The Treasure Appraisal Mystery

Lin Zhiwei, an appraiser who inherited her family’s expertise, discovers a secret mark left by her father, who vanished twelve years ago, while examining a fragment of a Dunhuang manuscript. It is her father’s distinctive signature, hidden in the fragment’s lower-right corner so discreetly that only she could recognize it. From then on, she is drawn into a web of competing interests in the antiques world. Threats from a smuggling ring, her mentor’s strangely grave warnings, and help from a police officer investigating the case… Every clue points to the Dunhuang antiquities smuggling case her father was investigating before he disappeared. With an appraiser’s eye, she spots signs of forgery in the insect damage and water stains on the manuscript fragment. She finds the clue “Crescent Spring, cave, three” in a page from her father’s files. And with every new antiquities case, she gets closer to the truth. But she is beginning to wonder: Was her father really investigating the smuggling ring when he disappeared? Or was he himself… part of that “web”? Sometimes the truth is more cruel than a lie. Even so, she has to find it. [An appraiser’s profession + mystery and investigation + episodic structure] [Antiquities bear witness to history; appraisers guard the truth]