Reborn As Super Heiress

Chapter 1103: Chapter 1099: A Lotus Bouquet

The group of three continued walking forward, but Huo Sining’s heart wasn’t as calm as it seemed.

Qibao’s Rock Spirit Pearl could actually extract the essence from low-grade jadeite, turning a pile of dog|crap into high-grade jadeite. Such an ability was simply defying the heavens.

In the jadeite gambling business, nine out of ten bets result in failure; the probability of exposing dog|crap is much higher than finding high-grade jadeite. Once these dog|crap are uncovered, they’re either discarded or sold cheaply. If they can be reprocessed for extraction, even if only a tenth of the original material is extracted, the profits would be exorbitant.

Just like the High Ice Type Taotie in Qibao’s hands earlier, although the extracted piece was small, its value was worth dozens of times the original Taotie.

Huo Sining felt a bit excited, but after the excitement, she looked at Qibao’s still pale face and felt like she’d been doused with cold water.

The little guy had just awakened his Jiaoren heritage and couldn’t completely control the properties of the Rock Spirit Pearl yet. He was not even as good as her; the little Spiritual Energy he had wouldn’t last ten minutes, making it impossible for him to take on heavy workloads.

Thus, Huo Sining quickly dismissed the idea.

After all, she already had plenty in her hands, and with her Heavenly Eye and Spiritual Pearl, she could go to Myanmar to gamble on a batch of high-quality jadeite raw stones. She didn’t need Qibao’s help for now.

Walking absentmindedly, Huo Sining’s gaze drifted. While she was daydreaming, her eyes inadvertently swept over items at a nearby stall. Something flashed in her mind as her eyes settled on an object, causing her expression to change, and she stopped subconsciously.

Upon seeing Huo Sining come to a halt, Su Qingqing and Qibao also stopped and followed her gaze to look at the stall.

However, Huo Sining didn’t bother with Su Qingqing; she pulled Qibao over to squat in front of the stall, her eyes fixed on one particular item among the pile of antiques there.

The vendor at the stall was a scruffy middle-aged man who was enthusiastically introducing a Qing Dynasty vase to two customers. When he saw Huo Sining squat next to his stall, he glanced at her indifferently and said casually, ”Feel free to look around, little girl.”

Huo Sining remained motionless, her gaze fixed on a plate with many lotus flowers painted on it.

After expending considerable effort, the vendor finally sold the Qing Dynasty vase and turned to Huo Sining, smiling, ”What would you like to buy, young lady?”

Knowing these vendors are shrewd, Huo Sining controlled her expression to appear more natural. Pretending to be an amateur, she reached out and felt around the stall, stopping near her target to pick up a brush pot before asking indifferently, ”How much is this?”

Seeing her uncertain and picking through items, the vendor believed she was a layperson and said casually, ”A thousand bucks.”

Huo Sining nodded and touched several other items. Growing impatient with her just touching items without buying, the vendor suppressed his irritation. Seeing three people standing in front of his stall, which could also attract more customers, he said with restraint, ”All items there are a thousand each. Pick any you like, Miss!”

Huo Sining was waiting for this. She was worried that if she directly picked up the item, the vendor would notice and raise the price, so she went around the issue until she learned the specific price of the items.

The vendor, annoyed with her haggling, turned to attend to a customer interested in an ivory carving, leaving her alone.

Huo Sining was glad he was distracted. She swiftly reached out and grabbed the lotus plate she was eyeing.

The lotus plate, with its open arc-shaped rim and shallow ring foot, was well-formed. The body was delicate enough, the glaze white with blue. The edge of the plate was painted with vine patterns, and in the center, a flourishing lotus tied with ribbons was depicted. The fine, white, and meticulous craftsmanship featured deep blue hues. Heavily rendered by brush, it exemplified the imported blue material technique of the Xuande period.

The ”Palace Verses of Tianqi” mentioned, ”The Golden Sleeping Duck Fragrance Nan Rack, will hang again tomorrow with a lotus.” The plate Huo Sining held was exactly a blue and white lotus, a classic Ming Dynasty Yongle Imperial Kiln porcelain.

Huo Sining once saw a video of a Xiangjiang auction where an authentic Yongle Imperial Kiln celadon large lotus plate fetched over fifty million. Experts claim the collectible value of such ceramics will continue to rise and hold significant investment potential.

However, many folk kilns also produced similar lotus plates after the Ming dynasty. Except for the body and glaze, the workmanship is almost identical to Yongle products. Only experts could discern the authenticity.

Of course, that’s not the point. Judging by appearance, it’s clear this plate couldn’t be from the Yongle Imperial Kiln. If it genuinely were a Ming artifact, such a blatant object would have been snapped up long ago—not waiting for her to choose.

Since it’s fake, Huo Sining could see it. She had known from the start that this lotus was a replica. Yet, she was drawn to this ceramic at first glance because the lotus painted on it differs from all she commonly saw.

The plate’s design wasn’t the most exquisite, but the lotus within was uniquely distinct. It had been treated with special pigments so that the entire lotus’s edges vaguely shimmered with a golden hue, especially under sunlight, appearing almost gilded.

This reminded Huo Sining of the Golden Lotus she once excavated from that deserted island in Mindong. The pattern on this plate was strikingly identical to what she had seen, except that the golden lotus on the island had five to six buds still closed, whereas the three lotuses on this plate were in full bloom.