Chapter 39 - The Biggest Catch of the Year

Chapter 39 The Biggest Catch of the Year

“Uncle Jing, this Dharma root sculpture should be a work of art from the late Qing Dynasty, and it’s made by a famous master…”

Zhao Zhengshan was confident in his judgment. He pointed at the Dharma root sculpture on the table and said, “Let’s talk about the material first. Uncle Jing, look at the texture. It’s yellow rosewood, right? and it’s carved from the root of a hundred-year-old pear…”

‘No wonder Jing Shizhen said that Uncle Zhao picked up mistakes and made mistakes eight times out of ten…’ Su Xiaofan drank his tea as he listened to Zhao Zhengshan’s serious analysis, but he was smiling on the inside.

Even though it was not a fake, Zhao Zhengshan called it a work from the late Qing Dynasty. It was a world of difference.

[ Repair points: 5 points ]

[ Modern Siamese Dharma root sculpture: cannot be repaired! ]

The information in Su Xiaofan’s mind told him that it was a modern piece of art, and the material was completely different from what Zhao Zhengshan had expected.

“Hey, let me say Zhengshan, you are not someone who should play with these antiques and miscellaneous items. Your appreciation level in calligraphy and painting is much better than miscellaneous items…”

After Zhao Zhengshan finished explaining his judgment, Jing Shizhen, who had been patiently listening, sighed.

“Uncle Jing, there are too few calligraphy and paintings on the street. I can’t bring out my standard. By the way, I didn’t misjudge this carving, did I?”

Hearing Jing Shizhen’s words, Zhao Zhengshan had a bad feeling.

“First, tell me how much you spent.” Jing Shizhen waved his hand.

“This… It cost me 2800 Yuan. That person asked for 8000 Yuan at first, but I haggled over it,” Zhao Zhengshan said.

To be honest, Zhao Zhengshan had spent the entire morning grinding at the root carving stall for almost two hours before he finally bought the item.

“You must’ve listened to someone else’s story again.”

Jing Shizhen shook his head speechlessly. Zhao Zhengshan must have been duped into fainting if he had to spend two hours to buy such an item.

“The stall owner said that this item was passed down from his grandfather. It was an item from when he was younger. I thought that the person was quite honest, so I believed him.”

Zhao Zhengshan covered his head with his hands. He had judged that it was from the late Qing Dynasty at most. If the stall owner had said that it was from the Ming Dynasty, Zhao Zhengshan would have turned around and left.

However, the stall owner’s words were consistent with his own judgment, which made Zhao Zhengshan feel like he had been acknowledged. After the stall owner’s further deception, Zhao Zhengshan felt that he had missed out on something and focused his attention on bargaining.

“Smell it carefully, do you smell a sour fragrance? Also, take a look at the oil quality.

Does it meet the standard of fragrant rosewood?”

Uncle Jing didn’t keep him in suspense any longer. He pointed to the carving and said directly, “Look at this purple color, it’s almost black. It’s obviously not the characteristic of the yellow rosewood. Although the texture is a bit similar, this is just a material with red rosewood.”

“In addition, there’s this carving technique. Although the carving is not bad, there are obvious traces of artificial embellishment after the machine carving. You don’t know much about miscellaneous objects, so why do you always make mistakes in these things?”

“Uncle Jing, then… How much is this worth?”

Zhao Zhengshan pulled a long face. He was not worried about the money, but he wanted to know how much intelligence tax he had been charged this time.

“I’ll put it at home as a decoration. Well, it’s about 580 Yuan.”

Jing Shizhen gave a price. In the antique market where low-quality counterfeits were everywhere, this thing could be considered fake with a conscience. At the very least, it was made of red rosewood branch and not materials like African pear.

“Uncle Zhao, you can’t listen to stories in the antique market.”

Su Xiaofan chuckled on the side. He himself was a comedian. Although his family’s bronze ware could not be sold as old objects, Su Xiaofan had helped Zheng Dagang sell a lot of so-called “magic artifacts”.

“Don’t gloat, kid. Take out the items you’ve found. They might not even be as good as mine.” Zhao Zhengshan was not convinced. Zhao Zhengshan did not have any other hobbies other than picking up scraps in the antique market. However, his skills were too poor to be noticed. The more he did that, the more addicted he became. He was just like a lousy chess player. If he could not win, he would torture his opponent to death.

Hence, Zhao Zhengshan had to hold back his dissatisfaction when Jing Shizhen was the one who appraised the item. If it were someone else, he would have questioned the appraiser’s standards for not being able to identify the quality of the item.

“I bought two items. I was not sure about one of them, so I bought it for fun.

Su Xiaofan put the two bags on the table, took out the pen holder, and said, “I think this thing is not bad. Uncle Jing, can you take a look at it?”

“What?”

Jing Shizhen’s eyes brightened when he saw the almost black pencil case, but he didn’t take it immediately. Instead, he looked at Zhao Zhengshan and said, “Zhengshan, this is also an item in the miscellaneous category. Do you want to take a look?”

“Alright, I’ll take a look first.” Zhao Zhengshan picked up the pen holder on the table in high spirits.

“This material is similar to my carving. It should also be from the red rosewood.” Zhao Zhengshan picked up the magnifying glass on the table and said, “But little Su’s carving of this brush holder is not bad. There are so many people, animals, and flowers carved on such a small thing. This thing is not bad.”

Even though he didn’t want to admit that Su Xiaofan’s item was better than his, the embossed carving on the pencil case was way better than the root carving. Zhao Zhengshan couldn’t bring himself to slander Su Xiaofan.

“Look at little Su’S pen holder. How much is it worth?”

Jing Shizhen took the pen holder from Zhao Zhengshan’s hand with a smile. At the same time, he picked up the magnifying glass and looked at it carefully.

“I estimate it’s between two to three thousand.”

“We’ve already agreed that the item you’re buying can’t exceed 3000 Yuan,” Zhao Zhengshan said to Su Xiaofan. “Don’t break the rules.”

“Uncle Zhao, I didn’t break any rules. This thing is much cheaper than your carving.”

Su Xiaofan laughed when he heard that. He had to thank the repair points for that. If this pen holder was not repaired, the bottom would have been burned, and the entire item would have been a mess. However, after the repair, one could tell that it was a good item.

“Little Su, did you really get this from the market?”

Jing Shizhen’s expression gradually turned serious as he looked at the brush holder. After more than ten minutes, he finally put the brush holder on the table.

“Yes, Uncle Jing. I went to the market with Uncle Zhao.” Su Xiaofan nodded. “That’s not possible.”

Jing Shizhen mumbled to himself in confusion, “In the current antique market, you can still get this thing? Are so many people blind?”

“Uncle Jing, Xiaofan did go to the market with me. We were both empty-handed when we went.” Zhao Zhengshan thought Jing Shizhen suspected that Su Xiaofan had taken the item from somewhere else, so he quickly spoke up to testify for Su Xiaofan.

“I don’t mean it that way.”

Jing Shizhen waved his hand and said to Su Xiaofan, “Tell me how you bought this thing, how much did you spend, and what kind of pen holder do you think it is?”

“Ah, I bought it from a street stall.”

Su Xiaofan was a little confused by Jing Shizhen’s three questions, but he had thought of an excuse before, so he replied, “This brush holder was placed at a stall selling miscellaneous items. At that time, it was placed together with a pile of miscellaneous items and wasn’t very eye-catching.”

“Besides, the bronze ware that the stall owner was selling was from our village. He sold it as an item from the Tang and Song dynasty and asked me to hammer it. I took a fancy to this brush holder and bought it for 150 Yuan.”

“150?”

“150 Yuan?”

Zhao Zhengshan and Jing Shizhen exclaimed at the same time. It was obvious that the price had also shocked Jing Shizhen. “It’s 150 Yuan.” Su Xiaofan pretended to be confused. He realized that he had been using his acting skills a lot recently. Should he go to the film academy to attend classes? “Uncle Jing, there’s a guest that you need to meet.” Just as Su Xiaofan was putting on an act, a staff member of Jingxin Hall came to Jing Shizhen’s side and whispered something. “Is it Mr. Tong? Please invite him in.” Jing Shizhen waved his hand, his attention on the brush holder and Su Xiaofan. “You’ve picked up the biggest catch this year!”

Jing Shizhen’s face was still filled with confusion. “So many people can’t see, are they really blind? No, I have to go to the antique market too.”

With Jing Shizhen’s level, he had long since left the level of picking up scraps in the antique market. It had been five or six years since he had seriously gone to the antique market.

Jing Shizhen knew that ever since antiques became popular, there was almost no room to pick up scraps in the antique market. But after seeing Su Xiaofan’s pen holder today, Jing Shizhen’s heart wavered.

“Uncle Jing, sorry for disturbing you.” At this moment, a middle-aged man walked into the inner hall. When he saw Jing Shizhen, he nodded slightly in greeting.

“Mr. Tong, please have a seat and have some tea. We’ll talk about this later.” Jing Shizhen led the guest to a chair, and the staff immediately served him tea. “Uncle Jing, quickly tell me what this item is and how much it’s worth. I’m dying of anxiety.”

As a doctor, Zhao Zhengshan was usually calm and collected. However, he was a little impatient when it came to antiques. He didn’t even care about Shizhen and the guests. “It’s better for him to talk about his own things.”

Jing Shizhen pointed at Su Xiaofan with some consideration. He wanted to see if Su Xiaofan picked it up purely out of luck or if he had some knowledge of antiques.

“Uncle Zhao, I can’t say for sure how much this thing is worth.”

Having been in the antique market for years, Su Xiaofan wasn’t afraid. “First of all, I think this brush holder should be made of yellow pear.”

“No, this brush holder is similar to my carving.

It should also be from red rosewood.” Zhao Zhengshan interrupted Su Xiaofan. “Uncle Zhao, the oil is different. Look at the color of this brush holder. It’s dark purple and black because of the heavy oil. This kind of yellow pear is usually called black pear. “Black pears are generally easy to appear at the roots of old trees, and in terms of oil, they are the most oily among the yellow pears.

Basically, all black pears sink as soon as they are dropped in the water. The texture of the black pear is ordinary, but its density and proportion are also the highest among the yellow pears.

Su Xiaofan helped Zheng Dagang sell a lot of beads, many of which were made of yellow pear. He liked to research and had solid theoretical knowledge, so he made a lot of sense, and Jing Shizhen nodded from time to time.