Chapter 3: Intercepting, Towards Fame
"Young man, young man, this is genuine palace-grade jadeite. I'll give it to you for 150,000 yuan, how about that?" "Twenty, if you sell it, pretend we never talked."
"Fifteen, what do you say?"
"Five bucks, this one's made of plastic. Even five is too much."
"Well, you've met someone who knows their stuff. Sold! Take it, take it, get out, don't waste my time." The antique market always had more fake goods than real ones. Making a fortune here was harder than climbing to the heavens, but with the appraisal skill, everything became simple.
"Boss, how much for this jar?"
"Three hundred."
"That's too expensive. How about this, I'll take this fan with me too, and I'll give you three hundred for everything." "Fine, fine, since nobody's buying it anyway. Sold!"
Success was in hand.
Zhang Fan found an appraisal shop and brought the fan to them. "Boss, I'm selling this."
"Young man, we're closed. What's with this thing?" "Well, this fan is worth 800,000 yuan. Would you like to buy it? If not, forget it." The boss looked at Zhang Fan in astonishment, unable to believe his ears. He said, "I've been in this business for many years, but this is the first time I've heard of someone selling things like this. Young man, this fan is worth at most a hundred yuan." "You know your stuff? Goodbye then, I'm out."
Hold on.
The boss really hadn't seen the difference in this item. Zhang Fan then found a professional expert in the shop to take a look, and the result made sense.
"Who is this Xin Yuan? There's no record of him in the historical books. This fan must be a replica," Zhang Fan sighed and said, "Strange, do you know anything about this?"
"Yes, that's a story from Wang Xizhi," the shop's expert replied.
Zhang Fan continued, "The Wang family's young master, more than twenty years old, heard that the Chi family was looking for a son-in-law, and everyone was eager to marry into the family. Only one young master from the Dong family lay leisurely as if nothing had happened." The expert nodded, and Zhang Fan continued, "Upon careful examination, if I remember correctly, Wang Xizhi had a companion in his early years, but there isn't much recorded about him. In calligraphy, Wang Xizhi had some accomplishments at a young age, but it was rare to see him, and there is no mention of a folding fan at that time." And so on.
The shop found some books, flipped through them, and indeed found some comparisons.
"What do the characters on this side mean?"
"Xin Yuan bought the fan. Wang Xizhi wrote a few characters on the fan when he was young, and these are the characters. Xin Yuan made some modifications and placed it in his home. When Wang Xizhi became famous, the name of the fan became valuable. But because Xin Yuan's name was added, it became valuable. Selling it for 800,000 yuan is reasonable." Damn.
The boss finally understood this time. Zhang Fan was selling the fan, but he was actually selling a few characters.
After thinking it over, he decided to buy it.
"Wait, do you have a receipt?"
"Young man, how much do you have? It's dangerous to have so much money on you. If you're willing, I can arrange for someone to follow you secretly, protect you, and if you get the stuff, set the price and buy it. How about that?" Zhang Fan clenched his fists, his confidence soaring. This confidence made Zhang Fan fearless.
"Add me as a friend, and maybe I'll trust you next time."
So, an odd scene unfolded in the secondhand antique market. A young man wandered through various shops, buying all sorts of eye-catching items, and then went to the appraisal shop to sell them.
And he continued to search.
By eight-thirty in the evening, there wasn't much left in the secondhand market. The boss of the appraisal shop looked at his takings and realized he'd made 8 million today.
"Young man, do you know, if you put these things up for auction, you might make even more money?" Zhang Fan drank the Longjing tea prepared by Old Huang and said, "It doesn't matter. Everyone can make money, and it's just making a little extra cash. I might appraise them again later." "Young man, with such wealth, if you're willing, we can have a deal. If you agree to appraise the things, we can split the profits." "Okay, we can contact each other on WeChat."
"By the way, young man, when are you going back? May I ask where you live?" "At school. I'm still a student. Just go to Shanghai for school." Hiss, a student?
After Zhang Fan left, the boss took out a cigarette from his pocket, looked at his old partner, and said, "This young man knows little, but he's a talent."
"Old Huang, it's been many years, and I've made many mistakes in judging people, but this time, I feel like this kid is a bit different. Anyone can make money by picking things up. Eight million tonight. People will regret it when they hear that."
Meanwhile, Zhang Fan arrived near the school gate, carrying millions of yuan in his pocket. With the money in hand, life finally felt stable and carefree.
"Guys, are you here yet?"
"Yes, yes, why, are you really treating us tonight?"
"Of course, that restaurant over there, I've been craving it for so long. Let's have a good time tonight." "No problem, no problem, wait for us, we'll be right there."
The joy among students is just that simple. After arranging a meeting place, Zhang Fan told the boss to bring the menu and went to order with his roommates.
"Oh, by the way, I heard that a lot of people are thinking about chasing after Zhou Ke now that she's broken up."
"I don't care. We broke up, and I feel relieved. It has nothing to do with me."
The three roommates looked at each other and gave Zhang Fan a thumbs up. This guy really was something.
He broke up with such a great girlfriend just like that?
Meanwhile, while Zhang Fan and his roommates were eating, Zhou Ke was performing on stage at the evening party.
At the freshman evening party, she was still the star.