Chapter 76 Hidden Treasure

  At this point, Chu Chen thought of something and said after a moment's consideration: "I'll be going to Shen Nan with a friend on the fifth to gamble for stones. If you want to come along, I can ask him if it's okay to bring you guys along."

  "Ah, really? Number 5, I think about it, during that time I also have free time. When Chu Ge arrives, you must bring me along." Wen Yuting nodded enthusiastically and repeatedly in agreement.

  Wen Yuting is going, Li Guodong will definitely not fall behind.

  Li Guodong is a man with a somewhat high temper and is not very willing to spend his family's money. Except for the first year of university, he relied on himself to work part-time jobs and make money from gambling to cover his tuition fees and living expenses. As a result, he was reluctant to come on this trip to Xijing due to his limited financial resources.

  However, it was unexpected that during this trip, the three of them basically didn't spend any money. All expenses for food, accommodation, transportation and tourism were taken care of by Zhou Wenping and Chu Chen.

  Moreover, not only did they not spend much, but the three of them even made a profit. After returning, he planned to have Chu Chen sell that snuff bottle. Although it wouldn't fetch as high a price as at an auction, 300,000 or 400,000 yuan should be possible. This way, he would also have some savings on hand.

  On the other hand, Chu Yulan thought for a while and also agreed to come. Wen Yuting was overjoyed when she saw this, if Chu Yulan didn't go, it would be much less fun for her alone.

  "I'm really sorry, everyone. It's been a long time since we've all been home together, so we'll need to stay here for a while before returning to the capital. Unfortunately, that means we won't be able to make it to Dian Nan this time."

  Everyone can understand this point. Although Zhou Wenping said so, if he were in the capital city, he would not agree to go to Dian Nan after all, since he still has a family with old and young people's living pressure.

  Seeing everyone's enthusiasm was high, Chu Chen poured some cold water on them and said: "You shouldn't be so excited yet, my friend doesn't know if he will agree or not. If he doesn't agree, then we can only temporarily split up later. Besides, I heard that side is a bit chaotic, without familiar people, it's best not to go."

  "Ah!"

  Chu Chen's words left Wen Yuting somewhat stunned. Without Chu Chen's guidance, what could she rely on to gamble with the stone? Was it just luck? Li Guodong was indeed familiar with gambling stones, but when it came to the keen eye needed for it, she still trusted Chu Chen more. However, she wondered if Li Guodong knew her thoughts and would get jealous.

  Moreover, they don't have many acquaintances over there either. The place for gambling is close to the border and I've heard that there are quite a few outlaws there. If something dangerous happens, it would be troublesome.

  Seeing this, Hou Yuanming smiled and said: "Don't worry, Xiaowen, I'm still here. When the time comes, I'll go with you."

  After returning home yesterday, his father told him that if possible, he should still get along well with Chu Chen and the others. Judging from Chu Chen's performance, it might be an opportunity for their Cuixiu Zhai to grow stronger.

  Hou Yuanming also agreed with this, and after a brief contact, he felt that Chu Chen's character was very good, and he took care of his friends. So he gladly agreed to his father's request. He was thinking about how to deepen his friendship with Chu Chen, but he didn't expect such a good opportunity, so he naturally wanted to participate.

  With the addition of Hou Yuanming, the previous problems were solved. Moreover, Chu Chen was also very happy to see this, he originally went to Dian Nan in order to accumulate connections, and with Hou Yuanming's joining, it would be even more possible for him to realize his own ideas, after all, for those informants, as long as their reputation is good, selling to whom isn't a problem?

  After discussing the matter of going to southern Yunnan, Bao An brought a portable safe that was just right for storing the Manjushri Bodhisattva statue and the previous cloisonné enamel large bowl. Originally, Hou Yuanming had intended to give this safe to Chu Chen, but since he didn't want it, Chu Chen refused it with all his might, and in the end, they bought it at the original price.

  After that, everyone enjoyed delicious meatball hot pot and other Xi'an specialty breakfast dishes, then returned to the hotel for a rest.

  The next afternoon, Chu Chen returned home in a flurry after bidding farewell to the three people at the train station.

  "It's still better at home!"

  Chu Chen sat on the couch with a plop, and that kind of homey warmth made him not want to move at all.

  This trip to Xijing can be said that everyone is very satisfied, although the number of days for sightseeing is not many, but the harvest is extremely large. Especially for Chuyan, the Yuanyou jade cicada, the Manjusri Bodhisattva statue from the Ming Xuande period, and the Qing Qianlong's cloisonné enamel large bowl, which one is not coveted by others? Especially that piece of Yuanyou jade cicada, it can be said to be worth a city.

  Moreover, this trip not only allowed him to obtain these three precious antiques, but also made him, who had just become a millionaire, become a multimillionaire overnight.

  Thinking of this, he wondered if he should start considering buying a house. This wasn't because he was materialistic or greedy, but rather because the number of precious antiques at home was increasing, and safety had become an issue. After all, this place wasn't his own house, and security measures couldn't be installed. He couldn't just leave everything with Uncle Wu, could he?

  And having his own house also helped with his jade business, after all, it's not good to gamble out high-priced jade in public, and over time, it may raise suspicions from people with ulterior motives. With his own house, he could bring the jade home and appraise it himself, which would undoubtedly be much safer.

  But buying a house is not something that can be rushed, and Chuxuan himself hasn't decided what kind of house he wants to buy, whether it's a siheyuan or a villa like Liu Lao's with its natural style. In any case, the amount of money he has won't be enough to buy one. Thinking this, he couldn't help but let out a long sigh - there just isn't enough money!

  "Right, and then there's that Tang Sancai that hasn't been dealt with yet!"

  Just now almost forgot there was this thing, Chu Chen hastily took out a suitcase, inside which was the Tang Sancai large horse made by Zhang Huo Ni.

  Carefully placing the Tang Sancai on the table, Chu Xun once again carefully admired it. After finishing, he couldn't help but praise Zhang Huo's extremely high level of imitation.

  This Tang Sancai, if not looking at the subtle differences in the embryo and glaze, is almost identical to the authentic Tang Sancai large horse in terms of shape alone. Just this point makes him feel extremely admiring.

  Then, Chu Chen began to carefully examine the broken end of the interface. After looking at it, he realized that the original break should have been detached before. Now this place should be in recent years, someone used some simple methods to stick it up, so it looks a bit rough.

  Chu Chen couldn't help but feel a little suspicious when he saw this. Were the things inside really put in from here? Otherwise, why didn't that person discover them earlier?

  Next, Chu Chen used some tools and spent a lot of effort to finally remove the repaired part that had been stuck again. This made him somewhat resentful, as he didn't know what kind of adhesive the person who had previously repaired it had used, and it was so difficult to remove. Adhesives like this should fall under the category of irreversible repair materials, shouldn't they?

  The restoration of ancient ceramics is a relatively large subject, but because this restoration has no standards and the repair is not transparent, it is particularly easy to encounter some problems. One of them is the use of irreversible repair materials, which will bring difficulties to the next repair and increase the difficulty of repair.

  After taking down the broken tail, Chu Chen saw that the main body's broken tail was actually smoothed out with something like plaster, and he couldn't see any small holes at all. This was normal, though - if it were that easy to spot, the previous person would have already discovered it.

  However, Chu Chen also found that there were scratches on it, and estimated that the person had thought about whether there was anything else inside, so he tried to scratch a little. However, looking at the situation, he may have been afraid of damaging Tang Sancai, or for some other reason, he only scratched a little and stopped.

  Upon seeing this, Chu Chen immediately began to carefully remove the plaster with his tools. However, Zhang Huo's plaster was quite thick, and he had to dig about two centimeters deep before finally uncovering a silky object that made him suddenly excited, causing him to speed up significantly.

  When Chu Chen took out the silky thing, he found it was a small pouch. The things inside were indeed paper as he had thought before, but what he didn't expect was that there were two folded papers inside, which meant one of them was valueless according to his ability judgment.

  A small amount of powdery substance also spilled out from the silk pouch. Chu Chen pinched some with his fingers and found that this thing should be a moisture-proof or anti-moth-eaten substance, after all, what was stored inside were paper.

  Chu Chen carefully opened the paper, of course, this is also because this paper should be from the Republic of China era. If it were a particularly old piece of paper, special protection would be needed before opening it.

  The first piece of paper was a simple sketch, with some mountains and water drawn on it, then a few lines that made up a road, at the end of which stood a pine tree, under which lay a stone, without any other buildings, this made Chu Chen suddenly feel like crying and laughing.

  This can't be a treasure map, but it's drawn like this and doesn't give any hints, how is anyone supposed to find it? This can't be Zhang Huo's leftover, specially made to fool people.

  Chu Chen looked at the map, thought for a moment, and gave up. With just this map, even if there was treasure, it would be impossible to identify where this place was. Finding it would entirely depend on luck.

  Open another picture, on which are written some tiny words. Chu Chen uses a magnifying glass to carefully examine it, and the things written on it are indeed what he thought before, that is, Zhang Huo's experience in imitating ceramic, and not others, but writing about how to fire Tang Sancai.

  Not only did he list out the formula for Tang Sancai glaze that he had researched, but also the steps to make counterfeit products have the characteristics of authentic Tang Sancai. He even said straightforwardly that this was his final version, and that using this method to produce Tang Sancai, the glaze and the authentic product were completely identical when compared.