Chapter 116 Ancient Painting

Du Ruo was very happy after she had tricked that old guy Sato, but she felt a little worried afterwards. Given Sato's behavior, it would not be easy for her to get the Yohen Tenmoku Bowl back.

Just like Yuan Tingchuan said, without enough chips, old man Sato would never do business with her, which was a bit difficult.

Li Anze looked at Du Ruo's embarrassed face and asked her with a smile: "You cheated someone, why are you so depressed? How did this person offend you?"

It was hard to say. She couldn't tell Li Anze that it was all a grudge from a previous life, right? But now it seemed that she and the old man Sato were born with different auras and didn't like each other.

What made her feel awkward was that she was still thinking about the things in the other person's hand. What should she do?

Du Ruo walked listlessly on the street. She asked Li Anze casually, "When we came out of Wutong Road just now, the car passing by looked familiar to me. It seemed to be someone I know. Did you notice it?"

Li Anze looked at the scroll held in the hand of a man beside him and said nonchalantly, "He is from the Qu Group in Gangcheng. He has business dealings with the uncle of Brother Guochang. Sometimes he visits the Chen family. I have met him several times. I just don't know who is coming today."

That means they have been in contact for more than a day or two? Can it be considered a frequent relationship?

Now we can conclude that the pottery-making village is related to the Qu family, and the Chen family...

She found it very strange at the time. The villagers were making pottery on a large scale, and the Qu family did not stop them. There was not much profit in it, so how could they be connected?

Now Du Ruo still couldn't figure it out. Was it really like what Yuan Tingchuan said, that this was a whole industrial chain, and pottery was just a small part of it, and these people were careless for a moment and let the villagers get out of control? This matter was really getting more and more confusing.

Li Anze was holding a piece of porcelain and looking at it. From the outside, it looked like a small multicolored covered bowl from the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty. The shape was standard and the glaze color was fairly even, but the painting was a little rough, so it should be a replica from the Republic of China period.

He casually picked up another scroll, opened it and his pupils shrank when he saw the painting. What a good artist.

The young owner of the stall was sitting with his legs crossed, picking his teeth with a toothpick. "I'm not going to hide it from you. This painting is an imitation of the Song Dynasty's A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains. Even though it's a replica, it's really well painted. If you want it, take it for 2,000 yuan. It's a fixed price. I won't bargain."

A replica? Li Anze frowned and hesitated. He didn't know much about these things, only a superficial understanding. However, this painting didn't look like a replica at all.

Li Anze couldn't make up his mind and looked up at Du Ruo. Du Ruo's expression was quite confusing. She whispered two words "Xu Yang" in Li Anze's ear. Li Anze only felt a faint fragrance caressing his face, which made his heart skip a beat and his ears turned red unconsciously.

He collected his thoughts and thought about Xu Yang's name. He was moved. Was it the person he was thinking of? Li Anze looked up at Du Ruo, who nodded gently at him.

"Xu Yang" was the court painter of Emperor Qianlong. He was not the most talented among all the court painters during the Qianlong period, but his works were very meticulous and rigorous, and his ability to depict realism was particularly strong.

Xu Yang has a very famous painting called "The Southern Tour", which is a very important treasure of the Qing Dynasty imperial palace and was very much loved by Emperor Qianlong. Some people have compared this painting with the Song Dynasty's "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" and believe that they are equally good.

However, this painting is not "A Record of the Southern Tour", but judging from the brushwork, it is indeed the work of Xu Yang.

Du Ruo said to the young boss, "Since you know it's a knockoff, why do you want it to be so expensive?"

The young boss picked her teeth and shook her legs as she said, "My dear lady, even if this painting of mine is a replica, it was definitely made before the Republic of China. Although this Xu is not very famous, I have to be honest. I don't know what he does, but this painting is good. I won't sell it for less than 2,000 yuan."

This is normal. It is not like in later times, where you can just search online and know what this person does. Information is not so explosive nowadays, unless it is people like Zheng Banqiao and Zhang Daqian. We still don't know much about some people, such as Xu Yang.

The fact that the young boss didn't know didn't mean that Li Anze didn't know. He didn't bargain, but stood up, took out his wallet from his pocket, counted out two thousand yuan and handed it to the young boss: "Please pack it for me, I'll take it back and give it to someone else."

The young boss counted the money one by one, checked it again under the sunlight, and said with joy: "Okay, don't worry, I will pack it well for you."

The two men took the painting and walked forward. Du Ruo said with a smile, "Xu Yang's painting? In less than three years, let alone 2,000 yuan, you can't get 200,000 yuan. You picked up such a big bargain, and it's all my credit. Please treat me to dinner."

Not to mention 200,000, even after another ten or eight years, you won’t be able to get 2 million.

Li Anze was also very happy. Although he was not very good at identifying antiques and his interest was not very strong, he liked calligraphy and painting and had a natural love for the scent of literati's ink.

The birthday gift for the old man was settled, Li Anze was very happy, and Du Ruo wanted to go out for a walk. Since she knew that Mr. Li's birthday was in a few days, it would be wrong not to send something. If the gift was too light, it would not work, and if it was too heavy, people would not accept it. Du Ruo could only think about it again.

Maybe Du Ruo's luck was not good today. After walking around for a long time, he didn't find anything that suited his taste. So the two of them drove to the state-owned hotel.

The private rooms in the state-owned hotel were separated by screens. Li Anze asked for a private room and the two of them sat down. A waiter in white clothes came over with a menu. After the two of them ordered the dishes, the waiter wrote the names of the dishes on the ticket with a pen in his hand. The ticket was on carbon paper and came in two copies. One copy was kept for checkout and the other was taken away by the waiter and delivered to the kitchen to the chef.

Next to the chef is something like a nail with tickets strung on it. When a dish is served, a ticket is thrown in. This way, there is no chance of making mistakes and the waiter doesn't need to announce the names of the dishes.

There were some tea stains in the teacup on the table. Li Anze poured some tea into it, rinsed it, opened the window, splashed the tea outside, poured another cup of tea and handed it to Du Ruo, saying, "The best dish of the chef of this hotel is roasted deer tendons. This is a famous dish from the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty, which comes from the Yongwang Mansion. I have never liked pickled vegetables, but this dish tastes good."

Du Ruo was staring at the people outside the window in a daze. She knew these people. Weren't they the ones she met at the station who were interested in the little girl's hairpin? She remembered that they followed the family of three afterwards.