Elder Fu Yaoshi inspected the new haul at Buried Treasure. Every week, he would travel into Yide to inspect the items that were pawned to the shop. Dun Mao had a good eye, but it was more difficult to spot fakes as more were spread through the market. Scammers were targeting the growing elite class and even museums.
“Little Yun hasn’t stopped by?” Elder Fu Yaoshi asked, he missed seeing the interesting items that the doctor would bring in.
“Dr. Li has been busy with work and traveling,” said Dun Mao who regularly shopped around at Caoben Street area and chatted with Bizi about Li Yun’s whereabouts. “His clinic hours has been sporadic.”
“I wonder if he got my invitation for the Antique Merchant Tour.”
Just as they were talking about him, Li Yun walked into the store with a large package. He had picked up some items on his way to the antique store, but nothing that appeared to have a portal like the compass or the false god statue.
“Speaking of the devil,” Elder Fu Yaoshi remarked. “How have you been?”
“Dr. Li! You have quite a bit of collection!” Dun Mao wasn’t surprised that Li Yun had many antiques with him. However, he would never have guessed that they were all picked up by Li Yun just on the short walk from the car to the antique shop.
“Too busy with work,” Li Yun replied. “How are you, Elder Fu and Mr. Dun?”
“We are good. I saw your live stream while you were in the States. Did you find anything interesting?”
Li Yun went to a lot of different museums while he was in the States. There were very few museums that allowed him to touch the paintings. While the guards looked away, he discretely brushed his hand against the artwork. He made sure to touch the ones that turn off alarms during opening hours. Otherwise, the security guards would have kicked him out. Like most museums, less than half of the paintings resonated with Qivi. It wasn’t to say that the ones that didn’t resonate were fakes. Embedding Qi into a piece of artifact required a high level of skill, talent, and emotional resonance.
“The museums there aren’t much different from the ones here,” said Li Yun. It wasn’t like Li Yun hadn’t seen a work by foreign artists. A good portion of the artwork in Imperial City was from foreign artists.
“How about the art style?” asked Elder Fu Yaoshi.
“I am not too familiar with artworks in general,” said Li Yun. “Do Elder know much about the main differences?”
“I only dabble on the subject, but I would say the biggest difference in our paintings versus the others is how we see space,” Elder Fu Yaoshi explained. “Many artists in ancient China focused on designing the white or void of the overall composition based on Daoist principles. The void itself has meaning, a realm that exists between humanity and divinity.”
“Ah, I see,” Li Yun thought that there were many landscape paintings where the void was the center of the painting. “In contrast, western art likes to focus on the subject and object itself?”
“It’s a broad generalization, but that’s the main difference,” said Elder Fu Yaoshi.
Li Yun thought about the style. A landscape painting by Cezanne would have a heavy layering of brushstrokes that represented the void. The interplay of brush strokes and color played around with different concepts of light and perspectives. In contrast, an ink painting by Wang Hui focused on retaining the empty space to display the natural coloring of the medium and paper. The overall composition ignored the natural representation of light, shadows, and color.
It was a fascinating topic. Artists, often moreso than mathematicians and scientists, had ways to view the world that were quite magical and imaginative. Unfortunately, Li Yun’s expertise lay in the composition of character strokes, not the brush strokes. Oil paintings had layers and heavy brushstrokes that each represented different meanings and intent. Meanwhile, calligraphy paintings consisted of an endless void of thoughts that could consume the viewer.
“Is that the reason why the ancients had an obsessive preoccupation with tombs?” Li Yun asked.
“Hm… Maybe?” Asked Fu Yaoshi.
Carving out spaces in the landscape or building objects in the landscape all changed the overall feel of the spaces and landscape. With his understanding of feng shui, it seemed that any changes would affect the outcome of the future.
“The merchant tour had been in town for a few days, are you interested in looking around?” Elder Fu Yaoshi bought up his main intention.
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Li Yun nodded. With an expert by his side, Li Yun could use him as a reference while checking all the items with Jing Sonar. Elder Fu Yaoshi and Li Yun left the store to visit the Antique Merchant Tour.
The merchant tour was a group of traveling antique merchants who traveled the country to trade between other merchants and customers. The particular tour was one of the biggest exhibits in the country. Elder Fu Yaoshi excitedly glowed at the sight of the large plaza lined with antique vendors.
“Master, senior Li Yun,” Peng Shi waved his arms to grab the attention of the two new arrivals.
Peng Shi lifted his camera on his left hand and waited for them to arrive. He had arrived early to scope out potential sites for their video shoot. Elder Fu Yaoshi wanted to broadcast his treasure-hunting broadcast with Li Yun as a guest.
“Little Shi, did you find anything interesting?” asked Elder Fu Yaoshi.
“I think we can start with the ceramic areas,” said Peng Shi. “There doesn’t seem to be a lot of fakes.” Peng Shi turned to Li Yun, who looked distracted. “Senior Li?”
“Hm?” Li Yun looked back to look at Peng Shi. He had been using Jing Sonar to scope out the surrounding. To his amazement, the various artifacts and items all displayed different colors and densities. It felt like looking at a surrealist painting. However, there was one particular item that interested him. “Can we stop by that stall over there?”
Li Yun pointed to a stall filled with various artifacts. The three picked up their pace toward the stall and were greeted by an enthusiastic vendor.
“Elder Fu Yaoshi, please look around,” the vendor said as he motioned his hands over all the most expensive items. “I just got these from an estate sale from a prominent family in the northeast region.”
Street vendors attended estate sales to buy the leftover lots. The higher-value items were usually taken up by auction houses. Once in a while, the vendors would strike gold and get items that were overlooked by the appraiser.
“Little Yun, what items are you interested in?” asked Elder Fu Yaoshi.
The presence of Fu Yaoshi was helpful in appraising items, but it also made it difficult to bargain with vendors. Li Yun was interested in a sculpted ivory-colored figurine, but he wasn’t sure of its value. Many vendors left items out without prices to see if the customers were willing to pay a high price for them.
“I’m just looking to buy a graduation gift for my girlfriend,” said Li Yun.
“Ah, you mean the young Ms. Song?” asked Elder Fu Yaoshi. He had started watching her livestream segment on archeology. “Buying her an artifact would be appropriate but aren’t you good at crafting items?”
“S***, I forgot he also watched my livestream,” Li Yun thought, scrambling to come up with another method to haggle. “I usually carve her items, so I want it to be a bit different for graduation,” Li Yun replied. It wasn’t like he lacked money, but he didn’t like to pay more than he needed to. “Which items do you think are appropriate?”
Elder Fu Faoshi looked through the various trinkets and figurines. The collector liked pretty items with carved detailings, but some of the items were obviously cast from a mold. Many didn’t look impressive, so he wondered why Li Yun specifically chose the stall. He saw three pieces that looked hand-crafted. His eyebrow narrowed onto one of the particular figurines of a bird. It was small and could fit into the palm of his hand. He took out a jeweler's loupe and looked closely at the stone.
“This might be nephrite,” Elder Fu Yaoshi determined. “The aging marks on the piece are deceiving. It’s actually quite well preserved for something that could be crafted thousand years ago.”
“Really?” The vendor sounded excited. “What would you say in the market value?”
“It really depends on the appropriate collector. You could put it up on TeeBee shop for 20,000 yuan for wait for years before the interested buyer finds it. Or you could put it for 3,000-5,000 yuan and it could be sold within the year.”
There was a long-term and short-term strategy for buying and selling artifacts. Auction houses had many advantages like high-end clients, big warehouse storage, and knowledgeable experts. For street vendors with limited storage, they preferred the short-term strategy.
“Elder Fu Yaoshi, if you’re interested, I can sell you this condor figurine for 3,000 yuan,” the vendor suggested. He was hoping it could be sold for 500, so 3,000 yuan would net him 100x times his initial investment.
Elder Fu Yaoshi knew the vendor would be making a good profit but if he resold it in-store for 24k, it was also possible for him to make a decent profit in the next few years. However, there was a risk that no buyers would be interested enough to buy the artifact or for the value of the artifact to decrease over time.
“Why do you think it’s a condor?” Li Yun asked the vendor.
“Oh, just by the face of its head and curved beak,” the vendor replied, although it was actually because it sounds expensive.
“Little Yun, you don’t think it’s a condor?” asked Fu Yaoshi.
Li Yun was 99% sure the bird was the cross-beak sparrow caged in the sculptor’s house when he used Qivi, but it was too specific. He wouldn’t be able to explain how he knew. Over time, the beak had smoothed out so the lower portion of the offset wasn’t visible.
Li Yun shook his head. “I don’t know much about birds, but my grandfather likes bird-watching from the courtyard. It looks like a regular sparrow with an abnormal beak to me.”
The vendor laughed. “Young sir knows how to joke around. Elder Fu Yaoshi, are you going to buy it?”
“Elder Fu Yaoshi, if you don’t mind, can I buy it?” asked Li Yun.
The elder Fu Yaoshi turned over the figurine to Li Yun. “This would make a lovely gift for your girlfriend.”
Li Yun nodded and paid the vendor 3k yuan from his phone. He brushed softly against the soft stone and then put the stone in his pocket. The overall composition of the material was interesting, but Li Yun was more interested to know if there was a portal hidden inside. Based on his previous experiment with spirit detention, it was best to experiment with it at home.
Other than the carved sparrow figurine, there was nothing else that appeared to have a portal. The strange and ever-changing coloring of the cognitive map of the Jing Sonar made it difficult to locate antique treasures. It was better to touch the item and scan the overall structure.