Chapter 49: Wearing Old Clothes (1)

  Xie Xuan was indeed a professional in this field. After listening to Qin Feng's explanation, his mind also became more agile.

  Although Xie Xuan didn't say much when following Qin Feng, he occasionally chimed in with a sentence or two when Qin Feng was negotiating prices with the store owners, and it turned out that he also had some good ideas.

  "Brother Feng, I really didn't expect it, there are quite a few doors in here."

  There's a saying that insiders look at the doorway, outsiders look at the excitement. With Qin Feng leading the way and Xie Xuan figuring it out, he no longer feels that strolling through antique shops is a chore.

  "There's still much to learn."

  Qin Feng couldn't help but laugh at the words, in fact, during this afternoon's stroll, he was also turning the theories in his mind into practice. When learning these things, he didn't have such conditions as he does now.

  "Right, Wind Brother, what exactly are you planning to buy?"

  Seeing Qin Feng in a good mood, Xie Xuan plucked up the courage to ask, after strolling around for half a day, Qin Feng only spent thirty or fifty yuan, but his eloquence was worth much more.

  "Take a walk around first and get familiar with the market!"

  Qin Feng smiled and said, "Although Shi City is not bad, it is located in the heart of North China, adjacent to the Beijing-Tianjin region, without a solid foundation, it's hard to develop, let's make some money and leave this place!"

  "Alright, Brother Feng, I'll listen to you."

  Xie Xuan nodded, if his parents heard this, they would be furious. His parents had begged him to stay, but Qin Feng's words made him follow eagerly.

  Qin Feng spent the whole day hanging out on Bai Fo Street, but apart from buying those few ornaments, he didn't get his hands on anything else.

  In the evening, the three brothers had a bowl of ramen on the side of the road. When Qin Feng passed by the vegetable market, he swiped some lard from the pork stall, and then the three returned to Xie Xuan's "bare" house.

  "What are you doing, Brother Feng?"

  When Qin Feng applied lard to the so-called "xiǎo yè tán" wooden bead bracelet, Li Tianyuan and Xie Xuan both widened their eyes. The brothers had heard of applying oil to leather shoes, but neither of them had ever seen anyone apply oil to a wooden bead.

  "Give it a bit of polish." Qin Feng said, stretching out his hand to wipe the ground, and after his palm was full of dust, he placed the chain in the middle of his palms and rubbed it vigorously.

  After about five minutes, Qin Feng stopped and wrapped the chain in a rag, rubbing it vigorously for over an hour.

  "This wristband seems different somehow!"

  Li Tianyuan had long been impatient, pulling over the quilt to sleep soundly, while Xie Xuan stood guard beside him. When the tattered cloth was opened, his eyes lit up instantly.

  The originally dull-colored bracelet now has a very transparent luster, and under the lamp light, the wood grain seems to have come alive, it's extremely beautiful.

  Moreover, on the surface of the wrist chain, it seems to be wrapped in a thick layer of egg white, with a beautiful color that is not showy, presenting a kind of enchanting charm.

  "Xiao Pang, you must remember, this is called baojiang!"

  Qin Feng glanced at Xie Xuan and said, "I don't have any materials on hand right now, so I just improvised. This gloss can last for at most three to five days. Tomorrow, I'll go out and buy some sandalwood to rework it!"

  "Feng Ge, are you restoring this? Xie Xuan's expression was somewhat excited as he asked: 'If this thing is restored to its original state, it must be very valuable, right?'"

  Those bronze wares that Xie Dazhi bought back then were all high imitation antiques after being appraised by experts. Xie Xuan had heard his dad mention this many times, so he was not unfamiliar with the term.

  "This? Made old?"

  Qin Feng heard this and suddenly lost his smile, casually throwing the chain onto the bed mattress, laughing: "Xiao Pang, do you know what's called 'old'? This thing can't even be considered old... it's not worth me making it old..."

  What is meant by "doing old" refers to the use of specific means to make an object's appearance have an old effect, making its surface more like and closer to the era being imitated.

  Unlike cultural relic restoration, aging techniques are often used for tourist souvenirs and cultural relic forgery, in other words, counterfeiting.

  However, counterfeiting also has its own techniques. If it's truly high-quality imitation and reproduction of the original object, the cost is extremely high, sometimes even exceeding the value of the real thing.

  It was like the Qing dynasty's Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong periods. Due to the three emperors' fondness for porcelain, the imperial kilns had imitated a batch of Song and Ming dynasties' porcelain, with materials and craftsmanship exactly the same as those of previous dynasties. The fired porcelain was beautiful and magnificent.

  In fact, this is also a kind of forgery, but the value of the forged items in their time and later generations is not lower than the original, some are even much higher.

  Such fabrication is also exclusive to the royal family and is not widespread, so it's not very representative.

  The most common ones in the antique market are to use chemical reagents, soaking and burning, heating with water boiling, deep burial underground soil soaking method and other means to make fake things have a real effect, using this to confuse the true with the false.

  Qin Feng had merely applied some lard to the chain, then wrapped it in coarse cloth for a while, just enough to make it look slightly worn. However, his technique was a secret transmission from the ancients, and even an expert appraiser would find it difficult to distinguish between genuine and fake within three days.

  "Feng Ge, you mean we're going to sell this?" Xie Xuan hesitated and said: "This thing is just a string of wood, it's all over the street, even if it's real, it can't be worth much money, right?"

  "You're right, even if it's made of the finest materials, it's still worthless."

  Qin Feng nodded and said, "However, antiques are valuable because of their 'antiquity'. As long as it's an old thing, plus the so-called 'heritage' that is fabricated, then it's not the price of the item itself..."

  Those who deal in antiques, good or bad, all depend on a single mouth.

  In the antique shop, there was a joke circulating that when an antique store hired employees, two people went to apply. The boss casually threw a toothpick on the ground and asked them what this thing was.

  It was obviously a toothpick. One of them quickly replied that it was indeed a toothpick, but what made him disappointed was that the shopkeeper directly waved his hand and asked him to leave.

  Just as he reached the door, that person heard another man's answer, "This is a toothpick used by Emperor Qianlong in those years, kept by the shop owner's ancestors, worth a whole city!"

  The result is naturally needless to say, and one person was admitted on the spot afterwards.

  Only the shopkeeper forgot that, except for the eunuchs in charge of the emperor's daily life, it is likely that no one can keep the toothpick. This also became a joke later on.

  "I get it. This is a Buddhist rosary, something that can be said to have been worn by the Buddha himself." Xie Xuan was not stupid, and as soon as Qin Feng's words fell, he immediately understood three things from one.

  "Little fatty, there are no fools in the antique business. This thing is just a prop and can't cheat people out of much money."

  Qin Feng smiled and shook his head, Xie Xuan had a bit of cleverness, but it was still far from enough. Those who played with antiques, which one didn't have a heart full of tricks and wouldn't be so easily deceived?

  Seeing Xie Xuan wanting to ask more questions, Qin Feng waved his hand and said: "Alright, don't ask anything now, just use your eyes to observe, use your brain to analyze, and keep your mouth shut!"

  As the saying goes, the master leads you into the door and cultivates on your own. Qin Feng has already said a lot, after this game is over, whether Xie Xuan can truly enter the door depends on his own enlightenment.