As soon as Cai Yi said this, everyone in the room became interested. Even Wang Jiazan and Wang Ma, who had just finished cleaning up the dishes, sat down and prepared to listen to the story of this ancient porcelain expert.

"I remember it was in 1994. In the autumn of that year, I received an invitation letter from the National Museum of China, inviting me to attend an ancient porcelain exchange meeting. The participants were all well-known domestic porcelain experts. I had just obtained the title of associate research curator at that time, so I was lucky to receive an invitation letter."

As a college student who studied in Jinling for four years, Yang Jing certainly knew where the Nanbo that Cai Yi was talking about was. It was the Jinling Museum, one of the three major museums in China. The museum is also known as the Nanbo or Nanyuan.

"This kind of highly professional internal exchange meeting is actually a place for mutual learning. Therefore, there will be a large number of ancient porcelains and even high-quality imitations at the exchange meeting. These are all the collections of those masters who bring out for the exchange meeting. It is the coexistence of these fine products and fakes that opened our eyes."

"Among them, a Qianlong tea-leaf glaze Ruyi ear and protruding olive vase attracted the attention of almost everyone present. That tea-leaf glaze Ruyi ear and protruding olive vase is just like the bottle today. No matter how you look at it, it looks like a genuine Dakaimen product. But the inscription on the bottom of the bottle made everyone sad, because the inscription on the bottom of the bottle was actually a regular script with six characters in three lines, and the last character "制" was also a simplified Chinese character..."

Yang Jing was also shocked when he heard this. He had heard of the Qianlong tea-leaf glaze Ruyi-ear olive bottle that Cai Yi mentioned. Yang Jing also remembered that such a bottle seemed to have appeared in the 2015 spring auction of China Guardian. It seemed to have been sold at a high price of nearly 13 million national currency. It was an extremely rare tea-leaf glaze masterpiece.

Cai Yi continued, "This bottle was provided by the late porcelain master Mr. Shi Shuqing. At that time, Mr. Shi Shuqing was still alive and participated in the exchange meeting. Mr. Shi also gave us a class as a lecturer."

"The bottle that Mr. Shi brought out left everyone in the audience confused. Of course, a few porcelain masters thought of the key, but none of them gave the answer. Instead, they asked us young people to figure it out on our own."

"That bottle caused quite a controversy at the exchange meeting. Each party had their own reasons, and no one could do anything about it. Those who insisted that the bottle was a fake could not find any other evidence except the mark on the bottom of the bottle. Similarly, those who insisted that the bottle was authentic could not explain the simplified Chinese characters on the bottom of the bottle and the color of the bottle. In the end, it was Mr. Shi who came forward and made the answer public."

After a pause, Cai Yi picked up the teacup on the coffee table, took a sip of water and continued, "Mr. Shi said that he kept this bottle at the request of an old friend named Wu Tianming during the turbulent times. According to Mr. Shi, although his old friend was not well-known, he had extremely exquisite skills in the identification and restoration of ancient porcelain, and was a real ancient porcelain master hidden among the people. It's a pity that his old friend was overthrown because of his bad background during the turbulent times, and eventually committed suicide due to the torture. Before committing suicide, he entrusted this bottle to Mr. Shi for safekeeping, and also told Mr. Shi that he originally had four similar bottles, but they disappeared during a house search, and finally only this bottle was left in his hands."

"Finally, Mr. Shi told us that this Qianlong tea-leaf glaze Ruyi handle olive vase is indeed a genuine piece, and it is also an authentic imperial porcelain from the third generation of the Qing Dynasty. The reason why the simplified Chinese inscription and the slightly dim glaze surface appear is because Master Wu Tianming faked this priceless vase in order to protect it during his lifetime."

"According to Mr. Shi, in order to protect the bottle, Master Wu used a secret method to fake it. Master Wu made a special transparent glaze and covered it on the surface of the bottle, which made the color of the bottle look much darker. Especially the inscription on the bottom of the bottle, Master Wu also used a special method to cover the original inscription, and then covered it with a fake inscription, thus forming the current appearance of the tea-leaf glaze Ruyi ear olive bottle."

"Finally, Mr. Shi told us that Master Wu used a clever trick to make the bottle look like this, and this trick fooled a large group of expert ancient porcelain experts, which is enough to show that this trick is very clever. It is also very simple to break this trick, but no one can think of it. It is very simple to break this trick, just scratch it with a sharp object, so that the transparent glaze on the surface can be destroyed, thus revealing the real glaze. However, for such porcelain, it is estimated that no one would think of using this method to break this trick. And if you want to completely break this trick, you need to prepare a special solvent, and then soak the bottle in it. After soaking for more than 20 minutes, the disguises will be soaked away by this special solvent, and at the same time, the real porcelain will not be damaged."

After hearing Cai Yi's explanation, Yang Jing couldn't help but sigh that the craftsmanship of those ancient porcelain masters was simply beyond imagination. Just a simple trick could deceive so many experts, and it was also incredibly simple to break this trick.

Of course, no antique porcelain lover would use a sharp object to scratch the antique porcelain to destroy this illusion. Everyone knows that if you do this, if you don't control it well, it will not only destroy the illusion, but also very likely damage the glaze of the porcelain inside.

If this kind of bottle worth tens of millions was scratched for no reason, it would really drive countless antique porcelain lovers crazy!

Cai Yi looked at Yang Jing, then at the bottle, and then smiled and said, "If I'm not mistaken, this bottle should be one of the four bottles lost from Master Wu Tianming's home. I've been dealing with porcelain for more than 40 years, and I've only seen this kind of counterfeiting once at that exchange meeting. I guess this kind of sleight of hand is also Master Wu's exclusive secret method. Now Master Wu has passed away, so the only explanation for this bottle is that it was one of the four bottles lost from Master Wu's home."

"Yangzi, we can't break this illusion today. If you have nothing to do tomorrow, you can come to my office. I will prepare that special solvent for you, and then we can witness the appearance of a Qianlong Five Bats Holding Shouguan Ear Bottle together."

PS: I would like to thank "Zi Yan Tian Jiao" for the reward of 100.