Chapter 5

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Li Shanshan had not established a long-term cooperation with Fengcheng Translation Agency. When orders were few and not urgent, they naturally prioritized translators signed with their own company, followed by those with long-term partnerships. Only when they had no time or couldn’t complete certain tasks would the assignments be passed on to Li Shanshan.

Wu Yue felt apologetic. “Sorry, Shanshan, I didn’t mean to make you come all this way for nothing.”

She knew Li Shanshan hadn’t gone home last night.

Suppressing her disappointment, Li Shanshan smiled. “It’s okay, Sister Wu. I just came to check. If there’s no work, I can go shopping for some things I need.”

Where to go, though?

Her face hadn’t recovered yet, and there was no rush to buy clothes.

Without hesitation, Li Shanshan left Fengcheng Translation Agency, thought for a moment, and headed to the secondhand market.

Fengcheng had no antiques market, only a secondhand market, which later evolved into a bustling market for flowers, birds, jade, and cultural curiosities.

Whether anyone had ever found a real treasure there, Li Shanshan hadn’t heard. She only knew that in the 1990s, the secondhand market did have a mix of genuine antiques, forgeries, and handicrafts.

A thousand fakes to one genuine piece.

Stepping in, the street, still bearing patches of snow, was cold and deserted—cold as the snow itself.

Not surprising at all.

Fengcheng was a third-tier city. Its location was fairly accessible, but compared to first- and second-tier cities, Fengcheng’s economy lagged far behind. At present, there was no boom in antique collecting.

Good that it hadn’t developed—that meant a higher chance of finding a bargain.

After the millennium, such chances became rare.

Li Shanshan quickened her pace.

Of course, she could authenticate antiques and jewelry. After all, in her previous life, she had been a wealthy lady for many years, constantly exposed to treasures as numerous as the stars.

To avoid being deceived and to speak knowledgeably about antiques and jewelry in social settings, she had to study them herself.

She had been personally tutored by Zhou Yuqi, inheriting his profound expertise.

That was an invisible treasure.

Though she could not bring back gold, silver, or jewels after rebirth, she did bring with her a vast reservoir of knowledge.

Pausing, Li Shanshan stopped at a stall selling various old ceramics. She quickly scanned the items and found most were cups, plates, bowls, and dishes, as well as vases and tea caddies, all looking very old, almost like antiques.

The stall owner, a burly man wrapped in a military coat with his hands hidden in his sleeves, sat confidently on a small stool. Seeing Li Shanshan, he loudly called out, “Little lady, all these old ceramics come from different households. Maybe some are real antiques. Everything’s twenty yuan a piece, fair to all. If you find a genuine antique and resell it, you’ll make a fortune.”

Li Shanshan pursed her lips. “Then why haven’t you resold any?”

The man chuckled, “I’m not here to get rich selling antiques. I’m the supplier; you’re the buyer.”

In truth, he had had several items authenticated, but each time what he bought were ordinary old pieces, the oldest from the Republic of China era—no antiques at all. After a few rounds, he gave up the hassle, just collecting secondhand goods and artificially aged ceramics, hoping willing buyers would come.

He bought pieces for three to five yuan and sold them at twenty, earning a nice profit.

Li Shanshan squatted down. “This tea caddy is nice, and that vase is pretty too. If you put some wintersweet flowers in it, it would look beautiful.”

The man sensed a sale coming, stretched his hands out of his sleeves, and eagerly responded, “Right, right, little lady, you’re right. Look around, pick whichever you like best—I’ll sell it to you.”

He thought Li Shanshan was just a young girl playing around.

No one expected her to be a seasoned collector.

Li Shanshan picked up the ceramics one by one, turning them over in her hands. After a moment, she took out a hundred yuan and handed it to him. “I’ll choose five pieces, and I pick freely.”

The man quickly took the money. “Alright, pick whatever you want.”

Li Shanshan first chose a small sky-blue cup and its saucer. “Does this count as one piece?”

“Counts!” He had bought it for five yuan.

“Then I want this little bowl, it’s so delicate.” After settling on the first item, she put it in her canvas bag, then picked a small white teapot. “This can be used as a teapot.”

She also selected a pair of palm-sized porcelain mandarin ducks.

The man quickly said, “You’ve picked four items already, only one more allowed.”

That pair of ducks had cost him ten yuan.

Li Shanshan acknowledged with an “oh,” carefully picked a colorful dragon-patterned plate, and said, “That’s all.”

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Among these, only the sky-blue glazed cup and saucer were from the Song Dynasty, made by the Jun kiln, one of the five famous kilns.

A similar set had appeared in an overseas auction in 1994, fetching just over eight thousand dollars. Twenty or thirty years later, the price had risen significantly, now worth seven or eight million yuan.

Apparently, there was a similar set in the Beijing Museum.

Li Shanshan’s purchase was also authentic, in excellent condition, though not rare enough to be considered a precious cultural relic.

For her, this was already a gain.

The others were just fillers.

Though fillers, they were finely made Republic-era replicas.

A triumphant first outing!

Seeing Li Shanshan’s canvas bag couldn’t hold all the ceramics, the man who had made a small profit gave her a small bamboo basket lined with a worn cloth. “Here, little lady, this is for you.”

Li Shanshan smiled sweetly. “Thank you, uncle.”

She hadn’t gone far when another stall owner called out to her.

It was too cold, too few customers, and he was nearly frozen stiff with no sales. Could he not be desperate?

Seeing such a young girl spend a hundred yuan on a few clearly aged but fake ceramics, he was envious and thought Li Shanshan easy to deceive.

Li Shanshan was in a good mood after her lucky find and approached the stall.

This vendor’s goods were a jumble: ceramics, paintings, cultural trinkets, jewelry, wood carvings, stone engravings—everything was there.

Many items were obviously fake.

The owner, a little old man, held up a string of bright red beads. “These are rubies. Girls wearing them on their wrists look beautiful! Want one? Ten yuan a string.”

Li Shanshan shook her head. “I don’t like them. Let me look at something else.”

They weren’t rubies at all, but agate, which was not valuable now or in the foreseeable future.

Not the kind of investment Li Shanshan was interested in.

She sifted through a pile of jewelry, posing as a young girl fond of accessories, quickly selecting a ring and a pair of earrings. “Boss, how much for these two?”

The man glanced at them.

The earrings were exquisite, copper hooks holding synthetic oval rubies. The ring’s band was blackened and set with a finger-sized Ceylon diamond, somewhat dirty.

Probably from the same source.

He muttered about bad luck, saying his mother had once been a servant for a big capitalist family. When dismissed, she was given some worthless jewelry, which, upon appraisal, turned out to be fake—none genuine.

He had picked a few pieces for appraisal and confirmed they were real.

“The ring’s a diamond, thirty yuan,” the man boasted shamelessly. “The earrings are cheap—twenty.”

Li Shanshan was shocked. “Diamond?”

“Yes, Ceylon diamond, real, old stuff, from a capitalist family,” he bluffed, having heard that only capitalists had diamonds years ago.

Li Shanshan nearly laughed out loud.

Ceylon diamond was just a synonym for fake diamonds.

However, the diamond on the ring was not a Ceylon diamond but a genuine old-cut cushion-shaped South African white diamond, just covered in grime, masking its true luster.

The gemstone earrings were authentic too.

Feigning belief, Li Shanshan took out fifty yuan and handed it to him.

After pocketing the money, she continued browsing.

The old man had quite a few genuine items.

Clearly, he was clueless, treating real and fake items indiscriminately.

Li Shanshan then picked a saddle-shaped ring and a clasp from a pile of dyed green fake jadeite accessories. He didn’t recognize these as genuine jadeite and charged only fifteen yuan.

Was the old man too kind?

Li Shanshan happily rummaged through his stall and soon found a coral bead necklace and a coral bracelet, both claimed to be agate but clearly from a wealthy household, spending only forty-five yuan in total.

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The old man was delighted. “Girl, keep going, keep going. Girls should buy lots of jewelry.”

He turned and pulled out a blue woven bag from behind, spilling out a heap of assorted jewelry.

Brightly colored, various materials intertwined chaotically.

Clearly worthless; good items wouldn’t be tangled together like this.

The ceramic seller laughed at him, “Old Hu, where do you get your goods? Souvenirs from the south? I see several plastic bangles. The little lady is honestly buying; don’t fool her too much.”

“Go away, when have I fooled any girl? These are all good stuff,” Old Hu denied.

And indeed, some were good.

Li Shanshan spotted a jade bangle buried underneath—not a deep green but evenly green all over, of excellent quality, though lacking modern polishing, dry-looking, not shiny.

“How much for these colorful pieces?” she asked casually.

Old Hu boasted, “The bangles and necklaces are thirty-one pieces; rings and earrings are ten yuan each.”

Li Shanshan pouted. “That’s expensive.”

“Not at all! Look how pretty these are.” Having caught a big customer, Old Hu worried she might leave, so when Li Shanshan still hesitated, he bit his lip and lowered the price. “If you buy five pieces of bangles and necklaces, I’ll charge you a hundred yuan total—just twenty yuan each. You won’t find a better deal.”

“Alright!” Li Shanshan happily chose three bangles and two South Red agate necklaces.

Besides the jade bangle she noticed first, the other two bangles were genuine as well—one made of Hetian white jade, the other icy jade with flower-like inclusions.

Based on current market prices, they were worth several thousand yuan.

Li Shanshan paid Old Hu a hundred yuan.

Old Hu’s smile nearly split his face.

“Pick more, pick more. You’re so pretty; jewelry will look even better on you.” After looking closely, he realized the girl’s delicate features and rosy lips and teeth.

Unfortunately, her face was chapped, red and dark, diminishing her beauty.

Li Shanshan shook her head repeatedly. “No, no, I’ve already spent too much.”

She casually packed her items into the canvas bag.

Sensing her hesitation, Old Hu immediately said, “Money’s just a thing; old goes away, new comes in. You spent money, but you bought things to take home! No loss. Little lady, you can buy some gifts for your family here. They’ll be happy and won’t think you wasted money.”

Li Shanshan seemed persuaded and picked a jade figurine, a jade bird, and a painting of a giant prawn, which Old Hu claimed was an authentic Qi Baishi masterpiece.

She spent another hundred yuan.

Among these three, two were genuine antiques—the Shang Dynasty jade bird and the Warring States jade figurine—while the prawn painting was not authentic.

Having bought so many good things from the old man’s stall, Li Shanshan smiled brightly, her eyes full of joy like the spring flowers and autumn moon. “Thank you, sir. I’m leaving now. I’ll come again next time.”

If the old man’s taste remained so sharp, she would surely return.

Before entering the market, Li Shanshan had never expected to find such bargains.

So the tales of easy finds in the ’80s and ’90s were not myths!

Would she find even better things next?

She grew more excited.

Walking deeper, she suddenly noticed a stall specializing in jadeite, but all the pieces were B or C-grade—no A-grade at all.

The owner greeted her, claiming ten yuan each, but Li Shanshan smiled politely and declined. “I just bought a lot from Grandpa Hu. I can’t buy more now, just browsing.”

She visited five or six more stalls but found no opportunity to buy.

Seems luck was limited in time.

Li Shanshan felt no disappointment. As she prepared to leave, a piece at the innermost stall caught her eye, and she instinctively approached.

The Qianlong-era famille rose “Nine Peaches” celestial globe vase that once adorned her living room to attract romance—how could it be here?