The Ancient City of Jue: Archaeology Has Made Me Unstoppable

This thing is fake.

Chen Yuan tossed a Qianlong-era jade thumb ring onto the table in front of the camera. It rolled twice and stopped at the edge.

The live chat exploded in an instant.

Holy crap, Master Chen says it’s fake again? I had someone inspect this ring, and they said it was genuine!

Don’t listen to the guy above. If Master Chen says it’s fake, then it’s fake. Last time, he took one look at that Yuan dynasty blue-and-white porcelain and said it was made last week.

Master Chen, take a look for us. What’s fake about it?

Chen Yuan ignored the comments. His right thumb unconsciously rubbed the rusty copper ring on his left ring finger, a fragment of a Luoyang shovel that his mentor, Shen Muye, had given him three years ago.

The jade is genuine, and the inscription “Made in the Qianlong Era” is genuine too. Chen Yuan picked up the thumb ring and held it up to the light. But those four characters weren’t written by the Qianlong Emperor. They were added later, during the Daoguang era. Look at the strokes: the final stroke of the character “Qian” used a hanging-needle style during the Qianlong era, but this one has a drooping-dew style. That convention only changed under Daoguang.

A wave of comments swept across the screen.

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.