Chapter 156: Tang Sancai Heavenly King Figurine
"Chang City’s chicken-blood bracelets are very famous. They’re extremely well-known in places like Japan and Eagle Country."
"For a time, Huaxia used them as diplomatic gifts, so they’re very valuable. But a truly good chicken-blood bracelet isn’t judged by its appearance. The purely natural ones aren’t always the most beautiful."
Zhang Zhengyi looked at the girl and gave her a thumbs-up. "I’ve got to say, there’s no way you’d ever let yourself get ripped off!"
"But how are you so sure this thing will end up in your hands? Even if they find out they were scammed, they won’t come looking for you, right?"
"So, how should we assist now? A fight?" Professor Zhang rubbed his hands together eagerly. A fight would be fantastic. He just couldn’t stand that Song Shuhua and wouldn’t mind going over to "educate" her a little!
Gu Shengsheng said, "With your old arms and legs, who could you possibly beat?"
"In a bit, we’ll split up and just wander around. Gu Rongrong will probably seek you out."
Gu Rongrong had seen Professor Zhang Zhengyi long ago, and she had an adoring look on her face. Gu Shengsheng knew back then that she would definitely try to latch onto someone influential.
After they spoke, the two immediately went their separate ways.
After a while, Zhang Zhengyi started aching all over from walking around. He hadn’t rested well these past few days; he really did have old arms and legs.
And just then, Gu Rongrong came running over.
She called out, "Mr. Zhang, Mr. Zhang."
"You know me?" Zhang Zhengyi looked puzzled. ’How is that girl Gu Shengsheng so good at predicting things!’
"You gave a speech at our school, and I’ve also watched your courses. Your philosophies... you’re a very, very good teacher." As she said this, her face blushed slightly.
"Thank you for the admiration. Keep up with your studies. If there’s nothing else, I’ll be on my way," he said, about to leave.
But Gu Rongrong stopped him. "Mr. Zhang, please don’t misunderstand. I know my sister has a good relationship with you. But I hope you won’t dislike me because of it. My sister and I are separate individuals, and things between us are very complicated..."
"Of course, I do love my sister."
"..." Zhang Zhengyi really wanted to ask what any of this had to do with him.
At this moment, seeing Zhang Zhengyi’s impatience, she took out the bracelet and said, "Mr. Zhang, this item... you saw us buy it. Now, I’m giving it to you."
"This is an object of fate, and it should be given to a fated person. Mr. Zhang, you are a great benefactor that I, Rongrong, have been lucky enough to meet."
’Once you accept a gift, you’re indebted to the giver.’
Her little boyfriend, whose surname was He, had told her that this Zhang Zhengyi was a well-known benefactor in the Beijing Circle and that she should hurry up and build a good relationship with him.
So, Gu Rongrong thought of this bracelet. In any case, her parents were already upset about buying a fake and getting scammed out of so much money.
Giving it away now, especially to someone who knew how much was paid for it—wouldn’t that make it a worthwhile transaction?
After discussing it with her parents, they decided the recipient of the gift would be Zhang Zhengyi. Sooner or later, they would have to establish a connection with the Beijing Circle, so this ten million could be considered an advance payment to grease the wheels.
Song Shuhua and Guan Wutian were both very satisfied with this plan.
This was truly putting money where it counted.
So, after tossing the thing at Zhang Zhengyi, Gu Rongrong ran off, leaving him standing there, bewildered. "...Seriously? They really just let me get this for free."
Watching Gu Rongrong’s retreating figure, he recalled her earnest yet calculating expression.
Zhang Zhengyi sighed. ’It seems you know far too little about the Beijing Circle. For instance, I, Zhang Zhengyi, have never had much of a moral compass. I don’t base my judgment of people on gifts, and I absolutely won’t help you next time.’
"If you’re just going to throw it away, then I’ll accept it on behalf of my young friend Shengsheng."
Then, he "reluctantly" walked away with the item.
Anyone who didn’t know better would have thought he’d been greatly wronged.
——
Surrounded by street stalls, Gu Shengsheng was happy to wander around by herself, doing whatever she pleased.
Just then, Lu Shijing sent her a photo of instant noodles, along with the typed word: Dinner
Gu Shengsheng: Instant noodles are good. I love them.
Lu Shijing had originally thought she would reply telling him to take care of his health and not to eat such things. That’s how it was always written in the novels he’d been studying recently.
But Gu Shengsheng didn’t reply according to the book, and for a moment, he didn’t know what to say.
After thinking for a moment, he then asked: Have you been to the hospital?
Gu Shengsheng had actually forgotten about it. It was just a small scrape, and it had already healed over without her noticing, so she couldn’t be bothered to go.
Lu Shijing had been thinking of telling her he was coming over there on a business trip, but after some thought, he felt he didn’t know in what capacity he could say it.
While he was hesitating, Gu Shengsheng replied: Not going to the hospital. I’m looking at cultural relics here. Talk to you later.
Lu Shijing: ...
With that, Gu Shengsheng closed the chat window. She opened her livestream and started to slowly wander through the market stalls.
She typed in her stream chat:
"Sorry for the delay, everyone. Now I’ll take you all on a tour of the market in Anxi."
"The Anxi treasure hunting tour begins now!"
Many viewers came online to check in and show their support, and the virtual gifts didn’t stop rolling in.
As for Lu Shijing, he stared at the chat box for a long time, then pinned Gu Shengsheng’s chat. Afterward, he watched her livestream while he worked.
Suddenly, someone called out to her. "Miss Gu! You came to Anxi! I came to Anxi too!"
Gu Shengsheng immediately recognized the uncle with the "twin feed" bag. She had just met him at the Willow Tree Night Market, and now here he was again!
The uncle was very excited. "I’ve gotten a lot of new, good stuff recently. Do you want to take a look?"
He felt a sense of kinship with Gu Shengsheng. After all, no matter where he set up shop, it seemed like she was the only one who ever bought his wares.
So, in his eyes, Gu Shengsheng was a walking God of Wealth. How could he not be excited?
"You’ve got new stock already? Let me see."
"Why did you stop setting up your stall in Beijing City?"
"My home is over in Rui City. Coming to Anxi is much cheaper. It’s gotten hard to sell things in Beijing City, plus the travel costs are too high, and there’s nowhere to sleep."
Hearing this, Gu Shengsheng nodded and continued to look at his relics. There were good ones and bad ones; this time, it wasn’t a uniform selection of high-quality goods.
It seemed he was aware that Gu Shengsheng liked his wares, so he’d bought some fakes from Taobao and Pinduoduo to round out his inventory.
His thinking was probably that every little bit he could sell would help.
Gu Shengsheng casually picked one up. "This vase... 19.9 yuan with free shipping from Pinduoduo?"
The base even said: Microwave Safe.
He said, embarrassed, "I mixed them in to sell together, to see if I could get a better price for them, but who knew it would make people even less interested."
"No wonder people look at my stall with such disgust. I guess my methods were a bit clumsy."
As he spoke, he took out his phone, pulled up his orders, and started picking out the fakes one by one, checking them against his list.
Afterward, Gu Shengsheng looked at his remaining batch of goods, still in disbelief.
After he removed all the Taobao items, everything left was genuine... She didn’t get it. Where on earth did he get all this stuff?
And he clearly didn’t know the first thing about treasures.
[System]:
Item: Tang Sancai Heavenly King Figurine
Era: Tang Dynasty
Description: Part of a Tang Dynasty burial set, one of the four main types of burial goods. They are often placed in front of the tomb passage or chamber, with the tomb-guardian beast in front and the Heavenly King figurine behind. They usually appear in pairs, one on the left and one on the right.
Gu Shengsheng took a closer look and, sure enough, she also spotted a tomb-guardian beast.
’Strange. These are all from the Tang Dynasty. Finding such things in Anxi is actually normal.’
But... the items he sold to Gu Shengsheng before weren’t from the Tang Dynasty. And it wasn’t in Anxi, either.
This meant the man had cultural relics from all over the place. ’What kind of background does he have to get his hands on so many things?’