Chapter 9: You're Blinded

  It wasn't until he had recalled a string of knowledge and reconfirmed the ceramic plate in his hand that Zhou Ming's mood finally calmed down, only to suddenly realize that a long time had passed.

  I took out my phone and saw that the time limit for 【觅文符】 was almost up, with only one or two minutes left.

  After all, previous observations were very laborious and meticulous.

  This made him smile wryly, it seemed that if he wanted to have some conclusion today, he had no choice but to buy this plate.

  The next moment he raised his head and looked at the stall owner, "Boss, how much is this plate?"

  When Zhou Mingluo looked up, the stall owner immediately showed a thick smile and said with a tense face, "Big brother, do you really want this plate? To be honest with you, this is the most precious thing on my stall. If you don't buy it, just put it down after taking a look. What if it gets knocked over?"

  The stall owner is no fool either, seeing Zhou Ming fiddle with this plate for ten or twenty minutes, he won't easily miss it.

  Zhou Mingluo was taken aback, the other party's honest and simple face showed a hint of tension, even vigilance, if one didn't know better, it really looked like an honest person guarding their treasure from being ruined by others.

  But he didn't budge, whoever truly believes in this kind of person's expression is the biggest joke under heaven. If he really treasures this plate, he should remove the edges and let the ceramic tile reveal its true face.

  However, Zhou Ming Luo still smiled and said in a speechless tone, "The shape of this plate is authentic Ming Yongle blue and white porcelain, but the inner bottom of Yongle year bowls and plates are concave and convex, presenting a collapsed bottom. How can your plate be flat? It's quite strange!"

  The man who was still bragging suddenly became speechless, an expert!

  Only a master can say such things, an amateur can't even pretend to understand.

  Moreover, he also knew that this was the biggest flaw in this dish. It was obviously a fake Ming Yongle blue and white porcelain, but it had been made with a flat bottom, which was a loss-making move. An ordinary person might have been fooled by it, but facing an expert like the one in front of him, the stall owner was clearly lacking confidence.

  Of course, he couldn't give up now and soon came up with many reasons to continue, but Zhou Mingluo picked up the ceramic plate and pointed at it without waiting for the other person to stop him, saying "Big brother, look here..."

  The direction Zhou Mingluo pointed to was exactly where the fake and real goods were being exchanged.

  "Ah..."

  The silly man was thoroughly stunned, and a bit dizzy, his heart also filled with shock and uncertainty. These four eyes are not just an expert, but also extremely sharp! Is the thing on his nose bridge not reading glasses, but a telescope or microscope?

  Now it's fine, the other party not only pointed out the defects in the plate modeling, but also found the connection marks between new and old ceramics. Anyone who is not stupid knows that this is a fake. He doesn't even know how to bluff anymore.

  But with a silly smile, he didn't think much of it, seeing through it was just seeing through, no big deal, and his eyes also revealed a hint of clarity, "It turns out that brother is also an expert, still a great expert, forget about what I said earlier."

  "This plate of yours may be a bit new, but it's really beautifully crafted. Why don't you name a price, big brother?" Zhou Ming Luo continued to smile.

  "Alright, since you've set your sights on it, I won't say more. It's 500 yuan, take it or leave it!" The man didn't hesitate and immediately quoted a number.

  For this price, Zhou Mingluo couldn't help but laugh, "Big brother, can this dish be worth 500? It's at most 200."

  Haggling is a must when buying antiques, even if you don't care about the money, haggling is to make the other party feel comfortable and also to prevent accidents.

  This is completely different from buying clothes and food.

  He had encountered such an example when he was running with Uncle Fang before. He took a fancy to a porcelain and the other party quoted 700, but Zhou Ming didn't even blink his eyes and agreed. Unexpectedly, as soon as he relaxed, the other side directly went back on their word.

  Look at the price he quoted, others don't even want it, isn't that a loss?

  The seller didn't open his mouth until Zhou Ming took out the money and said, "Brother, you heard it wrong, I just said 700 dollars..."

  It's laughable to say, but it's impossible when buying clothes or food and other things, but in the antique business, it's not surprising because antiques are all unique.

  When buying clothes, customers can just walk away if they don't like the price. But when it comes to antiques, if you think a particular item is genuine, then that genuine item has uniqueness and can only be found in the other person's hands. If you really let them set the price without bargaining, who knows, they might think this plate is a treasure and raise the price lightly. If they really don't sell it to you, but the item is indeed genuine, then you've lost out big time.

  Of course, these things will not appear in the hands of familiar people or at auction houses and the like, but such small stalls are very likely to happen.

  So Zhou Ming had to patiently haggle, even if the final deal was still at a price of 500. As long as there was this process, the other party would feel that they had worked hard to earn a little more and wouldn't regret it, and would be less likely to change their mind halfway through and not sell after all.

  "No way, brother. Although this plate is relatively new, it's also wasted a lot of our effort. If I sell it for 500, I'd be losing even the labor cost." Seeing Zhou Ming trying to haggle, the burly man didn't show any surprise or displeasure, but instead immediately put on a bitter face and started explaining.

  But in fact, he is still pretending to be a master craftsman. This fake craftsmanship is not bad, but it was not made by him. Instead, the plate was already like this when he bought it, and it was actually done by someone else before him.

  Zhou Ming didn't back down either, continuing to haggle until the last moment when he reluctantly paid 400 after each side raised the price by only 10 or 20 yuan at a time.

  After receiving the money, the middle-aged man finally smiled, and Zhou Ming also nodded, carefully taking the ceramic plate in his hand and leaving, not getting excited until he had walked far away.

  I finally got it, this whole ceramic plate is fake, but that base is exciting.

  A complete ceramic tile from the Number One Tower in the World?

  Although I don't dare to confirm it 100%, I have a 90% confidence that it's real. This complete ceramic piece, once he returns, can be used with the Yellow Skin Book to absorb literary energy.

  How can he not expect it? Not excited!

  "Huh, isn't that Zhou Mingluo?" Just as Zhou Mingluo was walking, a slightly surprised voice rose from behind.

  He stopped in his tracks and looked around, only to find that the person who had come was a young man of about thirty years old, with a slightly handsome face, wearing a suit and leather shoes. In front of the young man, an elderly man was walking with his hands behind his back, casting a wandering gaze at the stalls on both sides.

  "It was Lin Ge." Zhou Ming Luo immediately smiled, the other party and he were also familiar, both of them were in the Xinkuang antique circle. However, this young man Lin Hong had often gone to Fang Shu for guidance, and as for Zhou Ming Luo, he mostly treated him like a junior.

  Lin Hong was inferior to Fang Shu in terms of eyesight and vision, even by more than one level, but he was stronger than Zhou Ming.

  In the past, he often came and went to Fang's house, wanting to learn more from Mr. Fang, but Mr. Fang didn't think much of his character, and it was mostly a polite exchange. Later, when Mr. Fang had an accident, this person was indeed very decisive and never set foot in Fang's house again!

  As for Lin Hong, not only did he have no good feelings, but also a faint dislike. However, since you can't hit a smiling face, Zhou Ming Luo still smiled and greeted him. After all, after the incident with Fang Shu, who else besides Lin Hong hadn't set foot in the Fang household? If Zhou Ming Luo wanted to blame everyone for this matter, then he was the one with a problem in his head.

  "This is Bi Lao, Bi Lao, this little brother is Zhou Ming Luo."

  Zhou Ming's smile and words were accompanied by Lin Hong's laughter as he introduced them to each other.

  "Mr. Bi Lao." He called out politely, Zhou Ming had never heard of this name before, but judging from the other's age, he was worthy of respect anyway.

  "En." Tan Tan nodded slightly and looked away, while Bi Lao only glanced at him before withdrawing his gaze.

  "Zhou Ming Luo, it seems you've had a good harvest today." Along with Old Bi's nod, Lin Hong also shifted his gaze back to Zhou Ming Luo, and looked straight at the ceramic plate in his hand.

  At a glance, Lin Hong was slightly surprised. At first glance, the ceramic plate really looked like a treasure, similar to the style of Ming Qinghua. If this is indeed Ming Qinghua, it would have some value. Lin Hong's heart moved at this time, and he wanted to take it over and play with it for a while.

  As soon as he said this, Zhou Mingluo's heart moved slightly, and he picked up the plate and handed it over. "Then I'll trouble Lin Ge to help me take a look. I'm not quite sure about this thing either."

  He was ninety percent sure that he had confirmed the authenticity of the base, but still couldn't confirm it one hundred percent. Moreover, although this porcelain plate was a good thing, it wasn't worth a city, and its value was far from reaching the height of that piece of porcelain that had sent Fang Shu to prison, so naturally he didn't mind revealing it.

  After all, something worth a city's value, if you don't have enough ability to defend it before exposing it is a disaster, it's extremely unwise behavior. But if you're hiding tens of millions or hundreds of millions like preventing theft, being afraid that anyone knows, then it's too ridiculous.

  Lin Hong carefully took the ceramic plate and examined it, his observation was more meticulous than Zhou Ming's initial glance. However, after just a few minutes, Lin Hong's face fell from excitement to disappointment, shaking his head in dismay, "Ming Luo, you've been deceived."

  He finally confirmed that this whole plate was actually a Ming Yongle porcelain shape, but the base was a bit strange.

  Due to the peculiarity of the chassis, he even carefully examined the connection between the chassis and other parts, and finally found a thread of disguised clues.

  If there was only one crack, it would be fine. The key is that the crack is a nearly square complete crack. After linking up, it's easy to see at a glance that the bottom plate has been re-welded by someone.

  Having seen through the fake evidence, Lin Hong couldn't help but feel disappointed.

  However, deep down he was also somewhat pleased that Zhou Ming had been defeated. Wasn't this disciple of Fang Shu's also the same?

  Although Zhou Ming Luo didn't say anything, since the other party bought it, they should have been unaware of this crack when buying. Otherwise, why would he deliberately buy such a thing? Is he greedy for beauty? This kind of talk can deceive others, but Lin Hong has known Zhou Ming Luo for a long time and shouldn't be unaware that Zhou Ming Luo is past the age of being greedy for beauty.

  Moreover, this fake plate was so well-made that even he almost got deceived, and he didn't believe that Zhou Ming Luo's eyesight could detect the mark.

  Got up late, hehe, please collect, members click ~