"So, look, none of you ever uploaded any photo of the painting with the cloth still covering it to your website for public viewing, yet I can produce an identical image. Tell me, could it be that you yourselves leaked the secret?"

"Absolutely impossible!" Elgar shook his head again and again in denial. "For the sake of the owner, we would never do such a thing."

"Exactly." Gu Nuan pointed out, "Look more closely, look carefully. Under the covered painting, isn’t there a line of tiny characters and a family seal?"

Elgar actually didn’t need to study the picture, because when Xiao Shulan had this painting sent to them through a third party, they had examined it thoroughly, and it was indeed so.

"That’s correct." Elgar’s voice dropped even lower as he spoke. What Gu Nuan was saying was getting closer and closer to the truth; in other words, there was a real possibility her claim that their painting was fake was true.

Gu Nuan went on, "There’s something I have to tell you. In fact, this painting can only be opened by one specific person. If anyone else ignores this rule and lifts the cloth to see the painting, something inconceivable will happen."

Elgar and Brian both exclaimed in shock, "What inconceivable thing are you talking about?"

"After Miss Xiao the Second handed the painting over to you for auction, she fell under a spell, killed someone, and was sent to a mental hospital. Before that, she was perfectly fine, a completely normal person, wasn’t she? So this painting has been put under some kind of curse."

Yikes! Both foreigners shuddered in unison.

Elgar pulled out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his forehead. "You’re making it sound way too mystical, Mrs. Xiao. We don’t do your country’s feudal superstitions here."

"I don’t want to believe it either. But those are the facts. To prove whether what I’m saying is wrong or not, I can tell you another way to verify the authenticity of the painting. We can’t lift the cloth, but there’s still a way to continue verifying whether it’s genuine."

"What way?"

"Look at the last two pictures again." 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Elgar moved aside the first photo and looked at the second and third. The last two images were clearly of two paintings—two paintings that looked identical when covered by cloth. The only difference was the tiny handwritten names on the sides, indicating the different temporary owners of the work.

On the canvases of both paintings, a layer of some peculiar liquid had been splashed. On the half of the cloth that had been soaked, faint images emerged, as if a magic trick were being performed.

Elgar stared in astonishment. "This is...?"

"This is the correct way to view this painting. So Miss Xiao the Second must have only handed the painting over to you, without telling you how to view it properly or giving you the liquid, right? Because what she gave you was a fake to begin with."

Elgar and Brian exchanged looks.

"I can hand over the liquid to you now so you can try it. Actually, you should have noticed during your previous inspection that the layer of cloth covering the painting is specially waterproof, custom-made for this purpose."

Looking at the bottle of special liquid Gu Nuan had placed on the table, Elgar hesitated over whether to pick it up.

"I’ve said everything I needed to say. So, for safety’s sake, I also recorded today’s conversation. Even if you later pretend ignorance for profit and auction the painting off anyway, and the buyer notices something wrong and comes after us, we need to protect ourselves. That’s why I had to record this—to show the world that we fulfilled our duty to inform."

Having said all this, Gu Nuan stood up and left without waiting for their reply.

Watching Gu Nuan and her party walk away, Elgar’s face was dark as he remained silent.