Divine Lucky Star
Chapter 379 - Chapter 379 Chapter 378 Expert Oh

Chapter 379: Chapter 378 Expert Oh Chapter 379: Chapter 378 Expert Oh As soon as Wang Hao mentioned that there was a flaw with the object, Principal Zheng, Master Liu, and the elder all stared in shock. Among the three, Principal Zheng was the most anxious and urgently asked, “A flaw? What flaw?!”

This was something he had planned to give to the Third Elder of the Hong family. If he were to give a fake, the joke would be on him!

“Don’t worry, I’m not in a hurry to leave,” Wang Hao said with a smile, sitting on the sofa in the same pose as Ge You, and continued, “Speaking of the flaw, let me start by telling you a story. It must have been around the ’90s, there was a merchant who bought a knife from the countryside. The knife was excellent, with a sharp and keen blade. The hilt showed some wear and patina, indicating it was an item of heritage. The only regret was that the scabbard was missing. Just the knife wrapped in cloth probably wouldn’t sell for much. What to do? The merchant wasn’t worried. He went home, made a suitable scabbard from old wood, painted it green, then sprinkled fine millet over the wet paint, and sanded it down. After that, he repeated the process of painting and sprinkling millet, and sanding. When it started to look the part, he attached some old copper pieces as decorations, and the faux-sharkskin sheath was complete.”

After listening to Wang Hao’s story, everyone present was confused. Manager Tong glared at him with fierce eyes, pondering his own thoughts.

Principal Zheng, who loved antiques and stories, asked, “And then what happened?”

“Then, the merchant placed the scabbard in the kitchen to let it smoke and char for a few days. He wiped it with a hand towel, inserted the knife, and the whole knife took on an ancient charm. Truly a fine piece!” Wang Hao slowly explained, “He took the knife to a shop, let it gather dust in a inconspicuous spot for a few days, blew the dust off with his mouth, and then put it on a prominent shelf, waiting for a fool to take the bait. Crowds came and went in the shop, but few showed interest in the knife. The shopkeeper wasn’t in a hurry, confident someone would eventually appreciate it. One day, an old man arrived, saw the knife, and immediately asked the shopkeeper to show it to him, casually asking, ‘Shopkeeper, is this sharkskin? Where did you find it?’ The shopkeeper smiled widely: ‘Oh, I don’t really know about the material. It wasn’t found; it came from my father-in-law’s house.’ After some bargaining, it sold for fifteen hundred, and both buyer and seller were satisfied, even becoming good friends.”

Master Liu and the elder exchanged glances, growing ever more confused–this was a conversation about a pot, so why was he talking about a knife?

“About this knife,” Wang Hao smiled and continued, “I’m illustrating that there are many ways to age an antique. Some methods are quite repulsive; for instance, to age bronze, it’s often soaked in a urine pit, then buried in the earth to accrue a patina. Some methods are more cruel, like blood smearing, which involves cutting a living sheep, inserting the jade artifact into the wound, and then sewing it up. Others involve splicing old bases like bowls and plates onto new vases, exposing them to rain on a windowsill to appear worn by time. When it’s time to sell, they examine the style and the weathering–it all looks ancient, though there’s a considerable price difference between a plate and a vase. There are simpler methods too, like aging paintings or calligraphy–some find it too troublesome and just spray it with cold tea. Of course, these methods are easier to spot.”

As Wang Hao spoke, the others hadn’t reacted much, but Manager Tong immediately showed a different response, covertly signalling his apprentice with his eyes. The apprentice understood and quietly slipped away!

Wang Hao didn’t bother paying attention to their actions and went on, “Having said that, let’s get back to this Purple Sand Pot.”

“There are many ways to counterfeit a Zisha pot as well, the most commonly used being the stewing method. This involves boiling the new pot in tea, taking it out after a set time to dry, then boiling it again. Repeating this process several times removes the sheen from the new pot, making the surface look dull and muted, resembling an aged pot that’s been unearthed.”

“There’s also the method of burying it in soil, where the new pot is simply buried underground to naturally wear off its shiny surface.”

“And there’s the method of applying shoe polish, where the same color of shoe polish is rubbed onto a new pot to cover its sheen.”

“Some even treat the pot like salad dressing; they mix a concoction of thick tea, cooking oil, vinegar, soy sauce, and sugar, and then apply it to the surface of the new pot to mask its sheen.”

As soon as Principal Zheng heard about the many methods of faking a Purple Sand Pot, he was dumbfounded!

“Goodness gracious, can people really tamper with things like that?” Principal Zheng exclaimed, “So is this Purple Sand Pot possibly forged that way?”

After Principal Zheng finished speaking, everyone present held their breath, waiting for Wang Hao to reveal his conclusion.

But clearly, Wang Hao’s words once again greatly surprised everyone!

“Actually, when it comes to this set of pots, it’s not just about simple forgery.” Wang Hao picked up a pot, first lifting the lid and placing it on the coffee table, then holding the body of the pot, he said, “First, let’s look at this pot, the craftsmanship is very, very good, almost indistinguishable from the real thing, whether it’s the inscriptions on the surface or the signature inside, you could say they are almost flawless. And look at the tea stains inside, smell the tea aroma, this must be a pot that has steeped tea for many years, right? Hehe, actually this is what I mean by repeatedly boiling it with tea water. The advantage of this method is, the fake pot is indeed a Purple Sand Pot, and the tea is good tea; as long as it’s boiled thoroughly, it’s very difficult to detect. This teapot, in fact, goes beyond that. After boiling tea, it was buried underground for at least about two years, and after being unearthed, it was boiled again. Overall, the forger who made this pot was indeed quite clever, even Master Liu didn’t see through it.”

“In the end, he still slipped up,” Master Liu said with a bitter smile and a shake of his head: “Then brother, tell us, where exactly is the flaw in this teapot?”

“The flaw is actually quite simple,” Wang Hao said as he pulled out his cell phone from his pocket, turned on the flashlight, and shone it inside the spout, “Master Liu, take a look inside this spout, and you’ll understand.”

“Is that so?” Master Liu took the cell phone and shone it inside the spout, and immediately he was stunned: “Indeed, indeed! The color inside the spout is clearly different from the other parts!”

“Let me see, let me see!” Principal Zheng, being the most anxious, snatched the pot and cell phone and after looking said, “It really is! Inside it looks a lot newer than the other parts!”

Seeing that everyone had discovered this, Wang Hao finally revealed the answer with a smile: “Although the forgery technique is clever, after all, he forgot one thing. That is, although the pot was buried and filled with dirt inside and out, the spout wasn’t filled with soil, which is why the color difference is so significant compared to other areas. However, this is quite normal, think about it, who could see clearly inside where it’s dark and shadowy?”

“Heavens!” Principal Zheng was completely dumbfounded by Wang Hao’s explanation: “Luckily, little brother came, or I would have really bought a fake!”

“The forgery skills are superb,” sighed Master Liu, shaking his head, “I can’t believe I was mistaken today. As you said, young brother, because Manager Tong broke the previous set, I subconsciously thought this set was the real deal, so I didn’t look as carefully.”

“It’s not just that,” Wang Hao said with a smile: “Why else would I say the forger was clever? You see, this set of pots is not entirely fake…”

At this, Principal Zheng was stupefied again: “Not entirely fake, what do you mean?”

“It’s quite simple,” Wang Hao said as he picked up the pot lid and smiled, “This pot lid is real! Simply put, the set of pots must have been damaged for some reason, rendered unusable, but this lid was intact. So the forger very cleverly used this real lid as a reference to craft the other components, then forged the rest. Think about it, this lid is genuinely a Ming Dynasty artifact. With this as the basis for forgery, it’s naturally difficult to see through the ruse. So the story I mentioned earlier is alluding to this idea of grafting, using a real pot lid to make a fake pot body, which is why it wasn’t noticed and seems normal.”

At this revelation, everyone finally understood–what a thoughtful trick the forger had used!

“Clap, clap, clap!”

After Wang Hao finished explaining, Manager Tong, who had been silently observing in the room, suddenly started clapping and said, “Truly impressive, I didn’t expect that I would be the one misjudging today, this young man is the real expert!”

“Just average, not that great,” Wang Hao chuckled with a smirk: “After too many drinks I throw up, and when I drive, I might hit a tree.”

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