Chapter 12 Celebrity Effect

In the elegantly decorated VIP room on the second floor, Wang Ke was quietly drinking the fragrant tea made by the clerk, and his travel bag containing the tripod incense burner was placed on the soft sofa beside him. "Haha! Wang Ke, your coming has graced our Shangbao Pavilion! No wonder it was the magpies on the branches that woke me up this morning. Every time you come, you make me overjoyed! What kind of treasure have you brought today?" The door of the VIP room being pushed open, Liu Gang walked in with a hearty laugh. The next moment he entered the VIP room, he cast a glance over Wang Ke's travel bag. Wang Ke stood up with a smile and said, "Still a magic weapon." A magic weapon? Liu Gang had become almost desensitized to Wang Ke's stimulation. So after Wang Ke mentioned the magic weapon, Liu Gang was able to keep calm. "Come on, let me take a look. As the saying goes, ‘Difficult the first time, easy the second. And this third time, let's make it straight.’ As long as it is really a magic weapon, I will definitely give you the exact price." Wang Ke nodded with a smile. He gently unzipped the travel bag, gently took the tripod incense burner out, and handed it to Liu Gang. "Good stuff! Just at this first glance, I can feel that this is an antique!" Liu Gang smilingly took it over and carefully observed it for four or five minutes before slowly placing it on the tea table. "Bro, I won’t bargain. Just give me a price!" Wang Ke straightened his face a little bit. When it came to money, even if Liu Gang could be already considered as an acquaintance of his, he could never be careless. Liu Gang said after a short silence, "One hundred thousand yuan. This tripod incense burner is a bit inferior to the magic weapon of the bronze Buddha statue, but it's worth the price. What do you think?" Wang Ke didn't go to other antique stores to estimate the price this time. Because he believed that after the two previous transactions, as long as Liu Gang was sure that this was a magic weapon, he wouldn't treat him as a sucker. "Deal. Let's go to the bank to transfer the money now?" Wang Ke laughed and said. Liu Gang also laughed and said, "No need to bother today. I have just got done with online banking, so I can use the computer to transfer the money directly to you." The transaction was completed. Wang Ke left Shangbao Pavilion with something on his mind. The tripod incense burner raked in one hundred thousand yuan, and he decided to give fifty thousand yuan to the landlord. He could get this incense burner solely because of the landlord's pure kindness. Otherwise, he would not have followed him into the house and listened to his complaints. Moreover, the kind and honest landlord was living a poor life, and Wang Ke could not take advantage of him. Since he was a child, Wang Ke said usually, “Robbers also have their codes of conduct.” One must have his own principles, be chivalrous, and understand morality and justice. He didn't feel reluctant to give fifty thousand yuan back to the landlord. Instead, he was very happy. It was enough to earn fifty thousand yuan for nothing. Giving the landlord the money could not only improve the living conditions of his family but could also make Wang Ke feel comfortable in his heart. So why not? No one could earn all the money in the world. A contented mind was a perpetual feast and a right way to go. He could not make money against his conscience. Even if he found the undervalued treasures by himself, sometimes he also took social relationships and other situations into consideration. He believed that good would be rewarded with good, and evil with evil. If the reward was not forthcoming, it was because the time had not arrived yet. And when the time arrived, one would get all the recompense he deserves. Now that he had money, it was time to leave for Changji, whose antique market and magic weapon market were famous in the whole country. Once getting there, he believed that he could flex his muscles and make a fortune with the help of the extraordinary vision. But should he give the fifty thousand yuan to the landlord today? Or should he transfer the money to him after arriving in Changji? Wang Ke knew the landlord's character very well. Although the middle-aged landlord was loyal and honest, he was also very stubborn. So what if he rejected the fifty thousandyuan when he gave it to him in person? Wang Ke could imagine that if the landlord rejected, he would say, "What is sold to you becomes your personal belongings. Even if you sell it for a lot of money, it has nothing to do with me." Wang Ke was sure that he would definitely say this. After a few moments of contemplation, he decided to wait until he arrived in Changji before transferring the money to the landlord's account. Anyway, he paid his first rent deposit by transferring money to the landlord, and he knew his account number. Deep in his thoughts, he did not notice that the pedestrians around him were looking at him in a somewhat strange manner. Walking slowly on Antique Street, Wang Ke finally withdrew all his thoughts and looked at the nearby antique stalls. Now that he was no longer working at Treasure Hall, he could just take a look around. And maybe he could even find some undervalued treasures. Wang Ke quietly came up to a stall and took a glance at the various antiques on it. After half a minute, his eyes fell on a jade bracelet, which was crystal clear and had a few subtle blood-red lines in it. Blood-red jade bracelet? Wang Ke frowned slightly. He had seen a genuine blood-red jade bracelet when a down-and-out man came to Treasure Hall to sell it. And he was the one who received the man at that time. That genuine piece of blood-red jade bracelet was identified by Zhou Bapi. At first, Zhou Bapi wanted to force the price down and fool the man who turned out to know the price very well and refused to bargain. So no matter how Zhou Bapi tried to trick him, the man refused to agree. Of course, Zhou Bapi finally bought the blood-red jade bracelet, but the price really broke his heart. Wang Ke still remembered that Zhou Bapi only earned eight thousand yuan after selling the bracelet. "How much is this bracelet?" Wang Ke slowly looked at the stall owner. The owner was a thirty-year-old man. When he heard Wang Ke's inquiry, he looked at him with his guard up. Taking a glance at the bracelet, he hesitated for a moment, gritted his teeth and said, "Fifty thousand, at least fifty thousand!" Wang Ke was dumbfounded, and then put on an angry face and said in a deep voice, "Are you crazy for money? This bracelet just looks like a blood-red jade bracelet. It's a fake. How dare you make such a daylight robbery?" The stall owner took a deep look at Wang Ke and insisted, "Fifty thousand yuan, not even a penny less." Wang Ke was speechless. Did he look like a sucker? When he stood up and was about to leave, he suddenly realized that he was surrounded by many people. Oops! People on Antique Street must have known that he sold two magic weapons yesterday and must be very curious about him. After a moment of hesitation, he ignored the people gathering around and walked towards another stall. He was just strolling around, looking for a few stalls to have a try and see if he could find another undervalued treasure. If he didn't find anything good, he would leave. So there was no need to pay attention to those people around him. Wang Ke did not like the people hanging around on Antique Street, because the antique dealers were all shrewd and often tried to cheat each other. Coming to the next stall, Wang Ke looked at the stall owner and secretly rolled his eyes because this owner was also on his guard. He was just looking around. Did they have to look like that? Suddenly, Wang Ke's eyes rested on a blue and white porcelain vase. Reaching out to pick it up, Wang Ke looked at it and was impressed. This blue and white porcelain vase was a good imitation, but unfortunately, it was a fake. Because there was a tiny spot at the base, which was left when it was made. "How much is this blue and white porcelain vase?" Wang Ke asked casually. "Sixty thousand!" The owner said decisively. Wang Ke was dumbfounded, and a trace of weirdness appeared in his eyes. Pointing to his own nose, he said, "Do you think I really look like a sucker? Sixty thousand yuan? To buy a replica? Even a fool won't believe it!" The stall owner looked at Wang Ke with a hint of hesitation in his eyes. But after a few seconds, he looked at the vase, gritted his teeth, and said, "At least fifty-five thousand yuan. If you want to buy it, let's deal now. If not, go to other stalls." Wang Ke was frustrated. What was wrong today? Why were all these fakes so expensive? Suddenly, it crossed his mind that these people were just targeting him! Shaking his head, Wang Ke walked away bitterly and tried again in front of several other stalls. As expected, wherever he went, the owners of the stalls looked at him with their guard up. And every time he asked, the prices of those obviously fake antiques would be sky-high. With a sigh, Wang Ke walked away from one of the stalls and intended to go back home. If things went on like this, he wouldn't be able to find anything good at all. Just leave tomorrow! Went to Changji. Now that all the stall owners on Antique Street had probably recognized him, there was no point for him in staying here any longer. Moreover, if one wanted to succeed in the world of antiques and magic weapons, luck could help but real abilities were the most important. He would go to Changji and visit the old man named Zhao Menfeng to see if he could learn something about antiques and magic weapons from him. Seven or eight minutes later, he disappeared at the end of Antique Street. By the side of the broad road, Wang Ke was walking slowly. Leaving Antique Street, he breathed a sigh of relief because people were no longer paying attention to him. "Jiang Yun, hurry up! Master Wang Ke who found two magic weapons yesterday now appears again. My friend just called me and said that Wang Ke went to Shangbao Pavilion to sell magic weapons again. Let's hurry up and see what Wang Ke looks like!" On the other side of the road, two young people were rushing towards Antique Street, but their words were clearly heard by Wang Ke. "I want to hurry up too! Why don't you carry me on your back? I sprained my ankle yesterday and you know it. Otherwise, I would have darted to see my idol! Today, I will try my best to make myself apprenticed to him. I will do it willingly even if he teaches me nothing but just asks me to serve tea for him." "So what? I will also do it willingly! If I could become an apprentice to such a master who can recognize a magic weapon at a glance, I would even live a few years less! I think that Master Wang Ke must be a real master living in seclusion here. Although everyone says he is very young, I think that he must be able to rejuvenate himself and that's why he looks young. I guess he must be at least seventy or eighty years old, and he is our country's top master of antiques and magic weapons identification." "You're right. I agree with you! Otherwise, who can find two magic weapons in a single day? No, no, no. It was three. This morning my idol went to sell another one!" "He is also my idol. Let's try together to both become apprentices to him." "..." Upon hearing what they were talking about, Wang Ke stopped and listened. Watching them walking away, Wang Ke's face emerged a crying and laughing look. These two young men were talking total nonsense! He was a seventy- or eighty-year-old real master? And he could even rejuvenate himself? What the heck? Who made all this up to defame him? So far, he was still a virgin as pure as the driven snow!