treasure hunter

"This is not Dong Qichang's work."

"Yeah, this piece of paper doesn't look like the Ming Dynasty at first glance, and the painting style seems to be an imitation."

"But this painter is really very good."

"It's a pity that the seal is smeared. It's impossible to tell who the author is. It seems that the seal was smeared on purpose. It's so strange."

……

The four people looked at this painting for a long time, and all felt that this painting was very weird. They initially judged it to be a copy of a painting from the Republic of China. Zhang Cheng was even willing to pay 30 yuan for the painting.

Pei Miao refused with a smile, saying that he wanted to collect it by himself, even if he would never find out who the author of the painting was, he still wanted to collect it himself. Seeing his firm tone, Zhang Cheng naturally no longer forced it.

Fan Wenhai's eyes lit up suddenly, and he said: "You three, I want to take Pei Miao to meet Mr. Huang today, and it just so happens that Pei Miao brought such a weird painting, why don't we go together, use this Let’s test Huang Lao on a painting, maybe we can learn something from Huang Lao.”

"You're such a chicken thief." Li Liang scolded with a smile, "I've been thinking about stealing from Mr. Huang all day long, but I like it. Let's go, let's go find Mr. Huang."

Pei Miao put away the painting, followed the four of them out of the teahouse, and took Fan Wenhai's car to find Huang Lao.

The car drove to an old community. Although the community was old, the security guards did not allow strangers and vehicles to enter. Fan Wenhai called Mr. Huang. Mr. Huang greeted the security guards, and the security guards let them in.

A group of five people came to a building, there was no need to go upstairs, Huang Lao lived on the first floor.

Press the doorbell, and three seconds later, the door opened. The person who opened the door was a middle-aged woman in her 40s. Seeing Fan Wenhai, the middle-aged woman smiled and said, "Boss Fan is here. Mr. Huang is waiting for you in the study."

From her tone, one could tell that she was not Huang Lao's child or daughter-in-law, but a nanny.

After Pei Miao entered the house, he found that the whole house was decorated in an antique style. In order to cater to this decoration style, there was not a single modern electrical appliance in the living room. There was no TV, fan, air conditioner, or refrigerator. Not even the electric lights. It is designed as an ancient gauze lamp, but the candle is replaced with a light bulb.

Mr. Huang’s house is quite big, it is estimated to be more than 160 square meters, but there are only two rooms, that is, the bedroom and the study room. In this way, the space of the entrance, the main hall, and the living room is much larger. separated by landscape screens.

This landscape screen is actually an antique in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, and it is very valuable at first glance.

Fan Wenhai led the team, led them to the study room, and knocked on the door lightly.

"Come in." The old man's voice came from the room.

The door of the room is an ancient double door, Fan Wenhai pushed the door open, and saw that the study is very spacious and bright, it is still decorated in a classical style, even more authentic than Fan Wenhai's study, with five antique shelves standing against the wall, other The walls are covered with calligraphy and paintings, and the desk is by the window. At this moment, a gray-haired old man wearing round glasses is sitting behind the desk reading a book. When the old man sees them coming in, he puts down the book and turns his head to look at the them.

"Teacher, I'm here to see you. I'm sorry to disturb your reading." Fan Wenhai greeted him with a smile on his face.

"Hello, Mr. Huang." The rest of the people also saluted and said hello.

"Hello." Mr. Huang replied with a smile, then looked at Fan Wenhai, and said, "You...don't bark, I'm not your teacher, and I never accepted you as a student."

"Hey." Fan Wenhai smirked cheekily, and then said, "Old... Huang Lao, we encountered a problem today, and I came here to ask you to help me take care of a baby."

"Oh, can it be difficult for your baby? It must be an interesting thing." Hearing this, Mr. Huang became interested, and got up and said, "Come on, take it out and have a look."

Fan Wenhai gave Pei Miao a look, and Pei Miao hurriedly took off the painting tube, unscrewed the lid, took out the ancient painting, and put it on the desk.

"Oh, it's a painting." Huang Lao murmured, "Appreciation of ancient paintings is the most difficult thing to master. Let me tidy up the book case."

As he said, he sorted out all the miscellaneous things on the desk, Fan Wenhai and the others watched from the sidelines, not daring to help, because Mr. Huang's room was full of treasures, and without his permission, no one was allowed to touch them, even for cleaning. The room was also done by him himself, and the nanny was not allowed to enter his study.

Although Mr. Huang is 70 years old, he has a strong body and quick movements. He quickly sorted out the book case and motioned Pei Miao to spread out the painting.

Pei Miao slowly unfolded the painting, Huang Lao glanced at it, and couldn't help but ask, "Dong Qichang's landscape scroll?"

Fan Wenhai smiled and said, "Old Huang, take a closer look."

"Okay, it shouldn't be that simple, otherwise you wouldn't have come to me, oh, this print has been blurred." Huang Lao took out a gold-rimmed magnifying glass from his pocket and looked closely at the painting. .

"Huh? Interesting..." Mr. Huang whispered while looking at the painting, "This is an imitation painting of the Republic of China. The painter was very skillful. He imitated Dong Qichang's style to achieve [-]% similarity. This painter..."

Huang Lao's expression suddenly became serious.

They also noticed the change in Huang Lao's expression, and Li Liang couldn't help asking: "Old President, did you find anything?"

"I thought of someone." Elder Huang looked at it for a while, then suddenly moved the magnifying glass to the position of the stamp, and carefully observed the stamp, but the stamp was really blurred, and he couldn't recognize it after a long time of careful identification.

After all, Mr. Huang was old, and he couldn't bear to bend his waist like this all the time. He straightened up and beat his own waist, and said slowly, "This painting... I feel a bit like Zhang Daqian's painter."

"Zhang Daqian!" Everyone exclaimed, including Pei Miao.

Although Pei Miao knew that this was Zhang Daqian's painting, she had to pretend to be surprised in order to conceal it.

Huang Laodao: "The painter made a lot of cover-ups, which can only be seen vaguely, but the inscription somewhat leaked Zhang Daqian's handwriting, but this alone cannot be sure that this is Zhang Daqian's painting. , as long as it is confirmed that this is Zhang Daqian's seal, the identity of this painting will be clear."

Pei Miao asked eagerly: "Then Mr. Huang, do you know an expert who is proficient in restoration, come and repair this seal for me?"

Huang Lao raised his eyebrows slightly, looked at Pei Miao, and asked, "Is this painting yours?"

"Yes." Pei Miao nodded.

Fan Wenhai hastily introduced: "I forgot to introduce him. His name is Pei Miao. He is a newcomer who just joined the club. He asked us to look at this painting for us, but we couldn't understand it, so we came to you."

"Oh, that's good, that's good." Huang Lao said with a smile, "The association should recruit more young people, otherwise the antique industry will be broken."

After he finished speaking, he took out his phone and dialed a number. Elderly people have a common habit of making calls, and they like to turn on the speakerphone, and Mr. Huang is no exception.

call connected

"Hey?"

"Hey, Old Han, are you free to come to my place now? Bring tools and help me restore an ancient painting."

"Old Huang, can you really be joking? Restoration of ancient paintings is a matter of time. You can ask someone to send the paintings to me for restoration."

"It's not mine, it's a junior's." Old Huang said, "The repair area is very small, but the stamp is blurred, so it shouldn't take much time."

"Oh, the money seal..." The person on the other end of the phone seemed a little disappointed when he heard the words, and felt that the job was a little small.

"Don't be disappointed." Huang Lao said with a smile, "This seal is not so easy to repair, and there is no room for mistakes, because I feel that this painting is a bit like Zhang Daqian's painting."

"What, Zhang Daqian? Are you sure?" The other end of the phone screamed.

"Not sure yet." Huang Lao said, "When you repair the seal, you will know if it is true."

"Okay, I'll come right away, where are you? At home?"

"Yes, at home."

Then the phone hung up.

"This old Han." Huang Lao smiled, pointed to the guest seat beside him, and said, "Don't stand, sit, sit down and talk."

Pei Miao and the others sat down one after another and chatted with Huang Lao.

During the chat, Fan Wenhai mentioned the events of the previous two days, saying that Pei Miao was good at appraising treasures, picking up Heshen's golden grasshopper cage and Yongzheng official kiln celestial ball bottle continuously.

Huang Lao became interested when he heard the words, looked at Pei Miao, and asked, "Pei Miao, it's really not easy for you to have such eyesight at such a young age. Have you been in the antique business since you were young?"

"No." Pei Miao shook his head, and said, "I officially came into contact with antiques... I went to work in an antique shop in the second semester of my junior year, and I started to learn about antiques. Before that, I learned some knowledge about ancient relics at school, oh, yes , I majored in archaeology."

"So it's from the Department of Archeology." Huang Lao smiled and nodded, "You can be regarded as a major, and you look like you are only 25 years old?"

"24, 25 after Chinese New Year."

"Oh, it hasn't been long since you came into contact with antiques. It seems that when you were in school, you must have studied hard and laid a solid foundation."

Pei Miao smiled modestly: "I have read a lot of books, but I just don't know how to apply what I have learned."

On a whim, Mr. Huang pointed to the things in his study and said, "I have quite a few ancient gadgets here. Choose a few and tell us about their origins. I'll see what you think."

"This... how dare I play big swords in front of Guan Erye."

"Just let me test you, come and take a look." Huang Lao seems to like Pei Miao very much. After all, he rarely sees young people who like antiques. He also wants to know how lucky Pei Miao is to pick up the leak. , or rely on strength.

"Then I'll make a fool of myself. If I'm not good, I'll ask Mr. Huang to help me check for omissions." Pei Miao got up as she spoke, and walked slowly in the study, looking around.

Mr. Huang really has a lot of treasures here. Pei Miao's last gaze fell on a bronze censer on the bogu shelf, his face was full of shock, because this censer was actually a Xuande furnace, and the ability showed that this Xuande furnace It is from the Ming Dynasty.

"Huang Lao, this..." Pei Miao turned to look at Huang Lao, hesitating to speak.

Huang Lao smiled, spread his hands and gestured: "You can start watching."

Fan Wenhai whispered excitedly at the side: "Xuande furnace, do you think Pei Miao can see it?"

"I feel a little hung up."

"I think so."

"Since both of you say no, then I'll say yes, take a gamble, and whoever loses will be invited to dinner."

"can."

Pei Miao carefully took down the Xuande stove from the shelf, looked through it carefully, and even used the power of his right hand.

After looking at it for a while, Pei Miao put the Xuande stove back on the shelf.

Huang Lao smiled and asked: "How about my Xuande stove?"

Pei Miao said: "It's a good item from the Ming Dynasty, but it's not the authentic Xuande stove, it's a copy from the Zhengde period."

As soon as the words came out, Zhang Cheng said excitedly: "Hey, I won, please remember to invite me to dinner."

Huang Lao smiled and spread his hands, "Tell me about your reasons."