Grant Foreman sat up straighter as Frankie Mullins walked up to the front of the class to give his informative speech.

The class was getting restless, having listened to quite a few full speeches already. The last person went a full 8 minutes overtime. Professor Haggard kept tapping his watch to remind the student but he just kept going, clearly passionate about the subject of howler monkeys.

"Hello everyone," said Frankie, setting up his laptop for a slideshow. He had a squeaky voice and thin frame that instilled a sense of pity in Grant. He could feel Frankie's public speaking anxiety from where he sat in the second row.

"Your--I mean, I am here today to talk to ya'll about a truly fascinating interesting piece of history many of you might not be familiar with."

Frankie pressed a button to move on to a slide showing Chinese warriors in yellow clothing fighting against better equipped Chinese government forces.

"In the 1850s a man named Hong Xiuquan had a series of revelations and dreams, likely delusions, which had him convinced that he was the young brother of Jesus Christ himself. He was able to convince many people of this fact and some believe he had sorcerer like powers. Overtime his following was in the hundreds of thousands and then founded what he called the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom."

"Hey," someone whispered to their friend behind Grant. "If I got a million followers on social media do you think I could start a nation?"

"Hong started a rebellion, partly for religious reason and partly for political reason. You see Hong was of the Hakka ethnic group in China, who were treated unfairly by the ruling class of Manchus."

Frankie showed a slide of Chinese men with shaves heads and ponytails that went down their back. "Manchus liked this kind of hairstyle so Taiping rebels were called long hairs for keeping their hair untied and unshaven. Anyways Hong's rebels conquered a third of China and held it for ten years. Eventually the Qing gained the upper-hand with the help of foreign powers and the rebellion was pretty much toast when the Qing recaptured the Taiping capitol of Nanjing. The rebels called it Tianjing though."

"I guess God wasn't on their side after all," Grant's friend Monty whispered to him.

"Some rebels continued to fight but these were only small scale battles or skirmishes. Now this is all information you can easily find in an encyclopedia but what I really want to share with you today is something you probably wouldn't find in any textbook."

Frankie was practically shaking with anxiety and excitement but half the class wasn't even paying attention. The girl sitting in front of Grant was shopping online for clothes.

Frankie showed a slide of an old looking coin with a hole in the center. It had Chinese characters on it and was absurdly large by modern standards. "A gold Taiping coin was recently found in the Philippines. Now how on earth did a coin from a rebel kingdom travel so far south? My theory is that a lot of Taiping rebels fled to other countries or other parts of China when the capitol fell. Nanjing was a big deal of a city, a former regional capitol for the Ming Dyansty and the rebels would have accumulated a lot of wealth in their conquests. The Heavenly Kingdom's riches are still out there hidden away, likely move out of the city in secret when it was clear that the end was near. Someone just had to be willing to dig deeper. Thank you for your time."

A few students in the room clapped with Professor Haggard making the most noise.

"That was quite interesting," said the professor. "You had a clear voice and solid posture. Great use of visuals too. I would just say that your informative speeches should be well researched and based on facts alone. You are informing people on existing knowledge, bringing it to their attention."

"Professor that last bit wasn't a made up fantasy," said Frankie, turning red. Grant felt himself cringe. Frankie's embarrassment was contagious. "It's based on online research."

"What was your source?"

Frankie hesitated.

"Alright I won't press. Anyways great job students your all dismissed. Remember to turn in your speech notes and reviews by Tuesday of next week!"

Grant shoved past students filing out of the classroom and patted Frankie on the shoulder. "Hey that was probably the most interesting speech. I don't like to talk trash behind peoples backs but that howler monkey speech from the last guy had me fast asleep."

"Thanks Grant," said Frankie. "I was really into this project even though I hate public speaking."

"Yeah no problem. I'll see you around."

At the Trioli University cafeteria, Grant had dinner with Monty. Monty's parents had told him to go on a diet to lose a few pounds. He had resisted grabbing the cheeseburgers they always put out at the grill section and instead opted for the leafy greens at the salad bar.

"Monty dumping dressing all over your salad kind of defeats the point. Add black olives for flavor or something."

"Ugh olives have this weird taste to them," said Monty. "The pulled pork looks good."

Grant looked down at his own meal. The main course at the Homemade Goods section of the cafeteria was Hawaiian pulled pork and mashed potatoes. The pork has tough and greasy but still fairly tasty.

"It's alright I guess."

"Say what did you think of Frankie's speech?"

Grant sipped his iced tea. "I thought it was pretty good. The professor might dock points for steering away from facts and moving towards speculation though."

"Well what if it is true," said Monty excitedly.

"Oh come on," said Grant. "It was just one of those what ifs you find on the internet. I mean I saw this one picture someone posted online of a strange walrus looking thing. The post described it as live mermaid specimen that washed up on the shore of England. Was a pretty real looking photo but its probably Photoshopped."

Monty rolled his eyes. "Cmon man. Ok ok if you told me someone found aliens in New Mexico or proof that Nazis deployed laser weaponry during World War II then I would be skeptical but coins and Chinese valuables hidden away is another thing. I mean it is a fact that the Taiping had their own form of currency and that they were wealthy enough to remodel the palace at Nanjing. Maybe its all sitting in some basement in some old temple in Japan or something and no one has bothered to look!"

"Monty I think you need to take a break from playing fantasy games like Dragon Hordes" said Grant. "Remember that guy in Chicago who got arrested playing around as a vigilante? Don't take these stories too seriously or you'll end up like him."

"Alright I get it," said Monty glumly.

Grant instantly felt guilty, thinking he had ruined Monty's excitement and wonder. "But hey if another one of those coins show up. Maybe I'd start paying attention."

But Monty was already paying close attention to something else. A girl had just bent over to pick up a fallen napkin. Her running shorts stretched to highlight the outline of her underwear. Grant quickly looked away but Monty failed to do the same.

"Hey bro what you looking at?" said a gruff voice.

"Damn," Grant muttered under his breath. A fit looking guy with a buzzcut wearing a long sleeve shirt walked up to their table.

"Sorry," said Monty, shaking in his seat. "I spaced out. I didn't mean nothing."

"Hey man cool it, it was a mistake," said Grant.

The boyfriend folded his arms. "Listen here. If it was you in my position and you spotted some guy staring your girlfriend with bulging eyes, how would you feel?"

Grant shrugged. "I would feel like shit but I would walk away after he apologized. Isn't that what my friend just did? He did say sorry."

"Ima kick your fucking ass if I see you do that again," said the boyfriend, wagging his finger at Monty.

Grant stood up sharply. "You crossed the line. There was a line, and you crossed it."

"Why are you doing all the talking for him.....bitch." The boyfriend was practically shouting now. A few uncomfortable expressions formed at the nearby tables.

"Hey if that was your friend sitting there and some dick was talking to him like you are now, how would you feel?"

The boyfriend balled his hands. "It seems we cannot get along."

Grant had his hoodie and t-shirt off in a flash. The sight of his toned torso molded through years of training and sports had gasps sounding off in the vicinity. He ran his hand through his short brown hair, but the preening behavior was just a false show to let down his opponent's guard. Grant snatched his chair and threw it at the boyfriend. The boyfriend roared with pain as he fell back. He got up quick and tried to tackle Grant who simply grabbed him mid charge and threw him against the refrigerated desert display.

"What on earth is going on?" the cafeteria manager bellowed, rushing onto the scene.

"It was self defense sir," said an onlooker. "The guy who just got wasted was being aggressive. The shirtless guy was defending the fat kid."

"Hey! Monty protested.

"Looks like you got what was coming," said the manager. "Alright as penance your going to clean up the mess you made and your going to help the staff bake another cheesecake. You ruined one slamming into the desert display."

As the manager has the staff carry the unconscious student away, Grant put his clothes back on and approached the girlfriend. "It wasn't my intention to hurt your boyfriend like that. But I had to end the fight quick before it got uglier."

"That's ok he wasn't actually my boyfriend," said the girl. "I mean I knew he liked me but we aren't officially a thing. By the way do you think I could have your number? Wanna hang out?"

Grant ignored her and walked out of the cafeteria with Monty. They spent the rest of the night playing video games in their dorm. Grant didn't have time to hang around with girls. He was far too busy in his free time in the world of Dragon Hordes, meeting girls and fighting legions of trolls.

After they had gone to bed Grant couldn't get the Taiping Heavenly treasures out of his mind. It was especially hard with Monty mumbling about it in his sleep. Grant used to like to play pirate as a child with his father but he had long outgrown such childish notions of adventure and play. In the real world the only treasures one would find would be mobile devices someone accidentally dropped on the sidewalk or at parks. Grant smiled thinking of the pirate treasure he had "discovered" in his backyard as a eight year old, which was clearly planted by his father. It was his last thought before he fell into a deep sleep.