Properly awed by the scope and splendor of the rebuilt temples, the guests relaxed in the gardens, lounged around the swimming pools or worked in the library, which was staffed with highly professional secretaries and specially equipped with the latest publications, computers and communications systems for businessmen and government officials so they could remain in convenient contact with their various offices.
Dinners were always formal. Guests gathered in an immense antechamber that was a lush tropical garden with waterfalls, reflection ponds filled with vividly colored carp and a light perfumed mist that filtered from jets in the ceiling. Women, to protect their hairstyles, sat under artistically dyed silk umbrellas. After cocktails, they gathered in the great hall of the temple that served as a dining room and sat in massive chairs exotically carved with dragon legs and armrests. Rat-ware was optional-chopsticks for Oriental guests, gold-plated utensils for those used to Western tastes. Instead of the traditional long rectangular table with the host seated at its head, Qin Shang preferred a huge circular table with the guests comfortably spaced around the outer circumference. A narrow aisle was cut in one section of the table so gorgeous, svelte Chinese women in beautiful, form-fitting silk dresses with thigh-high slits in the skirts could serve a multitude of national dishes conveniently from the inside. To Qin Shang's creative mind, this was far more practical than the time-honored method of serving over a guest's shoulder.
After everyone was seated, Qin Shang made his appearance in an elevator that came up through the floor. He usually wore the expensive silk robes of a mandarin lord and sat on an ancient throne elevated two inches above the chairs of his guests. Irrespective of status or nationality, Qin Shang acted as if every meal was a ceremonial occasion and he was the emperor.
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 gem-stones 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 recreated 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?"
Qin Shang looked at him quizzically. "That is quite an exceptional commitment. Are you sure you can fulfill my request in so short a time?"
"I have already accumulated a detailed description of the treasures over a period of thirty years," explained Zhu Kwan. "It was a labor of love for my own personal satisfaction. I only require a few days to put it in readable order. Then you may have it free of charge."
"That is most gracious of you, but I am not a man who asks for favors without compensation."
"I will accept no money, but there is one provision."
"You have but to name it."
"I humbly ask that you use your enormous resources in an attempt to locate the lost treasures so they can be returned to the people of China."
Qin Shang nodded solemnly. "I promise to use every source at my command. Though I have only spent fifteen years to your thirty on the search, I regret to say I have made little progress. The mystery is as deep as the disappearance of the bones of the Peking man."
"You have found no leads either?" inquired Zhu Kwan.
"The only key to a possible solution my own agents have turned up is a ship called the Princess Dou Wan."