I work as a security guard at a cemetery, and I overhear the dead chatting about getting rich quick.

Jiahe Auction House is located in an office building in the city center.

Lin Ye stood downstairs, looked up at the glass curtain wall, and then looked down at the black plastic bag in his hand.

At that moment, he felt that he was seriously out of place with the atmosphere of the building.

The entrance has a revolving door, the inside has a marble floor, and uniformed staff stand at the reception desk.

He was dressed in cheap, miscellaneous clothes and carrying a black plastic bag; he looked every bit the poor kid.

Lin Ye hesitated for three seconds at the door.

I went inside anyway.

the reason is simple.

Come here.

Moreover, the 800 yuan has already been spent.

The receptionist saw him and smiled politely.

"Hello, who are you looking for?"

Lin Ye hid the plastic bag behind his back.

"I saw online that there's a charity treasure appraisal event today."

The receptionist glanced at the bag in his hand, her smile unchanged.

"Yes, you can register and get a number in the activity hall on the third floor."

Lin Ye breathed a sigh of relief.

Professional institutions are different; they're not like some luxury brand boutiques.

The shop assistants were all arrogant and treated customers differently based on their status. They were just selling luxury goods, but they acted like they were luxury items themselves.

After registering his name and mobile phone number, he received a number plate.

Number 37.

The activity hall was quite crowded.

When Lin Ye went in, he almost thought he had walked into a large-scale collection exchange event for retirees.

Several elderly men were sitting in the front row.

One person was holding a porcelain bowl in their arms, with three layers of towels wrapped around the bowl.

One of them was holding a wooden box, his expression so serious it looked like it contained the most precious thing passed down from his ancestors.

There was another old man who was even more outrageous, carrying a large sword in his hand.

The scabbard was pitch black, and a red rope was wrapped around the hilt of the sword.

The security guard next to him kept staring at him.

Lin Ye found a corner to sit down and placed the plastic bag at his feet.

He glanced down at the cigarette paraphernalia in the bag.

Compared to the items next to it that were carefully wrapped in red cloth, brocade boxes, and cotton cloth, his bag looked very simple.

It's so plain it doesn't seem like it's for appraising a treasure.

Looks like someone came to throw away trash.

Three long tables were placed in front of the event hall.

Behind each table sat an appraiser.

Look at the porcelain on the left.

In the middle, look at the miscellaneous items.

Look at the calligraphy and paintings on the right.

There were quite a few people in line.

Everyone was very nervous.

It's as if the things in their hands could make their family financially independent in the next second.

The first old man went up carrying a porcelain bowl.

The appraiser put on gloves and examined the item carefully for two minutes.

The old man's eyes were frighteningly bright.

"Teacher, how is it?"

The appraiser spoke very tactfully.

"This is a modern handicraft."

The old man didn't believe it.

"Impossible, my grandfather said it was passed down from our ancestors."

The appraiser nodded.

"Then your grandfather must have been a great storyteller."

Some people in the activity hall couldn't help but laugh.

The old man came down carrying his bowl, his expression like that of a defeated rooster.

Lin Ye's heart tightened as he watched.

The antique business is so exciting!

The previous second was a family heirloom.

The next second is a work of art.

Their expressions change faster than turning the pages of a book.

The second person to go up was the old man carrying a sword.

He slammed the sword down on the table with a clang.

The staff member immediately took a step forward.

The appraiser pulled the sword out a bit, looked at it, and then pushed it back in.

"This is also a modern handicraft."

The old man frowned.

"But it has been sharpened."

The appraiser paused for a moment.

"Then I strongly suggest you don't bring it to public places."

Lin Ye sat even more quietly in the corner.

He suddenly realized that his black plastic bag wasn't so shameful after all.

At least there was nothing inside that would make the staff nervous.

The line moved forward little by little.

Lin Ye was placed on the middle miscellaneous table.

The appraiser sitting there was a young woman.

White shirt, black trousers, hair pulled back.

She doesn't look very old, but she has a very calm demeanor.

That composure wasn't something he put on.

She's the one who can sit there and tell you, without batting an eye, that even the most outrageous things someone brings out are modern imitations.

An auntie in front of the woods took out a string of beads.

"Teacher, is this beeswax?"

The young woman took it and glanced at it.

"plastic."

The aunt was stunned.

"But the seller said it was chicken fat yellow."

The young woman handed the beads back.

"The color can be described as chicken fat yellow, but the material is still plastic."

Lin Ye's heart skipped a beat when he heard this.

He suddenly remembered the fake amber necklace the fat boss was wearing.

People in the flea market seem to have a strong trust in plastic.

Soon it was Lin Ye's turn.

The staff member called out, "Number 37."

Lin Ye walked over carrying a black plastic bag.

The young woman looked up at him.

"What do you want to see?"

Her voice wasn't loud, and her tone wasn't cold, but there was a very professional sense of distance about her.

Lin Ye placed the plastic bag on the table.

"I have a few old smoking paraphernalia items; could you please take a look?"

After he finished speaking, he felt a little guilty about what he had said.

When others take out their things, they open a brocade box and lay out a red cloth.

He simply put the plastic bag down and dumped it out.

He laid out the old cigarette case, the copper cigarette holder, the lighter, and the snuff bottle one by one.

The young woman looked at the pile of things on the table without changing her expression.

Her eyebrows twitched slightly when she saw the lighter that wouldn't light.

Lin Ye quickly explained.

"I didn't really know much about collecting this whole bunch together."

The young woman nodded.

She picked up the old cigarette box and glanced at it first.

"Ordinary old cigarette boxes, not very valuable for collection."

He then picked up the copper cigarette holder.

"A replica in the style of the Republic of China era, made of mediocre materials."

Then pick up the lighter.

She pressed it.

No fire.

Lin Ye silently added in his mind: It looks nice on display.

The young woman put the lighter back before finally picking up the snuff bottle.

Her fingers had barely touched the body of the kettle when she paused.

It's very light.

But Lin Ye saw it.

He is now extremely sensitive to these subtle movements.

The stamp shop owner made 6,800 yuan when his glasses slipped down by half an inch.

The appraiser paused for half a second, and Lin Ye felt as if he had seen the God of Wealth beckoning to him again.

The young woman picked up the snuff bottle and turned it upside down in the light.

The reddish-brown texture on the body of the teapot is more noticeable under the light.

She then picked up the magnifying glass and carefully examined the rim, bottom, and inner wall.

It was a bit noisy around the activity hall.

People are discussing porcelain.

Someone is sighing.

Some people, still not satisfied with the test results, kept asking if they could have another look.

But Lin Ye suddenly felt that these sounds were far away.

His attention was entirely focused on the snuff bottle in the young woman's hand.

After a while, she looked up at him.

"How much did you pay for this?"

coming.

That same phrase again.

Lin Ye's heart starts racing whenever a professional asks, "How much did you pay for it?"

He tried hard to control his expression.

"A pile of eight hundred."

The young woman glanced at the pile of cigarette boxes, cigarette holders, and lighters on the table.

"This whole pile?"

"Um."

"Including this snuff bottle?"

"include."

The young woman remained silent for two seconds.

Lin Ye's heart also skipped a beat for two seconds.

Those two seconds felt very long.

It grew so long that he almost started to wonder why he hadn't cut it down to seven hundred.

The young woman placed the snuff bottle on a velvet mat.

"This one is fine."

Lin Ye's throat tightened a little.

"What could it mean?"

She glanced at him.

"A late Qing dynasty agate snuff bottle, the coloring is cleverly utilized and it's well-preserved. The market price is hard to set off immediately, it depends on the buyer, but it could be around 30,000."

Lin Ye's toes suddenly curled inside his shoe.

Thirty thousand.

about.

These two words together are very damaging.

Thirty thousand is already quite frightening.

The left and right positions suggest that it might even move upwards.

Lin Ye tried his best to keep his face calm.

But in his mind, there was already a little figure dressed as a security guard, setting off firecrackers on the spot.

Yesterday's figure went from 80 to 6800.

Today, 800 becomes 30,000.

The young woman looked at him.

"You don't understand this?"

Lin Ye immediately shook his head.

"don't know."

This is real.

He was truly very open and honest.

The young woman then asked, "Then why did you collect this whole pile?"

Lin Ye had already prepared his explanation.

"My grandpa's birthday is coming up soon, and he likes old smoking paraphernalia. I just picked this up randomly at the flea market."

The young woman's gaze lingered on his face for a moment.

She clearly didn't believe it.

But they didn't expose it.

"You can find this anywhere at a flea market?"

Lin Ye smiled honestly.

"Perhaps my grandfather was more blessed."

The young woman's gaze towards him finally changed slightly.

It's not about believing.

It was a mixture of skepticism and interest.

She looked down and wrote a few lines on the test results.

Lin Ye took the opportunity to glance at the name tag on her chest.

Jiahe Auction.

Lu Zhixia.

The name sounds nice.

He was also very calm.

She was so calm that when she said "around 30,000," her tone was no different from when she said "plastic."

Lin Ye thought this was amazing.

If it were him, when faced with something worth 30,000 yuan, his tone would be at least two octaves higher than usual.

Lu Zhixia handed him the test report.

"If you'd like to sell this item, you can leave your contact information. Normally, going through an auction requires waiting for the session and also depends on the buyer. If you're in a hurry, we can help you contact buyers in the industry, or we can arrange for immediate purchase through an auction house."

Lin Ye took the identification report, his fingers tightening slightly.

"If we acquire it immediately, how much can you offer?"

Lu Zhixia did not answer immediately.

She glanced at the snuff bottle, then at the pile of worthless smoking paraphernalia.

"The trade requires a profit margin when buying, so they won't pay the highest market price. Yours is in good condition, but it's not top-tier. If you're in a hurry to sell, I'll offer 32,000."

Lin Ye almost dropped the appraisal report.

Thirty-two thousand.

When he heard the number, his first thought wasn't to buy a phone or clothes.

It's about how many sausages can be added to braised beef noodles.

The imagination of the poor is sometimes indeed greatly limited by their lives.

Lu Zhixia looked at him.

"You can consider it. If you're not in a hurry, you can keep it for now and wait for a suitable auction."

Lin Ye didn't think about it for too long.

He was afraid that if he thought about it for too long, he would appear to have never seen money before.

Although he had never actually seen it.

"Thirty-two thousand, that's acceptable."

Lu Zhixia nodded.

She took out a business card and placed it in front of him.

"Come with me to the office to complete the formalities."

Lin Ye looked down at the business card.

Appraiser at Jiahe Auction House.

Lu Zhixia.

The black lettering was printed on the white card, clean and crisp.

As he put the business card into his wallet, he suddenly realized something.

Old Li's stamp album confirmed to him that the dead were indeed talking.

Old Zhou's snuff bottle taught him that chatting with the dead could earn him more than just a little money.

This job seems to be starting to look promising.

He picked up the black plastic bag, which had lost its main value, and followed Lu Zhixia toward the office behind the activity hall.

As she reached the door, Lu Zhixia suddenly stopped and turned to look at him.

"You just said it was a birthday gift for Grandpa?"

Lin Ye nodded.

"right."

Lu Zhixia's gaze fell on the plastic bag in his hand.

"So all that's left of your grandfather's birthday presents are the old cigarette case, the lighter, and the copper cigarette holder."

Lin Ye was silent for a moment.

That's a difficult question to answer.

After a couple of seconds, he said seriously, "The elderly should value the sentiment more."

Lu Zhixia looked at him.

"Does your grandfather usually like these kinds of things?"

Lin Ye's smile almost froze.

Because his grandfather passed away many years ago.

Of course, this shouldn't be said.

The whole explanation collapsed as soon as it was finished.

Lin Ye could only bite the bullet and add a sentence.

"I like it, mainly because of nostalgia."

Lu Zhixia didn't ask any more questions, but simply turned around and continued walking forward.

Lin Ye followed behind, secretly letting out a sigh of relief.

He suddenly realized that this appraiser named Lu Zhixia was even harder to fool than Old Zhou in the cemetery.