The wedding was livestreamed by the sister, revealing his identity as a Taoist priest.

Zhou Dechang held up the paper, remaining silent for over a minute.

Zhou Mingyuan paced anxiously to the side.

He grew up with his grandfather since he was a child; what kind of situation hasn't he seen?

On the day of the Forbidden City restoration project's acceptance inspection, a room full of leaders were watching, but the old man remained calm and composed.

A foreign museum sent a suspected fake for authentication, and the old man made his conclusion in three seconds.

This has never happened before.

This... speechless look.

"Grandpa, what exactly happened to you...?"

I'm not sure.

Zhou Dechang finally spoke.

His voice was so hoarse it didn't sound like his own.

The entire audience was stunned.

uncertain?

Zhou Dechang took off his reading glasses again, rubbed his eyes, and put them back on.

"The material of this paper... is not found in any system I am familiar with."

He looked up at Shen Nianqing, his gaze complex.

"The fiber structure is unlike any known traditional papermaking process, yet the feel, toughness, and gloss..."

He stopped.

"I've been studying things for sixty years, and today, I've failed."

"I can't tell."

The moment those three words were uttered, the entire audience erupted in uproar.

"This... there's something Elder Zhou couldn't see!" "Elder Zhou is a living national treasure, what... what is this?"

On the other side, the eldest grandson of the He family finally smiled again.

He was just waiting to hear those words!

"It seems..."

He spoke softly, deliberately speaking so that the people in the front row could hear.

"Even Old Zhou has times when he's wrong."

He turned and glanced at Young Master Lu.

Young Master Lu caught that look and slowly spoke.

"That's normal, after all... it's just a piece of paper."

He twirled the bracelet around once.

"I admit that the writing is indeed well-written, but the paper itself... might just be some kind of specialty paper handmade in a small workshop, the kind that costs 9.9 yuan with free shipping on Taobao."

The Zhou family member burst out laughing.

"Ha! I think 9.9 yuan is too expensive, it's 3.8 yuan on Pinduoduo."

He took out his phone and waved it.

"How about I search for it now? 'Paper that glows,' do you believe I can find it?"

A few people in the front row laughed along.

The atmosphere relaxed.

The box incident had stunned them, and now that Zhou Dechang himself said "I can't tell," it's like... there's no solid evidence.

Things without solid evidence are worthless.

The live stream chat also began to split.

So it was just a regular piece of paper? And you wrote a love letter on it?

I accept that the box is valuable, but the paper... even the old man said he couldn't tell the difference, so he just couldn't tell.

[Hilarious! A box worth 20 million yuan containing a piece of paper worth 9.9 yuan—what kind of performance art is this?]

[Could your brother, the streamer, really be a bohemian type? He spent a fortune on a box and stuffed it with love letters.]

[I believe it. It's just ordinary paper. If it were really valuable, wouldn't Old Zhou have been able to tell? He's been appraising these for sixty years.]

Chen Xiaoyu bit her lip, gripping her phone tightly.

She looked at Shen Nianqing.

Shen Nianqing took the paper back and gently placed it back in the box.

His expression remained completely unchanged, as if he didn't care what others said at all.

Seeing this, the eldest grandson of the He family became even more confident.

He cleared his throat and raised his voice a notch.

"Miss Shen, we have seen your fiancé's good intentions. The box is indeed nice, and his sincerity is evident, but as for the betrothal gifts..."

He pushed the gleaming golden gift box back to the front.

"Although this small gift from the He family is not as valuable as this box, the jadeite set inside is from..."

"Ding!"

Suddenly, a crisp system notification sound popped up on Chen Xiaoyu's phone.

Then comes the second tone.

Third tone.

Fourth tone.

Fifth tone.

The sixth tone...

They formed a continuous expanse.

Chen Xiaoyu looked down at the screen, her pupils suddenly contracting.

The gift effects filled the entire live stream room.

It's not an ordinary little gift; it's the kind of "rocket" that costs thousands of dollars.

One ID refreshed twenty times in a row.

User "PaperLifeForThousandYears" sent 20 rockets.

The live chat exploded instantly.

[Dude! What kind of tycoon is this?!]

Twenty rockets? Forty thousand yuan? Just to get attention?

What does this ID mean? Does it mean "paper lasts a thousand years"?

Immediately afterwards, that ID posted a comment, which was pushed to the very top by the gift effect and pinned to the top of the screen.

[Paper lasts a thousand years: Anchor! Point the camera at that piece of paper! Please! Focus it! Let my grandpa see it!]

Chen Xiaoyu was taken aback.

The next second, ten more rockets came crashing down.

[Paper lasts a thousand years: Please! My grandfather studies ancient paper! He says he might recognize this kind of paper!]

The live stream chat exploded with excitement.

Another grandpa? Is today a grandpas' special?

[What is ancient paper research? Is there even a dedicated academic discipline for this?]

[Whatever, let's just watch it first, it's already outrageous enough anyway]

[Hurry up and choose the right streamer! They've already spent tens of thousands!]

Chen Xiaoyu hesitated for a second and looked at Shen Nianqing.

Shen Nianqing nodded slightly.

Chen Xiaoyu carefully unfolded the papers in the box, and the camera zoomed in on them.

Aiming as precisely as possible.

The faint golden specks on the paper appear even clearer in the phone's camera lens.

At the same time.

Deep in an inconspicuous alleyway on the East Fourth Ring Road of Beijing.

Xuanhetang Ancient Paper Restoration Studio.

Twenty-four-year-old Ji Yunzhou shoved his phone screen in front of an old man.

"Grandpa! Look! Look at this!"

The old man's name is Ji Jingshan.

Seventy-nine years old.

The sole inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage "ancient papermaking technique".

Together with Zhou Dechang, they were known as "Paper Zhou and Wood Ji," one appraising wood and the other paper. Together, they covered half of the field of ancient Chinese book restoration.

At this moment, Ji Jingshan was lying on the worktable, using tweezers to repair a fragment of a Song Dynasty letter, with a twelve-fold magnifying glass on his forehead.

"What are you young people watching all day for, live-streaming e-commerce? Don't bother me."

"This isn't a sales pitch! Just take a look! Just one look!"

Ji Yunzhou shoved the phone into his hand.

Ji Jingshan glanced at it impatiently.

The tweezers stopped.

The magnifying glass slid off his forehead, but he didn't catch it.

"enlarge."

Ji Yunzhou spread his two fingers, and the image zoomed in.

Ji Jingshan leaned closer to the screen.

ten seconds.

Twenty seconds.

His throat bobbed.

"The direction of the paper's fibers..."

His voice changed.

"And this sheen... it's not dyed, it's the fiber itself..."

Ji Yunzhou stared nervously at his grandfather.

Ji Jingshan suddenly sat up straight.

"Somewhat similar."

"What looks somewhat like it?"

"It looks a bit like..."

The old man's hands began to tremble.

"My great-grandfather wrote in his notes about a type of paper that he had only seen once in his life, among the belongings of a certain Taoist master in the late Qing Dynasty."

"But it's impossible... absolutely impossible... yet it looks so alike, it's just too alike!"

He stopped and stared intently at the screen.

"Taiyi Star Letter".

Ji Yunzhou felt a chill run down his spine.

"Grandpa, are you sure?"

"uncertain!"

Ji Jingshan grabbed his grandson's phone.

"The image is too blurry, I have to see it with my own eyes! And touch it with my own hands!"

He turned his head.

Where is this live stream?

"Jiangcheng, the center of Jianglan in the west of the city."

Ji Jingshan was already taking off his work clothes.

Book a flight.

"what?"

"Book now! The fastest one!"

"Grandpa, we're in Beijing. It'll take at least two flights to get there..."

Ji Jingshan shoved the phone back into his grandson's hand, his eyes wide with disbelief.

"Then let's drive! I don't care! Send me a message right now, tell that old bastard Zhou over there..."

He took a deep breath.

"Tell him to keep that piece of paper for me! Nobody is allowed to touch it! Wait for me!"

Ji Yunzhou typed with trembling hands, then sent another thirty rockets to boost the message.

[Paper lasts a thousand years: Old Zhou! Zhou Dechang! My grandfather Ji Jingshan said, don't touch this paper! He's coming right away! He said it might be star-patterned paper! Wait for him!]

Jianglan Center, Exhibition Hall.

When Chen Xiaoyu saw this comment, she almost dropped her phone.

Zhou Dechang also saw it.

Zhou Mingyuan held the phone screen up to his grandfather and pointed at the comment.

"Grandpa, Ji Jingshan...is he that...?"