Chapter 622 - 556: The Early Deceased First Wife in ’Son-in-law’ 19
"Half of what? So you’re talking about 1500 yuan?"
He really must be out of his mind!
Rong Yan sneered, "So I’m just walking down the street, and you bump into me on purpose and expect me to compensate you? Are you trying to scam me? Fine, let’s call the police and discuss it at the station! I’m curious to see how your fake piece worth ten yuan is going to scam me."
As soon as the man heard this, he refused to back down.
"What fake piece? I spent 3000 yuan on this! It’s from the Song Dynasty, a genuine piece from the Ding Kiln—and I found it at a bargain! Don’t think you can just get away with not paying by slandering me and claiming I’m scamming you. If I sold this, it would definitely fetch tens of thousands."
Rong Yan sneered again and then picked up the biggest shard from the pile of broken porcelain... the bottom piece.
The lettering on it was still intact.
"What are you doing?"
Rong Yan ignored the man’s shouting and looked at the small characters.
A sneer curled on her lips. "This is from the Ding Kiln of the Song Dynasty? Typically, pieces from the Song kilns feature marks and inscriptions. Although there are some here, the script is clearly incorrect. Besides, the glaze on Song Dynasty Ding ware pieces is lustrous and extremely thin, and the carvings were at the pinnacle of craftsmanship. Look at this, it’s quite rough; obviously, it’s a fake."
"You—you’re talking nonsense..." The man was frantic, refusing to admit that he had bought a fake.
"Let’s see if I’m talking nonsense. One trip to an expert for appraisal should reveal the truth. Normally, I wouldn’t get involved, but since you’re trying to scam me with your fake goods, let’s take a trip to the station. I’m going to report you for extortion."
The most ruthless intention was delivered in the calmest tone.
Seeing her like this... the man was taken aback and even a bit scared.
Actually go to the station? That would undoubtedly end badly for him—after all, he remembered that he did indeed bump into her.
"You’re saying my antique is fake? Do you really understand these things?"
Mainly it was the girl’s authoritative way of speaking, that scornful expression, which made it impossible not to believe everything she said was true.
Rong Yan: "You can go have it appraised, and come with me to the police station."
"Forget it, I wasn’t careful just now." The man didn’t want to go to the station at all. That would surely not end well for him.
He got up from the ground and thought to leave, but then something clicked, so he squatted down again... and picked up the shattered pieces from the ground.
He had spent a lot of money on them, and he truly didn’t believe he had purchased a fake.
He’d have to go into the city and have someone appraise them.
Rong Yan saw that he had stopped trying to scam her, so she didn’t bother dragging him to the police station either.
Now that there was no problem, there was no reason for her to stay.
She just walked away.
However, this man did give her an idea for making some quick money.
She understood antiques, so she could certainly seek out bargains!
In doing so... she believed she could make enough money within two months for her needs.
Plus, it was 1986 and the antique business hadn’t really taken off yet, with many rural areas still having antiques laying around.
If she was lucky, she might even find a surprising treasure!
But where to start first?
Then she had an idea, perhaps she should check out a junkyard first?
As soon as she thought of it, she went straight to the junkyard.
The junkyard of this era wasn’t as stocked as they were in the 70s.
And now, the junkyards had become privatized contract businesses, with not many valuable items; whatever was there had been quickly sold off cheaply by the bosses.
So, after looking around, Rong Yan found only some broken tables and chairs, a pile of waste newspapers, and various other odds and ends.
Feeling a bit disappointed and ready to leave, her eyes suddenly spotted several scroll tubes hidden among a pile of books—seemingly paintings.
For some reason, seeing them gave her a strange feeling.
This intuition was proving to be very rewarding.
She pushed aside the pile of books and took out the scroll tubes.
They looked very dirty on the surface.
Some were also badly damaged.
At that moment, the boss came over.
"Young lady, you want these? If not, I’m about to sell off this pile of junk."
Today was shipping day, and he needed to clear out the warehouse of useless items to make room for new arrivals.
Hearing his question, Rong Yan immediately replied, "How much for these? If they’re expensive, forget it. I just picked them up casually."
"Ten yuan will do." A pile of junk, what could it be worth?
Did this young lady think there was an antique hidden among this trash?
That was simply impossible.
Rong Yan heard the price was ten yuan and paid promptly.
Since the items were indeed dirty, she asked the boss for a bag to carry them.
Passing by a grocery store, she bought two small brushes and a few cheap rags.
Then, with her bag in tow, she returned to the hotel.
After getting into her room, she opened the bag and slowly began to clean the scroll tubes, first dusting them off with a small brush.
When the dust was mostly gone, she then unrolled the tubes to reveal the paintings.
Due to poor preservation, some were severely damaged, and some less so; all five paintings looked quite ordinary on the surface—seemingly worthless.
However, Rong Yan noticed something peculiar about one of them, the one with the least damage.
She squinted her eyes and inspected it carefully... then her eyes suddenly brightened.
A painting within a painting?
Too bad she didn’t have a small knife.
Thinking for a moment, she went downstairs... and after purchasing a blade from the grocery store, she returned to her hotel room.
After carefully cutting into the painting, her hunch proved correct, rewarding her with an incredible surprise.
Unexpectedly, hidden within was a famous antique painting from the Tang Dynasty.
If priced... she thought this one alone would be enough to cover her university expenses for four years.
It looked like her luck was indeed very good.
After packing up, she had no intention of selling it immediately, as there definitely would be no buyers in town and she would get a likely poor price in the city.
She decided to wait until she received her university admission notice and then sell it in Jing City, where specialty antique buyers would pay top dollar.
She didn’t go out in the afternoon, waiting until the evening instead.
When she was about to go downstairs to have dinner, she accidentally ran into a couple who were checking out of the hotel.
Plainly, the couple also saw her.
Their eyes widened in shock.
"Why are you here?" Rong Xuefeng asked first.
Rong Yan couldn’t be bothered to answer her and simply walked away.
That left Rong Xuefeng’s face turning shades of red and white, obviously very upset.
Who knows what she was thinking? She immediately chased after her.
"Stop right there..."