All three antique paintings were full six-foot sheets.
Sun Duhe said quietly beside him, "I got these paintings from an old carpenter. He'd traded with me for the Three Rotations and One Ring before. Now his youngest son's getting married, and he wanted me to get him a set of appliances. He had quite an appetite, too. Straight off, he asked for a color TV, a refrigerator, and five thousand in cash. Altogether, that came to over ten thousand."
Lian Youming held up a scroll, his gaze sweeping over the yellowed paper. It was a landscape painting.
"I heard these were brought out of the Eastern Mausoleum?"
Sun Duhe grunted in agreement and said secretively, "That's right. The old man let something slip when we were drinking before. He said his father used to run with Sun Dianying. But the story behind these paintings is strange as hell. Guess what? Apparently, they found a secret door back then, with a hidden tomb behind it."
"A hidden tomb?"
Lian Youming's gaze flashed like lightning as he swiftly scanned the painted landscape. Unfortunately, he found nothing unusual.
"And then?"
Sun Duhe swallowed hard and continued, "He said there seemed to be three jade coffins suspended inside that hidden tomb, with mountains of gold, silver, and treasure piled beneath them. His ancestor was a carpenter, so he was put in charge of scouting ahead for traps. That was how he got quite a few good things. There was also a stone stele inside the tomb, with words on it. Something like, 'Should anyone dare proclaim himself emperor...'"
Lian Youming was examining the paintings intently. At those words, he abruptly looked up and finished with a strange expression, "'Should anyone dare proclaim himself emperor, I shall strike him down'?" "Yeah, that's it!" Sun Duhe