InvincibleConnoisseur

Chapter 52 Finding Treasures

Qingshan Road in Changji, which had an endless flow of people, was bustling with activity. Groups of people were lingering inside and outside the shops arranged in rows and buying whatever they liked. From time to time, the fragrance of various snacks drifted out, making people want to eat something.

Li Ruoxi was sitting sadly in a small restaurant called Golden Chopsticks and constantly stirring the hot and sour rice noodles in the bowl with the chopsticks in her hands.

She left early this morning, hoping to find a job. But from morning to now, she had visited more than a dozen companies and ran into a brick wall everywhere.

Of course, several companies agreed to hire her and even offered her a well-paid job. But the bosses or managers who agreed to hire her all stared at her with lustful eyes and even implied from time to time that they wanted to date her, which disgusted her much.

"Why can't I find a job that I like? Do they only care about my appearance but not my abilities? Besides, is a diploma so important?" Li Ruoxi put the chopsticks down. She felt quite hungry just now, but after a few bites, she no longer had any appetite.

She didn't have a diploma because she hadn't officially graduated from the university yet. Although she had passed exams of all the subjects, she still needed to wait for a year to get the university diploma.

She quietly walked out of the Golden Chopsticks restaurant. Ignoring the lustful eyes of the men around, she just walked slowly along the street.

Where should she go now?

Keep looking for a job?

She was not in the mood for that now. After being frustrated for almost a whole day, she wanted to find something else to do, or to find a goal or a place to kill time at least.

Pondering silently, she realized that she didn't have anyone to hang out with in Changji apart from the executives of her company. In other words, she didn't have any friends other than herself.

Suddenly, a handsome face came into her mind.

Wang Ke!

Right! Where was Wang Ke now?

Was he reciting the ten thousand words at home? Or was he at the antique market?

Thinking of this, Li Ruoxi quickly took out her cell phone. After dialing Wang Ke's phone number, she slowly walked to the door of a boutique by the street and sat down on the chair there.

At the antique market, after chatting with the stall owner for a while, Wang Ke was about to try and see whether he could feel the spiritual energy. When he heard his cell phone ringing in his pocket, he frowned slightly and wondered who was calling him at this time.

Lowering his head to look at the phone number after taking his phone out, Wang Ke had a smile on his face. He answered the phone with a smile, "Li Ruoxi, did you find a good job?"

Li Ruoxi's listless voice came from the phone, "Come on. I've either run into a brick wall or met those lustful people. Forget it. Where are you now? I'm so bored. Can I come to your place?"

Wang Ke was stunned for a while before he said, "I'm at the antique market! If you're free now, then come over!"

Li Ruoxi quickly said, "Okay. I'm going now. I'll be there in about twenty minutes."

After saying this, she was about to hang up the phone. But the phone screen turned black suddenly.

"Out of power?"

Li Ruoxi looked at the phone and then put it into her bag. While rushing towards the intersection ahead, she smiled bitterly, "Misfortunes never come singly. It's just not my day!"

Standing in front of the stall, Wang Ke secretly collected all his thoughts as he heard the beeps from his phone. His mental strength slowly concentrated. Although his eyes were fixed on the items on the stall, he was feeling the spiritual energy within a ten-meter radius.

Half a minute later, the spiritual energy around him gradually emerged in his perception like ripples.

There were magic weapons?

Wang Ke's heart was filled with great joy. Without hesitation, he quickly used his extraordinary vision. As the spirit energy flowed into his eyes and the slight pain disappeared, he quickly scanned the antiques on the stall in front of him.

Four or five seconds later, he kept watching a black inkstone. A stream of white smog was slowly flowing on the inkstone. As he fixed his sight on it, the smog slowly stopped flowing but was still about to burst out at any moment, struggling as if it had wanted to rush into his eyes.

However, he did not immediately cut off the spirit energy. Because he was keenly aware that there was a high concentration of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth around here, at least much higher than the concentration in Self House this morning.

Such strong spiritual energy in this open-air place meant that there were definitely no less than two magic weapons around.

Wang Ke's heart was filled with joy and his mental strength was raised to the limit. After six or seven seconds, his eyes felt slightly sore and almost grew moist with a stinging sensation.

Eight seconds!

This was the limit he could bear. Tears in his eyes were uncontrollably bursting out. With no other choice, he quickly cut off his spirit energy and covered his eyes with his hands. Because he did not want his unusual condition to be seen by others.

When the pain in both eyes disappeared, Wang Ke secretly wiped away the tears on his face and a smile appeared on his face.

One important thing he found was that he could now use the extraordinary vision for a longer time than before.

To his regret, there were too many antiques on the stall in front of him. And the two stalls nearby were so close to this one that they were also within the range of his perception. So he did not observe the presence of other magic weapons.

It was a winnowing-fan inkstone, one of the popular inkstones in the Tang Dynasty, which was named by its shape of a rectangular winnowing fan. And because the two sides of the rear of the inkstone skewed outward like the Chinese character of wind, it was also known as "wind-shaped inkstone". With rims around the three sides of it, the inkstone was relatively round at the top and square at the bottom. Its surface was flat. Near the front of the inkstone, there was a groove that was designed to store ink. At the bottom of the rear end which didn't have a rim around it, there were two feet to hold it up and keep the surface of the inkstone level.

Inkstones, brushes, inksticks, and paper were the traditional Four Treasures of the Study and essential tools for calligraphy. Inkstones were not only stationery but also seen as treasured collections by generations of scholars for they were so sturdy that they could be passed on to offspring and be in good condition for hundreds of generations.

Wang Ke recognized the material of the inkstone in front of him. It was made of red-silk stone and was carved with such remarkable skills.

Since Wang Ke had visited the antique market many times and had seen many people selecting, deliberately mystifying, or trading other things before buying what they really want to buy, he could be said to know a lot about finding treasures. Therefore, he did not pick up the inkstone at first, but reached out and grabbed the small and delicate dark-red enameled teapot beside. After holding the teapot in his hands and watching it carefully for a while, he looked up at the stall owner and asked with a smile, "How much is it?"

The stall owner had been sneakily staring at Wang Ke's expression, hoping to figure out how Wang Ke thought about the item that he picked. If Wang Ke was in love with a certain antique, he would rip him off without scruple. But if Wang Ke looked calm and held a dispensable attitude towards what he picked, he would have to reconsider it and would rather earn less.

At this moment, although the young man in front of him was asking for the price, he threw a few glances at the stall next to him, which made the stall owner quite disappointed. Because he thought that Wang Ke was not particularly interested in this dark-red enameled teapot.

"Young man, you are so discerning! This dark-red enameled teapot is made by a famous master. Take a look at its carving craft and its shape. Especially the smooth and round spout. You will know that it is an ancient object at a glance. If you want to buy it, I will definitely sell it at a low price. Eighteen thousand yuan. No bargain. As the saying goes, the dark-red enameled teapot is more worthy than all the jewelry in the world. This is definitely a precious dark-red enameled teapot."

"You're so dishonest. You're ripping me off. Do you really think I'm stupid? Originally, I was just tired of walking around and wanted to buy a few random items from you. But you are being so dishonest. I'm very disappointed."

The smile on Wang Ke's face disappeared quickly. He looked at the stall owner with dissatisfaction, put the dark-red enameled teapot down, turned around, and left without the slightest hesitation after finishing his words.

The stall owner changed his expression and hurriedly ran out of the stall from one side. Catching up with Wang Ke who was already seven or eight meters away, he said embarrassedly with a smile on his face, "Oh, young man! It's all my fault. I didn't expect that you are a connoisseur. Come on. Please don't go. Just forget about the price just now. If you really want to buy it and also buy a few more antiques, I'll give you a discount. Even if I can't make any money, I will also sell it cheaply. I'm not afraid of anything but only of people's bad impression of me."

Wang Ke laughed in his heart. It seemed that his strategy of playing hard-to-get was really effective. This stall owner, who had been doing business at the antique market for a long time, was also an opportunist. Seeing that a deal was about to be screwed up, he even ran out to stop Wang Ke. It seemed that Wang Ke only needed to pretend it casually.

Wang Ke stopped walking, looked at the stall owner sideways, and said coldly, "So tell me how much this teapot is? Let's make a deal. If you give me an honest price, maybe I will buy a few more things at your stall. If not, I won't bother to bargain with you anymore. I will just leave right away."

The smile on the stall owner's face faded. He turned his head to look at the teapot and thought for a moment before he made a gesture of "eight" and said seriously, "Well, I will be so mean if I continue to give you a false price. Okay, young man. Eight hundred yuan. You can take this genuine dark-red enameled teapot for eight hundred yuan. This is the lowest price. But if you want to buy it at this price, you must buy a few more things from my stall. Otherwise, I will lose a lot of money."

"Nonsense! You are fooling me. Eight hundred yuan? Even if you sell it for eighty yuan, you will not lose any money. This teapot is not an antique at all but just a beautiful handicraft. It looks good. But hundreds of thousands of such teapots could be made at a time!"

Wang Ke cursed in his heart. But he shook his head with a false smile on his face, stretched out his hand, and made a gesture of "five" before he said, "Five hundred yuan. If you sell it to me for five hundred yuan, I will buy a few more things. If not, just forget it."