Chapter 44: Nine is the Extreme of Numbers; It’s Fake! Wrong, From the Judgment…
Le Can didn’t expect a simple probe to develop into the current situation.
He rubbed his forehead and looked at the trussed-up Jian Minglang.
The guy was being carried away by several people, yet he still flopped around like a fish out of water that had just landed on shore.
Upon seeing Le Can looking at him, this simpleton not only felt no remorse but also struggled to bend a few fingers, making difficult gestures in the air.
After clearly seeing the hand signs made one by one, Le Can finally closed his eyes, unable to bear the sight.
“0718”—the numbers he had given out in his previous life.
This number was the time of death of Le Can’s last relative. It was also this number that helped him shatter the thief’s sanity and take back what belonged to him.
Le Can could forget anything, but he would never forget those four digits.
The person in front of him was indeed the Jian Minglang he knew. But this enthusiastic “fellow townsman,” afraid that he would go astray again, really didn’t know Xi Yun.
As the saying goes, things shouldn’t happen more than three times. The previous two reminders were enough for Le Can to clarify these two points, and he also understood that Jian Minglang couldn’t help a bit with the original plot.
Le Can had paid off the kindness of his previous life with a rotten life.
And looking at it now, Jian Minglang lived more comfortably than him in both lifetimes. Le Can didn’t intend to drag the other party into the plot…
Certain thoughts about not acknowledging each other from the start were now even more affirmed after witnessing someone’s chaotic behavior.
Not knowing each other is good for both of us.
Le Can withdrew his gaze with a touch of melancholy, and then the next second… he met Xi Yun’s eyes.
The man with light irises that appeared extremely deep spoke: “Considering divorce?”
Melancholy… my ass!
Not a bit of melancholy left, only worry!
Yet the guy who muddied the water was dragged away, leaving the unlucky person implicated to face the entire mess alone.
Clearly, he hadn’t intended to “put a hat” on Xi Yun, yet Le Can felt like his crimes had been exposed. He was subconsciously flustered and nervous. The hand he had already released grabbed the person beside him again with lightning speed.
“Not considering! Not divorcing!”
Le Can took a moment to glance at the refined and handsome Jian Yu, then quickly withdrew his gaze to lean close to Xi Yun’s ear, lowering his voice to pledge loyalty.
“That guy just now was wrong. Jian Yu isn’t as good-looking as you.”
You’re younger too; your waist is definitely better than his!
If Le Can didn’t read the birth date on the marriage certificate wrong, Xi Yun should be twenty-six this year, three years older than his current body.
They say “A man three years older sits on a mountain of gold.” Le Can agreed deeply. After all, if he left Xi Yun, who would give him two million a month in pocket money, plus a 150 million grand house?!
As for Jian Yu’s private life being clean, so what?
Our Xi Yun has also kept his body like jade (remained chaste) for twenty-six years… Mmph!
The noise in his ear was too chaotic, and Xi Yun mistook this unfiltered inner thought for something Le Can said out loud. Thus, a warm, large hand covered Le Can’s mouth without warning.
Le Can: !
He suddenly looked up, eyes widening.
But when he saw a small knot between the man’s brows, the confused youth instantly understood. He obediently allowed his mouth to be covered without moving.
After all, being on someone else’s turf and about to buy someone else’s stuff in a moment, he had to give the host some face, more or less…
Jian Yu had just calmed down. Turning his head to see the two standing face-to-face, conveying emotions with their eyes, he silently swallowed the words on the tip of his tongue.
It wasn’t just the distressing level of his brother… His narrow phoenix eyes behind the gold-rimmed glasses flickered uncertainly, making it impossible to discern the complex emotions within.
When the two, who seemed to have reached an agreement, looked over simultaneously, Jian Yu raised a warm smile again, naturally changing the subject.
“Elder Yan and the others just finished looking. Let’s go see the protagonist of the day.”
As for the words Jian Minglang just said… smart people knew that words spoken by children couldn’t be taken seriously.
Le Can simply couldn’t ask for more.
But he couldn’t speak, so he could only soften a pair of peach-blossom eyes, looking eagerly at the person close to him, trying to hint with his eyes.
Let’s just skip this part quickly (Knife-sharpening BGM). It’s good for both of us.
The eyes of the person who seemed to be pleaded with but was actually being threatened filled with a smile, and he slowly released his hand.
Northern Song Ru Kiln Sky-Blue Glaze Lotus Leaf Brush Washer.
Even though Le Can had prepared himself mentally before seeing the actual object, when that elegant sky-blue color came into view, it still made his breath hitch.
The aesthetic and romance that had crossed a millennium were still intoxicatingly beautiful today. No wonder imitators of Ru Kiln in later generations were as numerous as carps crossing the river.
It was just a pity that after the Song Dynasty, no matter how many imitators there were, no one could reach the level of the Northern Song Ru Kiln and perfectly reproduce its ultimate Eastern aesthetic.
Therefore, the few Ru Kiln pieces perfectly preserved to this day were all treasures at the level of world-famous artifacts.
Looking at the glazed surface of the porcelain with patterns like cicada wings, Le Can lowered the sound of his breathing. His ears seemed to hear the ding-dong-ding-dong sounds of the kiln opening—the crisp, pleasant sounds of the glaze crackling like wind chimes.
However, unfortunately, he hadn’t researched antiques much.
All he could do was estimate that the reliability of this Ru porcelain should be quite high based on the two surface characteristics of color and crackle (crazing).
As for whether it was truly reliable?
Le Can looked up at the serious-faced person beside him.
Xi Yun frowned slightly. He took a glove from the side and put it on one hand, while the other hand remained bare.
He was preparing to touch it, to feel this piece of porcelain.
Generally, porcelain appraisal required tactile sensation as an important basis, so gloves weren’t strictly necessary. But the preciousness of Ru porcelain far exceeded the ordinary. Plus, the surface with its ancient age and crackles needed to be treated with care.
Even unsure if the item was real or fake, Xi Yun still chose the safest method.
That highly anticipated Ru Kiln Sky-Blue Glaze Lotus Leaf Brush Washer was sitting quietly on a table padded with soft cloth. The pitch-black velvet made its glaze color look even more beautiful and its surface unctuous.
Getting closer, one realized its overall color wasn’t a uniform constant but had transitions of depth. The crackle patterns interwoven in the blue added a fractured beauty to this porcelain.
This made the already careful attitude of many appraisers toward the porcelain even more cautious.
Le Can saw Xi Yun acting as usual.
He didn’t become timid due to excessive scruples. Instead, he steadily turned the Ru porcelain washer over. Throughout the process, the porcelain only left the table slightly, always maintaining a safe, low distance from it.
On the bottom of the porcelain, on the smooth surface of the object, three spur marks (support firing marks) the size of sesame seeds occupied three different directions. If one connected each spur mark with a line, one would get a nearly perfect equilateral triangle.
Le Can sighed lightly. The sigh was for the existence of the spur marks, but also an emotional reflection on their existence.
This sentence seemed like a tongue twister, but it wasn’t contradictory.
The technique of “fully glazed foot supported firing” allowed Ru Kiln porcelain not to have an unglazed foot ring like other porcelains, achieving a nearly fully glazed result to the greatest extent, making the Ru porcelain surface nearly perfect.
But only nearly.
Three spur marks the size of sesame seeds existed on the sky-blue body of the Ru porcelain, which was otherwise like flawless white jade. It made one help but regretfully wonder: If these three little “sesame seeds” weren’t there, would this porcelain be even more perfect…?
“Nine is the extreme of numbers.”
Xi Yun, observing the porcelain body from the spur marks, suddenly spoke.
Le Can’s half-lowered eyelashes trembled like a fluttering butterfly.
“It is human nature to pursue perfection…”
This time Le Can actively followed up with the second half of the sentence as he understood it: “But the reality is usually ‘The moon waxes only to wane, water fills only to overflow,’ right?”
Xi Yun looked up and smiled slightly at the intelligent youth, and the Ru porcelain in his hand was quietly returned to its original place.
“Yes. You understand very quickly, and very correctly.”
Receiving such direct approval, a brilliant smile suddenly bloomed on the young man’s face.
However, this blinding smile didn’t last long. Like fireworks blooming on a summer night, it was magnificent and dazzling but fleeting.
Le Can wasn’t stupid. After the happiness, he understood the subtext in Xi Yun’s words.
In other words, he had already formed a judgment in his heart regarding the authenticity of this Northern Song Ru Kiln Sky-Blue Glaze Lotus Leaf Brush Washer.
After all, Xi Yun had personally told him the answer…
Taking one last look at the sky-blue brush washer that was still stunning, he suppressed the sigh in his heart. When he looked up again, not a trace of anomaly could be found on his face.
Beside Le Can, having reached a conclusion, Xi Yun’s tense body and nerves finally relaxed.
Contrary to his expectations, his mind didn’t welcome a sentence of inner voice from the person beside him.
No tossing and turning asking “Why,” no constant sighing… He simply accepted it completely after a brief moment of pity.
For such a smart person, obviously, acceptance wasn’t blindly following the crowd, but a rare open-mindedness and clarity. Besides that, there was… trust in him.
Le Can trusts me?
The man’s relaxed fingers silently clenched again.
Does Le Can trust Xi Yun?
If Le Can knew this question, he would definitely answer immediately: “Isn’t that beyond doubt?!”
Possessing professional knowledge instilled by Elder Xi since childhood, paired with the male lead’s unique superpower—if he didn’t trust Xi Yun, who could he trust?
Trust himself, a cannon fodder who was a complete layman?
Forget it!
If you don’t have the diamond drill, don’t take on the porcelain work!
Precisely because he knew what Xi Yun was capable of, even knowing the item was fake, Le Can remained very calm and unhurried.
He first cleared his preconceived notions from his head, then stood calmly outside the crowd, listening with relish to the debate among the knowledgeable big shots.
Truly, it was very down-to-earth and unexpectedly unadorned.
Counting carefully, there were only about ten people in the spacious shop, yet they managed to argue with the vibe of bargaining for vegetables at a wet market.
Le Can wasn’t completely just watching the show.
From the words of these quarreling strange experts, scholars, and collectors, he heard one thing: almost everyone felt this porcelain piece appeared perfect.
So the focus of their noise was actually mostly on the final ownership of this Ru porcelain.
Only one or two people with hesitant faces chose to reserve their opinions, neither opening their mouths to participate in the argument nor engaging in verbal snatching.
One of them was the old man in the dark red silk Tang suit whom Le Can had seen earlier sitting in the main seat. Listening to what Jian Yu said before, he was probably that “Elder Yan.”
Although Le Can didn’t know the other party’s identity, he could guess he was probably a figure like Mount Tai or the Big Dipper (a leading authority) in the antique world.
“Old Yan, why aren’t you talking? Are you too shocked?”
Someone who also noticed this teased his biggest competitor.
“It’s normal that you can’t react to such a good thing. Even I haven’t seen such beautiful Ru porcelain in many years…”
The surprise was sudden, so the wallet that hadn’t been prepared in advance was a bit flat.
Just moments ago, several people had secretly sent messages and made calls during the gaps in the argument, just to raise funds.
Elder Yan, squeezed by his friend, nodded hesitantly.
“The item is a good item.”
But, he always felt something was a bit off…
Le Can, hearing this sentence, sighed softly.
How is it a good item? Wrong, it was wrong from the very beginning of the judgment!
Author’s Note: Small Theater (OOC Warning): Le Can: If we don’t skip this part, I can’t guarantee what nonsense I might spout. Xi Yun: His phrasing for Jian Minglang was “two people,” but for me, it was “us.” Yaoyao really loves me…
Goodnight babies [Dog head holding rose] x3
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