Chapter 51

"Brother, why don't you stay in Yanjing for a few more days?"

The next morning, just after Su Xiaofan had sent a message to his sister saying he was planning to leave Yanjing the next day, he received a call from her.

"There's nothing much to do here, and it's better to go back and do business."

Su Xiaofan planned to visit the antique market again today and then leave Yanjing.

After selling the brush holder and the brush washer at Jingxin Hall, Su Xiaofan didn't intend to sell any more antiques in Yanjing to avoid drawing attention.

Su Xiaofan had spent a few years in the Luochuan antique market, learning some tricks of the trade from Zheng Dagang. Selling a few small items shouldn't be a problem.

"Brother, you don't have to work so hard. I'll start earning a salary next year."

Su Xiaoxiao's voice came through the phone.

"Students have salaries?"

Su Xiaofan was taken aback.

"We're in a research institute, so we get... well, bonuses for assisting our mentors in research."

Su Xiaoxiao spoke hesitantly, "Don't ask, Su Xiaofan. Anyway, I'll have money next year, and I'll take care of you from then on!"

"Disrespectful! Su Xiaoxiao, are you trying to rebel?"

Su Xiaofan said irritably, "Take care of yourself. If you run out of money... don't come to me. I'm even poorer than you!"

"Got it, nagging. I have to go to class, bye!" Su Xiaoxiao hung up the phone.

Su Xiaofan wasn't worried about his sister's ability to take care of herself. With Mo Zixuan's care, he was confident she would live well in Yanjing.

...

After having breakfast, Su Xiaofan followed the same route and took the subway to Pan Garden.

Compared to other antique markets, Pan Garden was undoubtedly the most bustling. Today, Su Xiaofan wasn't looking for bargains.

Seeing the crowded market, Su Xiaofan didn't know what to say. This place was more like a tourist attraction than an antique market.

Mixing in the crowd, Su Xiaofan revisited the miscellaneous stalls he had seen the day before.

It was hard to find bargains in the antique market these days.

Su Xiaofan used the restoration system to examine most of the miscellaneous items in Pan Garden but found nothing worth buying.

Of course, it wasn't that there were no genuine items on the stalls. Occasionally, there were a few old items, but the stall owners would price them sky-high, clearly keeping them to attract customers.

At the moment, Su Xiaofan was crouching in front of a stall selling jade.

The jade on the stall wasn't ancient, but the quality was good, mostly Hetian jade and blue jade.

More importantly, the restoration system in Su Xiaofan's mind gave a prompt.

[Restoration Value: 130 points!]

[Hetian Jade Guanyin, can be nurtured in the Nurturing Pool!]

[Nurturing the Hetian Jade Guanyin will cost 10 restoration points. Do you want to nurture it?]

"Hmm, this jade is quite interesting."

Holding a thumb-sized Hetian Jade Guanyin pendant, Su Xiaofan was unsure.

He had been browsing the market for over two hours and had used the system to examine many items.

There were quite a few restorable items, but they were mostly damaged modern crafts with little restoration value.

The Hetian Jade Guanyin pendant was the first item the system suggested for nurturing.

However, nurturing this pendant would cost 10 restoration points, which Su Xiaofan was reluctant to spend.

After all, the dragon-shaped jade pendant currently being nurtured only cost 5 restoration points.

Converting the price of yin stones, 10 restoration points were equivalent to three to four million yuan. If the jade pendant wasn't worth that much after nurturing, Su Xiaofan would be at a loss.

"Boss, how much for this Guanyin?"

After some thought, Su Xiaofan decided to buy it.

He still had plenty of restoration points to spare and wanted to understand the function of the Nurturing Pool.

"Six thousand!"

The stall owner looked at Su Xiaofan and said, "This is a Qing mid-period jade, of very good quality. Six thousand is a fair price."

"Let's not talk about Qing mid-period, boss."

Su Xiaofan shook his head, "The carving is good, and it's made from Hetian mountain stream material. Three thousand, if you sell it, I'll buy it."

Su Xiaofan had some knowledge of jade and miscellaneous antiques.

The Guanyin pendant was made from Hetian mountain stream material, slightly inferior to seed jade but with a fine texture, making it a rare and good piece of jade.

"Alright, you seem to be an expert. Three thousand it is, I'll sell it to you."

The stall owner, realizing Su Xiaofan knew the jade wasn't ancient, nodded.

The stall owner had relatives in Hetian, providing a steady supply of Hetian jade.

This mountain stream material was part of a batch of mountain material.

The lower-quality mountain material was machine-carved, while the better pieces were hand-carved by the stall owner.

Of course, the stall owner didn't hire master carvers; he paid artisans three to five hundred yuan per piece.

The jade came from the source, and the carving was good, making the stall quite popular in Pan Garden.

"My wallet is getting lighter."

After paying by QR code, Su Xiaofan looked at his bank balance and sighed.

[Restoration Value: 130 points!]

[Hetian Jade Guanyin, can be nurtured in the Nurturing Pool!]

[Nurturing the Hetian Jade Guanyin will cost 10 restoration points. Do you want to nurture it?]

"Nurture!"

Su Xiaofan thought, and the jade pendant in his palm disappeared.

[Deducted Restoration Value: 10 points!]

[Hetian Jade Guanyin: Nurturing, Countdown: 71:59:59...]

[Remaining Restoration Value: 120 points]

"Another three days and seventy-two hours."

Looking at the information in his mind, Su Xiaofan knew he had to wait two more days to uncover the secrets of the Nurturing Pool.

Time was something Su Xiaofan could afford, but the 10 points deducted made him a bit hesitant.

Since Uncle Jing mentioned the price of yin stones, Su Xiaofan often equated restoration points with RMB.

After the Hetian Jade Guanyin, Su Xiaofan wandered around and found a Han Dynasty octagonal bronze mirror.

The octagonal patterns on the back of the mirror were almost completely worn away.

The yin-yang pattern on the front was also worn smooth, indicating that it had been used as a regular mirror.

Due to the severe damage, it looked like a piece of rusted iron, and Su Xiaofan bought it for just two hundred yuan.

[Restoration Value: 120 points!]

[Han Dynasty Octagonal Bronze Mirror, can be restored!]

[Restoring the Han Dynasty Octagonal Bronze Mirror will cost 1 restoration point. Do you want to restore it?]

"Restore!"

After Su Xiaofan thought about it, the octagonal bronze mirror in the bag immediately showed its thousand-year-old appearance.

The marks of time on the octagonal mirror were not lost due to restoration.

However, the yin-yang pattern on the front and the octagonal patterns on the back became clear after restoration.

The front of the mirror had the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches and the River-Lo Nine Stars, while the back had the inscription "Octagonal Ancestor, Four Directions Nobles."

Looking at the exquisite Han Dynasty feng shui octagonal mirror, Su Xiaofan was a bit hesitant.

He was unsure whether to sell it as a bargain or nurture it in the Nurturing Pool. This was the second item he had found that could be nurtured.

For 200 yuan, the octagonal mirror was a fine piece of Han Dynasty bronze, worth at least 40,000 to 50,000 yuan.

Nurturing it in the Nurturing Pool would cost 10 restoration points, and the function after nurturing was unknown. Su Xiaofan didn't know if it would be a loss or a gain.

[Restoration Value: 119 points!]

[Han Dynasty Octagonal Mirror, can be nurtured in the Nurturing Pool!]

[Nurturing the Han Dynasty Octagonal Mirror will cost 10 restoration points. Do you want to nurture it?]

"Nurture!"

Su Xiaofan bit his lip and sent the Han Dynasty octagonal mirror into the Nurturing Pool.

[Deducted Restoration Value: 10 points!]

[Han Dynasty Octagonal Mirror: Nurturing, Countdown: 71:59:59...]

[Remaining Restoration Value: 109 points]

Su Xiaofan came to Pan Garden today to figure out the function of the Nurturing Pool.

Spending some restoration points to nurture a few items would allow him to compare the results after nurturing.

Leaving the miscellaneous area, Su Xiaofan visited some shops in Pan Garden.

Unlike the stalls, the quality of items in the shops was much higher.

Just in the jade shop he was browsing, he saw seven or eight pieces of seed jade, some of which were of very high quality.

Of course, the prices were also impressive, with a piece of seed jade priced at 200,000 yuan.

Su Xiaofan could only look, as his pockets were empty, and he didn't even have the courage to touch them.

However, after visiting the jade shop, Su Xiaofan discovered a pattern related to the Nurturing Pool.

High-quality jade could almost always be nurtured in the Nurturing Pool.

The required restoration points varied based on the quality of the jade.

The item that required the least restoration points was a pair of black jade earrings, costing only 3 points.

However, the earrings themselves were priced at 18,000 yuan.

Su Xiaofan looked at his phone and quickly moved his gaze away.

A piece of Han Dynasty jade, the shop's prized item priced at 1.8 million yuan, required 100 restoration points to nurture, scaring Su Xiaofan away from even looking at it again, for fear of accidentally sending it to the Nurturing Pool.

After a quick visit to the antique shop, Su Xiaofan left decisively.

The shops had surveillance cameras, and if he lost control, he might end up in the police station for a body search.

[Deducted Restoration Value: 3 points!]

[Vajra Bodhi Beads: Nurturing, Countdown: 23:59:59...]

[Remaining Restoration Value: 106 points]

In the cultural play area, Su Xiaofan found something worth buying.

He was interested in a string of Vajra Bodhi beads on the wrist of a bead seller, mainly because nurturing this string only cost 3 restoration points.

The string of Vajra Bodhi beads had 14 beads, which the seller had played with for a long time. The bead patterns were worn smooth, and the entire string was a beautiful purple.

The cultural play market was deep, but Su Xiaofan could easily tell if the beads were old or new, as he had seen these tricks from Brother Gang.

The Vajra Bodhi beads were the common five-petal type. If new, they would cost at most a hundred yuan.

However, with the effort of playing with them, the price of the Vajra Bodhi beads skyrocketed, and the seller asked for 2,000 yuan.

Cultural play items were different from other items. Things that one had played with were often hard to part with.

In the end, Su Xiaofan paid 1,800 yuan to buy the Vajra Bodhi beads.

After sending the beads to the Nurturing Pool, Su Xiaofan found that he only had a bit over 10,000 yuan in cash and 106 restoration points left.

However, the nurturing time for the Vajra Bodhi beads was only 24 hours, so they would be ready before the other items.