Wei Yang lady took out a long, thin cigarette, lit it and took a deep drag, then asked Hai Zhu in response: "Even if there is one, can you afford the price?"
The middle-aged Hai Zhu said: "Whether I can afford it or not, I will know after taking a look."
"That makes sense. In that case, you don't want this jewel egg anymore?" Wei Yang asked. "If not, I will find someone else."
Hai Zhu said: "What I want is not some small gadget like this."
He was unenthusiastic and left after saying that.
"Hi there." Wu Ma took the opportunity to greet them and join the conversation, "Would it be convenient to let my friend take a look at the jewel egg?"
Wei Yang glanced at Jian Jing and nodded: "Go ahead."
Only then did Jian Jing go over, curiously examining the Russian-styled jewel egg.
It had an eggshell enamel exterior in a sea-like shade of blue, with an old-fashioned clock on the surface, golden bird and flower patterns at the top. It opened from the middle, revealing a cute little white bird inside, encrusted with some diamond chips around it.
"It's a very cute little object, isn't it?" Wei Yang smiled. "Yours for just £23,000 if you want it."
Over 200,000 RMB? This toy is too expensive!
Jian Jing was speechless.
Wu Ma said: "A good Faberge egg should be encrusted with gems. This one only has some diamond chips. £5,000 at most."
Jian Jing: 0.0
That's cutthroat bargaining!
Wei Yang shook her head: "It's not for sale then. Or would you like to take a look at something else?"
"What else is there?" Jian Jing asked.
"What would you like?" Wei Yang smiled. "I'm a collector. I have most kinds of trinkets that ladies enjoy."
Jian Jing thought hard for a while, then had an idea and said: "I'd like something different from the norm."
Wei Yang asked: "How different? Mummies? Human leather books? Alchemy notes? Gothic stuff?"
"No." She felt she had come up with a particularly fun idea, a hint of mystery in her smile. "I want to buy something that's cursed."
Wei Yang was taken aback. "Curse of Tutankhamun?" she asked.
"Can you sell the pyramids?" Jian Jing asked back, puzzled.
Wei Yang flicked some ash off her cigarette, perplexed. "Of course not. What exactly do you mean by cursed items?"
She explained: "Say, an object that brought misfortune upon a family line, or a relic with sacrificed lives, things like that."
Shen Hou pitched in: "Something religious, I presume, Miss. You have quite special tastes."
"Why else would I come here?" Jian Jing retorted.
"Fair enough," Shen Hou mused. "Such things aren't easy to come by. Transactions can happen nonetheless. I came across someone like that some time ago. He was looking to buy a thousand-year-old mummy corpse."
Jian Jing was shocked: "Did he manage to buy it?"
"A member happened to know channels that could help connect him," Shen Hou said matter-of-factly. "That's the purpose of our club—to help link up collectors, from ordinary hobbyists to world-famous tycoons."
Jian Jing's detective habit kicked in as she probed: "Sounds like you're a veteran here?"
"You could say that. I was one of the founding members of the club." Shen Hou said. "But I haven't participated much in recent years due to poor health."
Jian Jing asked: "Do you know where I can find what I'm looking to buy?"
"Don't rush, young lady. Who knows who you are? Even if I have it, why should I sell it to you?" Shen Hou admonished in old man fashion. "Our deals aren't one-off sales. There are relationships."
Wei Yang secretly rolled her eyes.
What followed next was Shen Hou's lecture time. He first talked about his early days as an auction house errand boy, then recounted his 20-year career as an appraiser. Although he was somewhat preachy, his content was substantial and everyone listened with relish.
Jian Jing wasn't here just for business. Since she was more here to play around, she wasn't in a hurry and listened to him brag.
And the old man loved it most when his juniors obediently listened to his experiences. Shen Hou warmed up to his story, voluntarily bringing up the earlier rumor.
"In my opinion, the national treasure business might not be fake," Shen Hou said as he slowly looked down at the tea leaves in his glass. "This year's trade fair has been quite unusual."
Wei Yang said: "I didn't notice anything special about it."
"Lots of new faces showed up this year," Shen Hou looked up, his gaze sharp as he scanned Jian Jing, as if trying to discern something. "How many do you think came just for the rumor?"
Wei Yang also glanced at Jian Jing. Since they were more familiar, they talked casually: "I remember there was rumor about a Monet painting three years ago too, but it turned out to be a replica."
Shen Hou shook his head. "It's different this time," he suddenly asked Wu Ma, "Haven't seen you around either. You new? Or accompanying someone?"
"I used a friend's invite," Wu Ma said breezily. "I'm an auctioneer, just moonlighting a bit."
Shen Hou grunted in acknowledgment, then asked Jian Jing again: "Are you really looking to buy antique religious artefacts? You don't seem religious to me."
The old man sure was sharp despite his age. Jian Jing thought to herself and answered, "Of course I'm not religious. Why would someone religious buy this stuff?"
She took back control of the conversation: "Actually, I didn't get what's this about national treasure-grade collections. Egyptian pharaoh mummies?"
But Wu Ma said: "It shouldn't be. That can't be considered national treasure-grade."
"Old... Shen Hou, stop beating around the bush," Wei Yang chimed in impatiently. "What's the big deal that's gotten you so antsy?"
Shen Hou looked each of them in the eye: "I heard it's the ram's head from the twelve Chinese zodiac bronze heads."
Jian Jing was stunned for a moment before reacting in shock: "You mean the twelve bronze heads from the Old Summer Palace?!"
He couldn't be kidding, could he?
"For real? No way." Wu Ma was also very surprised. "I heard the snake, ram and rooster heads have never appeared before, highly likely already destroyed. How could it show up here? Impossible."
Wei Yang concurred: "Exactly. Even if this were to appear, it should be the showstopper piece at a major auction house."
"By all reasoning, yes." Shen Hou gave a cold laugh. "But don't forget, what price would one have to pay to bid it away at an auction?"
The three immediately fell silent.
In terms of craftsmanship, the bronze heads were not particularly precious antiques. But they held special significance. To publicly buy this at an auction, unless it was donated back to China, it would inevitably invite tremendous controversy.
Not auctioning it openly but completing the transaction privately was not impossible either. After all, it might not mean much to foreigners.
Thinking thus, Jian Jing's heart ached as she silently cursed.
"Anyway, whether it is or isn't, just wait and see," Shen Hou said.
*
Because of the bronze head news, Jian Jing swiftly lost her playful mood and returned to her cabin for a nap.
When she awoke from her afternoon nap, the night had fallen. The ship was already sailing on the open sea. Gazing out at the balcony, the edges of the city had faded from sight. The lights in the distance blended with the stars, indistinguishable from each other.
She did a red and gold eye makeup look with her newly bought eyeshadow palette, and picked out hair clips with rabbit motifs from a bag of accessories.
After sprucing up, she pinned on her member badge and headed to the grand hall.
The open trading session at 8pm was held here.
One could instantly tell how luxurious the grand hall was. The pastries were made by a Michelin-starred chef. The wine was at least 10 years of age. Everyone was dressed with a great sense of style.
Jian Jing first stood at the main entrance for three seconds, allowing her emergency exit mindset card to take effect so she noted the locations of each entry and exit point. The next five seconds were the observation card's stage—she swiftly took in everyone's image.
The venue was arranged in a curved layout with twelve armchairs, a long table in the middle equipped with gloves, magnifying glasses, cameras and such.
The staff were uniformly dressed in black and white—the men were handsome and the women gorgeous, barely anyone shabby-looking. Were the requirements to be a server so high these days? Others were seated around networking.
Shen Hou had a magnifying glass over his head, appraising a jade artifact. Next to him sat a petite, skeletal old woman who seemed to be suffering from an incurable illness.
The two were discussing whether the jade piece dated from the Shang or Spring-Autumn dynasties, spewing all kinds of professional terminology that Jian Jing did not comprehend.
Wei Yang beckoned her over so the two ladies sat together.
"I found this interesting piece I brought along. See if you like it, sister," Wei Yang opened the velvet cloth on the table, revealing a silver lipstick.
The casing seemed to be re-polished, looking quite old despite no noticeable wear and tear. The design was very plain, much simpler than many lipsticks nowadays.
Wei Yang introduced: "A work from the 1960s in the last century, the classic weapon of the KGB female agent, kissofdeath, caliber 4.5mm, can only be loaded with one bullet."
Jian Jing said: "It's so small, the destructive power is estimated to be only two or three meters away, it's just a little toy."
"It was originally, and I don't sell real guns anyway," Wei Yang shrugged, "You can't use it domestically either. Do you want it? It's pretty cool."
Jian Jing thought about it and asked: "How much?"
"Member price, ten thousand, US dollars," Ms. Wei Yang smiled and quoted, "It's very fair."
"Thirty thousand RMB," Wu Ma conscientiously interjected to help Jian Jing bargain, "This is just a little toy, there is no difficulty in craftsmanship, any small workshop can reproduce it, and it is not something of a famous person."
Wei Yang: "Fifty thousand, this stuff is not common on the market."
"No value, rare is useless."
Wei Yang smiled. She didn’t actually care about the small amount of money, thirty or fifty thousand RMB was just a drop in the bucket in the antique trade.
But she enjoyed the process, it was very interesting: "Okay, just to make friends—not you, but this Miss Bunny—thirty-five thousand, with one bullet included."
Jian Jing gave an "ok" sign and directly transferred the money to her.
Having made a deal, the relationship between the two seemed to have become much closer.
Wei Yang took the initiative to say: "I attend almost every time, this year is really different. At dinner, someone bought several million worth of clocks without even blinking."
She was a nationally renowned antique collector and seller in China, dabbling in everything from the tens of thousands deadly kiss to antique jewelry worth millions. She was also relatively low-key, not opening a store, relying solely on word of mouth. Just attending a trading club meeting once could feed her for three years.
But it had never been so outrageous before this year.
"There are a lot of rich people in the club, but they only spend money when they like something—the last rich guy liked to collect silver coins, those little things only worth a few thousand or tens of thousands, but he had to see them before he wanted them," said Wei Yang, taking a sip of red wine, with a strange look on her face, "What Shen Hou said may be true."
Jian Jing pondered for a while and asked, "If there is one, would it be taken out in front of everyone?"
"Probably not," Wei Yang was unsure.
Wu Ma said: "I've already inquired, everyone has more or less heard the news, but no one can say who has it in hand."
Wei Yang: "That would be an anonymous transaction."
Jian Jing still didn't quite understand, but there was no time to ask further.
The trading meeting was about to begin.
The host walked to the center and spoke concisely: "I am Zi Shu, the organizer of this trading meeting. At the request of individual members, there will be open and anonymous sessions at this public trading meeting."
Perhaps knowing that the members were not familiar with each other, he omitted many courtesy procedures and went straight to the point: "First is the open trading session, please announce your collections in the order of your codes. Continuing convention, as the organizer, I will not participate in any transactions this time."
No one objected, and he declared directly: "So the trading meeting begins."
