C4 This Is a National Treasure!

Chu Yunhe was a well-known entrepreneur in Tianhai City. Despite having a programmable telephone installed at home back in '98, he still favored his Nokia 5110 for its portability compared to the cumbersome early mobile phones.

"Just make the call, Dad. Whether it's real or fake, we'll find out with an appraisal!" Chu Jun and his mother, Ma Yan, were lounging on the living room sofa. Chu Jun appeared relaxed, but Ma Yan and Chu Yunhe were visibly tense, their faces blanched with anxiety.

The stamp in question, a "Red-Patterned and Sealed Small Character," lay on the coffee table. It might have looked unassuming, but to this couple, it shone with the promise of treasure.

If their son was right, the stamp could be worth upwards of 20 million yuan—a veritable lifeline.

Chu Yunhe had just gotten the Tianhai City Museum director's number from a friend, hoping for help with the appraisal. Now, clutching the slip of paper with the number, his nerves were frayed.

The higher the hopes, the deeper the potential fall. Chu Yunhe's heart raced, his mouth dry, the Nokia 5110 in his grip feeling like a lead weight.

Under his wife's hopeful stare, he finally dialed the number. "Hello! May I speak with Curator Zhang?"

"Hello, hello. I'm a friend of Liu Zilu. I apologize for the intrusion. I've come across a stamp with a double horizontal line at home that seems valuable. I'd greatly appreciate your expertise in appraising it."

"Sure, let me describe it to you. It's a red-patterned stamp with black lettering, reading 'Daqing Post' and 'one circle' vertically. I suspect it might be from the Qing Dynasty—"

Before Chu Yunhe could finish, Ma Yan and Chu Jun, seated across from him, heard an ecstatic voice burst through the phone, rapid-fire like machine-gun fire. Chu Yunhe responded with a series of affirmatives and then relayed their home address.

"How did it go?" Ma Yan rose to her feet, her hands clasped tightly together. Though unaware of the precise state of her husband's business, she sensed things were far from rosy.

"Curator Zhang is on his way to give it an appraisal," Chu Yunhe said, his voice tinged with excitement. "He mentioned that if this stamp is genuine, it would be an exceptionally rare find!" Chu Yunhe's head was still spinning from the revelation, but he noticed his son, Chu Jun, looking utterly unfazed by the news. It was then that it finally clicked for him.

"Jun, level with me. What's really happening here?"

"Dad, haven't I already explained? I had a dream this morning where an ancient immortal instructed me to search for this stamp. And that's exactly what I did," Chu Jun said, shrugging his shoulders. The explanation sounded wildly far-fetched, yet it was the only one that made any sense.

"An ancient immortal?" Chu Yunhe was at a loss for words. He glanced at the wooden chest on the living room floor, its contents a disarray of old books. His son had insisted that a dream about a white-bearded sage led him to purchase the chest and discover the stamp inside.

It all seemed like a tall tale, but without that explanation, how else could his son have impulsively bought a heap of what appeared to be rubbish and then unearth a stamp that seemed to be of significant value?

"Dad, don't give me that look. I find it all pretty mystical too!" Chu Jun met his father's skeptical gaze and shrugged again, a gesture of resignation.

"Chu, perhaps it's a sign from our ancestors, knowing you're in a tough spot," Ma Yan chimed in, her belief in her son unwavering. She was crouched beside the coffee table, eyeing the stamp intently. "Son, is this stamp truly as valuable as you say?"

"Absolutely!" Chu Jun asserted with confidence. He knew that if he hadn't acquired the stamp beforehand, it would have been sold in the early part of the year and eventually fetched $5.5 million at a New York auction. The owner of Juya House, upon realizing the stamp had slipped through his fingers, had fallen gravely ill and passed away within two months.

So the stamp had to be authentic, and in securing it, Chu Jun believed he had inadvertently saved the Juya House owner's life—a deed of immeasurable merit.

"Thump! Thump! Thump!"

The sound of urgent knocking echoed through the room, drawing the attention of the family. Chu Yunhe swallowed hard and wondered aloud, "Could that be Curator Zhang?"

"I'll get the door!" With Chu Yunhe and Ma Yan still in a state of shock, Chu Jun hurried to the entrance. He opened the door to reveal a distinguished-looking man in his fifties, his hair graying at the temples. The man's black-rimmed glasses perched on the bridge of his nose, and he was dressed in a crisp white shirt paired with black trousers, exuding an air of scholarly elegance.

"Hello, is Chu Yunhe at home?" Out of breath and with a flushed face, Curator Zhang panted as he spoke, his eyes darting around the room. It seemed he had run here in quite a hurry.

"You must be Curator Zhang! Please, come in—my dad's here!" Chu Jun stepped aside to let him through, noting the curator's urgency as he strode into the house.

Chu Yunhe had regained his composure by now. He was a big boss, after all, having once managed tens of millions in funds. But with his capital chain now broken and debts piling up, he was uncharacteristically disheveled over a mere stamp.

"Hello, Curator Zhang, I'm a friend of Liu Zilu!" greeted Chu Yunhe, moving forward to meet him. But before Curator Zhang could reply, his gaze fell upon the stamp on the coffee table, and his eyes sparkled with excitement. Without a word, he crouched down.

Donning white gloves, he pulled a small box from his pocket, swiftly opened it, and extracted a pair of tweezers. With utmost care, he grasped a corner of the stamp and meticulously inspected it from every angle.

After placing the stamp back on the table, he took out a magnifying glass and scrutinized it, his brow furrowed in concentration.

Curator Zhang's intense scrutiny had Chu Yunhe and Ma Yan on edge, holding their breaths in anticipation, the room filled with the sound of their anxious breathing.

Meanwhile, Chu Jun was the picture of ease, though he stayed close by out of obligation. Bored, he surveyed the familiar surroundings of his home—a place once filled with warmth and now brimming with nostalgia.

His eyes lingered on a family portrait, where a younger version of himself stood grinning behind his parents. Clenching his fists, Chu Jun realized his purpose for being reborn. It wasn't for the legendary power and glory but to safeguard this very happiness.

"Phew!" Finally, Curator Zhang stood, releasing a deep sigh. The redness in his cheeks intensified as he found his words, "Mr. Chu, this is a national treasure! A national treasure indeed!"

His voice began calmly but crescendoed into an exclamation, startling Chu Jun, while Chu Yunhe and his wife stood by, utterly dumbfounded.