Chapter 3: The Qin Family File

  The old ghost's words made everyone present overjoyed. To be honest, if they could keep their rice bowl safe, who would want to leave this job where no one is in charge, and all day long is just tidying up files, cleaning up hygiene, eating imperial rations? Moreover, most of the people sitting here are middle-aged people approaching retirement age, and no one wants to leave their job to find another career.

  "Speak quickly, how did the opportunity come about." At this moment, people's laziness took over, and after seeing Qin Zhong's eight characters, Lao Gui's attitude changed. The opportunity must have something to do with Qin Zhong, so most people's views on Qin Zhong immediately changed.

  The old ghost wiped his mouth, and after laughing, he shook his head repeatedly: "Ah, you're happy, but it's useless. There are heavenly secrets that can't be revealed. In short, we have a chance now. As long as Qin Zhong is one of us in the temple, there are still people who can stay here to continue working. But I'm not allowed to, and neither are you..."

  The old ghost pointed at five people in one breath, almost all of whom were older, leaving behind only Fang Shu, Qin Zhong and a young man with severe myopia.

  "You old devil, what are you talking about? You're going to suffocate us with your nonsense. After speaking for half a day, it has nothing to do with us old folks, and you still say it's useful." Everyone was complaining about the old devil.

  The old ghost said solemnly, "Believe it or not, according to the divination, I don't know what will happen in the future, but only three of them can stay here. Moreover, Director Fang must also step down."

  "Step down?" Fang Shu blinked, thinking that even if he stepped down, it didn't matter, since the old ghost's words weren't always reliable. He knew that the old man was quite accurate when it came to gossiping about others, but this was a big deal and he had never asked him to predict anything like this before. Besides, nothing major had ever happened at the archives, so this might be the first time, and also a matter of life and death. However, no matter what, the old ghost's words still said that Fang Shu could stay here.

  The old ghost nodded: "I won't say more, the rest of the things I don't know and I don't want to know. Anyway, I'll go back and stick to it for another year before retiring. If anything happens, it will be clear within three days."

  The old devil was the first to leave the conference room, out of the archives building, and hastily left. The remaining people all shook their heads, scolding the old devil in their mouths, and one after another expressed their willingness to return home on their own initiative.

  Qin Zhong looked at the young man with a dozen or so rings on his glasses and asked: "Dà Yá, aren't you leaving?"

  "What's the hurry? Let's take it one day at a time. Since we're about the same age, when I finally retire, I'll invite you to dinner with the director, as a way of thanking him for taking care of me all these years."

  After hearing what Daxin said, Fang Shu was deeply moved. He sighed and said: "Alas, we've been colleagues for decades, and it's all scattered like this. Forget it, I'll go pack up too. Whether or not to believe Lao Gui's words, who cares! It's rare that nothing's going on, Xiao Zhong, let me take you to see the archives of your old Qin family. This file has been sealed for so long, and no one has ever opened it."

  "Heh heh, okay then. I also want to learn about our family history. I've never met my grandfather and my dad passed away early, so it's good to understand a bit."

  Dai Ya stayed in the conference room to clean up, while Fang Shu took Qin Zhong to a small house on one corner of the building. This house was a place that Qin Zhong had not seen opened since he came here several months ago. The door had three layers inside and out, and even the key was only held by Fang Shu himself. It was really unknown what was stored inside that required such protection.

  Qin Zhong threw down the file in his hand, put his hands in his pockets and followed Fang Shu to the door. Fang Shu took out a bunch of keys from his waist and handed them over to Qin Zhong: "Here, these are all the keys for every door in this building. These three are for opening this door. Now I'm handing everything over to you. This room only has things belonging to your family, so I won't interfere anymore."

  Qin Zhong was extremely surprised, sending himself here and handing over all the keys to himself. Was he really going to leave? He didn't ask much, but looked at Fang Shu with a somewhat unfamiliar gaze, lowering his head to look at the keys that opened these three doors.

  The keys for opening these three doors are easy to recognize, all of them are lion-shaped keys, but the shapes are different, and the locks used are absolutely different.

  Qin Zhong exerted a great deal of effort to open the three doors, and as soon as he did, a wave of musty air rushed out. He covered his mouth and nose with his hand and fanned himself, and it seemed that this musty air carried the scent of rotting books.

  At this time, Da Ya hurried over: "Ah, Xiao Qin, this is our museum's restricted area. Hehe, it's really trendy. Here, you go and tidy up, I'll leave first, I have a blind date in the afternoon, so I won't be keeping you company here."

  "Already thirty something, still going on blind dates?"

  "Hey, never mind, it's all because of these eyes of mine. I won't say anything more, I'll leave first." Dàyá revealed those two canine teeth he was proud of, usually he would speak with his mouth closed and not smile, only showing a smiling face to people he was familiar with, revealing his pair of vampire-like big teeth.

  Qin Zhong watched as the big teeth hurriedly left, and the entire file management was left with only Fang Shu and himself. He didn't know what Fang Shu was busy with, but he had to take a look at the Qin family's files anyway.

  After he entered the house, everything in the house was neatly arranged except for dust. There were very few things in the house and it looked very clean, like an office. When Qin Zhong saw a metal sign on the table with several words written in red oil paint, his guess was confirmed.

  "Director's office!"

  Qin Zhong suddenly realized that this was originally his grandfather and father's office, after his father's death, no one had come here again, it was cleaned up so neatly, it seemed that someone had cleaned it later, but looking at the dust, it should have been more than five years since anyone cleaned it. On the table in the middle, a notebook was placed, next to which was a photo frame, the person in the photo looked very much like Qin Zhong himself.

  "A photo with my son in front of the Shenyang Imperial Palace." These few words were written on the edge of the photo. In Qin Zhong's mind, he recognized his young father, but it was actually his grandfather, and this was the first time he had seen him in a photo.

  He turned his head to look at the bookcase near the corner of the wall, where all sorts of books were lined up, most of which were history and natural geography, which was nothing unusual for Qin Zhong, who had graduated from a history major. The only thing that caught his attention was a set of magazines called "Secrets".

  This set of magazines is bound in cowhide, with the year written on it. Since it's a monthly publication, there are twelve volumes per year, and every twelve volumes are bound into one book. Each book has been well-preserved, with the year and the name of who bound it written on it - all of which were grandfather's, except for the last two volumes which were bound by Qin Zhong's father.

  Qin Zhong unknowingly stirred up a strong sense of nostalgia in this office, he opened the window, picked up a dusting cloth from the corner of the desk, and wiped away the dust. He wiped everything that could be wiped in the room. When he was wiping the book on the middle of the desk, Qin Zhong casually flipped through it and saw that it was all about his father's past experiences. It also mentioned the joy after Qin Zhong was born.

  Qin Zhong looked at the notebook and then opened the drawer, putting it in the middle drawer of his office desk. However, when he took a closer look inside the drawer, he found that there was also a small box in the middle drawer, which seemed to be an ancient brocade box.

  Qin Zhong slowly took out the brocade box, wiped off the dust on top of it, and then opened the latch on the box. Inside, he found three different coins: one from the first year of the Kangde era, one from the third year of the Datong era, and a Chongning Tongbao coin. Next to them was an ancient-looking knife.

  "Hmm, it seems that my ancestors were fond of collecting ancient coins." He muttered to himself, discovering a thin oil-paper notebook under the three coins. The cover only had two words written on it: "Notes". Qin Zhong curiously flipped through it, but the more he read, the more uncomfortable he felt. It didn't seem like the Qin family's archives at all, but rather his grandfather's special notes, which seemed to be about the strange events he encountered while investigating the history of Manchukuo over the years.

  Qin Zhong's eyes stopped at the middle of that notebook, his expression became serious, and he unknowingly sat on the chair where his grandfather used to sit.