A doctor who travels through two eras

Director Liu led Lin Sanqi to a group of terracotta figurines and introduced them:
"During the prosperous Tang Dynasty, there was an emphasis on fashionable, plump, and colorful aesthetic tastes. The style of pottery figurines was also constantly updated, which was consistent with the painting style of Zhou Fang that was popular in painting."

Look at these three-color female figurines unearthed from Zhongbao Village and Xiaotumen Village in the western suburbs. They are plump, with flowers in their hair, delicate eyes and willow-leaf eyebrows, and slightly parted cherry lips. Their movements are subtle and elegant, very realistic and very beautiful.

But if you look at these female figurines unearthed in Hansenzhai Village in the eastern suburbs, they are a bit different. They have full figures and graceful figures, with protruding bellies and drooping heads, exuding both elegance and grace.

These female figurines share a common characteristic: their forms are refined and their language subtle, representing the typical style of Tang Dynasty figurines.

Lin Sanqi wasn't actually that interested in antiques and cultural relics.

Especially these things dug out of the graves, you have to know that these are funerary objects, things belonging to the dead.

Consider this: these terracotta figurines "witnessed" the entire process of the tomb owner's body beginning to decompose, becoming gigantic, and finally turning into a pile of bones. How many bacteria, pathogens, and the stench of death must have clung to these figurines?

This is absolutely intolerable for an infectious disease doctor, and Lin Sanqi doesn't even want to touch these antiques.

He only cares about how much money he can make; only money tastes good.

Only money can be exchanged for large quantities of weapons and supplies in another dimension, and then used to support this dimension.

If you have no money but only enthusiasm, what's the difference between you and a corrupt scholar who talks nonsense and harms the country?
"Director Liu, it seems that Xi'an has a lot of cultural relics. They are in the eastern suburbs and the western suburbs. No wonder there are dozens of these three-color female figurines alone. I also see quite a few male figurines next to them."

Director Liu said smugly:

"In the area from Xi'an to Luoyang, there's not much else, but there are tons of graves. You can dig anywhere on the land right here, and you'll find one every time. With so many graves and tombs, there are tons of antiques and cultural relics, and they're hard to sell."

Our museums have so many antiques that we can't even pile them up. With limited funds, we can only select some of the more precious artifacts for protection. The rest of the artifacts can only be piled up in a drafty warehouse, exposed to the wind and rain.

It's a pity that despite having so many antiques and cultural relics in Shaanxi Province, we don't have a single one that's presentable.

Lin Sanqi blinked, thinking to himself, "Xi'an's cultural relics are not presentable?"

Putting aside other things, just take the Xi'an Museum decades later. Tickets there are sold out in a frenzy of reservations. Without a certain amount of luck and surgery, you really can't get a reservation.

Lin Sanqi had visited the site before, and if it weren't for his connections with Xi'an Aircraft Industry Group, he might not have been able to get in even if he had the money.

"Director Liu, you must be joking. Speaking of Xi'an, in the first half of its five thousand years of history, the Guanzhong Plain, represented by Xi'an, was definitely the main player."

To everyone's surprise, Director Liu shook his head with a wry smile:
"Commissioner Lin, you are unaware of this. Xi'an is absolutely famous in history books, but if you go and look, all the famous historical buildings are gone."

For example, Qin Shi Huang's Xianyang Palace is now just a few mounds of earth; the Weiyang Palace of the Han Dynasty is now just a vegetable garden; we have found the ruins of the Daming Palace of the Tang Dynasty, which is actually just a large rural area with only a few foundations remaining.

It's supposed to be an ancient capital with a thousand-year history, but you can't find anything from a thousand years ago. The city wall you see now was built during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and it's much smaller than the historical Chang'an city wall, completely lacking in grandeur.

Last month I hosted a Japanese delegation. They toured the city and said it completely lacked the atmosphere of the Han and Tang dynasties, expressing great disappointment. They didn't even bother visiting the antique shops before flying back.

At this point, Director Liu sighed and said:

"We have so many treasures above and below ground, so many antiques and cultural relics, and so much splendid history in Xi'an. But in modern times, we have nothing to show for ourselves, all that's left are those burial mounds outside the city."

Lin Sanqi blinked, thinking to himself, "You Xi'an people are really like begging for food while sitting on a golden rice bowl."

Xi'an, putting aside everything else, just the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor and the Terracotta Army pits alone are enough to sustain it for hundreds of years. Now it's being said that it has no other historical sites to boast about.
Wait a minute, when were the Terracotta Army discovered?
Lin Sanqi's eyes darted around, and she asked the person accompanying her, "Um, where's the restroom?"

The staff member smiled and gestured for him to proceed: "Mr. Lin, I'll take you there."

Lin Sanqi returned to the first floor and went to the backyard of the antique shop, where he found that it was a dry toilet without a flushing bucket or running water.

There was a latrine at the bottom, and a wooden frame on top, so people could sit directly on it to defecate.

It was summer, and Lin Sanqi almost fainted from the stench when he entered the toilet. Luckily, he had gotten used to it after so many years of transmigration.

So he pulled a tissue from his pocket, stuffed it into his nostrils, hurriedly ran into a cubicle, and then disappeared from this world.

Having traveled back to modern society, Lin Sanqi regained a cell phone signal and immediately began searching.

You wouldn't believe it until you search it up; once you do, you'll find out that the Terracotta Army wasn't discovered until March 1974 by a villager from Xiyang Village in Lintong.

When they were digging wells to combat drought at the northern foot of Mount Li, they discovered this eighth wonder of the world at a depth of 4 meters. The Terracotta Army alone numbers over 8000, and there are also two large painted bronze chariots known as the "Crown of Bronze," namely the "Standing Chariot" and the "Handled Chariot," etc.

Even more than 20 years later, when the US president visited my country, his first stop was Xi'an, where he and his family flew to see the Terracotta Army.

Therefore, the Terracotta Army of Qin Shi Huang can certainly be regarded as a tourist attraction for Xi'an, or even a city icon.

Lin Sanqi held his phone and repeatedly checked the map, finally understanding the situation.

Since I've come to Xi'an, I might as well take advantage of the situation and help the city find the Terracotta Army of Qin Shi Huang, thus discovering this eighth wonder of the world 10 years ahead of schedule.

This will not only help the city become famous worldwide, but also drive economic and cultural tourism development.

At the same time, for Lin San and his group, once the Terracotta Warriors are unearthed, the Xi'an authorities will not know how precious they are. It wouldn't be a problem to give them a few to play with, right?
These are either not for sale, or if they are, they are priceless treasures.

If I really can't give it away, I can still claim the title of the first to discover the Terracotta Army and make a name for myself in history.

When I get old and retire, I can set up a stall at the Terracotta Warriors Museum, charge people for autographs and photos, and make a small fortune that way.

After leaving the restroom, Lin Sanqi, led by Director Liu and Commander Qi, toured the entire antique shop, including the warehouse at the back.

There's a bug in Lin Sanqi's time-traveling and transporting antiques: no two identical antiques will appear in the future.

By default, the antiques that are transported to the past are all antiques that will be destroyed and disappear within the next ten years.

For example, a pile of antiques that are clearly not well preserved will also disappear in the future.

Lin Sanqi picked up a double-layered, nine-compartment lacquer box in the corner of the warehouse. A large piece of it had been chipped off, and he was heartbroken. It was all his money.

This is a container specifically for holding dressing tools. Lin Sanqi didn't know if this was the only complete set of lacquer boxes in the country.

If the set he possessed was damaged and lost, a second set wouldn't be unearthed until 1972 at Tomb No. 1 in Mawangdui, Hunan. This demonstrates just how precious it was.

Of course, Lin Sanqi did not blame the antique shop's employees for not protecting the antiques well.

These employees were all recruited from the general public; they had no history or archaeology degrees and were equally unaware of the value of these cultural relics and antiques.

In their eyes, these were all commodities, and unsellable ones at that, brought from piles of dead bodies—how unlucky!

If it weren't for the supervision of the leaders, these employees would probably wear Bagua (a type of Chinese amulet) to work, and who would be in a good mood to clean up antiques and preserve cultural relics?

"Director Liu, here's the arrangement: I'll take all of these antiques. Of course, as you've also received, I acquired all of these antiques by exchanging them for other things."

But I also know that if I take it all, it would be too unfair to you.

"In that case, I won't take your antiques for nothing. I'll exchange them for a piece of news that could change Xi'an's economy and history. How about that?"

Director Liu was full of questions, thinking that this was not like the Shanghai market in the 1930s or 40s, where there were people who sold information and the price of each piece of information was clearly marked.

How come people are still making money from this in this new society?
Director Liu originally thought that, given Comrade Lin Sanqi's usual generosity, he would at least give them several million US dollars or hundreds of thousands of bottles of penicillin.

Upon hearing that it was just a message, Director Liu was very disappointed.

But being a veteran cadre, he didn't show his emotions, and his face was still all smiles.
"Alright, I wonder what kind of explosive news Commissioner Lin will have to tell us. I need to find a chair and sit down, hehe~~~"

People around him chuckled, all thinking that Director Liu was joking, but Lin Sanqi sensed the sarcasm in his voice.

Given his past temper, if you don't believe me, then I'm not willing to tell you.

However, having experienced the ups and downs of two eras, Lin Sanqi had matured. Thinking about his future retirement plans, he earnestly stated:

"I know where the Terracotta Army pits of Qin Shi Huang are located."

"What???" (End of Chapter)