I Ask Antiques About Crime Scenes

Lin Ci is an antiques appraiser. One day, she examines an antique for an elderly professor: a Ru ware tea bowl with a sky-blue glaze from the Song dynasty. Her conclusion is that it is a fake.

The next day, the professor jumps to his death. He leaves behind a suicide note: "Lin Ci appraised the genuine Ru ware I bought for tens of millions as a fake, ruining my reputation and causing immeasurable financial losses. After my death, I ask everyone to see that justice is done!"

So the police ask her to come in for questioning, wanting to know what grudge she had against the professor that made her call a genuine antique a fake.

Lin Ci: Maybe I got it wrong last time. How about you bring it in, and I'll appraise it again?

The professor's family brings in the Ru ware tea bowl with its sky-blue glaze. Lin Ci: Heh, this one is genuine. The one I appraised last time was a fake that had been switched in.

She knows someone has set her up. She's trapped, no one believes she's innocent, and everyone says she caused the professor's death.

So Lin Ci asks the Ru ware tea bowl directly, "Bowlie, who switched you?"

Bowlie [haughtily]: "He did it, he did it, that was him!"

Several days later, the killer is caught. Asked how she knew he was the one who switched the antique and killed the professor, Lin Ci replies:

"Listen closely. Behind every antique lies a silent history, and a silent truth."

Theme: I ask antiques about crime scenes.