The professor pointed to the picture with the hieroglyphs and said, "Do you know the sacred script? This is it. Although they were not the first modern people to discover these characters, they were the first to record them with a camera. "
More than 5,000 years ago, hieroglyphs, or Egyptian characters, appeared in ancient Egypt.
Nowadays, it was believed that the Egyptian script was the oldest language in the world, and it was also the longest-used language. From the earliest hieroglyphs on the joint plates of the Pharaoh Namur's armor until today, it was still used in some churches in Egypt.
This kind of writing was once considered to be the 'writing of the gods,' so it was called the 'sacred script.'
"The ancient Egyptians believed that their writing was created by Tut, the god of calculation and learning. This is very similar to the Chinese legend of Cangjie creating characters," said Professor Lewis.
Li Du subconsciously said, "Cangjie creating characters, the heavenly rain chestnut, the ghosts cry at night, the creation cannot hide its secret, the spirits cannot hide their form …"
Hans looked at him in astonishment, not knowing what he was talking about.
Professor Lewis smiled and said, "You are Chinese?"
Li Du nodded and said, "Yes, please continue. When you introduced Cangjie creating characters, I couldn't help but sigh."
Professor Lewis said, "Actually, there is nothing to say. These pictures preserve some of the earliest hieroglyphs. I think they are of scientific value."
Hans asked tentatively, "Do these hieroglyphs contain some sort of message? For example, information about the Pharaoh's treasure? "
The professor laughed and said, "Have you ever seen anyone carve information about a treasure on the wall of their house? The ancient Egyptians mastered the method of making papyrus very early. Even if there was any valuable information, they would hide it on the wall. "
Hearing this, Li Du's eyebrows twitched. He thought of the papyrus he had collected.
However, the words on the papyrus were not hieroglyphs. Otherwise, he would have made the connection when he saw these pictures.
Hans asked again, "These pictures are quite famous, right?"
Professor Lewis nodded and said, "Yes, he took thousands of pictures at that time. More than half of them have been lost."
"The value of these pictures lies in the hieroglyphs on them?" Hans threw out another question.
The professor pondered for a moment and said, "It's not just words. In fact, these photos show the changes in history and embody a person's beliefs."
"You have to know that just 20 years after the invention of photography, Maxim risked his life to go deep into the desert and take pictures for a long time. This is admirable."
Li Du could not understand this belief. He said, "This is simply courting death."
The professor smiled and said, "Yes, Maxime's good friend, Flaubert, said the same thing in his essay. But through their efforts, people gained a better understanding of a region that was then suffering from barbaric culture and on the eve of industrialization. "
Hans pointed at the album and said, "So, how much are you willing to pay for them?"
The professor said, "Just as I said on the phone, I can take all of them for 4,000 yuan each."
Hans shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, Professor. The words on these photos have never been made public …"
As he said this, the two young men grinned.
Professor Lewis waved his hand and said, "Let Mr. Fox have a look."
One of the young men opened a tablet and placed it in front of them. There were some photos on it.
Hans and Li Du swiped the screen and saw familiar buildings and words.
The two of them compared the photos on the tablet and found that they were exactly the same as some of the photos in their hands.
Professor Lewis said, "In fact, these photos used to belong to our History Museum, but they were lost during an exhibition. My student has seen these photos before, so he recognized them at a glance when he saw them on the Internet. "
Hans blinked. This time, his biggest bargaining chip was gone.
However, he was still stubborn. "Even if you have seen these words, we have the originals in our hands. We can sell all of them to you for 6,000 yuan each."
Professor Lewis smiled and said, "4,000 yuan is a very reasonable price. If it wasn't for the relationship between them and our school, we wouldn't have offered such a high price!"
Hans looked at Li Du, who shrugged and said, "Let's return them to their original owners. We have to respect knowledge."
"Okay, then 4,000 yuan each. To be honest, I don't want to bargain with knowledge."
One of the young men was disgusted by the conversation between the two. "You respect knowledge and use it to make money?"
Professor Lewis said, "Give me the album. We need a total of 40 photos. I have to identify them one by one."
Li Du snickered and whispered, "Your dream of being a profiteer is shattered."
The three of them quickly selected 40 valuable photos from the album and returned the remaining 24 landscape photos to the two.
"I think these photos are also antiques. Are you interested?" Hans asked shamelessly.
Professor Lewis waved his hand and said, "Sorry, we are not interested …"
"Twenty-four photos for 2,000 yuan!" Hans interrupted him. "I can guarantee that these photos are valuable!"
Professor Lewis hesitated and shook his head. Hans immediately offered again, "1,000 yuan!"
The professor thought for a moment and finally said, "Well, they may be useful to friends in the geography industry. After all, they record the geography of Egypt half a century ago."
Li Du was stunned. "You know the information about these photos?"
One of the black students smiled and said, "They were lost together. They were all from the Egyptian cultural exhibition."
A trip to Tucson had earned him 161,000 dollars. Although the journey was tiring, it was indeed a great harvest.
Both parties handed over the items and parted ways happily.
Walking out of the coffee shop, Hans kicked the trash can and shouted, "Sh * t! Sh * t! Sh * t! Thank God! "
Li Du laughed, "It's not the first time we've made this much money. Why are you so excited?"
Hans said, "You think I'm excited that we've made money? No! I'm excited that we can join the Hundred Thousand Club! "
Li Du was stunned for a moment and then realized that the profit from the new book was 39,000 yuan. Together with the 161,000 yuan they had made this time, they could each get 100,000 yuan.
In addition, they had sold the ivory for 299,000 yuan. They had earned 100,000 yuan from a single storage auction twice. According to the rules, they could join the Hundred Thousand Club.
Li Du was also happy when he understood this. He said, "No wonder you wanted to sell those photos for 1,000 yuan. But d * mn, we're still short of 100 yuan!"
The new book had earned 39,000 yuan, but the second-hand book had a cost of 100 yuan. They had earned 160,900 yuan.
Hans grinned and said, "But we still have a bunch of old books to deal with. Can't they sell for 100 yuan? That's impossible. Big Fox can sell them for 500 yuan! "
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