DLWAV CH112

Zhang Ruize had actually transferred the remaining 60,000 yuan to him all at once?

Where did he get so much money?

Did Zhang Qingyan give it to him?

Or—

No, no, no, Zhang Qingyan must have given it to him.

After all, what he sold to Zhang Ruize was just a fake antique, wasn’t it?

Zhao Cheng gripped the wine glass in his hand tightly to keep it from falling to the floor.

Then he burst into loud laughter: “I originally thought that once Zhang Qingyan found out about this, she would definitely come knocking at our door to make a scene. I never expected them to just chicken out directly.”

Hearing this, the other members of the Zhao family also burst into laughter: “That must be exactly what happened.”

“Come, let’s keep drinking.”

At almost the exact same time, Zhang Qingyan also hurried home.

Because Old Mrs. Zhang and the others were still worried, they informed Zhang Qingyan about the matter the very first chance they got.

It was just that Zhang Qingyan happened to be a bit busy today, so she didn’t have time to check Old Mrs. Chen and the others’ messages until the evening. When she finally did, she was completely stunned.

She never expected Ao Ruize to do something so foolish.

That was 65,000 yuan! In the past, that would have been enough to cover her food expenses for over a decade.

Even now, that was still several months’ worth of her salary.

So, completely ignoring her work matters, she immediately asked for leave and rushed back.

But to her surprise, right after getting off the bus, she happened to see Ao Ruize walking out of a taxi arm in arm with Old Mrs. Chen.

Seeing Old Mrs. Chen grinning from ear to ear, Zhang Qingyan’s first reaction was to wonder if she was seeing things.

Right at that moment, Old Mrs. Chen also spotted her.

As if thinking of something, she quickly walked over: “Qingyan, did you see the message I sent you and rush back?”

“Ai ya, we misunderstood Ruize…”

Zhang Qingyan: “What?”

The excitement Old Mrs. Chen had finally managed to suppress instantly surged out again: “That antique Ruize bought from Zhao Cheng—it really is genuine.”

The antique Zhao Cheng sold to Zhang Ruize was real—

Not only that, but Zhang Ruize immediately turned around and sold it to the Seven Treasures Pavilion for 860,000 yuan.

After paying Zhao Cheng 60,000, there was exactly 800,000 yuan left.

But he didn’t swallow that 800,000 yuan himself.

Instead, he asked Old Mrs. Zhang to lead the way to the home of Zhao Cheng’s ex-wife. After deducting the 5,000 yuan deposit he had previously paid Zhao Cheng, he gave all the remaining money to her.

Crash!

The wine glass in Zhao Cheng’s hand finally fell to the floor.

Even though this was something that happened half an hour later.

That bowl he sold to Zhang Ruize was actually real?

Zhang Ruize turned around and sold it for over 800,000?

And he handed over 800,000 on a silver platter to Zhang Ruize?

All the members of the Zhao family present—whether drunk or sober—were dumbfounded.

“Second Bro, didn’t you say that bowl was definitely a fake?”

“Where exactly did you pick up that bowl back then?”

Zhao Cheng racked his brain to recall: “I-It was in Old Man Liu’s old mansion. His youngest son was doing a big spring cleaning and swept it out along with a huge pile of broken bowls. I thought it looked pretty nice, and it wasn’t broken, so I picked it up and brought it back…”

That was why he thought the bowl was a fake antique.

Otherwise, why would Old Man Liu’s son have thrown it away?

But thinking about it now, Old Man Liu’s son probably just failed to recognize it as an antique.

After all, the Liu family used to be the biggest wealthy landlord in their local area, so it was completely normal for his family to possess such a grand treasure.

Thinking of this, Zhao Cheng’s expression twisted.

He charged straight out the door: “No, I’m going to get that 800,000 back.”

“That’s my antique, my 800,000, my…”

However, the very next second, his furious roar turned into a miserable shriek.

“Second Bro! Second Bro, what’s wrong with you?”

The Zhao family hurriedly chased after him.

Only to see Zhao Cheng planted headfirst in the sewer ditch by the door, blood already pooling on the ground.

Watching the ambulance come blaring in and blaring out, who knows how many people in the urban village bent over laughing.

“Serves him right!”

“Son, now you know what the textbook means by ‘trying to steal a chicken only to end up losing the rice used as bait’! This is exactly it!”

…

However, after they finished laughing, they couldn’t help but turn their attention back to Ao Ruize.

“I didn’t expect this Zhang Ruize to actually have some real skills.”

“Is that the most important part? The most important part is that Ao Ruize actually gave all the money he made to Zhao Cheng’s ex-wife—I, for one, definitely couldn’t go that far.”

Although some people also said that Ao Ruize made millions in total, and that 800,000-plus was just a fraction of his earnings. They claimed this was what Zhang Ruize said right in front of Zhao Cheng’s ex-wife—because her voice of refusal was so loud, someone heard it while walking past the courtyard of their house.

But others said that Ao Ruize really only sold it for a little over 800,000, because that was exactly what the boss of the Seven Treasures Pavilion said. Moreover, the market price for an excellently conditioned white-glazed bowl with carved dragon patterns was indeed around 800,000. Therefore, Ao Ruize only said those words deliberately to put Zhao Cheng’s ex-wife at ease so she would accept the money.

—Because of Ao Ruize’s request, the boss of the Seven Treasures Pavilion directly concealed the fact that the antique Ao Ruize sold him was a Qianlong period filial piety jade bowl. He publicly claimed that the antique Ao Ruize sold him was merely a Qianlong period white-glazed bowl with carved dragon patterns.

…

“Thinking about it now, what Old Mrs. Zhang and the others said really wasn’t wrong. We all underestimated Zhang Ruize in the past.”

To reiterate, if Ao Ruize really was just like those idle hooligans who didn’t want to work and only wanted to leech off their families, how could he possibly give all the money he made to Zhao Cheng’s ex-wife?

Furthermore, with this sum of money, even if Zhao Cheng’s ex-wife was still nursing, she would be able to support herself and her two children.

—After all, anyone with half a brain knew that since Zhao Cheng had already swept them out the door, there was no way he would pay for child support.

However, despite thinking this, after her initial joy passed, Zhang Qingyan’s brows furrowed again.

Because anyone could figure out that after this incident, they had forged an absolute, bitter enmity with the Zhao family.

After all, 800,000 was not a small sum.

The Zhao family definitely wouldn’t let them off the hook.

But ultimately, she swallowed the words that reached her lips.

Because no matter what, what Ao Ruize did was a good deed, and she didn’t want to ruin his mood.

Most importantly, this younger brother of hers seemed to be even more sincere and kind-hearted than she had thought.

This alone was enough to soothe all the unease in her heart.

Along with that, she also swallowed back the words she originally wanted to use to persuade Ao Ruize to find another job and stop studying antiques.

And that very night, she got to eat fresh, tender, and delicious goji berry leaves again.

This could truly be considered a double blessing.

Moreover, for some reason, after tossing aside her jumbled thoughts, she suddenly noticed that the air in the house was much fresher. At the very least, when she went to the bathroom recently, she could no longer smell the foul stench wafting in from outside the window.

—Because the houses in the urban village were densely packed, ventilation was poor. When summer arrived, it became exceptionally muggy. On top of that, directly in front of their house were the back kitchens of several restaurants. When they got busy, they would often toss their wastewater straight outside to save time. Sometimes they couldn’t clean it up immediately, and by nightfall, one could easily imagine the smell.

She didn’t think much of it: “Did you change the air freshener?”

Ao Ruize: “You could say that.”

Goji berry tree brand.

—Perhaps because it had received the irrigation of spiritual energy twice, the spiritual nature within the goji berry tree was no longer inferior to ordinary antiques. Therefore, without even needing him to set up an array, it was capable of expelling all the foul energy from the house entirely on its own.

Because Zhao Cheng’s fall had directly resulted in a concussion, and the Zhao family had also learned that Zhao Cheng had signed a contract with Ao Ruize right in front of Old Mrs. Zhang and the others—meaning there was absolutely no way they could use legitimate means to snatch the money back—they didn’t go looking for trouble with Ao Ruize for the next few days.

As for Ao Ruize, he was naturally more than happy to continue strolling through the antique market during the day and cultivating at night.

There was only one point: because the urban village and the antique market were so close to each other, the rumors quickly spread to the antique street as well.

Now, quite a few stall owners knew that Ao Ruize possessed some real ability.

So when Ao Ruize came by to buy things again, the prices they quoted were exceptionally high. This was because they all figured that if a piece of merchandise on their stall managed to catch Ao Ruize’s eye, it meant that item was nine times out of ten a genuine antique. And since it was genuine, they definitely had to ask for a high price.

“So that Mr. Zhang hasn’t made a single purchase in days.”

The person speaking was none other than the boss of the Seven Treasures Pavilion.

He could hardly hide the glowing flush of success on his face.

After all, that Qianlong period filial piety jade bowl, worth nearly ten million, had recently allowed their Seven Treasures Pavilion to steal quite a bit of the spotlight in the antique circles of Wu Province.

Sitting across from him was a middle-aged man with a large gold chain hanging around his neck and a massive beer belly.

“According to you, this Mr. Zhang’s good intentions were met with bad returns?”

“Then I ought to help him out.”

The boss of the Seven Treasures Pavilion immediately smiled and said, “Then I’ll thank you in advance on his behalf.”

It wasn’t that he looked down on Ao Ruize, but the middle-aged man sitting in front of him—Sun Jianhong—genuinely had quite a formidable background.

He was born into the Sun family of Wu Province. The Sun family was one of the top old-money families in Wu Province. Although his branch was already separated by five generations from the main Sun family line, he held three percent of the original shares of the Sun Corporation in his hands—the non-dilutable kind. Most importantly, his son was also promising, owning three publicly listed companies at a young age, with a net worth that was almost surpassing the Sun family itself. Therefore, in Qian City, he was absolutely considered a prominent figure with significant face and status.

“Then I’ll give Mr. Zhang a call right now and invite him over for tea.”

Seeing that the call was from the boss of the Seven Treasures Pavilion, Ao Ruize didn’t ask too many questions and headed straight over.

Only after arriving at the place did he realize that the boss was looking out for him.

Sun Jianhong laughed heartily and said, “I’m the kind of person who just loves making friends with chivalrous and righteous folks like you.”

“…A few friends and I are planning to head down to the countryside tomorrow to clean out some old houses. Would Brother Zhang like to come along?”

The so-called ‘cleaning out old houses’ meant going to relatively remote villages to acquire antiques.

Generally, several antique dealers would partner up, because not every dealer could fork out hundreds of thousands or even millions at once to buy antiques. Furthermore, having more people meant they could evaluate items more accurately.

However, since it was a partnership, the cost of purchasing the antiques would naturally be split evenly.

Ao Ruize definitely couldn’t produce hundreds of thousands to buy into the partnership right now.

So the boss and Sun Jianhong were indeed looking out for him.

Loving the profession he was in, Ao Ruize also wanted to broaden his horizons.

So he naturally wouldn’t refuse: “Sure!”

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