Chapter Eighty-Three: Zhu Zhi Xiang

  "Pan Guang Fa!"

  Liu Xuesong and a few others were slightly stunned, but He Lao still smiled at Li Yang, neither indicating that what Li Yang said was wrong nor agreeing with his statement.

  "Yes, Pan Yu itself is a technical work. This piece of jade has been carved for so many years, even if the era is not that far away, it is still a masterpiece among ancient jades!"

  Li Yang nodded again, and with a sigh, said that after seeing the method of playing with jade from the book two days ago, Li Yang specially looked up a lot of relevant information. Mainly because Li Yang himself also wanted to play with a piece of jade, but after seeing how troublesome it was, Li Yang never made up his mind.

  Everyone's attention was focused on Old He, the jade pendant was taken out by Old He, and no matter how reasonable Li Yang, a young man, said it was useless. In the end, they would only believe Old He.

  "The young man is quite good!" After a long time, Old He slowly nodded and looked at Li Yang. Then he suddenly asked: "I only accidentally discovered that the ancient jade I collected was not from this generation a few years ago, how did you see it?"

  "It's not that I saw it, I analyzed it with special abilities!" Li Yang sighed inwardly, but he only dared to think this in his heart and absolutely didn't dare say it out loud.

  After a moment, Li Yang slowly replied: "Actually, this was something Old Man He himself told me. When you took out this jade pendant, your eyes seemed off, and I felt that there must be some problem with it, so I carefully examined it again. The luster of ancient jade polished by wheat flour is slightly different from ordinary antique jade, the brightness of the patina won't be the same, based on these manifestations I dared to make such an inference, if not for your eyes telling me at the beginning, I wouldn't have thought of this!"

  "Haha, good job, kiddo! I was testing you and you passed. It's not easy to notice the flaws in this ancient jade, and it's even more impressive that you were able to accurately analyze its history to be around 150 years old. Li Yang, I remember when you came to my place last time, you didn't know anything, but now you've made such huge progress in such a short time?"

  He Lao burst out laughing, and Wu Xiaoli also stared tightly at Li Yang. She understood Li Yang better than He Lao did. Li Yang's previous behavior was indeed ignorant of antiques, but in just a few days he had become an expert. Wu Xiaoli couldn't figure it out no matter what.

  "Some time ago, I was lucky enough to visit an antique market, and since then I have developed an interest in antiques. What interests me the most is ancient jade. After returning home, I immediately looked up a lot of information. He Lao, actually, this doesn't even count as entering the profession, it's just that I'm interested in antiques!"

  Li Yang had a bitter smile on his face, this was probably the question he least wanted to explain, and at the same time, he felt that his performance today was too dazzling, who would understand so much about antiques just after coming into contact with them.

  "You can learn a lot of knowledge, but this kind of vision requires a long time to cultivate. You have such good eyesight, it seems that you have put in a lot of hard work and also have an extremely good talent. As far as I know, in the antique world, there has only been one person with such talent, and I believe you will be the second!"

  He Lao nodded slowly, and everyone looked at Li Yang in shock. No one had expected He Lao to give Li Yang such a high evaluation.

  Liu Xuesong hesitated for a moment, then still approached He Lao and asked in a low voice: "He Lao, you just said that the most talented person in the antique world is Zhu Zhixiang?"

  Liu Xuesong's voice was not loud, but at this time no one else was speaking, and most of the people in the room still heard it.

  "That's right, it was him. In just three short years, he went from knowing nothing to becoming the world's number one forger of ancient and modern Chinese and foreign works. This kind of talent has yet to be matched by anyone else to this day. It's a pity that in the end, he took the wrong path, otherwise he would have definitely become a master of his generation!"

  When it comes to this person, He Lao's expression becomes extremely serious and complex, staring at Li Yang. Liu Xue Song and several other old men inhaled a cold breath, no one expected that He Lao would compare the young man in front of him with Zhu Zhi Xiang.

  Several people looked at Li Yang with different eyes, only Wu Xiaoli stared at her grandfather and several old men with big eyes, Li Yang was even more confused, not understanding anything.

  It wasn't until much later, after Li Yang really got to know Zhu Zhi Xiang, that he finally understood why they looked at him like that.

  Zhu Zhi-xiang, an ordinary farmer from northern Shaanxi province, went south in the late 1980s and became one of many entrepreneurs who ventured south.

  Zhu Zhi-xiang initially worked as a small kitchen in a restaurant. After working for several months, he came into contact with an antique dealer who collected antiques. The merchant thought Zhu Zhi-xiang was honest and reliable, so he took him away to accompany himself to collect goods. In less than a month's time, Zhu Zhi-xiang had developed a good eye for spotting valuable items, even surpassing the merchant who had brought him along.

  After that, Zhu Zhi-xiang left the businessman and went solo. In less than half a year, he earned several tens of thousands of yuan, which was already an enormous fortune at that time. However, he did not stop there but instead took this money to Jingdezhen to become an apprentice and learn how to fire porcelain.

  No one knows how he learned, a year later Zhu Zhi-xiang left Jingdezhen and returned to his hometown in northern Shaanxi, where he opened an ordinary kiln and fired some tiles and rough ceramics, which were somewhat famous locally.

  A year and a half later, Zhu Zhi-xiang handed over the kiln factory to his younger brother to manage, and after leaving his hometown, he disappeared from public view.

  Later, some exquisite Ming and Qing imperial kiln wares began to appear in the Chinese market one after another. Each piece was worth a fortune, and over five years, such exquisite porcelain appeared more than 100 times, with a total value of over 400 million yuan. Almost all major auction houses have sold such imperial kiln masterpieces.

  At that time, it was the 1990s. More than 40 million pieces of porcelain are now worth over 400 million yuan. It wasn't until later when someone discovered the secret behind them that this trend stopped. This led to the uncovering of the country's first high-imitation case, and Zhu Zhi-xiang, who was dug out, also became the world's number one person in making high-quality imitations.

  These ceramics, it turned out that he had fired them all in his own home kiln and secretly sold them through various auction companies under different names. After Zhu Zhi-xiang was arrested, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. If not for the fact that his level of ceramic craftsmanship was too high, the country couldn't bear to waste such a talent, and solely based on the amount of money he had swindled at the beginning, which shocked the whole nation, would have been enough to be executed ten times.

  After Zhu Zhi-xiang was caught, those scattered Zhū Fǎng have not all been rounded up until now. Even though many experts

  Many connoisseurs are still being deceived by those fake Jun wares. Many old-brand auction houses even talk about the color change of Jun ware, resulting in some exquisite official kiln heavy objects having to undergo scientific appraisal before they dare to truly collect them, to prevent fake Jun from ruining their reputation.

  It's just today, nationwide, only a few people can really recognize Zhu Fang, and He Lao is one of them.

  Because at that time, many auction companies were deceived, after this fraud case came out, all the people who knew about it uniformly closed their mouths, and only old men like He Lao and Liu Lao who had been in the antique circle for a long time knew about it. Young people like Wu Xiaoli hadn't even heard of it.

  This is also the reason why He Lao and Liu Xue Song looked serious, Li Yang showed a talent no less than Zhu Zhi Xiang's, and seemed to be very interested in and studied counterfeiting. They did not want Li Yang to become the second Zhu Zhi Xiang, nor did they want a large number of fake Lis to appear on the market in the future.

  When Li Yang truly understood this, he could only cry and laugh, that Zhu Zhi Xiang indeed had talent, but he relied on special abilities to achieve this step. To say nothing of high imitation, even low imitation he couldn't do, Li Yang's special ability didn't help him create fake things.

  "Li Yang, are you free tomorrow? Come visit me!"

  He Lao suddenly spoke up to Li Yang, and everyone was stunned for a moment. Liu Xue Song and several others who knew Zhu Zhi Xiang nodded deeply in agreement. He Lao's intention was to prevent trouble before it arose, inviting Li Yang as a guest was actually to guide him well, letting his talent stay on the right path, and never go astray.

  "Tomorrow!" Li Yang hesitated for a moment, then saw the concern and sincerity flowing out of He Lao's eyes and couldn't help but nod: "I have time tomorrow!"

  "Alright, I'll be waiting for you at home tomorrow, you already know the place!"

  He Lao nodded silently, putting the jade pendant he had returned to Li Yang into his pocket. The jade pendant was only taken out for casual play, and earlier it was also a temporary idea to test Li Yang, but Li Yang's accurate answer was very surprising to He Lao.

  Liu Xuesong glanced at Li Yang and Wu Xiaoli, then suddenly asked He Lao: "He Lao, I heard from others that you have a very good relationship with Hong Lao of Suzhou, is it true?"

  "Yes, how did you ask him?" He Lao replied, looking at Liu Xue Song in surprise.

  "I was thinking like this..."

  Liu Xuesong leaned his body close to He Lao, and whispered directly into He Lao's ear. The words that followed were known only to the two of them, and no one else was aware of what was being said.

  He Lao listened with a smile, and finally nodded heavily, saying: "Hong Lao hasn't wielded a knife in many years, so it's probably not easy for him to do it himself. However, finding one of his talented apprentices to do it shouldn't be a problem. I'll help you go talk to him about it!"

  "Thanks for He Lao's help!"

  Liu Xuesong's face immediately showed a very happy expression, and no one knew what the two old men were whispering about. It was Li Yang who stood closer and vaguely heard something about Master Carver.

  Thinking of the little treasure at home, Li Yang's heart suddenly moved, and he blurted out: "Old He, who is this Hong Lao you mentioned earlier?"

  He Lao smiled and glanced at Li Yang, saying: "Hong Lao is the most famous and best master craftsman in our country at present. Everything he makes with his own hands is a masterpiece. Unfortunately, Hong Lao has already retired for several years. Fortunately, his apprentices are very good and have inherited his style!"

  "It's like this, He Lao, I have a nice piece of jade raw material in my hand. Can you also help me say something and find an expert to carve it? That piece of material has been left there for a long time and it's a pity!"

  Li Yang suddenly remembered the piece of imperial green jadeite he had, which was now sleeping at home. He had long wanted to find someone to carve it into a pendant, but couldn't think of any good craftsmen and was afraid of wasting this top-quality material, so he had been waiting all along. Today, when Old He mentioned it casually, Li Yang brought it up.

  "Alright, you bring that material to me tomorrow and I'll take a look. If it's not good stuff, it won't be easy to get them to move!"

  He Lao immediately agreed, in fact even if the material is not good, He Lao has no problem with one sentence, he just doesn't want to let Li Yang harbor the idea of relying on him.

  Li Yang still didn't know that in He Lao's eyes, he had already become a very good seedling, like an unblemished jade, and even more so, he didn't want him to be tainted by anything.

  ………………………………

  Thank you Tiān Yùn and ti510 for the 100 starting coins reward, thank you biao for the two 6000 accelerated update tickets, Xiaoyu has eaten them! Thank you ︶ㄣ恛憶. for the six 3000 accelerated update tickets, ah, I only saw it today!

  Special thanks to Alliance Master Xiao Kou Dai for his support of 588 starter coins and for his evaluation votes all along, thank you!!