Chapter 198 Yaozu in the Mountain Village (Thirteen) Beep! Strive to be a good person...
Qin Chuxia returned home and saw her parents sitting on the sofa watching TV as soon as she entered. He Meifeng greeted her with a smile and asked, "You're back? Did you have fun today?"
"Yes, I'm very, very happy." Qin Chuxia nodded, her face flushed. She had just changed her shoes and was about to go back to her room when Qin Zhenguo asked with a stern face, "Where's Song Ce? Didn't he bring you back?"
"Delivered it, delivered it to the entrance of the residential area."
"See, I told you! Xiao Ce is such a sensible child!" He Meifeng nudged Qin Zhenguo with her elbow, then asked with a smile, "Where did you all go today?"
"We went to the museum and had dinner together," Qin Chuxia said simply, not wanting her parents to know her true feelings.
Seeing her expression, He Meifeng immediately understood a bit, smiled, and didn't ask any more questions. Qin Zhenguo, however, persisted, asking, "What kind of person is he? Is he good to you? He hasn't... hasn't done anything bad to you, has he?"
"Dad!" Qin Chuxia's face flushed red.
"Alright! Our daughter has been working hard all day, why are you asking this!" He Meifeng glared at Qin Zhenguo, then turned to Qin Chuxia and smiled, "Chuxia, go back to your room and rest for a while. Mom will call you when dinner is ready."
"Hmm..." Qin Chuxia responded and turned to go back to her room.
"What do you want to do? Why ask so many questions?" He Meifeng said reproachfully.
"I was just asking!" Qin Zhenguo was completely exasperated. "Chuxia is our precious daughter. She's too young to move on to the next stage..."
Having been with her husband for so many years, He Meifeng could see right through him. He initially thought Chuxia would meet some outstanding men her age, but once she actually did, he regretted it.
Seeing Qin Zhenguo's distressed face, He Meifeng smiled and patted the back of his hand, "Alright, alright. We've met Xiao Ce before, what's bothering you?"
Qin Zhenguo sighed and muttered in defense, "I'm just worried. That kid seems honest, but who knows what he's really thinking?"
"You! You!"
Qin Chuxia returned to her room, raised her hand to touch her burning cheeks, and couldn't help but smile slightly. Just then, her phone beeped in her pocket.
She took out her phone and saw a message from Song Ce pop up on the screen: "Are you home?"
Qin Chuxia bit her lower lip and typed two words: "Arrived."
"That's good, I just got home." Song Ce replied quickly, followed by a smiley face emoji.
Qin Chuxia felt a sweet warmth in her heart. She stared at the smiling face for a long time, subconsciously returned the same emoji, and then turned off her phone and put it back in her pocket.
...
After returning home, Song Ce saw that it was still early, so he went to his "studio".
The location of Runzhuyuan residential complex is inferior to that of Xingcheng residential complex. Currently, the area surrounding the complex is basically wasteland, so the price of Runzhuyuan is lower than that of Xingcheng. When Song Ce bought it, the price per square meter was less than six thousand.
To make collecting and restoring antiques more convenient in the future, Song Ce bought both apartments on the eighth floor. After designing and renovating the studio, he turned it into a private "antique museum".
At this moment, on the antique restoration table in the center of the room, there were fragments of ancient porcelain. Among them, the more conspicuous fragments were as big as a palm, while dozens of porcelain fragments scattered to the side were only the size of a fingernail.
He found these porcelain shards on the Daliu Antique Street. The small, scattered shards were very cheap, and the package price only cost him a little over sixty yuan. The larger pieces, however, were more expensive, averaging over fifty yuan per piece.
The upgrade conditions for the Basic Antique Appraisal function are not difficult. Taking the book "Yi Zhun Jing Lue" that Song Ce restored last time as an example, it added 20 experience points to him in total. Therefore, the skill status of the Antique Appraisal function is: Basic 20/100.
It seems that once the value reaches 100, the antique appraisal function can be upgraded. Therefore, as soon as class ends, Song Ce immerses himself in the studio to restore antiques.
Song Ce carefully placed the ancient porcelain shards aside before taking out a blue cloth bundle and a plastic bag from his schoolbag. Inside each bag were dozens of porcelain shards of varying sizes.
As luck would have it, when he got off the subway, he happened to pass by an antique market street. There weren't many real antiques on that street; it was mostly selling fragments of ancient porcelain. Porcelain shards with different colors or textures were very cheap, usually only three to five yuan a piece. On the other hand, fragments that looked like they came from the same piece of porcelain were naturally more expensive.
He bought these broken porcelain shards from an old man. The old man said that during the Qing Dynasty, one of his ancestors was a high-ranking official, and this vase was passed down from that generation. Unfortunately, a disobedient descendant later accidentally broke the vase, leaving only shards on the ground.
Before his death, the old man's grandfather held his father's hand tightly and instructed him that if he had the chance, he must find a skilled antique porcelain restorer to restore the vase to its original state. Unfortunately, in that turbulent era, the old man's father passed away from illness at a young age.
Decades have passed in the blink of an eye, and this set of broken porcelain shards has been "lying" at the foot of the bed in the old house for almost half a century.
Six months ago, when the old man was preparing to renovate his son's house, he unexpectedly discovered these broken porcelain shards in the old house. He vaguely knew that his ancestors had once been wealthy. He inquired with several middlemen, but no one was willing to take it, since the signature "Songxue Shanren," which he had never heard of, was hardly convincing. In desperation, the old man had no choice but to come to this broken porcelain street and sell the set of porcelain shards separately.
However, the old man's price was too high, and he wouldn't sell them individually. In addition, these porcelain shards looked very new, so for a while, not many people came forward.
Seeing Song Ce casually asking the price, the old man was afraid that this young man, who had finally come to patronize the store, would think it was too expensive and leave. So he immediately smiled sheepishly and carefully explained the origin of the set of broken porcelain shards.
As soon as the old man finished speaking, the middle-aged man next to him saw that Song Ce was young and inexperienced, and quickly waved his hand to call out, "Young man, I have a set of Song Dynasty carved white glaze porcelain here. Would you like to come and take a look?"
Upon hearing this, the old man immediately objected, "What are you doing? This young man is looking at my porcelain shards!"
Seeing this, the middle-aged man curled his lip and said, "Alright, young man, take a look at his first. If you don't like it, come and check out my stall. To be honest, my stall has porcelain shards from every dynasty, from the Tang to the Qing!"
Song Ce smiled and began to examine the old man's porcelain shards.
Ancient porcelain, 332 years old.
It seems that this old man's ancestors did indeed include a high-ranking official.
"Sir, these porcelain shards have nice patterns. How much are they?"
The old man glanced at Song Ce, hesitated for a moment, and then tremblingly gestured three to him.
"Is it three pieces, sir?" Song Ce asked innocently.
"What three yuan! It's thirty! One piece!" The old man glared at Song Ce, his voice rising eight octaves: "This has been passed down from my ancestors! Three yuan a piece, you really have the nerve to ask for that!"
"What? One piece costs thirty!"
Song Ce exclaimed in surprise, then shrugged, making a helpless expression: "Sir, I just wanted to buy some nice porcelain shards to decorate the bottom of my fish tank, but thirty-one shards is really too much..."
It's important to know that the average monthly salary in China is only four or five hundred yuan.
Seeing Song Ce stand up, as if preparing to look at the stall next door, the old man became anxious and quickly reached out to grab him, saying, "Since you like this style, we can discuss it further."
Song Ce picked up a slightly larger porcelain shard and examined it closely. He nodded and asked, "Grandpa, is this a painting of plum blossoms or peach blossoms? It's quite beautiful."
The old man didn't know either. After all, his father hadn't explained the origin of the broken vase to him in detail when he passed away. He glanced at it briefly and casually replied, "It should be a peach blossom, but I don't really know much about it."
Seeing Song Ce's silly expression, the old man rubbed his hands together and chuckled, "Young man, look at me, I'm getting old, and my son isn't ambitious. I was thinking of selling this antique to help him out, you see..."
Upon hearing this, a hint of hesitation flashed across Song Ce's face. He looked at the porcelain shard in his hand, then at the old man, and asked with a conflicted expression, "Then... five yuan a piece?"
The old man shook his head, looking miserable: "These were all passed down from my ancestors!"
Song Ce sighed and said with feigned helplessness, "Then ten yuan, sir, that's the most I can do! Any more and I won't have enough for my living expenses next month."
The old man was overjoyed upon hearing this. He had carefully counted the porcelain shards at home; there were a total of eighty-nine pieces. At ten yuan per piece, this bag of seemingly useless fragments could actually fetch a full eight hundred and ninety yuan! That was almost three months' salary for his son!
"Let me make this clear in advance: these porcelain shards will not be sold individually! If you want to buy them, you'll have to buy the whole package!" the old man said leisurely.
Seeing that Song Ce was still hesitant, the old man gritted his teeth and said, "If you can decide now, I'll give you an auspicious number, eight hundred and eighty, how about that?"
"Well, okay then."
Upon hearing that Song Ce actually wanted to buy more, not only the middle-aged stall owner next to him, but also the stall owners of several nearby stalls all became excited!
"Young man, I have some chrysanthemum fragments from the Tang Dynasty here. Would you like to come and take a look?"
"Mine is from the Song Dynasty, and it's said to be from an official kiln! Although it doesn't have flowers on it, the bamboo symbolizes good things!"
"What's that? I also have fragments of Yuan blue and white porcelain! Young man, come and take a look here first!"
The stall owners were extremely enthusiastic about this rare "fat sheep" and invited Song Ce to come and take a look at their stalls.
Song Ce smiled shyly at the stall owners, then took out a wallet from his bag, carefully counted out nine hundred-yuan bills, and handed it to the old man with a hesitant and pained expression.
The old man didn't give him a chance to back out. He immediately took the money, stuffed it into his inner pocket, and with a squinting smile, handed the bag of fragments along with the twenty yuan change to Song Ce.
"Young man, slow down!"
Seeing Song Ce frown as he put the bag of broken porcelain shards into his schoolbag, the middle-aged man next to him could no longer contain himself and quickly called Song Ce over to take a look.
"Young man, look, this set of mine is genuine Song Dynasty carved white-glazed porcelain. I counted them, there are about thirty-two pieces. I'll give you a fair price, thirty per piece, how about that?"
Song Ce bent down, picked up a piece of porcelain, and glanced at it: porcelain shard, thirty-eight years ago.
"Boss, I like colored ceramic tiles. Do you have any others?" Song Ce asked with little interest.
Yes! Yes!
The middle-aged man rummaged through the wooden box next to him and soon found more than fifty pieces of white porcelain with various colors, some of which were vaguely painted with landscapes, flowers and birds.
"Young man, aren't these porcelain shards brightly colored?"
Song Ce nodded and calmly used the basic antiquities appraisal function, "Ancient porcelain, 554 years old."
"Boss, these porcelain shards of yours are quite brightly colored, how much are they?"
Seeing Song Ce's nonchalant expression, the middle-aged man cautiously spoke up: "Young man, twenty yuan a piece, how about it?"
Song Ce pouted and shook his head decisively, "Boss, this is too expensive! I just bought a pack, and even ten yuan a piece is too expensive!"
Upon hearing this, the middle-aged man quickly said, "Young man, those porcelain shards he claims were passed down from his ancestors, but they might actually have been picked up from somewhere! These are all genuine antique porcelain shards!"
"Then, then ten yuan a piece! I'll pick a few," Song Ce said.
"Young man, how about this? I'll give you a package deal at ten yuan a piece. If you want to buy them individually, it'll be twelve yuan a piece, or fifteen yuan a piece for the larger ones. What do you think?" the middle-aged man chuckled.
"No rush, let me take a look first."
After saying this, Song Ce squatted down in front of the stall and began to pick through the items. As he looked, he muttered to himself, "Yellow? Yellow won't do, it doesn't match the T-shirt. Green looks better. However, green and blue might be a bit monotonous, what about red…"
After picking and choosing for about ten minutes, Song Ce finally picked out twenty-two colorful porcelain shards.
"Boss, that's all."
The middle-aged man looked at the broken porcelain pieces that Song Ce had packed in the small bag, took them, counted them carefully, and said with a smile, "There are indeed twenty-two pieces, five large pieces and seventeen small pieces. The total is two hundred and seventy-nine yuan. I'll add one more piece for you, so it'll be two hundred and eighty yuan. Is that alright?"
"make a deal."
Song Ce paid the money promptly and was about to leave after packing up the porcelain shards when the middle-aged man smiled and leaned closer, whispering, "Young man, if you ever need to buy broken porcelain shards again, just come to me. I'll give you a discount next time."
"no problem."
Song Ce smiled slightly, turned around and quickly left.
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Author's Note: I added eight more characters [starry-eyed emoji]
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