Buy and Sell

As he made his way along, Chu Chen warmly greeted everyone he knew. When he reached his own stall, he found that the person occupying the stall he had used a few days ago was also an old friend—Zhou Wenping.

Zhou Wenping was thirty-four that year and came from Xijing in San Qin. He had arrived on Antique Street a year later than Chu Chen. He had originally dealt in antiques in Xijing as well, but his wife had fallen seriously ill. After much searching, they had finally come to the capital and found a hospital that offered some hope of curing her.

So Zhou Wenping had sold everything his family owned back home, bringing his wife and their two children to the capital for treatment.

They still had to make a living after coming here, so he had returned to his old trade. Out of sympathy for his situation, Chu Chen occasionally helped him however he could. After spending more time together, the two became friends.

At that moment, an old man was holding a blue-and-white landscape plate at Zhou Wenping's stall and examining it carefully. In the end, he even took out a magnifying glass and scrutinized it again and again, looking every bit like an old pedant.

Chu Chen grew curious when he saw the old man's appearance. Could that landscape plate actually be a fine piece? But as soon as he approached and took a look, he immediately knew what kind of quality it was.

The old man set down the landscape plate and asked, "Boss, how much is this?"

"You clearly know your stuff. This is a fine piece." Zhou Wenping first flattered him, then pretended to ponder for a while before continuing, "Since you genuinely like it, I'll give you a fair price—five thousand yuan."

The old man thought for a moment, then picked up the plate and examined it again. "Five thousand is too expensive. How about six hundred?"

"Fine. You'd better leave it there for six hundred. I couldn't even buy it for that price." Zhou Wenping wore an exasperated expression.

The old man said nothing. He merely frowned and carefully ran his fingers over the landscape plate again before saying, "One thousand. What do you think, Boss? If that doesn't work, I'll leave."

Zhou Wenping looked at the plate, then at the old man. "Sir, I can see that you really like this piece. But one thousand is truly too little. It's even less than what I paid for it. And I haven't included the stall fee or my labor. You have to let me make a little, right? If you really want it, take it for two thousand two hundred."

The old man fell silent again, endlessly turning the landscape plate over in his hands, looking hesitant and conflicted.

Seeing that there was hope, Zhou Wenping continued, "Rest assured, this piece is definitely old. Just look at the patina, and then look at the painting. If this isn't a fine piece, what is? You absolutely won't lose out by taking it home."

The old man seemed tempted, but perhaps two thousand two hundred was beyond what he had expected. His brows remained tightly furrowed. Yet he was extremely reluctant to give it up. Finally, he gritted his teeth as if he had made up his mind and said to Zhou Wenping:

"Boss, I'll pay one thousand six hundred. I can't go any higher. Besides, the blue-and-white coloring isn't quite right."

Zhou Wenping laughed unconcernedly. "Sir, it's supposed to be that way. This is a folk-kiln piece. Did you think an imperial-kiln piece could be bought for this little? I'll lower the price a bit more. How about one thousand eight hundred? A fine piece in this condition would cost more than two thousand at the shops over there."

The old man thought it over, then gazed at the landscape plate in his hands with great fondness. Finally, he gritted his teeth and made up his mind. He pulled a stack of money from his pocket, counted it again and again, then reluctantly handed it to Zhou Wenping.

"All right. Boss, make sure you pack it properly."

"Of course. I'll get you a gift box. It'll be sturdy and look good, too." Zhou Wenping took the young man's money, counted it carefully, and swiftly put it into his pocket. He then took a gift box from a nearby crate, wrapped up the blue-and-white landscape plate, and handed it to the old man. The deal was done.

After the old man left happily with the gift box in his arms, Chu Chen smiled and greeted Zhou Wenping. "Not bad, Brother Zhou. Business is going well."

With that deal under his belt, Zhou Wenping was in an excellent mood. He took a small folding stool from beside him, invited Chu Chen to sit, and said, "Heh heh, I only just opened for the day. How can business already be going well?"

"In our line of work, a stall can stay closed for half a year, then make enough in one day to eat for half a year. That landscape plate was worth no more than this, right?"

Chu Chen grinned and held up two fingers.

A nearby peddler whom everyone called Old Wu chimed in with a laugh. "Brother Zhou, that slash of yours must have bled that old fellow dry."

"Come on, brothers. He wanted to buy that landscape plate himself. I never forced him to. Besides, he might be thrilled right now, thinking he found a huge bargain. And my landscape plate is still an antique, more or less. As the saying goes, it's not frightening to buy something expensive; what's frightening is buying the wrong thing. After some time, it'll be worth what he paid."

"Oh, give me a break," Chu Chen said with a laugh. "By the time that old fellow has been dead for a hundred years, it might not even rise to the price he paid."

The blue-and-white landscape plate the old man had just bought was merchandise Zhou Wenping had acquired a few days earlier, when Chu Chen was still running his stall. So Chu Chen knew it was a late-Qing folk-kiln piece. Its craftsmanship and glaze were both extremely ordinary. At most, it was worth three to five hundred yuan. Even after ten years, reaching a thousand would already be asking too much.

The old man had probably studied antiques for a while, but evidently not very well. He was the kind of person commonly called a half-trained amateur. In the antique trade, people like that were the ones most likely to be fooled. Newcomers, on the other hand, were less likely to make such mistakes because they knew nothing and were consequently more cautious when buying.

Many people who learned a little about antiques liked to compare objects against the colored illustrations in books. The results were often only superficially similar, and they ended up being fooled for no reason. As for that old man, Chu Chen guessed he had either misjudged the period or simply taken it for an unmarked imperial-kiln piece. That was why he had happily bought it, still secretly congratulating himself.

The old man was better off than some. At least he had bought a genuine antique. Some people bought modern counterfeits made with chemical methods, then returned home congratulating themselves. When they later had an expert examine them, the results were utterly disastrous.

Worse still, when told they were wrong, they refused to believe it. They preferred to remain immersed in their own world. People like that could be fooled any number of times and still not consider it enough.

In fact, the old man had made another mistake just now: he did not know how to haggle. When Chu Chen first saw him, he had thought the man was probably an intellectual worker who normally never had to worry about food, clothing, housing, or transportation and did not understand many of the marketplace's rules. That was why he had ended up paying an extra thousand or so in wasted money.

As the saying went, buyers were never as shrewd as sellers. For ordinary stall goods, some items were often priced at around ten times their wholesale cost, or even more, so buyers had to bargain boldly. There was a saying: ask sky-high, then settle on the ground. As long as the seller could make some money, he would eventually let the item go. Of course, how far to push things depended on the buyer's judgment.

People like that old man were the ones Chu Chen and the others liked best. Those who had no money but liked to act rich, as well as those who were too thin-skinned to haggle, were also easy sources of profit.

The most annoying were stingy people like Aunt Zhang, who would split a single penny into two if she could. They could pester you for two or three hours over a few dozen yuan—or even a few yuan—as if refusing them a discount were some terrible crime.

They might also have been born unusually sensitive to prices, offering exactly the amount within your mental limit. You could not chase them away, so in the end you had no choice but to accept their price.

Zhou Wenping said with helpless amusement, "I only made a little over a thousand yuan. The way you put it, I committed some enormous crime. All right, how about I treat everyone to drinks at a street food stall tonight?"

At the mention of alcohol, Old Wu's eyes lit up, and he began to drool. He was good in every respect and had no other bad habits. There was only one problem: he loved to drink. As long as his wife did not keep an eye on him, he would drink himself silly. Once, he had even drunk away a Qing imperial-kiln famille-rose bowl worth tens of thousands. He had finally restrained himself somewhat afterward.

Seeing Old Wu's expression, Chu Chen and the others knew his craving for alcohol had surfaced, and they secretly laughed.

"By the way, Xiao Chen, everyone heard that the Tang Sancai you got from Old Xiang last time turned out to be a mistake. Old Xiang came looking for you yesterday because of it and said he was sorry. But he left for the Star-Spangled Country today. He left you a phone number and told you to call him as soon as possible. I guess he wants to give you some compensation."

After speaking, Zhou Wenping handed Chu Chen a slip of paper with Old Xiang's phone number on it.

Chu Chen felt touched by Old Xiang's actions as he accepted the slip. He would call Old Xiang, but he would never accept any compensation. When he had bought the Tang Sancai, both sides had been entirely willing. So he said:

"Old Xiang's character is truly admirable, but this has nothing to do with him. Back then, I was the one who pestered him relentlessly until he had no choice but to let me have the Tang Sancai. Besides, in our line of work, everything depends on knowledge and eyesight. Once money and goods have changed hands, going back to settle the account would violate the rules."

Zhou Wenping nodded. "I know Old Xiang's temperament. He's doing this so he can put his mind at ease. By the way, Xiao Chen, you lost so much money this time. Do you want to borrow some from me?"

"Heh heh, there's no need. Yesterday, not only did I make back everything I lost, I also made more than forty thousand on top of that," Chu Chen said quietly with a chuckle.

"Oh? Not bad, Xiao Chen! You found a huge bargain. No way I'm treating tonight. You should be the one treating us."

Zhou Wenping laughed in surprise and envy, while Old Wu also nodded repeatedly, looking envious.

"Sure, why not? I'll treat everyone tonight. Let's not go to some street food stall, either. The private tea house I visited yesterday was pretty good. Call Sister-in-law and the kids over, and Old Wu, bring your wife too. We'll celebrate together." Chu Chen waved his hand generously.