3: 100,000 yuan and a storm

Early the next morning, the sun had just poked its head out.

Lin Feng and Wang Dalong sat listlessly in the reception room of the local police station, sporting dark circles under their eyes that rivaled those of a national treasure.

The hard chairs made their backsides ache.

"So, what you're saying is, you went to that haunted Zheng Family Old Residence last night for a livestream and... found this?"

A young police officer who had only been on the job for a few years had a quite remarkable expression as he stared intently at the warm, glowing jade pendant on the table.

His gaze practically screamed, 'Could you two put a little more effort into your lies?'

Lin Feng nodded.

He was naturally socially anxious, especially when dealing with people in uniform, which made his whole body stiffen. He had to cut out all parts regarding the system and the bloody hallucinations, stating the facts in the simplest terms possible.

"Yes, I found it by accident."

Seeing that Lin Feng's social anxiety was about to kick in, Wang Dalong immediately puffed out his round chest and leaned in with a smile like a sunflower.

"Officer! Look at us! We're the model youth of the new era! Handing over cultural relics of our own accord! This kind of spirit definitely deserves a huge thumbs up!"

The young officer's lips twitched, ignoring the comment as his expression instantly turned serious.

He carefully put on gloves, held the jade pendant up to the light for a long time, and then picked up the landline to give a low-voiced report.

The wait felt exceptionally long.

Wang Dalong was restless, frantically winking at Lin Feng and mouthing silently, "One hundred thousand? Two hundred thousand? Five hundred thousand?"

Lin Feng ignored him, quietly watching the jade pendant.

For some reason, ever since he took it from the ground where Zheng Wenzhao was buried, he felt the jade's temperature was warmer than his own palm.

About half an hour later, the door was pushed open.

Two middle-aged men wearing Zhongshan suits and white gloves, exuding a scholarly air, rushed in anxiously.

As soon as they entered, their gazes were like magnets, fixed firmly on the jade pendant on the table, unable to look away.

These were the appraisal experts urgently summoned from the Municipal Cultural Relics Bureau.

The following scene was exactly like a treasure appraisal show.

The two experts used magnifying glasses and high-intensity flashlights, sometimes frowning and sometimes whispering; their focus was incredible.

Finally, the older expert carefully set down the jade pendant, excitedly adjusted his reading glasses, and grabbed Lin Feng's hand!

His voice was trembling as if he were looking at his own father.

"Young man! You've performed a great service!"

"This 'ding lou jade pendant' is a top-tier masterpiece from the Imperial Workshop of the late Ming Dynasty! Look at this texture—top-grade Hetian white jade! This carving, a dragon playing with a pearl, is so lifelike! Most importantly, its historical significance!"

The expert got more and more excited, spraying spittle all over Lin Feng's face.

"We've been looking for cultural relics related to the Zheng family but found nothing! This jade pendant provides incredibly important physical evidence for our research into that turbulent period at the end of the Ming Dynasty!"

Hearing this, the slight heartache Lin Feng felt over the potential loss of a large sum of money instantly vanished.

He had done the right thing.

This jade carried the final integrity of a scholar and the lament of a family. It shouldn't be reduced to a commodity, passed around by wealthy people who only cared about money at an auction house.

A museum was its best home.

According to the regulations, the Cultural Relics Bureau issued them a bright red "Honorary Certificate for Cultural Relics Protection" and approved one hundred thousand yuan in cash as a reward on the spot.

When those ten stacks of brand-new hundred-yuan bills were placed on the table, Wang Dalong's eyes widened!

He almost jumped up on the spot, grabbing Lin Feng's shoulders and shaking him vigorously.

"Brother Feng! One hundred thousand! A full hundred thousand! Oh my god, we made a killing! We're taking off! Forget the rent, we can upgrade all our studio equipment now!"

Lin Feng also let out a long sigh of relief.

This money was indeed a timely help.

However, he never imagined that things were only just beginning.

Just as the two of them stepped out of the police station, before the money even got warm, the internet exploded.

Some wicked netizen who loved drama must have leaked the news of them handing over the jade pendant online, adding plenty of embellishments.

A post titled "Explosive! Unscrupulous Streamers Explore Haunted House at Night, Guilty Conscience Leads to Handing Over Million-Yuan Relic After Hiding It!" went viral like a virus!

In the post, the author vividly described the livestreaming process and then changed the tone, directly steering the narrative to imply that Lin Feng and Wang Dalong originally intended to pocket the jade and were only forced to hand it over due to the "legal education" and public pressure from tens of thousands of netizens in the stream!

Within a few hours, the post had thousands of replies. The comment section became a massive battlefield, split into two factions.

"Awesome! Handing over found relics voluntarily, we must give the streamer a thumbs up! Positive energy!"

"Heh, is the person above naive? If tens of thousands of eyes weren't watching, where do you think this jade would be? It would've been in his pocket long ago!"

"Exactly! I watched the stream. That streamer hesitated for ages before ending it; it was obvious he wanted to keep it!"

"They settled for just a hundred thousand? That jade pendant is worth at least a million, right? Is there something wrong with the law?"

"To the legal illiterate above, go read a book! All unclaimed cultural relics under state-owned land belong to the state! A hundred thousand reward is good enough; it would be legal even if they gave nothing!"

"Hilarious. A bunch of self-righteous keyboard warriors. Would you hand it over if it were you? It's easy to talk when it's not your concern!"

Looking at the overwhelming malice on his phone, Lin Feng felt his social anxiety flare up again.

He locked himself in his room, drew the curtains, and didn't say a word.

He didn't understand.

He really didn't understand.

He had clearly done something that satisfied his conscience and was right by the spirit of Zheng Wenzhao.

Why... did it attract so much inexplicable abuse?

In the living room, Wang Dalong was as angry as a raging rhino, pacing back and forth and making the floor thud.

"Damn! These godforsaken trolls! Taking things out of context and twisting the facts! All they know is how to type! Brother Feng, ignore them. We have nothing to fear if we've done nothing wrong!"

The room was deathly silent.

Lin Feng was silent for a long time, so long that Wang Dalong thought he had fallen asleep.

Suddenly, a raspy voice drifted out from the crack in the door.

"Fatty, do you think... the story of the Zheng family can be made into a video?"

Wang Dalong was stunned: "The Zheng family? The one you were muttering about last night? The story of the family head killing everyone to die for his country?"

"Yeah."

Lin Feng pushed the door open and walked out. His face was pale, but his eyes were incredibly bright.

"Those people don't understand the meaning of this jade. They only see the money, the valuations of millions or tens of millions."

"But I want to tell them that behind every cold relic, there is a burning history that deserves to be remembered."

He couldn't forget.

He would never forget that bloody hallucination, Zheng Wenzhao's cry before he slit his own throat, or the scholar's martyr-like determination and sorrow as that era collapsed.

He felt he had a responsibility, and even more, an uncontrollable urge to tell this story exactly as it was!

Wang Dalong looked at the unprecedented seriousness on Lin Feng's face and scratched his messy hair hard.

"It can be done... but Brother Feng, how do you explain knowing so many details? You can't just say you saw a ghost in a haunted house, right? Wouldn't you be locked up as a lunatic?"

This was the most critical problem.

Lin Feng pushed his glasses up, a light shining behind the lenses that Wang Dalong had never seen before.

"No."

"We won't say it's real."

He spoke each word with absolute clarity.

"We'll make it into an... artistic short film."

"Right at the beginning of the video, we'll put a line of text: This story is an artistic creation based on historical relics. The content is purely fictional. Any resemblance is purely coincidental. Please believe in science and do not take this seriously."

As soon as he said this, Wang Dalong's eyes widened like brass bells!

He was stunned for a full three seconds, then slapped his thigh hard!

"Holy crap! Brother Feng! You're a freaking genius!"

"Brilliant! Simply brilliant! This move changes everything! We can tell the story while distancing ourselves from all 'feudal superstitions,' and even raise the prestige of our channel! Let's do it!"

The two of them hit it off immediately, their chemistry unprecedented!

Lin Feng was responsible for writing the script and narration, redescribing everything he had seen, heard, and felt in the echoes of history using the most rigorous and moving language.

Wang Dalong would use his amateur but passionate skills to handle all the visual presentation.

They decided to use the one hundred thousand yuan reward as their startup capital!

They would use that hundred thousand to film a short movie that truly did justice to that tragic history!

This would be the first step in the transformation of their 'Feng-Long Exploration' channel!

It was also the first time Lin Feng actively and urgently wanted to tell the world a story he had 'witnessed' with his own eyes—a story so heavy it made it hard to breathe.