False evidence

Chapter 299 Seven Nights (Part 1)

Yan Fengwei waved his hands repeatedly: "I'll take it as a joke. I can't take advantage of my brother."

I laughed and said, "Can you guarantee that the things in here are valuable?"

Yan Fengwei paused for a moment, then shook his head: "Nothing is ever guaranteed."

"Then I'll just cut it off. You know me, I can't keep a hot bun in my kennel. If I take the mirror back, I definitely won't be able to resist taking it apart. What if there's just a lump of copper inside? I won't even have five thousand left!"

"But what if there really is something really good inside?"

"Tsk, what a rip-off! Don't I already have one?" I gestured toward the other bronze mirror. "I'm not into collecting things, so I'll keep them. If you want them, I'll give you both together. I won't ask for more. Just give me 100,000 yuan in total, and I'll give you the two that Third Master bought."

Yan Fengwei nodded: "I can see that, brother, you want to cover my losses."

I said, "You said you're my brother. The key point is, I got this for free! They say a man can't get rich without unexpected wealth, and a horse can't get fat without night feed. But there's a second part to that saying—'A horse that doesn't get fat from night feed will be a poor man if it doesn't get rich from unexpected wealth.' Brother, I'm really afraid I'm not destined to make a fortune from unexpected wealth."

Yan Fengwei said seriously, "Now that you mention it, I do remember. This Yuan dynasty imitation bronze mirror with a coiled dragon and lotus design alone is worth over 100,000 yuan. What will those swindlers do when they find out the item has been switched? Won't they come after you for it?"

I scoffed, "Their skills are terrible, they're a disgrace. How dare they come after me? Besides, they just swindled you out of over 200,000 yuan, and now they've ruined your shop. Who else are they going to settle scores with? They'll probably just swallow this loss. Alright, stop overthinking it. Just tell me if you'll accept it or not. If you will, then transfer the money."

"Okay, I won't say anything more. I appreciate your kindness!"

Yan Fengwei transferred 120,000 yuan directly to me.

"This is all I have in my account right now. I'll give you another 80,000 later."

"No, that's too much. I won't accept any more if you keep passing it on." I pointed to the bronze mirror: "I'm really curious, what's inside?"

Yan Fengwei clicked his tongue: "That's easy."

He found a pair of pliers in the drawer next to him and quickly twisted a notch open on the edge of the bronze mirror.

Once the bronze mirror was completely pried open, there was another bronze mirror inside!
Yan Fengwei was dumbfounded when he saw the hidden bronze mirror.

I asked, "Is this mirror more valuable than the outer packaging?"

Yan Fengwei swallowed hard, picked up the mirror, turned it over, and stared blankly for a while before saying to me, "I'll give you another 150,000."

I rubbed my nose: "I feel like I'm the one who's scamming people. Once something's sold, there's no such thing as a refund. I just want to ask, this thing can't really be used as a mirror, and it looks even rougher than the fake one, it doesn't even have any patterns, so what's so good about it?"

Yan Fengwei pointed to the bronze mirror and said, "Fortunately, these four words are on it."

I've already seen those four words, "First Rank Official of the Imperial Court?"

"He is a first-rank official in the imperial court!"

I'm speechless. It's only four characters, and they can pronounce it however they want.
Yan Fengwei said, "I'll tell you two things and you'll know why it's valuable. First, the dynasty it belongs to is the Ming Dynasty. Second, the character '品' (pin) is complete."

I couldn't help but roll my eyes: "Are you kidding me?"

Yan Fengwei slapped his bald head and said, "Hey, I forgot you're a novice. Let's talk about the bronze mirrors of this generation. They're roughly divided into two types. One type is for families who hope their children will become top scholars in the imperial examinations, and it's for their sons."

Because they were commoners, they couldn't use the phrase "一品当朝" (first-rank official) without permission. Therefore, each character was surrounded by a square frame. The stroke at the top of the character "品" (rank) was connected to the square frame. This avoided the taboo.

There's another type, which is what you see right now. It has no outer frame, but the four characters "一品当朝" (First Rank Official) are complete. In other words, this is truly an item used by a first-rank official.

That alone is valuable enough. But what's even more impressive is the person who wrote those four characters! The person who wrote them was an emperor! "Could it be Zhu Houzhao again?" In my mind, this Zhengde Emperor seems to be the most unique.

Yan Fengwei shook his head: "It wasn't Zhengde, it was the work of Emperor Renzong of Ming, Zhu Gaochi! He was the shortest-reigning emperor of the Ming Dynasty, from his ascension to his death, a total of nine months. Because he had congenital obesity, he died of obesity."

These four characters, "一品当朝" (First-Rank Official in Charge), were likely personally bestowed by Zhu Gaochi upon a high-ranking official of the time. Because his reign was so short, Zhu Gaochi, as emperor, left behind very few calligraphic works. Let me put it this way: if I found some old Xuan paper, made a rubbing of these four characters, I could easily fetch three to five thousand coins!

I asked, "If I get this mirror, will it make up for the money you were scammed out of before?"

Yan Fengwei pursed his lips: "I made a profit."

I pouted and said, "Oh no."

Xiao Shen San saw through my thoughts, chuckled, and said:
"You're overthinking it. We only found out what was inside after we pried it open. Those swindlers probably didn't know there was such a valuable item hidden inside when they used this mirror to lure you in. In their eyes, they were outmatched and would end up losing money on the original fake. Compared to the 260,000 yuan they swindled last time, they didn't lose out. So they won't bother us with any further debts."

"Makes sense."

I stood up and said to Yan Fengwei, "We can't leave the stuff in the shop, can we? And let's not drink any more alcohol. It's the New Year, go home and keep your sister-in-law company."

……

My grandfather once said: "Unexpected wealth doesn't come easily. Money earned for free is best spent in one hand and out the other."

I think that's probably why he's still poor.

However, he still had to listen to the old man, so the first thing he did when he got home was to transfer 100,000 yuan to Chen Zudao.

With this, most of the mortgage payment was paid off, and I felt much more at ease and comfortable living here.

Once the Lantern Festival (January 15th of the lunar calendar) is over, the New Year celebrations are considered finished.

I still went to work at the clinic as usual, and in my spare time I drove Liangyuan's car to pick up customers.

This peaceful life is what I've always dreamed of.

The only downside was that Pidan changed his mind and refused to go with me to get a marriage certificate.

Even her mother told me privately, wiping away tears, that she didn't want to be a burden on me because of Pidan's illness.

I have a temper too. Although I know that my mother and daughter are genuinely trying to do what's best for me, I'm still a little resentful.

As a result, for several days in a row, he worked night after night, and then took naps at the clinic during the day.

Tonight should be my seventh night with my days and nights reversed.

During those seven nights, I encountered something rather bizarre.

That is—every night at midnight, a woman in white would hitch a ride with me.

I didn't make an appointment with her beforehand, but no matter where I was, I would receive her car booking order on time.

She got on the bus at different locations each time, but her destination was always the same—the West Suburbs Funeral Home.

(End of this chapter)