Zhou Xuan was very depressed. He had been in a bad mood all day, ever since he woke up.
Zhao Junjie added, "Boss Zhang also called, saying there's a bit of trouble at the antique shop. He told you to go there as soon as you get back. Anyway, I'm free, so I'll go with you."
I wonder what's going on over there this time. Hopefully, nothing else to worry about; today has been incredibly frustrating.
Although Zhou Xuan was annoyed, he still followed Zhao Junjie to the antique shop.
The antique shop is really in trouble.
In Panjiayuan, He Laosan used to be the most influential person. After He Laosan fell from grace, Chi Lanshan, who was slightly weaker than him, became the most influential person in Panjiayuan.
He used to be weaker than He Laosan, mainly because he couldn't compete with He Laosan's connections, not because he lacked funds. When it came to business acumen and family wealth, Chi Lanshan was far superior to He Laosan. While He Laosan's net worth was only a few tens of millions, Chi Lanshan had hundreds of millions. Because of his large size and ruthless business acumen, people behind his back called him Fatty Chi, but to his face, they called him Boss Chi.
After He Laosan's inexplicable downfall, it ironically benefited Fatty Chi, who profited immensely. He Laosan's powerful backers dared not show their faces, and Fatty Chi acquired all of He Laosan's wealth at a bargain price. It was a classic case of "when the tree falls, the monkeys scatter." When He Laosan was in power, both the legitimate and underworld were astonished, and many fawned over him. But after his downfall, everyone vanished. Furthermore, given He Laosan's numerous shady dealings, even more people applauded his actions, and no one uttered a single word of pity for him.
Fatty Chi actually had decent connections, including in the tax and public security bureaus, but he wasn't as powerful as He Laosan. As the saying goes, suppressing one line means suppressing the whole. Having been suppressed by He Laosan and unable to rise to prominence, Fatty Chi was naturally the biggest beneficiary of He Laosan's downfall.
In Panjiayuan today, Fatty Chi's shop is probably the biggest and most confident. In the past, He Laosan had a rule in Panjiayuan: if an item in his shop was deemed acceptable, he would have to make the first move. Of course, this was based on a first-come, first-served principle. Generally, whichever shop a customer who wanted to sell came to first would get the business.
However, He Laosan hired a dozen or twenty henchmen who loitered around Panjiayuan all day, lingering in front of various shops. If they saw a customer, they would strike first. They would lure and trick them into He Laosan's shop, and regardless of whether the goods were good or bad, the vast majority of the business went to He Laosan.
Furthermore, if he sets a price and the customer doesn't sell, thinking the price is too low, and then goes to another shop, that shop won't allow him to accept the sale. Even if they do, the business belongs to him, and they're not allowed to raise the price. This domineering practice infuriates other shops, but of course, they dare not speak out. In this day and age, whoever has connections can stand tall. Moreover, He Laosan's connections aren't just in government; they're also in the underworld. He might just send a few thugs with menacing faces to cause trouble at your shop. If you call the police, they'll disappear immediately, and once the police leave, even bigger retaliation will follow.
Mr. He: There are various versions of why he collapsed, but no one really knows the reason. Because Wei Haihong was behind it, the police high command had long ago issued strict orders not to divulge any secrets. So no one below knew.
Fatty Chi raised his head, quickly regained his footing, and became the second He Laosan.
This morning, a young woman of about twenty-two or twenty-three years old brought a Han Dynasty jade cicada pendant to pawn. Although Fatty Chi was ruthless and a cold-blooded businessman, he was very skilled. This jade cicada had been worn for a very long time, and its body was perfectly round, with extremely exquisite carving.
The jade cicada is incredibly lifelike, its color a deep green with black and yellow spots, just like the wings of a real cicada singing in a tree. It has two large, protruding eyes and slightly open wings. It's truly vivid and lifelike.
The girl was pretty and looked anxious. She said she wanted to exchange the jade cicada for money, but Fatty Chi pointed out its flaws and shortcomings, saying he could only offer a maximum of five thousand yuan.
The girl was very disappointed and naturally refused to sell it to him, so she went to a second shop to sell it.
Chi Pang then told her that he had already offered the highest price for her jade cicada, and that it would be more realistic to offer a lower price at other stores.
The girl naturally didn't believe it. She took the jade cicada to other shops, and it turned out to be true. Each shop offered a lower price than the last. She had heard her father say before that this jade cicada was a family heirloom worth 100,000 yuan. Why was it only offered a few thousand yuan at the antique shop?
Despite the confusion, this was actually a tactic employed by Fatty Chi. When the girl left, he called the other shops, and they complied because of Fatty Chi's influence. Otherwise, their shops would be blatantly robbed clean. At least now that they were going along with him, they could still do some business peacefully.
Fatty Chi thought everything was fine, but that's precisely where the problem arose. The problem lay with Zhou Xuan's shop. Because it was newly opened, and he'd heard the owner was ** (a pseudonym), Fatty Chi knew of such a person. In Panjiayuan, ** wasn't exactly a big shot. It was somewhat unexpected that he could open a shop, but he figured it was probably just a small business, barely scraping by. He figured no one would dare to go against him. For a shop like this, a simple greeting would suffice. Good morning, ** (another pseudonym) went out with Lao Wu on business again. Lao Wu hadn't dared to neglect the tasks Zhou Xuan had assigned, so he'd taken ** (another pseudonym) to meet his friends early in the morning.
The shopkeepers were Zhou Tao and his son, along with Zeng Qiang and Chen Shuhua, two of their employees.
The girl's name was Li Li. She was a college graduate. Her father ran a small fish shop and fishing gear business, and her mother helped out. They had enough to live on, but sending Li Li to college had exhausted their savings. Unexpectedly, disaster struck. Li Li's father, Li Jiangfu, was diagnosed with uremia after six months. Due to the family's financial difficulties, he was unable to receive proper treatment. After six months of protracted treatment, his condition worsened, and he was now diagnosed with late-stage uremia, which was incurable.
Li Jiangfu's daughter, Li Li, had just graduated from school at this time. Her parents had kept it a secret from her. Li Li knew that her father was ill, but her parents were afraid that it would interfere with her studies, so they never told her the truth until now when they could no longer hide it from her.
In her grief, Li Li was unwilling to give up on her father's treatment, but apart from some fishing gear and a lot of pet fish, the family had spent all their savings. Where would she get the money to treat her father?
Li Li then brought out the jade cicada she had worn since childhood to sell. Her father had mentioned it to her when she was very young; it was a family heirloom. For generations, even in the poorest and most difficult times, her elders had never sold it, and now it had been passed down to Li Li.
In Li Li's eyes, no matter what it was, no matter how good it was, it was still just an object, an inanimate thing without humanity. But her father was family. He was a living, breathing person. No matter how precious the jade cicada was, it was no less valuable than a living life.
But the antique shop offered too low a price, far below what she was looking for. Since she was going to sell the jade cicada, she didn't care about its value at all. But the money she got was too little to save her father, so what was the point? What was the meaning of it?
Li Li visited several more shops, but each one was cheaper than the last, and she became increasingly disappointed until she entered Zhou Tao's Zhou Zhang Antique Shop.
First of all, to be honest, Zhou Tao had a good impression of Li Li's appearance; she was pretty and delicate, without being seductive or alluring.
But in Zhou Tao's shop, besides him and his father, there were two other employees, but no appraiser was there. So there was no one to inspect the goods.
Zhou Tao then explained the reason and asked Li Li to check other stores, or come back tomorrow, as Lao Wu and ** needed to be in the store, since they didn't know how to inspect the goods.
When Li Li heard that their store's explanation was different from other stores, she immediately felt hopeful again and anxiously explained the reason.
Seeing Li Li's tearful face, Zhou Tao's heart softened. After all, he came from the countryside and was much more honest and simple. He immediately called ** and Lao Wu. After Lao Wu confirmed the appearance of the jade cicada, he said, "Judging from what you've described, this jade cicada is very likely genuine, and its value should be between 80,000 and 150,000 yuan. Of course, as business people, we need to negotiate a lower price, but since I haven't seen it with my own eyes, I can't be sure." To find out what happens next, please log in to [website name - likely a website or platform]. More chapters available. Support the author and support genuine reading!
Volume 1, Chapter 139: Dragon Fish Pearl
The two Wus said that they would only be able to confirm things after he returned. It's likely that he wouldn't be able to determine the authenticity of the jade cicada based solely on what was said over the phone.
Seeing Li Li's anxious expression, Zhou Tao suddenly felt a pang of pity. He called Zhou Xuan, but she wasn't home; at that moment, Zhou Xuan and Wei Xiaoyu were practicing taking beatings.
Zhou Tao hardened his heart and gave Li Li a receipt. He accepted the jade cicada from her, gave her 50,000 yuan as an emergency fund to arrange her father's hospitalization, and then re-priced it after Lao Wu and ** returned.
Li Li was naturally both happy and grateful. Zhou Tao was worried that she, a young woman, might get into trouble after taking the money. So he simply took her home; there were two employees and her father at the shop, so there was no need to worry.
But after he left with Li Li, Fatty Chi ran into trouble. First, a few young men in their twenties came, shouting that Zhou Zhang's shop was selling counterfeit goods. Then someone called the police, and soon after, several officers from the local police station arrived, searching the place thoroughly. If they wanted to find fault, they could easily find something wrong with the shop, pointing out issues like fire safety facilities and people living in the shop, implying fraud. They needed to take people back to make statements, issued a 20,000 yuan fine, and ordered the shop to cease operations until the police investigation clarified the alleged fraud case.
The result was that Zhou Cangsong was taken away, because he was currently the only person in the store who could replace the boss.
The two men, Zeng Qiang and Chen Shuhua, panicked and quickly called the police to inform them.
Upon hearing this, he hurriedly rushed back with Lao Wu, and was also annoyed with Zhou Xuan, who had so much money he couldn't spend it all, yet he wouldn't even buy a cell phone, and was impossible to find when he needed to.
It's not really Zhou Xuan's fault. His phone was damaged by the sea early on, and then he went to the United States. After returning, he was constantly on the go, so he didn't have time to go. And when he did have time, he forgot about it.
However, after hearing what Zhao Junjie said, Zhou Xuan rushed to the antique shop. In the shop, he listened to Zeng Qiang and Chen Shuhua recount what had happened, and then secretly told them about Fatty Chi. This was quite obvious, because Fatty Chi's shop had called and asked Zhou Tao and the others to do as they were told.
Zhou Xuan immediately understood what was going on. After a moment's thought, he said, "Second brother, you stay here and watch the shop. I'm going to the police station."
Before he even left, Zhou Tao rushed back. Then ** and Lao Wu also returned.
Inside the shop, Zhou Tao recounted the whole story in detail again, and then took out the jade cicada for Old Wu to see.
Zhou Xuan used his icy energy to test the jade cicada, confirming that it was indeed a Han Dynasty jade piece, but he didn't know much about its value.