Chapter 73: Ghost Market (Part 2)

  Everyone nodded, and Chu Chen continued: "Most of the ancient jade there are fake, if it were daytime, you could tell at a glance. Now in this environment, you might get cheated if you're not careful."

  Moreover, there are many high-quality fakes in the ghost market, and it's even harder to spot them under such circumstances. So you guys need to be extra careful; if you find something you like, don't rush into buying it."

  After Chu Chen finished speaking, the three young people who had never been to the Ghost Market all looked dejected, those ancient jade pieces seemed so real just now, how could they be fake? Moreover, from what he meant, there were even more powerful high-end imitations, which made them wonder how to distinguish treasures. It seems that this Ghost Market is indeed not a place for beginners like them.

  Chu Chen saw them like this, and hurriedly smiled: "Hehe, don't be discouraged, my intention is just to let you look more and buy less. If you encounter something you like, aren't there still us around?"

  Three people thought about it and anyway, they didn't have high hopes for their own eyesight. They would definitely need to bother Chu Chen and the others before buying, and suddenly their interest was piqued again.

  Next, the six of them visited five or six small stalls in a row. Although they didn't buy anything, by listening to Chu Chen's explanations, Li Guodong and the others also learned a lot.

  "Huh?"

  The crowd came to a small stall, Chu Yulan was immediately attracted by something, and then squatted in front of the stall to observe carefully. Chu Chen followed her gaze and saw that it was a piece of chicken bloodstone seal material, which looked like the real thing.

  In front of this small stall, there are some special things, all of which are small items, such as the Four Treasures of the Study, seals, snuff bottles and so on. Seeing this, everyone also picked out their favorite things, while the boss of the small stall didn't say a word, just smiled and watched them.

  Chu Yulan furrowed her brow and stared at the chicken bloodstone seal in her hand for a full three to four minutes, before feeling somewhat satisfied, then handed it over to Chu Chen to take a look.

  Cinnabarite is a type of jasper, its color is more vivid red than cinnabar. Because its color is as red as chicken blood, people call it "chicken blood stone". The output of chicken blood stone is very limited, the most famous ones are Changhua chicken blood stone and Balin chicken blood stone in China.

  The birth of the chicken blood stone also has an ancient legend. According to the legend passed down by the ancients, in ancient times there was a divine bird called "bird lion" which was very fond of fighting. One day, while foraging and flying over Yuyan Mountain, it saw a phoenix incubating its eggs and suddenly had evil thoughts, attacking it. The unprepared phoenix had its legs bitten off.

  Phoenix heard the news and rushed to, with a common enemy, together they defeated the "Bird Lion". Although the Phoenix won, but the fresh blood flowed straight down, dyeing the entire Jade Rock Mountain red, thus becoming the radiant and translucent Chicken Blood Stone like beautiful jade.

  According to detailed investigation, the mining of Chicken Blood Stone began in the Song Dynasty and flourished in the Qing Dynasty. Emperors Kangxi, Qianlong, and Jiaqing highly appreciated Changhua Chicken Blood Stone and used it as the main material for imperial seals. Therefore, it is listed alongside Longshan Tianhuang and enjoys the reputation of "Empress of Seal Stones".

  Because of its excellent quality and high price, there are many counterfeiters.

  Like this piece of chicken blood stone, Chu Chen took it in his hand and the heterodyne was still reacting, but its weight felt different from the chicken blood stone he had encountered before. Looking at the texture and hierarchy, he could basically judge that this material was not real chicken blood stone. So he slightly shook his head to Chu Yulan.

  Chu Yulan still had some confidence in Chu Chen's eyesight, and when she saw him veto it, she felt a little disappointed, but still put the chicken blood stone back in its original place.

  "Xiao Chuan, come take a look at this snuff bottle." Li Guodong handed the snuff bottle in his hand to Chu Chuan.

  As soon as he got the snuff bottle in his hand, Chu Chen's eyes lit up.

  This is a crystal inside-painted snuff bottle, the bottle is long and flat, with a straight mouth and sloping shoulders, an elliptical ring foot, and a dignified shape. The inner painting depicts the theme of "Four Kings" landscape, with fine workmanship and profound artistic conception, which shows the author's high painting skills. At the bottom of the bottle is inscribed "Made by Zhou Leyuan in spring of Xinmao year".

  Zhou Leyuan, a person known to Chu Chen as well, was active during the Guangxu period. This master of Beijing-style inner painting, who originated from palace lantern painting and silk lantern craftsmanship, has high literary attainments and painting skills.

  His inner painting style is strong and powerful, with strict brushwork, often imitating the styles of famous artists such as Huang Shigong and Xin Luoshan. He also applied Gong Xian's "Fan Shi Bei Zhang" method to his inner paintings, creating masterpieces like "Hanjing Diaoxue", "Fengxue Guizhou" and "Zhu Yishu".

  His works cover a wide range of subjects, including landscapes, figures, flowers and birds, insects and grasses, and calligraphy, all of which are exquisite. The colors used in his works are mainly light blue, elegant and soothing, but also dotted with red, orange yellow, green, white and other colors, vivid and bright. He is especially skilled at landscape painting, blending the beauty of Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties' landscape paintings.

  This snuff bottle, from whatever angle you look at it, should be a genuine work by Zhou Leyuan, and the result of an expert appraisal is also the same, and this is still one of his masterpieces.

  At this time, others had not picked out the items they were satisfied with and had already stood up. Chu Chen thought for a moment and pretended to say: "Brother Li, thank you so much, I'm quite satisfied with this snuff bottle, boss, make a price."

  The old boss looked at the snuff bottle in Chu Chen's hand and said: "Five thousand."

  Upon hearing this price, Chu Chen's heart skipped a beat. The boss doesn't know the value of goods! He stretched out one finger and pointed upwards.

  The boss saw this and sighed: "Brother, you're too ruthless. This price won't work. Add a bit more."

  Chu Chen smiled and made a "one thousand six" gesture with his hands, then said: "That's the price, is it a deal or not? You give me an answer, boss." After finishing speaking, he showed an attitude of wanting to leave.

  "Alright, the thing is yours." The boss replied hastily. Thinking to himself, this young man's money is easy to make, something that cost 150 can be resold for 1450, what a fool.

  He took out his wallet, counted out sixteen red tickets, handed them to the boss, then put the snuff bottle directly into his pocket, and after laughing and saying goodbye to the boss, he left the small stall with others in high spirits.

  After walking a distance, Chu Chen handed the snuff bottle to Li Guotang and also told him some information about Zhou Leyuan. He then smiled and said: "The price of Zhou Leyuan's inner-painted snuff bottles is still good. Last year, one similar to this was auctioned off for 660,000."

  Li Guodong heard this and his mouth was about to split to the back of his ears, he hastily returned the money to Chu Chen, then gently stroked the snuff bottle.

  Everyone in the room couldn't help but secretly laugh at this, and Wen Yuting gave him a cold glance, scolding: "You're really something!"

  After laughing, Chu Chen turned his head to explain to Chu Yulan: "Xiao Lan, the chicken blood stone just now, you should have some feeling, right? The chicken blood on it is a bit stiff? This should be a fake made by inlay technique."

  Inlaying method of forgery is to adopt a piece of better quality Changhua stone, select several prominent places on it, dig out small pits of varying depths, and then fill them with red mercuric sulfide paste. After natural drying, polish and apply wax.

  However, this embedded cinnabar (mercuric sulfide) lacks hierarchy, and the color at the junction of blood and cinnabar appears stiff, without transition.

  Chu Yulan thought for a moment and indeed it was so, no wonder she always felt something was off when looking at herself.

  Next, after browsing several stalls, Chu Yulan found another piece of Tianhuang stone seal material. This piece was not bad, but the boss asked for 150,000 yuan. Upon hearing this, Chu Chen frowned and hastily stopped Chu Yulan, and they walked away with others without even haggling over the price.

  "Chu Ge, what's wrong? I think that material is pretty good." Chu Yulan asked with some curiosity after walking a distance.

  Chu Chen smiled and said, "Xiao Lan, the material is good, but it's worth at most 200,000 yuan. He asked for 1.5 million yuan right away, this price is simply unacceptable. You have to know that in a market like Gui Shi, business is like small commodity trading. If he quotes a price and you make a counteroffer, he might pester you endlessly, and others won't intervene."

  "To avoid unnecessary trouble, remember that next time you come to the ghost market and encounter such a high price, don't even open your mouth, just walk away. Especially when you're in a foreign place, it's even more so."

  After listening to Chu Chen's words, Chu Yulan and the other two were shocked beyond expectation. They had never thought that there would be such twists and turns in the Ghost Market. As students of the Ivory Tower, they couldn't have imagined it at all.

  Before they could come to their senses, a commotion broke out not far away. Seeing this, the crowd curiously walked over.

  "What's wrong with you, I've already quoted a price and you agreed, how can you say you're not buying it now?" A man with a cunning look on his face, holding a small bronze tripod in his left hand and grasping the arm of a young person with his right hand, said indignantly.

  "I didn't, I just went with you to take a look, and nothing was even said!" The young man was anxiously sweating profusely.

  The man said fiercely: "How, you still want to play dumb? Look at whether my brothers agree or not."

  As soon as the words fell, three strong and sturdy men surrounded him.

  "Ah..."

  Chu Yulan was about to speak when she was pulled away by Chu Chen. It wasn't until they had walked a distance away that he said:

  "Xiao Lan, it's better if we don't get involved in this kind of thing."

  "Why? That person is obviously a bully!" Chu Yulan said in confusion.

  "That's right, I saw that person with a sly and cunning look, he's not a good person. And look at the thing in his hand, it's tattered and ugly, you can tell at a glance that it's not something good." Wen Yuting also had an indignant expression on her face.

  Chu Chen smiled wryly and said, "You two, calm down first. Think about it, in this kind of situation, everyone has their own reason. What right do we have to intervene? But don't worry, those people won't dare make a big deal out of it either. At most, they'll just scare that young man a bit. If things get any bigger, the market management will step in."