The Qingzhou City Museum had not had much of a collection before, but the artifacts discovered on Sword-Washing Mountain two days earlier were enough to make it the museum with the richest, most valuable collection in the country, if not the world.
After looking around, Su Yi found no other particularly interesting artifacts. All he could confirm was that eighty percent of the things from his tomb were in this museum.
"Are you done looking?" Su Yi had come today to take another look at his old belongings. Since they had been preserved for people to view, he might as well let them look.
"Not yet." Yu Huiyin asked quietly, "Can you really read the words on that stone tablet?"
Su Yi simply looked at her, smiling without a word, amusement shining even in his eyes.
His stare made Yu Huiyin feel a little flustered. She turned her head with feigned nonchalance and said, "Fine, don't tell me. I'm just a little curious. Who exactly was the owner of that tomb on Sword-Washing Mountain? Why did the things in his tomb span thousands of years?"
"Who knows?" Su Yi said mildly.
"Do you think there could be someone who lives forever?" Yu Huiyin had also heard Yang Zhengcheng and the others' translation. If the inscriptions on that stone tablet were true, and had all been carved by the same person, didn't that mean someone had lived for thousands of years, or even longer?
Bai Qingyan linked arms with Yu Huiyin and said, "How could that be possible? Living forever-wouldn't that be something like a zombie or a vampire? No feudal superstitions, please!"
"But how do you explain that stone tablet?" Yu Huiyin had also been shocked by its contents. She could not imagine who had carved those words into the stone.
Nor could she have imagined that the person who had carved them was standing right beside her.
Su Yi said, "Then why not just take it that someone in this world really has lived for thousands, or even tens of thousands of years?"
"Just take it?" Bai Qingyan said. "Comrade Little Su, I have to set you straight. Science demands rigor. The body's functions gradually wear down, and its organs slowly age, so eternal youth and immortality are absolutely impossible."
"Science!" Su Yi nodded. He had once crossed the ocean and lived in the West for a time, seeing and hearing all sorts of strange things.
As for the science Bai Qingyan spoke of, there was indeed something to it. He had also studied ordinary people's birth, aging, illness, and death. It amounted to the internal organs aging, becoming diseased, and dying, leaving the body's functions unable to sustain consciousness and thus leading to death.
Su Yi actually had a way to keep people young and extend their lives, but it only worked on women. Or rather, he would only help women accomplish it.
After all, the method involved swallowing his essence...
Women had tried it before. After swallowing it, they were guaranteed at least fifty years of youth, and their lifespans could increase by over a hundred years. As for living any longer than that, it would not work.
Bai Qingyan sized Su Yi up, stroked her chin, and said, "You said you could read the words on that stone tablet. Could you be a descendant of the person who carved them? Or... are you that person?"
Su Yi nodded. "Actually, I carved that stone tablet. The things they brought down from the mountain were my everyday belongings, too."
What an honest, unpretentious answer!
Bai Qingyan burst out laughing. "You really can spin a tall tale! I believe you, I believe you! Tell me about you and Daoist Hongjun."
Yu Huiyin merely gave Su Yi a long look. He really did sound convincing when he told tall tales with such a straight face.
"You mean that little Daoist?" Su Yi said earnestly. "Back then, he discussed the scriptures and the Dao with me, and I taught him quite a few things. Later, he even founded Taoism. Mm, his fighting skills were a little lacking, though. Even with me giving up one hand and both feet, and using nothing at all, he still couldn't beat me. In the end, I let it finish in a draw. After all, you can't leave someone looking too bad, wouldn't you say?"
"Yes, yes, yes!" Bai Qingyan giggled. "Then what happened between you and Qin Shihuang?"
Su Yi smiled. "Qin Shihuang? That was what later generations called him. He only studied under me for a few months. I merely taught him a few techniques for improving weapons. Who knew he would actually unite the realm?"
Bai Qingyan stared at Su Yi and smacked her lips. "Talking to you really is entertaining. Someone like you, who can spin tall tales without a script and never even blush, must always be fooling girls until their heads spin."
Su Yi shook his head. "I never lie to women."
In all his years of life, he really had never lied to women, because he had never lacked women, either.
Because he neither aged nor died, it was also very difficult for him to have any more offspring.
Nature's law was simple: the more powerful the species, the harder it was for them to reproduce. At least, in all these years, no woman had ever been able to conceive a son or daughter for him.
"Oh! I believe you!" Bai Qingyan blinked and asked, "Tell me honestly, do you like my Sister Yu?"
Su Yi glanced at Yu Huiyin and said, "She's too small."
Bai Qingyan also stared at Yu Huiyin's chest, then looked down at her own and murmured as if to herself, "You call that small?"
Su Yi nodded solemnly. "A little small."
Yu Huiyin's pretty face flushed scarlet. She had never imagined that these two would chat their way onto the subject of her, and even start sizing her up.
What was all this talk about being small?
"Have you looked enough? If you have, let's go!" Yu Huiyin could not be bothered to talk to these two anymore. There were plenty of people around, yet they were shamelessly discussing someone else's size. How embarrassing was that?
"I've looked enough!" Bai Qingyan giggled. "Sister Yu, it's still so early. Why don't we browse that antiques street nearby? Comrade Little Su is someone who's lived for thousands of years, after all. Maybe he can recognize antiques at a glance, and we can even snag a hidden bargain."
What nonsense about someone who had lived for thousands of years! Su Yi's skin really did seem to have accumulated thousands of years' worth of thickness. No matter what he said, his expression never changed. If Yu Huiyin had been just a little less right in the head, she might actually have believed him.
Qin Lin followed behind, trembling with anger. What was this supposed to be?
That brat Su Yi spouted nothing but wild nonsense, yet Yu Huiyin still paid attention to him. Qin Lin himself was so mature and dependable, but Yu Huiyin would not even spare him another glance.
And then there was Bai Qingyan. Before coming, she had agreed to create an opportunity for him and Yu Huiyin to spend time alone together. Now she was chatting away with Su Yi instead, having gotten two museum tickets out of him for nothing.
Hearing that there was an antiques street, Su Yi grew somewhat interested. "Then let's go have a look."
There was probably no one in the world who understood antiques better than Su Yi. Others judged an antique's age through certain traces and characteristics, but Su Yi had truly lived through those periods of history. With almost anything, he needed only a glance to give its origins.