CH 2

In twenty years, 2,600 yuan wouldn’t be that much money, but right now it represented almost half a year’s salary for a lot of people. Many employees only earned five hundred or so yuan per month.

Shen Shao put the money away. He read a book for a while, then washed and went to bed. Going to sleep and waking up early was good for one’s health, but the most important thing was that he needed to find a way to try his luck and make some money before school started in a few days.

The next morning, Shen Shao got up early, changed into clean clothes, packed another set of clothes in his bag, and took his bank passbook and the two thousand yuan in cash and went to the county town. When the post office opened, he deposited 1,600 yuan into his savings account. With a thousand yuan left in his pocket, he walked slowly down the street.

The streets were narrow and in poor repair. He remembered that in eighteen years, a lot of Peng County would be better developed. The streets would run in all directions with famous brand name stores. The current gray, austere appearance made it seem like two different worlds.

Shen Shao was carrying a thousand yuan and a passbook, so he didn’t seek out crowded places. He followed the narrow streets, walking and looking around leisurely.

Since childhood he’d had a good memory. It was only later, because of life circumstances, that he wasn’t able to continue school. After graduating from junior high, he took a bus and left town to work in a Chinese restaurant, starting out as a dishwasher and then as a vegetable cutter. He gradually worked his way up to become a cook and even got a certificate. The salary was decent, but every time he saw young and lively college students out and about he couldn’t help feeling a pang of regret.

Now he was a half-grown child again, and none of the vendors at their stalls greeted him as a potential customer. If he wanted to look at things, they didn’t shoo him away, but they mostly acted like he didn’t exist.

To reach the bus station, he had to pass by the county hospital of traditional Chinese medicine. When he reached the street it was on, he saw a crowd of people selling scratch-off tickets. Each ticket cost two yuan. Common prizes included a bar of soap, a towel, and similar things. The more advanced prizes were bicycles, minivans and so on, which meant a lot of people were willing to spend a few yuan to try their luck.

He remembered a period in his previous life when it was popular to buy this kind of scratch-off ticket. At the time, there were people who even used their family savings to buy tickets, and ended up losing their wives and children. Later, because some of these scratch-off game operators had shady practices, the government forced them to shut down, and people stopped gambling so pointlessly.

A thick layer of used scratch-off cards littered the street. Children went around picking up tickets to play with them. Some even found cards that hadn’t been scratched off yet, and they gathered around to try their luck.

Shen Shao suddenly saw his maternal aunt squeeze by in the crowd with several scratch-off tickets in her hand. When she looked around, she saw him and quickly walked over. After touching his head fondly, she asked, “Did you already eat breakfast, Xiao Shao?”

Shen Shao nodded. “Yes, auntie, I ate earlier.”

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After thinking for a moment, his aunt bought two steamed bread rolls from a nearby breakfast place and handed them to Shen Shao. “Take these and have something to eat when you go out to play. Why don’t you come back to our house for lunch at noon?”

Shen Shao shook his head. His uncle’s family had two children, and they weren’t well off. His aunt had an eye for bargains, but she was always generous with her family, and he didn’t want to impose. “I’m meeting a classmate this afternoon to buy some books. I’ll go to his house for lunch later.”

When his aunt heard this, she tried to give him ten yuan. He refused again and again, and she reluctantly took the money back, saying, “Be careful on the road and check for cars when you cross the street. Come see us if you need anything.”

“Thanks, auntie, I will.” Shen Shao looked at the slightly overweight woman in front of him. In his last life he left home to work after graduating from junior high, so he didn’t have much contact with his aunt. But whenever he returned home for Spring Festival, his aunt would make him a table full of delicious food. Whether she genuinely cared about him or was just doing it for his uncle’s sake, he was thankful for the moments of warmth she gave him back then.

Shen Shao didn’t go buy a bunch of scratch-off tickets to try his luck. Instead he went to the bus station. He bought a ticket and took a bus to Furong City, the provincial capital.

Furong was a big city. Although it wasn’t as prosperous as it would be in twenty years, its wide, clean streets and towering buildings already demonstrated to the world that it was a provincial capital.

There were a lot of possible reasons a person might visit Furong City, but for him there was just one: something he’d always envied in his previous life. In the suburbs of Furong City, a man had decided to throw away some old, cracked jars and bowls in the process of demolishing an old house. As it turned out, a well-to-do expert happened by and noticed those old jars. He spent a couple of yuan to buy them. After keeping them in his collection for a few years, the expert sold them for nearly one million. The jars with a white background and blue pattern and the bowls with a dark flower pattern turned out to be valuable antiques from the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty.

In Shen Shao’s previous life, the lucky finder had frequently visited the Chinese restaurant where Shen Shao worked, and the man always put on an astonishing display of bragging. Where and when he picked up the things, and how he only spent a few yuan to buy them. He relayed every single detail and was always elated when he talked about it.

Every time this man boasted about his story, everyone around him was forced to cooperate by making expressions of envy, otherwise he’d kick up a fuss and complain to the lobby manager about their restaurant’s poor service or the taste of the food. One way or another, when he went to the hotel for dinner, they’d avoid a lot of trouble if they loudly pretended to admire him.

Shen Shao was one of the people forced to express his envy of the man’s story. After his rebirth in this life, he decided to see if he could take advantage of this lucky opportunity. If he could manage to find the right house, he wouldn’t have to worry about tuition for school.

At present, hotels weren’t strict about verifying people at check-in, so he didn’t need an ID card to register. Therefore Shen Shao, a half-grown child, rented a room at a hotel without any trouble. The receptionist thought it was strange, but he didn’t ask too much after Shen Shao paid the room fee.

The next morning, Shen Shao checked out of his room, took a bus to the suburbs, and called a bike taxi. He sat for nearly an hour before reaching his destination.

When Shen Shao walked up to the house that was being demolished, he saw piles of rotten wood planks and broken tiles on the ground. After looking around he eventually noticed several dark blue, flower-patterned bowls covered with dust and dirt and a few blue and white porcelain jars by a nearby ditch. He quickly walked to the ditch, picked up one of the bowls and looked at it carefully. A small chip was missing from the rim, but the overall pattern was well preserved.

“Hey, kid, what family are you from? This house is being torn down. Don’t play here. If you’re not careful you’ll fall and break something.” A man with an ill-tempered face came out. When he saw Shen Shao holding one of the broken old bowls they were throwing away and didn’t want, he felt a little impatient. “Take that bowl with you and run off and play.” If the kid fell down and knocked his head, it wouldn’t just cost him money for the medical bill, it would mean bad luck. The man was tearing down his old house and preparing to build a new one. Who wanted to invite that kind of bad fortune?

Shen Shao looked at the man, held up the bowl in his hand and asked, “Uncle, are you selling these bowls?”

When the man saw that Shen Shao was dressed in ordinary clothes and didn’t look like a child from a rich family, he scowled. “You want to buy them? Give me twenty yuan and they’re yours.”

“Twenty?” Shen Shao took a handful of change from his trouser pocket and counted out twenty yuan. “My grandmother likes bowls like these. Does Uncle have a spare cardboard box? I’d like to pack some hay around them and take them back.”

When he saw Shen Shao actually take out twenty yuan, the man immediately smiled. He helped Shen Shao find a box and some hay and even helped him pack the things and tie the box with twine. “My grandfather’s generation left us these bowls. Your elders at home will definitely like them.” The man was just throwing away some junk, but he was lucky enough to run into a stupid kid who was willing to pay good money for them. He was happy to pick up twenty yuan for nothing. After all, that money could buy several kilograms of pork.

When he saw Shen Shao struggling to carry the box, the man enthusiastically called his neighbor who owned a bike taxi, and even helped him negotiate a better fare. The man breathed a sigh of relief when Shen Shao was gone.

He had no idea which family raised such a loser. The kid saw a few useless jars and bowls and acted like they were treasures. The man decided to keep the incident a secret so people wouldn’t say he cheated a child of his money.

After Shen Shao got the jars, he was worried he’d break them on his way home and ruin them, so he hired a car to take him directly back to Furong City. Then he went to an antique trading company that had recently opened but would have a good reputation in the future.

Antique values had been rising since the 1990s. In recent years, transaction prices continued to soar. Although prices weren’t as terrifying as they became after 2010, there were plenty of local tyrants who’d recently made a fortune and wanted to fill their houses with antiques to show off their status. As long as the things were genuine, there was no lack of buyers.

Nowadays, because not many people knew the value of antiques, they often sold them as scrap to whoever wanted them. It was hard to say how many people would someday regret thinking old things weren’t worth anything.

Shen Shao knew the jars and bowls would greatly increase in value after 2010, but he couldn’t afford to wait that long. He was short of money right now and he had no choice.

After he walked through the door of the antique trading company, the staff inside saw that a child had brought in something. They thought he was trying to sell things he’d stolen from home, and they weren’t willing to do business with him. But after Shen Shao told them his parents were gone and he had no money for school, they hesitated. When they saw Shen Shao take out his official household registration book and primary school graduation photos, their doubts began to waver. In the end, a staff member called Shen Shao’s primary school. The employee didn’t say it was because Shen Shao wanted to sell antiques. He said he was going to subsidize part of Shen Shao’s tuition and wanted to confirm his situation.

Ranked first in the class—mother committed suicide by drinking pesticide—father ran away with another woman, leaving a half-grown child to fend for himself. When the people of the trading company heard all this, their suspicions vanished, leaving them full of sympathy. A female staff member thought Shen Shao looked thin and weak. She took out her own milk and biscuits for him, then urged someone to invite an expert to come in and identify the items. If they were genuine, the staff would help Shen Shao get a good price.

After the expert finished the appraisal, everyone felt relieved, because the bowls and jars were not only genuine, they were products of the official kiln of the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty. That confirmed they were truly first-class examples of blue and white porcelain.

“There happens to be a major national auction tomorrow. A lot of big shots from Xiangcheng and the capital are going to come. If you’re not in a hurry, you should stay in Furong City for two more days. If the items sell at auction, you can get the money immediately afterwards.” The clerk in charge of registering antiques thought Shen Shao looked like a well-behaved child and couldn’t help but reassure him. “Don’t worry. The expert said your antiques are in good condition. You’ll definitely get a good price.”

Shen Shao smiled gratefully at the staff member and held a glass of milk as though he was too shy to drink it. Right now he was a child with no money or power. Even if he deliberately told others about his tragic history, he had nothing to be ashamed of. The father who actually did those things wasn’t ashamed, so why would he feel ashamed as a victim?

Sure enough, Shen Shao aroused even more kind-heartedness from the staff members around him. In addition, Shen Shao’s items were genuine, and after the auction concluded, the staff would receive a commission, which made them even more enthusiastic. They even arranged for him to stay for free in a hotel under their company’s name.

Shen Shao didn’t stay in the hotel they arranged. He found a nearby hotel instead. Although it was more expensive, it was safer.

The next afternoon, as soon as he walked into the antique company, the staff greeted him warmly. They told him his items had been admired by a bigwig from the capital. The man spent 320,000 yuan to buy them at auction.

The price was a lot higher than the company’s estimate. After the purchase was successfully concluded, the people who’d handled Shen Shao’s transaction rejoiced. After all, the antiques they were responsible for had sold at a good price, and they would receive a share.

320,000?

Shen Shao was surprised too. He originally thought one hundred thousand would be good. He never expected three times as much.

Wasn’t this a lucky break?

TL Notes:

steamed bread roll – 花卷 – huā juǎn – a steamed twisted roll

Spring Festival – 春节 – Chinese New Year. Based on the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar, observance traditionally begins the evening preceding the first day of the year, through the Lantern Festival on the 15th. The first day begins on the new moon that appears between 21 January and 20 February (Wikipedia)

Xuande period – 宣德年间 – The Xuande Emperor (16 March 1399 – 31 January 1435), personal name Zhu Zhanji, was the fifth Emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigned from 1425 to 1435. His era name “Xuande” means “proclamation of virtue” (Wikipedia)

bike taxi – 三轮车 – A type of hatchback tricycle designed to carry passengers on a for-hire basis. It’s also known by a variety of other names such as cycle rickshaw, velotaxi, pedicab, bikecab, cyclo, beca, becak, trisikad, sikad, tricycle taxi, trishaw, or hatchback bike (Wikipedia)

the capital – 京城 – Jīngchéng – AKA Beijing. The author is trying to avoid using the names of RL cities

Transliterated names, places, and titles—new in this chapter:

maternal aunt, auntie, aunt – 舅妈 – jiùmā – wife of mother’s brother

Furong City – 芙蓉市

Xiangcheng – 香城 – This is the name of a fictional city that sometimes appears in exam questions as a stand-in for Hong Kong

Xuande – 宣德