Chapter 27: Picking Up the Slack

  Qin Tian saw Du Lao laughing so happily, and roughly guessed what he was thinking in his heart. He secretly sighed and thought: "Poor Du Lao, I hope you can still laugh later."

  He ignored Du Lao behind him and walked towards a small stall, which was run by a middle-aged man. The stall had various items scattered about, including ancient coins with rust spots, ornaments with gold and silver plating, and old-fashioned porcelain...

  From their appearance, these objects have undergone the baptism of time and look very old.

  It's old and it's antique, but in reality, it's not necessarily so.

  Modern Craftwork Imitation Porcelain Imitation Porcelain Modern Craftwork Qing Dynasty Vase

  The entire stall had dozens of items, but Qin Tian found that only one was genuine, a Qing dynasty vase. He squatted down and carefully picked through the items.

  The stall owner saw that business had arrived and hastily spoke out: "Sir, take a look, these are all good things, absolutely genuine goods."

  "How much is this Buddha statue?"

  "Good eyesight, sir! This is indeed a Buddha statue from the Tang Dynasty, which has been consecrated by a high-ranking monk..."

  "Stop beating around the bush and just tell me how much money it is." Qin Tian said with a look of impatience.

  "This Buddha image is 5000."

  Qin Tian put down the Buddha statue and picked up a porcelain bowl beside him, saying "What's this?"

  The stall owner was about to launch into a lengthy sales pitch when Qin Tian gave him an impatient look, and he swallowed his words. After hesitating for a moment, he said, "This one is 3,000."

  Qin Tian put down the porcelain bowl, picked up the Qing dynasty vase and said: "How much is this? If it's reasonable, I'll buy it. If not, I'll leave."

  The stall owner looked at Qin Tian and saw that he was impatient and ready to leave, so he said: "This... this will be 500 yuan."

  Qin Tian nodded, took out 500 from his wallet and handed it to the stall owner, then turned around and left. The stall owner saw Qin Tian's satisfied look and knew he had been shortchanged, instantly filled with regret.

  This was followed by Du Lao speaking behind Qin Tian: "Xiao Tian, you just bought it in such a hurry, didn't you take a closer look? Give me, let me take a look at this vase."

  Qin Tian handed the vase to Old Du, who carefully took it and examined it from left to right, even touching it with his hand. Finally, he nodded and said: "Little Tian's luck is not bad, this is a Qing dynasty piece, worth around 100,000 yuan, you've made a big profit, 200 times the original price!" Old Du exclaimed. But in his heart, he thought: "This isn't good, this kid's hands are too hot, he's already found a treasure on his first try, this is not a good sign for me, an old man trying to get a disciple, it looks like he's going to fly away!"

  Du Lao felt awkward in his heart, but on the surface he had to smile and even pretended to be very happy, making Qin Tian laugh secretly, thinking "Keep pretending, keep pretending, let's see if you can still pretend later."

  Then in the next hour, Qin Tian bought another Buddha statue, a snuff bottle, a ceramic plate and a Tang Sancai, spending all 120,000 yuan on his card. After being appraised by Old Du, except for the Tang Sancai which was fake, the others were genuine. The Tang Sancai was intentionally bought by Qin Tian, it's good that there are still some genuine items left, otherwise if they were all real and you hadn't systematically studied them before, it would definitely raise other people's suspicions.

  Du Lao saw the things in Qin Tian's hand, his eyes turned red, half of it was jealousy and half of it was anxiety. He was jealous of Qin Tian's good luck, picking up several big leaks, although that little money Du Lao didn't care about, but who wouldn't be happy to pick up free money? Seeing Qin Tian pick up so many at once, he really envied him. If he could pick up so many at once, it would be enough for him to show off to those old brothers for several days.

  It's really urgent now, the apprentice in hand has flown away, how can one not be anxious?

  At this time, Qin Tian was preparing to leave and wanted to find a place to exchange these antiques for money. Anyway, he didn't like them, and there was nothing to be reluctant about. Unintentionally, he glanced at an ancient porcelain stall and stopped suddenly, turning around to walk towards the owner of that stall. He saw this.

  Yuqinghua fragment 12: Yuqinghua porcelain shattered into 36 pieces, value plummeted. Price: 1.2 million.

  Seeing this, Qin Tian's heart moved: "If the broken ones are so valuable, the intact ones must be even more valuable."

  He picked up the piece of porcelain and asked, "How much is this piece?"

  The stall owner glanced at it, didn't examine it closely, and immediately revealed a silly smile, solemnly saying: "This Qinghua porcelain is the best piece on my stall, the price is probably higher than other porcelain pieces."

  Qin Tian put down the porcelain piece and said: "How high is it?"

  "Hmm..."

  The stall owner hesitated, seeing Qin Tian's reaction, and knew he wasn't a wealthy fool. The price was set high, and he might even walk away directly. Besides, these were just broken ceramic pieces, not very valuable after all, since they weren't whole ceramics and didn't have any uniqueness to them.

  So, the stall owner hesitated for a moment before slowly opening his palm and saying: "At least, it's this much."

  "Five cents?" Qin Tian pretended to be foolish on purpose.

  "No way, boss, when I stocked up, it wasn't this many." The stall owner said with a mixture of tears and laughter: "I'm talking about fifty."

  Qin Tian said calmly, "Do you see the words 'fat sheep' written on my face? You're actually trying to swindle me like this. This piece of porcelain is only as big as my thumb, and I can give you at most five dollars for it."

  Seeing Qin Tian haggle, the stall owner didn't feel any disgust, but instead felt a bit happy. When doing business, he feared encountering people who would hear a high price and immediately walk away. Hearing someone haggle was the best, as it proved that Qin Tian had the intention to buy. After some haggling, Qin Tian finally bought 36 pieces of porcelain for 100 yuan.

  Qin Tian used a small bag and carefully picked out 36 pieces of yuan qing hua.

  At this time, Qin Tian said to Du Lao behind him: "Du Lao, do you know where there is a place that collects antiques? I want a fair price."

  "Why must you take action?"

  "Uh, I'm out of money, let's exchange some and spend it, besides, I don't really like this one either."

  "Alright, you... just come with me. I'll take you to a place that's run by my friend. They won't cheat you because of our relationship." Du Lao said with a tone of disappointment and frustration, leading Qin Tian into the antique street.

  In less than 10 minutes, I arrived at the entrance of an old-fashioned house.

  "Qing Ya Xuan" Looking at the large characters of dragon and phoenix on the signboard, Qin Tian couldn't help but read it out loud.

  "Ah, we've arrived. This is the place, Qing Ya Xuan, it's my friend's shop. If you have any more antiques in the future, come here and he'll give you a fair price." Old Du instructed Qin Tian, then walked inside.

  "Hey, Old Master Du, what wind brought you here? Please sit down, I'll get you some tea right away." The shopkeeper said with a warm smile as he saw Old Master Du arrive.

  "It's all right, no need, where did Old Sun go? Dead and gone. Old friends came, but didn't come out." Du Lao said bluntly.

  "Hehe, you sit down first, the boss is in the back, I'll go invite him." The shopkeeper heard Du Lao's impolite words but didn't get angry, still smiling, apparently not hearing it for the first time.

  "No need, I'm here. I said, what's wrong with Mr. Du? He was driven out of his home and came to me for food." At this time, a spirited old man walked out from the inner room and started arguing with Old Du before he even entered the house.