Han Fei naturally wanted to fulfill his father-in-law's request.
Fortunately, Han Fei and Xu Mo were on good terms, and he believed Xu Mo would do him this favor.
He agreed to his father-in-law and immediately called Xu Mo.
At that moment, Xu Mo was scrolling through his phone and answered Han Fei's call right away.
"Are you asleep yet?"
"Not yet," Xu Mo replied. "What's up?"
"I showed the document you sent me to my father-in-law. He's very interested and wants to see the original. Is that okay with you?"
"It’s fine, but the original is kept in my private museum. If he wants to see it, you’ll have to come to the museum. When do you want to visit?"
Hearing this, Han Fei glanced at his father-in-law, who was practically leaning into the phone.
"How about now? My father-in-law is in a bit of a hurry. Are you free?"
"I am. Let’s meet at the museum entrance," Xu Mo said.
"Great! Thanks so much. I’ll treat you to dinner another time!"
After hanging up, both parties set off for Xu Mo’s private museum.
Xu Mo lived closer to the museum and arrived first.
Not wanting to wait idly in the car, Xu Mo decided to head inside.
He sent Han Fei a message saying he had arrived and would wait inside, instructing Han Fei to come straight in when he got there.
After sending the message, Xu Mo unbuckled his seatbelt, opened the car door, and stepped out. He habitually glanced back to make sure the door was properly closed and pressed the lock button.
Out of the corner of his eye, Xu Mo noticed something stuck to the car tire.
Bending down for a closer look, he realized it was a lottery ticket with the numbers: 01 03 05 07 09 02 08.
While driving, his tire had accidentally run over a piece of chewing gum, which had picked up the lottery ticket and carried it all the way here.
"These numbers look almost like the ones Wang Dachuan bought…" Xu Mo muttered, staring at the ticket in surprise.
The numbers on this ticket were identical to Wang Dachuan’s, except for the last digit.
Xu Mo didn’t think the ticket could win anything—the combination was just too bizarre. Who would even pick numbers like that?
But despite his skepticism, he found himself opening the lottery results website.
The winning numbers for this draw were: 01 03 05 07 09 02 08—a perfect match with the ticket he had found.
The first prize was seven million yuan.
Xu Mo: "!!!"
He knew he was lucky, but he never expected his luck to be this incredible!
Finding a lottery ticket on the road and winning seven million!
Xu Mo didn’t even consider trying to find the ticket’s original owner to return it.
The main reason was that lottery tickets are anonymous and non-refundable—there’s no way to track down the owner.
Besides, now that the results were out, if he went around asking who had lost the ticket, he’d likely attract a crowd of fake "owners."
I’ll just donate a larger portion of the prize money when I claim it. Consider it charity… Xu Mo thought to himself as he wiped the dirt off the ticket and tucked it into his pocket.
He then entered the private museum to wait for Han Fei and his father-in-law.
Soon enough, Han Fei and his father-in-law arrived. Xu Mo had already informed the security guard that a man named Han Fei and an elderly gentleman would be coming, so the guard simply confirmed their identities and let them in.
They made their way to Xu Mo’s office in the museum, where the guard knocked on the door.
"Come in," Xu Mo’s voice called from inside.
"Our boss is inside. You can go in. I’ll continue my rounds," the guard said before leaving.
Han Fei and his father-in-law entered the office.
Xu Mo was seated on a sofa, and on the coffee table in front of him sat an antique-looking box containing a stack of yellowed rice paper.
Seeing them enter, Xu Mo immediately stood up and greeted with a smile, "Captain Han."
"This is my father-in-law, and this is my colleague, Xu Mo," Han Fei introduced briefly.
"Hello," Xu Mo greeted with a smile.
"Hello, hello…" The old man’s breathing was slightly labored as he pointed to the box on the table. "Is this the original manuscript of the last forty chapters of *Dream of the Red Chamber* by Cao Xueqin?"
Xu Mo nodded.
"May I take a look?" the old man asked.
"Of course, go ahead."
In the next moment, the old man pulled out a pair of gloves he had prepared earlier, put them on, and carefully lifted the stack of yellowed rice paper from the box.
The old man was not only an expert on *Dream of the Red Chamber* but also well-versed in antiques.
Judging by the design and the carvings on the box, it dated back to the late Ming or early Qing dynasty, which matched the timeline perfectly.
As for the contents of the rice paper, there was no need to elaborate.
The old man was a renowned scholar in Redology, the study of *Dream of the Red Chamber*.
Although he had never read the last forty chapters, based on the first eighty, he had formed a rough idea of what the ending might entail. After decades of research, he had pieced together some clues.
From the very beginning, *Dream of the Red Chamber* subtly hinted at the fates and endings of its characters, without explicitly revealing them in the conclusion. Ironically, the ending of the novel was lost.
Thankfully, Cao Xueqin had alluded to the ending in the opening chapters, or else later generations might never have been able to fully comprehend the book.
Therefore, the complete loss of the last forty chapters of *Dream of the Red Chamber* couldn’t have been due to careless lending or borrowing. There had to be another reason!
After all, if the chapters had been lost due to lending, someone would have read them, and even if the original was lost, someone could have reconstructed the ending. The fact that it was lost so completely suggested something more significant.
In the old man’s view, the real reason the last forty chapters were lost was that their content, once published, would have displeased the imperial court. Even if they had been released, they wouldn’t have survived, leading to the entire book being lost—and possibly even endangering the lives of those involved.
"So it’s true… It’s exactly as I thought!" The old man grew increasingly excited as he read the contents on the rice paper.
The literary world was about to experience a seismic shift!
Redology would be revolutionized!
As for Xu Mo, he would become a hero in the world of Redology—and literature as a whole!