Chapter 101

"Sure."

Gu Jinshui was generous enough to agree at once.

He Sheng was absolutely delighted. He was an antiques enthusiast himself, and every month, as soon as he received his salary, he headed straight for the antiques markets at Houhai, White Horse Bridge, Liuli Factory, and Panjiayuan. But his limited pay only stretched to ordinary pieces.

He would never even have dreamed of owning anything like these black-glazed tea bowls.

The mottled tortoiseshell glaze, the paper-cut appliqué prunus-branch conical bowl—its lines were so lively and graceful, and it nestled perfectly in his palm.

He Sheng examined them one after another, barely able to put them down.

Only after setting down all three tea bowls did he give Gu Jinshui a thumbs-up. "Mr. Gu, you're the best. I'm completely in awe of you. To think you found treasures like these at an antiques stall! People will be green with envy when word gets out."

Gu Jinshui smiled from his horseshoe-back armchair. "I just got lucky and happened across them. I'm thinking of writing an article about these tea bowls. Do you think that would work?"

"Of course it would! Why wouldn't it?"

He Sheng immediately slapped his thigh. "You'd be doing all us collectors a great service! Just think—even the museums don't have these tea bowls. Chiang Kai-shek took plenty of them over to Taiwan back then. We've only heard of antiques like these, never seen them for ourselves, let alone learned how to tell the real ones from fakes. If you write that article, I'll certainly study it carefully. And I'll authorize a higher rate for you: a hundred yuan per thousand characters!"

A hundred yuan per thousand characters was a truly impressive rate.

Gu Jinshui had received around twenty per thousand for his previous article, so this was a