"My Jade Buddha!" the beauty exclaimed, quickly crouching down to pick up the fragments.
"My apologies, beautiful lady, I didn't do it on purpose."
Li Yang, regaining his senses, immediately bent down to help the beauty gather the pieces.
When he saw the beauty before him, his expression froze on the spot.
The beauty was as beautiful as a celestial being, no different from the female stars on television. She was wearing a low-cut, hip-hugging dress, revealing her cleavage. From this angle, one could also see her black lace undergarments and two plump mounds...
In addition, the beauty wore high heels, had a slender and graceful figure, and was curvaceous all over. Her pair of straight, jade-like legs evoked beautiful fantasies.
"Hey, how can you walk like that? Can't you see someone coming?"
The beauty's indignant voice jolted Li Yang back to reality.
When he turned his head, he saw the beauty looking at him with disdain, pinching her nose and saying, "Where did this stinky beggar come from? Can't you watch where you're going?"
Then, she looked at the fragments she had picked up and soon wore a sorrowful expression again. "Do you know how important this is to me?"
"Now that you've ruined it all, you'll pay for my Jade Buddha."
"Beautiful lady, I..."
As Li Yang was about to explain, his peripheral vision caught sight of the Jade Buddha in the beauty's hand. His eyes flashed with golden light, and a dialogue box reappeared on the Jade Buddha.
"Shattered Tang Dynasty Mutton-Fat Jade Buddha, modern imitation, valued at three hundred yuan."
Fake?
Li Yang turned back. Seeing the beauty so sad, he gently patted her shoulder, took out the remaining three hundred yuan he had, and handed it to the beauty, saying, "Beautiful lady, it's all my fault, I'll pay you."
"You... what do you mean by that?"
The beauty, still immersed in sadness, was stunned when she saw the three hundred yuan in Li Yang's hand!
"Didn't you ask me to pay? This is the compensation," Li Yang said casually.
"Do you... do you know how much this Jade Buddha is worth? This is a jade artifact exclusively used by the Tang Dynasty royalty, crafted from pure high-ancient mutton-fat jade. I bought it for thirty million, and you want to dismiss me with three hundred yuan?" the beauty said angrily.
She finally realized that this young man was asking for a beating.
"How much?"
Li Yang was shocked on the spot!
He chuckled awkwardly, looked at the fragments in the beauty's hand, and said, "Your Jade Buddha is fake, it's not worth much at all, at most three hundred yuan."
"If you don't believe me, you can look at the cross-section of the Jade Buddha. If it's real mutton-fat jade, the inside and outside should be uniform. Furthermore, high-purity mutton-fat jade has no impurities."
"But the interior of your Jade Buddha is full of black spots, clearly impure, and made of inferior jade."
Li Yang was born into an antique-collecting family and had some understanding of the characteristics of antiques.
Coupled with the help of his golden finger, this made him as effective as a tiger with wings in appraising treasures. He could tell the authenticity and origin of antiques at a glance and explain it thoroughly.
This made the beauty's expression falter. She picked up the Jade Buddha and examined it carefully, discovering that there were indeed problems with the jade's interior.
She had had this Jade Buddha appraised by a renowned appraisal master in Tianjiang City, and not just once, before she had any doubts.
But she never expected this Jade Buddha to be fake.
"Beautiful lady, it seems you've been tricked. The surface of this Jade Buddha is merely a layer of jade casing, and it's not old. The patina is slightly shiny, which clearly indicates something is wrong. It's just a fine imitation," Li Yang explained with a smile.
"How could this be? If I lose this Jade Buddha, won't my family's antique shop be ruined?"
The beauty became anxious, a hint of panic in her eyes, her heart pounding like a drum against her chest.
A moment later, she suddenly looked at Li Yang, a glimmer of hope on her face.
Without any disdain, she grabbed Li Yang's arm and smiled, "Handsome, thank you for helping me expose the truth about the antique just now. If I had taken the fake antique back, the consequences would have been even more severe."
"You're welcome, beautiful lady. So, these three hundred yuan..."
"You don't need to compensate me. Could you do me a favor?" The beauty pushed the money back into Li Yang's hand and asked seriously.
"What favor?" Li Yang asked, confused.
"Accompany me to choose an antique, preferably one like this Jade Buddha, as long as it's real," the beauty said quickly.
She could tell that although this handsome young man was young, his appraisal skills were extraordinary.
He had only taken a glance just now and had analyzed the authenticity, origin, and forgery methods of this Jade Buddha. This was definitely not something an ordinary person could do.
"This..."
Li Yang hesitated slightly.
He thought about it carefully. Since he was going to the antique street anyway, he might as well help her as a form of compensation.
On the way, the beauty introduced herself. Her name was Tang Xinyu, and her family was in the antique business. However, some recent events had led to a large amount of debt.
Today, she had bid on this Jade Buddha worth thirty million to save her family from crisis, but unexpectedly, the Buddha statue was fake.
"What about you? Your appraisal skills are so high, what do you do?" Tang Xinyu asked curiously.
Li Yang smiled bitterly and remained silent.
Soon after, they appeared together on Jiangcheng City's largest antique street.
Tang Xinyu led Li Yang to an antique shop called "Han Bao Zhai." This antique shop had three floors, resembling a traditional Chinese architectural building. The entire building was made of solid wood, with intricate carvings, making it quite valuable.
"Li Yang, I'm quite familiar with the owner of this shop. Let's browse here," Tang Xinyu said gently, looking at Li Yang.
"Okay!"
Li Yang nodded in agreement and followed Tang Xinyu inside.
He saw that the interior of the shop was luxuriously decorated, and even the shelves were made of rosewood, indicating the owner's considerable wealth!
The shop was crowded with people and very busy. This shop was considered the largest antique shop on the entire street.
"Old Xu~"
Tang Xinyu led Li Yang to the counter and greeted a middle-aged man in a Tang suit behind the counter with a smile.
"Oh, a rare visitor! Miss Tang, why have you come?"
The middle-aged boss looked up and saw it was Miss Tang, his face immediately lit up with joy. But when he saw the dirt-covered Li Yang behind her, his face was filled with disdain, and he couldn't help but pinch his nose, thinking: Why did Miss Tang bring a beggar here?
"Do you have any high-quality jade pieces here?" Tang Xinyu asked, glancing at the antiques on the shelves.
The shop owner immediately smiled obsequiously and said, "Miss Tang, you've come at the right time. Speaking of jade, I just received a jade pendant today, called the Tianming Dragon and Phoenix Jade."
"This jade pendant is made of top-grade mutton-fat jade. It was a personal accessory of a prince from the Song Dynasty and is priceless. I wonder if Miss Tang is interested?"
"Bring it out for me to see."
Hearing this introduction, Tang Xinyu became somewhat interested.
Although it wasn't a Jade Buddha, any good mutton-fat jade could still save her family.
"Certainly, Miss Tang, please wait a moment, I'll be right back."
Upon hearing this, the middle-aged boss immediately turned to retrieve the jade pendant.
Not long after, the middle-aged boss returned with a golden nanmu brocade box and placed it on the counter with a smile, saying, "Miss Tang, please take a look. This is the jade pendant I mentioned earlier."
As the brocade box was opened, a very dazzling white light burst forth from within!