The Emperor's Jade by Robert Mitchell

Author:Robert Mitchell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Grave robbing in China, Tomb-raiding in China, Chinese gangsters smuggling antiques, young adult fiction adventure thriller, buried treasure Chinese tomb
Publisher: ROBERT MITCHELL
Published: 2019-02-17T00:00:00+00:00

Ten

By the time we arrived back at the college we were both thoroughly drained, and that was probably a good thing. It meant that there was no energy left for mulling over what had happened, no time to keep thinking of what might have been, if only. We went back to classes and to oral exams for the students and tried to carry on our lives as though nothing had happened. There were reminders, of course, but we rode them as best we could.

“What have you two guys been up to?” Sarah asked as we sat down for dinner that evening with most of the other foreign teachers in the small restaurant which we frequented from time to time. It had just the two tables, one medium sized and the other not quite as big. We had been introduced to it by a couple of the foreign teachers who had stayed on for a few months just after we had arrived. The proprietor was known as Mr Cheap & Friendly, mainly because he was cheerful and his meals were reasonably priced. We would usually get one of the students to telephone ahead and order our meal before we arrived. Mr Cheap & Friendly would then go out, purchase the fresh ingredients, and his wife would do the cooking out in the back of the tiny shop.

“What do you mean, what have we been up to?” I threw back at Sarah defensively.

“Well, we don’t seem to see much of you these days,” she replied, somewhat taken aback by my terse reply. “The two of you seem to be always off somewhere: Qufu, Qingdao, Hangzhou, or the like. Are the pair of you thinking of writing a travel book or something?”

“Nay, lassie,” Duncan said, jumping in before I could put my foot in it even further. “We just like each other’s company. And besides, Jamie doesn’t pry into my business, and I don’t pry into his, or into yours!”

Sarah sat with her mouth half open with no ready answer. Not so Greg.

“Crap,” he said. “The pair of you have got something going.”

“What does one suppose it could it be?” David asked in his very English accent.

“Nothing that you’d be interested in,” I replied.

“Drugs?” asked Jerry, the teacher from Nigeria, the only one of us who was doing this job in order to earn a living. I shook my head and he smiled.

“I bet it’s got something to do with that ceramic statue that Moon dropped and smashed,” Jane said. “I bet it was one of those nude models that the Chinese doctors used when they were trying to diagnose a woman’s medical problems. If it was, then I hope Moon did it on purpose. I bet the two of you have been looking for more of them. I think it’s disgusting!”

“Jesus Christ, woman!” Duncan moaned. “Give it a rest will you.”

“If you’re going to blaspheme,” she replied. “I’m leaving.”

“Stay right where you are,” I said. “It’s got nothing to do with Moon breaking something, or with nude statues, or with anything like that.

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