Zhou Xuan strolled slowly through the shops, browsing the goods. There was indeed a vast array: antique furniture, vintage clocks, antique carpets, antique ceramics, calligraphy and paintings by famous artists, white jade and ivory carvings, crystal ornaments, Shoushan stone carvings, snuff bottles, bronze Buddha statues, Tibetan artifacts, ethnic embroidered clothing, and much more. Some items had an antique charm, while others were new porcelain and pottery, making it difficult to distinguish the genuine from the fake. Zhou Xuan used his icy aura to slowly assess the value and age of these items, but he was somewhat disappointed. Although there was a lot of merchandise, the truly valuable items were far from what he had encountered. Even though some items were almost identical in color and appearance, the results after testing with his icy aura were disappointing. Zhou Xuan sighed.
No wonder it's said that nine out of ten gambling games are scams, nine out of ten jade gambling games are losses, and nine out of ten antique trading games are scams—it's all traps within traps, schemes within schemes, and plots within plots, making it impossible to guard against. These days, people will do anything for money, let alone the incredibly profitable world of counterfeiting antiques…※
It took Zhou Xuan two hours to climb all six floors, and his legs were aching. However, he hadn't lost much of his ice energy. The ice energy he possessed now was different from before; it had evolved and mutated, becoming much more abundant. Even if there was some loss, he could quickly recover by practicing internal energy cultivation techniques for a while after returning home. The longer he practiced, the purer and more controllable his ice energy became. Testing objects no longer had any impact; the main losses were in converting large molecular structures, such as gold, which would be quite difficult.
In several shops, Zhou Xuan inquired about the prices of a few items, and the prices were all quite high, much higher than he had estimated.
This basically eliminates the opportunity to find bargains or discover hidden gems.
However, to be fair, antique shop owners like these, being in this business, are naturally all shrewd and knowledgeable. How could anyone possibly profit from goods sold to them? They're essentially profiting from wealthy patrons who are interested in antiques but lack true expertise. Zhou Xuan's initial earnings were all obtained through his special ability, the Ice Qi. Without that ability, not only him, but even seasoned experts with decades of experience wouldn't have been able to discern the difference!
It seems there's nothing of value to be found in this antique market. It's not that these items have no value, but they are valuable yet treated as worthless. Finding something that's thrown away like trash is the real bargain.
Zhou Xuan is different from true collectors. No matter how valuable, beautiful, or attractive an item is, he has no interest in collecting it. The only thing that can arouse his interest is the opportunity to make a large profit from these items.
Moreover, he carries hundreds of millions in cash, so he doesn't feel much about these profits of tens or hundreds of millions. Once the money is beyond his reach, it's just a string of numbers.
After browsing the last floor, Zhou Xuan turned around and headed downstairs. He didn't look at any other shops, but went straight up the stairs without even taking the elevator.
Upon reaching the fourth floor, a slightly overweight man was seeing off an elderly man in his fifties at the stairwell, saying, "Take care!" As Zhou Xuan approached, the man turned and walked inside, muttering, "Damn it. What a bastard!" This was said in a local dialect.
Zhou Xuan was startled, then stopped in his tracks. The voice sounded somewhat familiar, but what he knew even better was that phrase, "Damn it, you idiot!"
After a moment of surprise, Zhou Xuan naturally called out, "Boss Zhang!"
He called out in his local dialect.
The man was muttering something when he heard Zhou Xuan's shout. He was stunned for a moment, then turned around to look at Zhou Xuan. The two stared at each other for a while, then suddenly shouted and hugged each other!
Some men and women passing by made way for them; it's no wonder people found it disgusting to see two grown men embracing like that!
The two jumped a few times before letting go of each other's hands and playfully hitting each other.
Zhou Xuan said, "**, Boss Zhang, you've gotten even fatter."
He said, "Zhou Xuan, little Zhou, you've gotten thinner!"
Zhou Xuan and I are from the same hometown, and we've been best friends since childhood, practically inseparable. We were the same age, classmates from elementary school through middle and high school, fishing together in mountain streams, fighting together, and even peeping at the neighbor's two daughters taking a bath together, until we graduated high school. After Zhou Xuan went to work in Guangdong, we lost touch. I never imagined we'd run into each other in Beijing today!
He was the eldest son in his family, and everyone called him Zhang Laoda when he was a child. Zhou Xuan's parents called their son Diwa since he was a child, and the villagers got used to calling him Zhou Diwa, and they started calling him that.
Pulling Zhou Xuan downstairs, Zhou Xuan asked with a smile, "Boss, weren't you going to the fourth floor? Why did you go down again?"
"Screw it, my brother's here, what's the point of doing anything else? Let's go home and drink. Even if the sky falls, I'm not going out today!" he said with a chuckle.
Zhou Xuan and **'s friendship was indeed exceptionally deep. Although they hadn't seen each other for many years, their sudden reunion naturally stirred up feelings of brotherhood. This wasn't their hometown in rural Hubei; this was Beijing, Beijing, home to 1.3 billion people in China. In this vast sea of people, to unexpectedly bump into each other here—what a coincidence!
Outside the antique market, Zhou Xuan was about to hail a taxi when ** waved her hand and said, "I have a car!" Smiling, she walked to a black Sonata parked by the roadside, pressed the key, and opened the door. Turning to Zhou Xuan, she said, "Get in!"
Zhou Xuan chuckled and said, "Hey, boss. You're doing pretty well!" He then got into the car. The car looked quite new.
He started driving, and despite being a bit overweight, he was quite skilled at driving. Once on the main road, he said to Zhou Xuan, "Little brother, this car costs 155,000 yuan, including registration, bought online."
Zhou Xuan smiled and said, "It seems that the boss is serious."
"That's right!" he said with a smile. "When money comes, nothing can stop it. I just pulled off another big deal. This one's a million-dollar transaction."
This is the third update today. I originally wanted to write another 2,000 words to bring it to 12,000, but my head feels like it's being pricked with needles. I've been in front of the computer for 14 hours, and I just can't take it anymore. I can only sleep for a few hours before getting up to write again. Looking at the subscription numbers and monthly tickets, I'm very grateful to all the readers who have supported me. Although some people have criticized me, there are still many more supporters. I thank you all. That's all for now. I'll take a break and then continue writing!
Volume One: The Lotus Buds Just Begin to Emerge, Chapter Fifty-Five: When Choosing a Wife, One Should Marry Liu Yufang
Two million was a huge sum of money. Zhou Shang was taken aback. In his memory, the boss was doing slightly better than him back then. How come he was talking about deals worth millions all the time?
"What kind of business?"
"You'll find out when we get home!" he said with a grin, his expression somewhat mysterious.
Zhou Xuan knew this Boss Zhang inside and out, even down to what kind of underwear he wore. But now, it seemed impossible to figure him out, considering it had been seven or eight years since they'd last met. People change, after all.
When he was little, ** had the most mischievous ideas. His grandfather's generation was a small landlord in the area back then. They were criticized after the liberation, but his grandfather was good at business, and his father's generation also inherited some of that talent and knew how to do small business, so **'s family was relatively well-off.
This guy, the kind who can get a kiss from a girl with a piece of candy, has a lot of tricks up his sleeve. But he and Zhou Xuan are definitely best friends; they share good food, fun activities, and even fights. Of course, they were together too, when they spied on Er Niu taking a bath.
Recalling the absurd things from his childhood, Zhou Xuan smiled and asked, "Eldest brother, do you still remember Chen's second daughter?"
"Why don't you remember?" ** paused for a moment, not expecting Zhou Xuan to ask about this, then laughed. "You little rascal, missing your wife, huh? Hehe. The first time I ever dreamed of being with Erniu was..."
Zhou Xuan felt disgusted by what he heard and chuckled. Wasn't he the same? Those white, luscious breasts were still so tempting to think about!
"Before I left, Erniu married Liu Erwa from the village and had a son. When I left, her son was only six months old, and she would pull out her big dick to feed the baby at any time!" He shook his head as he drove. "When we were little, we secretly looked at her and thought she was so beautiful. We thought we would marry someone like her when we grew up. But now that we're older, when we look at her again, we feel a little disgusted. Her dick looks like a cloth bag."
Zhou Xuan chuckled and didn't continue the topic with him.
He continued, “Little brother, I’ve been in Beijing for six years. When I left, I planned to come to Guangdong to find you, but I didn’t have a way to contact you. So I came to Beijing to work with a relative from the county. At first, I was in construction, but later I made some money in the antique business, and that’s how I got into this line of work.”
"Antiques?" Zhou Xuan was stunned. He hadn't expected that ** was also involved in antiques. He'd known him since they were little, hadn't he? His education was far less than his own; he probably didn't even know what antiques looked like. This line of work wasn't easy to get into. Did he also possess some kind of special ability?
"It really was just luck," he said. "Little brother, you know, when we were kids, all those girls at the village school liked to play 'jumping rope,' right? I tried to win over Erniu by trading White Rabbit candies for a lot of copper coins with the girls at school, but Erniu ignored me. Luckily she didn't. If she had, I would have given her the coins, and I wouldn't be where I am today."
Zhou Xuan knew about this. In his rural hometown, girls didn't have much else to do but jump rope and hopscotch. Jump rope involved two people holding a rope, one could jump alone, or several could jump together. The hopscotch was made by wrapping a copper coin in several layers of cloth, sewing them together, and then sewing a short, one-inch-long feather tube into the center hole of the coin. Finally, some long, beautiful rooster feathers were inserted into the tube, and that was the hopscotch. Back then, hopscotch was almost always the most popular extracurricular activity for girls in his hometown.
To please Erniu, Zhang Laoda traded White Rabbit milk candies for hundreds or even thousands of ancient copper coins. Zhou Xuan remembered this clearly; he had eaten quite a few of his candies back then. White Rabbit milk candies were every child's favorite candy. Soft, fragrant, and with an unforgettable aftertaste, Zhou Xuan had seen countless new candies in the city, but none tasted as good as the White Rabbit from back then. Zhang Laoda must have made a fortune; presumably, some of the copper coins he traded were valuable ancient coins.
Zhou Xuan's guess was correct.
He turned his head and smiled at him, then said, "In my second year working in Beijing, I was on a day off and went out shopping by myself. I accidentally wandered into the Panjiayuan Antique Market. You know, it was there that I saw an old man sell an ancient coin from the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. Kid, guess how much it cost?"
Zhou Xuan laughed and said, "How could I possibly have guessed!"