Chapter Fifteen: A Resounding Slap to the Face

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The entire hall fell silent. Everyone stared at Cheng Ziqiu in shock.

Chen Jianguo and Chen Jianjun looked especially livid.

“Bullshit! This is a treasure I spent a fortune digging out of the antiques market! What the hell do you know, you little brat?”

Chen Jianguo’s face flushed crimson, his neck swelling as if it might burst. The folds of fat on his body trembled with every roar.

He jabbed a finger at Cheng Ziqiu’s nose, spittle flying everywhere.

“You dare call my treasure garbage? Are you tired of living, you little punk? Looking to get yourself killed?”

Chen Jianjun joined in, shouting loudly.

“Exactly! This is an authentic Imperial Kiln piece from the Qianlong era! You haven’t even grown all your hair yet, and you dare question my brother’s judgment? I say you’re deliberately causing trouble and trying to ruin the old man’s birthday!”

Chen Churan could stand it no longer. Even her exquisite makeup could not conceal the fury in her eyes.

“Eldest Brother, Second Brother, that’s enough! Cheng Ziqiu is my guest. Insulting him like this is the same as showing me no respect!”

“Respect? Him? A pretty boy who lives off a woman—he deserves respect?”

Chen Jianguo shook the fat on his body, his face filled with contempt.

“Churan, it’s not that Eldest Brother wants to lecture you, but you’re still too young and too easily deceived by the honeyed words of men like him. Just look at him. He may look presentable, but he’s nothing more than an embroidered pillow—pretty to look at and useless in practice!”

Cheng Ziqiu let out a cold laugh, his sharp gaze sweeping across Chen Jianguo and Chen Jianjun.

“I merely stated the truth, and the two of you already cannot bear it? It seems your judgment is truly… difficult to praise.”

He deliberately drew out the final words, making the sarcasm unmistakable.

“Stated the truth? I think you’re deliberately picking a fight!”

Chen Jianguo’s face had turned purple with rage. He pointed at the porcelain vase and shouted,

“This cost me one and a half million! If you call it garbage, can you afford to compensate me?”

Cheng Ziqiu gave another cold laugh and replied leisurely,

“One and a half million? Mr. Chen, you were swindled. This thing couldn’t fetch fifty yuan at a street stall.”

“You… you…”

Chen Jianguo was so furious that he could not form a coherent reply. His trembling finger remained pointed at Cheng Ziqiu.

Chen Jiwang slowly set down his teacup. The dull knock of its base against the rosewood table sounded especially abrupt in the tense atmosphere.

His murky old eyes passed over Chen Jianguo and Chen Jianjun before finally settling on Cheng Ziqiu, a trace of curiosity in his gaze.

He had lived for most of his life. What kind of strange people and schemes had he not seen?

This young man certainly had quite a bold manner of speaking.

“Young man,” Chen Jiwang said slowly, his voice low and powerful. “You’re saying that my son spent more than a million on something worth fifty yuan from a street stall?”

Cheng Ziqiu’s expression did not change. There was even the faintest hint of a smile on his lips.

“Mr. Chen, you have an excellent eye. You recognized the vase’s true value at a glance.”

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He paused, then added,

“Though fifty yuan would still be too generous. In my opinion, it’s worth five at most—and that’s only because the broken thing can still be used to hold flowers.”

“You!”

Chen Jianguo’s face and neck reddened with fury as he pointed at Cheng Ziqiu’s nose and cursed,

“You little brat, what do you know? This is an Imperial Kiln piece from the Qianlong era! The Qianlong Imperial Kiln!”

Seeing Chen Jianguo’s exasperated expression, a trace of displeasure flickered in Chen Jiwang’s eyes.

He had enjoyed a life of comfort and privilege for so many years, yet had learned nothing about maintaining his composure.

He was truly beyond helping.

Chen Jiwang coughed lightly, but his cloudy old eyes suddenly gleamed with sharpness.

“Jianguo, why are you so agitated? Young people often speak without restraint. There’s no harm in listening.”

Chen Jianguo felt even more aggrieved. He pointed at Cheng Ziqiu and cried out,

“Dad, this boy is spouting nonsense and slandering my treasure! You have to stand up for me!”

Chen Jiwang waved a hand, signaling him to be quiet.

“That’s enough. Stop arguing! Today is my birthday, and I don’t want the atmosphere to become too unpleasant.”

He looked at Cheng Ziqiu, curiosity still evident in his voice.

“Young man, since you claim these two items are fakes, why don’t you explain exactly how they are fake?”

A playful smile touched the corner of Cheng Ziqiu’s mouth. He extended two fingers and lightly tapped the porcelain vase.

It gave off a crisp series of tinkling sounds.

In the silence of the room, they seemed particularly grating.

“The mark on the bottom of this vase is a six-character seal script inscription stating that it was made during the Qianlong reign.”

“But the body of the vase clearly has the clay composition and glaze color typical of the Yongzheng period. Mr. Chen, don’t you find it rather baffling that the Qianlong Emperor traveled through time to fire a vase for the Yongzheng Emperor?”

His words left everyone present stunned.

They knew little about antiques, but they understood the implication clearly enough.

The vase was fake. It had been pieced together from different parts.

Chen Jianguo’s face shifted from green to white. Forcing himself to remain calm, he gave a cold snort.

“Complete nonsense! I have a certificate to prove it!”

As he spoke, Chen Jianguo pulled a certificate from inside his clothing and slapped it onto the table.

“See for yourself!”

Cheng Ziqiu picked up the certificate and examined it carefully. Then he gave a derisive laugh.

“Mr. Chen, your antiquing techniques still leave much to be desired.”

“Although the paper on this certificate has yellowed, the fibers along the edges are far too uniform. They were obviously cut recently.”

“And this seal—the color is far too bright, without the slightest trace of age. It looks as though it was stamped only moments ago. Not to mention the handwriting. It is weak and limp, utterly lacking the bearing of a true master. Anyone can see that it was imitated by a modern hand.”

With every sentence Cheng Ziqiu spoke, Chen Jianguo’s expression grew uglier.

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He had never imagined that the treasure he bought for one and a half million would be rendered worthless by this young man’s words.

“You… You’re slandering me!”

Chen Jianguo pointed at Cheng Ziqiu in a fit of rage.

“What do you know about antiques? You’re a fraud!”

Cheng Ziqiu ignored his shouting and instead turned to Chen Jiwang, his tone respectful.

“Mr. Chen, in my opinion, someone deliberately aged this vase and used it to swindle Mr. Chen. Mr. Chen is generous by nature and does not concern himself with trivial details, which allowed someone to take advantage of him.”

Chen Jiwang studied Cheng Ziqiu deeply.

Young as he was, the boy possessed remarkably keen judgment.

More importantly, he had spoken with flawless tact. He had exposed the vase as a fake while still giving Chen Jianguo a way to save face.

Chen Jiwang stroked his beard, a sharp glint flashing through his cloudy old eyes.

“Young man, your eye is impressive, and your courage is rarer still.”

With that, he turned toward Chen Jianguo, whose face was still ashen, and spoke with a hint of warning.

“Jianguo, you ought to learn from Young Master Cheng. Stop letting every swindler in the trade pull the wool over your eyes. One and a half million is no small sum!”

Chen Jianguo’s face burned as though he had just been slapped several times.

He gave two dry laughs and forced out a smile more painful to behold than tears.

“Dad, your lesson is well taken. I failed to judge people properly. I’ll be more careful next time.”

Inwardly, however, he hated Cheng Ziqiu so much that his teeth ached.

That boy had clearly come here to make a fool of him.

Once the old man’s birthday was over, he would show the boy exactly how he dealt with people like him.

The surrounding guests echoed Chen Jiwang’s words, their eyes gleaming with barely concealed schadenfreude.

One and a half million for a fake.

That was a story they would be savoring for quite some time.

“Oh, Old Chen, this is truly… quite a misjudgment!”

A bald man patted Chen Jianguo’s shoulder with feigned sympathy, his fleshy face plastered with a hypocritical smile.

“Exactly, Old Chen. You’ve suffered a tremendous loss this time! One and a half million could buy a small villa!”

Another man in a brightly patterned shirt chimed in with a knowing look and exaggerated winks.

Chen Jianguo’s face remained livid. Suppressing his anger, he responded with a smile that never reached his eyes.

“Not at all, not at all. It was only a bit of money—nothing worth mentioning, nothing worth mentioning…”