Age of Legends

Chapter 344 The Divine Bird Appears!

No one paid attention to Peng Xin's boastful words. The bet between the two only earned them a "tsk!" from the crowd. Anyone could say such a thing. Who doesn't say they have it in the bag? In the end, the test paper will be the true test.

The group chatted and laughed, seemingly cherishing their last moments together.

However, it's also possible that the reason so many people are gathered here today is because there are a bunch of beautiful women present.

Shen Nuoyi goes without saying, Tian Jiayi has a pair of peach blossom eyes that are quite pleasing to the eye, and Zhuang Yanyue is poised and generous, seemingly able to chat with anyone, and her voice is pleasant, making people feel like they are bathed in a spring breeze when they are with her.

Many people who had close contact with her during the event secretly wondered why she was so famous.

Gradually, everyone noticed a pattern: when Zhuang Yanyue spoke, Shen Nuoyi remained calm, seemingly listening intently. And sometimes, when Shen Nuoyi spoke, Zhuang Yanyue's voice would soften. Shen Nuoyi wasn't a talkative person, but when she did speak, her words were clear and her voice was lively, making it a pleasure to listen to her speak in silence.

There was a subtle, unspoken understanding between the two girls. When they spoke, they would look around and exchange glances, and when their eyes met, they would both smile slightly.

They also had something in common: while both of them were taking care of the whole audience, they completely neglected one person.

Zhang Chen felt like he was invisible to the two girls, as if he hadn't exchanged a single word with them from beginning to end, and their gazes always seemed to deliberately ignore him.

Well, he's happy to be invisible now.

As she reached the doorway, Zhuang Yanyue suddenly stretched her hand towards the sky, "Wow, look! The morning star!"

At this time, Fuzhou already had light pollution, but it wasn't that serious. The night sky at this time still showed dappled stars, with one particularly bright star hanging against the deep blue sky.

Zhuang Yanyue clapped her hands happily, "We're so lucky! This means we'll all do well on the college entrance exam!"

See, with just one simple sentence, she instantly lifted everyone's spirits. One has to admire her control of the situation; her emotional intelligence is truly high. Simply encouraging people is meaningless, but this slightly mystical approach subconsciously boosts everyone's confidence.

It's true that some psychological suggestion is necessary. For example, in ancient historical novels, if the commander's flag is blown down during a battle, it usually means the battle is going to end badly. If someone were to tell the general before a battle that they have a bad feeling about the situation, they would most likely be accused of disrupting morale and executed.

Zhuang Yanyue is the kind of person who, if the flagpole is blown down, would smile and say, "Congratulations, Commander! The old flag has fallen, and everything is renewed. Give the order: burn your boats and fight to the death! A desperate army will surely win."

Shen Nuoyi looked at Zhuang Yanyue and gently hummed in response to her blessing.

Zhang Chen glanced at her and said, "Don't worry, I believe you can give it your all and leave no regrets."

Shen Nuoyi seemed to be looking at him for the first time, without saying much, only nodding slightly in tacit understanding.

To leave no regrets—that was their prior agreement.

Zhuang Yanyue noticed the unspoken understanding between the two throughout, and she laughed, "Since you're both so confident, I'll just sit back and win."

The term "lying down and winning" is unfamiliar to most people nowadays; they can only guess its meaning from the literal meaning. Zhuang Yanyue only used it because she overheard Zhang Chen casually mention it at a cosplay competition.

Now she's casually learning it too, but no one understands it except Zhang Chen.

Shen Nuoyi also glanced at Zhang Chen with slight suspicion, because Zhuang Yanyue's casual use of a new term gave her a feeling that she resembled someone else.

Someone keeps their eyes down, pretending to be invisible.

That night, everyone was worried about the college entrance exam, dreaming about the future, and making plans to get together after the exam—hot pot, karaoke, playing games all night at an internet cafe—their tone as casual as any usual school invitation. Everyone pretended not to care, but in reality, from that day forward, they would all go their separate ways.

High school ended just like that.

……

July 7th. On the morning of the college entrance examination, the weather in Fuzhou was cloudy, and it had rained the day before, making it somewhat muggy. Police had already blocked off the streets in the area where the examination center was located to maintain order. Some parents were waiting outside, and students entered their examination rooms with their admission tickets.

Zhang Chen's exam venue was almost identical to his previous life, both at Yude School, a major examination center. Only the exam room he was in was different. This was likely due to the butterfly effect, directly illustrating that even if you memorized the lottery ticket, you might not be able to accurately claim the prize, unless the gambling center cheated. However, major historical events, so far, have largely unfolded. This suggests that the ability to manipulate spacetime is still insufficient; spacetime, like the ecosystem, may possess its own stability and resilience.

Zhang Chen wondered if the spacetime correction ability might have eliminated him as an outcast. But fortunately, so much time had passed, and he had created many things that didn't exist in the original timeline, so the divine punishment hadn't come, indicating that he was overthinking it.

Of course, it's natural to overthink before big exams; this is probably because the mind becomes more active and uncontrollably wanders. Zhang Chen used to be like this—the more important the exam, the more his mind would wander, and this was a significant factor in his poor grades.

Fortunately, having returned in this life, he overcame this major problem first. Through a year of intensive review and revision of high school knowledge, Zhang Chen discovered that there was no such thing as a "brainstorming" problem; it was simply a matter of insufficient knowledge reserves. His brain was so busy with problems that it wandered aimlessly, with too much time for idle thoughts.

The morning exam was Chinese. Rongcheng used the national exam, and the essay topic was "Integrity." Zhang Chen felt it matched up, at least there was no time-related effect. But it didn't matter, knowing or not knowing the essay topic wouldn't affect his answering the questions now.

After the bell rang to start the exam, the shadows of the trees outside the exam room swayed, the cicadas chirped intermittently, and the whole classroom was filled with the scratching sound of pens.

The math exam in the afternoon was quite difficult; some students even had sweaty hands, constantly putting down their pens to wipe them on their pants. Zhang Chen, however, did alright; he's generally good at science subjects and maintained his pace while answering the questions.

On July 8th, the morning session was for science subjects, and the afternoon session was for English.

After the exam that day, a large group of people strolled around, went out for hot pot, and spent the whole night playing games at an internet cafe. Zhang Chen had already been here once in his previous life, so he wasn't interested and went straight home.

Wang Shuowei couldn't avoid it; the team used to have hot pot together, and afterwards they'd go to Zhao Tao's internet cafe. Although Zhao Tao had been taken away, the internet cafe was still open, run by Hong Yao.

Shen Nuoyi's mother, Ning Wenjing, wouldn't allow her to stay overnight and would pick her up no later than 10 PM. Hearing that Zhang Chen had also gone home, she felt rather bored being out.

Shen Nuoyi had imagined many times what it would be like after her college entrance exam. In her imagination, Han Zhouxuan and Pei Yan would appear, greet her, and celebrate with her. This was the best scene she had ever envisioned for the end of high school.

But she received no news from them throughout the day.

However, she felt quite calm, without any sadness at the loss of friendship. Meanwhile, on Shen Mingbo's side, Zhang Chen's father, Zhang Zhonghua, submitted a technical roadmap report to the government, which included establishing their own LCD production line and proposing a low-interest loan to support Shen Mingbo's Honghan factory in creating a small-size LCD trial production line for Chenguang Display Technology.

The loan approval process is currently underway, and everything is proceeding quietly. Hopefully, good news will eventually come.

When Zhang Chen returned home after the college entrance examination, he was naturally met with a barrage of questions from Huang Huifen and Zhang Zhonghua, their expressions overflowing with concern. Annoyed by the questions, Zhang Chen said, "I'm going back to school tomorrow to estimate my score. Once I've estimated it, I'll know how I did. I'll be pretty accurate." Only then did they temporarily stop.

That evening, Huang Huifen went to Zhang Chen's room and chatted with him for a while. After coming out, she came to Zhang Zhonghua and said mysteriously, "What's wrong with your son? He finished his exams today and was given a special day off, but he didn't go out to play. Instead, he locked himself in his room. I just went in to check on him, and he was sitting in a chair looking like he was in a daze. Did the college entrance exam make him stupid?"

Zhang Zhonghua was both amused and exasperated: "How can you talk about your own son like that? Besides, you saw how he fared in his final year of high school. We started our own business, and did he ever give us any trouble? Do you think he's stupid?"

Huang Huifen nodded in agreement: "That's true, they haven't been giving me much to worry about lately. I can't possibly worry about them all anyway."

“In my opinion, this is called withdrawal symptoms. It will be over soon, and everything will be normal. Let it go. If he doesn’t want to go out and play, let him have some peace and quiet.” Zhang Zhonghua said, “That kid, he seems more composed than his father.”

In the room, the computer was on. Zhang Chen had played a round of Sudden Strike 2, a real-time strategy game set in World War II, and then browsed the web. QQ was open, and there were all sorts of messages in the QQ groups, but he found it annoying and closed it. He didn't use the computer anymore and just sat there staring at the blank screen.

But he wasn't spacing out; his eyes were just staring into the void, as if waiting for... something to happen.

...The incident occurred on the evening of the second day after the college entrance examination. Because of the college entrance examination, all construction projects in the city were suspended. As soon as the college entrance examination ended, the Shahe project quickly resumed work.

On the west bank of the Shahe River, the night was so dark it looked as if it had been splashed with ink.

At the Yipin Real Estate construction site, which has resumed work, the lights are blazing, and rows of searchlights make the soil glisten with dampness. The roar of machinery, mixed with the sound of shovels scraping the ground, sounds particularly jarring in the sweltering night.

The foreman grumbled and urged, "This layer must be dug up today! Boss Liu instructed that the foundation slab must be poured the day after tomorrow!"
The night air carried the fishy smell of the river, mixed with the scent of earth. The workers were working diligently when a bulldozer operator, speaking with a Luzhou accent, suddenly shouted, "Hey—wait a minute! What did you dig out?"

The excavator stopped roaring, the driver stopped the machine, jumped out of the cab, and came to the large area of ​​ground that had just been turned over by the bucket.

Actually, some antique bronzes and the like have been unearthed at the construction site recently. But Rongcheng itself has a long history, and the soil is rich in artifacts. Many projects have unearthed antiques, and some have been picked up by people. It's not surprising that this is an unexpected windfall for the construction site.

But today was different. The soil suddenly became soft, and a shovelful of soil turned up revealed a mixture of green and white.

When the driver and some people gathered around and saw what was in the soil, they discovered it was a large pile of jade and white ivory.

"What...what are these things?"

Someone simply took a shovel and dug a few scoops into the soil next to them, and immediately unearthed a large pile of warm, smooth objects.

When the foreman realized the situation was bad, more and more workers arrived at the scene after hearing the news, and everyone's eyes widened and their breathing became heavier and heavier when they saw those things.

Just by digging around in this soil, one can find all sorts of jade scepters, jade discs, jade cong tubes, ivory, and bronze artifacts. The number of these unearthed alone exceeds the total number of artifacts they have ever seen in their entire lives.

These once priceless items are now casually piled together, making one realize that the treasure hidden beneath may only be the tip of the iceberg.

This could very well be an unprecedented and groundbreaking discovery!
In an instant, the contractor could no longer stop the looting.

"Turn off the lights! Turn off the fucking lights now!"

The construction site's huge searchlight was accidentally turned off.

But countless flashlight beams lit up in the night, sweeping across that area of ​​ground.

The construction site was in chaos, and someone called the police.

At midnight, Liu Qigang finished his dinner party in his suite at the Jinjiang Hotel.

Still slightly drunk, he draped his suit jacket over the sofa and leaned against the window, smoking. The phone rang.

He frowned as he glanced at the incoming call—it was from Vice President Zhou Kai.

"Mr. Liu, something...something terrible has happened."

"what's up?"

"A large number of ivory and jade artifacts were unearthed at the construction site. It seems that people from the cultural relics bureau went there, and the police also sealed off the area."

Liu Qi suddenly sobered up, not even noticing the cigarette ash falling on the carpet.

"you sure?"

"Yes, I took the photos... It looks like it's from the Yin and Zhou dynasties, and they said it might be a relic."

Liu Qi suddenly stood up, his face frighteningly gloomy.

"Keep quiet! Don't allow anyone to release photos! Call the Municipal Construction Commission and Old Zhao right now, and have them coordinate! Say it's a misreport, an accidental excavation, and I'll be there in half an hour!"

"I'll try my best... To be honest, the situation is beyond my control."

……

As night fell on the construction site, searchlights illuminated the bottom of the pit as brightly as day. Outside the cordon, a large crowd gathered, as members of the city's archaeological team were busy cleaning a pile of artifacts that had just been unearthed.

Liu Qi, wearing a suit jacket, walked to the edge of the cordoned-off area, his footsteps making a crisp "tap-tap" sound on the gravel.

"Mr. Liu, over here, over here—"

Chen Yan called to him softly, with a hint of caution. Her expression was a little stiff. "The leaders from the Cultural Relics Bureau are over there, and they want us to cooperate."

Liu Qi suppressed his anger and walked over, expecting it to be just another pile of bronze fragments, stone pieces, and pottery shards. But this time, the archaeologists unusually allowed him to approach.

The leaders from the Cultural Relics Bureau shook hands with him, saying, "Mr. Liu, you've unearthed something truly amazing this time! You've done a tremendous job!"

"Mr. Liu, look, this is what we just cleared out."

An archaeologist wearing white gloves bent down and carefully peeled off a layer of moisture-proof film from a tray covered with shock-absorbing cloth.

It was a piece of gold foil that had been unfolded, as thin as a cicada's wing, reflecting a dazzling golden light under the searchlight.

Liu Qi, who was used to looking at steel bars, concrete, and red bricks, squinted slightly at the delicate golden light.

He heard his own voice, as weak and lifeless as a zombie's, ask: "What...is this?"

The gold plate depicts four circling divine birds, flying around a hollow disc as if protecting the sun, or soaring through endless cycles of reincarnation.

That sense of order and power from ancient times made this seasoned businessman feel a slight tightness in his chest.

The cultural relics expert's eyes gleamed with barely suppressed excitement: "This might be the most important artifact among this batch of unearthed relics!"

The *Classic of Mountains and Seas* records: "Above Tang Valley grows the Fusang tree, where the sun arrives and departs, carried by crows." These divine birds are called Golden Crows, and their daily task is to carry the sun from the easternmost point to the westernmost point. Therefore, they are also known as—

"The Sun Bird!"

this day.

A major archaeological discovery, known as the "Jinsha Site," was the capital of the ancient Shu Kingdom, a center of ancient civilization in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, dating from the 12th to the 7th centuries BC.

Officially unveiled!

(End of this chapter)