Chapter 39: A Muddled 'Treasure'

  "This little girl says there's something wrong with this painting?"

  "Impossible! Shi Laoshi is an expert in cultural relic appraisal hired by Antique City. If he said so, how could it be fake?"

  "It's also, she's just a little girl, what can she understand, nonsense."

  "No, no, the Qing dynasty's 'literary inquisition' was indeed very severe, that's a crime punishable by extermination of nine generations! I think this painting is probably an imitation."

  "That's right, this little girl is quite insightful. I said she came rushing over with a fierce momentum at the beginning, and it wouldn't be for no reason that she would suddenly turn against her own side. It turns out there was another reason. Hmph, let's just watch the show."

  The shop owner's face stiffened, his eyes darting to the side. After hearing Tao Baobao's words, the expert surnamed Shi looked at the painting again, then shook his head at him, but it was unclear what he meant.

  However, Tao Bao knew that experts also come in many varieties, and one type is those who only know how to talk on paper, they may sound very convincing on TV, but in reality, they have no practical experience.

  After a pause, Tao Bao picked up another calligraphy from the ground and looked at the shop owner with an old and steady gaze: "I remember that each dynasty in China had strict regulations regarding taboos. Tang Taizong Li Shimin did not avoid 'min' but avoided 'shi'. Even after five generations of emperors, people of the Tang Dynasty, out of caution, habit, and respect for Tang Taizong, still followed this taboo without fail. Whenever they encountered the character 'shi', they would remove one stroke from it."

  "However, the character '世' in this calligraphy by Yan Zhenqing is intact. Hehe, Yan Zhenqing is indeed a master of calligraphy, it takes great courage to write this character under the crime of being beheaded and having his family exterminated. You tell me, doesn't this painting become even more valuable?" Tao Baobao's voice had already taken on a hint of coldness by this point.

  "And here's this Jun kiln basin." Taobao picked out the flower pot shards from the shattered glass with his hands,

  "If I'm not mistaken, its caliber should be 19.2CM, height 17.1CM, Jun kiln sky blue and red glaze dou-style flower pot, an old thing from the Northern Song Dynasty, hmm, hmm, really good, really beautiful, absolutely no worse than those two calligraphy paintings before."

  Want to know how I knew its size? Because the Taipei Palace Museum also has a collection of the same Jun kiln, almost identical! Hehe, if they knew that the one in their museum was fake and this one is real, I wonder what expression they would have. Tao Baobao sneered.

  Next to him, someone with good news connected his laptop to a wireless network card and searched on Baidu. He was surprised and told everyone: "This girl is right, the Palace Museum in Taipei indeed has an identical Jun kiln flower pot."

  The crowd was slightly restless.

  Ignoring the chaotic scene, Tao Baobao picked up a broken bamboo tube and flipped it back and forth in his hand. "Hmmm, let's talk about this bamboo carving again. Ah, a work by Mei Ling Shanren, someone familiar with bamboo carvings should know him. His works are renowned for their intricate craftsmanship and harmonious composition. But yours... the patterns on the tube are messy and sloppy, a real masterpiece, indeed a treasure."

  The boss's face turned red and white alternately.

  Someone burst out laughing: "A mess like this is still called a treasure?"

  Wu Bin suddenly came to his senses and said, "Don't you understand? As the saying goes, 'rarity is precious.' This bamboo carving must be the most embarrassing work of Mei Ling Mountain's life, but before he could destroy it, it flowed into the market. So, this must be a treasure worth a city."

  The sentence suddenly made everyone on the scene burst out laughing.

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