Chapter 17: Divining Wind Chime (Part 1)
【Repair Value: 8 points】
【Divining Wind Chime, low-grade damaged magical artifact. Repairable. Requires 5 Repair Value. Repair?】
“Don’t repair it!” Su Xiaofan immediately rejected the repair prompt, and the text disappeared.
“So it’s another damaged magical artifact. It should be a bit better than the bronze mirror, but why are they all damaged artifacts?”
Su Xiaofan turned the wind chime over in his hands and examined it carefully. Aside from a few faint scratches on the surface, the brass bell looked completely intact. No matter how he looked at it, it had nothing to do with the word “damaged.”
“Could it be that these so-called magical artifacts really can ward off misfortune and attract good luck?”
Looking at the red cord tied to the bell, Su Xiaofan lifted it with his right hand and gave it a gentle shake. A pleasant, crisp ringing sounded.
“Mmm, that sound is really soothing.”
Whether it was just psychological or not, this bell sounded different from any bell Su Xiaofan had heard before. Its clear chime seemed to carry a cleansing effect, making his mind feel refreshed, as though even his breathing had become much smoother.
“Good stuff!” Su Xiaofan praised.
“Come on, Xiaofan. You’ve just never seen them before. Wholesale markets are full of bells like this.”
Having been forbidden by Jing Shizhen from dealing in magical artifacts, Zheng Dagang was still feeling resentful, and sarcastic remarks kept spilling out.
“You’ve got a filthy mouth!”
Jing Shizhen glared at Zheng Dagang, took the bell from Su Xiaofan’s hand, carefully placed it back on the tray, then waved at Zheng Dagang.
“All right, you’ve seen the goods. Now get lost.”
“Then we’ll head back first, Uncle Jing. If my mom makes wontons later, I’ll bring you some.”
Although he had only seen two magical artifacts, they were genuine items. Zheng Dagang felt he had at least kept his promise to Su Xiaofan.
“No, if your mother makes wontons, just call me. They won’t taste the same if you bring them over.”
Jing Shizhen had eaten delicacies from all over the country, but he had a particular fondness for the Zheng family’s wontons. Whenever he returned to Luochuan, he always made sure to have a bowl.
“Brother Gang, Uncle Jing, wait a moment.”
Just as Jing Shizhen picked up the tray to return the two magical artifacts, Su Xiaofan suddenly spoke.
“Hm? Xiaofan, what is it?” Jing Shizhen stopped and looked at him.
“Uncle Jing, I... I wanted to ask, how much are you selling this Divining Wind Chime for?”
Su Xiaofan glanced at the bell and said, “I really like it. My family just bought a new home, and I’d like to put it there as something to protect the house.”
“Xiaofan, magical artifacts are just something people talk about. Why are you taking it seriously? Even if you want to buy one, don’t buy it here. Uncle Jing’s prices are as sharp as knives.”
Hearing that Su Xiaofan wanted to buy the bell, Zheng Dagang was stunned. He had been in the magical artifact business for years, and even now he didn’t believe these things had any real power. At most, they were just psychological comfort for buyers.
Besides, Jingxin Hall was famous for its high prices. Even ordinary antiques there cost thirty percent more than elsewhere. This bell also carried the title of a magical artifact—who knew what outrageous price Uncle Jing would ask?
In his anxiety, Zheng Dagang forgot all about his relationship with Uncle Jing and blurted out the truth, causing Jing Shizhen’s face to darken.
“What the hell do you know? My prices are sharp?”
This concerned Jingxin Hall’s reputation, and Jing Shizhen wouldn’t tolerate Zheng Dagang talking nonsense.
“Other than Jingxin Hall, what antique shop dares to promise ten times compensation for a fake? People buy from me for peace of mind. Paying a little more is better than ending up with a counterfeit.”
Jing Shizhen wasn’t exaggerating. Since Jingxin Hall opened decades ago, it had never sold a fake. Some antique shops had tried to imitate its policy, but lacking the expertise, they ended up selling counterfeits and were bankrupted by having to honor their own tenfold compensation promises.
“Brother Gang, Uncle Jing is right. Haven’t you seen how miserable people are after buying fakes?”
In the antique trade, buying a fake was called “taking medicine.” Naturally, the “medicine” was bitter—it described the feeling after discovering you’d bought a counterfeit.
Su Xiaofan agreed completely with Jing Shizhen. After spending years in the antique market, he had seen all kinds of people. Not everyone quietly accepted their bad luck after buying a fake. More often, they came back to make trouble.
Some reported fraud to the police, while others resorted to threats or violence. But usually they got neither refunds nor compensation, because every transaction came with a receipt, and under the item description it generally said “craft item.” It was considered a normal market transaction, and even the police couldn’t do much.
That was also the main reason Jingxin Hall had prospered ever since it opened. The prices were high, but the goods were genuine. Anyone with a bit of means who wanted to buy antiques would usually choose Jingxin Hall first.
“Xiaofan is the sensible one. This brat Gang can’t even speak properly. I don’t know how you manage to do business in the market.”
Jing Shizhen was very pleased with Su Xiaofan. Older people naturally liked hearing nice things.
“Uncle Jing, how much is this bell?” Su Xiaofan asked again.
“You really want it? To protect your newly bought home?”
Hearing Su Xiaofan’s words, Jing Shizhen became serious.
“What kind of house did you buy? A villa?”
“Not a villa. Xiaofan’s family bought a luxury apartment—over 270 square meters. It’s no worse than a villa,” Zheng Dagang said.
“Oh? Xiaofan, your family’s doing pretty well.”
Jing Shizhen looked at Su Xiaofan in surprise. He remembered Zheng Dagang mentioning before that Su Xiaofan’s father wasn’t around and that he lived with his younger sister. Their family circumstances had seemed quite ordinary.
“My dad made some money over the years. He came back and bought the apartment.”
Su Xiaofan explained. Even now, having a home suddenly appear under his name still didn’t feel entirely real.
“Normally, urban apartments don’t require feng shui assessments. As long as they’re not built on particularly inauspicious land, there shouldn’t be any problems.”
Jing Shizhen pondered for a moment and muttered to himself,
“Two hundred seventy square meters—that’s a large residence. It could gather favorable energy, or it could leak it. Buying something to protect the house isn’t a bad idea.”
“Uncle Jing, you know feng shui too?” Su Xiaofan didn’t fully understand what he meant, but it sounded related to feng shui.
“People in our line of work all know a bit.”
Jing Shizhen smiled and pointed at the Bagua mirror and the Divining Wind Chime on the tray.
“Xiaofan, let me put it this way. Your apartment should be fine. These things are optional. Sometimes having feng shui artifacts in the house isn’t necessarily a good thing.”
“Uncle Jing, I feel like this thing is meant for me. Just name a price. If I can’t afford it, then so be it.”
Su Xiaofan kept his eyes fixed on the Divining Wind Chime. The reason he wanted this low-grade damaged magical artifact was because he planned to repair it using Repair Value and see what the difference was between a repaired artifact and a damaged one.
Actually, he had an even better item—the dragon-shaped jade pendant hanging around his neck. But repairing that required 50 Repair Value, far beyond what he had. So he could only start with the cheaper option.
“Actually, if you’re buying a protective artifact for your home, it’s better to choose a defensive one. If you’re hanging it in your house, this Divining Wind Chime isn’t as good as the Bagua mirror.”
Jing Shizhen shook his head.
“But one of my regular clients specifically requested a defensive artifact. I came back this time to deliver these two artifacts for him to choose from. Whether he picks the Bagua mirror or the Divining Wind Chime, I don’t know yet. So even if you want it, I can’t sell it to you right now. How about you come back tomorrow afternoon? By then there should be an answer.”
Only then did Su Xiaofan and Zheng Dagang realize that these two magical artifacts hadn’t been stored in the Luochuan Bank vault. Jing Shizhen had specially brought them from another city. That made Su Xiaofan a little uneasy. With the money he had, he wasn’t sure whether he could actually afford the Divining Wind Chime.
Before his accident, Su Xiaofan had seventy to eighty thousand yuan in savings. After the accident, he received five hundred thousand yuan in compensation, which had already been transferred a few days earlier. When he was discharged from the hospital, there was also over sixty thousand yuan left from his medical expenses, which was returned to him.
Then there was the bank card his father had given him after returning home. It contained exactly one million yuan. His father had also given him another two hundred thousand yuan to buy furniture, of which Su Xiaofan had spent less than half.
Adding everything together, Su Xiaofan currently had over 1.7 million yuan.
Of course, he couldn’t spend all of it. He needed to keep two hundred thousand yuan for his younger sister’s first year of university tuition and living expenses. That left him with about 1.5 million yuan available to buy the Divining Wind Chime.
“Uncle Jing, I’m taking my sister back to the village tomorrow, so I probably can’t come tomorrow or the day after. Can I come the day after that?”
Su Xiaofan froze for a moment. He had already arranged to return to the village the next day and had informed Village Chief Sixth Grandpa over the phone. The village was preparing a banquet to celebrate his sister’s admission to Yanjing University, so both he and his sister had to attend.
“I’m going back to Yanjing the day after tomorrow.”
Jing Shizhen frowned, checked the time on his phone, and said,
“How about this? I’ll call the client and ask if he has time now. If he does, we’ll settle the deal today.”
“Uncle Jing, maybe tell me the price first. If I can’t afford it, I’d just be wasting your time.”
Su Xiaofan said somewhat sheepishly. He didn’t know much about the magical artifact market. He felt he probably had enough money, but if he didn’t, it would be embarrassing.
“That’s a fair point.”
Jing Shizhen laughed.
“The Bagua mirror is two million. The Divining Wind Chime is 1.2 million. Well? Do you have enough?”
“1.2 million?”
A brass bell no bigger than a fist was worth 1.2 million yuan? Even though Su Xiaofan had mentally prepared himself, he was still shocked.
“Uncle Jing, Xiaofan is my brother. Don’t apply your thirty-percent markup rule to him.”
Zheng Dagang shouted from the side,
“Xiaofan counts as a customer I brought in, right? I don’t want my twenty-percent commission. Just deduct it from the price.”
“You little brat, your elbow’s pointing outward.”
Jing Shizhen laughed in exasperation.
“I quoted my client 1.8 million for the Divining Wind Chime. If he doesn’t want it, I’ll sell it to Xiao Su for 1.2 million. What more do you want?”
“Wait a second, Uncle Jing.”
Hearing that, Zheng Dagang quickly pulled out his phone and tapped away. Seeing that 1.2 million was already less than seventy percent of 1.8 million—and another sixty thousand had effectively been knocked off—he immediately gave a thumbs-up.
“You’re really generous, Uncle. Why not round it off and make it an even one million?”
(End of Chapter)
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