Trigram Treasure Box

Panjiayao was located in the southeast of Jingcheng, and in the future it would become the famous Panjiayuan antiques market. In this era, it was already a well-known flea market.

"Beep beep..."

Outside the streets of Panjiayao, the loud honking of a car forced the bustling crowd to part and make way. A license-plateless sedan drew considerable attention on the road. Although the conditions for private car purchases had been relaxed, there weren't many people in this era who could afford a car.

The red sedan stopped at the entrance of Panjiayao. A young couple, accompanied by a child who looked as if carved from jade, appeared in everyone's sight. The man wore a sharp suit, and the woman a Hong Kong-style long dress—both symbols of wealth in this era.

The child with them was around four or five years old, with eyes that darted around restlessly, yet he appeared quiet and well-behaved.

After closing the car door, the man took his wife and child and walked toward the streets of Panjiayao. This family of three paid close attention to the various items on both sides of the street.

The streets of Panjiayao were filled with people buying and selling old things. The more recent items included various badges, little red books, all kinds of bottles and jars, old clocks and pocket watches. Older items were even more abundant: old embroidered shoes, piles upon piles of copper coins, snuff bottles, all sorts of antique furniture, tobacco pipes, calligraphy and paintings, inkstones, brushes, yellow paper, cricket jars...

There were things made of gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, and wood—mostly old items. They looked aged but were mostly still usable.

This family of three strolled through the old street and bought quite a bit, mostly antiques and old objects. The transaction prices were not low, and these details naturally caught the eyes of some observant people.

Panjiayao's predecessor was the "Ghost Market." Those who frequented the Ghost Market included ordinary people, but even more so, it was a gathering place for all sorts of shady characters.

Fleecing fat sheep was a time-honored trade. This family of three had shown off their wealth, so naturally, many people had their eyes on them. Noticing that they liked old antiques, quite a few people immediately started scheming.

"Hey! You two—no, three—enjoying your stroll?"

Just as the family of three turned another corner, a young man dressed in a rather fashionable style approached them, greeting them as if they were old friends.

A hint of wariness flashed in the eyes of the two parents. They had already run into quite a few such overly familiar types along the way, and after testing them, most turned out to be swindlers. They had some experience with this kind of thing now.

The mother crouched down, ready to pick up the four- or five-year-old child and leave with the father. But at that moment, the child whispered something into his mother's ear. After a moment, the mother stood up and whispered something to her husband.

"Brother, if you want to strike up a conversation, let me take a look at that jade on your neck first!"

The child's father pointed at the man's chest. An old white jade Buddha hanging there looked quite vivid, but in Panjiayao, there were at least eight hundred of these things, most of them fakes or modern imitations. Genuine antiques were rare.

The smile on the young man's face faded, and a hint of seriousness entered his eyes. After a moment, he took off his jade pendant and handed it over, lowering his voice: "Brother, good eye. My name is Wang Xiangdong. May I ask how to address you? Can we talk somewhere 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 the child holding Xiao Lin's leg, Yan Kuan, he didn't mention him. This precious son was his trump card, and it was best if he went unnoticed by those with ulterior motives.

"Brother Qiang isn't from around here, is he? Where do you make your fortune?"

Wang Xiangdong led the family of three toward another part of the street. There were some stalls there too, but it was a bit quieter.

"The antiques market in Hong Kong is a bit better than ours. Interested in joining me?"

Yan Qiang glanced at Wang Xiangdong and smiled. The latter gave an awkward laugh and didn't ask further. Although Hong Kong had some exchanges with the mainland in this era, very few people could travel between the two places, especially to go to Hong Kong for antiques. Ordinary people couldn't handle it.

Yan Qiang examined the white jade Buddha thoroughly, then casually placed it in his son's hands. Only then did he look at Wang Xiangdong and say, "An item over a thousand years old—quite rare. Name your price?"

Wang Xiangdong looked a bit troubled. "Brother Qiang, this... this is a family heirloom of mine..."

"The smell of earth hasn't even faded yet. This spot needs a good scrub."

Yan Qiang took the jade pendant back from his son's hands, pressing his thumb on a certain yellow spot as he spoke, looking at Wang Xiangdong with a somewhat mocking expression.

A jade Buddha over a thousand years old with the smell of earth on it, and Wang Xiangdong claimed it was a family heirloom? Bullshit heirloom—grave goods, more like. But he didn't care. No matter the era, anyone who did what Wang Xiangdong did wasn't a good person. Pushing him too far would only bring trouble.

"Brother Qiang, good eye!"

Wang Xiangdong's expression shifted slightly as he gave an awkward laugh. He hadn't expected that in just a short while, the other man had seen right through him. Now he was stuck.

Yan Qiang didn't waste any more words with Wang Xiangdong. He weighed the white jade Buddha in his hand and said in a low voice, "Got any more? I'll take them all. But we'll do the transaction right here on the streets of Panjiayao. We have no grudges, so we can be friends. Let's part on good terms."

"Brother Qiang, if you give the final word, I have no problem with that."

Wang Xiangdong was about to say something more when he caught sight of the thick stack of "Big Unity" notes in Yan Qiang's wallet. At a rough glance, there were at least fifty notes. At this time, a small courtyard house in Jingcheng cost only a hundred Big Unity notes. Such a huge sum was enough to make anyone lose their reason.

But thinking about the sedan the man drove and his background that allowed him to travel between the mainland and Hong Kong, Wang Xiangdong immediately backed down. He was only after money. Since he could get paid, he naturally didn't want to stir up trouble. And so, outside Panjiayao, a transaction was concluded very smoothly.

"These should be from the Eastern Han, these few are from the Tang Dynasty, these are from the Song Dynasty, and these few are from the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Their collection value isn't high—they can be taken out. This one... let me take another look at this one."

Inside the red sedan, the family of three was sorting through the treasures they had bought from Panjiayao. It was mostly Yan Kuan doing the talking, while Yan Qiang and Xiao Lin did the sorting. They took everything he said to heart. The Yan family's rapid rise in just a few years was largely thanks to their precious son.

"Son, isn't this just an eight-trigram box? These kinds of things used by fortune-tellers look pretty much the same across all dynasties. It's normal that you can't tell which dynasty it's from."

Xiao Lin glanced at the item in her son's hands. It was an octagonal three-dimensional box with a Yin-Yang Eight Trigrams Diagram on it. The trigrams outside the Yin-Yang Diagram seemed to be movable, like a large sliding puzzle.