Chapter Twenty-Three: The Seal

  Zhou Wenping and Chu Chen downed a glass together before asking him, "Little Chen, are you free next week? I have a job to renovate a house."

  "Like us doing antique business, who would have free time? But what kind of person is he, Brother Zhou, how did you start pulling strings?" Chu Chen asked with some curiosity.

  "Hey, the owner of that house is actually my wife's second uncle..."

  "What's wrong with Uncle?"

  Zhou Shu interjected: "Actually, they're from our own village. In the past, their family were landlords and my grandfather even worked as a long-term laborer for them."

  "Mom, what is a long worker?" Zhou Wenhui stopped eating her dessert and asked curiously.

  Zhou Wenping hastily said: "This long worker, is a person who always works without getting paid, called a long worker."

  "Get out, who talks like that? Aren't you afraid of corrupting your own daughter?" Zhou Shu said with a scolding face.

  "Ah, then Dad doesn't need a salary for doing housework all day, so you're also an unpaid laborer!"

  "Hmph!"

  Zhou Wenhui's words made everyone burst out laughing, and Zhou Wenping awkwardly said to her:

  "Every family has its own little kids, eat your food and don't talk nonsense."

  Zhou Wenhui heard this and immediately became somewhat unhappy, pouting her small mouth and saying: "Hmph, stinky dad, I'm not talking to you anymore."

  "Hmm!" Zhou Wenping coughed somewhat awkwardly and changed the subject:

  "Just like my wife said, that family used to be landlords and they still had some things left at home. They weren't destroyed before, but this time something happened in their house, so they're preparing to find someone to take a look, thinking of exchanging these inherited items for some money to tide them over."

  "They all know in the village that I'm doing this business, so they called me in the afternoon to ask for help pulling down the fiber, but I'm not sure what good things they have at home either, so I'd like to ask your opinion."

  Chu Chen heard this and readily agreed, "Alright, no problem at all. Such an opportunity can't be missed. Even if there's nothing to gain, I can still go sightseeing in the Western Capital. After so many years of being in the antique business, I've never been to the Western Capital, a thousand-year-old ancient city. I'll take this chance to thoroughly visit their antique market."

  Zhou Wenping saw Chu Chen agree and was also very happy. He turned his head and asked Lao Wu, "What do you think, Lao Wu?"

  Lao Wu scratched his head, somewhat apologetically saying: "Brothers, I'm sorry, next week I have to go back home with my wife for a spell, unfortunately it's not going to work out."

  "Are you going, Guodong?" Zhou Wenping asked Li Guodong again.

  "Right, Guo Dong, you're also free during the summer break, so it's perfect to bring your girlfriend along too. It'll be a great chance for us to get to know her and for all of us to bond."

  Lao Wu heard this and jokingly said, "Hey, Guo Tong, you're something else! After being a monk for several years, you've still got some worldly ways about you. How come you didn't even bring your lunch today to introduce yourself to everyone?"

  Zhou Wenping picked up the wine bottle and said: "That's right, you're not doing well, are you still treating everyone as friends? No way, you must be punished with three cups in a row."

  Everyone urged him to drink, and Li Guodong had no choice but to down three cups of penalty wine.

  Maybe it's true that wine can give people courage, after three cups of wine, Li Guodong's face turned red and his ears were burning, he said with a big tongue:

  "Alright, I'll go, and I'll definitely bring that person with me. If not, I'll change my surname to yours."

  The crowd cheered and applauded, Chu Chen smiled and said: "Good, in the words of the Ba-Shu people, it's a great start. Just for this, I'll toast you a cup, Li Ge."

  Everyone was clinking cups together, having a great time, and the atmosphere was quite lively.

  The next day, Chu Chen woke up early again. The meal the day before had lasted for more than three hours, and under the lively atmosphere, they had also engaged in an exceptionally intense drinking contest. The four of them had consumed a total of eight 500ml bottles of Maotai, and by the end, except for Chu Chen who was still somewhat sober due to his good physique, everyone else was completely drunk.

  Maybe it was yesterday's good wine quality or maybe it had something to do with his special abilities, but Chu Chen didn't feel any headache after waking up, otherwise the hangover would have been unbearable.

  Today, Chu Chen plans to go and stock up on some goods. After thinking about it for the past two days, he still thinks that practicing at a street stall is a bit better. The small vendors have quite a few channels of information, and in this line of antique business, news is extremely important. Moreover, by mixing around in the market, one can also more easily encounter opportunities to pick up bargains.

  As for gambling, to be honest, Chu Chen hadn't thought it through and didn't have a specific plan in mind. Occasionally going to gamble wasn't a big deal, but if he went every day and won many times, people might start to suspect something.

  In addition, the quality of wool in Beijing is not as good as that in the south. Good steel should be used on the blade. What Chu Chen wants most now is to hitch a ride to the gambling stone market in southern Yunnan and see if he can get to know some informants.

  He had always heard that good quality jade was usually kept at the seller's home, and if there wasn't an intermediary to introduce you, others wouldn't sell it to you. If he knew the intermediary now, he wouldn't be going to pick up goods today, but would have already gone to southern Yunnan to gamble on stones.

  The key is still that there's no money, if there was money, he would directly go to the stock exchange for a large transaction, Chu Chen believed that with his special ability, at that time he would definitely be able to earn a fortune, and if luck was good, earning hundreds of millions wouldn't be difficult.

  Thinking of this, Chu Chen hesitated a bit. Should he go gamble on the stone or go get goods? After some thought, he gave up the temptation to gamble on the stone. The stone gambling market was too easily influenced by rumors and speculation. If he won yesterday and won again today, it would inevitably attract attention from people with ulterior motives.

  After all, Chu Chen's reputation is too small. If his reputation were bigger, it wouldn't be surprising that he often wins at gambling. This is also why he thought of going to Dian Nan to gamble on stones. The base number of wool there is large, and if you win, it won't be surprising. Moreover, if you win several times, others will only praise your good eyesight, and your reputation will come along with it.

  Chu Chen went to pick up goods at Jingcheng Antique City, which is just a wall away from Panjiayuan, and this channel was also introduced by Wu Shu.

  The Beijing Antique City is probably the largest antique and art trading center in Asia at present. Its formation time is similar to that of Panjiayuan, both of which are old-brand antique markets in Beijing.

  Although it's not the weekend, Chuxuan came here and still saw a crowd of people surging forward, lively and extraordinary. However, the store that Chuxuan wanted to go to was somewhat secluded, so he didn't need to experience the crowded feeling with others. Otherwise, on such a hot day, the feeling of being squeezed by people would really be unbearable.

  Just as he was about to walk into the store, an old man suddenly rushed out of an antique shop, still muttering discontentedly.

  "What nonsense! It's clearly an heirloom passed down from my ancestors, yet you're saying it's a modern imitation. You don't even have the eye to open an antique shop!"

  This situation should be the old man taking out antiques to sell, but the master appraiser didn't think much of them and even said some unpleasant words, resulting in a conflict. At first, Chu Chen didn't take it seriously, after all, such things happen often in the antique business, although there are also cases where the appraisers make mistakes, most of the time the items brought by customers are fake.

  Just as Chu Chen caught a glimpse of the object in the old man's hand out of the corner of his eye, he felt something was off and hastily shouted: "Old sir, please stop!"

  "What's up? Do you have something on?"

  The old man stopped, his tone somewhat stiff, tightened his grip on what was in his hand, and looked at Chu Chen with some vigilance.

  Chu Chen smiled and said to the old man, "Sir, I don't have any malicious intentions. I just want to ask if you're willing to part with the thing in your hand. If so, may I take a look?"

  The old man looked at Chu Chen with a suspicious gaze and said, "You want to buy it? If you want to buy it, we can talk about the price, but this thing is not cheap."

  Chu Chen nodded and said: "Okay, but we can discuss the price as long as the goods are good."

  The old man was originally going to sell things, seeing that Chu Chen was quite good at talking, so he walked to the side of the road and handed over the things in his hand to Chu Chen.

  The old man might not be a professional in this field, unaware that antiques should not be touched directly. Chu Chen frowned slightly upon seeing this and carefully took the item over, then began to examine it closely.

  This is a seal about six centimeters high made of celadon jade, with a black thing on it. At first glance, it looks a bit ugly.

  But once he got his hands on it, Chu Chen's heart couldn't help but laugh. Without using his special ability to sense things, he knew that this was indeed an antique, and perhaps it was precisely because of this black thing that the people in the antique shop had missed it.

  This black stuff has a special term in the antique industry, called "tiyou", which was very popular from the Song Dynasty to the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Specifically, it is achieved through some hot processing methods, where some black substances such as "wumu xie" are infused into jade stones, making the jade produce an ancient flavor and color, also known as "tihei".

  This method is also commonly used in modern counterfeiting, but the ancient method has certain limitations. Because their processing level was not up to par, jade would have cracks. After a long time of playing with it, sweat seeped into the cracks and produced a yellowish tint. The contrast between this color and black is very obvious.

  From this point, it can be seen that this seal should be an old thing. Chu Chen also didn't understand why such an obvious feature, the owner of that store didn't notice, was it that person's level not high, or just took a casual look and made a judgment?

  Chu Chen's mother carefully observed the characteristics of this seal, and at first glance, she saw that the black ink produced by the raised oil spread downwards from the top, which was solemn and majestic.

  The jade material is square and even, with a fine and smooth texture. The black part at the top is carved with a dragon button, the dragon's body is curled up, the dragon's head is in the middle, and it looks majestic and dignified. The scales of the dragon are clearly visible, the facial features are delicate, and the craftsmanship is exquisite, making it a perfect combination of jade material and skilled workmanship.

  Looking at the carving of this dragon button, it should be a characteristic of Ming dynasty craftsmen. Using a magnifying glass to examine the carving of the dragon, you can see that there are many textures, which are actually the marks left by ancient craftsmen using water sand and corundum grinding. This is consistent with the characteristics of the Ming dynasty era.

  From the above points, it can be basically determined that this thing should be a Ming Dynasty oil-green jade ancient dragon button seal, and using heterochrony also confirms this conclusion.