Reborn As Super Heiress

Chapter 395: Chapter 391 A Small Game

This was like drawing a big pie for the customer in advance, telling everyone that there were leaks inside, but whether or not they could find them depended on their own skills.

Laymen like Huo Sining, who were not interested in antiques, could immediately see the shrewdness of the shop owner.

No matter how precious those five pieces of porcelain were, their value would never exceed one hundred million, let alone one hundred million, even twenty million would be considered decent.

But the cost price of each of the one thousand replica porcelain pieces was less than ten thousand yuan, so even if the genuine pieces were really picked out, it was a guaranteed profit for the shop owner.

However, Huo Sining thought it through, for those in the antique circle, this was a huge temptation.

Those who came to Antique Street to hunt for treasures were all picking out genuine pieces from among thousands of fakes, the street was a mix of good and bad, but there were countless gamblers who wanted to pick up leaks to get rich, and Yucailou’s marketing tactic was precisely to capture the psyche of these treasure hunters.

That’s why the shop was bustling with people from the moment it opened today, there was no need for advertising or anything, the business was booming like crazy.

Even Su Qingqing couldn’t help but want to try, her eyes wide with eagerness to prove her skill by picking out a genuine piece from the mix.

Huo Sining shook her head repeatedly, with so many pieces of porcelain, the probability of picking out a genuine piece was only one in two hundred, which was too small a chance.

Su Qingqing was very enthusiastic, and Huo Sining didn’t have the heart to dampen her spirits; Li Quan also looked at those porcelain pieces with glittering eyes, but the fellow was short of money and couldn’t afford it, so Huo Sining wasn’t worried about him acting rashly.

Huang Ranping and Huang Hanyun didn’t understand this field, but that didn’t stop them from loving the porcelain—ink wash flower patterns, blue and white fighting colors, glazed sculpting—these pieces were as exquisite as ancient ladies, each with their own charm and temperament, and the sisters couldn’t bear to take their eyes off each one.

Huo Sining took a cursory look around the shop, carefully leading Heitan, fearing that the animal would run around and bump into the Curio Shelves; porcelain was fragile, and this creature was strong, any collision could shatter the porcelain into thousands of pieces.

Walking out with bated breath, Huo Sining felt a lingering fear, but at that moment, unexpectedly, Ji Kun suddenly called out to her.

”Miss Huo, would you like to play a game in our shop?”

”A game? What kind of game?” Huo Sining asked, somewhat puzzled and unable to help her curiosity.

Ji Kun smiled and gestured for the shop assistant by the bar to lead Huo Sining to a large ceramic jar.

”This is a little game designed by the shop owner. There are three hundred pieces of Blue and White Porcelain fragments in this ceramic jar, some real and some fake. Only ten pieces are from a genuine item that was broken up; the rest are replicas.”

Ji Kun explained with a smile, ”Participants in the game can only pick out ten pieces of porcelain for assembly, with a maximum time of half an hour. If the ten chosen pieces contain at least five genuine fragments, then they can win a prize of varying value.”

Listening to this, Huo Sining instinctively raised an eyebrow and looked into the water-filled ceramic jar with its heap of shattered porcelain pieces, and asked with a smile, ”What if someone picks them all out?”

Ji Kun laughed, ”Of course, if someone can piece together the genuine item completely, they will receive a big surprise gift from our shop.”

While he said that, his mind was inwardly scoffing:

”All chosen? Well, that would actually take some real skill.”

In that jar were three hundred fragments of blue and white porcelain, and to pick out all the genuine ones from among them... Well, even his own teacher would need a fair bit of time to accomplish that.

In fact, the experiment wasn’t even the brainchild of the owner of Yucailou but had been conceived not long ago by an elderly professor at the museum. The professor had invented the game to test whether his students had thoroughly learned their porcelain knowledge and even suggested using this flexible form of examination for the final tests in the future.

But genuine porcelain pieces are hard to come by, and even if they were found, no one would be willing to smash them to pieces; thus, the professor was only talking in theory.

Unexpectedly, not long after, a friend of the Yucailou owner truly and accidentally shattered a piece of blue and white porcelain. Ji Kun immediately thought of the professor’s innovative idea and proposed it to his friend.

Ji Kun’s friend, being forthright and honest, didn’t even consider mending the broken porcelain vase. Upon hearing Ji Kun’s suggestion, he agreed on the spot. He even specifically went to the antique wholesale market to find a batch of replicas with similar patterns to his genuine piece, broke them up, and gathered three hundred fragments to create a jar of fragments.

To test whether the game was feasible, Ji Kun invited several of his graduate students to experiment with it. Out of ten students, only one picked out three genuine fragments within half an hour, while the others didn’t even come close.

Ji Kun then felt reassured. After discussing with his friend, they decided to place the jar of fragments in the shop, thinking of it as adding an entertaining game to the shop. Not only it was distinctive, but it could also attract a group of antique enthusiasts who sought thrills and fun.

”Can everyone play this game?”

Huo Sining asked with curiosity.

Ji Kun shook his head, ”Originally, any customer who buys porcelain from our shop gets a free chance to try this game, but I have the authority to make an exception for you, Miss Huo. It’s free anyway, why don’t you give it a try?”

Ji Kun was so enthusiastic because he wanted to assess whether Huo Sining had any talent in the field of antiques.

He had thoughts of introducing Huo Sining to his teacher, but having a calm and rational temperament wasn’t enough.

If one does not have talent in learning antique appraisal, then no amount of effort, the principle of ”the early bird catches the worm” or ”diligence can make up for a lack of ability” is futile in this line of work.

If during this test Huo Sining managed to pick out even one genuine porcelain fragment, even if it was purely by luck, Ji Kun would try to introduce the girl to his teacher. He did not know if she would pass the scrutiny of his teacher, but he couldn’t afford to waste good potential.

Of course, if Huo Sining couldn’t pick out even one genuine fragment, then he would have to give up on this idea altogether.

Ji Kun’s idea was straightforward, but what he didn’t know was that although Huo Sining didn’t understand antique appraisal, she had a cheat tool that defied the heavens.

If these porcelain fragments were laid out under the broad daylight on some open ground, she definitely wouldn’t have been able to pick anything out, blind guesswork would have been her only option.

But as it happened, to prevent customers from cutting their fingers on the shards, Ji Kun and his colleagues had specially placed the fragments in a porcelain jar filled with water.