Chapter 58: Partnership (Part 1)
"Teacher Meng, please don't call me Teacher. Just call me Little Su. I'm not even qualified to say I've graduated yet."
Su Xiaofan quickly responded modestly.
The two experts sitting at the table were both from the Xin Palace Museum. They were both highly respected masters in the field of miscellaneous antiques and had considerable reputations in the antique trade. They were genuine experts, not self-taught amateurs with questionable credentials.
Both teachers were already in their forties or fifties. Being called "Teacher Su" by them made Su Xiaofan feel extremely uncomfortable.
"Little Su, do you also like collecting and playing with cultural curios?"
The other expert, whose surname was Gu, noticed the Vajra Bodhi bracelet on Su Xiaofan's wrist and smiled.
"Cultural curios have become very popular these past few years. I see that even many ordinary people wear a string like this."
The threshold for getting into cultural curios was very low.
A string of five-petal Vajra Bodhi beads with excellent quality would only cost a few hundred yuan.
If you wore it on your wrist and nurtured it for three to five years, then if you took good care of it, you could resell it for two or three thousand yuan.
Therefore, many ordinary people would buy a string and wear it. On the one hand, it was fashionable; on the other, it could increase in value after being worn for several years.
That was why it was now common to see young people wearing a string of Xingyue Bodhi around their necks or a string of Vajra Bodhi around their wrists.
"This thing takes quite a bit of effort."
Teacher Meng glanced at Su Xiaofan's Vajra Bodhi.
"Little Su's piece is pretty good. You must have put a lot of effort into brushing it during the first couple of years. Judging from the patina, it looks like you've worked on it for at least four or five years."
Teacher Meng was a master in the miscellaneous-antiques field, so naturally he knew how cultural curios were maintained.
For Xingyue Bodhi and Phoenix-Eye Bodhi, one usually only needed to handle them with clean hands. Over time, they would naturally develop color and patina.
Vajra Bodhi was different.
Because of its many serrated ridges, it was necessary to brush it every day to remove dust and dirt from the gaps.
After years of handling and brushing, the sharp ridges of the Vajra Bodhi would gradually become smooth.
Just like the string on Su Xiaofan's wrist, all the edges on its surface had already been worn smooth, making it look exceptionally rounded and glossy.
"Teacher Meng, I didn't cultivate this one myself."
Su Xiaofan smiled.
"I was wandering around Pan Garden yesterday when I had nothing to do. I spent 1,800 yuan buying it. But the owner probably had been working on it for three to five years."
"1,800 yuan? That's a very good deal."
Teacher Meng nodded.
After being nurtured in the Nurturing Pool, this string of Vajra Bodhi had already become a low-grade magical artifact. Its original luster now contained faint traces of a mysterious radiance when examined closely. Clearly, it was no ordinary cultural-curio bracelet.
"Hmm? Xiao Su, take it off and let me have a look."
Jing Shizhen hadn't paid much attention to the Vajra Bodhi on Su Xiaofan's wrist before.
But after hearing their conversation, his attention immediately shifted to Su Xiaofan's wrist.
The moment he looked at it carefully, he froze for a moment.
"Uncle Jing, here."
Su Xiaofan took off the bracelet and handed it to Jing Shizhen.
Jing Shizhen held the bracelet and slowly rolled each bead between his thumb and index finger one by one.
Then he closed his eyes, as if trying to sense something.
"This... You really bought it for 1,800 yuan?"
After a full five or six minutes, the atmosphere at the table had become somewhat awkward.
Only then did Jing Shizhen open his eyes and look at Su Xiaofan.
"Yes. The owner originally wanted 2,000 yuan, but I talked him down by 200."
Su Xiaofan's heart stirred, but he nodded seriously.
He knew that Uncle Jing had probably recognized that this was a magical artifact.
However, Su Xiaofan was very puzzled.
From the outside, there was basically no difference between a magical artifact and an ordinary object.
Su Xiaofan knew it was a magical artifact because he had the Restoration System.
But how had Uncle Jing been able to identify it?
"This object..."
Jing Shizhen had just spoken a few words when he suddenly stopped.
He shook his head and returned the Vajra Bodhi bracelet to Su Xiaofan.
"Uncle Jing, Teachers, you've all worked hard today. Let me raise a toast to everyone."
The program's director entered the private room.
He had been sitting at the staff's table just now and had come over to toast the experts.
As the director of the program, he spent all day dealing with people. After just a few words from him, the atmosphere at the table immediately became lively, and no one paid attention to Su Xiaofan's bracelet anymore.
It wasn't until after eight o'clock that evening that the dinner finally ended.
The program team's vehicles were already waiting outside the restaurant.
"Teacher Meng, Teacher Gu, we'll arrive a little later tomorrow."
Standing at the entrance of the restaurant, Jing Shizhen spoke.
"Xiao Su and I have something to take care of, so we'll arrive a little late. Please bear with us..."
"Oh, Uncle Jing, there's no need to say that. You go ahead and take care of your business. If anything happens, we'll give you a call."
Neither Teacher Meng nor Teacher Gu dared to put on airs.
Although they were official experts, their status in the antique trade was still far below Jing Shizhen's.
"Uncle Jing, what are we doing tomorrow?"
Sitting in the already-started vehicle, Su Xiaofan had more or less guessed the answer.
"We're going to Pan Garden. Tomorrow at eight, I'll pick you up at the hotel!"
Uncle Jing's words confirmed Su Xiaofan's guess.
"This is only a low-grade magical artifact. There's even a mid-grade one in the Nurturing Pool."
Su Xiaofan complained inwardly.
He didn't quite understand why Uncle Jing placed such importance on magical artifacts.
The dragon-shaped jade pendant around his neck had been worn all along, but Su Xiaofan hadn't noticed anything different about his life.
He hadn't even won the fifth prize in the lottery.
The vehicle first dropped Jing Shizhen off at Jingxin Hall before taking Su Xiaofan to the hotel.
Jing Shizhen didn't say anything else during the ride.
After returning to the hotel and resting for a while, Su Xiaofan sent the photos he had taken that day to his younger sister and Zheng Dagang.
The photos showed the event's banners, promotional photos of himself as an expert, as well as some signs and videos of the on-site antique appraisal taken by the staff.
"Su Xiaofan, you're really going to be on television?"
Su Xiaoxiao replied almost instantly.
Su Xiaofan had noticed that ever since his sister had finished high school, she had become completely addicted to the internet. She practically never put her phone down.
"Hehe, you're going to college, while your brother is becoming a big celebrity. How about that?"
Su Xiaofan replied just as quickly.
To be honest, after what had happened that day, Su Xiaofan was feeling somewhat pleased with himself.
After all, he was still just a young man in his early twenties.
"You're not filming a movie. You're still a long way from being a celebrity."
Su Xiaoxiao didn't give her brother much face.
"Ah, never mind. We still have class tonight. Yaoyao is calling me."
Su Xiaoxiao seemed to be busy with something. After chatting with Su Xiaofan for only a few sentences, she hurriedly hung up.
"That brat!"
Su Xiaofan had originally wanted to find someone to show off to.
Who would have thought Su Xiaoxiao wouldn't give him the slightest bit of face, leaving all his excitement bottled up inside.
Fortunately, Brother Gang never disappointed him.
A message soon came back.
"Not bad, Xiaofan. When you return to the antique market, you'll be a big celebrity too."
Zheng Dagang even sent a smiling emoji, which immediately warmed Su Xiaofan's heart.
Su Xiaofan knew that Zheng Dagang was the kind of person who had a little street-smart cunning, but when it came to his friends, he was absolutely sincere.
"Brother Gang, when I go back, I want to open an antique shop. How about the two of us doing it together?"
Su Xiaofan had already been thinking about this since yesterday.
From a safety standpoint, it would actually be best for Su Xiaofan to run the antique shop alone.
That way, he wouldn't have to worry about anything, nor would he need to explain where the antiques came from.
But the antique business wasn't just about buying.
You had to buy and sell. That was what made it a business.
Su Xiaofan could hunt for bargains and use Restoration Points to restore antiques, but when it came to channels for selling the items, he was far inferior to Zheng Dagang.
Zheng Dagang, on the other hand, was a local who had worked for less than two years before quitting his job and setting up a stall in the antique market before he was even twenty.
By now, he had been in the business for more than ten years.
In Luochuan's antique trade, Zheng Dagang was already somewhat well-known.
On top of that, he was straightforward and loyal, had made friends everywhere, and possessed a very broad network of connections.
If Zheng Dagang joined his antique shop, Su Xiaofan wouldn't need to worry about selling the goods at all.
He couldn't say that every single item would definitely sell, but it would certainly be much faster than if Su Xiaofan tried to sell everything himself.
"Open a shop? Let's talk through video."
Zheng Dagang typed a few words and immediately started a video call with Su Xiaofan.
"Xiaofan, what made you suddenly want to open a shop?"
Zheng Dagang's bald head appeared on the screen.
"Brother, you know that I hate sitting around inside a shop. Otherwise, I would've agreed to Uncle Jing's proposal a long time ago."
Zheng Dagang was the kind of person who couldn't stand being alone or idle.
When he set up a stall in the market, he could chat and joke around with other people.
But if he had to sit inside a shop and watch over it, he would go crazy.
"Brother Gang, Uncle Jing said he wants to take me as his disciple. If I'm still out there running a street stall, wouldn't that make Uncle Jing lose face?"
Su Xiaofan found an excuse.
"Oh? That's a good thing!"
Zheng Dagang froze for a moment before breaking into a smile.
"Uncle Jing wanted to teach me before, but I could never learn. Xiaofan, you definitely can."
Zheng Dagang was something of an oddball in his family.
Both of his parents were highly educated intellectuals, yet he alone had no interest in studying.
Later, Zheng Dagang ran off to set up a stall in the antique market.
His father, Zheng, thought this wasn't necessarily a bad thing, so he asked Jing Shizhen to keep an eye on him.
Who would have expected Zheng Dagang to be hopeless when it came to studying?
He would rather set up a stall in the market than follow Jing Shizhen and systematically study antique appraisal.
As a result, even now, whenever Jing Shizhen saw Zheng Dagang, he was visibly annoyed with him.
Zheng Dagang, for his part, would also avoid Uncle Jing whenever possible.
However, Zheng Dagang had always been impressed by Su Xiaofan's ability to learn.
Back then, Su Xiaofan had gone from being a high school student who knew absolutely nothing about antiques to hanging around the antique market.
It had only been two or three years, yet Su Xiaofan's professional ability was already far beyond his own.
There were many objects Zheng Dagang couldn't understand at all, while Su Xiaofan could always explain one thing or another about them.
"Brother Gang, I've found a channel for buying antiques."
Su Xiaofan spoke.
"But you know that I don't have much of a foundation in Luochuan. I'm not good at selling things.
"How about we cooperate? I'll handle the purchasing, and you handle the sales. What do you think?"
"Isn't that the same as our magical-artifact business? Why bother opening a shop?"
Zheng Dagang was genuinely opposed to the idea of opening a shop.
In his words, he was only just thirty.
He wasn't about to sit in a shop like an old man, waiting around until he died of boredom.
"Brother Gang, we're selling antiques, not those fake magical artifacts of yours that rely entirely on tricking people."
Su Xiaofan gave a bitter laugh.
"Brother Gang, do you really think it would be appropriate to sell antiques worth hundreds of thousands of yuan—or even more—at a street stall?"
"That's true. Nobody trusts things sold at a street stall."
Zheng Dagang nodded deeply.
"If we want to consign our items to an auction, wouldn't it be easier to negotiate with the auction house under the name of an antique shop?"
Su Xiaofan continued.
"Of course. The commission alone would be much lower."
Zheng Dagang had been in the antique market for so many years that he had actually handled some major deals before.
This had happened seven or eight years earlier.
Zheng Dagang had heard that the cellar of an old residence in Luochuan had turned up some antiques.
He found two friends, and the three of them bought everything from the old residence together.
The total cost was 300,000 yuan, with each of the three contributing 100,000 yuan.
There weren't many items for 300,000 yuan.
There was a set of old rosewood furniture, a painting from the Republican era, a jar full of Yuan Shikai silver dollars, and various other miscellaneous items that weren't worth much.
The old rosewood furniture and the Yuan Shikai silver dollars sold for a combined total of 120,000 yuan.
Zheng Dagang originally thought they were going to lose money on the deal.
But what he hadn't expected was that three fan paintings were hidden inside the Republican-era painting.
By that time, Zheng Dagang had already been in the antique trade for several years.
He knew that if paintings concealed other paintings, whatever was hidden inside was definitely not ordinary.
At that time, Zheng Dagang was avoiding Jing Shizhen, so he didn't dare ask him to appraise them.
Instead, the three friends went directly to an auction house in the capital.
That auction house was quite legitimate, and the appraisal results it gave them were also very good.
The three fan paintings were works by Lu Zhi, a painter of the Wu School from the Ming Dynasty.
The three friends had no other way to turn the paintings into cash, so they consigned the fan paintings to the auction house for its autumn auction and signed an agreement.
The agreement stated that, besides a commission of 15 percent of the auction proceeds, the auction house would also charge another 10 percent of the proceeds for its preliminary promotional expenses.
That came to a total of 25 percent.
In the end, the three fan paintings sold for 3.2 million yuan.
The auction house alone took 800,000 yuan.
After deducting the taxes and other auction-related expenses, the three friends calculated their shares.
Each of them ended up with only around 700,000 yuan.
In other words, the auction house had actually earned more than each of them.
Later, Jing Shizhen found out about the incident and gave Zheng Dagang a thorough scolding.
That was when Zheng Dagang learned that if an auction was consigned under the name of a company, the commission was usually no more than around five percent.
Even after adding taxes and promotional expenses, the total amount paid to the auction house could be kept at around ten percent.
If the consignment was handled through Jing Shizhen, the cost would be even lower.
Auction houses mainly took advantage of individual consignors who didn't understand the business.
Although Zheng Dagang had learned his lesson from that experience, he simply didn't have much luck when it came to finding bargains afterward.
Naturally, he never had another opportunity to deal with an auction house.
(End of Chapter)
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