Chapter 193: Swaying with ease
"The Venn family, with nine generations of the Lorende family serving His Excellency the Duke, has not accumulated much wealth in the past three hundred years. The most proud thing is this collection room."
This is a large room on the second floor of the mansion. As soon as you enter, you will be dazzled.
There are a large number of strange items displayed in the room, ranging from oil paintings, statues, tapestries, furniture, plates, weapons, armor, machinery, all kinds of things that should be found and should not be found.
It seems that taking people to visit the collection has become a repertoire. A large group of guests in the living room followed them noisily and surrounded Lynch and Count Lorende into the collection room.
As soon as you enter the door, an ancient smell hits your face. It's hard to describe what the smell is. I can only say that it is the smell of the ancient items themselves.
Hiss, so many.
Lin Qi still had that half-smiling expression, looking calm and at ease, scanning the collection one by one.
Hmm...I don't know anything.
Professor Dartmond from heaven, I'm sorry.
"What do you think of our family's collection, Mr. Detective? Comment and comment."
The Fat Earl pointed to the huge collection room with a proud look on his face, his big round face shrank into a ball, Soybean-like eyes stared at Lin Qi's expression.
"Well, not bad, not bad..."
Lin Qi walked through the collection room with his hands behind his back:
'Neighbor, neighbor, help, come to the rescue. ’
[I just...]
‘Don’t be just, you are my neighbor, okay? Aren’t the gods omniscient? Just give me some information. '
[That was limited to the first era when I still existed. After my death, my perception of the world became very vague. I am not omniscient, so don't expect too much. I can only learn from the style of these things. Let me tell you their approximate age. 】
‘That’s enough, that’s enough. As long as there is a little bit of truth, the rest is not just made up. ’
Lynch immediately smiled and stopped in front of a pair of armor.
“At the dawn of the Fourth Age, the armor of the King of Marun Kingdom’s guards weighed forty kilograms, and it took an experienced blacksmith half a year to forge one pair.” Lynch said while recalling the remaining armor from school. According to his memory, "The forging technology of that period was very close to that of the Salem Dynasty in the Third Age, but the gap joining technology was very different and easy to judge."
With that said, he pointed at the gap in the armor and walked towards the next collection without looking back.
“The bronze plate from the end of the Dark Age of the Third Age is beyond the reach of ordinary people. It is worthy of Your Excellency to collect such a precious thing. Bronze utensils are mostly found in the Third Age, but The early and late periods span two thousand years. If you want to judge the period, you have to look at their edge processing technology. Those who have learned to use silver plating technology to process the edges are a standard feature of the late period."
"Hiss. , this is even more serious, Your Excellency, is it really okay for you to collect this? I am very worried that Chairman Ole of the Archaeological Association will come to your door soon. A tribal totem from the barbaric era of the Second Age, from a foreign tribe. , the specific tribe needs further research, this thing is usually poked in the center of the tribe, and has weak sacrificial attributes. No, you must bring out the wine in your collection to entertain me today, otherwise I will go with Ole tomorrow. The chairman reported that when he visited me at my home five days ago, we made an appointment to meet him in the next two days, and we just happened to complain to him.”
Lin Qi talked as he went, describing everything in general, not in detail, but it was enough for a layman.
After introducing seven or eight things in a row, Lin Qi stopped. The rough information came from the great Ms. Hongyue. As for the more detailed information... It is very hard to compile something decent, Lin Qi It took a lot of brainpower to make the nobles following behind listen with great concentration.
However, when he turned around, he found that the Earl next to him was staring at him with a very strange look, like staring at a flying insect that has hit a spider web, with a bit of malice and mockery in his eyes. .
It was just a fleeting moment, but it was still keenly captured by Lynch.
My performance should be pretty good. Why does he have this expression? Did I step into a trap after all?
Is there something I didn't notice?
His heart immediately hung up, and Lin Qi suddenly fell silent, trying to keep his expression as calm as possible while walking around in the collection. The nobles watching the excitement didn't know why Lynch suddenly fell silent and looked at him with doubtful eyes, while Count Lorende wore a strange smile and said nothing with confidence.
No, it’s definitely not right.
There is definitely a problem.
Lynch recalled what Miss Valente had said when she was training him. You don’t need to worry too much about making things difficult. You are just a civilian-born detective. Everyone has an idea of what level you should be. Politics, economy, culture, or the scandals of kings, noble ladies, etc. are not things you should know about. In these aspects There's no point in making a fool of yourself, it just makes you look stupid and incompetent. Just like going to great lengths to highlight the poverty of a dock worker and show off his wealth in front of textile workers, only the most uncultured nouveau riche would use this method to have fun, and the only one who could become the laughing stock of this behavior would be himself.
So if I want to insult you and distort your reputation, I must embarrass you in the areas where you should be good at, so as to perpetuate your image of being incompetent and stupid.
Let me make a fool of myself in an area I should be good at, which is obviously now, but how can he be sure that I will make a fool of myself instead of taking the opportunity to express myself? This is not something he can control, unless... this is a trap at its root, and I will make a fool of myself no matter how I behave.
In the flash of light, Lynch's brain was spinning rapidly, and various dramas and conspiracies he had watched before flashed through his mind one by one. Time passed quickly. Seeing that the nobles watching the excitement began to become impatient, and Count Lorende's eyes became more and more sinister, Lynch suddenly had an idea.
These are precious antiquities, and he just keeps them in the open like this?
There are even antiquities from the Second Age. You know that Chairman Ole is willing to come and bully the juniors for the knowledge of the Second Age. Why would he just leave the antiquities from the Second Age like this? It doesn't hurt him, and it doesn't hurt anyone to see him?
There must be something wrong here. By the way, I remember it was said in the stories I read that many collectors would hide their collections secretly and display them all as fakes.
Yes, if everything here is fake, then the more professional and brilliant I am, the more embarrassing I will be, because I will definitely become a laughing stock if I talk nonsense to a bunch of fakes.
The more he thought about it, the more likely it was, and Lynch made up his mind after a moment of hesitation.
Gamble.
“However, Count Lorende, I still have a question.” Lynch squinted his eyes, poked a leather shield beside him with his stick, and said softly, “These were almost hidden from my eyes. Collection, which master did you ask to imitate it? It’s so skilled that it looks real.”
The collection room instantly became quiet, and everyone's eyes kept wandering between Lynch and Count Lorende, with surprise in their eyes. Count Lorende's face became very gloomy for a moment, but he immediately recovered his smile and clapped his hands gently.
“Amazing, you are worthy of being a detective even praised by His Excellency the Duke. He has a pair of eyes that can tell the difference between true and false. Hahaha, of course the authentic product is hidden in the vault. If you are interested, I will take you to see it later. . Now let’s continue the topic and appreciate these paintings. These are all authentic works.”
“Sorry, sir, I am just a detective with a civilian background. I can’t compare with you. My understanding of art is very shallow, I’m afraid I’m going to disappoint everyone.”
This is also the guidance from Miss Valente. There is no need to avoid your own weaknesses. If you don’t understand, you just don’t understand. This is not the field that Lynch should be good at. Not understanding is normal. As long as you don’t be high-profile and don’t pretend to understand, you will be fine. It will not damage the image
But if you can still show sufficient literacy in this aspect, it will be an unexpected bonus, and it will be a high score.
Lin Qi bowed slightly to everyone and said with a smile: "However, if you don't mind, I will share my humble opinion with you. If there is anything wrong with what I said, please point it out. ”
As he spoke, Lin Qi grabbed a small conch in his pocket.
The concentric conch is a rare item that has been used once before in Zul'Glasar. It can communicate with each other within a certain distance and can be used as a walkie-talkie.
To others, the sounds coming from inside may be detectable, but for Lynch, who has the ability to phantom sounds, this is the best cheating tool.
When it comes to artistic opinions, who else has more say than the eldest lady of a noble family with a thousand-year heritage?
So, with everyone watching in surprise, Lynch stopped in front of an oil painting. His lips opened and closed for a while, but silently, as if talking to himself. After a moment, he said loudly : "The Woman Holding a Silver Fox is a relatively unpopular work by David Lucas. Mr. Lucas is from the Fourth Age, but it was not until the Fifth Age that his paintings were accepted by the public. He..."
Clearly organized, fluent in language, and full of confidence, the audience did not dare to say a word until the words fell, and a burst of thunderous applause immediately broke out.
Lynch's half-smiling eyes turned to Count Lorende, and the fat Earl could only smile, and exclaimed with a dry smile: "Your Excellency, the detective, is beyond my expectation. You will definitely become the most dazzling person in Rhine City in the future." A star, hahahaha..."
Amidst the unpleasant laughter, a sound of bells came from outside. His Excellency the Earl immediately seemed to have been waiting for a savior and breathed a sigh of relief and said: "Her Royal Highness the Princess has already rested. The reception will start soon. Let's go down and don't keep Her Royal Highness the Princess waiting for too long."
Lin Qi was actually relieved too. He knew by his breath that the appetizers had finally passed and tonight's dinner was finally here.
It's time to meet the real owner who has brought me so much trouble today.
As a client who wants me to help with things, but allows the people around me to be full of malice towards me, you'd better give me a reasonable explanation.
Her Royal Highness Chloe Russell.
(End of this chapter)