Dragon Blood Divine Son-in-law
Chapter 187 Panning for Gold in the Sand

Chapter 187: Chapter 187 Panning for Gold in the Sand

Hong Dashun looked at the lineup from Qiantang’s side, especially when he saw a young face like Chen Xuan, his heart was already blooming with joy.

Originally, he was somewhat worried about the upcoming treasure appraisal competition, fearing that Qiantang would snatch away his interests in the Nanjiang jewelry market.

But now it seems that his worries were purely overcautious.

What exactly were the opponents here for—they were clearly delivering themselves to defeat!

Hong Dashun was already ten parts certain, feeling that they, Tianbaofu, were definitely going to win this time!

Afterward, the host announced the rules of the competition.

The rules of this treasure appraisal competition were not quite what Chen Xuan had expected.

On Qiantang’s side, there were a total of five important antique markets, and for the competition, both parties had to select three antiques from any of these five markets.

Then they would submit the three antiques to the five-person panel of judges lead by Guo Liangrui, to separately estimate the market prices.

In the end, the share of the market for the next three years would be divided based on the total market price of the antiques!

Such rules seemed simple but were actually very disadvantageous for Qiantang’s side.

Because Qiantang was Tianbaofu’s home ground, plus, as everyone knows about the so-called antique markets, over ninety percent of the items, the curios, are fakes!

To pick out true antiques from so many fakes, and even more, to find precious true antiques from before, is actually very difficult!

It wasn’t an overstatement to compare it to panning for gold in the sand!

Also, it was precisely because of this that the treasure appraisal competition was even more entertaining to watch.

"All right, the competition officially begins, the deadline is at 8 p.m. sharp. By that time, both parties will present the three antiques for the competition. Good luck to you all!"

With the host’s command, the competition officially started.

"Get in the cars! Scour the four quarters of the city—east, west, north, and south—begin the hunt!"

Hong Dashun’s side already had arrangements; as the competition began, a few cars with their four appraisal experts set out in four different directions towards the antique markets.

Seeing that Hong Dashun’s side had already set out, Zhao Luna wasn’t willing to be outdone and ordered everyone to depart, "Uncle Xu, remember, we meet back here at 7:30 p.m. We’ll compare the value of the antiques everyone selected before deciding which three to enter into the competition. No one is to decide prematurely, is everyone clear? Good, let’s go!"

At Zhao Luna’s command, Qiantang’s side also began to head towards the four districts of the city.

Zhao Luna followed Chen Xuan, hoping he would be able to select a piece valuable enough for her to have an easier victory.

However, Chen Xuan’s next actions left Zhao Luna somewhat disappointed.

Chen Xuan did not, like the other experts, meticulously select from all the stalls. What he did was simply idle around within the five big antique markets!

Indeed, just idling, without any difference from a stroll!

"Uncle, we are in a competition right now, can you speed things up a bit?" Zhao Luna urged.

Chen Xuan casually brandished his paper fan, strolling leisurely.

"Don’t rush, since we need to pan for gold in the sand, we naturally have to look everything over before coming to a conclusion."

"But the key point is, you’re not looking at anything..." Zhao Luna couldn’t help but complain.

Several hours had passed, and all Chen Xuan had done was to have a quick look through these curio markets, without even entering a single shop.

How could it be possible to pick out a genuine piece under such circumstances?

Chen Xuan just smiled and said nothing.

The five curio markets covered a vast area, and altogether there were thousands of shops!

Therefore, the approach Xu Yang and the others chose was to go to several larger shops to find their targets, which could increase their chances of success.

Indeed, in just a few short hours, it was nearly impossible for an ordinary person to glance through all the antiques in all the shops, not to mention finding the true treasures among the hundreds of thousands of items!

This is nearly an impossible task!

However, that’s only impossible for ordinary people.

Luckily, Chen Xuan is not an ordinary person!

Everyone thought Chen Xuan was just wandering aimlessly, assuming he was merely taking a stroll, but in fact, Chen Xuan’s true endeavor was always treasure hunting!

No one noticed that in the depths of Chen Xuan’s eyes, two golden orbs had already formed, like twin lakes of gold or two bottomless mists of golden fog!

And at this moment, in those gold-flecked eyes, an extraordinary vision, pushed to its limits, was scanning and sorting through all the curios in every shop along both sides of the street.

A pair of golden eyes, panning for gold in the sand!

Hours flew by, and the other contestants had long since chosen their items, while Chen Xuan finally completed the tour of all the streets in the five major curio markets at the very last moment.

Yet, his hands were still empty.

For hours, he hadn’t made any choice.

"Uncle, it’s about time, which antique are we going to pick for the competition?" Zhao Luna was so anxious she was almost in tears.

Chen Xuan answered, casually picking up an item from a nearby shop.

"This one."

Zhao Luna was utterly speechless.

Was he really going into the competition with something he randomly picked up off the street? That seemed far too hasty!

Nevertheless, Zhao Luna had no choice but to ask the shop owner about the price of this item.

It was a wooden box, resembling a jewelry box.

Carved on the exterior was a phoenix, and when the box was opened, one could see a jade carving of the Thousand-Hand Guan Yin embedded in the lid.

The lower part contained makeup items like rouge and face powder which, due to the passage of time, had all blended together.

No matter how one looked at it, this jewelry box didn’t seem like a treasure.

Not only did Zhao Luna not think this item was a treasure, but even the shop owner didn’t seem to think so either.

Zhao Luna couldn’t be bothered to haggle with the owner and finally purchased the wooden box for twenty thousand yuan.

As the day turned to evening, it was almost seven o’clock at night.

Zhao Luna could no longer afford to delay and hurried back to the Tianbaofu hall with Chen Xuan.

By then, the seven participants including Xu Yang had long been waiting.

A subordinate responsible for shadowing Chen Xuan and Zhao Luna was the first to run up and report to Hong Dashun.

Hearing that Chen Xuan had done nothing all day but stroll through the antique market with Zhao Luna, and in the end, had only casually taken a wooden box from a roadside stall to enter the competition, Hong Dashun burst into derisive laughter.

It seemed that this Mr. Chen had indeed come just to fill the numbers!

"Miss Zhao, taking such a loser around Qiantang was a huge waste of everyone’s time!" Hong Dashun mocked.

Zhao Luna couldn’t be bothered to argue, "Enough talk, let’s begin."

The host reminded, "Miss Zhao, the competition has already started, and the three treasures that you’re entering have already been placed!"

"What..."

Zhao Luna looked over and indeed saw that three antiques had already been set up on the display area allocated to her side.

Xu Yang and the others had decided to enter the competition without consulting her!

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