79: Chapter 79 Was this painting left behind by that group of merchants?

Hu Tian moved to the back of the car, tapped the door to open the trunk, and blocked the opening with his body. Taking advantage of the angle, he reached into the empty space and pulled out the painting bag from the System Space. The movement was subtle, looking as if he had simply grabbed it from the trunk.

He closed the trunk, carried the painting bag to Zhou Waner's side, and stood still.

Zhou Waner was still looking up at the row of large windows, her profile facing the sunlight, her expression somewhat dazed.

Hu Tian didn't speak; he just stood there, the painting bag hanging naturally by his hand.

Whether it was the faint sound of leather rubbing or Zhou Waner's natural sharpness, her gaze shifted from the high-ceilinged glass in front of her and dropped down, landing on the painting bag in Hu Tian's hand.

It was a long, cylindrical, dark brown leather painting bag. The surface was a bit worn, and there were bronze buckles at both ends with a thick patina, clearly showing it wasn't a new item.

Zhou Waner's brow twitched slightly. "Is this that landscape painting imitation from the late Qing dynasty?"

Before Hu Tian could speak, Zhou Waner had already reached out and grabbed his wrist. "Inside, inside, let's go inside quickly."

Her voice held an irrepressible urgency. "I've been curious for days. You know, for the past two nights, this is all that's been on my mind before I sleep."

Hu Tian was pulled forward a couple of steps by her. He looked down at her hand gripping his wrist but said nothing, following her lead.

Zhou Waner had already reached the porch steps and turned back to urge him, "What's the password? I'll open the door."

"You can't open it,"

Hu Tian said, "Iris and fingerprint, dual verification."

Zhou Waner paused for a moment. "...Then hurry up."

Hu Tian stepped up, stood before the door, looked down at the sensor area by the door, then pressed his fingerprint. The lock clicked softly, and the heavy door swung inward.

The two entered. The foyer was spacious with large slabs of light gray stone on the floor. Directly ahead was the high-ceilinged living room, where sunlight poured in through the row of large windows, making the interior bright and clear.

Zhou Waner looked around briefly without stopping. "Where is the workshop?"

"The first basement level,"

Hu Tian said, "Follow me."

He walked around the living room to a door on the inner side and pushed it open. Inside was a flight of stairs leading down, with light strips embedded along the edges of the steps, extending downwards with a steady, non-glaring light.

After they went down the stairs, Hu Tian pressed a switch on the wall, and the lights on the first basement level turned on one by one.

This was an independent workshop of about seventy square meters, with a style completely different from upstairs.

Upstairs had a restrained, minimalist modern feel, while here it was utilitarian, with every inch of space clearly organized.

An entire row of storage shelves lined the wall, divided into compartments and layers, holding various tools, vessels, and materials, all neatly labeled.

In the middle was a large workbench made of thick solid wood. The surface was old, with various small scratches and wear marks, but it was kept clean.

A row of professional lighting hung above the workbench with adjustable color temperature. When turned to the brightest setting, it could illuminate the texture of a single strand of hair.

Near the stairs, a chair and a small side table were placed in a corner. On the side table was a thermos that Hu Tian used.

Zhou Waner stood by the workbench, placed her canvas bag on the seat, leaned her hands on the edge of the table, and stared at the painting bag in Hu Tian's hand. "Put it up here,"

She said, "Hurry."

Hu Tian placed the painting bag on the workbench but didn't rush. He first went to the storage shelf to get a pair of thin cotton gloves, then laid a clean backing sheet in the center of the table before moving the painting bag over and setting it down firmly.

Zhou Waner watched his sequence of actions and restrained herself from rushing him.

Hu Tian unfastened the bronze buckles at both ends of the bag one by one. His movements weren't fast, but they were steady and without wasted motion.

He opened the bag, tilted it to let the scroll slide out onto the backing sheet, and after it landed steadily, he gently supported the scroll with both hands and laid it horizontally on the table.

The scroll was an old one. The wood of the roller ends was dark and heavily patinated. There were a few minor nicks on the body of the scroll, but it was overall well-preserved.

Zhou Waner's gaze followed everything. She couldn't help herself now. "When we were at the Qinhuai River, you said this painting had a secret. What secret? Is something hidden inside, or is there something wrong with the painting itself?"

Hu Tian didn't answer immediately. He slowly unrolled the scroll, moving gently and spreading it out bit by bit to both sides until the painting was revealed.

It was a landscape painting in the style of the Four Wangs. The composition was orderly, the texture strokes precise, with distinct layers of distant mountains and nearby rocks. At first glance, it seemed like nothing special—just a standard imitation of an ancient landscape. Many such pieces were produced during the late Qing dynasty and circulated widely on the market, so it wasn't particularly rare.

Zhou Waner stared at the painting for a moment. "That's it?"

"Look again,"

Hu Tian said.

He took a UV Lamp from the storage shelf, plugged it in, adjusted the angle, and moved it over the painting. As soon as the light hit, a change appeared on the surface.

Things invisible under normal light appeared under the UV rays. They were faint, like another layer of marks superimposed on the bottom layer of the painting, distributed among the rock textures and intertwined with the original brushwork. Without looking closely, one couldn't distinguish them at all.

Zhou Waner's eyes widened. "This is..."

"Characters,"

Hu Tian said, "Or rather, symbols. They aren't entirely Chinese characters; they're mixed with some writing styles I've never seen before, like a modified way of recording information."

Zhou Waner leaned down, bringing her face close to look. "Was this hidden on purpose?"

"Yes,"

Hu Tian said, "The painting itself is a carrier. The landscape is the surface, while this bottom layer is the real information being conveyed. This technique isn't unheard of; it was used during the Ming and Qing transitions. But I haven't seen many done to this level. It's hidden very deep. The choice of pigments and the order of layering were all designed, not done randomly."

Zhou Waner straightened up, her expression completely changed. The previous urgency was still there, but it was now layered with seriousness. "Then these symbols—have you decoded them?"

"Partially,"

Hu Tian said, "After I got this painting at the Qinhuai River, I made some preliminary records that night to organize the parts I could identify. What I could roughly read was a description of a location, involving a place name and several numbers. But there's a section in the middle I haven't decoded yet, and that part happens to be the key."

Zhou Waner was silent for a moment. "Which place name did you mention?"

Hu Tian adjusted the angle of the UV Lamp so the light covered the painting more evenly. "Look here,"

He pointed vaguely above the painting without touching it. "This section—what I identified were the characters for 'Southern Fujian,' followed by a string of numbers. But the arrangement of the numbers isn't for ordinary counting; it's more like coordinates or some kind of code."

Zhou Waner picked up the canvas bag from the floor, pulled out her small notebook, and flipped to the page she had organized earlier. "The hidden messages you mentioned... in the ones I organized yesterday, a few words appeared repeatedly that I haven't been able to solve. Look,"

She handed him the notebook. "These ones."

Hu Tian took it, glanced down, and his brow twitched slightly.

Several words were written in neat handwriting in the notebook, circled, with their frequency and locations marked. Zhou Waner had organized it very meticulously, with brief notes on the source, context, and surrounding text.

Hu Tian compared the notebook with the painting for a while in silence.

Zhou Waner waited for a moment. "What is it?"

"You have a word here,"

Hu Tian flipped back a page and pointed to a spot. "It's the same as a glyph that appears repeatedly in this section of symbols in the painting."

Zhou Waner leaned in to see. "Which one?"

"This one,"

Hu Tian tapped lightly next to the word in the notebook. "Have you checked the origin of this word?"

"I have,"

Zhou Waner said, "But I couldn't find anything. It's not in ordinary dictionaries or lexicons. I thought it was an obscure character or a regional dialect variant, but I checked several dialect dictionaries and couldn't find a match."

"Because it's not part of the Chinese character system,"

Hu Tian said, "I've seen this glyph in another place. It's from the coastal areas of Southern Fujian. During the late Qing and early Republican periods, there was a group of Merchant Groups engaged in maritime trade. They had their own internal recording system for bookkeeping and sending messages. Outsiders couldn't understand it because they created the system themselves, using a mix of Chinese characters, numbers, and some symbols borrowed from Southeast Asia."

Zhou Waner listened intently. "So this painting was left behind by those Merchant Groups?"

"Not necessarily left by them personally,"

Hu Tian said, "It could also be someone who knew the system and used this method to hide something. Regardless, the information hidden in this painting is related to those Merchant Groups; that much is certain."

Zhou Waner reopened the small notebook and wrote a few words in the blank space. "Then that undecoded part you mentioned—where is it stuck?"

"There's a section in the middle,"

Hu Tian moved the UV Lamp to illuminate an area near the central axis of the painting. "Here, look. The density of symbols in this section is higher than elsewhere, and the arrangement is different. It's not linear; it's layered, as if two layers of information are stacked together. What I can read now is the outer layer; I haven't figured out the logic of the inner layer yet."

Zhou Waner stared at that area. "What do you need to decode it?"

Hu Tian set the UV Lamp aside and took a small Multispectral Handheld Device from the toolbox. It wasn't large—not much wider than a palm—but it was expensive. He had specifically acquired it for handling ancient paintings with steganographic content like this.

"You ask what's needed to decode it,"

He said, "First, the information layers of this painting must be separated. Ordinary UV light can only reveal the surface steganography. But look here,"

He adjusted the multispectral device to Near-infrared Mode and slowly scanned the area with the dense symbols. On the device's small screen, the layers of the image began to change, and the originally overlapping strokes showed signs of separating.