Chapter 37

"Uncle Zhu, this is a genuine new bamboo shoot painting by Wu Zhen, one of the Four Masters of the Yuan Dynasty." Yang Kang said straightforwardly.

Zhu Zhenye was stunned for a full thirty seconds before he finally came to his senses and asked, "Ah Kang, are you joking?"

"Uncle Zhu, I came to you for mounting, so I have to show you the painting." A smile crept onto Yang Kang’s lips. He knew that in this world, only one person, Guo Pàngzi, would use Wu Zhen’s new bamboo shoot painting to paper a wall. Other ancient painting enthusiasts would tremble at the mention of this person’s name, and even Zhu Zhenye, who had retired, would be moved.

"If it’s not genuine, you can give me a big slap." Yang Kang continued.

"No, no, no!" Zhu Zhenye suddenly became interested. Others might not know who Wu Zhen was, but he did. Wu Zhen—one of the Four Masters of the Yuan Dynasty, alongside Huang Gongwang, Ni Zan, and Wang Meng—was renowned for his ink bamboo paintings.

Although it wasn’t a rare item that didn’t exist in the world, a few museums had it, and you could go and look at it through a glass cabinet. However, if you wanted to touch it, that was absolutely impossible. To mount and restore it, you had to see if you were worthy enough.

"Ah Kang, seriously, don’t fool Uncle Zhu." Zhu Zhenye said, "Is it really Wu Zhen’s painting? How big is it?"

"I just measured it, 55cm * 86cm, not small at all. It’s well-preserved, just a bit dirty, so it needs some cleaning." Yang Kang said directly.

"Where are you? I’ll come over." Zhu Zhenye felt his heart being tickled and couldn’t wait, so he hurriedly called out.

"Do you know the Antiques Street Ruyi Workshop?" Yang Kang quickly said.

"Yes!" Zhu Zhenye hurriedly replied, "Wait for me, I’m coming."

"Okay!" Yang Kang hung up the phone. He had originally planned to deliver it himself, but he didn’t expect the old man to get so excited and want to come over. Fine, if he wants to come, let him come.

After hanging up with Zhu Zhenye, Yang Kang leaned back on the large sofa and began to daydream. Mounting ancient paintings wasn’t difficult, but restoring ancient porcelain was a bit challenging. He didn’t know any masters who could restore ancient porcelain, and the best person to ask would be Zhou Bomin. However, he had caused Zhou Bomin a lot of trouble recently.

Zhou Bomin was a very nice person and had taken good care of him, but he couldn’t keep bothering him with everything. Besides, he still had Wang Qiyi around, which made Yang Kang a bit depressed.

After much consideration, he called Professor Qin. In Langyuan, there were definitely top-notch ancient porcelain restoration masters, and he just needed to ask Professor Qin.

"Little Prince, what brings you to call this old man?" Professor Qin was very humorous.

"Professor Qin, please, don’t call me that." Yang Kang was quite depressed. Why did so many people call him "Little Prince" when they heard his name? It was fine when classmates called him that for fun, but it made him a bit depressed when Professor Qin called him that.

"Ha ha!" Professor Qin laughed, "Little Yang, what’s up? Got some old stuff to show?"

"I don’t have that much old stuff to show." Yang Kang laughed, "Professor Qin, I just wanted to ask if there’s a master in Langyuan who specializes in restoring ancient porcelain? It’s just cracked, no missing parts, and needs restoration."

"What do you want to restore?" Professor Qin asked curiously, "I’m pretty good at my craft. If it’s just cracked, I can put it back together. Since we’re so familiar, why don’t you give me some business?"

Yang Kang chuckled. He instantly understood that Professor Qin was the master in charge of ancient porcelain restoration in Langyuan, but this old man was much easier to talk to than Zhu Zhenye. He was extremely humorous and had no airs about him.

"Professor, if you can restore it, that would be great, saving me the trouble of finding someone else." Yang Kang said, "A blue-and-white porcelain, cracked into five pieces."

"Yuan blue-and-white?" Professor Qin asked almost instinctively.

"No, Ming blue-and-white." Yang Kang hesitated for a moment but still said, "Professor Qin is also a great appraiser in Langyuan, so I can’t hide it from him."

"Damn, Little Yang, don’t joke around, okay?" Professor Qin hurriedly said, "Are you sure it’s Yuan blue-and-white?"

"It looks like it to me." Yang Kang smiled bitterly, "I haven’t had it appraised, so I can’t be 100% sure."

"Are you at Ruyi Workshop? I’ll come over." Professor Qin hurriedly said.

"Alright!" Yang Kang nodded, "I’m at Ruyi Workshop."

Professor Qin was very quick. Yang Kang didn’t wait for ten minutes before he appeared at the door of Ruyi Workshop.

"Professor Qin, please come in." Yang Kang hurriedly invited him in, smiling, "Please sit." As he spoke, he turned to get him some tea.

"I don’t drink tea. Show me that Yuan blue-and-white." Professor Qin said straightforwardly, "Although I’ve seen it before, hearing about such rare items still gets me excited."

"Ha ha!" Yang Kang laughed. When he saw the Yuan blue-and-white fragments yesterday, his heart was bleeding. Really, if he hadn’t seen the exquisite Yuan dynasty blue-and-white porcelain bottle beforehand and been mentally prepared, he might have cried on the spot.

"Wait a moment." He turned to the antique shelf, took out a brocade box from the bottom, placed it on the coffee table, and opened it.

To avoid damaging the porcelain, when viewing such antiques, one had to be extremely careful. The seller would carefully take it out and place it on the table, then step back, and the buyer would then go to look at it.

Professor Qin naturally knew this rule. He immediately took out a magnifying glass and a small flashlight, picked up a piece of the broken porcelain, and carefully examined the blue-and-white glaze.

Yang Kang didn’t disturb him, letting him examine it. After ten minutes, Professor Qin put down the magnifying glass and flashlight, then held the five pieces of broken porcelain and looked at them in the brocade box, nodding. "Little Yang, where did you get such a good thing?"

"Uh?" Yang Kang was stunned. He didn’t know how to answer this question.

"Oh! Sorry, I misspoke!" Professor Qin, seeing his expression, hurriedly said, "Little Yang, do you know the price of this Yuan blue-and-white figure porcelain?"

"I know a bit." Yang Kang smiled, "Didn’t the Guiguzi Descending the Mountain sell for over 200 million?"

"That was the price back then." Professor Qin rubbed his eyes and said, "Currently, there are eight known Yuan blue-and-white figure vases, all of which are national treasures. In any museum, they would be the crown jewels. And yours should be the story of Mozi Rescuing Song—so, it would be the ninth piece? Of course, first, we need to confirm that it’s genuine."