Zhuang Rui had a pretty good impression of the two big-nosed foreigners, because when the translator asked them to lie, they both refused in unison, so they didn't seem like unreasonable people.
"Hello, both of you, welcome to China."
Zhuang Rui spoke fluent American English as soon as he opened his mouth. Back in college, in order to improve his spoken English, he searched all over Zhonghai for English corners. Some of the English corners with a lot of foreigners required payment, so Zhuang Rui would always drag his older brother along. Those two years cost his older brother a lot of money. However, Zhuang Rui and his English listening and speaking abilities were among the best in the class.
"Oh, your English is so good, it's wonderful. You can call me Smith. I think there might be some misunderstanding between us?"
The foreigner named Smith, wearing a bright red cotton-padded jacket with a strong Chinese traditional style, shouted happily after hearing Zhuang Rui's words. Being brought to such a place, they also sensed something was wrong; the translator seemed to be hiding something from them.
"Smith? Is he dead or not...?"
Zhuang Rui muttered something to himself, but was interrupted again just as he was about to speak.
"This must be Mr. Zhuang. If you have any questions, you can ask me. I will explain to my client that today's incident was indeed a misunderstanding."
Xiahou became anxious when he saw that the unassuming young man in front of him spoke English better than he did. He quickly spoke to Zhuang Rui in Chinese, with a hint of pleading in his eyes.
"Misunderstanding? Just because it's a misunderstanding, you can smash up my stall? You can help these two foreigners bully us Chinese?"
Just then, the stall owner walked into the management office and immediately became furious upon hearing this. He had just discovered that his family's heirloom root carvings were missing while he was packing up his stall. He figured that some unscrupulous people must have taken advantage of the situation when his stall was vandalized. These were worth several thousand yuan, so he couldn't help but feel heartbroken.
"Foreigners are so great! Bring out my root carving. I won't sell the item; I'll give you the money back."
The young man was indeed angry. He took out five hundred yuan from his pocket and slammed it heavily on the table. His eyes were fixed on the two foreigners. He still didn't quite understand what had happened and thought that the two foreigners had gone back on their word and had deliberately brought people back to cause trouble.
The two foreigners, unaware of what had happened, looked at Zhuang Rui with bewildered expressions, hoping he could explain. They were now aware that the translator they had brought seemed somewhat unreliable in his words and actions.
"Two guests who have come from afar, this gentleman is extremely dissatisfied with your business reputation. He says you are two-faced and despicable people who even vandalized his stall. Now he demands that this business be terminated, that he return your money, and that you return the items you purchased from him."
Zhuang Rui slightly modified the stall owner's words and translated them for the two foreigners.
"Oh God, that's not how it is. Our Mr. Xia told us that this thing is fake and not worth 500 yuan. We are all legitimate businessmen and would not do such a thing. Besides, we did not smash this gentleman's stall. Mr. Xia, can you explain to us what exactly happened?"
Upon hearing Zhuang Rui's words, Smith waved his hands repeatedly, telling Zhuang Rui that the truth was not like that. They had returned to the market after hearing what the translator said, and they had not smashed any stalls. It was all the translator's doing. As the foreigner spoke, he took out a palm-sized, dark-looking root carving from his backpack.
Zhuang Rui had already roughly guessed what was going on, so he translated the foreigner's words verbatim. The people in the management office who heard this were immediately furious, and they glared fiercely at the pale-faced translator Xia.
"Damn it, it was all because of you, you traitor, who was causing trouble. I'll beat you to death."
The young stall owner couldn't hold back any longer and rushed forward, punching Xiahou in the face. Zhuang Rui, who was standing closer, quickly grabbed the stall owner and, looking at the translator who had been knocked to the ground, said to the stall owner, "Let's talk this out. Don't resort to violence, or you'll lose your temper even if you're in the right."
“How can I explain this to him properly? He just smashed my stall, and many of my root carvings were taken away. They're worth thousands of yuan. Who am I supposed to ask for compensation?”
The young man's arms were held by Zhuang Rui, and he even tried to kick Xiahou, the translator who had already been knocked down by Zhuang Rui's punch.
Xiahou's once slicked-back hair was now disheveled, and he was covered in cold sweat, with strands of hair hanging down his forehead. His white suit was also covered in dust, making him look extremely disheveled. Gone was his previous arrogance. Lying on the ground, he cast pleading glances at the two foreigners. In his heart, he still felt that the foreigners were superior and that if they spoke up, the matter could be resolved.
“Mr. Xia, I think this matter has nothing to do with us. I hope you can handle it well. Otherwise, I will report your situation to your company truthfully.”
Smith's words plunged Xiahou into utter despair. No one could help him with the situation now. However, Smith's words also revealed another layer of meaning: if you resolve this matter well, we will not complain to your boss.
Thinking of this, Xiahou got up from the ground and said pitifully, "This was my fault, I take full responsibility. I will also compensate this brother for the lost items at their original price. I hope you brothers will let me off the hook because I am young and ignorant."
Zhuang Rui didn't care. He was just passing by and only intervened because he couldn't stand it anymore. Now that things were clear, how to resolve it was a matter between the young stall owner and the unfortunate translator.
"You two should negotiate first. If you can't reach an agreement, then come to us."
Although Director Wang was also very dissatisfied with the translator, they were not an administrative law enforcement agency and had no right to punish the translator. They could only let the two of them resolve the issue first. If the stall owner did not get a satisfactory answer, he would then intervene to put pressure on the translator.
"I lost a total of seven root carvings passed down in my family, plus five root carvings I carved myself, which cost a total of four thousand yuan,"
The stall owner did some mental calculations. He was an honest man and didn't overcharge. But when he saw the root carving in the foreigner's hand, he became furious and said, "I'm not selling this. I'll give you your money back and return the item to me."
Upon hearing the figure of four thousand yuan, Xiahou's expression changed. He wished he could slap himself across the face again. That was more than a month's salary for him. He had only asked for trouble. However, it was too late to regret it now. If this matter were to reach the company, even his sister's whispers in his ear wouldn't be enough to protect him.
Xiahou could only nod in agreement, but the stall owner's last request put him in a difficult position. He didn't know if the two foreign masters he served were willing to return the root carving.
Seeing that the translator hesitated to speak, Zhuang Rui pointed to the root carving in Smith's hand and said to the two foreigners, "Our gentleman here is very dissatisfied with your behavior. He insists on refunding the money you paid for the items, and please return this item to him as well."
"Oh no, we really like this piece of art. Tell him I'm willing to add another 500 yuan and ask him to sell it to me, okay?"
Smith gripped the root carving tightly in his hand and said loudly to Zhuang Rui.
Zhuang Rui translated the foreigner's words to the stall owner and let him make a decision. The young man shook his head firmly and said, "I won't sell it. Please give it back to me."
Zhuang Rui shrugged and shook his head at Smith. Smith knew that the fault lay with them, so he didn't insist and reluctantly handed the root carving to Zhuang Rui.
Zhuang Rui took the root carving, but his hand suddenly sank downwards, almost dropping it to the ground. He was taken aback. What kind of tree root was this carved from? It was so heavy. He looked down at the root carving in his hand.
Chapter 57 Rosewood Root Carving
The root carving in Zhuang Rui's hand is dark purple overall, with an oily sheen. It is a seated Maitreya Buddha statue. Although it is only the size of a palm, it is unusually heavy. However, it is covered with dirt and oil stains, and even the face of Maitreya Buddha is somewhat unclear.
Zhuang Rui saw the stall owner return the five hundred yuan to the foreigner, so he said to him, "Brother, can I take a closer look at this item of yours?"
"Brother, look, thank you so much for today. If you like this root carving, it's yours."
The young stall owner was extremely grateful to Zhuang Rui. If Zhuang Rui hadn't been able to communicate directly with foreigners, they would probably still be kept in the dark by this traitorous translator.
"Hehe, there's no need to give it to me as a gift. I'll take a look first, and if I like it, I'll buy it from you."
Zhuang Rui chuckled and began to examine the Maitreya Buddha root carving in his hand.
Zhuang Rui vigorously rubbed the face of the Maitreya Buddha with his thumb a few times. Although he couldn't remove all the oil stains, he could still vaguely see its features. The Maitreya Buddha had a broad forehead, slightly closed eyes, a half-open smiling mouth, two large ears that drooped to his shoulders, a bare chest and belly, crossed legs and bent arms, and his body was leaning against a cloth bag. His right hand was on his knee, with a leisurely and contented expression.
Judging from the carving, the work is exquisitely carved with skillful knife work and natural and smooth lines. If this root carving is indeed the work of the stall owner's ancestors, his ancestors must have been highly skilled craftsmen. Even though Zhuang Rui does not know how to appreciate such objects, he can tell that this is a rare masterpiece. However, he does not know why the stall owner asked for such a low price, selling it for only 500 yuan.
"Huh!"
Just as Zhuang Rui turned the root carving over to examine it, his heart began to race. He noticed that the root carving's patterns and stripes shimmered with a luster, and the growth rings were so fine they were almost invisible. Moreover, there wasn't a single scar on it. Normally, tree roots are covered in scars, and it seemed that only sandalwood could possess such a unique appearance.
Seeing this, Zhuang Rui examined the root carving again, and the more he looked at it, the more it seemed to be carved from sandalwood. The purplish-black color and the deep, elegant shape, especially after he brought the root carving to his nose and smelled it, the faint fragrance made Zhuang Rui even more certain of his judgment. This Maitreya Buddha root carving was not only made of sandalwood, but it should also be an old object of some age.
It's not surprising that Zhuang Rui didn't notice at first, because there are two types of rosewood: large-leaf rosewood and small-leaf rosewood. Large-leaf rosewood has obvious and wide stripes on its tangential surface and is purplish-brown in color. The furniture that Zhuang Rui saw in the Song army villa was all made of large-leaf rosewood.
However, the wood grain on the surface of small-leaf sandalwood is not obvious. Its color is initially orange-red, and it turns deep purple like lacquer over time. The growth rings are almost invisible, and the veins are extremely fine, appearing as twisted silk like cow hair. Its price is four or five times higher than that of large-leaf sandalwood. This type of sandalwood is extremely rare, and large pieces are also rare. Most of the pieces that have been passed down are playthings. The one that Zhuang Rui encountered was carved from the root of small-leaf sandalwood.
After confirming that it was a sandalwood root carving, Zhuang Rui prepared to examine it again with his spiritual energy. The reason why Zhuang Rui had not used his spiritual energy to examine the object before was to gain more experience. In the antique business, you have to see and handle a lot. For example, if you spend decades in the Palace Museum, facing those old objects that have been accumulated over time, and then go to Panjiayuan to see those fake objects, you can probably tell the difference between real and fake as soon as you touch them. This is the accumulation of experience.
However, Zhuang Rui had already given his answer in his heart, and now he needed to use the spiritual energy in his eyes to make an assessment. He lowered his head slightly, and a flash of orange-yellow light passed before his eyes. The spiritual energy in his eyes had already come into contact with the root carving in his hand. In Zhuang Rui's eyes, the surface of the root carving seemed to turn into mist and decompose rapidly. Although the spiritual energy stopped after entering the root carving about one centimeter, the fibrous structure inside the root carving was still revealed to Zhuang Rui.
The internal fibrous structure of the root carving is extremely fine, like layers of waves, and each fiber pore is winding and dense, with extremely fine vein patterns that resemble twisted silk or cow hair. These are unique characteristics of sandalwood, which Zhuang Rui had heard about at Song Jun's villa.
However, what surprised him most at this moment was that an aura as thick as the couplet of the Lian Sheng quickly merged with the spiritual energy in his eyes. This aura was many times more abundant than the spiritual energy he had absorbed from the cricket gourd and the few rosewood chairs. This puzzled Zhuang Rui. Could it be that his previous judgment that the amount of spiritual energy in wooden antiques was small was wrong?
Shaking his head, Zhuang Rui put those thoughts aside. Now was not the time to delve into the matter. After judging from the spiritual energy in his eyes that it was an antique, the weight of the sandalwood Maitreya Buddha in his hand seemed to increase even more. Zhuang Rui knew that sandalwood was known as "an inch of sandalwood is worth an inch of gold," especially old objects with a history of inheritance, which were even more expensive. The market price of this object was probably far higher than that of the cricket gourd from Sanhe Liu.
Zhuang Rui looked up and saw the traitorous translator hunched over the table writing down what had happened, while Director Wang was gesturing wildly and exchanging pleasantries with the two foreigners. So he gently tugged at the stall owner and asked, "Brother, I think your statue is quite nice. How come you sold it for only five hundred yuan?"
After hearing Zhuang Rui's words, the young man looked helpless and said, "It's an exaggeration to say there are 100 stalls selling root carvings and other small trinkets in this market, but there are definitely 30 to 50. If there are so many stalls, no one will buy them if the prices are too high."
"Are there still so many artisans now?"
Zhuang Rui was taken aback. Carving is a very delicate craft that not everyone can master.
"What kind of craftsmen are they? Those are all machine-carved. Hundreds or thousands can come out of an assembly line every day. They're just lifeless, soulless things. But they're cheap, only a dozen yuan each. And when you put them at home, they don't look any worse than these hand-carved ones. They also come in a variety of shapes. So the things on my stall are hard to sell. Today I only sold one to this foreigner, and then this mess happened."
The young people's words also revealed a reality: nowadays very few people are learning these traditional crafts, and it is likely that in a few years, there will be fewer and fewer of these skilled artisans.
"I really like this root carving. I'll buy it. Name your price."
Seeing the young man's somewhat disappointed expression, Zhuang Rui almost blurted out the truth about the root carving, but ultimately held back. He wasn't, and didn't want to, be the "living Lei Feng" sung by the singer Xuecun.
Chapter 58 Success
"Brother, you're too kind. I really have to thank you for today. If you like it, keep it. Don't mention money. I just had someone look at it. These family heirlooms are just good in terms of craftsmanship, but the materials are average. They're only worth a few hundred yuan. They're not anything special. Brother, please don't be so polite with me."
When the stall owner heard that Zhuang Rui wanted to buy, he quickly waved his hand. The traitor had just given him 4,000 yuan, which was enough for him to keep his stall running for two months. He refused to take any more money from Zhuang Rui. He had previously suspected that the root carvings left at home might be of good quality. A few days ago, he even took a few to this market to have them appraised by an old man who specializes in miscellaneous items.
The expert's appraisal results left him quite disappointed. The oldest of these items was only from the Republican era, and the materials used were quite ordinary, mostly ash and pine roots. They couldn't be considered antiques and had little collectible value. After receiving this conclusion, he simply put all the old root carvings he had previously been reluctant to sell on his stall today. However, he didn't know that the Maitreya Buddha root carving in Zhuang Rui's hands was exactly one of the ones he hadn't taken for appraisal.
In modern society, sandalwood is an extremely rare and precious tree species. Although this young man inherited the root carving skills of his ancestors, he had never seen sandalwood before. Even his grandfather's generation had never seen it, so he did not realize that his ancestors had left behind such a fine object.
Seeing that the young man refused to accept the money, Zhuang Rui also refused to take advantage of him. He knew that finding bargains was his own skill, but accepting gifts from others without reason would violate his principles. His mother had taught him since childhood that taking small advantages would lead to big losses. Little did he know that most people who were scammed in pyramid schemes or business were those who harbored wishful thinking and wanted to make a fortune with a small investment, forgetting the saying, "There's no such thing as a free lunch."
Those swindlers also understand this psychology. Just like Da Xiong and others in the Pengcheng antique market, if Zhuang Rui didn't have a keen eye and a slight understanding of Zheng Banqiao's style, it's hard to guarantee he wouldn't be tempted after seeing that painting.
"Are all the remaining works here yours?"
Zhuang Rui pointed to a bamboo and rattan box the young man was carrying and asked a question, as he had an idea in mind.
The stall owner scratched his head and smiled somewhat embarrassedly, "Hehe, my skills are far inferior to those of the elders in my family. Brother, take a look."
Zhuang Rui found it somewhat amusing. This young man was far too honest, immediately admitting that his goods were inferior. How could anyone do business like that? No wonder he had been setting up his stall for so long, yet no one had taken a liking to this sandalwood Buddha carving. Zhuang Rui was unaware that this carving was being sold for the first time today. Otherwise, with so many people coming and going in the market, how could he possibly have gotten his hands on this bargain?
“There aren’t many people who know this craft now. They all want to save time and just buy from craft factories. To make a piece like this, I first have to think about it repeatedly in my mind, choose a tree root with a specific shape, and then go through several processes such as air drying, baking, oil soaking, waxing, and polishing before I can produce such an item. Although the price is a bit higher, it is much more durable than those made in factories.”
The young man took out a root carving from the box and handed it to Zhuang Rui. He was very happy to see someone appreciating his work and introduced it to Zhuang Rui.
Zhuang Rui took a look and saw that these root carvings were all palm-sized, depicting the monkey stealing peaches from the Chinese zodiac. A lively and cute little yellow-haired monkey was climbing on a large peach, trying to carry it away. The strong contrast between the large peach and the small monkey made the whole picture very interesting. The carving was lifelike, the surface was smooth and delicate, and the feel was excellent.
The characteristic of root carving works is that they are "seven parts natural and three parts carved, naturally interesting." This piece is outstanding in terms of material selection, conception and carving. Zhuang Rui thought to himself that this young man looks a few years younger than him, but his skills are not bad.
"How much do you sell each of these pieces for?"
Zhuang Rui played with the monkey carving in his hand and asked a question.
"This thing can be made in three to five days, and it can only sell for a hundred or two hundred. Even at that price, it's still hard to sell. People always compare it with those made by machines."
The young stall owner was indignant but helpless. In a sense, modern technology has gradually eliminated some craftspeople.
"How many do you have in total? Do you have a complete set of the twelve zodiac animals?"
Zhuang Rui really liked these root carvings. These items were suitable as gifts or as decorations for the home. When he returned to Zhonghai, he might as well give a few to his eldest brother.
"Yes, there is one set, and a few scattered ones, a total of nineteen."
Although the young man was honest, he wasn't stupid. After hearing Zhuang Rui's question, he understood what he meant. He really couldn't bear to give away so many things, so he didn't say anything like "take it if you like it".
"How about this, I really like these root carvings of yours. I'll take all nineteen of them, plus this Maitreya Buddha root carving. I'll give you five thousand yuan for the whole set. Is that alright?"
Zhuang Rui wasn't trying to show off; he just felt the man was quite honest. Giving him five thousand yuan was a way of compensating him. The sandalwood Maitreya Buddha pendant alone was probably worth dozens of times more than five thousand yuan. You can't call Zhuang Rui hypocritical; after all, this requires a discerning eye. No one could say no to Zhuang Rui's actions.
"Brother, no need for so much. You've helped me so much today, how could I possibly accept so much money from you?"
The young man was somewhat surprised by Zhuang Rui's words and said helplessly that the things he sold were only time-consuming to make, but the cost was not much, only about a hundred yuan for materials. On a good day, he would only sell three or four of them. Now that he heard Zhuang Rui wanted to buy them all, this was a big deal for him.
"That's fine then. I see that the craftsmanship of your root carvings is very exquisite. I'll take them back and try selling them in my friend's shop. If they sell well, I'll come to Hefei again to buy more from you."
Zhuang Rui didn't explicitly say where the root carvings went, but he made up an excuse to comfort the stall owner. However, he shamelessly praised himself in his heart: "Others try to lower the price when buying things, but I insisted on giving them money both times. What a noble quality that is."