Du Ruo was very happy after she had tricked that old guy Sato, but she felt a little worried afterwards. Given Sato's character, it would not be easy for her to get the Yohen Tenmoku lamp back.
Just like Yuan Tingchuan said, without enough chips, old man Sato would never make a deal with her, which made things a bit difficult.
Li Anze looked at Du Ruo's embarrassed expression and asked her with a bit of amusement, "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 that old man Sato were born with conflicting temperaments and disliked 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 casually asked Li Anze, "When we came out of Wutong Road just now, the car that passed by looked familiar to me. It seemed like it was someone I know. Did you notice it?"
Li Anze looked at the scroll held by a person next to him and said nonchalantly, "That's someone from the Qu Group in Gangcheng. They have business dealings with Brother Guochang's uncle and sometimes visit the Chen family. I've met them several times, but I don't know who they are today."
Does that mean they've been interacting with each other for more than a day or two? Could it be considered a regular relationship?
Now we can conclude that the pottery-making village is related to the Qu family, and the Chen family...
She felt 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 that much profit in it, so how could they be involved?
Du Ruo still couldn't figure it out. Could it be that, as Yuan Tingchuan said, this was an entire industry chain, with pottery being just a tiny part of it, and that these people had let the villagers slip out of control due to a moment of carelessness? This matter was truly becoming increasingly 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 bit rough. It should be an imitation from the Republic of China.
He casually picked up another scroll, opened it, and his pupils shrank when he saw the painting. What a great artist.
The stall owner was sitting with his legs crossed, picking his teeth with a toothpick. "I won't hide it from you. This painting is an imitation of 'A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains' from the Song Dynasty. It's a replica, but it's really well done. If you want it, take it for two thousand yuan. It's a fixed price, and no bargaining."
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 hard to describe. She whispered two words "Xu Yang" in Li Anze's ear. Li Anze 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. A thought struck him. Was this the person he was thinking of? Li Anze looked up at Du Ruo, who nodded gently at him.
"Xu Yang", the court painter of Emperor Qianlong, was not the strongest among all the court painters during the Qianlong period, but his works were very detailed and rigorous, and his ability to depict realism was particularly strong.
Xu Yang has a very famous painting, "A Record of 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 "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" from the Song Dynasty and believe that it is not inferior.
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 are you charging so much?"
The young shopkeeper, picking her teeth and shaking her legs, said, "Sister, even if this painting of mine is a replica, it's definitely from before the Republic of China. Although this Xu artist isn't very famous, I'll be honest and say I don't know what he does, but he paints well. I won't sell it for less than 2,000 yuan."
This is normal. It is not like the future, where you can just search on the Internet and find out what this person does. Information is not so explosive now. Unless it is people like Zheng Banqiao and Zhang Daqian, people still don’t know much about some people, such as Xu Yang.
Just because the young boss didn't know didn't mean 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 wrap it for me, I'll take it back and give it to someone."
The young boss counted the money one by one, checked it again against the sunlight, and said with joy in his voice: "Okay, don't worry, I will definitely 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, you can't get it for 200,000 yuan, let alone 200,000 yuan. You picked up such a big bargain, and it's all thanks to me. 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 fragrance of literati's ink.
The old man's birthday gift was settled, and Li Anze was very happy. Du Ruo wanted to go out for a walk. Since she knew that it was Mr. Li's birthday in a few days, it would be wrong not to send something. The gift could not be too light, and people would not accept it if it was too heavy. Du Ruo could only think about it again.
Maybe Du Ruo was unlucky today. After walking around for a long time, he didn't find anything that caught his eye. So the two of them drove to a state-owned restaurant.
The private rooms in the state-owned restaurant 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 was in two copies. One copy was kept for payment and the other copy was taken away by the waiter and sent to the kitchen to be handed to the chef.
There is a nail-like thing next to the chef, with tickets strung on it. Every time a dish is served, a ticket is thrown on it. This way, there will be no mistakes and the waiter does not need to announce the name of the dish.
There were some tea stains in the teacup on the table. Li Anze poured some tea into it, rinsed it, opened the window, and poured the tea outside. He poured another cup of tea and handed it to Du Ruo, saying, "The chef in this restaurant is best known for his braised deer tendons. It's a famous dish from the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty, originating from Prince Yong's mansion. I've never liked meat, but this dish tastes great."
Du Ruo was staring at the people outside the window in a daze. She knew these people. Weren't these 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.
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