Ode to the Luo River Goddess (Part One)

"All right..."

Ma Laocai chuckled, but inwardly cursed, This kid is far too suspicious. He's even guarding against something like this!

Chu Chen had indeed said that to guard against Ma Laocai switching the items while taking advantage of the situation. After all, such things were quite common in the antiques world.

For example, a buyer might take a fancy to a famille-rose porcelain vase at a seller's home. After carefully examining it and discovering that it was genuine, the buyer would want to purchase it. The seller would then distract the buyer and quickly replace the item with a seemingly identical fake. If the buyer was unprepared, he would be cheated.

When the buyer realized he had been duped and returned to settle accounts, the seller naturally would refuse to admit anything—or might simply have vanished without a trace.

When dealing with someone like Ma Laocai, Chu Chen naturally had to guard against such things.

As it happened, Ma Laocai really had considered doing just that. The cabinet could not be switched, but the four chairs could. Although they were worth only a few thousand yuan, for a man like him, who would betray anyone for profit, that amount still held a fatal attraction.

The people Ming Mazi had called were nearby, so they arrived shortly afterward.

Under Chu Chen's direction, they dismantled the cabinet piece by piece, then carefully carried everything into the courtyard. In fact, he had originally wanted to move everything outside, but Ma Laocai insisted on transferring the money at the bank first. There was nothing Chu Chen could do about that.

Chu Chen had the people Ming Mazi called wait in the courtyard for a while. Meanwhile, Ma Xiaoqiang brought the items out as well.

The calligraphy work was a handscroll on silk. It