False evidence

Chapter 297 Scraping the 'Bee'

I squatted in the alley, smoking as I carefully examined the bronze mirror, and asked Liang Kaiyuan:
"Are you sure this thing wasn't dug out from under a latrine?"

It may sound disgusting, but the truth is, there were many more disgusting ways to artificially age antiques in the past.

Liang Kaiyuan avoided answering: "What I want to know now is what's hidden in here."

Lu Xin said, "No matter what they've hidden, once it's in our hands, we absolutely cannot let them take it back."

My phone vibrated, and I took it out to look at it. "Wow, Shen San's efficiency is pretty high."

I threw away the cigarette butt, put the bronze mirror in my bag, stood up, and walked out.

Lü Xin and Liang Kaiyuan both disappeared into my body...

Just as I was about to leave the alley, I ran into Xiao Shen San.

As I tossed him my backpack, I noticed a tall, burly young man across from me peeking in our direction.

"Hey! Young man!"

There were shouts from behind.

The bespectacled old man from before rushed back in a panic.

I looked at him with a completely bewildered expression as he approached.

He suddenly grabbed my wrist and shouted, "Give me back my things!"

I paused for a moment, then stamped my foot: "Hey! I've been waiting for you!"

The bespectacled old man released me, looking distressed: "You saw it all, didn't you? I got scammed! I was fooled! You're the one who found the thing?"

"I found it."

I beckoned to Xiao Shen, and he took out a bronze mirror from his bag and handed it to me.

I didn't hand the bronze mirror to the old man, but instead lowered my voice and said to him:
"Uncle, you didn't just get ripped off, you actually hit the jackpot!"

I pointed to a spot on the bronze mirror and told him very seriously that it was a deliberately forged modern technique, and that the item should actually be from the mid-Qing Dynasty, or even earlier.

Because we were at the entrance of an alley, and I was whispering to the old man while holding this object in my hand, it quickly attracted the attention of passersby.

A gaunt, bamboo-like middle-aged man and a rather refined-looking young man wearing gold-rimmed glasses approached.

Bamboo Pole glanced at the bronze mirror twice, then said with disdain, "I thought it was something good, but it's obviously a fake."

The man with the gold-rimmed glasses examined the area more closely than him and said, "You've misjudged it. The edges do look like they were machined on a lathe, but look at the coiled dragon patterns on it; they're definitely not cast, but carved by hand..."

He then pointed out several details, "This is definitely a Qing Dynasty artifact, a replica of the coiled dragon and lotus mirror from the Western Han Dynasty!"

Bamboo Pole looked at it again and pointed out a few details, insisting that the item was fake.

He and the glasses seemed to be locked in a fierce argument, one claiming they were old fakes from the Qing Dynasty, the other saying they were cheap knock-offs from a street stall. Before long, they were arguing so heatedly that their faces turned red.

I impatiently handed the bronze mirror to Xiao Shen San, pulled the bespectacled old man outside, and thought to myself:
I already know your tricks. You've all been cooperating so well, can't you just get straight to the point? What a waste of time!
The bamboo pole and the gold-rimmed glasses continued their argument behind them.

The man with the gold-rimmed glasses grabbed me, his face flushed, and said, "Dude, it's your stuff, you want to know what quality it is, right?"

The bespectacled old man seemed to be in a daze until he heard this, then he came to his senses and grabbed me, saying, "That mirror is mine!"

I looked around, then leaned closer to the gold-rimmed glasses and whispered, "Is this thing really valuable?"

"It's definitely from the Qing Dynasty, worth at least this much!" the man with the gold-rimmed glasses declared confidently, holding up two fingers.

The bespectacled old man exclaimed, "I still lost money! I bought it for five thousand yuan!" The man with gold-rimmed glasses clicked his tongue and said, "What loss? This thing could sell for at least twenty thousand yuan in a store!"

The bespectacled old man exclaimed in surprise, "Really?"

Then he reached out his hand to me: "Give me back my things!"

I feigned surprise: "How did my things become yours?"

The old man grew impatient. "What's wrong with you, young man? I clearly bought this bronze mirror for five thousand yuan. Oh, I see. You heard the mirror was worth a lot of money and want to keep it for yourself, right? Fine, fine, I'm not afraid of you trying to renege. We'll call the police and let them handle it!"

"No, no, don't call the police!"

I pretended to be unwilling and made Xiao Shen San take out the bronze mirror.

The bespectacled old man snatched it and put it directly into his bag.

But the bamboo pole blocked his way again, saying, "Buddy, whether something is real or fake isn't up to us. If it's dug out of a latrine, it'll be disgusting to keep it at home. How about this, there's an antique shop right ahead. Let's take it there and have the owner appraise it. Knowing if it's real or fake will teach some greenhorns a lesson!"

The man with the gold-rimmed glasses blushed and said, "How dare you swear at me? Fine! I'm going to take this seriously today! Uncle, let's do as he says and take the item to the shop to have an expert examine it!"

The bespectacled old man hesitated for a moment, then took out the bronze mirror again. "Is this really from the Qing Dynasty?"

I was already fed up with watching these people put on an act, so I snatched the bronze mirror and strode forward, saying, "Whether it's real or fake, the shop owner will know after he sees it! What's the point of all this nonsense!"

Arriving at the door of a shop, Bamboo Pole said, "This is the one I was talking about. The owner of this shop has an amazing eye!"

I glanced at the bespectacled old man; he wasn't saying the bronze mirror was his anymore.

At the same time, I also saw that the burly, simple-minded young man who had been outside the alley earlier was standing not far away, glancing in this direction.

When I walked into the antique shop with the old man, the bamboo pole, and the gold-rimmed glasses, Xiao Shen San, who had come in earlier than us, was sitting on a chair next to us, eating a candied hawthorn.

The shop owner was bald, half-lying on the counter, glancing at us with a sheepish look, and lazily asked:
"Are you looking to shop around or do you have some treasures to show me?"

The man with the gold-rimmed glasses pointed at me and said, "My buddy here just received something; could you please take a look?"

The shop owner then noticed the bronze mirror in my hand, straightened up, and tapped it on the counter with his backhand. "Put it down, let me take a look."

This bald guy gets quite professional when he's serious; he even wore gloves.

He picked up the bronze mirror, examined it carefully over and over, put it back on the counter, pushed it in front of me, and said with a frown, "Please go back."

"What do you mean?" I asked, 'taken aback'.

The bald shop owner practically yelled, "You bring this piece of junk to my shop during the New Year? Are you deliberately trying to make a fool of me?"

The man with the gold-rimmed glasses realized what was happening and exclaimed, "The item is fake? Impossible!"

Even the bamboo pole said, "Boss, please take another look..."

The bald boss waved his hand: "Get out! Get out of here! I'm in a bad mood right now, so nobody should bother me!"

I stepped aside and grimaced at the bespectacled old man: "Then I must have misjudged. It seems you've overpaid for this."

The old man's eyes flashed, he picked up the bronze mirror and put it back in his bag, huffing, "That damned woman, don't let me see her again, or I'll drag her to the police station!"

The old man left, and the bamboo pole and the gold-rimmed glasses went with him.

The bald boss looked outside, chuckled dryly, and said, "Brother, what are you up to this New Year's Eve thing?"

I laughed too: "I just happened to be there, and I was bored, so I played along with them in this 'Bees, Hemp, Swallows' play!"

(End of this chapter)