Chapter 54
Outside the window, the cold north wind blew up the dead leaves on the ground, and the bare branches swayed wildly in the wind. The heater in the house was on full blast, and the warm air was filled with a faint scent of sandalwood, and even breathing was comfortably warm.
Yang Ye stood in front of the display case, leaning forward slightly, a strand of hair falling from her cheek as she moved. She raised her hand to tuck it behind her ear, but as she moved closer to the glass case, it fell back down, dangling beside her ear and obstructing her view. Yang Ye could only raise her hand again to pin her hair back in place.
Her blurry shadow was reflected on the glass surface of the display cabinet. Suddenly, in a trance, Yang Ye seemed to see herself and the things in the cabinet overlapping, and the spotlight on the ceiling divided them into many pieces.
The spotlights were refracted through the glass partitions, making the face of the Buddha statue on the upper level appear particularly compassionate. Below the statue, the emerald toad placed on a sandalwood stand squatted on a stretched lotus leaf, its front paws slightly raised, as if it would jump off the lotus leaf in the next second.
When Yang Ye saw these two decorations, she frowned in surprise, "A Buddha statue pressing a toad doesn't seem to be in accordance with the rules."
Li Cheng looked at her and said, "Maybe it's her hobby."
"You can't just display your hobbies like this," Yang Ye tilted his head. "Buddhism teaches that all beings are equal, so where does this come from? Besides, toads used to symbolize longevity and protection of the house. Using a Buddha statue to suppress a toad doesn't seem right no matter how you look at it."
"There must be a reason why they put it this way."
Yang Ye looked at the glass display case and shook his head thoughtfully, "Something's wrong."
She stared carefully at the toad placed in the cabinet. When she touched the cold glass surface, she suddenly took two steps to the left and bent down to get closer to the connection between the glass and the cabinet. She seemed to have discovered something and frowned. "This toad..."
Li Ben was about to leave, but when he heard her words, he came back and asked, "What's wrong?"
"Three-legged Toad" Yang Ye was surprised.
"Is this true?" Li Cheng took two or three steps forward.
"Look for yourself," Yang Ye pointed over there, "the toad's hind legs are not two separate legs, but a single leg that is put together."
"Your friend is very good. He can even get the Emerald Three-legged Toad." She stood up and tucked her newly fallen hair behind her ears. There was a hint of ridicule in her tone, but her eyes were full of doubts.
"Is this thing expensive?" Li Cheng asked.
"It's expensive, but it's also rare. A paperweight-sized three-legged toad can be auctioned for millions, so a big one like this would probably start at tens of millions."
Li Cheng almost choked on his saliva. He looked at the toad and said, "Ten million to start, this is too exaggerated!"
"Wait." He bent down and moved closer. Seeing the color of the toad's surface, he looked up and asked Yang Ye, "What color is this jade? Why does it look a bit strange to me?"
Yang Ye nodded. She had just noticed it. "It's the toad's claws. The color is a little too dark."
"Could it be the spotlight?" Li Cheng asked.
"Not really," she shook her head. "If it were a white spotlight, the color would be bright, but it's obviously too dark here."
The middle-aged man who came to find them came over with two cups of tea. He put the tea on the coffee table next to them and walked behind the two of them.
Li Cheng caught a glimpse of him coming over, and asked through the glass, "Hey, Zhao Rang, where did you get this?"
"My father left it to me." Zhao Rang took out the key from his pocket and opened the locked glass cabinet. When he inserted the key into the lock, his wrist trembled slightly, not knowing whether it was due to age or nervousness.
The glass cabinet door opened, and the same sandalwood scent as the room emanated from the cabinet, mixed with the smell of aged mothballs.
Without the spotlights from the display case, the toad's natural light took on a more mellow color. Not the dazzling emerald green it had just been, but rather a tender leaf washed by the first spring rain, revealing an indescribable, subtle luster.
"This thing..." Yang Ye looked at the toad that was taken out, and felt an indescribable sense of familiarity.
"What did Boss Yang see?" Zhao Rang asked from the side.
"I can't tell for now," Yang Ye said honestly, and simply asked, "Have you kept this thing for a long time?"
Zhao Rang said, "It's been around for at least sixty or seventy years. It's been in my house since I was a kid. When I was leaving, I was still talking about it, saying I must find someone capable and trustworthy to look at it."
Yang Ye looked at the toad and asked, "Can I pick it up?"
Zhao Rang didn't know why she asked that, but nodded and said, "Okay."
Yang Ye donned white gloves and gently lifted the emerald toad. She held it to eye level. The living room light shone on its back, revealing a translucent texture with faint, cotton-like textures visible. Its belly was nearly transparent. Most striking were the toad's eyes, dotted with pea-sized red jade, which looked remarkably vivid against the green of its body.
Li Cheng stared at the white jade Buddha statue in the glass case for a long time. He hadn't noticed it before, but after Yang Ye said that, the more he looked at it, the more he felt that the position of the Buddha statue was wrong. He turned to look at Zhao Rang, "I remember you used to be a Yin-Yang master..."
Zhao Rang nodded, "Yes."
"Then why did he use such a strange method as using a Buddha statue to press a toad?"
Yang Ye turned the toad over and looked carefully at the bottom. Facing the fluorescent light in the living room, she saw the words printed on the bottom.
Made by the Imperial Household Department in the Xinchou year of the Guangxu period.
His pupils suddenly dilated and his breathing became rapid.
Zhao Rang swallowed his saliva, his Adam's apple rolling up and down, and he said: "Actually, I put it there."
"You put it there?" Li Cheng was surprised. Even Yang Ye, who was standing beside him, turned his head. Li Cheng hesitated for a moment. He looked at Zhao Rang and asked, "Can I ask why?"
Zhao Rang remained silent and did not answer.
"Maybe it's because of this." Yang Ye showed the line of words at the bottom to the two of them, "The origin of this thing may not be ordinary."
"What do you mean, Boss Yang?" The corners of Zhao Rang's mouth moved, and he forced a smile, but the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes were piled up because of this smile.
"In the Xinchou year of the Guangxu reign," she said, looking across at Zhao Rang, "If something from the Imperial Household Department wanted to leave the palace, there are only two possibilities: either it was a legitimate reward, or it was smuggled out by someone."
Zhao Rang sighed and took out a handkerchief from his pocket. With trembling hands, he wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Professor Li is right. Boss Yang is indeed a formidable man."
Zhao Rang's gaze fell on the emerald toad that Yang Ye had just put down. His expression became complicated. He took a deep breath and exhaled heavily. His sigh was drawn out, with unspeakable tiredness and weakness.
"To be honest, I asked Li Cheng to invite Boss Yang over just for this matter," Zhao Rang said. "My father got this thing from an old man. When he was alive, he repeatedly warned us not to touch it. He passed away two years ago, and I wanted to pack up all his things, but there's nothing I can do about this jade toad."
"Speaking of which, the origin of this thing is a bit strange." Zhao Rang paused. "It was the Republic of China at that time, and the city was in chaos. My father was supposed to deliver the fortune-telling fee to the host family that day, but he ran into an old man at the north entrance of Changdian. The old man looked like he had been beaten up. He was lying on the ground, breathing more than he exhaled. My father felt sorry for him and gave him the steamed buns he had prepared for lunch. The old man felt a little better after eating the buns. He said he didn't know how to repay my father, so I gave him the only valuable thing I had."
Li Cheng said, "Is this the toad?"
Zhao Rang nodded. "My dad didn't want it at first, but the old man stuffed it into his hands and limped away. My dad was in a hurry to give the fortune to the host family, so he had to accept it. When he got home, he casually put it in the cupboard. Who knew that strange things would start happening from that night? It started with a nightmare. I dreamed that a woman dressed in Manchu clothing was standing at the head of the bed, staring at him. One time, I woke up in the middle of the night and when I got up to drink water, I saw this toad. I don't know how it ran from the cupboard to the dining table."
Li Cheng frowned, suspicion rising in his eyes, "So weird?"
"The more bizarre thing is yet to come," Zhao Rang rubbed his hands. "My dad has also tried to give this thing away, but you see, it's obviously a very good jadeite, but he just can't give it away. Others get scared when they see it, or they are distracted by other things. Anyway, he has tried giving it away many times but never succeeded."
"Have you ever thought of throwing him away?" Li Cheng asked.
"Of course I had thought about it, but then there was chaos in the city, so my grandfather asked my father to store all the valuables in the house in the cellar. The whole family went to the countryside for more than a year, almost two years." Zhao Rang put down the teacup he picked up. He paused before continuing, "When they came back from the countryside, the cellar was turned upside down and all the valuables were gone. Only this emerald toad was left, still sitting there in its wooden box."
Li Cheng and Yang Ye looked at each other and saw something strange in each other's eyes. Neither of them spoke, but there was clearly an indescribable strangeness in the air.
"My dad learned some yin and yang skills from someone in the countryside. When he came back and saw this toad, he didn't say anything. He kept it at home and rubbed it every few months. It's strange that even with it left alone, nothing happened at home."
Yang Ye joked, "It sounds like this thing has recognized its master."
"Who knows? Anyway, after my dad passed away, my wife always said that there was something wrong with the toad. Last time, my daughter-in-law brought her grandson home and looked at it a few more times. When they got home, they both had high fevers and it took them three or four days to recover. I thought this thing might really be unclean, so I went to the temple to ask for this Buddha statue to keep."
Zhao Rang stared into the toad's eyes, swallowed his saliva, and asked, "Boss Yang, do you think this thing is really evil?"
Yang Ye chuckled when she heard this. She saw the toad and said, "How can something be evil? Those so-called evil stories are just the product of human nature."
Zhao Rang was skeptical, "But you just said that the things came from the palace, so aren't the things in the palace the most evil?"
"The stories you heard were most likely fabricated by storytellers in the past. If there were really so many bizarre things happening in the palace, how could the Forbidden City be open to the public?" Yang Ye smiled, then added, "But then again, your toad is indeed a little different."
"What's the difference?" Zhao Rang was anxious, his heart almost in his throat.
Yang Ye turned the toad around and pointed at its claws. "You should have noticed that the color of the toad's claws is a bit dark. The design underneath says 'Made in the Xinchou Year of the Guangxu Period.' The events of that year were very chaotic in the imperial palace. Perhaps the toad's claws were stained with blood when it was brought out. Jade itself has a dense structure, and long-term contact with blood slowly brought blood in, causing the color of the claws to look strange compared to the rest of the body."
"As for why you find it scary, it's probably because of the light from the spotlight in the cabinet and the Buddha statue. Look, the red jade on the toad's eyes, if you shine it with strong light, plus the gold color of the Buddha statue, the two together would make anyone who sees it feel evil. Plus, you keep hearing about things from the past, so you're naturally drawn in."
Zhao Rang asked, "Then why didn't my dad let us touch it before?"
Yang Ye said, "He didn't let you touch it because it's really a treasure. He might have seen that it was something from the Imperial Household Department during the Guangxu period. Given the quality of the jade, it would be worth at least tens of millions now."
"Is this true?" Zhao Rang widened his eyes and even raised his voice several degrees.
Yang Ye said: "But to be on the safe side, I still suggest you find a professional appraisal agency. How much it can be said depends on the agency. I can only give you a reference."
The light from the living room fell on the emerald toad. Zhao Rang leaned in to take a closer look and found that the green color next to the toad's claws seemed to have faded a little. The eyes that were creepy before were not so irritating now. Instead, they showed the unique warmth of emerald jade under the light.
Zhao Rang looked at the toad and suddenly shook his head and smiled, "So we've been scaring ourselves all these years."
Yang Ye said: "That's how antiques are. Sometimes a trivial thing can be misrepresented for generations. It's all about clarifying it."
The taxi had not arrived yet, so they sat in the coffee shop downstairs from Zhao Rang's house. Li Cheng ordered a cup of hot American coffee, and Yang Ye ordered a cup of black tea. It was getting dark outside the window, and the street lights were lighting up one by one.
Li Cheng stirred the coffee in his cup. "When I first started working in this field, my calves were shaking the first time I went down a tomb. Now I think those fears were unnecessary. Over the past forty years, archaeology and antiques are actually similar. In the final analysis, it's all about tracing back."
Yang Ye was about to answer when her cell phone suddenly rang. She glanced at the display on the screen and saw that it was the agent who had called her before.
"Boss Yang," the agent's voice was eager on the other end of the line. "Are you free recently? The seller I told you about last time called me again today. He's very satisfied with the location of your old house. He said the price is negotiable. When are you free? I'll arrange a meeting with you."
Yang Ye lowered his head, sipping his tea and gazing out the window at the traffic. The old house was what Xue Shangyang had bought when he and she got married. Originally, Xue Shangyang hadn't planned to buy it in a hutong, thinking it would be inconvenient to get in and out. But then, he heard from somewhere that this house was just three hutongs away from where Yang Ye used to live, and with that in mind, he decided to buy it.
After hearing nothing for a long time, the agent tentatively asked, "Boss Yang, are you still listening?"
"I'm listening," Yang Ye came back to his senses, "I'll contact you in a few days."
After hanging up the phone, Li Cheng looked up and saw her and asked, "What about the old house?"
"Yeah," Yang Ye put his phone aside, "someone wants to buy it."
"The price isn't right?"
“It’s not about money”
Li Chengran nodded and said, "If I can't bear to part with it, I won't sell it."
Outside the window, the traffic was gradually becoming denser. Vehicles were stuck at the intersection in a long line, and the red brake lights were connected in a row. Yang Ye smiled and said, "I have to sell it one day."
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