“I guess you probably don’t want to know how much I spent to buy this pile of stuff back.”
Seeing Zhang Long's smug expression, Old Man Ma didn't want to hear what he was going to say next.
Then, he suddenly remembered the sensational return of the bronze animal heads from the Shanghai Museum a few months ago, which had also been to the museum.
The donor I saw at the time was Mr. Zhang.
This brat in front of me is surnamed Zhang!
Everything makes sense now. If it weren't for the donation from Shanghai, such an important bronze animal head would never have been awarded to the Shanghai Museum.
Old Ma asked tremblingly, "Those animal heads from the Shanghai Museum before?"
Zhang Long smiled and pointed to the three golden beast heads on the left side of the hall.
It seems like nothing was said, but it also seems like everything was said.
Well, now Old Man Ma was completely speechless. These three beast heads alone were worth half a lifetime's worth of his achievements.
(This refers to symbolic meaning, not value.)
Even if Zhang Long's vault is full of junk now, he's no longer in the mood to compare.
The few animal heads they brought back from abroad alone are enough to surpass the collections of over 95% of collectors in China.
With his competitive spirit gone, Old Man Ma was finally able to calm down and appreciate these treasures.
Sure enough, anything that caught the eye of that old witch Cixi must be a good thing.
You can doubt that old hag's character, but you can't doubt her eye for beauty.
Old Man Ma also used all his skills and actually found many things that were wrong. Of course, this does not mean that it is a fake, but rather that it does not match the note on Hu Xinxin's note.
Time flew by, and it was lunchtime in the blink of an eye. The old man remained unmoved by Zhang Long's calls.
Zhang Long was speechless. Couldn't he have eaten first and then watched it?
This thing isn't going to grow legs and run away, I really don't understand these old men.
Left with no other choice, they had to ask Yang Mei to bring up two work meals for the two of them.
While Yang Mei went to get her lunch, Zhang Long instructed his secretaries to set up a table and place it near the entrance to the vault.
After they finished, the secretaries lowered their heads and ran away, not daring to look at the vault at all, as if there were man-eating monsters inside.
Old Ma's meal was also tasteless. Why do I say it was tasteless?
The reason is that this guy would glance into the vault after every bite of his meal.
This scene reminded him of a story from his childhood Chinese textbook: "When Mr. Chen Yi was a child, he was so engrossed in reading that he dipped glutinous rice cakes in ink and ate them."
It seems that this is indeed the case; Old Ma ate only rice for this meal and didn't touch a single vegetable.
After finishing his meal, he immediately put down his chopsticks and went back into the vault. Zhang Long looked at him and shook his head helplessly.
I really don't know if calling this old man over today was the right or wrong thing to do.
The treasure appraisal event lasted until after 9 p.m. When Hu Xinxin returned home, she found no one there and wondered what her husband had been up to that day.
I found out that he had been staying in the company vault since the morning.
So Hu Xinxin rushed over in a flurry, eager to meet this close friend of her husband, despite their age difference.
I also brought some snacks to go with the drinks, a bottle of Maotai liquor, and a bottle of Shaoxing wine.
"Old Ma, stop looking now, it's already past nine o'clock at night."
"My girlfriend is here, and she brought some snacks to go with her drinks."
"Let's have a drink together today. Those things aren't going anywhere, and we'll have plenty of time to look at them later."
Hearing Zhang Long's words, the old man was also very surprised. Was it already past nine o'clock?
He felt like only a short while had passed.
Now that I've come to my senses, my stomach has started rumbling uncontrollably.
Old Ma spent a whole day looking at less than a quarter of the collection, and still felt somewhat unsatisfied.
As soon as Old Man Ma came out, Yang Mei had already quickly laid out all sorts of snacks to go with the drinks.
Staple foods include fried noodles and fried rice.
Most of the snacks were for drinking, such as peanuts, edamame, and duck parts, which Zhang Long loved to eat.
In addition, mud snails, drunken crabs, broad beans, spiced beef, and roasted gluten are popular snacks in Shanghai, and Hu Xinxin prepared them very thoughtfully.
Old Ma was very satisfied with the snacks and rice wine.
"Old man Ma, this is my girlfriend Hu Xinxin. She came here today to see what you look like."
"For the sake of these snacks, you'll have to give us a generous gift when we get married."
"You don't need too many. Just bring ten or eight items from your collection room."
Zhang Long's boastful words infuriated Old Man Ma, who was so angry he glared and puffed out his beard.
"You've got quite the nerve, kid, talking about ten or eight different things right off the bat."
"I got all those things for free!"
"Don't even think about it. Even if I were to give it to you, it wouldn't be for you."
"Stop dreaming like that, it's impossible!"
Then Old Man Ma turned to Hu Xinxin with a smile and said, "I'm older, so I'll call you Little Hu."
"This brat said you helped take care of a lot of things inside?"
"I can see you've put a lot of effort into it, but you've still gotten some things wrong."
"Would you like to learn from me how to distinguish these antiques?"
Upon hearing this, Zhang Long quickly interrupted Old Man Ma: "Stop, stop, Old Man Ma, how come you're already drunk before you've even started drinking?"
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