Chapter 52: The Antique Appraisal Program (Part 1)
A Hetian jade Guanyin pendant, a Han Dynasty Eight Trigrams bronze mirror, and Vajra Bodhi bracelet.
These were Su Xiaofan’s gains from the entire morning.
It wasn’t that these were the only objects in Pan Garden that could enter the Nurturing Pool. Rather, Su Xiaofan simply didn’t want to make any more purchases.
His original purpose for visiting Pan Garden today was to find a few antiques that he could repair and take back to Luochuan.
But Su Xiaofan couldn’t resist and ended up throwing the bronze mirror into the Nurturing Pool to be nurtured. It also cost him 10 Repair Points.
However, Su Xiaofan had originally intended to find a few objects to experiment with, so he didn’t really lose anything.
After wandering around for the entire morning, Su Xiaofan took out his phone while eating lunch and checked the addresses of several other antique markets.
To be honest, Pan Garden was extremely famous, but finding bargains there was truly difficult.
Antique enthusiasts from all over the country were like gold-mining sieves, repeatedly sifting through Pan Garden over and over again. No one knew how many times they had already searched through the place.
Even if there were bargains to be found in Pan Garden, they had probably already been picked clean.
Being able to find these few objects that could be nurtured was already enough to satisfy Su Xiaofan.
In the afternoon, Su Xiaofan planned to visit several other markets.
Compared with Pan Garden, places such as the Northern Secondhand Goods Market still had some bargains that could be picked up.
Of course, Su Xiaofan wasn’t going back to the Northern Secondhand Goods Market either. It was possible that the matter involving the brush washer and brush pot had already spread.
Fortunately, Beijing had a major advantage. Apart from Pan Garden and the Northern Secondhand Goods Market, there were at least a dozen other places in Beijing where antiques were sold.
Su Xiaofan wasn’t greedy. He planned to pick up another seven or eight bargains and then stop. After that, he would find a way to sell them.
After all, he still owed more than a hundred thousand yuan.
“Hm? Uncle Jing?”
After finishing lunch and preparing to follow the navigation to the subway station, Su Xiaofan’s phone suddenly rang.
Previously, because of the matter involving the meteorite, Su Xiaofan had asked Zheng Dagang for Uncle Jing’s phone number and immediately put it on his blacklist.
But now Uncle Jing was his creditor, so a few days ago, Su Xiaofan had taken Uncle Jing’s number off the blacklist.
“Xiao Su, where are you?”
After the call connected, Uncle Jing was the first to speak.
“I’m at Pan Garden.”
Su Xiaofan replied with a grin.
“I owe you money, Uncle Jing. Of course I have to find a few more bargains so I can pay you back.”
Su Xiaofan had been doing business in the antique market for several years. The reason his business had been so successful was that he liked studying people’s psychology.
Sometimes, if you repeatedly emphasized something, then when that thing actually happened, it would give people a psychological suggestion that it wasn’t particularly unexpected.
Just like how Su Xiaofan constantly talked about finding bargains. In the end, it would instead make Uncle Jing feel that this kid simply had pretty good luck.
“You want to repay me by finding bargains? You might as well go buy a lottery ticket.”
Jing Shizhen replied unhappily.
“Uncle Jing, wasn’t the money I used to buy the meteorite all earned from finding bargains?”
Su Xiaofan wasn’t angry at all and continued smiling.
“That... that was just you getting insanely lucky!”
Uncle Jing was rendered somewhat speechless by Su Xiaofan because that was indeed the truth.
“Uncle Jing, did you call because you need something? Don’t tell me you’re calling to collect the debt?”
Su Xiaofan couldn’t look at his phone’s navigation while he was on the call, so he didn’t enter the subway station and simply stood outside.
“It’s only a little over a hundred thousand yuan. Do you really think I’d do that?”
Jing Shizhen said.
“You’ve been in Beijing these past few days, right? There’s something I’d like your help with.”
“Huh? Uncle Jing, what could you possibly need my help with? I’m planning to return to Luochuan tomorrow.”
Su Xiaofan was stunned when he heard this.
“I came here this time to send my sister to school. I also feel bad about continuing to stay in the school guesthouse, so I’m planning to go back tomorrow.”
“You have something to do after you go back?”
Jing Shizhen asked.
“Uncle Jing, I still have a business in the Luochuan market.”
Su Xiaofan replied.
“Brother Gang has called me several times asking when I’m coming back. He’s preparing to take me to several temples to look for a few ritual artifacts for you.”
Su Xiaofan wasn’t lying.
These past few days, Zheng Dagang really had been urging him to return to Luochuan.
The last time Zheng Dagang personally witnessed the transaction between Zhao Hengjian and Su Xiaofan involving the ritual artifacts, he had been deeply stimulated by it.
After returning home, Zheng Dagang reflected seriously on the situation and decided to upgrade his business.
He wanted to transform it from selling fake ritual artifacts into a business specializing in genuine ritual artifacts.
According to Zheng Dagang, Luochuan was an ancient capital of nine dynasties and was also home to the ancestral grounds of Buddhism. There might not be many other things there, but temples could be found everywhere.
Zheng Dagang’s understanding of ritual artifacts was nothing more than objects used to ward off evil, avoid disasters, capture ghosts, and subdue demons.
Naturally, temples would have the greatest number of such objects.
Therefore, Zheng Dagang had placed all his hopes for the second spring of his career on the large and small temples scattered throughout Luochuan.
During the days Su Xiaofan had been in Beijing, Zheng Dagang had already scouted out all the locations...
No, that didn’t sound right.
He had already explored the routes...
No, that didn’t sound right either...
Anyway, he had already conducted his market research.
Zheng Dagang had recorded the locations of more than a hundred temples of various sizes and several dozen Taoist temples in Luochuan in a little notebook.
Now Zheng Dagang was simply waiting for Su Xiaofan to return. The two brothers planned to visit these temples and Taoist temples together and make their ritual-artifact business bigger and stronger.
“Hey, I’m telling you two boys, don’t go doing anything reckless.”
Hearing Su Xiaofan’s words, Jing Shizhen laughed helplessly.
“Even if those places have ritual artifacts, they’re kept secret. You two should stop wasting your effort. I actually have something else I’d like your help with.”
“Go ahead, Uncle Jing. I haven’t bought my high-speed rail ticket yet.”
Su Xiaofan couldn’t figure out what he could possibly help Uncle Jing with.
“It’s like this.”
Jing Shizhen began explaining.
“Beijing TV recently produced a program and invited me to appear as a guest...”
Su Xiaofan found a relatively quiet place and listened as Uncle Jing finished explaining everything.
It turned out that antique appraisal programs had become extremely popular on television in recent years. No matter which television station aired them, their ratings were very high. Even CCTV had specifically produced its own antique appraisal program.
Beijing was the country’s cultural center, so naturally it wasn’t willing to fall behind.
For the past few years, Beijing TV had continuously aired antique appraisal programs, and the response had been quite good.
However, there were too many antique appraisal programs, and audiences were beginning to suffer from aesthetic fatigue.
If they wanted to attract viewers, they needed something different.
Therefore, some time ago, Beijing TV had created a live program in which antiques were smashed on the spot.
It really did succeed in attracting viewers.
However, the controversy was also enormous.
That so-called expert, who did not have a professional background, seemed to have taken someone else’s genuine antique and smashed it just to hear the sound.
Naturally, the matter became a huge scandal.
It seemed that the whole thing eventually even ended up in court, and Beijing TV itself also received some backlash.
The antique-smashing program could no longer continue.
But antique-related programs still had to go on, because they brought in good ratings.
Therefore, Beijing TV launched a special antique appraisal program.
Each episode would focus on appraising only one category of antiques.
For example, the previous episode had focused on calligraphy and paintings.
Collectors from Beijing and even from all over the country could bring their calligraphy and painting collections to the program for free appraisal.
And, surprisingly, private collectors really were not to be underestimated.
During that appraisal, they actually discovered an authentic work by Tang Yin, as well as two paintings by the famous painter known as Old Man Baishi.
All of them were extremely valuable.
This episode, however, had been designated as a special appraisal of miscellaneous antiques.
The program organizers had invited Jing Shizhen, a nationally renowned collector and the chief cultural relic appraisal expert of Jingxin Hall, to serve as the leader of the expert panel for this episode.
Normally, an episode required four experts to serve as guests.
Beijing TV was no exception.
They had already invited three other experts besides Jing Shizhen.
But accidents always happened.
The bronze-artifact appraisal expert they had originally invited from the Xin Palace Museum had suddenly been required to go to Daxi Province.
Some Qin Dynasty bronze artifacts had recently been unearthed there, and the expert needed to participate in their appraisal and protective excavation.
As a result, he could no longer participate in the program.
The recording wasn’t until tomorrow night, so it wasn’t impossible to invite another expert at the last minute.
However, Jing Shizhen, as the leader of the expert panel, suddenly thought of Su Xiaofan.
According to Jing Shizhen, if they wanted the program to have good ratings, there had to be controversy, conflict, and opposing viewpoints.
Inviting a young man who had no formal professional training but possessed expert-level appraisal abilities to serve as an antique-appraisal guest would undoubtedly make the program much more interesting.
Jing Shizhen was a businessman first and an antique appraisal expert second.
Therefore, the suggestion he made was strongly supported by the leaders of Beijing TV.
What did a television station need most?
Naturally, it needed news—whether positive or negative.
The previous incident involving Beijing TV smashing an antique and ending up in a lawsuit had caused a huge uproar.
But it had also caused the station’s ratings to soar, and they had made a fortune from advertising.
If they pulled off another controversial appearance like this one, featuring a young expert, the ratings would probably explode again.
“Uncle Jing, are you sure you didn’t get something wrong?”
Listening to Jing Shizhen’s explanation, Su Xiaofan felt as though he were listening to some unbelievable fantasy.
He was just a high school graduate who had only been out of school for three or four years.
And they wanted him to appear as a special guest on an antique appraisal program?
Wasn’t that a joke?
Although Su Xiaofan knew a little about bronze artifacts, he didn’t think he was qualified to be called an expert.
“Xiao Su, you came from Bronze Ware Village. Ordinary bronze artifacts shouldn’t be able to stump you, right?”
Jing Shizhen had not randomly chosen Su Xiaofan.
He knew quite a bit about Su Xiaofan.
“No, Uncle Jing. I’m not going.”
Su Xiaofan rejected him very decisively.
To be honest, with the Repair System, Su Xiaofan believed that when it came to distinguishing genuine antiques from fakes, no one in the world could be better than him.
But antique appraisal wasn’t simply about determining whether something was genuine or fake.
You also had to explain the basis for your judgment.
That was Su Xiaofan’s weakness.
“Hey, you kid. Uncle Jing is giving you a chance to benefit!”
Hearing how decisively Su Xiaofan rejected him, Jing Shizhen said:
“Let’s meet and discuss it in person. You’re at Pan Garden, right? I’ll have a car come pick you up.”
“Uncle Jing, I really can’t do this.”
Su Xiaofan continued refusing with a bitter smile.
“Stop talking nonsense. Come over later and we’ll discuss it face-to-face.”
“All right, then.”
Su Xiaofan felt that, as a debtor, he should show his creditor the proper amount of respect.
“Uncle Jing, you don’t need to send a car for me. I’ll take the subway there. Am I going to your shop?”
Half an hour later, Su Xiaofan was sitting in the tea room of Jingxin Hall, looking helplessly at Jing Shizhen in front of him.
“Uncle Jing, if you wanted me to participate in some singing competition, I think I could handle that.”
Su Xiaofan took a couple of sips of tea to moisten his throat before saying:
“But for an expert on an antique appraisal program, you should at least find some white-bearded old man with an immortal-like appearance. Experts are like doctors—when it comes to this kind of thing, the older they are, the more respected they are...”
(End of Chapter)
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