Chapter Fifty-two Found Treasure

  Changji City's Qing Shan Road is a bustling street with endless streams of people, where groups of three or five gather in and out of the densely packed shops, freely buying their favorite items. From time to time, the aroma of various snacks wafts out, enticing people's appetites.

  Li Ruoxi sat in a small restaurant with a gloomy face, constantly poking at the sour and spicy noodles in her bowl with her chopsticks.

  She left her residence early this morning in the hope of finding a stable job, but from this morning till now, she has been to over a dozen companies, only to be met with rejection everywhere.

  Of course, there were also several companies that agreed to hire her, and the treatment they offered was very good. However, the bosses or managers who agreed to let her join the company had a lecherous look in their eyes, and from time to time, they would express their desire to get close to her, which made her feel extremely disgusted.

  "Why can't they find a job that suits their heart's desire? Do they only care about their appearance, but not their abilities? Or is the graduation certificate also that important?" Li Ruoxi put down her chopsticks, she had just felt quite hungry, but after eating a few mouthfuls, she suddenly lost her appetite.

  She doesn't have a graduation certificate now, because nominally she hasn't graduated from school yet. Although she has passed all the subject assessments, if she wants to get a university graduation certificate, she still needs to wait for one year.

  She quietly walked out of the Golden Chopsticks store, ignoring the men's eyes that seemed to want to swallow her whole, and continued walking slowly along the street.

  Where should I go now?

  Continue looking for work?

  She lost that enthusiasm because the blow of nearly a day made her want to find something else to do, at least she had to find a goal or a place to spend some time.

  Lost in thought, she found that apart from the company's high-level executives, she had no one to gather with in Changji City, or rather, apart from herself, she had no friends.

  Suddenly, a delicate face appeared in her mind.

  Wang Ke!

  Yes, where is Wang Ke now?

  Is it reciting those ten thousand words at home or in an antique market?

  Thinking of this, Li Ruoxi quickly took out her mobile phone and dialed Wang Ke's number. After that, she slowly walked to the door of a boutique store on the side of the street and sat down on the chair set up there.

  In the antique trading market, after chatting with the stall owner for a couple of sentences, Wang Ke was about to sense the spiritual energy within a ten-meter radius when his phone in his pocket rang, causing him to frown slightly and wonder who could be calling him at this time.

  He lowered his head, took out his mobile phone, glanced at the incoming call display, and a smile spread across Wang Ke's face as he answered: "Li Ruoxi, how's your job search going?"

  Li Ruoxi's weak and listless voice came from the phone: "Don't mention it, everywhere is a dead end, or else I'll just run into those lustful high-level managers. Forget it, don't bring this up again, where are you now? I'm so bored, I'll go find you."

  Wang Ke was stunned for a moment before saying: "I'm at the antique trading market! If you don't have anything else to do, come on over!"

  Li Ruoxi quickly said: "Alright, I'll go now. It will take about twenty minutes to get there."

  After finishing this sentence, she was about to hang up the phone when she suddenly found that her mobile phone screen turned black.

  "Is there no electricity?"

  Li Ruoxi glanced at her phone and then stuffed it into her bag, hurrying towards the road ahead while secretly sighing: "A roof leaks just as a torrential rain pours down, a boat sails right into a headwind." Why is today so unlucky?!

  Wang Ke stood in front of the stall, listening to the beeping sound from his phone, and quietly gathered all his thoughts. His mental strength slowly concentrated, although his eyes were on the items on the stall, but he was actually using his heart to feel the spiritual energy within a radius of ten meters.

  Half a minute later, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth around him seemed to ripple, gradually floating into Wang Ke's perception.

  Do you have a lawyer?

  Wang Ke's face lit up with wild joy, and without any hesitation, he quickly activated his heterochromatic eyes. As the true energy flowed into his eyes, the slight pain disappeared rapidly, and he swiftly scanned the antique items on the stall in front of him.

  Four or five seconds later, his gaze stayed on a black inkstone. A white gas slowly flowed over the inkstone, and as he fixed his eyes on it, the white gas slowly stopped flowing, still in that state of wanting to emerge, struggling as if trying to rush into his eyes.

  However, he did not immediately cut off the true energy surging into his eyes, because he keenly sensed that the density of the heavenly and earthly spiritual energy around him was very high, at least much higher than when he entered the self-nature residence in the afternoon, the first floor hall.

  In this open area, it is possible to achieve such intense spiritual energy fluctuations, and there will absolutely be no less than two magical artifacts around.

  Wang Ke's heart was filled with joy, his spirit lifted to the extreme, and six or seven seconds later, his eyes felt a slight tingling sensation, accompanied by a stinging feeling that made his eyes almost moist.

  Eight seconds!

  This was the limit of his endurance, and the tears in his eyes flowed out uncontrollably. Helpless, he quickly cut off his true energy and raised his hand to cover his eyes. At this time, he did not want others to see his abnormal condition.

  After the pain in his eyes disappeared, Wang Ke covered up and wiped away the tears on his face, and the corners of his mouth slightly hooked up.

  He discovered an important situation, that is, the time it takes to use heterochromatic eyes is longer than before each time.

  What was rather regrettable for him was that there were too many antiques on the stall in front of him, and the two stalls next to it were very close, also within his range of perception, so he didn't notice the existence of other artifacts.

  Siege-shaped inkstone, one of the popular inkstones in the Tang Dynasty, is shaped like a long rectangular sieve, hence its name. It is also called "wind character shape inkstone" because the two sides of the inkstone tail are outwardly slanted, resembling the wind character. The inkstone is round on top and square on bottom, with edges around it, flat surface, and a recessed groove near the front to store ink. There are two feet at the bottom of the sieve-shaped mouth, which raises the edgeless mouth to keep the inkstone surface level.

  The inkstone, brush, ink and paper are the traditional Chinese Four Treasures of the Study, which are essential tools for Chinese calligraphy. The inkstone is not only a tool for the study but also a collectible due to its durability and ability to be passed down through generations.

  The inkstone in front of him was identified by Wang Ke as being made of red agate, with exquisite and beautiful carvings.

  He had often lingered in antique markets and seen many people selecting and haggling before making a purchase, so Wang Qi was quite familiar with the process of bargaining. Therefore, he didn't immediately pick up the inkstone, but instead reached out to grab the small, exquisite purple sand teapot next to it, holding it carefully in his hands to examine it thoroughly. Only then did he look up at the vendor and ask with a smile: "How much for this item?"

  The stall owner kept watching Wang Ke with a seemingly indifferent expression, hoping to gauge his emotions by observing his words and expressions. If Wang Ke was fond of an item and couldn't bear to part with it, he would take advantage of the situation and charge him more. But if Wang Ke's expression remained calm and he seemed nonchalant about the items he liked, the stall owner would have to reconsider and settle for a smaller profit.

  At this moment, the young man in front of him was asking for the price, but his eyes kept glancing at the stall next door, which made the stall owner quite disappointed, thinking that Wang Ke's interest in this purple sand pot was not particularly strong.

  "Little brother, your eyes are quite sharp! This purple sand pot is a masterpiece of a famous master. Look at the carving craftsmanship, look at the firing shape, and also the mouth of the purple sand pot, smooth and round, one glance and you can tell it's an antique. If you want to buy it, I absolutely won't ask for too high a price. 18,000, we won't haggle over the price, as they say 'jewels in the world are not worth taking, Yixing purple sand is the most precious.' This is absolutely a treasure of Yixing's finest purple sand pot."

  "Boss, you're really not being honest with me, cheating people to this extent. Do you think I'm a fool? Originally, I was already annoyed and just wanted to buy a few things from you casually, but you're actually not being truthful. This is really disappointing."

  Wang Ke's smile quickly disappeared, and he looked at the stall owner with dissatisfaction. He put down the purple sand pot on the stall, left a sentence, turned around and walked away without any hesitation.

  The stall owner suddenly changed his tune, hastily rushing out of the stall and chasing after Wang Ke, who had already walked seven or eight meters away. With a smile on his face, he said with a flattering tone: "Ah, I say little brother, it's all my fault, I didn't expect you to be an expert, okay, okay, don't go just yet! Let's forget about the previous quote, if you really want to buy and are willing to purchase several authentic antiques, I'll give you a discount, even if it means selling at a loss. Alas, I'm not afraid of anything, but I'm most afraid of people saying I'm not being honest!"

  Wang Ke secretly smiled to himself, it seemed that his tactic of deliberately letting go was effective. This stall owner, who had been operating in this antique market for a long time, was also a cunning fellow. Seeing that the deal was about to fall through, he actually came out to intercept Wang Ke. It seemed that Wang Ke's act didn't need to be too convincing after all.

  "Halt your footsteps, Wang Ke turned his head to look at the stall owner and said coldly: 'Then tell me, how much can you sell this purple sand pot for? Let's make a deal, if you give me a reasonable price, I might even pick out a few more things from your stall. If not, I'm not even bothering to haggle with you, I'll just leave immediately.'"

  The smile on the boss's face faded a bit, he turned his head to look at the purple sand pot, thought for a moment, and then made an "eight" gesture with his hand. He said seriously: "Since you've said so much, if I still quote a fake price, it would be too meaningless. 800 yuan, this authentic antique purple sand pot is yours for 800 yuan. This price is the lowest in my heart, if you want to buy it at this price, you must also choose a few more things from my stall, otherwise, I will lose big on this deal."

  "Let your fart, bluff, you can bluff as much as you want. Eight hundred? Ha ha, don't even mention eight hundred, even if it's eighty bucks, I'm afraid you won't make a profit. This purple sand pot is not an antique, it's just a beautiful craft, looks good on the shelf, but this kind of purple sand pot can be mass-produced in batches of hundreds or thousands!"

  Wang Ke cursed inwardly, his face expressionless as he shook his head and stretched out a hand saying: "Five hundred yuan, if you sell it to me for five hundred yuan, I'll pick out a few more things. If not, then forget it."