Chapter 7: Building Reputation

Early the next day, Liang En carried these items to Pierce's shop. For him, the things he had bought from the antique store yesterday were of no use after completing the experiments. Therefore, even if the prices were slashed, he wanted to quickly deal with these items.

"Lawrence, you're here! I was just about to call you," Pierce said with a smile as he entered the shop, holding a cellphone in his hand.

"What's up?" Liang En asked curiously after placing the bag containing the items on the counter. "Did you sell that hummingbird pistol, so you're in a hurry to repay the money?"

"No, of course not," Pierce shook his head and said, "But I've managed to get in touch with a private auction for nobles. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, that gun should sell within this week."

"A private auction for nobles, what's that?"

"It's a gathering of wealthy and influential people who come together under the pretext of an auction for socializing. It's similar to them hosting hunting events or banquets," Pierce shrugged.

"So, unlike regular auctions, at this kind of auction, the items being auctioned should not only be rare but preferably come with some stories attached. That's how they can attract the participants of the auction to open their wallets generously."

"And the process of finding this hummingbird pistol that you've undertaken fits their preferences perfectly. So, I believe it should fetch a good price," Pierce explained.

"If it's about stories—I think I might have something here that could further enhance the value of that pistol." After listening to Pierce's explanation, Liang En immediately took out his phone.

"When I discovered that hidden compartment, I had a feeling that this might be my first big find since entering this field. So, I took a few photos specifically to keep as mementos—"

"This is amazing, brother." Pierce's smile grew even brighter as he looked at the photos Liang En had taken when he found the compartment.

"You know, this photo could potentially raise the expected auction price of that hummingbird pistol by another 5%. For wealthy individuals, the story of uncovering a treasure worth tens of thousands of pounds from an old cabinet is quite appealing."

The spending habits of these wealthy individuals felt refreshing to Liang En. Their perspectives on consumption weren't quite in line with those of ordinary people. Thus, if he intended to do business with them, mastering this knowledge was absolutely essential.

In the next few minutes, Liang En sold most of the items he had acquired the previous day to Pierce for £150. However, regarding the string of glass beads, Pierce had his own perspective.

"If it were just a trade bead necklace, this string of beads would be an ordinary antique. But with this bead from the East added to it, it becomes a representation of the ancient trade routes of the Old Continent." Pierce carefully examined the Warring States dragonfly eye bead, his face showing a satisfied smile.

"Although this item won't fetch a very high price, because of its unique storytelling quality, I believe it could become an auction item."

"Sounds promising. So, are you planning to put it up for auction at the event?"

"Yes, items with stories often fetch a very good price at auctions. So, if you're not in urgent need of money, you can try putting this item up for auction," Pierce suggested.

After considering it, Liang En decided to put these items up for auction. He wasn't in immediate need of money, so making a little extra cash was certainly a good thing.

"By the way, do you have any plans for today?" After handing over the receipt for the glass bead string and £150 in cash to Liang En, Pierce suddenly asked.

"Nothing special, just that while I've been self-studying ancient languages, I've come across some interesting things. So, I'm thinking of writing a few papers and seeing if I can get them published in the 'Journal of the British Archaeological Association.'"

This was an important path Liang En had found for his future development after acquiring his unique ability.

Compared to the treasure hunters who were using shovels or metal detectors to dig around, scholars who could contribute to history and archaeology were more likely to obtain various resources. Additionally, this was beneficial for him to leverage the potential of his unique ability.

When he activated his unique ability earlier, he received a generous gift from Champollion's memories. Due to the differences between the two worlds, certain significant artifacts had not been discovered. Thus, in this world, Champollion was merely a well-known Eastern archaeology pioneer, without involvement in the study of ancient Egyptian history.

Therefore, in this world, the study of ancient Egyptian writing had only progressed to the point where Thomas Young, who had conducted the "double-slit interference experiment," deciphered some ancient Egyptian numerals and discovered the cartouche.

What's worse, the current historical community's understanding of ancient Egyptian writing leaned towards the views presented in the book "Hieroglyphica" by Horapollo, written around 500 AD.

The author argued in the book that in Egyptian hieroglyphs, the symbol of a rabbit meant "open," because a rabbit's eyes were always open. The symbol of a vulture meant "mother," because all vultures are female.

Undoubtedly, most of this content was pure nonsense, but the problem was that it successfully misled subsequent researchers. To the point that there was currently no one who could truly translate the content of those ancient Egyptian texts.

For people in this world, ancient Egyptian writing was a dead language, impossible to decipher. However, now Liang En from another world held the key.

The first step in this direction was well taken – correcting the misconception that the pictorial ancient Egyptian writing was purely ideographic.

Therefore, for his first paper, he wanted to prove, through the comparison of the names in the cartouches of the Ptolemaic dynasty kings, that ancient Egyptian writing could also serve as an alphabet to represent pronunciation.

With this foundation, he could gradually replicate the research steps Champollion had taken in his mind years ago and eventually decipher ancient Egyptian writing in this world.

"Too bad, I was actually planning to take you to the bar for a drink. It seems we'll have to celebrate after the auction is over." Pierce naturally didn't know Liang En's plans, but he did understand that academic matters like these were far more important than going out for drinks.

True to his words, after returning from Pierce's place to his rented accommodation, Liang En followed Champollion's approach and used the Ptolemaic and Cleopatra names in ancient Egyptian writing as examples to propose that specific symbols represented their pronunciation.

After suggesting this viewpoint, he extrapolated to the name of Alexander using the speculated rules. Lastly, he used this method to decipher the names of the foreign pharaohs in known ancient Egyptian inscriptions.

For Liang En, the task wasn't particularly difficult, but it was quite intricate.

Fortunately, he had only graduated a little over two months ago, so his skill in writing papers was at its peak, coupled with the fact that in this digital age, he could easily access all the required materials.

So, after three days of hard work, he finally finished writing the paper and emailed it to the "Journal of the British Archaeological Association."