Shangguan Mingyue was the girl Li Wei wanted to pursue, so it wouldn't be good to show her many flaws. Besides, he was completely captivated by Zhou Xuan's amazing magic tricks. Although Zhou Xuan said something about "wanting to practice divine skills by castrating himself," Li Wei thought it was nonsense and just Zhou Xuan's excuse. His curiosity about Zhou Xuan had far outweighed the attraction of Shangguan Mingyue to him!
Zhou Xuan glanced at Shangguan Mingyue, then at Li Wei, thought for a moment, and immediately stood up and said, "Alright, I'd also like to see Old Li. I have an appointment with Mr. Xu, but I'm free now, so let's go to your house!"
Li was overjoyed and chuckled as he dragged Zhou Xuan to the front desk, where he casually tossed two hundred yuan onto the table. Since they hadn't ordered any food, giving two hundred yuan was considered a very generous gesture.
Zhou Shi agreed to follow Li Wei mainly because of Shangguan Mingyue. This girl was too shrewd and not easy to fool, and he didn't want to deal with her any more, lest she discover more of his strangeness and he would be unable to handle her in the future. Li Wei, on the other hand, was much better. He had Lao Li behind him, and Lao Li would definitely only protect Zhou Xuan. Zhou Xuan was very confident in this.
Just as Li Wei drove his car out, Shangguan Mingyue also drove out her red Porsche, leaning out and saying in a soft voice, "Li Wei, haven't you been inviting me to your house for a while? Let's go now!"
Zhou Xuan was taken aback, then quickly got into Li Wei's car and urged, "Let's go, let's go!"
Li Wei said as he drove, "Miss Shangguan said..." Zhou Xuan interrupted him again, saying, "Let's go, let's go!"
Shangguan Mingyue was confident in Li Wei. She smiled and turned the steering wheel to chase after him. Suddenly, the car veered to the left. Sensing something was wrong, she peeked back and was stunned!
The left tire had come off and rolled several meters away! To be continued... For more chapters and to support the author, please visit our website and read the original version!
Volume 1, Chapter 207: The Pen Holder Holds a Mysterious Secret
Shangguan Mingyue got out of the car and stared in astonishment at her Porsche and the tires that had rolled to the side!
He had never encountered such bad luck before. He glanced at Zhou Xuan and Li Wei's jeep, which had already disappeared into the heavy traffic, and couldn't help but grit his teeth and stomp his feet in anger!
Li Wei, who was driving, couldn't help but chuckle when he glanced at Shangguan Mingyue's car in the rearview mirror. He said, "Brother Xuan, how come she ran into such bad luck? Hehe, but it's good that she's not with us. You should tell me what happened, right?" "What happened?" Zhou Xuan asked deliberately. His phone rang in his pocket. He took it out and glanced at it. It was Fu Ying calling. He immediately answered and asked, "Yingying, what's up?"
“Dad just called from the shop. Someone brought something over, but they can’t recognize it, so they don’t know if it’s good or bad. Old Wu and ** supposedly went to some auction house, and we can’t reach them by phone, so I called you. Have you finished your business?” “Oh…” Zhou Xuan hesitated for a moment, then said, “Okay, I’ll head to the shop right away!” Li Wei heard Zhou Xuan speak and immediately asked, “Brother Xuan, where are we going?” Zhou Xuan didn’t stand on ceremony, pointed in the direction, and said, “To Panjiayuan!”
Li Wei knows almost every nook and cranny of the capital, even the most hidden places. It would be strange if there were any places he didn't know.
It only took Li Wei about twenty minutes to get to Panjiayuan. First, he knew the roads well and didn't take any detours. Second, Li Wei drove very fast, and even the traffic police didn't dare to stop him. Traffic police always try to avoid trouble with vehicles with military license plates.
After parking the car, Zhou Xuan took Li Wei to Zhou Zhang Antique Shop. It was already past six o'clock, and most shops had already closed. Their shop closed a little later because Zhou Xuan's father stayed there overnight. Today's situation was a little special because a customer had arrived. Zhou Xuan's father made a phone call and asked the customer to wait until Zhou Xuan arrived.
As soon as Zhou Xuan and Li Wei entered the store, Zhou Cangsong quickly came up to them and said, "Son, take a look at this customer's things. I don't know much about them either, and we can't get in touch with Lao Wu!"
A middle-aged man was sitting in the shop. Zhou Xuan recognized him immediately. After thinking for a moment, he remembered that this middle-aged man was the one who had sold the inkstone a couple of days ago.
After waiting for almost two hours, the man was overjoyed to see Zhou Zhi arrive. He quickly stood up and said, "Boss, take a look! This is a really good product. We did business together last time and thought your shop was good, so I won't sell it to any other shop!"
All customers are welcome; that's how business is. Zhou Xuan didn't particularly like this person, guessing he'd stolen something from home to exchange for money and gamble again. Li Wei entered the shop, feeling quite intrigued, looking around curiously.
Zhou Xuan introduced him to his father: "Dad, this is my friend, his name is Li Wei. Dad, you can close the door now, we'll use the side door later." Li Wei politely greeted Zhou Cangsong, "Uncle!" and then looked at the items on the shelf. Zhou Cangsong's attention remained on the man. After closing the shop door, he went to the table.
Zhou Xuan glanced at the object on the table. It was a black pen holder, about 20 or 30 centimeters tall, with a bamboo painting on the side. Although it was just a few sections, the leaves were rough and the image was very vivid.
In ancient times, the Four Treasures of the Study were paper, brush, inkstone, and ink. In addition, there were brush washers and brush holders, all of which were necessary items for the scholar's study.
This is a pen holder. In ancient times, scholars and officials all had this. Pen holders were made of ceramic or carved from bamboo or wood. If they were from a long time ago, ceramic pen holders could be quite rare.
Zhou Xuan did not respond to the person, but first glanced at the exterior. It was a ceramic pen holder, entirely black, except for the painted glaze, the rest of the pen holder was as black as black paint.
After picking up the pen holder, Zhou Xuan looked at the bottom again. It was still shiny black. He had very little experience with this kind of thing. He had only seen some porcelain, such as blue and white porcelain, plates, bowls and vases. He had never seen a pen holder before.
Based on Zhou Xuan's knowledge and experience, he really couldn't discern the age and origin of this book. After looking at it for a while, Zhou Xuan still tried to use his ice energy to test it.
When the ice energy detected the pen holder, Zhou Xuan knew that the pen holder was just an ordinary product fired in a kiln at the end of the Qing Dynasty. He smiled faintly and was about to withdraw the ice energy when suddenly the ice energy seemed to detect something. With a thought, he immediately measured it carefully and found that there was a hollow space of about an inch at the bottom of the pen holder. Because the whole pen holder was pitch black, it was not easy to know that there was such a thickness at the bottom from the space inside the pen holder.
Of course, it's not strange that there's another layer of space at the bottom. Zhou Xuanbing detected a strip of paper rolled into a tube inside this space. The bottom wasn't completely sealed with ceramic, but there was a round hole about the size of a finger in the center. However, this round hole was now sealed by mites, and the outer layer was sealed with clay and then painted. In the end, it looked like it was made of complete ceramic, and you couldn't see any trace of the round hole.
To be honest, the pen holder itself wasn't worth much money, but Zhou Zhi was curious about the paper box inside. Something kept so carefully inside must be a secret, but after so many years, even if it was a secret, it wouldn't be of much use anymore.
Zhou Xuan used ice energy to detect that the wax seal and paint were eighty years old, which meant that the note had been inside for at least eighty years. It was even stranger. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Your pen holder is not very old. It is from a kiln in the late Qing Dynasty or early Ming Dynasty. It is about eighty years old. Judging from the painting and glaze, it is not a good piece. You tell me how much you want."
The middle-aged man looked slightly disappointed when he heard Zhou Xuan's words. He had been pleased when Zhou Cangsong said that Old Wu and ** were not there and that he was going to call his son over to take a look. Zhou Cangsong had said that his son was the young man he had seen last time. He thought to himself, how could someone of his age tell the difference between good and bad?
If I just ask for a higher price and exaggerate a bit, I might be able to swindle a lot of money from this young boss. Although it's a bit of a fantasy, it's good to have a good idea.
However, Zhou Xuan's explanation sounded quite plausible. The middle-aged man, unsure whether Zhou Xuan genuinely understood or not, frowned and said, "This is a family heirloom! My old man treasured it like a precious gem. After he died, my mother locked it in her bedside table. I tried everything to get my hands on it, but to no avail. I only took it out now while my mother was visiting relatives. How could it be something without any history? You're just guessing, aren't you?"
Zhou Shi smiled faintly, clasped his hands together, pushed the pen holder in front of him, and said, "If you don't believe me, then take it to another store and see!"
Seeing Zhou Xuan's calm demeanor, and noting that although he was young, his composure didn't seem feigned, the middle-aged man pushed the pen holder back to him and said awkwardly, "Never mind, never mind, name your price and let me see. At this time, all the other shops are closed. Where am I supposed to take it? I'm really short of money right now!"
Zhou Xuan shook his head, sighed, and advised, "I think you should take the pen holder back to your mother and talk to her about it. She might need some money, so we can discuss it. The pen holder isn't worth much, but there must be a reason why the old lady treasures it. It's best not to go against her wishes!"
The middle-aged man immediately became anxious and quickly said, "Why are we talking about that again? Do you want it or not? If you don't want it, I'll ask my friend to look at other shops. If it weren't so late and all the other shops were closed, I would have taken it to another shop!"
Zhou thought for a moment, then nodded and said, "Alright, I'll give you a thousand yuan. If you think it's okay, take it. If you think it's too low, take the pen holder back and take it to another store tomorrow."
To be honest, Zhou Xuan paid a thousand yuan just to see what was written on the note inside. As for the true value of the pen holder, Zhou Xuan couldn't say for sure, but he estimated it wasn't worth much.
The middle-aged man opened his mouth, then slapped his thigh and said, "Alright, alright, a thousand it is, give me the prophecy!"
Zhou Xuan didn't let Zhou Cangsong take the money from the shop. He took out a wallet from his pocket, took out a thousand yuan, and gave it to the middle-aged man. The middle-aged man took the money and didn't say anything else. He was in a hurry to have Zhou Cangsong open the door for him and left in a hurry!
After he left, Zhou Xuan asked his father to close the shop. Then he tapped the bottom of the pen holder, which made a hollow sound. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Dad, do you have a fruit knife or a screwdriver?"
Zhou Cangsong nodded, went to the inner room and took out a small dagger. The dagger was like half a pair of scissors, with a very sharp tip but a very blunt blade, so it probably couldn't cut anything.
Li Wei looked at it for a long time, but he didn't understand these things. After his interest wore off, he sat down and, seeing Zhou Xuan holding a sharp knife to the pen holder, couldn't help but ask, "Brother Xuan, this thing looks like it's made of ceramic, right? You think you can cut it open with a knife? Haha, this knife probably can't even cut fruit!"
Zhou Xuan smiled but didn't say anything. He was thinking of starting by prying open the door through the round hole in the deer's body when he heard a sound on the door. Zhou Cangsong quickly went to open the door.
Upon opening the small door, it was ** and Old Wu who entered. Zhou Zhi immediately waved to Old Wu and said with a smile, "Old Wu, come and take a look. I just bought a pen holder. What do you think?"
He laughed and said, "Luckily, I told Old Wu I was coming back to check things out, and sure enough, I ran into you. Hehe, what did you buy this time?"
Zhou Xuan's luck is obvious to everyone; he can casually throw out rare treasures. He's made another move today, so it must be something quite good as well.