Why Me?

"How should we handle the Yongle Encyclopedia?"

When Academician Pan said this, Xu Yun immediately froze.

This didn't seem like something he should—or was qualified to—weigh in on, did it?

Besides, if the Yongle Encyclopedia had been unearthed somewhere else, that would be one thing. The provincial museum might have tried to claim it for itself, and there were plenty of precedents for that.

But the area where the Yongle Encyclopedia had been unearthed was Yongling, within the capital's jurisdiction. And given its importance, what place could possibly be more worthy of it than the National Museum—that was, the Huaxia National Museum?

The Houmuwu Ding, another artifact known as a national treasure, was resting quietly inside the National Museum right now. The vessel had originally been called the Simuwu Ding, but in 2011, the museum adopted the latest interpretation of its inscription and officially renamed it the Houmuwu Ding.

Not many people followed news in this area, though. So the "old folks" who had graduated from high school before 2011, when they learned the lesson about the Houmuwu Ding, would mostly still instinctively call it the Simuwu Ding.

Xu Yun didn't think Academician Pan would ask him such a dull question with such an obvious answer. So he thought it over for a few seconds, and a vague suspicion began to form in his mind.

"Professor, do you mean we should do something centered around the Yongle Encyclopedia before it's added to the National Museum's collection?"

"Exactly."

Academician Pan gave Xu Yun a discreet wink, then said with a straight face, "The Yongle Encyclopedia will definitely end up in the National Museum, but it's only just been unearthed. It still needs to go through the necessary procedures."

"So the first things we need to handle are preservation and verification. Only