Chapter 418 Antiques
"Thank you, auntie." Fang Hou walked out carrying a wooden basin full of water.
Seeing Miao Erdan crouching at the gate and peeking out, Fang Hou's eyes suddenly turned and he said with a grin, "You want to see the horses?"
"I want to..." Miao Erdan nodded embarrassedly, but very hesitant.
It was obvious that he wanted to look, but he didn't dare to, for fear of disturbing the horses.
"It's okay, don't be afraid, I'll take you to see it." Fang Houchong said to Miao Erdan, walked out of the yard and put the basin of water in front of the horse.
The horse sniffed, dived into the wooden basin and began to drink the water.
Fang Hou patted the horse's broad head with his hand, stroked the sleek mane on its neck, and waved at Miao Erdan, "Really, it's not scary, this horse is very well behaved."
When Miao Erdan saw the horse drinking water obediently and looking very docile, his worries were suddenly reduced. He bravely walked up to Fang Hou, squatted beside him, and stared at the horse drinking water with wide eyes.
After the horse finished drinking the water, Fang Hou carried the wooden basin to the yard and said, "Thank you, auntie."
"It's not a big deal. You're too polite." Zhang said with a smile, "We haven't thanked Manager Cheng for the food he sent us yet..."
Zhang said, taking out a coarse porcelain bowl and saying, "Are you thirsty? Do you want to drink something..."
"Aunt Zhang, can you bring this bowl over so I can take a look?"
Before Zhang could finish her words, she was interrupted by Fang Hou. She was frightened and hurriedly handed the coarse porcelain bowl in her hand to Fang Hou.
Fang Hou took the coarse porcelain bowl, looked it over and over again carefully, up and down, left and right, inside and out, and even reached out and knocked on the coarse porcelain bowl to listen to the sound, and then clicked his tongue for a long time.
Seeing Fang Hou frowning and looking serious, Zhang's heart was in her throat. "Is this bowl wrong?"
"It's not just wrong, it's so wrong."
Fang Hou frowned and pointed the rough porcelain bowl in his hand to Zhang. "Look at the porcelain. Although it is rough porcelain, the texture doesn't look like a new item. It looks like a very old item."
"Look at the bottom of the bowl. The marks on it don't seem to be made casually. It doesn't seem to be something from this dynasty."
"After looking at it for a while, I think it looks like an antique coarse porcelain bowl left over from the previous dynasty. It's worth a lot of money!"
"Is this true..." Zhang looked at Fang Hou in disbelief. After a while, she said, "That can't be true. I remember buying this bowl in town before. It had a hole in it and it was sold very cheaply, so I bought it back. Look, the hole is here."
"Oh..." Fang Hou's eyes drifted for a moment, "It's just that the seller doesn't know the value of the goods. He just thinks it's a bad thing and sells it casually."
"Aunt Zhang, I'm not kidding you. With my eye for things, I can be sure that this bowl is definitely not an ordinary bowl! It's an antique!"
"I don't mind telling Aunt Zhang the truth. I don't have any hobbies on weekdays. I just like collecting bottles, jars, and bowls. I like your porcelain bowl very much. Can you sell it to me at a lower price?"
"Ah?" Zhang was caught off guard by Fang Hou's words. She looked at the bowl in her hand, then at Fang Hou, "Can this thing really be sold for money?"
"Not only can it be sold for money, but it can also be sold for a lot!" Fang Hou frowned and weighed the bowl again, "In my opinion, this can be worth at least one or two taels of silver."
One tael of silver? Zhang gasped.
If she had grown sweet potatoes at home before she went to work in the workshop, she would not have earned one or two taels of silver a year from the sweet potatoes all over the ground. How could this inconspicuous bowl be sold for one or two taels of silver?
So when she ate and drank water every day, she didn't use the bowl, but used one or two taels of silver to eat?
When Zhang thought of this, her hand holding the bowl began to tremble and she quickly put the bowl down.
"Aunt Zhang, since I helped you find this bowl, can you sell it to me at a lower price?" Fang Hou said with a grin.
"It's okay, but..." Zhang hesitated, "You really won't lose money if you buy it back?"
"What if you buy it and find out that this bowl is just a broken one that costs only one penny? Wouldn't you be at a huge loss?"
"Absolutely not!" Fang Hou was very confident, patting his chest loudly, "I don't have any other skills, but I will never make a mistake when I look at the bowl, don't worry!"
"Okay then." Seeing Fang Hou's confidence, he nodded and said, "Then you can give it to me as you see fit."
"Is nine hundred dollars okay?" Fang Hou asked tentatively.
"Okay, just take it." Zhang was very generous.
"But I didn't bring that much money with me today. I only brought two hundred dollars in total. How about this? I'll give you the two hundred dollars first. The rest... I brought half a pork leg and a lot of salted duck eggs in the car. How about I give them to you as payment? I see that the amount of pork is almost enough."
Fang Hou inquired, looking at Zhang anxiously.
"Okay." Zhang seemed to have no time to think and nodded.
"Okay, then I'll move things for you, and get the bowls after I'm done." Fang Hou was overjoyed to see Zhang agreed so readily. He hurriedly moved everything out of the bamboo basket on the carriage and placed it in Zhang's courtyard.
"Aunt Zhang, please take a look at the amount of pork and the number of salted duck eggs to see if they are enough."
"That's enough." Zhang nodded hurriedly, but she didn't look at the pork and salted duck eggs in the bamboo basket. Instead, she looked at Fang Hou with some concern, "If you feel you've been cheated, you can return the bowl..."
"Oh, don't worry, I won't lose anything. I've been in the Cheng family for so many years, so I still have a good eye for things." Fang Hou said with a smile, "Aunt Zhang, good things always tend to be gathered together. You can also take a look at your house to see if there are any similar coarse porcelain bowls like this. When I come back, I will take a good look and see if I can find any more treasures."
As Fang Hou spoke, he pulled a piece of cloth down from the carriage and put away the bowl that Zhang had just given him as if it were a treasure.
"Okay, Aunt Zhang, I'm leaving now. Remember to look around again to see if there are any more like this. But don't tell anyone else about this. If others know about it, they will probably all look for it in this area. Then the highest bidder will win, and I'm afraid I won't be able to buy it. Aunt Zhang, for Mr. Cheng's sake, please keep this secret for me."
Before leaving, Fang Hou gave him many instructions.
"Okay, don't worry, I won't tell anyone." Zhang nodded.
After watching Fang Hou drive away in the carriage, Zhang still felt a little dazed when she looked at the small basket of salted duck eggs and the large piece of pork leg in the yard.
After returning from the exam, the bad news is that no one in the entire department passed. The good news is that among those who failed... I had the highest score...
For a moment, I didn’t know whether I should be happy because I did the best in the exam, or sad because I missed the exam by a little bit…
o(╯□╰)o (End of this chapter)
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