Zhou Xuan stood up and pulled the main switch. The hall suddenly went dark, but at the same time, a faint green light shone from the brocade box on the coffee table, gradually increasing in intensity until it clearly illuminated the faces of the people around the table.
Jin Xiumei and Zhou Ying were taken aback for a moment, then leaned forward to examine it carefully.
The round stone in the brocade box, which had seemed rather ordinary before, was now radiating a bluish-green light, its glow tinged with purple and a hint of red. Jin Xiumei asked in a trembling voice, "Son, is this...this...a luminous pearl?"
Zhou Xuan nodded and said, "Yes, it is a luminous pearl."
Jin Xiumei, a rural woman, had never seen such a treasure before. She'd heard countless stories about luminous pearls since childhood; they were things only found in celestial grottoes. She'd heard the imperial palace had many treasures, but even those weren't necessarily rare gems like luminous pearls. Where did Fu Ying get something so precious?
Zhou Xuan turned the power back on, and the living room lit up again. Then he came back and closed the box, smiling, "This can definitely be considered the store's prized possession. However, Yingying, you..." He wanted to ask her how she brought this luminous pearl out, but he was afraid that his sister and mother would worry if they knew the reason, so he stopped asking.
Zhou Xuan took the box in his hand and said to Jin Xiumei, "Mom, let's go to the shop first and see if you and Aunt Liu are home. Let's see how Zhang Laoda is preparing the shop!"
Jin Xiumei looked worriedly at the box in his hand and said, "You're taking that luminous pearl too? That must be worth a lot of money, right?"
Zhou Xuan smiled and said, "Mom, don't worry. This bead is nice, but it's not particularly valuable!" He didn't want to quote too high a price and make his mother worry all the time. Just like last time back in our hometown, after the stone lion was put in the carriage, his father couldn't sleep all night. Before dawn the next day, he called his two brothers to the village entrance to see if it had been stolen.
Zhou Xuan opened the side door to the garage. He asked Fu Ying, "Yingying, why don't you drive? You can drive yourself to the restroom."
"
Fu Ying smiled and drove out the Bugatti Veyron sports car. Her driving skills were very proficient and natural.
Volume One: The First Budding Talents, Chapter 117: The Night-Shining Pearl
The three men's postures were very graceful. It was as if Zhou Ying was sitting next to Fu Ying, while Zhou Xuan was holding onto the back of Fu Ying's seat and sitting on the luggage seat behind her.
“Zhou Xuan, Brother Hong really went all out for this car,” Fu Ying said as she drove. “This car is the Bugatti Veyron Hermès Special Edition. Only one is produced per month. The Bugatti Veyron Hermès Special Edition uses technology provided by Bugatti, while the renowned luxury brand Hermès provides the interior and overall design. The interior is entirely custom-made; the stitching of just the leather on the steering wheel alone requires a craftsman spending over ten hours. Therefore, Hermès can only produce the interior for one car per month, so only one of these Hermès Special Editions can be produced per month.”
"All handmade?!" Zhou Xuan exclaimed in surprise. "All handmade must take so much effort!"
"Xiaoying, take some time to learn to drive. Get your license. I'll buy you a car." Since he already had such a nice car, Zhou Xuan thought he should buy one for each of his younger siblings. After all, they were owners of an antique shop. They needed to maintain a certain image when they went out. However, he also considered taking some time to get a driver's license himself. With a net worth of hundreds of millions, it wouldn't be right for him not to know how to drive. It would be embarrassing for a woman to drive such a nice car that Hong had given him, wouldn't it? Heh.
Zhou Xuan couldn't help but laugh.
Fu Ying didn't dare drive too fast, afraid of frightening Zhou Ying. This car could reach speeds of over 400 kilometers per hour, but that was impossible to achieve in the city. After arriving at Panjiayuan, Fu Ying parked the car, attracting countless envious glances!
Such a beautiful woman driving such a beautiful sports car. A real combination of a beautiful woman and a luxury car inevitably arouses envy and jealousy.
Zhou Ying got out of the car and led the way. Zhou Xuan looked at each shop one by one and stopped at the door of the eighth shop. The sign above the door of this shop read "Zhou Zhang Antique Shop" in five big red characters.
Needless to say, this is definitely the shop that ** rented. The shop name is his surname combined with **'s.
Zhou Ying chuckled and said, "Brother, I didn't say it, but you guessed it?"
Zhou Xuan smiled, took the brocade box, and walked into the shop.
The shop hired two assistants, both of whom had been apprentices in antique shops for several years. One was named Zeng Qiang, and the other was named Chen Shuhua. Both were twenty-four years old.
The shop's exterior area is about 80 square meters, and the interior is 15 meters long, divided into three rooms: a warehouse, an office, and an authentication room, equipped with the necessary tools and equipment for authentication.
Zhou Xuan went into the store first, while Zhou Ying and Fu Ying stayed outside to look around.
The shop assistant named Zeng Qiang was arranging some small items behind the counter. When he saw Zhou Xuan walk in, he quickly put down the items he was holding and went up to greet him, saying, "Hello, sir, would you like to take a look? Let me introduce them to you."
"
Zhou Xuan smiled and handed him the brocade box, saying, "I want to sell this. Let me take a look."
Zeng Qiang, with a forced smile, took the brocade box, opened it, and looked inside. Seeing it was a round stone, he didn't find anything strange about it.
Zhou Xuan knew he couldn't tell, so he smiled and said, "Go to your room, close the window, turn off the lights, and take a look again."
Zeng Qiang was taken aback; something the guest said seemed strange. He paused for a moment, then called out towards the inner room, "Xiao Chen, come out here for a second."
Next, after another waiter, Chen Shuhua, came out, Zeng Qiang said, "Xiao Chen, please attend to this guest. I'll go to the room and ask Boss Zhang to inspect the goods!" He then turned to Zhou Xuan and said, "Sir, please come with me to the inner room to inspect the goods."
Zhou Xuan stood with his hands behind his back, looking at the items in the shop. He shook his head and said, "You inspect them. I'll look at these items from outside."
Zeng Qiang found it strange. It seemed the customer's item wasn't valuable; it was just an ordinary thing. Otherwise, he wouldn't have let him take it in for inspection so readily. In this line of work, most people pay attention to these details to prevent their belongings from being switched.
But since Zhou Xuan had said that, he didn't care. He took the box and went into the inner room.
Zhou Xuan calculated the time, but less than three minutes had passed. Zeng Qiang, along with a man and an old man, hurriedly came out.
Zeng Qiang pointed ahead and said, "Manager Zhang, that's that gentleman's!" Upon seeing Zhou Xuan's grinning face, the man paused for a moment, then rushed forward and punched Zhou Xuan lightly in the chest, laughing, "Little brother, what are you up to?" He then brandished the box, looked it over, lowered his voice, and asked, "What is this? Do you even know what it is?"
Zhou Xuan said casually, "A luminous pearl."
"And the one after that." The old man was stunned. He hadn't expected Zhou Xuan to just casually mention it like that. When Zeng Qiang brought the thing into the room earlier, he hadn't noticed anything special about it, but that one... the old man was quite interested in it.
This old man was actually Wu Daiyuan, an expert who had been invited to appraise antiques.
Xin and Guo call him Old Wu. Despite his plain, old-man appearance, Old Wu has extremely high connections and status in the antique world. He's a renowned professor in the Archaeology Department at Peking University, and after retiring, many antique shops wanted him to come out of retirement and become their appraiser, but he refused. In his early years, Old Wu had a nickname: "Fiery Eyes"—the Monkey King Sun Wukong. This nickname gives you an idea of Old Wu's exceptional skill in appraising antiques.
However, Old Wu wasn't someone you could just ask to come, let alone someone like Wei Haihong. He only came because of Wei Haihong's influence. But even so, Old Wu didn't agree immediately. He said he'd wait and see, and if things didn't go his way, he naturally wouldn't agree.
For someone like Lao Wu, while not particularly wealthy, he's not lacking in food or clothing either. He doesn't struggle for survival; money isn't his top priority, nor does it hold much allure. The only thing that interests him is treasures and antiques. He's spent his entire life dealing with these things, and for him, this field isn't just a job but a hobby. Like a netizen, he feels lost and listless without the internet or computer, lacking the energy to do anything.
Today, I invited Lao Wu over again to take a look. Opening an antique shop requires only half the expertise—capital, strength, and experience. The other half depends on a highly skilled connoisseur. This is crucial. Almost everything that comes in and goes in an antique shop is determined by the connoisseur's eyes. When buying, you need sufficient skill to identify particularly difficult-to-appraise antiques and determine their true value. If your skills are lacking, you might end up paying a high price for worthless antiques, or selling something very valuable at a low price. The reason, of course, is that you haven't recognized the true value of these antiques.
Although Old Wu came, he had no intention of staying. The problem wasn't a lack of funds, but the shop practically had no truly valuable items. As the saying goes, what antique dealer doesn't have one or two good pieces to hold onto?
Zhang Ni noticed that Old Wu was distracted. But he couldn't bear to lose Old Wu, after all, it wasn't easy to find a truly capable appraiser. So he brewed some tea in the inner room and tried his best to persuade Old Wu, describing the future prospects of the exhibition in glowing terms. But Old Wu remained unmoved and indifferent.
Just then, Zeng Qiang brought in a brocade box. When he first opened the lid, Lao Wu glanced at it and, seeing that it was just an ordinary stone, paid no further attention to it.
Zeng Qiang said it was from outside. The customer wanted to sell it, but didn't say the price, and he couldn't tell what it was; it was just an ordinary stone.