Chapter 4

Yue Pianran leafed intently through the catalog in her hands. “You wanted to attend this auction so badly, Miss Gu. There must be something in here that interests you.”

I smiled. “There is. I thought I’d come join the excitement.”

Yue Pianran raised an eyebrow at me. “Rather expensive excitement at five hundred thousand yuan.”

The auction soon began.

I looked around but did not see Mr. Dong, the man who had sold me the toad.

Had something come up at the last minute?

The first lot was a Qing-dynasty gilt and pearl globular teapot decorated with birds and flowers. The number hovering over it was 680,000, and it sold for 880,000 yuan.

The second lot was Fu Baoshi’s This Land So Rich in Beauty. Authentic works by Fu Baoshi rarely appeared on the market anymore, and the long string of zeroes floating above it was a feast for my eyes.

Many guests had come specifically for the painting, and the bidding was fierce.

It ultimately sold for eighty-five million yuan.

The next several lots were ordinary collectibles, and no bidding wars broke out.

I craned my neck, waiting for the Yuan blue-and-white porcelain.

Yue Pianran, too, seemed thoroughly uninterested.

I leaned closer and whispered, “Nothing has caught your eye, Boss Yue?”

Yue Pianran neither confirmed nor denied it.

When the Yuan blue-and-white piece finally appeared, Yue Pianran raised her paddle under my astonished gaze.

“Twenty million.”

I grabbed her arm. “Are you crazy? Can’t you tell it’s fake?”

I was certain it was a fake. The number above it was still only 10,000.

Yue Pianran ignored me and raised her paddle again. “Thirty million.”

I began to panic. With her discernment, she should never make such an elementary mistake.

“I can guarantee that Yuan blue-and-white piece is fake. Stop bidding!”

Only then did Yue Pianran glance at me from the corner of her eye. “Did you know that if a Fu Deyou lot proves fake, they compensate the buyer tenfold?”

With that, she bid even more enthusiastically.

She seemed determined to make the porcelain hers.

In the end, she paid a staggering sixty-six million yuan for a Yuan blue-and-white piece worth only ten thousand.

I asked Yue Pianran whether they would really pay ten times the price if it was fake.

She gave me a peculiar look. “They would, but you’d have to produce evidence.”

My spirits sank. I could hardly announce that I had supernatural powers.

Still, I refused to give up.

After the auction, Yue Pianran went to collect the porcelain, and I shamelessly pestered her into bringing me along.

An employee wearing gloves carefully placed it in her hands. She put on gloves too and examined it meticulously. “All right. No problem.”

Indeed, there was no problem. A string of zeroes hovered over the piece.

Wait. This was not the same piece from the auction!

The one onstage had been counterfeit. This one was genuine.

I whipped my head toward Yue Pianran.