In the blink of an eye, three days have passed.

These three days are the time I've given Chuanshitang, enough for them to appraise and examine the three-legged li (a type of ancient Chinese cooking vessel) I sent them.

When the time came, I called Xu Bo from Chuanshitang to arrange a time to inspect the goods, and then rushed to the warehouse to prepare.

Looking at the Haier Brothers I had recruited, and the people they brought, Song Laosan looked at me with some unease: "Xiao Duan, can these people you found be reliable?"

"The two leading men, the skinny one is called Lin Que, and the fat one is called Man Jing. These two are idle hooligans. The others are their former coworkers, all of them are outsiders with no social connections in the area. This is a one-time collaboration between us, so there won't be any problems."

I looked at the busy Monkey and the others, took a deep breath, and said, "Today's show mainly focuses on you and Monkey. Whether it works or not depends entirely on the two of you."

Song Laosan instantly got into character, speaking in a convincingly authentic Cantonese-accented Mandarin: "Don't worry, handsome, with me here, there won't be any problems!"

I glanced at my watch: "The appointed time is almost here. I'll go wait for Xu Bo. See you later."

After I left the warehouse, I wandered around outside for about half an hour before receiving a call from Xu Bo. I then picked him up at a nearby street corner.

The person Xu Bo brought that day was still the same young shop assistant I had met at Chuanshitang before.

When Xu Bo saw me, he was very enthusiastic. He came up and patted my arm, saying, "Young man, you're amazing! I didn't expect you to actually close this deal for me."

"Absolutely! I dug that jar out of the construction site. The project is almost finished, and my coworkers are all going back to their hometowns soon. To get them to sell it to you, I coaxed and threatened them, saying that the jar we dug out was an antique, and if we didn't sell it locally, we would go to jail if we were caught at the train station."

I followed Xu Bo with a smug look on my face: "Boss Xu, we have a deal. For every item you take in, you have to give me a commission of one thousand yuan. My coworkers have sixteen or seventeen items in their hands!"

"Of course! Of course!"

When Xu Bo heard that there were so many items, his eyes lit up: "Here's what we'll do: if today's transaction goes smoothly, I'll round it up and give you 20,000 directly. Isn't that generous enough?"

Seeing Xu Bo's state, I knew he must have brought my three-legged li (a type of ancient Chinese cooking vessel) for testing. I chuckled and said, "That's great! After you receive the goods, I'll treat you both to dinner!"

The three of us chatted along the way and soon arrived at the warehouse.

When I entered, Monkey, Lin Que, Man Jing, and four or five other young men were arguing with Song Laosan about something around the bottles and jars on the ground.

"Quiet down! Shut up! What's all the noise about?!"

Song Laosan waved to the crowd: "Everyone, don't get agitated, let's discuss this slowly!"

"Little Ma, I've brought the boss!" I shouted to the monkey, then pointed to the pottery on the ground and said to Xu Bo, "Boss Xu, look, this is our batch of stuff!"

"Good! Good, good, good!"

Even a seasoned veteran like Xu Bo couldn't contain his excitement upon seeing the well-preserved pottery on the ground. He instructed the young man beside him, "Bring me my bag, give everyone some money, and take everything with one shot!"

What should we pay for?

Suddenly, the monkey stood up, pointed at me, and cursed, "You bastard! We treated you like a friend, but you actually conspired with outsiders to cheat us! Are you even human?"

I stood there stunned for a moment, then immediately retorted, "Xiao Ma, what are you talking about? Didn't I tell you? All these things we dug up are cultural relics. If we don't deal with them quickly, they'll be confiscated, and we'll really lose everything. You might even end up in jail! I contacted Boss Xu to come and buy these bottles and jars. I was helping you out. I didn't make a single penny myself. How can you not appreciate my kindness?"

The monkey spat at me, pointed at Song Laosan and shouted, "Pah! You told us these things could only sell for three or four thousand each, but the boss Lao Liu found gave us ten thousand right off the bat!"

"That's right! Ten thousand dollars per item, you can count the money now!"

Song Laosan glanced at Xu Bo and the other two, his eyes darting around, and said, "How about this? I'll raise the price a bit more, 15,000 each, let's finish this quickly?"

Lin Que stepped forward and said, "Eighteen thousand! If you agree, you can take everything with you!"

"make a deal!"

Song Laosan looked at me and Xu Bo beside him warily: "But you have to help me pack the goods and move them to the truck. We can't let anyone else take them away."

Lin Que blinked and asked the monkey, "Little Horse? What do you think?"

The monkey nodded without hesitation: "A fool wouldn't pass up money! Who would turn down money? I'll sell it to you!"

Hearing this, I glared angrily at Xu Bo: "Boss Xu, you only gave me five thousand for the things you took from me before, and you even said that was a high price. But why are their things worth so much?"

Xu Bo looked at the pottery scattered on the ground, his face turning green. Suddenly, he shouted, "Give me the stuff, I'll pay 20,000!"

"Hey! Don't you guys follow the rules when you're in this business?"

Seeing Xu Bo interrupt, Song Laosan stepped forward with great theatrics: "We're all in the antique business. Don't you know the rule of 'first come, first served'? We're making a transaction right now, and outsiders are not allowed to interrupt. What does this have to do with you?"

"You're talking to me about rules? Well then, watch out, I have someone pulling the boat!"

Xu Bo pointed at me and retorted sharply to Song Laosan, "I was brought here by the middleman. The business hasn't even been finalized yet, and you're already trying to steal it. Who's breaking the rules? Knowing there's a buyer for this batch of goods, you still want to rip off the pig and get a bargain. You're the immoral one!"

"Fine, you're trying to play dirty with me, aren't you! Since you want this batch of hot stuff too, then let's see who has the best deal!"

Old Song's eyes widened, and he held up three fingers: "I'll pay 30,000 for loading the goods onto the truck!"

Xu Bo glanced at the goods on the ground: "Fifty thousand!"

"Young man, does it have to be a lose-lose situation?"

Song Laosan's face turned ashen: "How about this, you step out, and I'll give you some pointers."

When Xu Bo heard that Song Laosan was offering him 10% of the payment to withdraw from the competition, he immediately sneered: "Why don't you withdraw, and I'll give you two tips!"

"Then there's no room for negotiation! You're not worthy to compete with me in terms of wealth!"

Enraged, Song Laosan threw down a sentence and shouted to the crowd, "I want everything here, 100,000 yuan for each item!"

Lin Que swallowed hard: "You're serious, you can't go back on your word!"

Seeing this, I grabbed Xu Bo's wrist and glared at him furiously: "Xu Bo! Are you even human? I trusted you so much before, and you only gave me five thousand out of something worth ten thousand?"

"Get out of my way!"

Xu Bo had also gotten carried away and shoved me aside, saying, "I'll offer 180,000!"

I slipped and fell to the ground. Although my bottom hurt, I was overjoyed.

I was worried that Xu Bo, that old fox, wouldn't fall for it, but I didn't expect him to have such a bad temper.

By this time, he was already certain that the goods were genuine and was determined to acquire them.

It seems that the honey trap in the warehouse today is going to go much higher than I imagined.