Chapter 85

Xiao Xiao slumped in her chair, rubbing her stiff and aching shoulders, and sighed weakly, "Oh my God, I'm exhausted. What's going on? So many people showed up at once, and I don't have anything real. And what about their appraisal reports? They've become flyers these days. How come everyone has one?"

Yang Ye stood by the glass door of the courtyard, her back to them. The afterglow of the setting sun dyed the distant sky a clean, pale orange, and the remaining light of the setting sun blurred her silhouette. She stared at the fading light in silence, her breathing unconsciously slowing down, as if even the air around her had taken on a certain solemnity unique to dusk.

Zhou Yi held two cups of warm water, one for Xiao Xiao and the other for Yang Ye. He stopped behind him and whispered, "Boss."

Yang Ye focused her eyes, she turned around and saw Zhou Yiheng, took the water cup from his hand, and said, "Thank you."

The warmth from the glass wall contrasted with her slightly cold fingertips. She rubbed her fingers unconsciously against the wall, feeling the warmth that had not yet faded away.

Yang Ye took a sip of water and said, "You have worked hard."

"We're fine," she said, her gaze fixed on Yang Ye's thin back, her tone worried. The setting sun streamed in through the glass door, casting her shadow across the center of the living room. In the area where light and shadow met, her figure seemed particularly lonely, even its outline hinting at a sense of desolation.

Xiao Xiao asked: "You, you've been standing there for a long time, have you thought of something?"

Her gaze returned to the gradually darkening courtyard outside the window. She spoke softly, her voice so soft that it seemed as if she were talking to herself, "It's so neat."

"What's too neat?" Zhou Yiheng heard and asked.

"Everything..." Yang Ye turned slowly, the last rays of sunset light passing across her profile, illuminating the deep thought in her eyes. Yang Ye was silent for a moment, his gaze sweeping over the two people standing in front of him. His tone was solemn, "Today's events, everything was so neat. Everyone had their reports, and although the items were different, they were all the same, and their items had all been authenticated by Jinshizhai first."

"Yeah," Xiao Xiao sat up suddenly, the chair legs scraping against the ground with a harsh sound. The fatigue on his face was instantly replaced by strong doubts. "Several uncles and aunties just told me that the experts told them that the real thing is like this. They also said that if they don't believe it, they can look elsewhere, but there is definitely no one as professional as them. They also said that their machines are all imported from abroad and can check things from the inside out, even the skeleton of the thing, and how many times it has been passed through the hands. They also said that the reports from them are definitely not fake."

"You can tell how many times something has been passed around with a machine?" Zhou Yiheng scoffed, his tone full of ridicule. "Such a ridiculous statement can only fool those uncles and aunties who know nothing."

Xiao Xiao then asked, "But why are they doing this? Calling something fake true? Isn't this destroying their own reputation?"

The store fell silent for a moment, with only the slow ticking of the wall clock as the sound.

Zhou Yiheng seemed to have thought of something. He suddenly looked up at Yang Ye and asked tentatively, "Boss, are you still thinking about that?"

"Um what?" Xiao Xiao asked immediately, his eyes moving back and forth between the two of them.

Zhou Yiheng looked at Yang Ye and saw that she had no intention of responding, so he explained to Xiao Xiao: "The boss suspects that Jinshizhai's purpose may not be to appraise, but to switch."

"Switched?" Xiao Xiao raised his voice.

"Keep your voice down," Zhou Yiheng raised his hand and pressed, signaling her to lower her voice. "The boss is guessing that they are using the opportunity of the appraisal to replace the original real things with fakes through some means, and then return the fakes and a completely useless appraisal report to the appraiser, while the real ones are quietly confiscated by them."

Xiao Xiao was stunned. Her mouth opened wide, and it took her a while to find her voice. "Wait, wait, I don't understand what you are saying. You said they switched things. How is that possible? I've been looking at my things for so many years. If there is anything different, someone would definitely notice. And what are they trying to do? Just to exchange something, but there are risks. Stealing is illegal. And the people who came here today all brought fakes. If you think that's the case, then once they find out their things are fake, how can they cover it up like this?"

"This is also what I don't understand," Yang Ye finally spoke. Her voice was cold. She walked to the desk, put down the cup of water in her hand, and her fingers unconsciously brushed across the messy desk.

"I guess they probably have a complete plan." Yang Ye thought for a while, her eyes becoming sharper. She seemed to have a clearer idea of ​​the direction, but that direction was vague, as if covered by a veil that could not be lifted. "For items like Grandma Chen, who can be seen as authentic at a glance and are easy to sell for cash, they will choose to switch them. They use the excuse that the appraisal report takes time to get the appraiser to leave his item there temporarily, and then produce an identical item in the next few days to replace it. At the same time, they will issue a report that is the same as the authentic one, but completely different from the fake, and at the same time devalue the price."

Yang Ye paused for a moment, his tone becoming increasingly serious. "As for those items that they know are fakes at first glance, or are worthless, or perhaps cannot be easily fooled, they will be like the uncles and aunties who came today. They will give them an inflated report, saying that the fake items are real, and then encourage or even instigate them to go to other places to verify and sell them. Many receiving places, once they see that you have an appraisal report issued by a specialized agency, will first base the second inspection on the contents of the report, so this also gives them an opportunity..."

"Then why do they do this?" Xiao Xiao became even more confused after listening to it.

Yang Ye calmly analyzed, "Think about it, what did these uncles and aunts say when they left? Did they say that we were not legitimate, that we had poor eyesight, and that we mistook their authentic items for fakes?"

Xiao Xiao nodded, "There are many uncles who have so many, and they also said that we can't compare with the professional imported machines when we look at it with our naked eyes."

"Maybe this is their purpose," Zhou Yiheng continued.

"Not only will the uncles and aunties not believe us, they'll think it's our fault. In comparison, the so-called Jinshizhai has become an absolute authority in their hearts. And when a large number of fakes appear on the market, it will create chaos in the short term, causing short-term trouble for the several nearby collection agencies or institutions. Then, they can safely dispose of the genuine products they replaced, and maybe even raise the price of the genuine products even higher."

Xiao Xiao suddenly realized, "That is to say, among those who came today, some of the things they had might have been real, but they were just replaced by Jinshizhai."

"What did Liu Guoxing say?" Yang Ye looked up and asked Xiao Xiao with a serious expression.

"Professor Liu hasn't found anything yet. I just know that Jinshizhai suddenly opened recently, and I haven't heard of it in the industry before," Xiao Xiao said. "By the way, Professor Liu also asked me to remind you that it's hard to make a clear judgment on things like true and false, false and true."

After listening to Xiao Xiao's words, Yang Ye collected the reports that had been left on her desk one by one and spread them out side by side in the order in which she had read them.

"Xiao Xiao, give me the photos you took of Grandpa Zhang last time." She looked down at the papers and said to Xiao Xiao.

Xiao Xiao quickly took out her cell phone and found the photos she had taken two days ago. She handed over the screen.

Yang Ye took it and carefully compared the contents of the report, from the blurry photos, formatted text descriptions, to the so-called identification procedures and specific judgment methods. Finally, her eyes stopped at the middle of the report, where the key numbers were given.

"Come and take a look," she pointed to the estimated figures on the last page of the report. "They gave prices of 20,000, 30,000, 50,000, and only this one was 110,000. These prices aren't high, but they're not low either. For uncles and aunties who have been frugal all their lives, tens of thousands of dollars are enough to make them feel like a windfall. They'll be happy, but they won't expect to become rich overnight, or be so happy that they go crazy."

Zhou Yiheng walked in and looked at the numbers carefully. "Did they even calculate the price?"

"Yes," Yang Ye confirmed, and continued to think forward. She seemed to have figured it out a little bit, and her voice unconsciously lowered. "As for those fakes that they can see at a glance, I guess they have another set of cash-in methods."

"What method?" Xiao Xiao asked.

"Think about it, if someone told you that your stuff was fake, how would you react? Would you just throw it away or just throw it away?" Yang Ye looked at her. "But what if someone came to you and said they could help you contact an auction house they know, or try to sell your stuff as a work of art or a high-end imitation? Even though the price wouldn't be comparable to the real thing, it's better than letting it rot at home. You'd just have to pay them a so-called intermediary fee or deposit upfront, a few hundred, a thousand or two thousand, but that could bring you a return of 20,000 or 30,000. Wouldn't you be tempted?"

Xiao Xiao figured it out, "I understand. This way, whether it's true or false, they can still make money."

Yang Ye sighed, "This also explains why some uncles, even though they know their things are fake, still act like they've been brainwashed and tell me that these things are worth so much money."

But the more Yang Ye thought about it, the tighter her brows knitted. Her fingers tapped lightly on the edge of the table, her thoughts seemed to be stuck in a dead end, not knowing how to move forward. Just when she was completely confused and in a dilemma, an unexpected thought suddenly hit Yang Ye's mind. The idea that she had discarded on the road before was now taking root in her mind. She swallowed her saliva and lowered her voice, "Grandma Chen's bowl, Grandma Chen's bowl was indeed replaced, and they also made a one-to-one imitation of the real bowl. This shows that if it is valuable to them and something they need, they will have a solution like this."

"Give different methods to different people," Zhou Yiheng responded quickly.

"That's right. They replace the genuine products with imitations, and for those useless fakes, they choose to cheat some appraisal fees and service fees." Yang Ye's eyes became sharp. She took a deep breath. "I even think that they have a deeper intention in thinking up ways and going to so much trouble to produce so many false reports."

"What's your intention?" Xiao Xiao felt as if his brain couldn't keep up.

"In order to muddy the waters and quietly ship some things out," Yang Ye said, "just imagine if, in a short period of time, a large number of people with fake goods suddenly appeared on the market, all wanting to get them authenticated and cash in, and they all had authentication reports from the same institution, with real and fake goods mixed together."

Zhou Yiheng said: "Then the supervisors and the receiving experts will be dazzled and their attention will be distracted."

"Yes," Yang Ye nodded. "Once the market becomes chaotic, it will be easier for them to secretly mix the genuine products among the large amount of fakes and information. They will either find underground buyers to deal with them, or simply find a way to move them out of the country. These fake reports will become their best smokescreen."