Not surprisingly, ranking guests loved every minute of a stylishly staged dinner that was actually more of a feast. After dinner, Qin Shang led them to a lavish theater where they were shown the latest feature films flown in from around the world. They sat in soft, velvet chairs and wore earphones that translated the dialogue into their native language. By the end of the program it was close to midnight. A light buffet was laid out, and the guests mingled among themselves while Qin Shang would disappear into a private sitting room with a selected guest or two to discuss world markets or negotiate business deals.

This evening Qin Shang requested the presence of Zhu Kwan, the seventy-year-old scholar who was China's most respected historian. Kwan was a little man with a smiling face and small, heavily lidded brown eyes. He was invited to sit in a thickly cushioned wooden chair carved with lions and offered a small Ming-dynasty china cup of peach brandy.

Qin Shang smiled. "I wish to thank you for coming, Zhu Kwan."

"I am grateful for your invitation," Zhu Kwan replied graciously. "It is a great honor to be a guest in your magnificent home."

"You are our country's greatest authority on ancient Chinese history and culture. I requested your presence because I wanted to meet you and discuss a possible venture between us." "I must assume you want me to do research." Qin Shang nodded. "I do." "How can I be of service?"

"Have you taken a close look at some of my treasures?" "Yes indeed," answered Zhu Kwan. "It is a rare treat for a historian to study our country's greatest artworks firsthand. I had no idea so many pieces of our past still existed. It is thought many of them were lost. The magnificent bronze incense burners inlaid with gold and gemstones from the Chou dynasty, the bronze chariot with life-size driver and four horses from the Han dynasty—"

"Fakes, replicas!" Qin Shang snapped in a sudden display of torment. "What you consider masterworks of our ancestors were re-created from photographs of the originals."

Zhu Kwan was astonished and disillusioned at the same time. "They look so perfect, I was completely fooled."

"Not if you had time to study them under laboratory conditions."

"Your artisans are extraordinary. As skilled as those a thousand years ago. On today's market your commissioned works must be worth a fortune."

Qin Shang sat heavily in a chair opposite Zhu Kwan. "True, but reproductions are not priceless like the genuine objects. That is why I'm delighted you accepted my invitation. What I'd like you to do is compile an inventory of the art treasures that were known to exist prior to nineteen forty-eight, but have since disappeared."

Zhu Kwan eyed him steadily. "Are you prepared to pay a great sum of money for such a list?" "I am." "Then you shall have a complete inventory itemizing every known art treasure that has been missing in the last fifty to sixty years by the end of the week. You wish it delivered here or at your office in Hong Kong?"