Chapter 116: The Good Tripod Comes Out of the Furnace
Qin Lang didn't expect Bai Wuchuang would follow him over, and seeing her holding something in her hand, probably that fake ornament. He immediately let out a sigh.
This girl eventually became a scapegoat.
But he didn't want to dwell on this fake thing, so he went along with Bai Wuxia's words and teased her.
"You've discovered such a big secret, how about it? Want to take a bath together and experience the feeling of bathing in a tripod?" He smiled.
"You! Shameless!" Bai Wuxiao glared and said, "You're thinking too much! You'd better go flirt with your beautiful classmates instead! Hmph!" Bai Wuxiao huffed.
"It's no fun with two people, it's more interesting with three." Qin Lang said with a strange expression.
"Qin Lang, you're really despicable! I never thought that at such a young age, you'd be such a wicked scoundrel. I was blind to have misjudged you!" Bai Wuxiao's face turned bright red with anger as she scolded him.
"You're not bad either, the guardian is protecting you closely, even if I wanted to take a bath with you, someone might not be happy about it." Qin Lang shrugged his shoulders and looked at Wu Yong, who was following behind Bai Wuchang like an angry old tiger.
Watching the two openly flirting with each other, Wu Yong was so angry that he was fuming, but he didn't dare to express his opinion casually.
He felt like a green-haired turtle with no one to tell his troubles to, the only difference being that the messy red headband on his head wasn't green.
"What are you following me for again?" Bai Wuchan's anger surged forth as he glared furiously at Wu Yong.
"You're busy, why bother arguing with a kid? We are all high-quality and well-bred civil servants. This kind of inferior person is not worth our time, arguing with him would be an insult to our status." Wu Yong whispered in Bai Wuchan's ear.
He wore an extremely ugly expression and belittled Qin Lang in a self-boasting manner, trying to alleviate his own awkward and humiliating mood.
"Shut up and don't stand there talking nonsense, this has nothing to do with you!"
Chen Zhongtian, who was originally preparing to make a phone call, suddenly seemed to remember something and put the phone back.
The appearance of Bai Wuxia and Wu Yong made him quite suspicious. He didn't know why a pair of men and women would suddenly appear and start arguing with Qin Lang. This obviously wasn't someone who came to buy things, he was extremely disgusted. But it seemed like they knew Qin Lang, so he hesitated and didn't immediately chase the couple away.
He watched several people arguing without knowing when to stop, so he couldn't wait and said to Qin Lang: "I have a top-quality tripod furnace, which is a product of the Ming Dynasty. No matter whether it's the year or material, they are all high-end, but the size is relatively small, with a height and radius of only half a meter. If you're interested, I'll transport it over now and let you take a look."
As they spoke, Chen Zhongtian became more and more furtive, his voice also growing smaller.
"Really?" Qin Lang was shocked, his face revealing a look of surprise and delight.
"Absolutely genuine, I can see you're a connoisseur too, so I won't waste your time introducing inferior products. How about it, are you interested in taking a look?" Chen Zhongtian asked again.
Decocting medicine?
Although Chen Zhongtian and Qin Lang spoke in low voices, Bai Wuchuo still heard their conversation. As soon as he heard that Qin Lang was buying a cauldron to decoct medicine, he became curious: "Why do you need to use a cauldron to decoct medicine? Can't you just use a medicine pot? What kind of medicine are you going to decoct?"
"Either leave or be quiet, I have something important to do." Qin Lang shouted at Bai Wumo, then turned to Chen Zhongtian and said: "Is there a photo? Let me take a look, and then decide whether to see the real thing."
Bai Wuxia saw Qin Lang's serious expression and even if she didn't agree, she could only obediently shut her mouth.
She wanted to know what medicine Qin Lang had bought in the gourd, worried that he might have some stubborn illness. More importantly, Qin Lang's change in appearance might be related to this. These doubts were as complicated as a complex case, lingering in her mind.
So she was not willing to leave easily without investigating clearly.
"I have a few photos here." The boss immediately flipped through his phone and pulled out the photos.
When Qin Lang saw the tripod in the photo, he was extremely surprised, and his tightly closed face also relaxed with a smile.
Isn't this a professional alchemy furnace?
Only the furnace in the photo is not large, with a height and diameter of about half a meter as mentioned by Chen Zhongtian. There is a fire guide pipe at the bottom. The shape and characteristics are all made according to the special alchemy furnace.
He guessed it was probably a leftover alchemy furnace from an ancient alchemist.
However, the photo only provides limited information, and he can only make an estimate of the overall quality and authenticity. Whether it is as good as the boss said, can only be determined after seeing the actual object.
Chen Zhongtian saw Qin Lang's expression and had already guessed that Qin Lang was interested in the tripod. He was suddenly delighted.
"Boss, where is this tripod now? I want to see it in person." Qin Lang said again.
"I'm at a friend's house now and I'll have him bring it over. It might take about an hour."
"Excuse me."
"No trouble at all! It's what I should be doing!"
Chen Zhongtian's face lit up like he had picked up a gold nugget, and a mountain of smiles piled up on his face. Without delay, he immediately retreated to the back of the curtain behind the cashier's counter. Behind the curtain was a partitioned area used for temporary rest, separated by a window screen.
He shouted to his wife who was watching TV and eating melon seeds: "There are guests outside, you go out and entertain them first, I'll chat with Old Zhou about that thing we brought back last time. Now there might be a chance to get rid of it."
"Are you talking about the ten thousand yuan pot that was returned?" His wife exclaimed in surprise: "You still want to return it? That broken pot has been back for several years, and it can't be sold at all. We've lost tens of thousands of yuan! How could you still want to bring back that unlucky star?"
Chen Zhongtian immediately covered his wife's mouth, "Don't talk and no one will take you for a mute. Your top priority is to go out and entertain the guests. Remember, don't speak nonsense and scare them away. Especially that young man with the bulging bag at his waist, who looks quite young! Take good care of him!"
His wife nodded, realizing that there might be a big business opportunity, and hastily put down the melon seeds in her hand, excitedly walking out.
What Chen Zhongtian said was that the goods were bought from a fellow merchant in the form of smuggled goods. He paid 100,000 yuan as a deposit, which is 80% of the total price of the goods. Since it's a fellow merchant smuggling goods, the other party can pay the remaining balance after selling the goods.
This tripod was dug up by a tomb raider from an ordinary grave. Although it wasn't unearthed in an imperial mausoleum, the shape of the tripod is very unique, and his years of experience told him that this was a rare treasure, so he thought highly of it, but for some reason, he couldn't find a buyer after delaying for a long time, many fellow dealers also didn't appreciate it, resulting in it being stored away for two years, and just the other day, he returned the goods and lost part of the deposit. This made him very unhappy.
"Old Zhou, how have you been lately?"
"Thanks to you, I've been eating well and sleeping tight. Old Chen, about the deposit thing, I'm also helpless. You know my wife is very strict, if we don't follow the rules, she'll make a big fuss and even threaten divorce. It's really unavoidable, I'm truly sorry!"
Your family's wife makes a fuss about divorce, and my family's wife will be at peace with the world? Chen Zhongtian directly ignored his excuses and went straight to the point: "I have a buyer who may be interested in this tripod, so I'd like to chat with you."
"Oh? Really?"
"If you can come up with it, return my 30,000 deposit and we'll proceed with the original plan, splitting the profit equally, how about that?"
"That's necessary, our friendship of many years, good fortune must be shared together."
Is this the time to talk about years of emotional ties? You sharp-tongued guy! Chen Zhongtian cursed in his heart. After asking a few more questions, he told him to bring the goods over immediately before hanging up the phone.
……
Chen Zhongtian's wife, following Chen Zhongtian's instructions, first moved over a few low stools and then brewed a pot of high-quality Longjing tea, which she handed out to several people.
"Thank you." Bai Wuxia sat down in the chair and accepted the tea with courtesy.
Wu Yong then, because of Qin Lang's reason, coldly refused the tea water.
Qin Lang saw that Bai Wuchuang seemed to have no intention of leaving and asked: "What, it seems like you still want to live here?"
"We're bored, this kid is boring us to death here, let's go first." Wu Yong saw the situation and felt a bit depressed, then opened his mouth to persuade.
"No one wants you to stay here, how can you be so shameless, following me around like a shadow? What's your purpose?" Bai Wuchang said to Wu Yong with an unpleasant tone.
After finishing speaking, she firmly told Qin Lang: "I just want to stay here, what's it got to do with you? This isn't even your family's place, and even if it was, you have no right to ask me!"
Qin Lang sneered, "Who's the one who's really a bootlicker? Who's the one with ulterior motives?"
Her spotless body floated up, her eyebrows tightly furrowed, both shy and angry, pointing at Qin Lang and huffing: "You little thief, dare to mock me? Itchy skin thinking I'll scratch it for you?"
She was about to make some small moves on Qin Lang, but saw a stranger beside him. She didn't dare to be really anxious with Qin Lang, so she suppressed her shyness and anger in her heart, muttering to herself: "You little guy, I must find out what you bought the Ding for! And your appearance change, I will definitely investigate it clearly!"
Wu Yong knew that he couldn't outdo Bai Wuchou, but he wasn't willing to leave just yet. So, with a shameless expression, he said: "Actually, I have some knowledge about ancient tripods too. My family has been collecting antiques for three generations." He pointed at a round tripod and asked: "How much is this one, boss?"
The boss's wife said enthusiastically: "If you really want this tripod, I'll definitely give you a good price. The tripod you're referring to now is a ritual vessel for cooking and offering sacrifices to the gods in a large Qing dynasty household, priced at 100,000 yuan."
"100,000?" Wu Yong looked extremely surprised: "Just this broken iron is worth 100,000? You might as well rob!" After finishing speaking, he felt that he was too rude and immediately changed his words: "What I mean is, this tripod is not worth 100,000. In my experience, it's at most a few thousand dollars."
"Hehe, you can't say that." The boss's wife said with a wry smile. But in her heart, she was furious with Wu Yong, staring at the powder on his face and scolding him, "You're using such low-quality foundation, it's obvious you're not a rich master, and yet you're pretending to be one in front of me, you damned sissy, get out!"
If it were in normal times, for someone who looks like they have no intention of buying at all and is just following the crowd, she wouldn't bother with them. But since her husband spoke up, she couldn't afford to lose face, so her main focus was on Qin Lang, and she didn't put too much emphasis on it.