Treasure Appraisal: a Century of History

In 1940, war was raging and the city of Peiping was shrouded in gloom. The "Zhenbaozhai" antique shop in Dashilan struggled to maintain itself in troubled times. The store manager, Chen Henian, was a tall and thin man wearing a pair of black-rimmed glasses. He sat behind the counter all day long, wiping the precious porcelain, with nostalgia for the peaceful days in his eyes. That day, a ragged young man stumbled into the store, holding a cloth bag tightly in his arms. "Shopkeeper, help me!" The young man's voice was filled with tears, and the sound of Japanese soldiers' boots and fierce yelling could be heard not far behind him. Chen Henian didn't have time to ask more questions, and quickly hid the boy under the counter, and then picked up the feather duster to clean the shelves as if nothing had happened. This novel and its characters are purely fictitious. Any similarity is purely coincidental and should not be imitated.