After Taking on Cultural Relics as My Secret Identity, I Became the Ultimate Wage Slave

Yan Que, codename "Knows Not the Swan," is an intern at a mysterious organization.

After successfully completing the formal hiring process, he sets off on a grand journey to find the spirits of cultural relics that have fallen into another world, all while wearing a secret identity!

It sounds cool, if only the System in his head weren't his superior, too.

Still, this is where the story truly begins.

An ancient painting unfurls in a dream, its ink-wash world spreading out before him. A celebrated poem written on a calligraphy scroll calls out in words.

A young girl twists a wooden Luban puzzle in her hands, controlling objects to build a palace. In a magnificent garden that appears in an instant, two-colored hibiscus flowers slowly bloom.

A weary middle-aged man holding up a bridal sedan chair clinks cups with a child riding a fierce tiger. A guide opens a door leading to death.

In the body of a young man, an ancient spirit casts a glance into another world.

The children of Huaxia and visitors from another world can never truly open their hearts to one another.

But in the vast current of time, those who served before have crossed paths with them.

I have absolutely no idea how to write a blurb, sigh.

Worlds currently planned:

Homesick: "Cold Food Observance" * "Traveling Through the Xiao and Xiang Rivers in a Painting," Jujutsu Kaisen, two wanderers returning home.

Surveying the Land: "Architectural Models by the Lei Family" * "Red and White Hibiscus," Bungo Stray Dogs, three little girls causing a huge ruckus.

The Guide: "T-shaped Silk Painting" * "Bodhisattva Guide Painting," perhaps Black Butler, perhaps Bungo Stray Dogs, not decided yet. The theme is life and death.

Honoring the Human World: "Ningbo Ten-Thousand-Worker Sedan Chair" * "Wine Vessel Decorated with a Man-Eating Tiger," a wedding ceremony among ordinary people and a drinking vessel of the nobility. Times change, and customs and etiquette will eventually fall behind, but the human world will always be the human world.

One more world with a time or civilization theme that I haven't thought through at all. The mission might involve a Hongshan stone statue or something from Sanxingdui, in search of a Peking Man skull.

And an extra story: the Porcelain Mother and the Golden Cup of Eternal Stability, the mother of a man and the ruler who is a woman.

Let me think of what else I can ramble about:

The idea of cultural relics becoming people came from the Chinese animation "Country of Treasures"! The character designs were inspired by the human-shaped relic appraisers in "National Treasure." There's no real connection beyond the fact that both feature human-shaped relics, but it was the original inspiration.

And even though the inspiration came from cultural relics, these are essentially my own OCs!! They have absolutely nothing to do with reality. I'd be delighted if this made you interested in cultural relics, but I'm not a professional at all. I only watch the occasional documentary, and my knowledge barely extends to the relics' eras and appearances. Please don't take my writing as fact, and do remind me if you spot a factual error.

Also, I'm not sure, but I may have a tendency toward saintly characters? My broad range of tastes will always have a place for motherly men and fatherly women! I'll boldly say that even when I'm seventy or eighty, I absolutely won't be able to resist cheesy stories about love and justice. Gentleness and kindness never go out of style!!

Theme: Ordinary people do ordinary things, yet their hearts still hold love and hate, and the land close to their hearts.