Chapter 200

Chapter 200: Genuine or Fake?

The ears of the two people beside Du An Rao stood up at once. The Qiu mother and son sitting not far away also noticed that something was off with her and looked over with concern.

“Miss Du, did something happen?”

Hearing Ms. Qiu’s question, Du An Rao suddenly remembered that the Qiu family worked with the auction house. That Heart of the Ocean set from earlier had come from their company.

So she tested the waters and asked: “Does this auction ever sell fakes?”

“Fakes?” Ms. Qiu cried out, then realized she was too loud and quickly lowered her voice: “Normally, no. Especially a house like Duobao Pavilion. They have a resident appraisal expert team. Under normal circumstances they would never make such a huge mistake as putting a fake up for auction.”

“That’s right. If an auction house dared to sell a fake as if it were real and it was exposed later, its reputation would be finished. Something like that almost never happens.”

Du An Rao nodded and fell silent, as if she had accepted their explanation.

Xi Jing Yue, however, did not think so. First, he believed that Du An Rao never spoke without reason. Second, what she had just said made him remember what happened back in the office of Li Zhao Yang, that PR director. She had taken one look and seen that the Qing Dynasty peacock-blue glaze porcelain displayed there was a fake.

He had not thought much of it at the time. He only assumed that Du An Rao had somehow known ahead of time that the PR director had swapped the real antique for a fake.

Thinking back now, could it be that she actually had this kind of eye for antiques and could tell real from fake at a glance?

While Xi Jing Yue was still thinking, the host on stage suddenly smiled and said: “Although this vase is very beautiful, it is not genuine.”

Ms. Qiu: “???”

Qiu Ji Chen: “???”

All the guests: “???”

Xi Jing Yue: “…”

After a brief, dead silence, the crowd suddenly exploded into noisy discussion.

“What is going on? They’re auctioning a fake? Was there a mistake in the process? Or did the appraisal experts mess up? This should count as an auction accident, right?”

“Whatever the reason, putting a fake up for sale at an auction is really unacceptable. The auction house has to give us an explanation.”

“Yeah, what exactly is going on? They owe us an explanation.”

The host seemed to have expected this reaction. He was not nervous at all. He only raised his hand with a calm smile, signaling everyone to quiet down.

“Everyone, please calm down and let me explain. This Yuan Blue-and-White Entwined Chrysanthemum Vase is indeed not the original. More exactly, it is a copy. The genuine piece was lost during wartime a hundred years ago. It is a great pity. Even now, no one knows where that treasure ended up.”

“The copy in front of you was personally reproduced a century ago by the famous ceramics master Mr. Shao. Mr. Shao loved this blue-and-white entwined chrysanthemum antique vase. When he heard that the original had been lost, he was heartbroken, and he regretted that people would never again see its beautiful structure, patterns, and shape. So he went to the museum that still had drawings of the vase and begged for a copy of the design. He then spent three full years reproducing the vase you see before you.”

The host had barely finished explaining when the hall went noisy again.

“Mr. Shao? You mean that ceramics master from a hundred years ago, Shao You Dian, Mr. Shao? He was called one of the twin greats of his era, alongside the famous traditional painting master, Grandmaster Shao!”

“One of the blue-and-white vases he made in his early years was auctioned overseas not long ago. The starting price alone was 30 million, and it finally sold for 120 million. That’s not any cheaper than a real antique!”

“So that’s how it is.” Hearing the people around them, the Qiu mother and son finally understood why the auction house would knowingly put a fake vase on the list.

Only…

“Miss Du, how did you notice this vase was a fake?”

In an instant, all the eyes around them focused on Du An Rao.

Her hand, which was picking up something, paused. Then she chuckled and said: “It’s actually because I happened to see a news story before about this vase being lost. When I saw it just now, I was wondering, wasn’t this thing reported as sadly lost? Did someone find it again? I didn’t expect there to be a Grandmaster’s reproduction involved.”

This reason sounded very reasonable and natural. Ms. Qiu still felt it could not be that simple, but since Du An Rao had already said so, she could not keep digging. She only nodded in understanding and let it go.

Only the two people sitting beside Du An Rao knew the truth.

[Of course it’s because the real one is sitting on the incense table in the main hall of my rundown temple at home, being used as a flower vase.]

Xi Jing Yue: “???”

Jiang Chang Bin: “!!!”

What the heck? Her family’s temple uses an ancient relic as a flower vase? Just how rich is she, to dare treat it like that?

Luckily, Du An Rao did not know what the two of them were thinking. Otherwise she would definitely complain that even though it was an antique, wasn’t it made as a vase in the first place? And besides, her shabby Daoist temple was itself an antique. Using an antique vase there to hold flowers, what was there to be so shocked about?

While they were still whispering about whether the vase was real or fake, some guests who already loved the form and patterns on the vase could not wait any longer and started bidding.

Because it was a Grandmaster’s piece and had the story of a lost antique attached to it, it instantly became unique in the world. Under that banner, the starting price for this vase was higher than the earlier jade ornaments and calligraphy and paintings.

“Five million.”

“Six million.”

“Seven million.”

“…”

You had to admit, the celebrity effect really worked. In just a few minutes, the vase copied by this famous Grandmaster was sold for the high price of 35 million to a rich merchant who loved collecting old objects.

The few pieces that came after were all fairly standard. Overall, the final prices did not fall below ten million, but there were no lots that went over one hundred million either.

After waiting for a long time, Du An Rao finally saw the big stone she had been thinking about nonstop.

When the dusty raw stone, covered by a glass dome, was pushed onto the stage, many people were stunned. They clearly had not expected such a shabby thing to appear among the lots.

“Next is our Lot 18, a piece of raw stone material provided by a mysterious tycoon, weighing eighteen jin…”

The host was still using stirring words to praise this very plain-looking rock to the skies, but to the people below, everything he said was less attractive than that first phrase “mysterious tycoon.”

“What kind of mysterious tycoon would collect a broken rock like that?”

“Exactly. Maybe he tried jade betting and got scammed by a stone seller. With that crack running right down the middle, this rough stone is doomed not to produce any green. Buying it is just a waste of money.”

“Boss Zhou is an expert in this field. If he says so, he can’t be wrong.”

The crowd buzzed with comments, and what the host said next only quietly confirmed their guess.

“This tycoon has only one request. Whoever wins this stone must cut it open on the spot in front of him. So, guests who are interested in this raw stone, please pay attention. Its starting price is fifty thousand.”