treasure hunter

Five minutes later, Xue Yang and Pei Miao arrived at the parking lot of Chaotian Palace South Antique Market, parked their cars, and entered the antique market.

Chaotiangong Antique Market is the most well-preserved ancient building among all the antique markets in Jinling. Looking at the antique buildings on both sides, Xueyang exclaimed: "It's so beautiful, so there is more than one antique market in Jinling?"

Pei Miao smiled lightly and said, "Jinling, the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties, is one of the ancient cultural cities in China. In such an ancient cultural city, antiques are generally more popular. There are many antique markets in Jinling, but not many have formed a large scale. The antique city of Chaotian Palace , it is the largest antique city in Jinling, and the only one that has been recognized by the government.”

"I found that I like Jinling more and more." Xueyang looked at the ancient buildings on both sides cheerfully, and said, "Sometimes I just think that a gentle lady like me should be born in Jiangnan. It’s a good place, it matches my temperament better.”

Hearing this, Pei Miao almost choked on his own saliva. He coughed lightly, and said slowly, "Next time you say such nonsense, please warn me in advance."

"What can't be called marginal." Xue Yang gave him a big roll of eyes, "Look at my temperament, isn't it gentle and refined?"

As he spoke, he posed a poss that looked very ladylike.

Pei Miao gritted her teeth when she heard the words, and said, "I think your temperament is more suitable for going to the Northeast."

"Northeast? Why?"

"Witches from the Northeast... Biao..."

"I'll beat you to death!" Xue Yang was so angry that he squeezed his fists and hit him. Fortunately, Pei Miao reacted quickly and ran away.

The two chased after each other and ran for a while, when Pei Miao suddenly stopped, Xue Yang slammed into Pei Miao's back, causing her to rub her forehead and complained: "You are going to die, stop suddenly..."

"Here we are." Pei Miao turned to look at her, pointed to the front, and said, "Longtai Framing Shop."

Xue Yang took a closer look, and his expression became strange. He saw that the storefront was so small, as if a store was opened in the alleyway between two stores. The store door could only allow one person to pass through, and it was wider than the other stores nearby. The door of the store is in stark contrast.

Xue Yang looked at Pei Miao and asked, "Is that friend of yours...reliable?"

"Under normal circumstances, he's pretty reliable." Pei Miao said, "He's here, let's go in and have a look."

"Okay." Xue Yang had no choice but to enter the store one after the other with Pei Miao.

After entering the store, I saw that the inside is a little wider than the store door. The whole store is estimated to be more than two meters wide, but it is quite deep inside. There are also back doors and stairs. It is estimated that this is a store with a home.

The air conditioner in the store is quite warm. After all, the space is small. There is only one man in his 50s, very thin, with a Mediterranean head, wearing glasses and a very old-fashioned sweetheart neck sweater.

Pei Miao stepped forward and asked, "Hi, is this Boss Wang? It was Shulong who introduced me to you."

"Yes, I am the boss. You were introduced by Xiaoshu. Welcome." Boss Wang warmly greeted him, "Come, sit down and have a cup of tea."

"Don't bother." Pei Miao said, "I want to ask you to look at a painting for me."

"Looking at the paintings?" Boss Wang was taken aback when he heard the words, and said, "This is a mounting shop. If you want to look at the paintings, go to the antique shop and ask those old masters to help you."

Pei Miao smiled and said, "This painting is a bit special, it may need to be repaired, you will know it when you see it."

"Oh, that's right." Boss Wang said, "Then take it out and have a look."

After finishing speaking, he walked to the desk and motioned Pei Miao to put the painting on the desk.

Pei Miao opened the painting box, took out the painting, put it on the table, and unfolded it slowly.

The painting is not big, Boss Wang looked at it for a while, and said doubtfully: "This painting doesn't need to be repaired, and there is no problem with the mounting, it is very neat."

Pei Miao said: "Boss Wang, the heart of this painting is a bit thick, and there is almost no color difference between the front and back of the painting paper. I suspect it is a picture-in-picture. What do you think?"

"Let me see." Boss Wang gently twisted the drawing paper with his hands, compared the colors of the paper on the front and back, and said thoughtfully: "Really, the thickness of this drawing paper is obviously wrong. As for the color difference, it’s not a big deal, many paintings are rolled up and placed in painting boxes, so for a long time, there will be no color difference between the front and back.”

Pei Miao said, "Then can you peel off this picture-in-picture for me?"

Boss Wang thought for a while and said, "Why don't we take this painting apart first to see if it's a picture-in-picture? If it is, I'll peel it off for you."

Pei Miao nodded: "Okay, if it's not a picture-in-picture, I'll give you 500 yuan for dismantling the painting. If it's a picture-in-picture, please help me peel off the two paintings. The one above doesn't matter, just make sure the one below is As long as the sub-painting is not damaged, and the repair and mounting work is all entrusted to you, you can set a price."

Boss Wang waved his hand and said, "Don't be in a hurry to negotiate the price, first take it apart and see if it's a picture-in-picture."

As he spoke, he began to tear down the painting.

Boss Wang is worthy of being an old mounting master, his movements are very clean and neat, and he took out the painting core in a short while.

Then he put on a headlamp, looked at the side of the drawing paper, looked at it with a magnifying glass, and counted layer by layer with very small tweezers.

"Eleven layers of paper." Boss Wang straightened up and said, "It is undoubtedly a picture-in-picture. According to my observation, the painting above is made of 7 complete layers of paper, while the painting below has only four layers of paper."

Xueyang on the side asked suspiciously: "Eleven layers of paper? Didn't it mean that there were only two paintings? How did it become eleven layers?"

Pei Miao explained: "The manufacturing process of ancient rice paper is very strict. It must be scooped seven times. After drying, this rice paper has seven layers, and each layer is extremely thin, just like the wings of a cicada."

Xue Yang nodded and said: "I understand, a piece of paper has seven layers of cicada wings, and two sheets of paper have fourteen layers, but why does this painting have eleven layers."

At this time, Boss Wang explained: "Because the paper in this painting was peeled off three layers in order to reduce the thickness and prevent others from realizing that it is a picture-in-picture. If you want to peel off these two paintings, first It is necessary to confirm which painting has been peeled off the paper layer, or both paintings have been peeled off, so that the two paintings can be separated accurately, and if a mistake is made, the painting may be destroyed."

Xue Yang couldn't help sighing after hearing the words: "Ah, it sounds so difficult."

At this time, Boss Wang said again: "Under normal circumstances, the paper layer of the painting above will not be peeled off, because the function of the painting above is to cover the painting below. , it will become thinner. If it is too thin, it will be difficult to cover the painting below. I have confirmed just now that the painting below has been peeled off three layers of paper. Next, the painting can be separated, little boss, you Are you sure you want to separate, this is risky, and I will tell you frankly, if the ancient painting is destroyed, I will only pay 3% of the painting's cost, the market is like this, how to choose, you decide."

Pei Miao nodded: "Help me peel it off, plus repair and mounting, how much is the total?"

The boss calculated in his mind, and said: "The stripping plus restoration and mounting, the total is [-]."

"Fifty thousand?" Xue Yang exclaimed when he heard the words.

Unexpectedly, Pei Miao nodded calmly: "Thank you boss for giving me the discount, please do it."

"Okay, I'll prepare the tools." Boss Wang replied, and immediately started to equip the tools.

Xue Yang moved closer to Pei Miao, and asked in a low voice, "[-] is still the preferential price?"

"Yes." Pei Miao said, "This is a very difficult craft, not many people know it, and [-] is indeed not expensive."

Xue Yang stuck out her tongue, and secretly sighed, the antique business is really not something everyone can play.

Boss Wang prepared the tools and began to peel off the painting.

First of all, Boss Wang dipped a wool brush in some water and gently brushed on the drawing paper. Seeing him doing this, Xueyang couldn't help leaning into Pei Miao's ear and whispered, "Although I don't know much about antiques, I don't know much about antiques. Grandpa understands, once I wet a small piece of his ancient painting and was scolded by him, grandpa dotes on me the most and never said harsh words to me, that time really scared me."

Pei Miao replied in a low voice: "Calligraphy and painting are indeed not sticky to water. After the water dries, it is easy to leave water marks and mildew. If the water falls on the place where there is ink, it may cause the ink to melt. But now it is a last resort to peel off the painting. In short, we can only rely on post-repair to save the trouble caused by water.”

"Oh..." Xueyang nodded slowly, not sure if she understood.

Boss Wang brushed very gently, as if he was dusting off the dust with a brush. After finally painting the whole painting with water, he started to brush it for the second time. The ink in the layered painting melts when it meets water, and he is also very particular about the amount of water taken. It must be absorbed by the drawing paper, neither too much nor too little.

This work is very time-consuming. By the time he finished painting with water for the second time, 10 to [-] minutes had passed. Fortunately, the painting is not big, otherwise an hour would not be enough.

After brushing the water, Mr. Wang put on a headlamp, held flat tweezers, and began to try to pick apart the paper layers from the side, layer by layer, in order to confirm whether the paper layers were separated.

If you want to separate the paintings, water control is the key. It is required that the paper layers are not separated, but the paintings are separated from each other.

After trying for a long time, Boss Wang finally grasped the edge of the paper with tweezers and pulled it lightly, only a little over a millimeter.

Because the paper is resilient, but now that it is wetted, the toughness will be compromised. Once it is stretched out, it will be difficult to shrink back, which will cause the drawing paper to wrinkle, and the consequences are very serious.

Xueyang was stunned. She could tell that Boss Wang was planning to uncover the painting millimeter by millimeter. How long would it take for such a large painting? He suddenly felt, 5 The manual cost of [-] yuan does not seem to be much.

Pei Miao has been watching earnestly from the side without saying a word. He looks very carefully. He also wants to learn this kind of craft. It is impossible for ordinary people to learn it after reading it once, because many things in it need to be very experienced. It can only be mastered with a lot of experience, and it needs to be taught by words and deeds plus countless times of practice. Just the mastery of water volume, even if you read it a hundred times, it is impossible to learn it.

But Pei Miao has good eyesight and the help of his right hand. He believes that it shouldn't be difficult to learn this if he goes back and practice a few more times.

Peeling off the painting is an extremely meticulous job. Boss Wang carefully separated it with tweezers. After more than 20 minutes, he had uncovered about eight centimeters. Seeing the ink exposed in the painting below, Pei Miao gradually became excited. .

An hour later, one-third of the painting had been uncovered. Boss Wang stopped to wipe off his sweat, and touched the painting on it with his hand. It felt a little dry. He picked up a brush and brushed it with water again. Obviously, The water that was brushed before has evaporated a lot due to the long time.

After working like this for nearly four hours, it was dark outside, during which Shulong sent messages to Pei Miao for a while, and heard that Pei Miao was in Boss Wang's shop, Shulong asked Pei Miao to go to his shop after finishing the work play for a while.

Boss Wang finally uncovered the whole painting, and happily said: "It's done!" He said and put the painting on it aside neatly.

Xue Yang hurried over to take a look, and saw that the painting below is also a picture of tits traveling in the forest, but the painting skills are a hundred times better than the painting above. The tits are agile, the trees are dense, and the mountains and rocks are towering. At first glance, it is everyone's work. Signed Both the seal and the seal are Shen Quan.

Boss Wang was so focused on stripping the painting just now that he didn't look at the painting below at all. Now that he is free, he looked at the painting below carefully. After seeing it, he couldn't help being surprised and said: "Oh, it's actually Da Shenquan painting!"

Pei Miao nodded happily: "Yes, Da Shenquan's painting."

"Good stuff." Boss Wang said, "This picture-in-picture should not be expensive, after all, the picture above is so poor, how much did you pay for it?"

Pei Miao said, "One thousand."

"One thousand?" Boss Wang was taken aback when he heard the words, and then said, "Big leak, little boss, you are picking up big leaks. This picture of Da Shenquan's tits traveling in the forest is worth at least 150 million, don't you think?" Sell ​​it, if you are willing to sell it, I know a friend who just wants to buy an ancient painting as a gift, and I will definitely give you a satisfactory price."

Pei Miao pointed to Xueyang, and said, "This is a birthday gift I picked for her grandfather, it cannot be sold."

"Oh, it's terrible." Boss Wang said with a smile, "You have spent a lot of money just to talk to someone, haha, I wish you an early knot, okay, the rest of the restoration and mounting will be handed over to you. Let me pay a deposit of [-] yuan first, and pick up the painting in three days, and it will definitely make your eyes shine."

"Okay." Pei Miao took out his mobile phone, scanned Boss Wang's QR code, and paid a deposit of [-].

And Xueyang stood there, holding her face in her hands, because her face is very red and hot now, she secretly scolded Boss Wang in her heart, what kind of eyes are you talking about, you just got married...

After the boss received the transfer notice, he issued two forms to Pei Miao, one was the receipt and the other was the order form. When the time came to pick up the goods, he would need these documents. Pickup is possible, but only if the remaining charges are settled.