The monkey, who was about to get out of the car to chase after the person, looked surprised after hearing what I said: "You mean, I was tricked and scammed?"

"Yes, you think you're lucky to have bumped into him, but actually he's been leading you by the nose the whole time."

As I watched the middle-aged man ride away on his motorcycle, I said in a deep voice, "That guy is not a gambler at all!"

"You even know this?" The monkey looked at me with a skeptical expression. "Young Master Duan, you can not only appraise eyes, but also read faces?"

"In the antique business, a keen eye is essential for survival! When I was talking to him just now, I specifically looked into his eyes. There were no bloodshot eyes or puffy eyelids, which doesn't look like someone who spends a lot of time gambling! Also, he didn't smell of smoke, and his shoes were very clean, which means he's not from the mountains at all!"

I told the monkey what I had observed, and waved my hand, saying, "Let's drive away and get out of here first."

"Damn it, I thought my luck had finally turned around and I was going to get a great deal, but I almost got slaughtered! What a damn bad luck!"

The monkey grumbled as he turned the car around on the mountain road, looking at me somewhat apologetically: "I'm really sorry to have troubled you with this late at night, but don't worry, I won't let you come all this way for nothing. I won't shortchange you on the appraisal fee!"

"Forget it, you haven't even made any money yourself, why should I take your money?"

I waved my hand generously: "I'm hungry. Let me go to Lao Siji for a bowl of noodles. I can still make it to my part-time job!"

"Okay!"

As the monkey drove along the mountain road, he couldn't help but ask me, "Young Master Duan, I know that antique dealers' knowledge of distinguishing fakes and pricing information is an important means of survival, and they won't easily reveal it. But that stemmed bowl, I looked at it over and over during the day, and I couldn't find anything wrong with it. What's wrong with it?"

"An old body, a new design."

I leaned back in my chair and lazily uttered four words: "That stemmed bowl was originally just a plain porcelain without any pattern. Judging from the porcelain quality, it was a defective product with flaws inside the bowl."

Painting on old porcelain, also known as adding color later, refers to painting patterns on old porcelain. In this way, the value of the object will immediately increase by hundreds or thousands of times, which is also one of the most difficult counterfeiting methods to distinguish in the porcelain industry.

"How could that be? Although my eyesight isn't as sharp as yours, I've been training for so long, I would never make such a basic mistake!"

The monkey's eyes widened: "The patina on that stem bowl is fine, the glaze penetrates deep into the body, and the oxidation and wear are synchronized, which doesn't match the characteristics of later added decoration!"

The monkey is right. Authenticating antiques is indeed a closely guarded secret. However, since he invited me here today to examine them, I should let him know where the problem lies: "The characteristics you mentioned can be used to distinguish between new and fake antiques, but that stemmed bowl you just saw is an old fake, and it's a Wanli period imitation of a Jiajing one, only a few decades apart! Counting from when this fake was made, it's been more than four hundred years. The degree of oxidation is definitely from the Ming Dynasty."

"Ming Ming?"

The monkey turned to look at me: "How could there be such a counterfeit? Did you notice the pattern was wrong?"

I explained, "The double-outline and color-filling technique, which was popular during the Chenghua period, had evolved into the more mature water-shading technique by the Jiajing period. The brush used also changed from a small brush to a chicken-head brush. There is no problem with the painting on the stemmed bowl."

The monkey scratched its head: "The painting technique is fine, so the problem lies with the paint?"

"It's a technical issue. After the 36th year of the Wanli reign, the imperial kilns stopped firing, and the technology and production processes of the official kilns flowed to the people in large quantities, which led to a rapid improvement in the quality of porcelain from folk kilns. The bowl we just saw should have been a replica made during this period."

During the Jiajing era, the official kilns switched to using Huiqing (a type of cobalt material) for their blue and white porcelain. However, the private kilns could not afford this cobalt material, which was a tribute from Turpan, and continued to use Pingdengqing (another type of cobalt material) from the Leping region. Therefore, the mark on the bottom of the stemmed bowl has a noticeable rust spot, which is the original mark.

However, there are no traces of rust spots on the pattern on the bowl. Although it was made of cheap materials, Pingdengqing has disappeared. It should be Zhejiang material, which was more popular and more technically mature during the Wanli period.

In conclusion, that stemmed bowl was likely a practice piece made by a folk kiln craftsman during the Wanli period, using an old clay body, before attempting to create a more sophisticated imitation. This craftsman was a master, not only possessing a superb grasp of the painting techniques of the Jiajing period but also demonstrating exceptional skill in the proportions of cobalt. If it weren't for that rust spot, I probably would have been fooled too.

Before my grandfather passed away, he gave me a notebook that recorded many methods for identifying and counterfeiting antiques, as well as some secret stories from the underworld.

I've seen this kind of counterfeiting method, where the current dynasty imitates the current dynasty, in my notes. The knowledge I teach to monkeys is also recorded there.

My grandfather didn't tell me about the origin of this notebook; he only said it was passed down from his ancestors and that I was strictly forbidden from mentioning its existence to outsiders.

The monkey suddenly realized: "According to you, wasn't that stemmed bowl from the Ming Dynasty also an antique? If we take it down, wouldn't it be just as valuable?"

“My family has an ancestral rule: we do not make or sell fakes! That person just sold us an antique-style porcelain as genuine, which is a deception. Besides, the clay of that stem bowl is from a worthless folk kiln, the painter is not a famous artist, it has an age but no history, so it has little collection value, at most it is only worth seventy or eighty thousand.”

I laughed and said, "Collecting and appreciating antiques is about elegance and taste. In the eyes of collectors, it's a hobby that carries history and seeks out the past. Tang Ying, the famous supervisor of the imperial kilns during the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty, once said that imitations must follow the elegance and not lose the spirit. That stemmed bowl you just saw doesn't have much value, and the seller specializes in selling fakes, aiming to sell it as porcelain from the Jiajing period. Do you think you can get a good deal from them?"

The monkey sighed dejectedly: "Damn it, a fortune teller said a few days ago that I'm going to have bad luck this year, but I didn't take it seriously. It seems I really have to ask him to read my incense again when I get back."

"Those who can make a living from the antique business are all shrewd people who have been immersed in it for many years. Fan Li, the patriarch of this industry, once said that grain and cloth are 100% profitable, Chinese medicine pawnshops are 100% profitable, and antiques and calligraphy and paintings are 1000% profitable. Finding a bargain is a matter of chance, but you must not make it your livelihood, otherwise you will get yourself into trouble sooner or later."

As I was comforting the monkey, a car headlight suddenly appeared on the road ahead.

Before Monkey and I could react, an SUV drove up to our car and blocked our way down the mountain.

Immediately afterwards, two more cars rushed out from the woods by the roadside, completely blocking our car from the side and rear.

On the pitch-black mountain road, Monkey looked at the several cars that had surrounded us, sweat beading on his forehead: "What's going on? In this day and age, are there still highway robbers?"

"It's probably that porcelain seller from earlier; he realized that gentle persuasion wasn't working, so he resorted to force!"

I saw figures moving outside and picked up my phone to report the incident.

These counterfeit sellers usually operate on a mobile basis, commonly known as guerrilla groups.

Guerrilla groups have a terrible reputation in the industry; they're capable of everything from digging up graves and tombs to producing and selling counterfeit goods and setting traps to swindle people.

When I picked up my phone, I discovered that we had parked in a valley with no signal. The other party probably chose to ambush us here because of this.

Before Monkey and I could come up with a solution, the middle-aged man who sold porcelain was already standing outside the car and knocking on the passenger window: "Duan Shenxing, open the door and come with me."

In the desolate wilderness, I heard the middle-aged man call out my name accurately, and I was immediately stunned.