As soon as Old Tang spoke, a collective gasp of astonishment rippled through the crowd.

Xia Gui, courtesy name Yuyu, was known as one of the "Four Masters of the Southern Song Dynasty" in painting. His landscape paintings followed the style of Li Tang and absorbed the strengths of Fan Kuan, Mi Fu and Mi Youren to form his own personal style. Although he belonged to the vigorous ink painting school with Ma Yuan, he preferred to use a worn-out brush and apply heavier strokes, which made his paintings more mature, vigorous and unrestrained. He was known as "Ma Xia".

The bald man next to him swallowed hard when he heard the conditions offered by Old Tang: "Old Tang, as far as I know, all of Xia Gui's surviving works have been included in 'Three Hundred Famous Paintings of the Forbidden City,' one of which, 'Distant Peaks and Misty Clouds,' is now in the collection of the Palace Museum. I never expected that his paintings could still be found in private hands!"

"Yes, I went to great lengths to acquire that painting, and I've always treasured it. It's the most precious item I have at this tea party today."

Old Tang looked at me with great interest: "Young friend, are you satisfied with this item I'm pawning?"

I chuckled and replied tactfully, "Sir, I'm really sorry. I'm not very knowledgeable about calligraphy and painting. This painting of children at play was passed down from the older generation in my family. As you know, taking care of ancient paintings is a very demanding and time-consuming task, so I don't want to take any more similar items."

"Young man, have you lost your mind? Old Tang offered to trade with you, and you actually refused?"

The bald man looked at me incredulously: "You don't know who Xia Gui is? He's one of the Four Masters of the Southern Song Dynasty, a painting master who is on par with Li Tang, Liu Songnian, and Ma Yuan."

“My painting is not worth much money. Old Master Tang’s works are too valuable. I dare not accept them.”

I scratched my head and gave a fake answer, but I didn't care at all.

It's said that the antique trade is treacherous and there are hardly any good people in it. I never expected that even a respected master like Mr. Tang would have the idea of ​​swindling treasures.

This cunning old fox clearly took advantage of my young age and treated me like a clueless newbie.

Xia Gui was indeed one of the Four Masters of the Southern Song Dynasty. He painted figures in his early years and only started painting landscapes later. He became famous for his landscape paintings, which is why he was included among the Four Masters.

This person's brushstrokes are heavy, and his painting style is old, vigorous and unrestrained. In terms of ink use, he is particularly good at adjusting the water to achieve a more vivid and moist effect. In the texturing of mountains and rocks, he often first sweeps with light ink with a water brush, and then uses dark ink to texturing while it is still wet, creating a special effect of ink and water blending together, which is called the "pulling nails out of mud" texturing technique.

As for Xia Gui's figures, while I wouldn't say they're bad, they're definitely not as outstanding as his landscapes.

Any figure paintings by Xia Gui must be his early works. I don't even need to look at them to know that there's nothing about them that appeals to me.

If it were up to me to acquire this painting, I would be willing to spend any amount of money to acquire an ancient painting from one of the Four Masters of the Southern Song Dynasty. But if you asked me to exchange this painting of children at play for it, I would absolutely not agree.

The reason is simple: firstly, Xia Gui's figure paintings are not famous, and the most outstanding aspect of Tang Lao's paintings lies only in Xia Gui's fame.

Secondly, because Xia Gui has paintings that have been passed down through generations, but my unsigned painting, although its owner cannot be found, is known to anyone with a little knowledge to be 90% unique in existence.

If it were to be auctioned, my painting, which has no inscription or signature, would certainly not be as valuable as Mr. Tang's figure painting. However, in the eyes of great collectors like Mr. Tang and Mr. Leng, this kind of thing is absolutely invaluable. They are not short of money and may not appreciate Xia Gui's figure painting, but they would definitely like my painting of children at play.

This is like a glass of water; it may not seem important to an ordinary person, but it is of great significance to someone who is dying of thirst in the desert.

This analogy may not be perfect, but the general meaning is similar.

Seeing that I had refused twice, Old Tang already knew my feelings and sighed reluctantly, "It's a pity that I am destined to be separated from this painting today!"

Upon hearing this, the others muttered that I was an idiot for not picking up the bargain right in front of me.

The bald guy at the booth next to mine was clearly a cheapskate. Seeing that I had refused Old Tang's offer to pawn my things, he quickly came over and picked up a Xuande incense burner from his own stall, handing it to me: "Young man, you just said you don't like calligraphy and paintings, so take a look at these things on my stall. Do you like them? If you're willing to trade, you can pick whatever you want from here."

I took the incense burner from the bald man, and without even looking at it, I placed it upside down on his table.

It wasn't that the incense burner was too fake, but rather that it was too realistic. This kind of double-fish-ear incense burner is rare on the market, and its value is higher than everything else on his table combined. If it were genuine, it would never be displayed on his table.

The bald man saw me turn the double-fish-eared incense burner upside down and use my body to block it, and whispered, "Young man, you returned my things, shouldn't you give me a lesson?"

"We have no trade relations, so I can't and don't want to control how you use this stuff."

I looked at the bald man with a mocking expression: "I'm here to make friends. I really want to tell you something, but do you dare to listen?"

Seeing that I was young, the bald man was about to say something more when the crowd behind him suddenly stirred. Even Old Tang greeted Lin Jianghao politely when he saw him arrive: "Mr. Lin, what brings you to such a small booth?"

"I heard from my men that you came to the tea party, and I was thinking of saying hello, but I saw that there were many people gathered here, so I came to join in the fun."

As Lin Jianghao chatted and laughed, he suddenly noticed the painting behind me. He stared at it for about ten seconds and nodded slightly: "This painting is quite interesting. It has no title or signature... Ah Sheng, can you tell who painted this?"

Beside Lin Jianghao, a young man in a suit, around twenty-five years old, stepped forward and nodded slightly to me: "Young man, may I come forward to observe?"

"Of course, please!"

I know Lin Jianghao is not someone to be trifled with, and I also want to see what kind of people are around him.

Ah Sheng nodded to me, then walked to the back of the booth and lifted the cover of his watch. Only then did I realize that his watch cover was actually a magnifying glass.

He examined the painting for about three minutes, then turned around and said, "Mr. Lin, this painting is undoubtedly genuine. I believe it was painted by Du Hai'er, a painter from the Southern Song Dynasty!"

Even my grandfather and Professor Li couldn't agree on the merits of this painting, and Old Tang hadn't dared to confirm it either. But this young man named Asheng directly pointed out the artist of the painting.

Even I couldn't help but ask, "Sir, you said this painting was done by Du Hai'er, could you tell me the reason?"

Old Tang nodded in agreement: "Not only is this young friend curious, but I am also quite puzzled. Since Du Hai'er has no works that have been passed down to posterity, how can you be so sure that this painting is by him?"