My whole family is involved in diplomacy, so you dare to flex your muscles?

These few words, though seemingly casual, made the Western representatives very uncomfortable.

Charles's elegant smile froze instantly.

"Mr. Gu Yun, what kind of attitude is this?" Professor Richard frowned. "We are having a serious debate! Please respect your opponent and respect this stage!"

"Respect?" Gu Yun smiled.

He finally sat up straight, his gaze sweeping across the three faces opposite him, faces etched with "knowledge" and "civilization."

"Professor Richard, I have a question."

"If I rushed into your house today, snatched your family heirloom pocket watch, and then told you I was there to 'protect' it because your house is too old and might catch fire, would you respect me?"

Professor Richard's expression changed: "How can this be the same? That's robbery!"

"Oh? Robbery?" Gu Yun spread his hands. "Then tell me, back then your army used foreign guns and cannons to blast open the gates of our country, rush into our royal gardens, and take away our national treasures."

What's this called?

Is it called "Adventure"?

"You...you're using a fallacy! That was a complex act during a specific historical period, and it can't be judged by today's standards!" Professor Richard argued.

"What a wonderful 'specific historical period'!" Gu Yun clapped his hands. "Professor, I've discovered that you Western scholars are the best at inventing these kinds of terms."

They call "aggression" a "clash of civilizations," "colonization" "globalized trade," and "plunder" "protective collection."

"You're wasting your talents by not getting involved in pyramid schemes."

"puff--"

Some audience members couldn't help but laugh.

[Haha, marketing master! Gu Ge's summary is so insightful!]

[Translate this: What does "specific historical period" mean? Isn't it just "taking advantage of your weakness to kill you"?]

Richard's face turned green; he'd probably never been talked to like that in his entire life.

"Let's get back to the main topic." Gu Yun didn't dwell on these terms any further. He looked at Charles, "Mr. Charles, you just said that you're 'guarding' them because you can better protect them. Is that what you mean?"

"Yes." Charles calmed down and regained his aristocratic demeanor. "It has been proven that these artifacts have been best preserved in the Niuguo Museum over the past hundred years."

"Yeah?"

Gu Yun opened the tablet computer in front of him and tapped it lightly.

A high-definition image instantly appeared on the large screen behind them.

It was a detail from an ancient painting, depicting a lady of ancient times, her robes flowing and her expression dignified.

Strangely, the painting was deliberately cut into several pieces and then clumsily mounted on a new sheet of paper.

The edges of the scroll still show obvious signs of cutting and water stains.

"Mr. Charles, do you recognize this painting?" Gu Yun asked.

Charles stared at the screen for a long time, then shook his head: "I'm sorry, there are just too many ancient paintings in China, it's impossible for me to recognize every single one."

The cultural scholars behind him also came over to take a look, and they looked equally bewildered.

"It's okay if you don't know me, I'll tell you." Gu Yun's voice carried a hint of coldness.

"This painting is called 'Admonitions of the Instructress to the Court Ladies,' painted by Gu Kaizhi during the Eastern Jin Dynasty. You have hailed it as 'the pioneering work of Chinese painting.'"

"It is now lying in a display case in your Niuguo Museum."

"In 1900, during the invasion of China by the Eight-Nation Alliance, a British captain named Clarence Johnson took it out of the Forbidden City. It is said that he had no idea of ​​the painting's value at the time; he just thought the jade clasp on the scroll was beautiful, so he took it back and gave it to his family."

"Later, this painting ended up in the museum of the United States. Your experts, thinking themselves clever, believed that long scroll paintings from ancient China were inconvenient to view, so they very 'thoughtfully' cut it into several sections according to their aesthetic and mounted it in a framed wooden panel. Just like how you handle Western oil paintings."

Gu Yun paused here.

"As a result, due to substandard mounting techniques, the silk parts of the scroll suffered severe cracking and color fading."

What you see now as a "masterpiece" is actually a flawed and disfigured work.

"Mr. Charles." Gu Yun's gaze pierced Charles like a knife.

"Is this what you mean by 'the best possible preservation'?"

Charles opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a single word.

This actually happened.

It is one of the most famous restoration accidents in the history of the Niuguo Museum.

He wanted to explain, but found himself at a loss for words.

Are we doing this for easier viewing?

Wouldn't that just make them look even more arrogant and ignorant?

"This...this was a mistake! Mistakes can happen in any job!" Charles's lawyer quickly interjected, "But we can't negate our achievements of over a hundred years just because of one mistake!"

"A mistake?" Gu Yun laughed. "Alright, let's look at another 'mistake'."

He pointed his finger again.

Another photo appeared on the big screen.

It was a huge stone pillar, carved with exquisite reliefs.

But this stone pillar was neatly sawn in half.

Traces of the chainsaw can still be seen at the cut.

"You must recognize this, right?" Gu Yun asked. "The lintel of the Parthenon in Greece. Your Earl Elgin sawed it off the temple and transported it back to London."

In the audience, a man named Nicholas, a representative from Greece, clenched his fists instantly upon seeing the photo, his eyes bloodshot.

That was a national disgrace for their country.

"Charles, you're telling me that sawing through someone's roof beam and dragging it away is considered a 'mistake'?"

"This..." Charles was already sweating.

"It's not over yet." Gu Yun's expression grew colder and colder.

"Look at this one too."

On the screen, countless shattered porcelain fragments appeared.

"This is a piece of Yuan Dynasty blue and white porcelain from our Chinese civilization. It was in the basement of your museum when it was flooded due to a leak in the pipes. By the time it was discovered, it had shattered into countless pieces."

"And this too."

On the screen is a headless Buddha statue.

"This is the Buddha head from our Longmen Grottoes. Your 'explorers' used hammers and chisels to knock it off the Buddha's body. Because the Buddha's body was too heavy, it couldn't be moved."

"And this, the mummy of the Egyptian pharaoh. Because your experts wanted to do 'scientific research,' they forcibly peeled away the layers of the shroud, causing the mummy to oxidize, turn black, and rot rapidly upon contact with air!"

The Egyptian representative's face was as black as the bottom of a pot.

One photograph after another, one piece of evidence after another.

Gu Yun was like a cold-blooded prosecutor, turning the so-called "record of merits" of the Niu Kingdom Museum into a "record of crimes" that was too numerous to count.

"Mr. Charles, Professor Richard, Mr. Barrister."

Gu Yun stood up and looked down at the three pale-faced people opposite him.

"Now, do you still consider yourselves 'Guardians'?"

"No, you are not."

"You are destroyers, ignorant fools, and sinners against civilization!"

"You are not worthy of even mentioning the word 'protect'!"