Chapter 51: Taobao
“Bro, aren’t you going to stay in Yanjing for a few more days?”
Early the next morning, just after Su Xiaofan sent his younger sister a message saying that he planned to leave Yanjing tomorrow, he received a call from her.
“There’s nothing much to do if I stay here. I might as well go back and do some business.”
Su Xiaofan planned to visit the antique market one more time today before leaving Yanjing.
After selling the brush pot and brush washer at Jingxin Hall, Su Xiaofan had no intention of selling any more antiques in Yanjing. He wanted to avoid attracting too much attention.
Su Xiaofan had spent several years hanging around the antique market in Luochuan. After following Zheng Dagang around for so long, he had picked up quite a few tricks of the trade. Selling a few small items shouldn't be much of a problem.
“Bro, you don't have to work so hard. I'll be getting a salary next year.”
Su Xiaoxiao's voice came through the phone.
“Students get salaries?”
Su Xiaofan was stunned.
“We're a research institute, aren't we? We help our supervisors with research, so there are... um, there are bonuses.”
Su Xiaoxiao sounded somewhat hesitant.
“Su Xiaofan, don't ask anymore. Anyway, I'll have money next year. From then on, I'll support you!”
“You little brat. Su Xiaoxiao, are you trying to rebel?”
Su Xiaofan said irritably, “Take good care of yourself. If you run out of money... don't come looking for me either. Your brother is even poorer than you!”
“Got it, you're so naggy. I have to go to class. Bye!”
Su Xiaoxiao hung up.
Su Xiaofan wasn't worried about his sister's ability to take care of herself.
With Mo Zixuan also looking after her, Su Xiaofan believed that his sister would live quite well in Yanjing.
……
After going out to have breakfast, Su Xiaofan followed yesterday's route and took the subway to Pan Garden again.
Compared with the other antique markets, Pan Garden was undoubtedly the most crowded. Besides, Su Xiaofan wasn't here today specifically to hunt for bargains.
Looking at the bustling crowds, Su Xiaofan didn't know what to say.
This wasn't an antique market anymore. It was practically a tourist attraction.
Blending into the crowd, Su Xiaofan went through the miscellaneous-item stalls he had visited yesterday once again.
He had to admit that finding bargains in the antique market nowadays was truly difficult.
Su Xiaofan used the Restoration System to examine more than half of the miscellaneous-item market in Pan Garden, but he didn't find a single item worth buying.
Of course, that didn't mean there wasn't a single genuine item on the stalls.
It was just that occasionally, there would be one or two old objects, but the moment the stall owner opened his mouth, he would quote an astronomical price. Obviously, they were being kept there to attract customers.
At this moment, Su Xiaofan was crouching in front of a stall selling jade.
The jade on the stall wasn't ancient jade, but its quality was quite good. Most of it was Hetian jade and green jade.
More importantly, the Restoration System in Su Xiaofan's mind had given him a prompt.
[Restoration Value: 130 points!]
[Hetian Jade Guanyin. It can be placed into the Nurturing Pool for cultivation!]
[Cultivating the Hetian Jade Guanyin requires 10 Restoration Points. Would you like to cultivate it?]
“Hmm, this piece of jade is quite interesting.”
Looking at the Hetian jade Guanyin pendant, which was only about the size of his thumb, Su Xiaofan couldn't make up his mind.
He had already been wandering around the market for more than two hours and had examined quite a few objects with the system.
There were plenty of items that could be repaired, but they were all modern handicrafts with various kinds of damage. There was no real value in repairing them.
This Guanyin pendant was the first object he had encountered that could be cultivated.
However, cultivating such a pendant would cost 10 Restoration Points, and Su Xiaofan was reluctant to spend them.
After all, the Dragon-Shaped Jade Pendant magical artifact that was currently being cultivated had only cost him five Restoration Points.
Based on the price of Yin Stones, 10 Restoration Points were equivalent to three or four million yuan.
If the jade pendant wasn't worth that much after being cultivated, Su Xiaofan would suffer a huge loss.
“Boss, how much is this Guanyin?”
After thinking it over, Su Xiaofan decided to buy it.
He still had quite a few Restoration Points, so he could afford to splurge a little.
Besides, Su Xiaofan also wanted to figure out exactly what the Nurturing Pool could do.
“Six thousand!”
The stall owner glanced at Su Xiaofan and said, “This is jade from the mid-Qing Dynasty. The quality is excellent. Six thousand is definitely not expensive.”
“Come on, Boss. Let's not talk about the mid-Qing Dynasty.”
Su Xiaofan shook his head.
“The carving on this jade is pretty good, and it's made from Hetian jade shanliao material. I'll give you 3,000 yuan. If you're willing to sell it for that price, I'll buy it.”
Su Xiaofan had done quite a bit of research on miscellaneous antiques such as jade.
The Guanyin pendant was made from Hetian jade shanliao material. It was slightly inferior to seed jade, but its texture was quite fine and delicate, making it a rare piece of good-quality jade.
“Alright. I can tell you're an expert. Three thousand it is. It's yours.”
The stall owner immediately knew that there was no way he could pass this off as ancient jade after hearing Su Xiaofan's words, so he readily agreed.
The stall owner's family had a relative living in Hetian, giving him a stable supply channel for Hetian jade.
This piece of shanliao jade had been purchased together with a batch of mountain jade.
The lower-quality mountain jade was processed using machine carving, while some of the better-quality jade was hand-carved by craftsmen hired by the stall owner.
Of course, the stall owner hadn't hired any famous master carver. The craftsmen he hired charged only three to five hundred yuan to carve a piece of jade.
Since the jade itself came directly from its place of origin and the craftsmanship was also quite good, the stall had become somewhat famous in Pan Garden and did quite good business.
“My wallet is getting thinner again.”
After scanning the QR code and making the payment, Su Xiaofan looked at the bank balance displayed in the text message on his phone and couldn't help smiling bitterly.
[Restoration Value: 130 points!]
[Hetian Jade Guanyin. It can be placed into the Nurturing Pool for cultivation!]
[Cultivating the Hetian Jade Guanyin requires 10 Restoration Points. Would you like to cultivate it?]
“Cultivate!”
Su Xiaofan silently gave the command in his mind.
The jade pendant in his palm instantly disappeared.
[Restoration Points deducted: 10 points!]
[Hetian Jade Guanyin: Currently being cultivated. Countdown: 71:59:59……]
[Remaining Restoration Points: 120 points]
“So it's three days, seventy-two hours.”
After looking at the information in his mind, Su Xiaofan knew that he would have to wait more than two days before he could uncover the secret of the Nurturing Pool.
Su Xiaofan could afford to wait.
However, the 10 Restoration Points he had spent still made his heart ache.
Ever since Uncle Jing had told him the price of Yin Stones, Su Xiaofan had gradually come to equate Restoration Points with RMB.
Besides the Hetian jade Guanyin, Su Xiaofan wandered around for a while longer before spotting a Han Dynasty Eight Trigrams bronze mirror.
The Eight Trigrams patterns on the back of the bronze mirror had been worn down so badly that they were almost completely invisible.
The Yin-Yang design on the front had been worn down until not even the slightest trace of its original pattern remained.
It seemed that later generations had actually used this feng shui mirror as an ordinary mirror.
Because the damage was so severe, it looked almost like a piece of rust-covered iron sheet.
Su Xiaofan bought it for only 200 yuan.
[Restoration Value: 120 points!]
[Han Dynasty Eight Trigrams Bronze Mirror. It can be repaired!]
[Repairing the Han Dynasty Eight Trigrams Bronze Mirror requires 1 Restoration Point. Would you like to repair it?]
“Repair!”
After Su Xiaofan silently gave the command, the Eight Trigrams bronze mirror inside the bag instantly revealed its appearance from a thousand years ago.
The traces left on the Eight Trigrams mirror by the passage of time had not disappeared because of the restoration.
Only the Yin-Yang design on the front and the Eight Trigrams patterns on the back had become clearly visible after the restoration.
The outer ring of the front of the mirror was also engraved with the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches and the Nine Stars of Hetu-Luoshu.
The back bore the words:
“The Ancestor of the Eight Trigrams, Noblemen from the Four Directions.”
Looking at this exquisite Han Dynasty feng shui Eight Trigrams mirror, Su Xiaofan hesitated.
What he couldn't decide was whether he should simply treat this Eight Trigrams mirror as a bargain he had found, or put it into the Nurturing Pool for cultivation.
This was the second object he had encountered during his half-day trip that could be cultivated.
The Eight Trigrams mirror had cost only 200 yuan.
Considering its current condition, it could be regarded as a fine example among Han Dynasty bronze mirrors. Selling it for forty or fifty thousand yuan would definitely not be a problem.
But putting it into the Nurturing Pool would cost 10 Restoration Points, and its function after cultivation was unknown.
Su Xiaofan didn't know whether he would make a profit or suffer a loss.
[Restoration Value: 119 points!]
[Han Dynasty Eight Trigrams Mirror. It can be placed into the Nurturing Pool for cultivation!]
[Cultivating the Han Dynasty Eight Trigrams Mirror requires 10 Restoration Points. Would you like to cultivate it?]
“Cultivate!”
Su Xiaofan gritted his teeth and sent the Han Dynasty Eight Trigrams mirror into the Nurturing Pool.
[Restoration Points deducted: 10 points!]
[Han Dynasty Eight Trigrams Mirror: Currently being cultivated. Countdown: 71:59:59……]
[Remaining Restoration Points: 109 points]
Su Xiaofan had come to Pan Garden today precisely to figure out the function of the Nurturing Pool.
Now that he knew more about it, spending some Restoration Points to put a few more objects inside would allow him to make comparisons once their cultivation was complete.
After leaving the miscellaneous antiques section, Su Xiaofan wandered around the shops in Pan Garden.
Unlike the street stalls, the quality of the items sold inside the shops was far higher.
For example, in the jade shop Su Xiaofan was currently visiting, he saw seven or eight pieces of seed jade alone.
Some of the seed jade pieces still retaining their natural skin were of exceptionally good quality.
Of course, the prices were equally astonishing.
One piece of seed jade with its natural skin was priced at 200,000 yuan.
Su Xiaofan could only look at it.
With his pockets practically emptier than his face, he didn't even have the courage to pick it up and examine it.
However, after visiting the jade shop, Su Xiaofan discovered a pattern related to the Nurturing Pool.
Almost all high-quality jade could be placed into the Nurturing Pool.
The amount of Restoration Points required also varied according to the quality of the jade.
The item requiring the fewest Restoration Points for cultivation was a pair of black jade earrings.
They required only three Restoration Points.
But the earrings themselves were priced at 18,000 yuan.
Su Xiaofan glanced at his phone and silently looked away.
There was also an ancient jade from the Han Dynasty.
It was the jade shop's prized piece, with a price tag of 1.8 million yuan.
Surprisingly, cultivating it required a full 100 Restoration Points.
Su Xiaofan was so frightened that he didn't dare look at it a second time, afraid that he might accidentally send it into the Nurturing Pool.
After wandering around the antique shops for a while, Su Xiaofan decisively left.
There were surveillance cameras everywhere inside the shops.
If he accidentally lost control of his thoughts, he might very well end up being taken to the police station for a body search.
[Restoration Points deducted: 3 points!]
[Vajra Bodhi bracelet: Currently being cultivated. Countdown: 23:59:59……]
[Remaining Restoration Points: 106 points]
When he arrived at the cultural collectibles section, Su Xiaofan actually made another discovery.
He had his eyes on a string of Vajra Bodhi beads worn around the wrist of a bead vendor.
The main reason was that cultivating this bracelet required only three Restoration Points.
The Vajra Bodhi bracelet consisted of fourteen beads.
The vendor had clearly been playing with it for a very long time.
The ridges on the Bodhi beads had already been worn smooth, and the entire bracelet had developed a beautiful purplish shine.
The world of collectible curios was full of tricks.
Whether something had been artificially aged through steaming, boiling, or oil-frying, or whether it had actually been developed naturally through years of handling, Su Xiaofan could tell at a glance.
After all, he had seen all those tricks back when he was hanging around Brother Gang.
These were the most common five-petal Vajra Bodhi beads.
If they were new beads, they would be worth at most a hundred or so yuan.
But after taking the time and effort required to develop their appearance through years of handling, the price of these Vajra beads had risen dramatically.
The stall owner directly asked for 2,000 yuan.
Collectible curios were somewhat different from other antiques.
People were often reluctant to sell things they had personally spent years playing with and cultivating.
In the end, Su Xiaofan spent 1,800 yuan to buy the Vajra Bodhi bracelet.
After sending the bracelet into the Nurturing Pool, Su Xiaofan discovered that he now had only a little over 10,000 yuan in cash left.
His Restoration Points had also fallen to only 106.
Fortunately, the cultivation time for this Vajra Bodhi bracelet wasn't long.
It only required 24 hours, meaning it would finish cultivation before the other objects.
(End of Chapter)
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