Artifact Reading Inspector

“This buddha is from the period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties. However, look under its halo. The name of the temple it belongs to is written there.”
Eunhae quickly lifted the buddha to check.
“Oh. It’s here! Geumbul Temple(金佛寺)? You said your father excavated it in Chongqing, right? Then this temple must be in Chongqing!”
“Yes. That buddha belongs to Geumbul Temple, but the problem is that when it was excavated, the record about why it had been buried in Geumbul Temple was found with it. When, who and why it was donated…”
Only Haejin and his father had known this. Jaewon’s father didn’t know because he only cared about selling excavated artifacts and didn’t care about their historical value and the stories behind them.
Maybe it would be more accurate to say he wasn’t interested. He didn’t like to study, so learning Chinese was the most he could do.
“Oh… then the moment this comes out…”
“Yes, the temple will protest immediately. It was stolen less than 10 years ago, and since the temple knows that it was stolen, it has become an international stolen good.”
Eunhae asked back as if she couldn’t understand, “Then, why on earth did you accept his request to sell it for him? You knew but you still didn’t refuse. Is there a reason?”
Haejin sat down, sighed deeply, and answered, “Hu… first of all, he is trying to get a job. I didn’t want him to get into trouble. If this gets bigger, it will become a huge lawsuit.”
“What does accepting his request have to do with him not getting sued? If we start selling it, of course…”
Eunhae said that she couldn’t understand, but soon she realized something and stopped. Haejin continued.
“As you are already thinking, if I didn’t accept to sell it for him, he would have had two options. One, to entrust it to an auction agency. Two, to sell it secretly in Insadong. But as you can guess, he would be sued immediately if he goes to an auction agency.”
Jaewon must have known this.
“Then, if he sells it through Insadong?”
“If he is lucky, he will get some money and get away with it. If he is lucky…”
Eunhae grimly sat down opposite to Haejin.
“If he is unlucky, he might end up in prison for fraud.”
“Yes, Insadong wouldn’t care about its source. If the buyer, however, gets fooled and protests later, he would have to suffer more than just getting sued at an auction. If he gets busted in an auction house, it would be before the buddha is sold, so he might be able to blame his father and escape, but if he gets busted after selling it through Insadong, he wouldn’t be able to escape so easily.”
“Then, what are you going to do?”
Instead of answering, Haejin looked and Eunahe and asked, “Do you happen to know an appraiser in Insadong? It would be better if he is also a middle merchant who can get good things.”
“Of course, I know someone.”
“Then please, ask him to think of saving a person’s life and do a small performance…”
Eunhae laughed.
“Haha, oh… okay. I’ll ask. He will do it, I think. But do we really have to do this? Can’t you just tell him not to sell it?”
“He won’t listen, he will rather beg me to keep the secret. Then, I will have to keep my mouth shut, and I would soon have to see him with cuffs on his wrist. If he fails to learn a lesson after this, then there’s nothing more I can do.”
“Then I don’t have to think about hiring him?”
Haejin hesitated for a moment and answered, “Yes. He is too greedy. A greedy buried artifact excavation researcher can cause a huge problem later.”
Eunhae totally agreed with it. She nodded hard.
“I totally agree. Then, shall we go up?”
“Okay.”
Eunhae walked next to Haejin and suddenly asked, “But when are you going to call me Eunhae?”
Haejin didn’t know what to say at the abrupt question, but she smiled and walked away.
“Oh… this will take long.”
She walked while talking to herself. Haejin couldn’t help but smile at seeing that.
Two days later, they started to exhibit Jaewon’s buddha. They just showed it to the visitors without promoting it and putting it on the pamphlet, but still, it drew a lot of attention.
Then, they took it in so that that the attention wouldn’t grow even bigger. Haejin then called Jaewon.
“Jaewon, there’s a problem.”
Jaewon, who must have been thrilled about getting billions of won, was surprised.
“A problem? What problem?”
“An appraiser, who specializes in Chinese artifacts, saw it and claimed that it was a stolen good. This is serious. He is quite close to the Chinese ambassador. This can be a huge problem.”
“Wait, wait. I’ll be right there!”
Haejin was a good actor. Jaewon arrived in less than 30 minutes.
“Mr. Park, there’s someone looking for you.”
“Bring him to the director’s office.”
In there, Haejin, Eunhae and an appraiser in his 50s, who had been told what to say in advance, were waiting. They soon heard the knocks on the door.
Knock knock.
“You have a visitor.”
“Bring him in.”
Jaewon came in. He had been on a date with his girlfriend, he was wearing nice clothes and his girlfriend, who Haejin briefly met in London, was with him.
“Hello.”
She awkwardly said hello. Haejin greeted her and gestured to Jaewon to sit down.
“Sit down. We should talk.”
The buddha was already on the table and there was a man who seemed to be an expert at first sight.
Jaewon glanced at him and sat down.
“What kind of problem is it?”
Haejin looked at the old appraiser. The appraiser then started to talk with a serious tone.
“This… is a very nasty thing. Oh, my… if it hadn’t been for Director Lim Eunhae here, I wouldn’t have stayed still.”
Jaewon was surprised. He stammered, “What? What, what do you mean? What’s nasty?”
“I heard that you know Mr. Park and Ms. Lim here… let me ask, where did you get this stolen good?”
He was a good actor. Even Haejin would have flinched if he had known nothing.
So, imagine how surprised Jaewon was. He jumped to his feet and shouted while his face was turning red.
“Stolen good? What are you talking about? Do you have any proof?”
He was so nervous that his hands were shaking.
“You really don’t know? Look, look here, can’t you see it?”
He pointed at the bottom of the halo and Jaewon examined it. He saw the name Geumbul Temple and shouted again.
“What about it? There are multiple Geumbul Temple? You think this can be evidence?”
He yelled with courage, but everyone knew that he was cornered.
The appraiser snorted and raised his voice.
“You’re about to get yourself into huge trouble. Geumbul Temple of Chongqing, China, has reported the theft of a dozen artifacts including this buddha to the police. If you sell this, China would officially protest about you smuggling in artifacts. Can you handle it?”
Jaewon realized what was going on only then. He sat down with shaky hands and turned to Haejin.
He was quietly asking what he should do now.
“I think you should inform the Chinese government and let them retrieve it.”
That buddha was worth three billion won. On auction, with luck, it would have been sold at more than five billion. Even after the fee was taken, that artifact could change one’s life.
Of course, Jaewon couldn’t take Haejin’s advice.
“No! This is mine. I didn’t know you would do this. You knew this when you appraised it, right? That’s why you didn’t take the appraisal fee!”
Haejin hadn’t received the fee because he didn’t think Jaewon would be able to make money with it.
“No. Please don’t misunderstand.”
“Of course, you knew… are you jealous of me getting the money? Or did you want this that much? I’m really disappointed. I really trusted you and let you handle this… no, I will take this.”
Jaewon grabbed the buddha and stood up. He hugged it tightly, as if he was worried someone would try to take it away, and glared at Haejin.
“This is a violation of trust, I will cancel the contract.”
Actually, this couldn’t be called a violation of trust. As the entrusted artifact had a flaw, Haejin rather had the right to cancel the contract.
However, he didn’t bother to mention it. It didn’t mean anything now…
“Okay, take it.”
Jaewon walked to the door without saying goodbye while his girlfriend followed him. She looked grim.
The moment Jaewon opened the door, Haejin warned him out of pity.
“Be careful when you sell it. If you just sell it to someone you don’t know well but says he’ll pay you well, your life might end there. Okay?”
Haejin had wanted him to change his mind, but he couldn’t get rid of his greed. Haejin was just sad now. However, he had given enough warnings, so he decided not to care about what would happen later.
As he had shown Jaewon that trying to fool others crudely might get him into big trouble, the rest was up to him.
Plus, Haejin had nothing to feel sorry about as Jaewon must have already sold the buddha Haejin’s father had given him.
Jaewon left without saying anything. Then, the appraiser commented, “He’s a wretched young man.
Busy people bothered to tell him to stop him from going to prison, but he can’t understand!”
“That’s how people are. The loss of one or two million won is enough to drive one crazy. Giving up three billion wouldn’t be easy.”
Haejin replied, but the appraiser shook his head.
“Huh… his eyes are full of greed. Men like that always learn one or two things about antiquity and try to rip off innocent people. He must be careful… someone must teach him a lesson.”
Sadly, Jaewon’s father, who was supposed to guide him, had died a long time ago.
Maybe, his presence wouldn’t have made much difference. He wasn’t that different from his son.
“I don’t think guidance can change him.”
“Well… anyway, it’s Mr. Park Haejin, right? I thought you were not ordinary seeing the artifacts you have here, but I was really impressed when I heard you gave up the director position to Ms. Eunhae here.”
“I’m flattered.”
“I’m not flattering… and I couldn’t even figure out why this was a problem when I first saw Geumbul Temple written on this buddha. Then, I heard your story and asked some friends in China. They told me that Geumbul Temple in Chongqing has reported its theft. I call myself a China-expert, but my pride was greatly hurt.”
Even a China-expert couldn’t have known the theft in a local temple. Of course, he wouldn’t have known.
The problem was that sometimes in life, not knowing can be a sin…
“Anyone can make mistakes.”
“No, you don’t have to cheer me up… I’ve helped you, so why don’t you help me this time? It would only be fair.”
“Okay. How can I help you?”
“I want you to meet the ambassador to China.”