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Related Novels (1)
Related Chapters (4)
The Price of Self-Knowledge
Words: 4193 · Source Novel:: The Appraisal Codex
At the warlord's fortress, Yunsheng presents the forged seal but executes a subtle betrayal: he "flawlessly" describes the piece in a way that, by the codex's own logic, activates the warlord's secret fear of being seen as an uncultured brute. The warlord's violent rage erupts, shattering the seal and exposing Vance's syndicate in a bloodbath. As the warlord is deposed, Yunsheng rescues the dying detective and publicly burns the codex in the ruins of the Zheng family hall. The final scene mirrors Lin Baishui's act of journalistic sacrifice: Yunsheng publishes a full confession of the deception in the resurrected Social Daily News, freeing others from the shadow of their own desires and stepping, burned clean, into an uncertain future.
The Algorithm's Own Shadow
Words: 3172 · Source Novel:: The Appraisal Codex
Yunsheng turns the codex on himself, discovering his hidden desire: a burning need for intellectual validation from his lost father figure, and a revenge fantasy against the warlord who killed Lin Baishui. Vance reveals he knew all along, having used the codex to groom Yunsheng as his perfect authenticator. The syndicate plans its final, most ambitious fraud—to sell a forged imperial seal to the very warlord Yunsheng hates, using Yunsheng's own algorithmic vulnerability as the bait. The detective closes in, linking the antique wars to a trail of corpses, and forces Yunsheng to choose: become the codex's final victim or write a new ending.
The Porcelain Vein of Greed
Words: 3184 · Source Novel:: The Appraisal Codex
Using the codex, Vance's syndicate crafts a sublime Song dynasty fake, a porcelain brush washer with a deliberate, imperceptible crack designed to trigger a specific anxiety in two rival families, the Liangs and the Zhengs. Yunsheng watches in horror as the antique, placed at a covert auction, ignites a bidding war fueled not by wealth, but by the algorithm's predicted cocktail of ancestral shame and desperate one-upmanship. The sale closes, and the seeds of mutual financial destruction are sown, all while a veteran detective, haunted by Lin Baishui's unsolved murder, begins to circle Yunsheng.
The Dead Journalist's Warning
Words: 3197 · Source Novel:: The Appraisal Codex
In the tense days following Lin Baishui's public execution, a young antiques clerk, Song Yunsheng, discovers the "Appraisal Codex" hidden inside a stolen bronze vessel. The book describes a chilling method: by observing how a person instinctively judges a flaw in a piece, one can map their deepest, most shameful desires with mathematical precision. Desperate to find his disappeared mentor, Yunsheng agrees to use the codex for an enigmatic foreign dealer, Mr. Vance, on a test client—a minor warlord whose secret covetousness is instantly laid bare.