Chapter 58 — Honeymoon (2)

The next morning, during the drive to the Lüshun Museum, Lin Che and Shen Yue were still silent in the car, except the mood had noticeably shifted. The air between the two of them no longer felt stale, and, whilst it was not yet fully comfortable, there was certainly some progress in that direction.

The reason why they were not speaking during the drive was because Lin Che was fully investing himself within the itinerary that Shen Yue had written up, and the journey was too short to warrant an entire conversation regardless.

The Lüshan Museum was situated in a building from the Japanese occupation with dark wooden floors and high narrow windows. Their tickets had been arranged ahead of time, with Shen Yue showing a QR code at the entrance, enabling the two to move without stopping.

“Let’s go to the bronze collection first,” said Shen Yue, after looking in all directions and seemingly choosing one at random. “The regional documentation is a temporary exhibition, so it closes earlier, but it looks rather busy right now.”

“Lead the way,” said Lin Che.

***

The bronze collection was housed in the first of the main halls, running in a chronological sweep from the Shang dynasty onwards. There were various agricultural tools and weapons on one side, and they made up the bulk of the collection, probably since they were most likely to be maintained and preserved as they were not fragile. The other side contained more miscellaneous items, such as a case of Han period bronze mirrors.

May the person who uses this mirror live long and their descendants be prosperous, it said, translated on a notice nearby.

The two quickly made their way through the bronze collection, mainly because Shen Yue seemed to have little interest in it.

“Once you see one sword, you’ve seen them all,” she said. “And when they’re old and rusty, you can’t appreciate the real thing anyway. They should have restored these before showing them.”

“You’d get along really well with one of my friends,” replied Lin Che. “He’s always talking about restoring things to a functional state.”

“Well you’ve just got to introduce me to this friend, then.”

“I’ll let him know you’re interested,” he laughed, secretly wishing he hadn’t opened his mouth. Xu Fang was meant to be his secret researcher, after all.

The two then made their way into the pottery section.

This part of the museum occupied nearly an hour because Shen Yue stopped at practically everything with focussed attention. She made occasional remarks about glaze techniques under her breath, or stopped for a couple of seconds extra when she appreciated the beauty or craftsmanship of it.

Lin Che spent more time watching her than the pottery.

He didn’t know enough about pottery to make a comment about it, so all he did was listen to her and give her his full attention.

“I’m impressed they managed to create such perfection with the technology at the time,” she said. “Honestly, to achieve a mimicry of whatever they do, I have to cheat a little using my Qi as an extra limb,” she admitted. “It’s really amazing!”

***

The lighting in the east annex was slightly dimmer, as the temporary exhibition on city archives was on display. If the lights were too harsh or angled the wrong way, the documents could begin to fade and get damaged.

Lin Che walked slowly and skimmed the names of the things he passed. He was not looking for anything specific, but simply any mention of the Lin Clan name.

Regional Families… Liaoning province… Genealogical records… Household documentation from the late Qing and Republican periods…

Most of the visible records were just, plain ordinary. It was a miracle that the museum even bothered to show such mundane things, he thought to himself.

He stopped in front of a case near the back wall, where the family name at the top was not Lin. However, under the affiliated families listed in the marriage column, there was a record stating that a daughter of the Liu lineage had married into the Lin Clan of Dalian. Here, the placard noted in small text: partial archival gap, c. 1948-56.

Lin Che read this twice.

It was the same window Xu Fang had identified.

He took out his new phone and checked that photography was permitted. The sign said no flash, but there was no restriction on photography otherwise, so he took a careful photo of the document and the placard.

He was still looking at it when his phone vibrated.

He almost silenced it immediately, but he then saw the contact name.

Mum (mobile)

Lin Che accepted the call and stepped into the far corner of the annex for a moment of semi-privacy. At this time of day, there weren’t many visitors, which was great because it meant that he was not disturbing lots of people by being on the phone and that there wasn’t any noise interrupting him, but also terrible because the few people that were there were in complete silence and would hear everything he was saying.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“Hi, Mum!”

“Lin Che!” His mother’s voice came through, bubbly. “Where are you? The background looks like a museum.”

“It is a museum,” he said.

“Which one? Send me the location. You know, I’ve been meaning to call all week but you know I got roped into the neighbourhood committee and there’s been a whole situation with Auntie Zhang’s garden wall—”

“Mum,” he stepped into a region with slightly less echo. “I can’t have you on speaker or a video call at the museum. I’m in Dalian right now.”

“Dalian! I’m here too!”

A pause.

“What?”

“I have been here since Thursday visiting an old friend. You are telling me you have been in Dalian this entire time and didn’t call your own mother?”

Lin Che paused.

“I’m sorry, mum,” he said, quietly. A short giggle came from Shen Yue’s direction.