Reborn As Super Heiress
Chapter 488 - 484: Vigilance

Chapter 488: Chapter 484: Vigilance

If she wasn’t mistaken, she had seen this man before.

Even though he had changed his appearance and demeanor, Huo Sining’s intuition was sharp, and this man gave her a very familiar feeling, likely the same person as the limping old man who had brought the Kuifeng Zun before.

Huo Sining was alert inside, yet on the surface, she smiled and said, "Rest assured, as long as the item is authentic and fits within our scope for compensated redemption, we will provide you with a certain compensation in accordance with relevant regulations."

This time, the compensated appraisal was originally aimed at a Tang Dynasty tomb, but because the tomb was not far from the previous cluster of graves and Huo Si Ning’s group had found a Tang Luanbai Glazed Bowl in a villager’s home,

the professors decided after discussion that if the students encountered other Tang Dynasty collectibles of research value, whether or not they came from the tomb, they could be acquired.

Huo Si Ning’s words were just a formality before the appraisal, but while the speaker may not have intended much, the listener took it seriously. After hearing this, the middle-aged man paused, smiled, and nodded, but didn’t pick up on Huo Si Ning’s words.

It was then that Huo Si Ning lifted her head to look at what the man had brought, only to see an incense burner around 20 centimeters tall and with a diameter of approximately 25 centimeters presented before her.

Having noticed something odd about the middle-aged man, Huo Si Ning did not immediately reach out to check the incense burner but first observed it herself.

It was a piece of tri-color porcelain, elegantly shaped with a straight neck and a full glaze applied both inside and outside the burner. On both sides of the neck, there was a pair of wing-like long handles, somewhat resembling the symmetrical ’official’s cap’ of the Ming Dynasty.

The front of the censer’s handles was adorned with Ruyi symbols and auspicious cloud patterns, while the waisted part was artistically decorated with interlacing branches in yellow, blue, and purple. The sides were painted with red, blue, and green in alternating scroll patterns, with the lip of the burner slightly protruding outward. In its center, the maker’s mark, "Hanlin Taiping" in ancient seal script, was neatly and powerfully inscribed.

This type of incense burner was generally used to burn sandalwood and was typically found in imperial courts, royal households, or the home shrines and studies of ranking officials.

Although the maker’s mark seemed to indicate it was an item from the Tang Dynasty, the decorations and shape suggested that this tri-colored Ding-style incense burner, with its orange peel-like bumpy glaze, felt like a craft imitation from the Ming and Qing Dynasty.

"Miss, do you appraise antiques only by looking with your eyes, without touching them by hand?"

Seeing Huo Si Ning only staring at the censer, the middle-aged man couldn’t help but ask.

While looking, Huo Si Ning replied, "Not exactly, I’m just getting a general idea of the shape and the decorations for an overall judgment."

The middle-aged man nodded with a smile and said, "That’s what I thought. The treasure appraisal masters on TV all use their hands to feel it. I thought maybe you students had a different method of appraising antiques. I must tell you, this antique is not only beautiful in color, but it is also very smooth to touch, much more comfortable than those ordinary porcelains."

Huo Si Ning smiled but didn’t reach out to touch the censer right away, according to the middle-aged man’s lead. Instead, she turned around, took a camera from beside Ding Liang’s feet, adjusted the light and angle, and then prepared to take several photos of the censer.

To her surprise, this move seemed to hit a nerve in the middle-aged man, his facial expression changing drastically as he suddenly stretched out his hand to block Huo Si Ning’s lens:

"Young lady, what are you doing?!"

Seeing the middle-aged man look at her with a combination of wariness and anger, Huo Si Ning instinctively frowned and explained:

"Sir, this is standard procedure. We’re all out here working under our instructor, so we must be thorough. I’m just taking a few detailed shots for our records; there’s no other implication!"

Upon hearing Huo Sining’s words, the middle-aged man seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. He glanced at Huo Sining and nodded, saying,

"It’s proper for students to be cautious in their work. But you don’t need to rush to take photos now, just appraise it for me first. Once the appraisal is done, you can take as many pictures as you want!"

With that, the man subtly pushed Huo Sining’s camera aside, "Just hold it and look; what could be more real than seeing the actual item? If you’re unsure, you can always ask someone else to help you with the appraisal!"

"Alright then."

Huo Sining didn’t say much upon seeing this, promptly putting away the camera.

Seeing that the middle-aged man’s eyes were tightly fixed on her hands, Huo Sining felt something was off early on and became aware of a problem.

So, although she placed the camera aside as requested, she did not reach for the Tripod Censer. Instead, she took a magnifying glass out of her backpack and carefully observed the incense burner from all sides.

But while the middle-aged man was not paying attention, her other hand quietly rested on the table.

Heavenly Eye activated, and the entire table before her came into view, including the incense burner, which was now fully exposed before her eyes.

As Huo Sining moved the magnifying glass around the Tripod Censer, the middle-aged man’s expression changed slightly. He nervously leaned in close to her, his eyes anxiously following Huo Sining’s movements, and asked with feigned anticipation, "Miss, how is my incense burner?"

Huo Sining looked up at the man and said with a hint of a smile at the corner of her mouth, "It does look authentic."

But looking authentic was all it did. In the antique world, "looking" like something was exactly what people avoided—it usually meant there was an issue with the item.

The middle-aged man, however, seemed to have misunderstood as if Huo Sining had confirmed his item as genuine, and he laughed heartily, "Of course, if it were fake, I wouldn’t have brought it here."

Huo Sining then asked, "From what you’re saying, it seems you’ve had this incense burner appraised before?"

The middle-aged man nodded, saying, "Yes, the appraiser told me that my incense burner is an antique from the Qing Dynasty and could sell for five hundred thousand. I do want to sell it, but I’m worried that those pawnshops will underbid out of greed. It’s still better to let the state buy it back; the government definitely won’t let us common folk suffer losses."

A cold smirk flashed in Huo Sining’s eyes as she replied with a faint smile, "This time, our main focus is on retrieving cultural relics that were stolen from ancient tombs. You must have heard about that, right, sir?"

The man was taken aback, not understanding why Huo Sining suddenly shifted the conversation to that topic, "I’ve heard about it, but didn’t the TV station say they would accept other items too?"

Huo Sining laughed softly and put away the magnifying glass, "We will also collect some items of value for collection and research, but after careful examination, your Tripod Censer is not within the range of items we’re retrieving."

"If you want to sell this incense burner, you don’t have to go to a pawnshop. You can take it directly to reputable antique shops or auction houses. The century-old shops and major auction houses should have good reputations and credibility; you don’t have to worry about being underbid."