False evidence

Chapter 159 Three Shows

Yan Fengwei's face was scratched like a big tabby cat, and when tears came down, they washed away the blood, making him look extremely pathetic.

Although Liu Yi'er was also excited, he was amused by the man's disheveled appearance. "Brother, did I come at the wrong time? Did I cause some trouble at home?"

Yan Fengwei grabbed his hand and said in a trembling voice, "Let's talk inside, let's talk inside!"

Liu Yi'er laughed and said, "Don't be in such a hurry, I said I'd hang firecrackers."

Pidan asked me in a low voice, "What is hanging firecrackers?"

Seeing that I shook my head, Liu Hong said, "In the old days, when antique shops acquired good items, they would hang firecrackers and set off firecrackers to let others know that the shop had genuine items, and many of them were good ones."

As he spoke, he gestured with his lip toward the newspaper bundle in the egg's hand.

Pidan glanced at me, stepped forward, and said confidently to Yan Fengwei, "You're the boss, right? I have some things I can sell you at a discount!"

Meng Zhen and Yan Fengwei exchanged glances, then turned to ask, "Girl, what's going on here?"

Liu Yi'er laughed and said, "Are you in business? Business is coming to your door, are you in or not?"

Yan Fengwei quickly said, "Yes, yes! Girl, how much are you willing to pay for this?"

"Six thousand six!"

Yan Fengwei immediately said to Meng Zhen, "What are you standing there for, you silly old woman? Give me the money! Cash!"

When we got the money, both Pidan and I were a little stunned.

Liu Hong laughed, "It's not about handling pieces; you can just touch it directly." (Porcelain and jade can't be handled directly, otherwise, if they break, it's hard to say who's responsible. Yan Fengwei taught me this.)
Yan Fengwei took the paper package, opened it, and his eyes immediately lit up: "They really do need to hang firecrackers!"

What Liu Yier asked me to buy was a strangely shaped wooden object, neither Pidan nor I knew its purpose.

At this moment, Yan Fengwei touched one end of the object with his index finger, his eyes shining brightly, and he shouted loudly, "A complete Jiangnan Three Treasures Weapon!"

The onlookers outside the store immediately erupted in an uproar.

The fat guy who sold us the stuff just now suddenly appeared out of nowhere, ran up to us, and asked, "Old Yan, are you sure this is real?"

Yan Fengwei laughed heartily: "The real three masterpieces of Soviet-made products!"

The fat man stood there stunned for a long time, then suddenly slapped his thigh as if he had come back from the dead, and said in a tearful voice, "If you weren't fooled, then I've really lost out!"

Yan Fengwei's small eyes darted around as he asked me, "Did you get this from him? How much did it cost?"

"One thousand exactly."

Yan Fengwei's lips drooped, he sighed, patted the fat man's shoulder, and said in a somber tone, "Fatty, please accept my condolences."

After saying that, he ignored him and invited us into the store.

"Brother Liu, is this a gift from you to greet me? You're too kind."

"It's nothing valuable. I can't come to see an old friend empty-handed, can I?"

It must be said that the emotions between people are truly a very subtle thing.

I didn't introduce the two of them, and Yan Fengwei was no longer the same person Lin Qin'en was back then, but the two recognized each other immediately upon seeing each other, without the slightest awkwardness. Liu Yi'er didn't care and pointed directly at Yan Fengwei's face, saying to Meng Zhen, "Sister-in-law, when you two quarrel over household chores, don't shoot each other in the face. Otherwise, it'll be embarrassing for outsiders. I'll teach you a trick: prepare an awl used for sewing shoe soles, wrap it with rope, leaving only the sharp point sticking out, and stab it in the fleshy parts of his body. I guarantee it will be more satisfying than this!"

Even though Meng Zhen was usually quite outspoken, her face still flushed red. "You must be Brother Liu Yi'er. I don't recognize you, but lately, my husband Feng Wei has been talking about you all the time. Please have some tea first. We're a family, so we won't eat out. I'll call and book a table, and we can eat at the restaurant."

"No rush, let's close the shop first, then we can meet. If you can still eat with my face on your face, then we can book a table."

Yan Fengwei and Meng Zhen were both puzzled by what he meant.

Pidan had never seen Liu Yier's face before. When he saw Liu Yier about to take off his mask, I quickly whispered a warning to Pidan.

Even so, upon seeing Liu Yi'er's appearance, Pi Dan was still so frightened that he shrank behind me.

Yan Fengwei burst into tears again, "Brother, what happened to you?"

"Let's not talk about it anymore, let's not talk about it anymore." Liu Yi'er waved his hand.

Xiao Shen San claimed he was pretending to be mute, but then, as if unable to contain his curiosity, he pointed to something on the table and asked in a childish voice:

"What's this? Why was that fat guy who sold us things almost crying just now?"

Liu Yier turned to him, her eyes slightly surprised, and said, "You clever little devil, you know how to change the subject for me. I've been watching you the whole way, and you just don't seem like a child."

Seeing that Xiao Shen was looking at me, I simply said, "Old man, his situation is similar to Brother Yan's. His actual age... seems to be a bit older than yours."

Liu Yi'er said "Oh," pointed to the things on the table, and smiled at Xiao Shen San, "Then why are you pretending not to know what this is? You can't possibly not know what this is?"

Xiao Shen shrugged: "I'm originally from the countryside in Northeast China. I've never seen this thing before, and I don't know what makes it valuable."

Yan Fengwei picked up the object, crossed the two wooden boards in half, looked into the opened compartment, and sighed, "What a pity, the beam is new, and the scale pan isn't from Sanxiu."

Pidan, Shen San, and I then saw clearly that inside was a miniature old-fashioned steelyard balance.

Liu Hong explained to us from the side: "A 'dengzi' is a steelyard, which was used in ancient times to weigh gold and silver. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, there was a very wealthy man in Jiangnan named Shen Fu. You may not know this name, but you must have heard of his nickname—Wan San."

“Shen Wansan!” Little Shen blinked: “So his real name is Shen Fu? I thought his father was as uneducated as my father, which is why he gave him this name.”

Yan Fengwei was amused by him and said, "Wan San means the third best among ten thousand households, so it is also called Wan San Xiu. Although the two characters engraved on the top of this scale are badly worn, you can still feel them when you touch them and you can tell that they originally meant 'San Xiu'."

This item likely came from one of the restaurants or pawnshops owned by Shen Wansan. Merchants valued their reputation above all else, so at that time, the Sanxiu steelyard was the standard for all steelyards in the Jiangnan region.

Pidan asked, "You said the scale inside isn't the original one, so does that mean this thing is worthless?"

Yan Fengwei laughed and said, "Silly girl, not to mention the scale, just this Suzhou-made steelyard box used exclusively by the Shen family, if I stood at the door and asked for 66,000, people would be crying and begging to buy it from me."

The steelyard beam is from last week and isn't worth much; the scale pan isn't from Sanxiu, but it should be an early Qing Dynasty piece. It's worth at least ten thousand or eight thousand.

I'm understating it; the whole set adds up to... 6,600 yuan, that's a real firecracker.

Hey bro, sis, feeling like you got ripped off? We're brothers, let me give you another 30,000."

I quickly shook my head: "I don't understand the rules of your industry, but wasn't that fat guy at a greater loss? He didn't even ask for his things back."

Liu Yi'er nodded: "Yes, this is the rule of the trade, and it also reflects one's character."

(End of this chapter)