CHAPTER 496: 495

The only formal road here leads to the front gate. The rest are just narrow winding paths, and beyond that, lie the crops planted by the farmers. Ye Tian shook his head. If someone were to steal something and then run away, they’d be like a sitting duck. Is this how tourism developed? To leave such an important tourist resource until the end.

After purchasing a ticket, Ye Tian followed the visitors into the museum.

"Sir, please put down your bag."

At the security check, a sweet-smiling girl holding a metal detector spoke to him.

He had been carrying the bag since leaving the Esoteric Master’s home. Inside were several ancient books passed on to him by the Esoteric Master, for him to read and study at home.

Ye Tian smiled back at her obediently, placing his bag on the conveyor belt of the security apparatus while raising his hands for her careful inspection.

After scanning Ye Tian’s body up and down with the metal detector, the girl smiled and nodded, signaling that he could proceed. Ye Tian smiled and nodded back, walking through and picking up his bag on the other side of the security checkpoint.

The museum lobby had temporary storage lockers specifically for visitors to store their belongings. Ye Tian took a password slip and then put his bag inside.

This was a serene place, one that scholars and litterateurs enjoyed visiting. The quiet hall, with only the sound of leather shoes tapping, had no other sound. The central air conditioning maintained a constant temperature throughout the museum, which ensures the protection of the cultural relics to the greatest extent possible. Ye Tian mingled among these scholars, casually strolling around.

Merely relying on Gui Xiao was not enough for Ye Tian to be at ease. He was a person with a strong sense of self, as well as a pragmatist. Without personal experience, he would not rush to conclusions.

To the left of the lobby was the blueprint of the entire museum, including explanation texts in eighteen commonly used languages, such as English, German, and Italian. Naturally, Ye Tian read in Huaxia. After examining the introductions to various floors, he noticed that there was no mention of the Ghost Seal. Could it not be here? After pondering for a moment, Ye Tian shook his head. It didn’t seem likely—the people behind Qiao had significant backgrounds, and just the fact that they were after the Ghost Seal was evidence enough of their uncommon nature, so they probably wouldn’t make a mistake about that.

Perhaps the Ghost Seal was not esteemed enough for a separate introduction in the guide.

Glancing over the blueprint’s layout, he saw that the fifth floor featured an area displaying Eastern exhibits, most of them from Asian countries, mainly ancient relics from Huaxia, India, and such.

It was possible that the Ghost Seal was hidden among these Eastern displays.

"Sir, do you know where the Eastern exhibition hall is?"

While Ye Tian was looking up at the museum blueprint, he suddenly heard someone speak from behind him. Turning around, he saw a Caucasian man with a camera hanging around his neck, a backpack slung across his shoulder, wearing a checkered shirt and jeans, with curly hair—quite a spirited young man.

Ye Tian pointed to the diagram on the wall, "It’s there."

"Thank you."

Ye Tian nodded and stepped aside to make room.

The two conversed in English. Ye Tian was confident the man could read the English on the sign, but the situation seemed different than what he had thought.

"Sir, could you please help me check on this map where the Eastern exhibition hall is? I’m short-sighted and forgot to wear my glasses today."

The man was very polite, bending forward while speaking, the Nikon camera on his neck dangling heavily, "Could you please help me?"

Something wasn’t right. Ye Tian felt a strong distaste. The man’s mannerisms eerily resembled those of a Japanese person. Yet, out of politeness, Ye Tian refrained from asking this outright. It was a pointless question anyway; it wouldn’t hurt to simply inform him about it, no need to bring nationalism into this.

"The Eastern exhibition hall is on the fifth floor. You can get there from that direction."

Seeing Ye Tian pointing toward a staircase to the north, the young man bent forward enthusiastically, "Thank you very much."

Watching his eager departure, Ye Tian shook his head and continued standing in the same spot, looking at the blueprint. His memorization of the different hallways was interrupted by the man who arrived in the middle of it. It’s most disliked being disturbed while committing something to deep memory, so Ye Tian had to memorize it all over again. By the time he had finished, there were already more people in the hall.

Compared to the haphazard visitor management of museums in the country, the regulations here were still quite complete. For example, they controlled the number of visitors and the duration of their visits. Visitors were not allowed to stay more than three hours per session, and if they wished to return, they had to wait forty-eight hours for the next batch. The date kept on the ticket stubs was convenient for the staff to verify the timing.

Ye Tian wasted ten minutes on memorizing the blueprint; had his session not been interrupted, it would have been even less—probably around seven minutes.

After straightening out his clothes, Ye Tian headed towards the fifth floor.

Every level of the museum was incredibly spacious. As Ye Tian approached the staircase, he noticed that the number of people wasn’t as small as it appeared on the surface. Instead, many people were present; they were just obscured by the vastness of the space.

There were no elevators, and even some stairways were made of wood rather than concrete or tiles, exuding a deeply classical atmosphere. Walking here, even if one wasn’t appreciating ancient artifacts, merely strolling in such an environment invoked a deep sense of culture.

The second floor was an art gallery, with a predominance of Western oil paintings and a significant portion of Eastern ink wash paintings. Among them, a painting of galloping horses by Mr. Xu Beihong attracted many eyes. To avoid missing something important, Ye Tian decided to tour every floor thoroughly. However, there were only a few works that caught his eye. In fact, many of the items here were quite impressive—it was just that Ye Tian was not much of an art connoisseur and insisted on posing as a critic in front of the masterpieces.

Looking at Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, he felt unimpressed; Picasso’s Sunset seemed less appetizing than a pancake from home. He cringed at the depiction of a curved blue river, finding it utterly nonsensical. Ye Tian shook his head secretly; these foreigners really knew how to overhype mediocrity, showcasing such limited skills with such fanfare—his own drawings were better.

After a brief stay in the fourth floor’s gallery of bronze vessels, he left when he found nothing of interest. The relics were tightly sealed under glass, rather uninteresting since you could only look and not touch.