A phone call from Song Laosan gave me a very bad feeling.
Under my incessant urging and financial pressure, the driver ran two red lights and received a parking ticket to get me to my destination before the deadline.
After getting out of the car, Monkey felt a little relieved when he saw the police cars and officers on duty at the intersection: "Young Master Duan, this is the central area of the capital. If Song Laosan invited us here, it means he shouldn't have any major problems, right?"
I gazed into the distance at the Xihua Gate of the Forbidden City: "I hope so. I just hope we don't end up losing more than we gain."
The monkey rolled its eyes immediately: "Shameless! Who are you calling your wife?"
I glanced at the passing cars and said, "You're overthinking it. To me, you're nothing more than a chicken."
As we were chatting idly, a man in casual clothes walked towards us hurriedly: "Are you Song Laosan's friend?"
I watched the middle-aged man warily, ready to call for help from the police across the street if anything seemed amiss: "Where is Song Laosan?"
The middle-aged man looked at me with a similarly worried expression: "Judging from your appearance, you're only around twenty years old, right? Why did Song Laosan bring over such a callow youth?"
"What do you mean by that? So being older is an advantage?" The monkey looked at the middle-aged man with displeasure. "I'm asking you a question! Where's Song Laosan?"
The middle-aged man sighed deeply: "Don't even mention it! That idiot Song Laosan has caused a huge disaster! He messed with the wrong person and got detained by Mr. Leng!"
"Since he was arrested, why didn't he call the police?"
After hearing what the middle-aged man said, I immediately frowned.
Just as I expected, Song Laosan was indeed detained. I just don't know if this Mr. Leng has any connection with the Four Gates or Duan Jinyan.
"These matters should be settled within the martial arts world. If we really call the police, Song Laosan and I will be arrested first for forging cultural relics and fraud. Sigh... This is a long story! If I had known that the person Song Laosan was looking for was Mr. Leng, I would never have handed the item over to him!"
The middle-aged man scratched his head anxiously, then patiently explained to me, "My name is Liu Shusheng, and I run an antique shop in Liulichang. I'm an old acquaintance of Song Laosan! About two weeks ago, Song Laosan returned to Beijing, and he likes to come to my shop to chat and drink tea whenever he has free time. He's very knowledgeable and witty, and many people like to be his friend. He's also helped me sell quite a few things at high prices in my shop."
Last Tuesday, one of my shop assistants went to the countryside to shovel soil and brought back a fragment of a bronze artifact with an inscription. It was incomplete, and the purchase price was only twenty yuan. Later…”
Seeing Liu Shusheng hesitate, I said frankly, "I'm not from the antique circle in Beijing. I'm only here for Song Laosan. I know the rules of the trade and won't go around talking about it. You don't need to worry about anything."
"Come with me, we can talk as we walk."
Liu Shusheng glanced at the police across the street and led me and Monkey deeper into the street: "Although the antique business is extremely profitable, it depends on the situation. For someone like me who runs a shop, I deal with shrewd buyers and sellers. If you want to make money, there are only two ways. One is to buy goods at low prices from unsuspecting outsiders and then resell them at high prices, but nowadays people are more savvy, and this is becoming increasingly rare."
As for the second point, it was obviously a forgery! When I saw that the inscription on the bronze was already blurred, I planned to find a Xuande censer without an inscription and make a rough cobbled-together piece to sell as the bronze piece with the inscription.
On the day I was about to start work, Song Laosan came to my shop. He said that the copper piece with the inscription looked like it was made by the Yuan Dynasty's Wax-Making Bureau, and that it was a fake inscription inlaid on a Xuande censer, which would be obvious to anyone. At that time, he proposed a collaboration with me, saying that he would pay for a high-quality Yuan Dynasty censer, I would provide the tools and the copper piece, he would sell the finished products, and I would get 30% of the profits.
Although Third Master has been away from the country for many years, the Song family still holds a certain position in the industry. When I thought there was such a good deal, I naturally agreed! This noon, Third Master Song came to me with a big bag of cash, saying it was my share of the profits! My face was practically frozen with a smile, after all, my total investment in this business was less than five hundred yuan!
But before I could even feel happy, a car suddenly pulled up outside, and four burly men grabbed Song Laosan without a word! How could I let them run wild on my turf in broad daylight? I shouted at the door, and instantly more than twenty people came out to help, but they only said one sentence before they all left. I chickened out too…”
Liu Shusheng speaks with a slight Tianjin accent, and his storytelling is as captivating as a crosstalk performance.
Seeing that he had stopped abruptly, the monkey pressed him for an answer: "What did the other person say?"
"They said they were Mr. Leng's men." Liu Shusheng said with a mournful face, "If I had known that Song Laosan was planning to sell the goods to Mr. Leng, I would never have agreed to this plan! This is like a mouse licking a cat's cunt, it's pure suicide!"
Seeing how wary Liu Shusheng was of the name Mr. Leng, I raised an eyebrow and asked, "Who exactly is this Mr. Leng you're talking about?"
When Liu Shusheng mentioned this Mr. Leng, he spoke with a mixture of fear and respect: "Mr. Leng is a major collector in Beijing, with powerful connections. He has a thorough understanding of the history of antiques. He is very wealthy and generous. If he sees something he likes, he never haggles and usually buys it outright."
Although Mr. Leng has purchased quite a few items from my shop, it was almost always done through an agent. I suspect that 'Mr. Leng' is an alias. Many collectors in the antique trade use this method to conceal their identities, using agents to source goods, and they use different names in different areas.
The phrase "shooting with one shot" refers to taking away a whole batch of goods, regardless of their quality. Upon hearing that this Mr. Leng was so wealthy, Monkey couldn't help but ask, "How much did Song Laosan sell that counterfeit bronze stove to you for?"
Asking about prices is a big taboo in the antique trade, but Liu Shusheng glanced at me and still said truthfully, "Song Laosan gave me a commission of 300,000, which is 30% of the total, meaning the total price is one million!"
"How much? One million?!"
Upon hearing this number, the monkey nearly fainted. He lowered his voice and said to me, "We took out seven pieces of jade and gold artifacts from the demon monk's tomb, and they were all genuine. Song Laosan only sold them for six million. Is gold worth less than a fake bronze incense burner? That bastard definitely ripped us off!"
I explained in a low voice, “Bronze censers from the Yuan Dynasty are not well-known, and the production was not extensive, so they are rare. If the bronze piece with the inscription that Song Laosan has is indeed made by the ‘Wax Removal Bureau’ established by the government, it still has some value. Especially for collectors like Mr. Leng, if they really like bronzes, they will definitely collect them from all dynasties. This bronze censer itself may not be valuable, but its status is different when placed in a large series.”
After I finished speaking to the monkey, I asked Liu Shusheng, "After Song Laosan was taken away, did he contact you again?"
"I haven't finished telling you what happened next... Although there are rules in the antique trade that you are not responsible for the goods once they are out of your hands, Mr. Leng's identity is special, how could I dare to offend him! I have known Song Laosan for many years, and his original intention was to help me make money, so I can't just stand by and watch him die! So when those people were about to take Song Laosan away, I took the initiative to suggest that there was no need to find someone to break the plaster, and that we were willing to refund the money, but who knew that they would not agree at all."
Liu Shusheng took out a He Tianxia cigarette and handed it to me: "Mr. Leng's meaning is very clear, that is, to make Song Laosan take responsibility for this matter. I know that I can't talk to him, so I found the president of a big guild in the industry and asked him to return the one million yuan. I also gave him a red envelope of 88,000 yuan as an apology, but the other party refused to accept it and returned the money to me intact."
I narrowed my eyes: "If this Mr. Leng doesn't agree to a refund, how did you find me?"
"It was Song Laosan who called me. He told me to pick up his friend here on time and then take him to see Mr. Leng. Before I could ask any questions, he hung up!"
Liu Shusheng scratched his head: "As far as I know, back then in Panjiayuan, an antique dealer sold a fake to Mr. Leng and was also taken away. When he reappeared, he was disabled with no legs, and his family was ruined. He was begging around the train station! I estimate that Song Laosan was also in grave danger after being arrested by Mr. Leng!"
I looked at Liu Shusheng with a skeptical expression: "So we're going to see Mr. Leng now, right?"
Liu Shusheng quickened his pace: "Yes! Mr. Leng lives on this street, just a few dozen meters ahead. Come with me!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com