A Father-in-Law Who Dumped Trouble on Him

After lunch, his father-in-law, Xiao Changkun, was already dressed and ready. He urged Ye Chen, "Ye Chen, hurry up and get ready. Drive our new car and take me to Antique Street. A shop just got an official kiln vase from the Tang dynasty, and I'm going to appraise it."

Ye Chen couldn't help trying to dissuade him. "Dad, are you getting into antiques again? Our family doesn't have much money. Isn't buying antiques a bit too extravagant?"

Xiao Changkun had little talent for making money, but he had plenty of dreams of getting rich. Whenever he had nothing to do, he liked to browse Antique Street, dreaming of finding a treasure at a bargain price.

But over the past few years, he had mostly been swindled.

He had quieted down for a while before this, but unexpectedly, instead of giving it up for good, the dying embers had flared to life again.

Seeing that Ye Chen actually dared to criticize him, Xiao Changkun snorted coldly. "Cut the nonsense and hurry up and take me there."

Ye Chen was helpless, but he couldn't very well defy him, so he had no choice but to drive his father-in-law to Antique Street.

On the way, Xiao Changkun sat in the newly purchased BMW, thoroughly pleased with himself.

Instead of sitting in the passenger seat, he sat in the spacious back row with his legs crossed. As he directed Ye Chen's driving, he also had him play his favorite treasure-hunting audiobooks over the car speakers.

In his own words, he was getting old and reading strained his eyes, so he simply listened every day instead.

That was one thing, but after listening along for a few passages, Ye Chen discovered that the protagonist of the story could spend ten yuan gambling on a piece of jade rough worth a billion.

Hearing that, Ye Chen understood why his father-in-law had an endless supply of dreams of getting rich every day.

Xiao Changkun, on the other hand, was listening with great relish. As he listened, he couldn't help sighing. "Ah, when will I, Old Xiao, run into such incredible luck and make a billion from a ten-yuan stone? Ah, forget a billion. I'd be satisfied with a hundred million..."

Ye Chen coughed awkwardly twice. "Dad, stop thinking about stone gambling. It's all a scam."

Xiao Changkun curled his lip. "What the hell do you know?"

With that, he saw that they had reached Antique Street and hurriedly ordered, "Find a parking space and park, quick. Don't make me late for my appointment to inspect the goods!"

Jinling was a famous historic city, and Antique Street, located outside the scenic area, had some renown throughout the country. Antique dealers and bargain hunters from all over the country gathered there.

The local tourism department had seized the opportunity, spending a fortune to renovate Antique Street and turn it into a tourist attraction.

Once they arrived, Xiao Changkun made his way with practiced ease to the entrance of an antique shop and told the receptionist he had an appointment. The receptionist then invited them both to the VIP room in the back to inspect the goods.

Ye Chen was about to follow him in when Xiao Changkun turned around and said, "Don't come in with me. You wouldn't understand what you were looking at anyway. Wait for me outside the VIP room!"

Ye Chen had no choice but to nod. "I understand, Dad!"

Xiao Changkun clasped his hands behind his back and followed the receptionist into the VIP room, while Ye Chen sat down in the waiting area.

A few minutes later, Ye Chen suddenly heard a sharp clatter from inside the VIP room.

Then he saw his father-in-law, Xiao Changkun, come running out with a panicked look on his face.

He was still muttering, "It's over, it's over! Now it's all over!"

Ye Chen hurried over and looked behind his father-in-law. A tall, slender ceramic vase had been broken into two pieces on the floor, with quite a few small ceramic shards scattered around it.

From the fragments, he could just make out that the broken object appeared to be a Tang dynasty yuhuchun vase.

He had been exposed to such things from childhood in the Ye Family and had seen and learned a great deal. He could tell at a glance that the vase was a genuine antique and should have no trouble fetching several million on the market.

It looked like his father-in-law had landed himself in serious trouble this time.

Inside the VIP room, a middle-aged man said with a dark expression, "Mr. Xiao, we bought this yuhuchun vase for more than five million. Now that you've broken it, you must compensate us for its full value!"

This man was Zhou Liangyun, the manager of Auspicious Celebration Hall.

Xiao Changkun pulled Ye Chen over and said, unable to hide his panic, "This is my precious son-in-law. Do you know how much money he has? Never mind five million-even fifty million is nothing to him! You two can discuss the compensation! I have something to do, so I'll be going!"

With that, Xiao Changkun shoved Ye Chen inside, turned around, and ran out.

Ye Chen was dumbfounded. His father-in-law was far too shameless. He was clearly making him take the blame!

Zhou Liangyun looked at Ye Chen and asked coldly, "Sir, the total is 5.38 million. Will you pay by card or bank transfer?"

Ye Chen spread his hands. "I don't have any money."

It wasn't that he couldn't afford to pay. He simply wanted to teach his father-in-law a lesson, so he wouldn't keep calling on him to come to Antique Street every day in the future.

"No money?" Zhou Liangyun gritted his teeth. "You smashed something belonging to Auspicious Celebration Hall. Do you think you can get out of it just by saying you have no money?"

Ye Chen said helplessly, "I never intended to get out of it, but I really don't have any money. Besides, I wasn't the one who smashed your vase. What gives you the right to demand that I pay for it?"

Zhou Liangyun flew into a rage. "Wasn't that your father-in-law?"

Ye Chen nodded. "You said it yourself: he's my father-in-law, not me. Whoever broke it is the one you should ask to pay. Every grievance has its source, every debt its debtor; misfortune shouldn't be visited upon the family. Don't you understand that?"

Zhou Liangyun was annoyed, but on reflection, what Ye Chen said made sense.

If he demanded compensation from him without another word and word got out, Auspicious Celebration Hall's reputation would be ruined.

So he hurriedly blurted out to the people beside him, "You lot, hurry up and catch that old fellow and bring him back!"

Ye Chen watched them scramble after his father-in-law, smiling silently to himself.

He could actually have paid the compensation directly by card, but wouldn't that let his shameless father-in-law off too easily?

Rather than do that, he might as well let the old man suffer a little.

Otherwise, if something like this happened again, he would dump the trouble on him again.

Everyone from Auspicious Celebration Hall had gone out to catch Ye Chen's father-in-law. With nothing to do, Ye Chen looked at the vase on the floor, broken in two.

The vase was about half a meter tall and had now broken into two halves and a pile of fragments. It really was a pity to see.

But he suddenly noticed that something seemed to be hidden in the bottom of the lower half of the vase.

He hurriedly reached in and felt around, only to pull out a small wooden box!

He hadn't expected the vase to hold such a secret!

A yuhuchun vase had a narrow mouth and a wide belly. The wooden box was clearly two or three sizes wider than the vase's mouth. It seemed it hadn't been stuffed in afterward, but had been placed inside when the vase was made!

In that case, the wooden box must also have been left behind from the Tang dynasty!

He held the wooden box in his hand and examined it carefully, then applied a little force and opened it with a snap.

As the wooden box opened, an exquisitely fresh fragrance immediately wafted out. Ye Chen breathed it in and felt refreshed and invigorated.

Looking closely, he saw an ancient book smaller than his palm lying inside the wooden box!

Ye Chen picked up the tiny ancient book and saw four ancient seal-script characters written on the title page: "Nine Profound Heavenly Scriptures."

"That's an interesting name. I wonder what it contains." Ye Chen opened the book and read on.

The first section was titled "Medicine" and recorded a large number of cases and treatments.

Ye Chen frowned slightly. He had some exposure to traditional Chinese medicine and knew some of its basic theories, but the methods recorded in this book were clearly far more advanced than those used in the field today.

Some of the diagnostic and treatment methods were things he had never even heard of. At the very end of the medicine section, Ye Chen even found the art of refining pills. The effects of some of those pills simply went beyond the bounds of the real world.

His interest piqued, Ye Chen sat down on the floor and kept turning the pages.

To his surprise, the Nine Profound Heavenly Scriptures also contained material on feng shui and divination, as well as all manner of extraordinary methods for appraising treasures and restoring them. Besides those, there were quite a few other strange and unusual things.

Ye Chen read for a long time, feeling as though every word in the book was burrowing into his brain, his heart like boiling water.

He had found a treasure at a bargain!

This was a priceless treasure!