The Second Key in the Display Case

On the eve of the Cen River Museum's opening, restorer Gu Jiashu discovers a second keyhole on a lacquer box inside a sealed display case. The case has not been forced open, and no artifact is missing, yet the museum's records show that the box once circulated under another name. Provenance investigator Lu Wenzhou brings him a photograph from an overseas auction thirteen years ago. The lacquer box in the picture is the very same one before them.

Starting with a box fitted with two locks, the pair gradually uncover forty-three museum holdings with mysterious origins, as well as a “two-lock principle” that someone has kept hidden for decades. Gu Jiashu trusts only the materials; Lu Wenzhou trusts only testimony. They must recover the provenance that was erased, and, through their repeated investigations together, rediscover the trust they are willing to place in each other.