Chapter 5
Yue Pianran removed her gloves and met my gaze with a faint smile.
It was as though she had not just handled a priceless piece of Yuan blue-and-white porcelain, but an ordinary vase.
Seeing that I seemed eager to speak, she told the employee to leave first.
“Go on. Your mouth has been hanging open for ages.”
The instant the door closed, the words spilled out of me.
“The Yuan blue-and-white piece at the auction was definitely fake, but the one you just inspected is real.”
“Don’t you find that strange? Why would Fu Deyou play a trick like this?”
Yue Pianran studied me thoughtfully until I began to feel uncomfortable.
“You do have a remarkable eye, Miss Gu. I wonder whether your courage is equally impressive?”
I did not quite understand what she was implying. “Just say what you mean, Boss Yue.”
Yue Pianran smiled. “Come. I’ll take you to meet someone.”
I followed her through nine hidden doors and past little bridges over flowing water.
Only then did I realize that an entirely different world lay concealed inside the Fu Deyou auction house.
At the final door, she told me to enter alone.
I stared at it without moving to push it open, my searching gaze circling Yue Pianran’s face several times.
She nudged me toward the door. “Relax. There are no monsters waiting inside.”
I cautiously pushed it open and stepped into the dim amber light.
It was a tearoom.
Every furnishing inside was immensely valuable.
Even the low stool beside the tea table had 1,280,000 floating above it.
For a moment, countless zeroes dazzled me.
“Miss Gu, we meet again.”
I turned toward the voice.
Perhaps I ought to call him Mr. Dong now.
Mr. Dong sat at the tea table. With a tea knife, he neatly pried a small piece from a compressed tea cake and placed it on a saucer.
He then devoted himself to warming the cups, measuring the leaves, and steeping the tea.
Even after finishing, he did not look up at me.
After a while, he poured an evenly colored brew from the fairness pitcher and pushed a steaming tasting cup toward me. “Sit. How does it feel to turn ten yuan into eight million?”
I accepted the tea but did not drink.
“If you knew the value of the coin toad, Mr. Dong, why did you sell it to me so readily?”
“Surely it wasn’t because you saw my ragged clothes and pitied me?”
The man across from me smiled and pointed at the tea beside my hand. “It won’t taste good once it cools. Try it.”
Suspiciously, I lifted the cup, smelled it, and took a small sip.
One taste was enough to know it was exceptional.
Song Weilin had been fond of tea and had forced me to learn a little about it too.
Mr. Dong added more water to the lidded bowl. “How does it taste?”
I froze for a moment, unable to find anything eloquent to say. “It’s good tea.”
Mr. Dong poured himself another cup. “Golden Melon Tribute Tea that Yue acquired a few days ago. Apart from the piece kept in the Palace Museum, mine is the only one left.”
Golden Melon Tribute Tea?!
The four words struck my mind like ringing bronze.
No wonder a string of zeroes had hovered over the tea cake when my gaze happened to pass over it.
I had assumed the room’s ocean of numbers had simply overwhelmed my eyes.
I immediately drained the rest of my tea.
“It truly is excellent tea. Rather wasted on me, though.”
Mr. Dong’s undisguised gaze settled on my face, full of inquiry.
“Your eye is worthy of this tea, Miss Gu.”