skin and that you would like to study them with me, is that right?"
Professor Shen didn’t beat around the bush and went straight to the point.
"Since that’s the case, I won’t hide anything from you anymore. A friend of mine brought out an entire scroll of animal skin from an ancient tomb, which contains many ancient scripts I am very interested in, but I can’t understand them myself."
"Uncle Wen said you are an expert in this field, so I wanted to ask for your help to take a closer look! If it’s possible to translate it for me, that would be even better,"
Wang Hao said as he took out the animal skin.
Seeing the animal skin Wang Hao brought out, Professor Shen’s eyes widened in awe.
Although Professor Shen was the principal of Xiangtan University, he also taught classes and led teams on archaeological research. Therefore, he could recognize the authenticity of ancient artifacts at first glance; otherwise, how could he be fit to be the principal?
As soon as Wang Hao took out the pieces of animal skin, Professor Shen recognized that they had a very long history.
Although animal hides are durable and can last for a millennium if stored properly, the writings on these hides do not seem to be recorded by modern people at all.
Because the ink looks very aged, and ancient people had the habit of writing in one go, if these were imitations done by modern people, surely flaws would be observable.
So these hides must be genuine ancient relics.
"Mr. Wang, may I venture to ask how you came by these hides?"
Professor Shen was extremely curious, for such complete pieces of hide are indeed priceless treasures, which he was seeing for the first time.
"This..."
Wang Hao started to hesitate, knowing that Professor Shen studied archaeology and would surely lead a team to the site if he were told about the ancient tomb.
But the Longchi Spring had emerged from that very ancient tomb, and if it were to be discovered by them, the spring might be at risk of destruction.
"Well, if it’s inconvenient to say, then never mind!"
Seeing Wang Hao hesitate, Professor Shen did not press further.
Wang Hao instantly breathed a sigh of relief.
"Truly a rare treasure!"
Professor Shen held the hide in the palm of his hand and admired it, seemingly unable to part with it.
When he saw the text written on it, Professor Shen was taken aback and his expression turned serious.
He suddenly looked up with a surprised face and asked Wang Hao,
"This... this is the original copy of the ancient medical book ’Shennong Herbal Medicine’!"
Professor Shen said, wide-eyed and speechless.
Wang Hao was also a little surprised, because he had clearly already presented the title part of the book. Professor Shen had recognized the content on the hides at a glance, confirming he truly understood the ancient text.
"Professor Shen, what’s recorded on it?"
Wang Hao quickly asked.
"I’ve had a cursory glance just now, and it records a lot of uses and dosages of Chinese herbs, many of which I’ve never even heard of. However..."
Professor Shen suddenly paused and shook his head.
"However, what?"
Wang Hao saw Professor Shen stop midway and became anxious too.
"The ancient Chinese script is profound and vast. If I only translate the words and sentences for you, I suspect most people will not understand."
"Ancient texts get more complex with age, sometimes a single character can represent the meaning of an entire sentence, or even a whole section, so understanding it is quite challenging," Professor Shen explained, frowning.
"I have another method, but it requires you to leave these hides with me for a while."
Hearing this, Wang Hao froze for a moment.
"I understand that you may not feel at ease leaving such a rare treasure with me."
Professor Shen said with a smile.
"How about this? I’ll deposit two hundred million with you. When I return the hides to you, you can give me the money back. How does that sound?"
Wang Hao was taken aback once again.
Two hundred million is an astronomical figure to the average person. Professor Shen was just a university president, not even of a key university. How could he have so much money?
And from the tone of Professor Shen’s offer, it seemed that producing two hundred million was an easy matter for him.
