Chapter 2

Translator: Zayn_

“What? Four Weeks!” Hearing Zheng Dagang’s words, the middle-aged man looked at the receipt in his hand in disbelief, but the words “handicraft age: four weeks” were clearly written on it.

“Kid, you… You tricked me!” The middle-aged man’s face became very ugly. Looking at the receipt in his hand, he could see that there was a faint horizontal seal on the ‘four’. In addition, the two strokes in the middle of the ‘four’ were a little too large. If one did not pay attention, it would clearly feel like the ‘Western’ character.

“This big brother, this is where you are wrong.”

Since he was in the right, Zheng Dagang’s words were not so pleasant to hear. His voice also became louder. “In our line of work, we test people’s judgment. You didn’t see it at that time, and now you’re trying to settle the score. This is a little against the rules. If you continue to make a fuss, you won’t get any benefits.”

“Brother Gang, Xiaofan, what’s going on?”

Su Xiaofan’s stall was surrounded by four or five strong men, which had already attracted the attention of the stall owners next to him. When Zheng Dagang raised his voice, a few people suddenly came over. It was common to encounter people who were unwilling to buy a counterfeit in the antique market and wanted to settle the score. This required the help of big guys. In the blink of an eye, the four or five people were surrounded in the middle.

“Fine, brother, I admit defeat.” The middle-aged man looked around and said, “It was my mistake, so I can’t blame anyone else. Today’s matter was my fault. Everyone, just pretend I never came.”

As he spoke, the middle-aged man raised his hand and squeezed out with the people around him. The people who surrounded them saw that the matter had been resolved and didn’t make things difficult for them. After a while, they disappeared into the bustling crowd of the antique street.

“Thank you, brothers.” Seeing them leave, Su Xiaofan heaved a sigh of relief and quickly cupped his hands.

“Hey, what’s the matter? You made a mistake and you still have the face to come and settle scores?”

“That’s right. Xiaofan, if you need anything, just shout. We’ll come over immediately.”

The surrounding crowd laughed and joked for a while before dispersing. After all, each family had their own stalls to look after. Although the items were not expensive, it would be troublesome if they were stolen.

“Xiaofan, you did break the rules in this matter.” After the crowd dispersed, Zheng Dagang pulled Su Xiaofan and whispered, “It’s understandable if you sold a piece of bronze for a thousand yuan, but you sold it for eight thousand yuan. That’s a bit too much. You can’t blame those people for coming to settle the score.”

The antique market, especially the street stalls, was basically selling small things. It was considered good business if they could earn three to five hundred yuan a day. Su Xiaofan sold a counterfeit for eight thousand yuan, which was sometimes equivalent to the sales of other stalls in a month. In the industry’s words, this move was a bit ruthless.

What’s more, Zheng Dagang had seen it clearly just now. When Su Xiaofan wrote the receipt, he had also been careful. Although the horizontal mark of the one word above the four words was shallow, it could still be distinguished if one looked carefully, so Zheng Dagang said that Su Xiaofan had broken the rules.

“Brother Gang, it’s actually quite complicated to make that thing. 8000 yuan is not a lot.” Su Xiaofan chuckled wryly. “The bronze ware I made was a replica of a daisheng. It was a combined item and was very rare on the market. I thought he was an expert and knew that it was not easy to make. Who knew that he would really think that it was the real deal?”

“Daisheng? What the hell is that?” Hearing Su Xiaofan’s words, Zheng Dagang was stunned for a moment. He didn’t know much about bronze and had never heard of such a strange name.

“That thing is a kind of hair ornament of ancient women. I saw it from the rubbings of my grandfather’s bronze wares.” Su Xiaofan explained to Zheng Dagang.

The so-called “daisheng” was actually composed of three parts, two clips and a connecting rod. In the portraits of the Han Dynasty in Wu’s Temple, one could see the engraved pattern of “victory”. The two symmetrical victories are connected by a “stick”. Classic of Mountains and Seas “recorded” that the Queen Mother of the West wore a victory staff.

During the Western Han Dynasty, the Queen Mother of the West was highly respected by the ruling class, so the “sheng” on her head was also popular with the ancient people. People began to wear different styles of “Daisheng “. As “daisheng” became more and more popular, there were many different daisheng made of different materials, such as bronze, amber, jade, and so on. In addition to the admiration for the Queen Mother of the West, the popularity of “daisheng” was also due to its practicality.

However, with the change of dynasties, people’s requirements for accessories became higher and higher. When more convenient hairpins appeared, the “Daisheng”, which was troublesome to wear, gradually left the stage of history. Because this item was made up of several parts, it was often not complete when it was unearthed, so even many archeologists or cultural relics experts did not recognize the Daisheng.

“It took me a whole month to make this. Brother Gang, do you think 8000 yuan is too much?” Su Xiaofan was also a little depressed. He had used a trick to make things old, but wasn’t bronze like this? If they weren’t old, they wouldn’t look old, so who would spend money to buy them?

“According to what you’ve said, 8000 yuan is really not expensive.”

Zheng Dagang had been in the antique market for so many years and he knew the industry well. He nodded and looked in the direction of the leaving people, saying, “But Xiaofan, these people don’t look like good people. Don’t take your stall back home today. I’ll find a place for you to put it. Be careful when you go home and don’t let them follow you.”

The antique market was full of people from all walks of life. Zheng Dagang knew that there were many ruthless people who came to Luochuan to do antique business, especially those from the underground world. Many of them had even killed people. Su Xiaofan could smell the scent of those people, and Zheng Dagang could naturally see that these people were most likely those kind of people.

“I know, Brother Gang. I’ll be careful.” Su Xiaofan chuckled bitterly. He had been in the antique market for two years. In the past, he had sold exquisite bronze crafts, but this was the only item that had caused a problem. It seemed that his grandfather’s advice was reasonable. People should not make a windfall.

However, Su Xiaofan had no choice. His mother passed away when he was seven, and his father didn’t want to inherit his family’s bronze-making skills. After a fight with his grandfather, he ran out to be a sailor.

Su Xiaofan and his sister had seen their father a few times in the past decade. Although Su Xiaofan’s grandfather had passed away in his first year of high school, his father, who had become a captain of an ocean ship, had a decent income. In the past years, there was no shortage of food and clothing for the siblings.

Su Xiaofan was quite unlucky. He had a car accident in his third year of high school the year before last while crossing the road. He had multiple fractures and had to recuperate for almost half a year, which delayed his college entrance examination.

With Su Xiaofan’s grades, it shouldn’t have been a problem for him to repeat a year and get into college. However, his father didn’t come back that year for some reason. Su Xiaofan, who had spent all his father’s savings in the car accident, didn’t repeat his studies because his sister was going to high school. He rented a house and set up a stall in the antique market not far from his sister’s school, relying on the skills of making bronze wares he had learned from his grandfather.

Su Xiaofan’s business had always been good because of his handsome face, lively eloquence, and good English. He could earn a net profit of several thousand yuan a month just by fooling those traveling foreigners. That was why when his father came home last year, he wanted him to repeat his studies and take the college entrance examination, but Su Xiaofan rejected him. Su Xiaofan, who had lived with his sister and grandfather since he was a child, had the same temper as his father. Once he had made up his mind, no one would be able to convince him otherwise.

Logically speaking, if he continued doing things step by step, Su Xiaofan would be able to rent a stall in the antique city after a few years. He wouldn’t be rich, but he wouldn’t have to worry about food and drink. However, life always had accidents. His sister, Su Xiaoxiao, who was in her third year of high school, had come home a while ago and told Su Xiaofan that there was a National Research Institute in Yanjing University. She had taken a special examination at their school and had actually passed.

According to Su Xiaoxiao, the minimum requirement to enter this research institute was a Master’s degree. One could follow national experts and professors to conduct research projects. After graduation, one could stay in the research institute to work. However, the tuition fee was very expensive. It cost 100,000 Yuan a year.

When he first heard Su Xiaoxiao’s words, Su Xiaofan’s first reaction was that she had encountered a scammer. First of all, the research institute was an employer, not a school. They would only recruit people from universities, and it was impossible that they were not qualified to issue a diploma. Second, it was not so expensive to study in a domestic university. Even the best Hua University in the country only cost 10,000 Yuan a year. The tuition fee of this research institute was ten times that of Hua University.

Having been in the antique market for several years, Su Xiaofan, who had seen many scams, naturally didn’t believe it. He went to the university as a parent to inquire about it and found that the admission was real. It was under the name of Yanjing University, and it was a special enrollment. You didn’t need to take the college entrance examination, and you had to report to Yanjing University during the summer vacation.

Su Xiaofan, who was careful, called the student recruitment office of Yanjing University. After some inquiry, he found out that this research institute was newly opened this year, and the research topic was unknown. Although the research institute was under the name of Yanjing University, it was affiliated to the National Academy of Natural Sciences. The fees were also set by them, so Yanjing University had no say in it. However, the enrollment was real, and Su Xiaofan had not been the only one who had called to ask about it.

Su Xiaofan was overjoyed when he received the news. Although his sister’s academic performance was good, there was still a gap between her and a top university like Hua University. Now that she had the opportunity to study there, Su Xiaofan would sell everything he had to support her. He immediately counted his assets, and was a little dumbfounded.

Su Xiaofan had made some money in the past two years, but after deducting the rent, food, and clothing, as well as the pocket money for his sister, Su Xiaofan only had more than 20,000 Yuan on hand. Even with the 50,000 Yuan that his father had given him when he came back last year, he had less than 80,000 Yuan in total. He was still more than 20,000 away from 100,000 Yuan.

Seeing that his sister was going to report to Yanjing in around a month, Su Xiaofan, who couldn’t contact his father, who was floating in the ocean, was a little anxious. That was why he let go of his old bronze “Daisheng” when the middle-aged man hinted at him in front of the stall that day.