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

Zhou Dechang stared at the comment and remained silent for two seconds.

Then he turned to look at Zhou Mingyuan.

"How did that old bastard Ji Jingshan find out?"

Zhou Mingyuan held up his phone, looking very troubled.

"Grandpa, it's a live stream... five million people are watching online, Grandpa Ji should be watching too."

Zhou Dechang was taken aback.

Then he looked down at himself, and the image he presented to five million people was a wrinkled gray jacket with dust still clinging to his trousers from when he left home.

"...Why didn't you say so sooner?"

"In that state, you couldn't hear anything I said."

Zhou Dechang coughed and straightened his back.

Someone nearby asked in a low voice.

It was Director Wu from the Collectors Association. He spoke in a very low voice, but those with sharp ears could hear him.

"Mr. Zhou, is that Ji Jingshan... the same Ji as in 'Zhi Zhou Mu Ji'?"

Zhou Dechang nodded.

Director Wu gasped.

"A national-level intangible cultural heritage inheritor? In the field of ancient paper restoration..."

"right."

Zhou Dechang pushed up his reading glasses.

"That one."

The expressions of several people in the industry in the front row changed simultaneously.

A leading expert in the field of ancient wood appraisal is already on site, and now another leading expert in the field of ancient paper is coming.

What's the story behind this piece of paper?

The eldest grandson of the He family stiffened for a moment, but quickly returned to normal.

"Come on then."

He lowered his voice and spoke to the Zhou family member next to him.

"Paper is just paper; even a hundred experts can't turn it into gold."

The Zhou family member nodded.

"Exactly, those academics love to make a fuss over nothing; they can study a broken tile for three years."

Young Master Lu didn't reply and put the bracelet into his pocket.

……

The waiting period.

Gu Xingluo finally seized the opportunity, grabbed Shen Nianqing's hand, and pulled her to the rest area next door.

"Shen Nianqing!"

"Um?"

"Look at that marriage certificate again!"

Shen Nianqing glanced at her.

"No."

"Why!"

"You've already seen it."

"I was too shocked to look closely!"

Gu Xinglu stomped her foot.

"The content is so beautiful, so powerful! Your fiancé! A man from the mountains actually wrote something like this!"

She covered her face with her hands and spun around in place.

"Shen Nianqing, you're finished. Your life is over. You're definitely going to marry him. If you don't marry this kind of man, may you be struck by lightning."

Shen Nianqing didn't speak, but the corners of her mouth couldn't help but turn up.

Gu Xingluo grabbed her arm and whispered in her ear.

"'I'm here when the wind rises, I'm here when the rain falls'... Do you know what it means when a man says something like that?"

"What does that mean?"

"This means there's a reason why I've been single for twenty-four years!"

Gu Xingluo's voice rose eight octaves.

"Because you stole that kind of man from me!"

Shen Nianqing finally burst out laughing.

It wasn't the kind of forced, formal smile you give in social situations.

It was a smile with reddened ear tips and a gleam in the corners of her eyes.

Chen Xiaoyu, watching from the side, quietly turned the camera to a different angle, capturing her sister-in-law's profile.

The live stream chat exploded instantly.

[Ah! Shen Nianqing is smiling!]

This is the face of a woman in love!

I'm totally shipping them! I'm totally shipping them! I'm totally shipping them!

[Is your sister-in-law like this all the time? So sweet!]

Just as Chen Xiaoyu was about to reply to the comments, a commotion suddenly broke out from the direction of the exhibition hall entrance.

Footsteps.

Very fast footsteps.

"Where's the paper?"

A loud voice boomed from the doorway.

"Where's the paper?"

Everyone turned their heads in unison.

A lean old man appeared at the door.

He had short, gray hair and wore an old-fashioned Zhongshan suit, with one button on his shirt inside misfastened.

But this man's energy and spirit—at seventy-nine years old, he walks with such a brisk pace, it's almost like he's missing background music.

A young man in his early twenties was following behind him, carrying a tool bag and running breathlessly.

"Grandpa... could you... slow down...?"

Ji Jingshan didn't listen at all.

His gaze swept across the entire room like a radar, locking onto Zhou Dechang in a second.

"Old Zhou!"

Zhou Dechang: "...How did you get here so fast?"

"I took a plane on the way."

Ji Jingshan strode over, his eyes already searching for the paper before he could finish speaking.

"Stop talking nonsense, where's the paper?"

Zhou Mingyuan and Ji Yunzhou exchanged a glance from behind.

"Your grandfather..."

Zhou Mingyuan lowered his voice.

"Don't even mention it."

Ji Yunzhou wiped his sweat.

"It takes two hours by high-speed rail from Beijing to here, but he thought it was too slow, so he asked me to find a private helicopter."

"Do you own a helicopter?"

"No, it was borrowed. I owe someone a favor."

Ji Yunzhou's face was filled with utter despair.

"For a piece of paper."

Zhou Mingyuan patted him on the shoulder, expressing his sympathy.

Ji Jingshan had already walked up to Shen Nianqing.

His attitude was completely different from his earlier brashness; he stood still, bowed slightly, and spoke respectfully.

"Young lady, I am Ji Jingshan. May I see that piece of paper?"

Shen Nianqing nodded and took it out of the box.

Ji Jingshan carefully accepted it.

He looked at the front first.

Turn it over to the other side.

I lightly rubbed the edge of the paper with my fingertip.

He then pulled a palm-sized magnifying glass from his pocket and brought it close to his eyes.

Five seconds.

ten seconds.

Thirty seconds.

Ji Jingshan's breathing became heavier and heavier.

"The fiber... is correct..."

He muttered to himself.

"Orientation, density, luster, refractive index... all correct..."

He flipped the magnifying glass over and continued looking at it at a different magnification.

"These golden particles weren't added later; they were mixed into the fibers during papermaking... natural minerals... the proportions perfectly match the records in the journal..."

The eldest grandson of the He family exchanged a glance with the Zhou family member behind him.

The Zhou family member pursed his lips, his voice neither loud nor soft.

"After looking at it for so long, it's still just a piece of paper. No matter how precious it is, it's just paper, not gold."

The eldest grandson of the He family chimed in.

"Exactly, a piece of paper is worth at most tens of thousands of dollars, right?"

Ji Jingshan stopped moving.

He turned his head.

The 79-year-old man's eyes were like two knives, piercing straight through.

"What did you say?"

The eldest grandson of the He family was startled by that look, but he still maintained his composure.

"I said, no matter how good this paper is..."

"Tens of thousands of yuan?"

Ji Jingshan raised his voice.

Do you know what the Taiyi Star Chart is?

The entire room fell silent.

"This is a Taoist treasure passed down through generations. It was made 1,800 years ago using 72 secret methods. The raw materials are made from the fibers of a thousand-year-old snow lotus from the top of Kunlun Mountain, combined with the mud from the bottom of Tianchi Lake. It is fired with thunder and fire and nourished with starlight."

"After its production, only thirty-six copies survived. With each successive Celestial Master's use, one less copy became available, until today..."

He looked at the paper in his hand.

"How many are left in the world? Guess?"

The eldest grandson of the He family had his mouth open, not closed.

Ji Jingshan didn't wait for his reply.

He turned to Shen Nianqing, took a deep breath, and handed the paper back with both hands.

My hands are shaking.

Then he said something that surprised everyone in the room.

"girl."

Ji Jingshan's voice suddenly softened, carrying an almost reverent caution.

"I have a question that may be abruptly asked."

"This piece of paper..."

He swallowed.

"Could you part with it?"

The audience was silent.

"I am willing to go..."