Panjiayao lay southeast of Jingcheng. In the future, it would become the famed antiques market Panjiayuan, but in this era, it was already a well-known market for secondhand goods.
"Beep, beep..."
Outside the streets of Panjiayao, the blaring horn made the bustling crowd part to open a path. The unlicensed sedan drew plenty of attention on the road. Although private car ownership had now been permitted, very few people in this era were qualified to buy one.
The red sedan stopped at the entrance to Panjiayao. A young couple and a doll-like child appeared before the crowd. The man wore a crisp suit, while the woman wore a Hong Kong-style long dress—both symbols of wealth in this era.
The child beside them looked about four or five years old. His eyes darted constantly about, yet he appeared exceptionally quiet and well-behaved.
After closing the car door, the man took his wife and child by the hand and walked onto the streets of Panjiayao. The family of three paid close attention to the various goods displayed on either side of the street.
Panjiayao's streets were filled with people buying and selling old items. More recent things included all kinds of badges, Little Red Books, bottles and jars, old clocks and pocket watches. There were even more items from earlier times—old embroidered shoes, heaps upon heaps of copper coins, snuff bottles, various antique furnishings, pipes, calligraphy and paintings, inkstones, brushes, ink, yellow paper, cricket jars...
Items of every material—gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, and wood—could be found there. They were basically all old things, worn-looking but mostly still usable.
The family of three strolled through the old street and bought quite a few things, mostly antique old objects. The prices they paid were not low, and those details naturally caught the attention of certain interested people.
Panjiayao had once been a "ghost market." Those who mingled in such markets included ordinary civilians, but even more were people from all walks of life.
Fleecing fat sheep had been a line of work since ancient times. This family had flaunted their wealth right out in the open, so naturally many people had their eyes on them. Seeing that they liked old antiques, quite a few immediately began making plans.
"Hey! You two—no, three—out shopping?"
Just as the family rounded another corner, a fashionably dressed young man suddenly came up to them and greeted them like an old friend.
Wariness flashed through the parents' eyes. They had run into quite a few overly familiar strangers along the way, and after testing them, they had found that most were scammers. They had gained some experience with such things.
The mother crouched down, preparing to pick up the four- or five-year-old child and leave with his father. At that moment, however, the child wrapped his arms around his mother's neck and whispered something. A moment later, his mother stood and whispered a few words into her husband's ear.
"Brother, you can strike up a conversation if you want, but let me take a look at the jade around your neck first."
The child's father pointed at the man's chest. An old White Jade Buddha hung there, vivid and lifelike. But in Panjiayao, there were no shortage of such things; most were fakes or modern imitations, while genuine antiques were scarce.
The smile on the man who had approached them faded, and his gaze grew several degrees more serious. After a moment, he took off his jade pendant and handed it over, lowering his voice. "Brother, sharp eyes. My name is Wang Xiangdong. May I ask how I should address you? Could we speak somewhere more private?"
"My surname is Yan. Yan Qiang. This is my wife, Xiao Lin."
Yan Qiang introduced himself and his wife to Wang Xiangdong. As for Yan Kuan, who was clinging to Xiao Lin's leg below, he said nothing more. His precious son was his trump card; the less attention he drew from interested parties, the better.
"Brother Qiang, you're not local, are you? Where did you make your fortune?"
Wang Xiangdong led Yan Qiang's family of three toward the other side of the street. There were some stalls there as well, though it was somewhat quieter.
"The antiques market in Hong Kong is a bit better than ours. Interested in going together, brother?"
Yan Qiang glanced at Wang Xiangdong and smiled. The latter gave an awkward laugh and did not ask further questions. Although Hong Kong and the mainland had developed quite a few exchanges in this era, there were truly few people who could travel freely between the two places. Especially when it came to dealing in antiques in Hong Kong, it was not something ordinary people could manage.
Yan Qiang examined the White Jade Buddha in his hand inside and out, then casually placed it in his son's hand before looking at Wang Xiangdong. "An old piece over a thousand years old. That's quite rare. Name your price?"
Wang Xiangdong looked somewhat troubled. "Brother Qiang, this... this is a family heirloom..."
"The grave smell hasn't even faded yet. This spot needs a proper cleaning too."
Yan Qiang took the jade pendant from his son's hand and tapped a yellowish spot with his thumb as he spoke, looking at Wang Xiangdong with clear amusement.
A jade Buddha over a thousand years old still carried the scent of the earth, yet Wang Xiangdong claimed it was a family treasure. Family heirloom, my ass. Grave heirloom was more like it. Still, Yan Qiang did not care about that. No matter the era, anyone daring to work Wang Xiangdong's trade was no good person. There would be no benefit in pushing him too far.
"Brother Qiang, sharp eyes!"
Wang Xiangdong's expression shifted slightly as he gave an embarrassed laugh. He had not expected the other man to see through him so thoroughly in such a short time. Now he was truly in a bind.
Yan Qiang did not waste words with Wang Xiangdong. He weighed the White Jade Buddha in his hand and said solemnly, "Do you have more? I'll take them all. But we trade right here on Panjiayao Street. We have no grudges, and we can be friends. Let's part on good terms."
"Brother Qiang, since you've given your word and taken responsibility, I naturally have no objections."
Just as Wang Xiangdong was about to say more, he spotted the thick stack of Big Unity notes in Yan Qiang's wallet. A rough glance showed at least fifty of them. At this time, a small Courtyard House in Jingcheng cost only a hundred Big Unity notes. Such an enormous sum was enough to make anyone lose their mind.
But when he thought of their sedan and their background that allowed them to travel between the mainland and Hong Kong, Wang Xiangdong immediately deflated. He was only after money. Since he could get paid, he had no desire to create further trouble. Thus, outside Panjiayao, a transaction was concluded very pleasantly.
"These should be from the Eastern Han. These few are Tang Dynasty pieces. These are from the Song Dynasty. These Ming and Qing Dynasties items don't have much collectible value, but they can be taken out. This one... let me look at this one again."
Inside the red sedan, Yan Kuan's family of three was sorting through the treasures they had picked up in Panjiayao. Yan Kuan did most of the talking, while Yan Qiang and Xiao Lin did the sorting. They took all his words to heart. Their precious son had played a tremendous role in the Yan Family's rapid rise to wealth over just a few years.
"Son, isn't this just a Bagua box? Things used by charlatans like this are pretty much the same across every dynasty. It's normal that you can't tell what period it's from."
Xiao Lin looked at the item in her precious son's hands. It was a three-dimensional octagonal box, with a Yin-Yang Eight Trigrams Diagram on it. The trigrams surrounding the Yin-Yang Diagram seemed movable, like an oversized sliding puzzle.
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