Chapter 235 Is there a treasure under my house?
Acquiring a company is not something that can be done overnight, let alone taking over a hotel that is 100% owned by the company.

If Ah San was replaced by a Chinese from Hong Kong, Fang Hexuan would rather find a middleman to complete the acquisition than use the trick of "falsifying history" to force the Xialilila family to submit.

Although he is not a good person and sometimes does things unscrupulously, he is willing to do business honestly.

Even when facing Ah San, whom he hated very much, even if he had to spend money to make the other party surrender, Fang Hexuan could still satisfy his revengeful desire.

Therefore, this time when dealing with Harry Sharilela, he was prepared to fight a protracted war for a period of time.

Just eight days after Fang Hexuan and Lizhi had dinner at the Holiday Inn Golden Mile, a mainland cultural relic dealer entered Hong Kong and claimed that he had bought an ancient book from a group of tomb robbers who were digging up an ancient tomb from the Southern Song Dynasty.

It would be fine if it was just an ordinary ancient book, but this ancient book has a great origin. The content recorded in it is closely related to the history of the Southern Song Dynasty in Hong Kong and is very precious.

Once the news spread, it caused a sensation in the Hong Kong collecting community.

Even many wealthy people who wanted to buy some authentic cultural relics to decorate their houses were tempted by the news.

Although other antique artifacts are also valuable, the meaning symbolized by this ancient book is completely different.

From its founding as a port more than a hundred years ago to the present day, although Hong Kong's development has far surpassed many cities in Asia, it is an indisputable fact that its history is short.

Think about it, it used to be a small fishing village, could there be any historical experience that outsiders could know about?
This crappy place of yours has neither historical celebrities nor historical sites. It's only inhabited by a bunch of poor people who make a living by fishing and farming. If you tell others about it, you'll be laughed at.

But if there really is a history book excavated from an ancient tomb that records in detail the history of Hong Kong hundreds of years ago that is unknown to the outside world, would it be able to enhance the local status?

Any collector or big boss who owns this book is equivalent to holding the entire history of Hong Kong in his hands. It is absolutely worth it just for the sake of being pretentious.

Some wealthy people who really like reading, especially collecting ancient books, also decided that it is better to take action than to just think.

Hong Kong is a very small place, and the news about the ancient books not only spread among collectors and business circles, but also attracted the interest of archaeology professors at several universities in Hong Kong.

Not only that, even Jin Yong and Huang Zhan, two of the "Four Great Talents", had heard of it. However, these two did not expect to get the book. If they could borrow it and read it once, they would feel satisfied.

Fang Hexuan had previously underestimated the influence of this "original" book after it entered Hong Kong. Even though it only "recorded" a very short period of "Hong Kong history", it could still make many people crazy about it.

He still remembered that in his previous life he had heard that Gates had spent a total of $1994 million to purchase Leonardo da Vinci's "Hammer Manuscript" in 3080.

Not to mention, later on, he witnessed the works of many famous Chinese painters being sold at sky-high prices.

The reason why these paper artifacts have such high value in people's minds is that in addition to the appreciation space brought by their historical significance, their cultural significance is also the reason why many people who really know the subject are willing to collect and appreciate them slowly.

Now, this ancient book dug out from the tomb obviously has the two meanings mentioned above. It can be bought for appreciation, or it can be used as a treasure to protect the house or museum, and enjoy the fame brought by its cultural value.

This mainland antiquities dealer has considerable influence in Hong Kong, and he actually used his connections to hold an auction of this ancient book on a high seas gambling ship in Macau.

In order to attract more big names to participate, he released an even more explosive news - ancient books recorded several historical sites built in Hong Kong by the last regime of the Southern Song Dynasty, including underground tombs.

A single stone can cause a thousand ripples. Now it not only has historical and cultural significance, but also has great archaeological value.

Little did people know that in Hong Kong, where every inch of land is valuable, a huge rock related to the last emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty was protected by a park built by the Hong Kong government.

Some slightly famous relics on Po Toi Island, far away from Hong Kong Island, have been carefully protected by Hong Kong.

This shows how much this city values ​​historical sites.

Just like Americans say they don't care about the length of history, but the rich in this country are scrambling to get the British titles that have been passed down for hundreds of years. It's nothing else, just being rich without background can't be called "noble".

Hong Kong people have the same mentality, so if they can really discover some historical relics dating back 700 years through an ancient book, it will definitely cause a sensation around the world.

News about the antiquities dealers and ancient books appeared in many Hong Kong newspapers and TVB.

Even the Hong Kong branch was dragged into it, and they actually thought it was an illegal act of stealing cultural relics from ancient tombs in the mainland.

However, there are so many good things going out through Hong Kong that the branch offices are often unable to stop them.

What’s more, even after being auctioned, this ancient book about Hong Kong is likely to remain in Hong Kong.

With this in mind, the people in the branch office just treated it as a spectacle and at most put the antiquities dealer on the investigation list.

Before the auction even started, this ancient book had already been hyped up by many media outlets as "Hong Kong's No. 1 cultural relic", and they called on the Hong Kong government to stop the auction.

However, MacLehose's British Hong Kong government has always been cautious and prudent, and it is impossible for it to start a war just based on some unconfirmed news.

Therefore, the auction of ancient books on the high seas continues as usual.

Fang Hexuan also brought Takakura Miki to attend the auction. Seeing so many wealthy people appearing at the scene, he was also shocked by his own actions.

Although the richest man also called out prices several times during the auction, any discerning person could see that Fang Hexuan was just there to join in the fun and was probably not interested in the cultural relics.

In the end, after several rounds of fierce competition, as expected, the ancient book was won by Xu Zhandong, Hong Kong's most antique-obsessed billionaire and famous collector.

The auction price was a whopping 880 million Hong Kong dollars, which shocked Fang Hexuan who was watching the excitement at the scene.

He was not shocked by the price, but was surprised that even Xu Zhandong could not tell the authenticity of the ancient book.

Damn, this is really a trouble. Once this high price gets out, those talented people who helped him to forge the data will probably lose their minds.

Soon, the results and price of the auction quickly made headlines in major newspapers in Hong Kong.

While Hong Kong citizens were watching the fun, Fang Hexuan was also considering how to deal with those people.

Surprisingly, the day after Xu Zhandong took the photos of the ancient books, he held a press conference at the Hong Kong Cultural Center in Tsim Sha Tsui.

In front of all the reporters, he gave a general introduction to the short history of Hong Kong in the late Southern Song Dynasty recorded in the book.

Of course, he also mentioned several possible historical sites.

Harry Sharilela's eyes almost popped out of his head when he saw the news on the front page of the newspaper that day.

"What? There's a tomb under my hotel, and there might be treasure?"

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　Thanks to Hong Niu for the monthly ticket and recommendation ticket!

　　Thanks to the moment of flash sale and the recommendation vote from book friend 20230318044509636!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)