"What is it?" Li Yang walked to her side and saw Shui Xiang take a small box of jade ornaments from the drawer and place it on the table.
"Where did it come from?"
"A friend of a friend gave it to me, saying she wanted me to wear it to her wedding," Shui Xiang said.
Li Yang grunted and picked up a hairpin, glancing at it. It looked like ice-type jade, very translucent, with no impurities at all, very pure.
Generally speaking, jade of this quality should be high-ice type, and among the very best of that category.
However, Li Yang smiled and said, "Since it's a gift from a friend, but Sister Shui asked me to take a look, I presume you feel there's something wrong with these items?"
"I have a feeling something is off, but I can't quite pinpoint it." Shui Xiang was not an expert in appraising treasures; her core skill was in management. Her ability to appraise jade was only at an average level.
Therefore, the core of her shop was the gambling stone market. As long as the sourcing and pricing were handled well, the rest was purely a matter of sales.
Li Yang pointed to the hairpin in his hand and said, "Let's start with this hairpin. It looks like top-grade high-ice jade, with the characteristic icy mist, but its translucency is too high."
"Generally, jade doesn't have such high translucency. This is more like crystal or something similar. There happens to be a milky white crystal that looks very much like this."
"I know about this type of crystal, but its price is many times lower than high-ice jade," Lin Xiaoyu finally regained her senses and walked over, saying.
"When I sourced raw jade, I encountered it several times. When I was new and inexperienced, I was fooled a few times."
"What about these then?" Shui Xiang pointed to the box of jewelry.
Li Yang glanced at them and said one by one, "These earrings look like red jade, but if I'm not mistaken, they should be made of white jade or similar stones, which have been fired to turn red. Their translucency is too low, and the feel is also a bit off, a little moist, which is characteristic of Chinese jade, not jadeite."
"This bracelet uses green Dongling jade, and the material for this necklace is the worst, Shou Shan stone fired red to impersonate red jade."
"Sister Shui, your friend is either completely out of her depth and was deceived, or she's malicious and intentionally trying to set you up, to make you lose face at the wedding."
"If it was intentional, that's too wicked," Lin Xiaoyu nodded, feeling a chill run down her spine.
Imagine, at a wedding with at least a hundred people, Shui Xiang, such a beautiful woman, being publicly exposed for wearing fakes all over her body – how embarrassing would that be?
Shui Xiang's expression showed some struggle as she asked, "But what does she gain by harming me like this? After all, I'm attending her most important wedding as her good friend."
"Benefits?" Li Yang looked at her and said, "Sister Shui, don't forget, you are the owner of the Fu Gui Gambling Stone Market. If there's a deeper scheme behind this, using this incident to question the quality of the entire gambling stone market, the damage could be considerable."
"Hiss!" Shui Xiang immediately gasped, her face turning a little pale with shock. "We haven't seen each other for years, and we had no prior enmity. She wouldn't scheme against me like this right after getting married?"
"You said yourself you haven't seen each other for years. Why is she contacting you now that she's getting married? Just to collect a gift? And knowing you're the owner of a gambling stone market and not lacking jade, why would she give you jade ornaments and insist you wear them to her wedding?" Li Yang asked a series of questions.
Shui Xiang no longer held any hope, grabbing Li Yang's hand and saying, "Then how should I handle this?"
"Simple, play along," Li Yang's lips curved into a slight smile. "Pick out some similar ornaments and wear them to the wedding."
"If your friend truly has no ill intentions, then you won't have harmed her, and everyone will be at peace, with mutual good feelings."
"But if she deliberately set a trap for you, then don't show any mercy and slap her back hard! Friends like that are not worth keeping!"
"Brother Li is absolutely right, I agree with this approach!" Lin Xiaoyu immediately raised her hand.
Shui Xiang nodded and said, "I'll listen to you."
"Alright, you go pick out the ornaments. I'll go check on the antique shop," Li Yang glanced at the sky outside, which was already very dark, and the antique shop would likely be closing soon.
However, Er Duo Dong's emotions were surely unstable now. If he didn't go and comfort him in person, before the so-called appraisal master even arrived, his own shop employees would likely fall into disarray.
Lin Xiaoyu exclaimed in surprise, "Brother Li is leaving now? What about me?"
"Since you're already here, of course, Sister Shui will host you," Li Yang smiled.
Shui Xiang took her small hand and said, "I'll take good care of you. You'll stay at my place tonight."
"I, thank you, Sister Shui," Lin Xiaoyu actually wanted to go back with Li Yang, but she was too shy to say it.
Li Hao Antique Shop.
It was past ten o'clock at night, and most of the shops on the street were closed. Er Duo Dong was directing the staff to clean up and organize the shelves. "Be quick, but also be careful not to damage any antiques, or you won't be able to afford to pay for them."
"Got it, got it," the staff replied.
A staff member, while no one was paying attention, secretly placed a small item on a shelf and then moved the price tag next to it in front of this small item.
The price tags in the shop were naturally the prices evaluated by Li Yang, but he had given the store manager, Er Duo Dong, the authority to exercise discretion. If the last digit of the price was less than five, the item could be sold at an 80% discount.
If the last digit of the price was greater than five, then only a small discount could be given.
This was something Li Yang and Er Duo Dong had discussed privately, and outsiders naturally wouldn't know, only wondering why some items had more discounts and others less. Some people wouldn't even dare to bargain and would just buy them directly.
But if an old hand came, they could see the trick and buy the same items for less money.
This method was, after all, one of the techniques used by old hands.
However, times had changed, and many shops had similar methods.
After the staff member secretly finished their task, they immediately got to work quickly, urging their colleagues, "Don't dawdle, hurry up. I have friends to meet for dinner tonight!"
"It's so late, what dinner are you having!" everyone laughed, but seeing his urgency, they also cooperated to speed up, as everyone wanted to finish early and go home.
Er Duo Dong smiled and suddenly spotted a figure, immediately calling out, "Boss Li, you're back!"