Reborn As Super Heiress

Chapter 472: Chapter 468: Buy It

Although it was to be expected, and everyone knew it was only logical, the thought of a chest of precious antiques being used to hold water or vegetables, or even accidentally shattered into pieces by some careless children, left everyone feeling oppressively gloomy, with a frustration that found no outlet for release.

These magnificent treasures, bearing the wisdom and historical heritage of the ancients, should not be so wantonly squandered; it was a blatant waste of heavenly gifts...

But who could be blamed? Even Xie Daoyuan himself couldn’t clearly say whom to blame.

”Sir, I’d like to ask your wife a few questions, if that’s convenient for you?”

Huo Sining too felt regret, but then she thought, since this bowl was a dowry from the old man’s father-in-law to his daughter, perhaps she could uncover some clues from the old man’s wife and family.

To Huo Sining’s words, the old man only gave a bitter smile: ”Girl, my wife has been gone for many years.”

Gone? It took Huo Sining a second to realize what he meant—the old man’s wife had passed away.

”Then are there any other family members of your father-in-law still around?” Ding Liang interjected with a question.

The old man, showing no impatience, paused, then shook his head, ”There’s an adopted son, but after he left for other places, he never came back, nor did he keep in touch. All the others are dead.”

”My father-in-law’s ancestral home is just over the hill there; if you’d like, I can take you there to have a look.”

Upon hearing this, Huo Sining was immediately delighted and looked to Xie Daoyuan and Ji Kun, who both nodded in agreement.

So under the old man’s guidance, the group crossed another hill and walked two to three kilometers to reach a sprawling area of dilapidated mud houses, which was the old man’s father-in-law’s place.

As they walked, the old man told the four that, before his wife’s family had fallen on hard times, he used to work as a long-term laborer at his father-in-law’s.

Since the 1950s, with the land reform, the old landlord’s mansion of his father-in-law’s family had been forcefully demolished, leaving only a small homestead where the father-in-law built several mud houses.

After wandering around the mud houses for a while, Xie Daoyuan sometimes frowned and sometimes smiled. He exchanged glances with Ji Kun and, without saying anything, followed the old man back to the residence.

”Elder, has your father-in-law’s house been expropriated yet?” Xie Daoyuan inquired.

The old man had a pained expression: ”After my wife married me, the house was divided and given to my father-in-law’s adopted son. But that adopted son disappeared and hasn’t come back for many years; I don’t know if they managed to contact him when the expropriation happened.”

”I heard the expropriation provides quite a bit of money, and many families in the village have moved away with the compensation. Why don’t you leave, old sir?” Xie Daoyuan asked casually, his eyes fixed intently on the old man.

Unaware of the unusual expressions on Xie Daoyuan and Ji Kun, the old man sighed:

”Generations of my family have lived here, and just because those people want to pay me to leave my ancestral land, how can I bear to? The older I get, the less I’m willing to leave this land that has nourished me. Now, I don’t have many desires left, my only luxury is to lie beside my wife when I die.”

This was a statement that struck a chord in Xie Daoyuan’s heart. He was also of advanced age and empathized with the old man’s words, his usually sharp gaze softening considerably, ”You’re right, the older you get, the more you yearn for your homeland.”

After chatting with the old man for a few more sentences, Xie Daoyuan found it somewhat funny to see Huo Sining still staring intently at the white-glazed bowl, her face a picture of indecision.

Ultimately, not wanting to disappoint the young girl, he began to inquire, ”Old man, this girl truly fancies your bowl. I won’t lie to you, I estimate that your bowl is likely to be an antique from before the Qing Dynasty.”

”Antique?” The old man was startled and sprang up from his stool, looking at Xie Daoyuan with disbelief.

Although the old man was uneducated, he still knew what an antique was, which was why he felt so shocked.

”Yes, this bowl has been aged and deliberately coated with a layer of something, making it look almost like an ordinary tea bowl. You may not understand the business, but we specialize in this sort of thing, and we can tell at a glance that this item is an antique,” Xie Daoyuan explained slowly.

Upon hearing this, the old man’s face lit up with joy. He rubbed his hands together, looking at the bowl with a mix of reservation and nervousness, and asked, ”I knew my father-in-law doted on his daughter, how could he shortchange my wife? So, brother, what you’re saying is, how much could my bowl be worth?”

Xie Daoyuan smiled, ”We can’t be certain which dynasty this bowl is from. It appears to be Opal Glaze, priced at least at around two hundred thousand. Unfortunately, there seems to be a crack in your bowl, so the price might be considerably reduced. Based on my initial estimate, you could probably sell it for about one hundred and twenty to thirty thousand.”

One hundred and twenty to thirty thousand?!

The old man was dumbfounded after hearing Xie Daoyuan’s words, staring blankly at the bowl in his arms, and it took a good long while before he came back to his senses.

Thinking of his wife’s entire chest of dowries, he was full of regret. A whole chest of bowls and dishes, how much would that be worth!

If he had known that those items were antiques, how could he have been willing to use them? He would have likely treasured them instead.

Fortunately, the old man was philosophical about it. Although he felt regret, those items were gone and couldn’t be reclaimed. Being able to keep one was already very fortunate.

One hundred and twenty to thirty thousand might be nothing to people in big cities, but to an old man from a remote mountain village, it was an astronomical figure. It was like a huge pie falling from the sky, hitting the old man and leaving him stunned.

”Elderly sir, I really shouldn’t be doing this, but now that you know this bowl isn’t ordinary, I still have to be so bold as to ask you one more question, will you sell this bowl?”

Now that she had discovered the bowl, how could Huo Sining bear to let it go? Although the bowl was damaged, she was even more curious about the secret hidden within the walls of the bowl.

”Sell it! Of course, I’ll sell it!” Originally unaware of the bowl’s value and using it casually, the old man didn’t care much. But now that he knew it was an antique, he became nervous even holding the bowl, terrified of breaking it.

To people like Xie Daoyuan and Huo Sining, the bowl was a valuable antique. But to the old man, it was nothing more than a bowl for holding water. To trade it for real silver and gold was naturally a huge surprise for him.

Seeing the old man’s agreement, Huo Sining heaved a sigh of relief and said with a smile, ”Our professor has already appraised it for you, but I won’t take advantage of you. I’ll buy this bowl for one hundred and fifty thousand. What do you say?”