Hey there! Just to clarify, I'm not the one who wrote this novel. I'm just translating it. The original novel name is "寻宝从英伦开始" and it's written by 子爵的青花瓷. I'll try to preserves the beauty, emotions, and essence of the story, so that more readers can experience its magic and wonder. I approach this task seriously, always seeking to honor the original work and the creativity of its author, while making it accessible and enjoyable for a broader audience.
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In the outskirts of London city, a moderately aged bread van parked in front of a row of Victorian-style red-brick terraced houses. The rarely seen sunlight of the British Isles illuminated the white body of the van and the street, significantly brightening up the area around the entrance.
Inside the house nearest to the van, the sounds of items colliding echoed from an opened second-floor window.
"Thud—" a stack of hefty books and magazines were placed heavily on the ground from a bookshelf, revealing several books hidden behind them.
"It looks like my guess was correct. How could such a spacious cabinet only contain one layer of books?" Liang En shone his flashlight into the depths of the bookshelf, then used his gloved hands, equipped with heavy-duty tools, to take out the items one by one.
Perhaps due to the extended time these objects had spent inside, even on an island not particularly prone to dust like the relatively small ones of Britain, a layer of substantial dust covered each of the items.
As he removed these books from the compartment of the bookshelf, clouds of dust immediately filled the modestly sized room. Fortunately, Liang En was wearing a gas mask designed for painting, so he avoided inhaling any dust.
For certain reasons, after completing his university education in Ireland, Liang En didn't pursue a career related to his field of study. Instead, he chose to become a freelance treasure hunter in London.
Regrettably, due to a string of bad luck, he had spent the last couple of months working solely as a mover, collecting various pieces of junk.
But now, the tide seemed to have turned. After going through six entire houses in vain, he had finally discovered some valuable items in the seventh house that required clearing.
"If things don't improve, I might have to ask my parents for financial help. So, at the very least, let me earn some extra money this time—" Liang En muttered under his breath as he moved the objects.
The books concealed behind the bookshelf weren't numerous, and they didn't appear to be in such a fragile state that they might fall apart at any moment. In just ten minutes, a dozen or so items were neatly laid out on a table near the window.
All these objects appeared to be books with leather or faux leather covers. Considering the generally higher prices of books across Europe, even second-hand hardcover books could fetch a decent sum.
Following this was a round of rummaging through cabinets and drawers. Once he was certain that every corner of the small living room had been thoroughly inspected, with nothing overlooked, Liang En began organizing the spoils he had placed on the table by the window.
"'Pride and Prejudice' from 1962, 'The Hobbit' from 1968, 'A Tale of Two Cities' from 1951…"
After wiping away the thick layer of dust from the book covers with a dry cloth, Liang En noticed that all these books were hardcover editions from before the 1970s.
Though these dozen or so books appeared well-aged, upon opening them, Liang En discovered they were essentially untouched, without any signs of having been read.
Old books in the UK weren't cheap, so these books could easily fetch around three to four hundred pounds each.
Clearly, considering that the occupants of these terrace houses were all lower-income manual laborers, it was unlikely they had purchased these high-quality literary books themselves.
Given the current circumstances, Liang En effortlessly deduced that the previous occupants must have acquired these books unexpectedly and then left them to gather dust here.
It was only when the landlord of this house decided to sell the property that Liang En was hired to clean the abandoned dwelling, which had been vacant for at least a year or two. It was during this process that he discovered the batch of books.
This discovery filled Liang En with excitement. Although these hardcover books were all quite common, if he managed to sell them in the right place as second-hand books, they might fetch around four to five hundred pounds each.
In his current line of work, simple cleaning tasks didn't yield much money. The real earnings came from finding things others didn't want or had forgotten during the cleaning process.
For instance, the contract Liang En had signed this time was structured this way: the landlord paid him only half of the market rate, but explicitly stated that apart from the property itself, everything else he found would belong to him.
However, whether he could find valuable items depended purely on luck. Over the past couple of months of cleaning, Liang En's most significant find was a limited-edition silver Zippo lighter with intricate carvings that he had stumbled upon amidst a pile of garbage in one of the houses. He managed to sell it for a little over a hundred and fifty pounds.
After inspecting all of these valuable books, and placing them neatly into the large backpack he had brought along, Liang En sat down on a nearby chair, removed his gas mask, and took in a breath of fresh air as he gazed out of the window at the blue sky and white clouds.
At twenty-four years old, he hailed from an Earth in a parallel universe. Yet, two months ago, he had awoken to find himself swapped into another version of himself in a different world.
After spending a few days sorting through the memories in his mind, Liang En realized that the two worlds had strikingly similar histories, geography, and politics, essentially resembling twin universes.
For instance, this world also had dynasties like the Zhou, Qin, Han, and Tang, and regions like Europe, Asia, and Africa. Even his own family members remained almost unchanged from his previous life.
The use of "almost" was necessary because, while the overall differences between the two worlds were minimal, there were profound disparities in certain aspects.
To give an example, the biggest change for Liang En compared to his previous world was his transformation from a Chinese person to a Chinese-Irish individual.
This alteration had come about because in this world, when the distant relative who had been missing for half a century was selecting an heir, he had chosen Liang En's father rather than the uncle from his original world.
As for his current line of work, the reason was straightforward. Alongside his memories, Liang En had inherited a legacy known as a "History Explorer." To activate this golden finger, a series of conditions had to be met.
However, what he hadn't anticipated was the extreme difficulty of making money through this endeavor. The money he had on hand now could barely sustain his living expenses.
"Card." With this thought, Liang En immediately summoned the only function he could use from his golden finger. Subsequently, before his retinas, a card started to materialize—
This was Liang En's current golden finger, and it was the tangible form of the inherited legacy. Unfortunately, the card was gray in color, indicating that it hadn't been successfully activated.
In the center of the card, a line of golden text appeared: [Exploration Completed, Can Activate]
"Hmm?" Seeing the words "Can Activate" in the final status column, Liang En abruptly stood up from his seat, even flipping over the chair.
Up until this point, the text had consistently displayed "Exploration Incomplete," and the final status had always been "Not Activated."
"Which means that my act of finding these books was actually a recognized exploration, whereas neither reading books nor finding that silver lighter counted." A calm Liang En quickly deduced a pattern.
Based on his conjecture, these books could be considered items of historical value, so finding them qualified as an exploration recognized by the golden finger. However, the lighter he had found earlier evidently lacked historical significance compared to these books.
"Alright, let me see what you really are—" After taking a deep breath, Liang En used his consciousness to tap the card.