Otherworldly Merchant
Chapter 553: The Drawing of a Beautiful Woman in Green

After the jade hairpin incident, Li Mazi and I wereconstantlynervous. Weremainedcautious for many days to see if the one that had gifted me the jade hairpin would come. However, after a long time, no one had shown up. It seemedtheyhad vanished into thin air.

It was exactly thekind of thingthe people from the Longquan Villa would do.When you are careless the most, they will come to take your life!

We decided to stop receiving cases. We stayedidle and relaxed in our shop. As I had plenty of free time, I found a recorder and recorded my touching encounters with otherworldly items. I wanted to send my story to my friend, who was a writer.

Today,whileI was talking about the Red Barbarian Cannon, Li Mazi’s despicable face suddenly emergedbeside me. It scared thecrapout of me.Iunconsciouslythrew the recorder at his face.

He squeakedand lookedat me with his aggrieved, small eyes…When he saw that I didn’t react,he immediatelyplacedbig lunch boxes on the table. It turned out he wanted to drink some wine with me. He’d brought braised beef, stir-fried bacon with mushroom, and two large boxes of lobsters and rice.

The smell of the food made my mouth water. Mystomach growled. I suddenly recognized that I had been telling my stories for hours. I shook and twisted my sore neck. Then, Ipicked up a pair of chopsticksand dugin.

“LittleBrother Zhang, on the way here, I spotted a treasure…” Li Mazi knocked his chopstick on the table. He was tryingto sound mysterious.

I didn’t buy it. “If you want tosay something, do itquickly.”

Li Mazi knew me well. He chuckled then told me about the situation.

On the way here, he had walked by a vendor on the street who often sold antiques.As forthe antiques on his stall…We all knew about this in our business. Thatwaswhy I pouted when Li Mazi came to this part.“I’m not interested in counterfeits.”

However, Li Mazi still sounded very interested in it. “I saw a drawing. It even has a poem.”

“Wow, since when have you been interested in poetry?Is ita brand newhobbyof yours? Hey, whatwasthe painting ofthebeauty yousawthere?”

Li Mazi shot me a glance. “LittleBrother Zhang, that poem was written by that Last Rulerorsomething like that. I checked the writings. They are 90% authentic. This time, perhaps wecanhavea big harvest!”

When Li Mazimentioned the LastRuler, I remembered the famous historical figure, Li Yu. He was the Last Ruler of the South Tang State.Since ancient times, not many emperors had composed poems.Only Li Yu was worth mentioning and worthy of appraisal.

Herearesome of his verses:

If you ask me how much I worry,

It’s just like a river flowing eastward in the spring.

How much do we know about people’sdreams?

However, there weren’t many real pieces of artworkleft behind byLi Yu. He was the lastruler of his state. He was poisoned to death, and no one knew who could possess his artworks. If it were Li Yu’s real writings, how could it be in a sideway antique stall?

Li Mazi saw that I didn’t believe him.He dropped his chopsticks and pulled me up. Then, he usheredme to that stall to have a look.

I thought it was okay to go with him. It was just a walk afterourmeal!

“That stall isn’t far from the antique street. After twentyminutes of walking, we’ll be there.”

When we saw the stall, there weren’t many customers. Some people passed by, Theyasked for the pricethenleft.

“That painting is held with a bamboo stick. It’s a simple painting, though. There’s a rockery and next toitis a beautiful woman in green clothes. She’s smiling lively. On the left is a Ci[1]that reads:

Light mist envelopes the dim moon and bright flowers,A perfect night to go to her darling's side.In stocking soles, she treads the fragrant steps,And carries in one hand hergold-threadedshoes.They meet by the south side of the painted hall,And trembling fall into each other's arms."It's hard for me to creep out like a servant,To teach my darling the recklessness of love."

I knew this was the Ci Li Yu had written for Queen Zhou’s little sister. The beauty in greenhad to beYoung Lady Zhou.

According to unofficial history, Young Lady Zhou had a strange obsession with the color green. Her clothes and even the decorations in her palacehad to begreen. Otherwise, she would get mad. She had created the trend once. Moreover, from this Ci, we knew her identity without digging further.

When this Ci was written, Young Lady Zhou’soldersister was on her deathbed. Before she died, she wanted to see her little sister for the last time. Young Lady Zhou was summoned to the palace.

Whenshe arrived at the palace, Li Yutook a liking toher.The sneaky couple had an affair right under the eyes of Queen Zhou, her sister.

Li Yu was an accomplished king. While taking care of his dying wife, he could create such poemsfor hislittle lover.

However, I didn’t know if it was just a hallucination, but I felt a strange magical power from that picture. I felt attracted to it.

The vendor saw Li Mazi andmeobserving the painting for quite a long time. He knew his chance had come. He came and greeted us. “Boss, you have keen eyes!” He appraised as soon as he approached us. “This painting isanauthentic piece of art fromthe Last Ruler of the state of South Tang,Li Yu! It’s uniqueonthe market. Look at the painting and the background…”

Before he could finish his babbling, I interrupted him and asked for the price. Evenif this sort of antiquewasreal, it would have differentprices according to the circumstances.

For example, if this was Li Yu’s Ci ‘If you ask me how much that I worry; It’s just like a river flowing eastward in the spring,’it would bea veryvaluable antique. However,this Ci was about his love affair,so itdidn’t have much value.

The vendor’s eyes rolled. His face was happy. “It’s rareforyou to like something in my humble stall, sir. I’llgive you a big discount. It should be soldforthirty thousand renminbi. I’llgive it to youfortwenty thousand renminbi.”

I sneered. He thoughtI had money to waste! This painting was a high-quality counterfeit, and this man wanted torip me off! If I didn’t want to seethe magical power behind this picture, I wouldhave ignored him directly.

With bright eyes, I looked him in the eyeand said, “Three thousand.”

When I sawhis unwilling eyes, I added, “I alsoworkin the antique business. Weknow the valuesof things. I know this price is profitable for you already. Do you want to sell it or not?”

Then, I pulled Li Maziand turnedaround to leave.

Seeing me leave, the vendor grabbed my harm. “Oh sir, we should bargain when we buy things, right? How about five thousand?”

I looked at himand saidnothing.

The vendor became restless. “Four thousand. No more bargaining! When I collected it, I got itforthat price. I have to make a profit. You know that, sir.”

I chuckled. “Okay! I’ll take a step back. Three thousand and five hundred.”

The vendor sighed.“All right, all right. Three thousand five hundred. Sir, you’re good at bargaining!”

He kept complainingas he packedthe painting.

Soon, I got the painting.I paid then left.While holding the scroll in my hand, Ithoughtit was strangely heavy as if it contained something else.

As soon as we got into my shop, Li Mazi’s bright eyes gazed at the painting in my hand. “Hey, if weholdan auction for this painting, how much do you think itwillbe worth?”

I couldn’t hold it anymoreand toldhim that it was just a counterfeit.

Li Mazi didn’t buy it. He hadn’t given up. I showed him some traces of the forgery work, and he lost all of his hope rightatthat minute.

He sighed for a while then suddenly jumped to me. “If you knew it’s a counterfeit, why did you buy it?”

“Because this painting gives me a strange feeling. Isuspectit’s an otherworldly item.” I turned and slowly spread the painting on the counter.

I had to say that the forgery work of this painting was a great success. Whether it was the handwriting or the material, it was almost perfect. However, a counterfeit is a counterfeit. Although the Xuan paper of this painting wasn’t bad, it was the low-grade type among the other types of Xuan paper, which had a low content of mulberry fiber.

As Li Yu was the Ruler of the state of South Tang, the Xuan paper he usedwasof top quality. The Xuan paper had originated from the Tang Dynasty, and it immediately became the symbol ofthe royal family.

Before I could study the painting thoroughly to see if it was anotherworldly item, a young man around twenty years old rushed into my antique shop with a panic-stricken face.

“Master Zhang, please save us!” As soon as he entered the shop, he got on his knees. With tears and nasal fluid all over his face, he grabbed Li Mazi’s armand beggedfor help.

Li Mazi wore a puzzled faceand pointedat me. “Dude… That is Zhang Jiulin.”

The young man looked embarrassed. However, he hurriedly hugged my legand criedeven louder.

“Calm down. Tell me what happened first!” I pulled him up and guided him to have a seat. I poured him a cup of tea. He finished the cup in one breath. Then, he looked at me with his redandhelpless eyesbeforetelling me the situation.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ci_(poetry)

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