Chapter 34
"Live broadcast?" Yang Ye frowned at the unfamiliar word, her expression stiffening slightly as confusion flickered in her eyes. She subconsciously turned her head, her gaze landing on Zhou Yiheng beside her, as if to confirm with him if she had misheard.
Zhou Yiheng walked up to her and said in a low voice: "It's the app you often use to watch videos. It has a live broadcast function."
As he spoke, he took out his phone from his trouser pocket. He tapped the screen a few times and found the black icon skillfully. "This is it."
The moment she clicked on it, many thumbnails of live broadcasts popped up on the screen. Some were dancing and singing in front of the camera, some were chatting while eating, and some were actively selling products. Yang Ye's eyes moved back and forth among the jumping images, her brows still furrowed.
"Live streaming is where you can chat and interact with the host in real time through the screen," Zhou Yi scrolled across the interface and randomly clicked into a live streaming room to explain to Yang Ye. "For things like singing and dancing, they'll look at the comments section. You post what you want to hear and see, and if it gets a lot of comments, the host will see it. Of course, if you want the host to sing the songs you want to hear, you usually have to send them gifts. The more gifts you give, the more money they make. The best ones can make hundreds of thousands in a single night."
Yang Ye was surprised: "Just singing and dancing, you can make hundreds of thousands in one night?"
"Yeah," Zhou Yiheng said, and he clicked on another live broadcast room. The woman in the picture was holding up a piece of clothing to show it to the camera, chattering about the advantages of this clothing. "Then this kind of live broadcast is purely for selling goods. She tells you what she is selling, whether the product is good, and what it looks like."
Yang Ye asked in confusion: "So this also requires a gift?"
"No, this kind of thing requires you to buy it. You see there is a yellow icon. Click on it and you can see the clothes. Then you place an order and the anchor can earn commissions."
"There are so many tricks nowadays," Yang Ye sighed. In fact, Zhou Yiheng told her all this, but she still didn't quite understand.
Fang Zhiyang, who was standing opposite them, interrupted. He rubbed his hands and said helplessly, "I didn't know there was such a thing before. My son told me about it. He said there's a treasure appraisal host online. He's quite good and has a lot of fans. Many people go to him to have things appraised at home."
Yang Ye and Zhou Yiheng turned to look at him. Fang Zhiyang sighed, "That appraisal agency would take half a year, I definitely can't wait that long. I thought to myself, why not give it a try? I have the items in my hands anyway, so I can just look at them through the screen. It won't delay anything. If someone else sees my items and gets a good price, I might even be able to sell them earlier."
His voice gradually trailed off, as if he were back to the scene of the connection. Fang Zhiyang hammered himself in frustration. "To connect to that live stream, you have to join a meeting first. Once you're in, someone tells you to transfer 2,000 yuan as an appraisal fee to them first."
Zhou Yiheng was surprised. "2000, so expensive?"
Fang Zhiyang smiled. "My son wanted them to look first and we'd pay after they were done. It was originally different over there, but I don't know what my son said to them, and they agreed. But they still made us wait in line. They only had about a dozen people every day, and we waited for over a week before it was our turn."
"Then what?" Zhou Yiheng asked.
"Family member, what did you bring today?" The host was sitting opposite the screen. He watched Fang Zhiyang carefully pick up the porcelain vase on the table.
The phone camera focused on him. Looking at the host on the screen and the comments scrolling at the bottom of the screen, Fang Zhiyang's eyes widened unconsciously. He stood there blankly, holding the vase, with helplessness and tension in his eyes.
Fang Hui held up his phone and reminded the other side, "Dad, please say a few words."
"Oh, oh, yes." Fang Zhiyang's reaction was a beat slower. He faced the camera awkwardly, his face burning, and his ears gradually heated up due to nervousness. His trembling lips opened and closed with difficulty, and he stumbled and said: "This, this is my family, my ancestral family's..."
At first, he was quite confident, but later, his voice gradually faded. Fang Hui, standing across from him, frowned at Fang Zhiyang's performance, his brow twitching, his eyes flashing with anxiety. He took a quick step forward, his wrist flexing nimbly, and aimed his phone screen steadily at the porcelain vase in Fang Zhiyang's arms.
"This is a porcelain vase passed down from my ancestors. Can you help me see how much it is worth?" Fang Hui said again.
In the live broadcast room, the host glanced at the screen. He leaned back briskly, the chair rubbing against the floor making a harsh noise. He adjusted his sitting position to the camera and said seriously, "Put your things on the table first."
Fang Hui said: "Dad, he asked you to put the things down"
Fang Zhiyang heard it and put the things back to where they were.
The host cleared his throat and said, "Move the screen upwards so I can see the circle."
Fang Hui moved obediently.
The host tutted his words, as if thinking, "Further down, the pattern on the bottle, move the camera a little closer"
"A little more to the left." The anchor's eyes were fixed on the screen, and his body unconsciously moved closer to the camera. "Yes, maintain your current position."
His voice suddenly rose, his eyes fixed on the subject, and he spoke very quickly to the audience in the live broadcast room, saying, "Blue and white flowers, green leaves, banana leaves, honeysuckle, this pattern looks very beautiful and novel."
Fang Hui was delighted to hear this. Although he didn't appear on camera, his excited voice was heard on the phone: "This bottle is my father's treasure. It must be cleaned several times a day. There can't be any dirt or dust on it."
"It's new, but the pattern is so rare," the host said, staring at the obvious pattern on the screen. He took a sip of tea from the thermos next to him before continuing, "Let's look at the state of this bottle. The ancients said it's warm and soft, just like mutton fat. What does that mean? The color of this thing can't be flashy or dazzling. When placed under sunlight, the light reflected from the surface should be delicate and mellow, not bland or greasy. Touch the surface with your finger and scrape it along this line. There should be no obstruction or rough graininess. It should be as smooth as the creamy texture of top-grade mutton-fat jade."
In a tone that brooked no refusal, he continued, "Mr. Fang, could you please move the camera back so we can first examine the patterns on the vase? The key to identifying a blue and white porcelain vase is observing the patterns on its surface."
"Okay," Fang Hui responded.
The anchor narrowed his eyes and looked at the pattern on the porcelain vase over and over again. "To understand which dynasty it is from, you first have to know what patterns each dynasty is best at, or what patterns they like the most. Each emperor had different hobbies. For example, during the Kaiyuan period, when the country was prosperous, the court art at that time pursued an ultimate beauty. In terms of painting techniques, the workers would draw on the patterns of Western brocade, with intricate lines and bright colors, as gorgeous as the "Nihuang Yuyi Qu". The painted pottery figurines and Tang blue and white porcelain we know are basically based on the same principle. But when it comes to Northern Song Huizong, everyone knows Song Huizong, his calligraphy and painting are elegant, and he advocates freshness and nature. 'After the rain, the sky is clear and the clouds are broken, and this color will be used in the future.' The most famous Ru kiln celadon at that time gives people this feeling."
"Now that we know the pattern, let's look at this porcelain vase. This blue and white emerald leaf pattern was extremely popular during the Qianlong era. Influenced by the overall environment at the time, pottery craftsmanship also reached a peak, and this pattern almost covered all official and private kilns. Whether it was the imperial palace or the collections of wealthy private families, this kind of porcelain vase with blue and white emerald leaves was basically indispensable."
Fang Zhiyang paused for a moment, a bitter smile on his face. "I was really happy when I heard that, and I thought this thing would definitely be valued at a good price."
but.
His silent expression seemed to indicate the subsequent reversal.
"Turn the camera around again so I can look somewhere else." The host's voice became serious.
The two were still immersed in happiness and didn't notice the host's changed expression at all.
The anchor's scrutinizing gaze passed through the screen, slowly moving across the bottle, not missing a single detail. He examined it more closely, his gaze drawn to a particular point, and in an instant, his expression suddenly changed.
He paused deliberately to create a different kind of suspense, and waited until the comments section was flooded with comments before he slowly said: "It's a good thing, but it's a pity that it's a fake."
"Look at the texture on the bottle. The texture of the real thing should be smoother and more coherent, but this..." He asked the staff to bring his phone. On the screen was the screenshot of the bottle ring he had just seen. He used two fingers to zoom in. "There's an extremely fine crack here, and the inside of the bottle ring is also very badly worn. And there's also the signature on the bottom..."
He scrolled to the next picture. "The signature at the bottom looks identical to the original, but if you look closely, the handwriting style, the thickness and strength of the strokes are all different from the original."
"Let's compare these two images," the anchor asked his assistant to bring out the previously available KT version. The two items were placed side by side and shown to the audience in the live broadcast room. "This is what I told you last time about the order of brush strokes used by the emperors of the Qing Dynasty and their characteristics of their brush strokes. Let's take a look at this. The brushwork of the thing this family member brought out is too unfamiliar and stiff."
He then put down the place where the strokes flowed down, "This place clearly shows signs of being modified. It's a typical imitation, designed to fool those newcomers who don't know the business."
"I don't know where you bought this thing, but I'd like to give you a piece of advice. Keeping fake things at home will only increase your vanity. It's better for you to buy a cheaper one from a later year. If it's real, it's a respect for history. If it's fake, to put it bluntly, you're not much different from those people who look down on history." At the end, the host spoke righteously and began to teach Fang Zhiyang and Fang Hui a lesson.
"I was completely bewildered at the time," Fang Zhiyang said. "It had been passed down in my family for so many generations, how could it become fake in my hands? I wanted to explain it clearly, but he didn't even give me a chance. He even told others to take this as a warning and not to be fooled like I was."
Zhou Yiheng was furious. "Just a few glances at the camera can tell whether it's real or fake. What kind of identification expert is this? Could he be a sham?"
Fang Zhiyang was helpless. "I thought so too, but I didn't understand. The anchor quickly cut off our connection. The next day, Xiaohui received a message from them saying they could give us another chance, but this time we had to pay a 10,000 yuan appraisal fee."
Zhou Yiheng understood, "Isn't this pure scam? If you give him money, he'll tell the truth, and if you don't, he'll tell lies."
"I've also thought about finding someone else, but that anchor has too many fans. Even if I go somewhere else, if I'm seen by that anchor's fans, they'll say my stuff is fake," Fang Zhiyang sighed.
A consensus judgment involves too many irrelevant factors. Even if you are certain, the overwhelming weight of public opinion can lead you to believe you are wrong.
The relationship between truth and falsehood cannot be determined by blind intuition or momentary impulse.
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