"Call her Feifei..."
"No, please. I'll still call you Officer Miao. If I bother you again later, I won't have to change how I address you."
Zhuang Rui's words made Miao Feifei laugh, but she was still a little skeptical of what Zhuang Rui had just said. The middle-aged man had shifty eyes and smelled of dirt. In Miao Feifei's opinion, he was most likely a burrowing rat. If they really caught a tomb raiding gang, that would be a great achievement.
"Officer Miao, we've been walking around for over two hours now. Let's go sit in that teahouse. I'll explain it to you later, and you'll understand."
Zhuang Rui looked around. The two of them standing in the corner were quite eye-catching, and passersby would take a look. So he pulled Miao Feifei into a teahouse next door.
Like the buildings lining the street, this teahouse was an imitation of ancient architecture. The waiters inside were dressed in incongruous ancient clothing. Upon seeing someone enter, a waiter at the door immediately called out in a drawn-out voice, "A customer has arrived..."
A girl in her early twenties wearing a cheongsam immediately came to greet them, but the sneakers she wore were rather an eyesore, which made Zhuang Rui chuckle to himself.
The two went up to the second floor and found a window seat. Zhuang Rui ordered a pot of Pu'er tea and some snacks. Although the first time you drink Pu'er tea, it may feel a little strange, but once you get used to it, you can appreciate its flavor. It also has the benefit of lowering blood lipids.
The Pu'er tea served in this teahouse was slightly bitter and lacked a rich, mellow aroma, making it far inferior to the tea cake that Uncle De had taken yesterday.
"Zhuang Rui, you still haven't explained what happened earlier. How do you know those two weren't tomb raiders?"
Whether the tea was good or bad didn't matter to Miao Feifei. Northerners are used to drinking tea in a large teacup, and those who prefer strong flavors will put in only half a cup of tea leaves and let it steep all day. They rarely have the same meticulous approach to tea drinking as Southerners. Miao Feifei was no exception. While eating snacks and drinking Pu'er tea, her eyes were fixed on Zhuang Rui.
Seeing Miao Feifei's persistence, Zhuang Rui sighed and said, "Officer Miao, let me tell you a story. It happened in this antique market, but I'm not sure if those two people from earlier are in the story."
"Okay, okay, tell me quickly."
Miao Feifei looked nothing like a policewoman at this moment. She was stuffing a steamed bun into her mouth with one hand and holding a teacup with the other. Her eyes were shining as she looked at Zhuang Rui, and she looked more like a child ready to listen to an adult tell a story.
"This matter involves an elder of mine. I won't mention his name now. My elder is a successful person in the business world. He has a very large business. In recent years, I don't know why, he has taken a liking to collecting. As you know, with strong financial backing, he has a much higher starting point than the average person when it comes to this business."
However, this elder of mine has high aspirations. He has read many books and read many pictures about antique appraisal. When he first entered the industry, he declared that he would rely on his own skills to find bargains. So he has been to many antique markets such as Zhonghai City God Temple, Cangbaolou, and Huabaolou, and bought a whole room full of things. However, genuine items are few and far between. Last year, he wandered into the City God Temple.
Like us, my elder was also approached by two men while browsing a street stall. They claimed to have recently unearthed antiques. Having spent many years in the business world, he was quite knowledgeable about people, and judging from their words and actions, they did seem like they were up to no good. They might actually have some valuable items. Plus, he's easily persuaded, and after their persuasion, he went along. Guess what happened next?
Zhuang Rui paused here, then poured himself another cup of tea.
"How did it go? Could it be that the tomb raiding gang has switched to kidnapping and kidnapped your elder?"
Miao Feifei thought about it seriously for a moment, and then said it with an air of importance, which made Zhuang Rui speechless. This senior sister's imagination was a bit too rich.
"What nonsense! My elder followed those two people and went through a maze of twists and turns until they entered a small inn not far from here. However, the environment inside was terrible, and the smell almost made him faint. Later, when they entered a room, two people were already waiting for them. The two people waiting in the room were very thin and small, and more importantly, they all reeked of earthiness, just like those coal miners. You could tell at a glance, so my elder was already seven or eight parts convinced. When the item was brought out, his eyes lit up. It was a Xuande incense burner, which must have been unearthed recently, covered in mud."
What is a Xuande incense burner? Is it used for burning incense?
Miao Feifei interrupted Zhuang Rui.
"You, who often goes to Liulichang? If you weren't wearing a police uniform, you probably would have been swindled out of your life long ago."
Zhuang Rui muttered a curse to himself, then explained, "What you said is not wrong. Xuande incense burners were indeed used for burning incense in ancient times, but their origins are quite remarkable."
It is said that during the reign of Emperor Xuande of the Ming Dynasty, in order to satisfy his personal hobby of appreciating incense burners, he ordered a batch of red copper to be imported from Siam (present-day Thailand). He then commissioned the court craftsman Lü Zhen and the Vice Minister of Works Wu Bangzuo to design and supervise the production of incense burners, referring to the styles of famous porcelains from the Chai, Ru, Guan, Ge, Jun, and Ding kilns in the imperial collection, as well as historical records such as the "Xuanhe Bogu Tulu" and "Kaogu Tu".
To ensure the quality of the incense burners, the most skilled craftsmen of the time selected dozens of precious metals such as gold and silver, and carefully cast them together with red copper more than ten times. The finished bronze incense burners had a crystal-clear and warm luster, making them a treasure among the handicrafts of the Ming Dynasty. The successful casting of the Xuande incense burner set a precedent for bronze incense burners in later generations, and for a long period of history, the Xuande incense burner became the general term for bronze incense burners.
However, the amount of imported red copper was limited at the time. In the third year of the Xuande reign, five thousand incense burners were cast using this batch of red copper, and no more were produced after that. These Xuande incense burners were all hidden deep within the Forbidden City. Ordinary people like us only knew their names but never saw them. After the change of dynasties and the vicissitudes of the past few hundred years, genuine bronze incense burners cast in the third year of the Xuande reign are extremely rare.
As the saying goes, rarity increases value. With such a limited number of Xuande censers, their prices are naturally extremely high. Driven by greed, antique dealers continuously imitated Xuande censers from the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty to the Republic of China era. Even after the production of Xuande censers ceased, some officials in charge of casting immediately summoned the original craftsmen to replicate them according to the blueprints and processes. These meticulously crafted imitations were comparable to the genuine articles, and even experts could not distinguish them. To this day, among the many Xuande censers held in major museums across China, not a single one can be universally recognized by experts as a genuine Xuande censer.
"So you mean the Xuande incense burner that the elder saw was fake? You never know. Hundreds of years have passed since the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty. Maybe those tomb raiders dug up a real one from someone's tomb."
Miao Feifei interjected, saying that she was convinced that the group of people were tomb raiders.
Zhuang Rui rolled his eyes at Miao Feifei, saying irritably, "Xuande censers are made with exquisite materials and are extremely well-crafted. In the early years of the Republic of China, a fine Xuande censer could fetch hundreds of thousands of yuan, making it a priceless treasure. If it were today, a genuine Xuande censer could easily sell for tens of millions of yuan. Do you think those things are like cabbages, everywhere you look, or something you can just dig up in an ancient tomb? After the Xuande period, the term 'Xuande censer' no longer just refers to incense burners cast in the third year of the Xuande reign, but rather to all bronze censers bearing the Xuande mark. It can also refer to bronze censers with similar shapes to those with the Xuande mark but without the mark, or with other marks. The genuine Xuande censer from the third year of the Xuande reign has become a mystery. Most of the Xuande censers we see today are not from the Xuande period."
"Even if it was fake, what happened afterward? Was your elder murdered?"
Miao Feifei finally stopped dwelling on whether it was true or false and asked a question.
Zhuang Rui nodded and said, "In that environment, the lighting wasn't very bright to begin with. While my elder was looking around, two more people came and said they also wanted to see if there were any unearthed antiques. At that moment, the elder got anxious and asked the tomb raiders how much the Xuande censer was worth. Those two short guys immediately asked for 500,000."
Five hundred thousand was nothing to him, but when he heard the price, it seemed a bit sinister. However, he had his eye on the censer and was about 90 percent sure it was a Xuande censer. He immediately offered 50,000 yuan, ready to sell or leave immediately.
Who knew that the two people who came later would ask for 80,000 yuan? The tomb raiders then ignored my elder and discussed going with the two to collect the money. My elder got anxious. He couldn't let this easy money slip away. He immediately asked for 100,000 yuan and went to the bank to withdraw the money. He then took this precious Xuande incense burner home.
After returning home, the elder had a cabinet specially made, with a glass cover and four spotlights installed on it. After cleaning the Xuande incense burner, he placed it inside. He then boasted to everyone that he had found a great bargain. However, later an expert examined it and determined that the object had been buried for no more than two months and unearthed for no more than two weeks, making it a modern imitation.
The expert's words immediately deflated the man, who angrily went back to look for those so-called tomb raiders. However, after wandering around for half a year, he hadn't run into them. There are so many antique markets across the country; who knows where those guys have gone to scam people now? In fact, even if he did find them, there was nothing he could do. They had neither invoices nor witnesses. He could only accept his loss. "I didn't let you come along earlier because I didn't want to cause this trouble and waste your time."
"I see. This kind of behavior is indeed hard to prosecute. It's a matter of mutual consent, but your elder is really unlucky. He was swindled out of 100,000 yuan just like that."
After listening, Miao Feifei said thoughtfully.
Just as Zhuang Rui was about to reply to Miao Feifei, his phone rang. When he answered, Wei Ge's voice came through: "Hey, youngest brother, you should rest today. Let's have lunch together. Come pick me up from the driving school later. Damn it, this instructor is really messing with me. He gave me a Dongfeng 141 and made me practice driving in and out of the garage in one spot all morning. My shoulders are almost numb."
"I need to get familiar with the work since I just started, so I won't be available these next couple of days. You'll have to figure it out yourself. Make up for the points you've lost as soon as possible so you can get your driver's license back from Officer Miao. Okay, that's all for now. I'll hang up now."
Zhuang Rui spoke while looking at Miao Feifei, his eyes full of smiles.
“My elder’s son was even more unlucky. He squeezed into a female police officer’s seat while driving the other day and lost his driver’s license.”
After hanging up the phone, Zhuang Rui cheerfully said to Miao Feifei that the elder he was referring to was naturally Wei Ge's father. This kind of thing had happened to him countless times. Yang's father still adhered to the idea of finding a great bargain and relentlessly went around various antique markets. However, now he made fewer purchases and the chances of being fooled had also decreased a lot.
At least when Zhuang Rui went to Wei Ge's house a few days ago, he found that not many items had been added to Yang's father's treasure room. Zhuang Rui used his spiritual energy to look around the room and found that only a few items contained some thin white spiritual energy, and they didn't seem to be very old. As for the others, they were probably all fake.
"You mean your classmate's father?"
Miao Feifei laughed upon hearing this, but immediately straightened her face and said to Zhuang Rui, "Don't even think about pleading for him. If his driving skills are up to par, I will naturally return the money to him. Otherwise, don't even think about getting through me."
"That's right, that's right. Wei Ge was still struggling with Dongfeng 141 at the driving school this morning. Officer Miao, don't worry, we absolutely won't plead for him. But since he passed his driving test, do you think we can return his driver's license to him?"
Zhuang Rui had no intention of pleading with Wei Ge to get his driver's license back early. He just hoped that the guy opposite him wouldn't make things difficult for Wei Ge. The longer it took to get the license back, the safer his car would be for a few more days. Zhuang Rui was already quite disappointed with his boss's driving skills. He had been driving for seven or eight years and was still at the same level. Expecting to see results in just a few days at driving school was out of the question.
"It's good that you don't have that thought. Giving him your driver's license in advance wouldn't be helping him, it would be harming him. Let's go, let's walk around some more. I'll treat you to dinner tonight, and tomorrow we'll go to Zhouzhuang. I've heard that the scenery of the Jiangnan water towns there is really beautiful, but I've never had the chance to go."
Miao Feifei stood up and said casually that in her heart, Zhuang Rui was already a buddy she could make friends with.
"Alright, Zhouzhuang it is. Who told me to offend you? As the ancients said, 'Women and petty men are the most difficult to deal with.'"
Zhuang Rui chuckled and said that he didn't know why, but he felt very relaxed being with this cheerful policewoman. He wouldn't have been able to make such a joke with anyone else.
"You're asking for it. I'm a sixth-degree black belt. Cutting you down is like a piece of cake."
Upon hearing this, Miao Feifei glared at Zhuang Rui, but her appearance was too deceptive, and her gaze seemed more like flirting.
Zhuang Rui smiled, didn't retort, and beckoned the waiter to pay the bill. Miao Feifei appreciated his behavior. You see, not long ago, the son of one of Miao Feifei's elders, a so-called elite in the Zhonghai IT industry, treated her to dinner. The meal cost more than 300 yuan, and after finishing, the elite actually took out 120 yuan to pay for the dishes he ordered, and then handed the bill to Miao Feifei, saying that splitting the bill was popular now. Miao Feifei didn't say anything at the time and took out her money to pay the bill.
After declining the elite's invitation to go to the movies, Miao Feifei nearly vomited up her food when she got home. To make matters worse, the elite called, saying he admired her and wanted to pursue a relationship. Terrified, Miao Feifei immediately blocked his number. ...
“Xiao Huan, if it doesn’t work out, let’s just sell this to that shop. We’re out of money right now. We have 50,000 yuan, which is enough for Dad to have seven or eight rounds of chemotherapy. Don’t be so stubborn, kid.”
Next to a shop in a very bad location near the City God Temple, there was a street stall. Compared to other street stalls, which ranged from four or five meters in size to two or three meters in size, this stall was much simpler. It consisted of just a copy of the Zhonghai Daily spread on the ground, with two porcelain items on top of the newspaper.
There were quite a few people coming and going, but very few stopped at this stall for more than three minutes. They would stop, say a few words, and then turn around and leave. It wasn't because the items were few and unattractive to tourists, but because the stall owner was really a bit strange.
Whenever someone took a liking to these two porcelain pieces and asked the price, the very young stall owner would immediately ask for 300,000 yuan, without any room for negotiation. At a street stall, such a price was simply not enough to keep customers. Even if someone was interested, they couldn't afford it and could only shake their head and leave.
At this moment, next to the young stall owner, a young girl of about twenty-three or twenty-four years old was half-squatting. Watching her younger brother wolf down the food she had brought, she couldn't help but feel a little sorry for him.
"Sister, stop talking. That guy is a swindler. Dad said he won't sell this for less than 300,000. I earned a few thousand yuan working at university last year, and with your salary, it's enough for Dad to have three rounds of chemotherapy. I'd rather find a place to wash dishes than sell this to those swindlers. Tomorrow I'll go to those auction houses and see if I can get it auctioned off."
The young man sitting in front of the stall was eating and talking incoherently. He had taken the two porcelain pieces to several shops that morning. The first shop offered 50,000 yuan and boasted that no one in the antique market could offer a higher price than him. The young man didn't believe it and went to several more shops, only to find that, just as the man had said, each shop offered between 30,000 and 50,000 yuan, none of which exceeded the first one.
A good horse doesn't turn back to eat the grass it already grazed. This young man also had a stubborn streak, so he simply spread out a newspaper and set up a stall. He was determined that if he couldn't sell them today, he would go to an auction house tomorrow and auction them off. He would never go to those antique shops again.
"Xiao Zhuangzi, is this antique market in Zhonghai really that fake? We've been walking around for so long, and there's not a single genuine antique? Every time I pick one up, you say it's fake. Are you afraid I'll spend your money to buy it? I haven't asked you to pay for any of these things."
"Hey, Princess, what are you holding here? Aren't they all real? Why do you insist on buying those fake items? If I let you buy them, and then you come after me later, wouldn't I be at a disadvantage?"
Miao Feifei's words left Zhuang Rui both amused and exasperated. He had only invited her for tea, not even having a proper meal, yet Miao Feifei had already upgraded him from Zhuang Rui to Little Zhuangzi. Throughout the journey, she kept calling him Little Zhuangzi, which reminded Zhuang Rui of Little Li and Little Anzi, among others, from the perspective of a certain old empress dowager.
"These things are hardly antiques; they're just movie posters. I'm taking them back to Beijing for my oldest, most stubborn husband to remember history. He loves watching those black and white movies and often uses the characters in them to lecture people."
Miao Feifei waved the roll of old, yellowed posters in her hand. Although these things were only thirty or forty years old, they cost Miao Feifei more than a thousand yuan. In particular, the poster for the movie "Southward and Northward" cost the stall owner six hundred yuan. He said it was the first war film since the founding of the People's Republic of China, and there were definitely no more than 100 posters in good condition in the whole country.
"Hey, Xiao Zhuangzi, come and take a look. There are two porcelain pieces here, both broken. Why are you selling them?"
Miao Feifei was squatting next to a stall, picking up a bowl-shaped porcelain piece and examining it, while loudly calling out Zhuang Rui's name.
"Excuse me, miss, this isn't broken porcelain, it's just been repaired. If you don't want it, please move aside."
The young stall owner, who had just finished eating, said to Miao Feifei in an annoyed tone that his father's illness had been tormenting the two siblings these past few days, and even though Miao Feifei was a young and pretty girl, the young man hadn't shown her any interest.
"I haven't even looked at it yet, how do you know I don't want it? Zhuang Rui, hurry up, this young man is pretty arrogant, come and see if his item is real or fake?"
Miao Feifei wasn't angry. She handed the porcelain in her hand to Zhuang Rui, who had just squatted down.
"Hey, be careful, who's going to pay for it if you break it? Put it down, I'm not selling it to you anymore."
The young man got anxious. Porcelain is very fragile; if it were accidentally dropped, it would definitely break. While he was speaking, he didn't notice that his sister, who was tidying up the lunchbox, immediately looked at the man who had just walked over after hearing the name Zhuang Rui, her eyes full of surprise.
"It's okay, I'll take a look first. If it's good, I'll pay for it if it breaks. If I like it, I'll buy it. You don't need to worry."
Zhuang Rui also knew the rule that things should not be handled by others, but he couldn't explain it to Miao Feifei, who was an outsider.
After calming the stall owner who was about to jump up, Zhuang Rui was about to examine the porcelain more closely when he felt a gaze fixed on his face. He followed the gaze and found a girl who wasn't very old sitting next to the boy. However, when their eyes met, the girl hurriedly looked away from Zhuang Rui.
Chapter 153 Chenghua Doucai (Part 2)
Zhuang Rui glanced at the girl and then looked away. Although the girl was pretty, she was still three points less beautiful than Qin Xuanbing and Miao Feifei beside her. Moreover, Zhuang Rui was certain that he had never seen her before. However, the bowl-shaped porcelain in front of him made Zhuang Rui feel a bit strange.
The newspaper originally contained two porcelain items, one large and one small. The larger one was a jade pen holder, which was probably made of green jade. The center was carved with a shepherd boy riding an ox. The shepherd boy on the pen holder held a whip in one hand, looked into the distance, and was leisurely and content. The water buffalo lifted its hooves and slowly moved forward. It was accompanied by green willows and trees and a red sun. The pattern was beautiful and the carving was extremely exquisite. It was obviously made by a famous artist.
However, Zhuang Rui's gaze wasn't fixed on the pen holder at this moment, but rather completely drawn to the small, bowl-shaped porcelain object in his hand. It was more like a cup than a bowl, as it was quite small. Zhuang Rui carefully measured it and estimated that the porcelain cup had a mouth diameter of about 8.2 centimeters, a base diameter of about 3.85 to 4 centimeters, and a height of about 3 centimeters—about the size of a small wine cup.
This cup has a wide mouth, an extremely thin lip, and a flat foot. The thin body is pure white and delicate, and the glaze is soft, warm, and elegantly yellow. It is smooth and dense without any brown spots. The inside of the cup is plain and smooth, but the outer wall is painted with a delicate and elegant rock and peony, as well as a mother hen and chicks that seem to be eager to move. The peony flowers and leaves are arranged in a pleasing manner, and the chicks are plump and cute, all in a joyful and happy posture with their wings outstretched. One of the two roosters is crowing, and the other is looking back at the mother hen foraging for food. The whole scene is lively and vivid.
Turn the cup over, and you'll see a six-character inscription in regular script with a double blue frame that reads "Made in the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty." The characters are square, the strokes are straight, and they are extremely clear.
If there's any flaw in this cup, it's above the rim. There's a small area, about the size of a coin, that clearly shows signs of repair. The repair work isn't very good, making it obvious at a glance that the item was once damaged. You see, porcelain is fragile and easily broken, and repairing porcelain, like mounting paintings and calligraphy, is a skilled craft.
Some precious porcelain pieces inevitably suffer some damage after hundreds or even thousands of years. However, after being repaired by a skilled craftsman, the repair marks are impossible to detect without careful observation. In some cases, instruments are needed to see them. This cup, on the other hand, was repaired clumsily, clearly the work of an amateur.
"Zhuang Rui, what's so interesting about this little wine cup? Let me play with it."
Seeing Zhuang Rui holding that small, broken porcelain piece for a long time, Miao Feifei, curious, reached out to snatch it.
"No... this thing is very precious. If it gets broken, Princess, you'll lose at least eight or ten years' worth of allowance."
Zhuang Rui quickly moved Miao Feifei's hand away, while tightly gripping the small cup, afraid of accidentally dropping it. Judging from the boy's expression, he knew the cup was valuable; it seemed he wouldn't be able to salvage it today.
"Really? Do you know how much pocket money I get in a year? Little Zhuangzi, aren't porcelain pieces supposed to be bigger and prettier? How much is this little thing worth? Young man, how much do you sell this pen holder for?"