Chapter 158: Appraisal
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According to Fatty Wang, he had originally planned to become a full-time househusband while Deputy General Manager Yao stayed home during her pregnancy, taking care of her around the clock.
Because they had their child relatively late in life, Deputy General Manager Yao was especially devoted to the baby.
She simply resigned from her job and stayed home to rest until she had safely given birth. Only then would she return to her regular work.
She was highly career-minded, but in her eyes, no career, however successful, could compare with the importance of the child growing inside her.
In any case, for the two of them, even if they stopped working and striving for the rest of their lives, a steady stream of rental income would still pour into their wallets, enough to support their extravagant daily spending. Taking a year off was hardly a serious matter.
Just as Fatty Wang was preparing to provide Deputy General Manager Yao with meticulous care and fulfill his duties as both a househusband and a husband, something completely unexpected happened.
Whether he brought her tea or poured her water, she protested vehemently.
Most absurd of all, one morning he tried to prepare breakfast for her, only to make her unhappy instead.
According to Deputy General Manager Yao, the greatest contributor in their household was not her, but Fatty Wang. If anyone was to be waited on, it should be her waiting on him—not the other way around.
Fatty Wang was utterly stunned when he heard this.
Why was it that in other families, pregnant women were pampered by their husbands, with the wives’ status rising and the husbands’ status falling, while in his own home the pregnant woman had somehow become the one taking care of her husband?
From then on, it was as though the roles of expectant mother and expectant father had been reversed. Fatty Wang inexplicably began enjoying a blissful life in which he merely had to reach out for his clothes and open his mouth for his meals. Whatever he wanted to eat or drink, he did not need to lift a finger; Deputy General Manager Yao would simply feed it to him.
When the house became dirty, he did not even need to say a word. Deputy General Manager Yao would immediately pick up the broom and mop and clean the entire place until it was spotless, without leaving behind even a speck of dust. She was guaranteed to do a better job than a professional housekeeper.
After living humbly for so many years, Fatty Wang had long grown accustomed to being the oppressed and exploited party. Suddenly changing from the one who served others into the one being served, he was not quite able to adjust to the psychological reversal at first.
But as time passed, Fatty Wang gradually began to enjoy this blissful life in which Heaven was number one and he was number two.
As he put it, if one could enjoy such a life for even a single day, one should make the most of it. Was it not a good thing to have someone willing to wait on him hand and foot?
Chang Yu listened to Fatty Wang’s account with helpless amusement and could only sigh at the endless marvels of the world.
In other families, whenever the wife became pregnant, her status rose sharply while her husband’s fell just as sharply.
But in Fatty Wang’s case, the situation had been reversed completely. It truly was an extraordinary spectacle.
Fortunately, Deputy General Manager Yao had not been pregnant for long, and her lower abdomen had not yet begun to show. Otherwise, seeing her serve her husband while carrying a large belly would have looked strange no matter how one viewed it.
While they were chatting, Deputy General Manager Yao finished cutting the fruit, arranged it neatly on a platter, and carried it over to the coffee table.
“Xiaoyu, come and have some fruit,” she called warmly, treating Chang Yu like a close friend or relative and showing him extraordinary familiarity.
Ever since Chang Yu had helped Deputy General Manager Yao conceive, her smile became exceptionally radiant whenever she saw him, making Chang Yu feel inexplicably uneasy.
Anyone unaware of the circumstances might have thought the two of them were hiding some little secret.
Looking at the neatly arranged assortment of fruit before him, Chang Yu picked up a slice of watermelon and put it into his mouth.
Mmm... this melon was really sweet!
What a deliciously juicy piece of fruit!
On the other side, Fatty Wang showed no intention of eating the fruit himself. He merely cast Deputy General Manager Yao a casual glance, then opened his mouth.
Deputy General Manager Yao immediately understood what he meant. Smiling brightly, she picked up a grape and placed it into Fatty Wang’s mouth, watching contentedly as he chewed and swallowed it.
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Brother Wang, you are really getting carried away!
Having witnessed everything, Chang Yu suddenly felt that the melon in his mouth had lost all its sweetness, and that life was filled with darkness.
He had lived for twenty years and been single for twenty years, yet today he had been forcibly fed a plateful of romantic affection by a middle-aged couple.
After suffering in silence all his life, Old Wang had finally turned the tables. Chang Yu should have been happy for him.
Yet for some reason, his feelings were hopelessly complicated, and he could not bring himself to feel happy at all.
He hurriedly finished the melon and did his best to keep his eyes from straying toward Fatty Wang.
“Brother Wang, I’m done eating. When are we leaving?” he asked.
“All right, then let’s go now.” Fatty Wang had no idea that his little display had inflicted such serious psychological damage on Chang Yu. He merely assumed that Chang Yu was in a hurry.
Fatty Wang’s friend owned an antiques shop not far from his home. Chang Yu drove for only twenty minutes before they arrived.
The antiques shop was quite large, with two floors and a usable area of more than two hundred square meters. All kinds of traditional collectibles were displayed inside, in an impressive variety.
Two apprentices warmly welcomed Chang Yu and Fatty Wang at the entrance.
“What would you two gentlemen like to choose? Porcelain, jade, or calligraphy and paintings?”
“We’re here to see your master, not to buy anything. I spoke to him on the phone earlier,” Fatty Wang replied.
The apprentices’ enthusiasm did not diminish in the slightest. They led the two men toward the stairs.
“Master is upstairs. Esteemed guests, you may go up and find him.”
The two men followed the stairs to the second floor. It was no smaller than the floor below, but it appeared far more spacious. Only a small portion of the collection was displayed there, along with several writing desks and a solid-wood sofa.
Compared with the strong commercial atmosphere downstairs, the second floor had a much more domestic feel. Clearly, it was mainly used for living and resting.
“Old Wang, you’ve arrived.”
A lean, sharp-eyed middle-aged man sat behind a writing desk and greeted Fatty Wang.
Chang Yu immediately noticed that the man held a carving knife in one hand and a piece of yellow stone in the other. He was repeatedly carving something into it.
“Good heavens! That is a huge piece of Tianhuang stone. It’s almost as big as an egg!”
Tianhuang stone was priceless. There had long been a saying in antique circles that an ounce of Tianhuang was worth ten ounces of gold. It was certainly not something ordinary people could afford to collect.
Chang Yu recognized at a glance that the yellow stone in the middle-aged man’s hand was the legendary Tianhuang stone.
That single piece alone was enough to buy a luxurious villa in H City.
Fatty Wang’s friend was no ordinary man. He could afford to work with such a precious material, Chang Yu thought.
“I’ve brought my friend here,” Fatty Wang said, pointing at Chang Yu behind him. “I’ll have to trouble you to examine something for him in a moment.”
Upon hearing this, the middle-aged man set down his carving knife and the Tianhuang stone, then beckoned Chang Yu over.
“I hear this young friend has an authentic work by Master Yang Shoujing?”
Chang Yu hurried forward and handed the wooden box he was carrying to the middle-aged man.
“A box made of rosewood. Quite refined,” the middle-aged man remarked as he accepted it and gently ran his hand over the surface, a smile appearing on his face.
After unfolding the calligraphy and studying it repeatedly for quite some time, the middle-aged man finally reached his conclusion.
“It’s genuine.”
“The paper has aged naturally. It was not artificially antiqued, and the handwriting is unquestionably Master Yang Shoujing’s.”
“If it had been fabricated, there would inevitably be flaws, large or small. But this piece is seamless and naturally harmonious throughout. There is no doubt that it is authentic.”
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“My friend is no ordinary expert. Very few items he has appraised have ever turned out to be misidentified. In the antiques trade, he is a true authority, and he is especially famous among collectors in H Province,” Fatty Wang explained.
“When he was young, he studied for several years under several of the museum’s grandmasters of antiques. He has deep experience and an excellent eye. If he says your calligraphy is genuine, then it is certainly genuine.”
“Whew...” Chang Yu finally let out a long breath. “It’s genuine, that’s all that matters. It’s genuine!”
He had been terrified that the calligraphy Old Pei had given him might be fake. If that had been the case, he might have lost every last pair of trousers he owned trying to repay the debt.
“Master, thank you so much,” Chang Yu said sincerely.
“May I ask where you obtained this piece, and how much you paid for it?” the middle-aged man asked.
“Old Pei left it with me,” Chang Yu replied.
“So it came from Old Pei.” A look of understanding appeared on the middle-aged man’s face. “He is a true master collector, with countless fine pieces in his possession. Compared with him, my meager expertise is nothing more than showing off my axe before Lu Ban.”
“You know him?” Chang Yu asked in surprise.
“Know him? The Tianhuang stone I’m holding was carved for him!” The middle-aged man pointed to the stone.
“Since you acquired this calligraphy from Old Pei, you have even less reason to worry that it is fake. Old Pei’s character and integrity are famous throughout the antiques world. He is regarded as a rare source of purity in our trade.”
“You never need to worry about being cheated by him. Anything you buy from him will certainly be genuine. Given his character, he would never deliberately sell you a counterfeit—and he would consider it beneath him to do so.”
“This calligraphy by Master Yang Shoujing could conservatively be valued at three hundred thousand. If you keep it for another ten or twenty years, it still has room to appreciate. By the way, would you be willing to part with it? I’m prepared to pay three hundred thousand.”
Good heavens!
Chang Yu instinctively swallowed. His heart pounded violently, and he was so stunned that he could barely think.
Was money really this easy to earn nowadays?
How had a piece of calligraphy valued at two hundred thousand in someone else’s hands become worth three hundred thousand the moment it reached his?
He could make a hundred thousand in profit in the blink of an eye?
Even in the antiques business, there had to be some limit to how easily money could be made!
“Forget it. This calligraphy isn’t mine; it belongs to Old Pei. He merely left it in my care for the time being.” Chang Yu rejected the middle-aged man’s offer without much hesitation.
He still remembered Old Pei repeatedly instructing him, before Chang Yu left his home, to take good care of the calligraphy. Old Pei intended to redeem it once he had the money. If Chang Yu sold it behind his back, how would he explain himself afterward?
If the calligraphy had belonged to him, he might not have hesitated at all. He would have sold it to the middle-aged man on the spot and pocketed the three hundred thousand with ease.
But the problem was that it did not belong to him.
So he refused.
“What a pity. These four characters, ‘Noble Righteous Spirit,’ written by Master Yang Shoujing, are truly grand and magnificent, with a force that seems to pierce the heavens. It is undoubtedly an outstanding work,” the middle-aged man said regretfully.
“By the way, I forgot to ask earlier. What is your relationship with Old Pei?” he asked again.
“We have only met twice,” Chang Yu answered honestly. “Do you know what kind of person he is? Judging from his bearing, he doesn’t seem like an ordinary man.”
End of chapter
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