Chapter 77: Customization
Shanghai, French Concession, Wanxiang Ju.
This is an old-style antique shop, covering one hundred and sixty square meters, with two and a half rooms front to back; the shop is not spacious, but unusually deep.
Under the high roof beams, light slants in from the wooden lattice windows facing the street, casting mottled shadows on the blue brick floor that is smooth as a mirror.
The soul of the shop hall is the three-sided antique shelves standing along the walls.
This rack is spliced together from red sandalwood and rosewood.
It must be said that the craftsman who made this furniture truly has impeccable skills, seamlessly matching the grain and shapes of the two woods.
The massive rack glows with a warm and heavy luster in the dimness, the carved curling grass patterns faintly visible along the edges of the thick shelves.
The compartments on the rack are staggered in size, like a carefully woven grid, steadily cradling a thousand years of time.
Of course, the shop owner has studied the placement of antique wares a lot; from top to bottom, they are arranged in order: celadon glazed wares, jade pieces and pendants, landscape ink paintings.
Each item lies quietly in its own place, emanating its own story.
Directly facing the door is a counter as high as the chest, also made of thick hardwood.
On the counter is embedded imported plate glass that was considered luxurious at the time, with edges wrapped in shiny brass strips.
Inside the glass case are exquisitely styled and highly valuable treasures.
Sheeps fat white jade pendant, fields yellow seal, a pair of famille rose small cups with glaze color like sky blue after rain.
Numerous exquisite accessories refract subtle, restrained yet alluring gleams under the limited light.
On the inner side of the counter, ebony abacus, brass balance scale and weights; several shop assistants bustle through.
On the side of the antique shop is the side hall, with an Eight Immortals table and two intricately carved Grand Tutor’s Chairs; this is the place for receiving guests and discussing business. At this moment, the shopkeeper is leisurely sitting in a Grand Tutor’s Chair drinking tea, fiddling with a bracelet of unknown agate or jade.
Clack clack clack, the sound of leather shoes approaches from afar; a man in Western-style clothing and a gray-white hat, carrying a black cloth bag, strides quickly into Wanxiang Ju.
“Uncle, why are you here?” A man about the same age behind the counter hurries over to greet him.
“Where’s Elder Brother?” Feng Jian’s expression is a bit strange, and his tone is very anxious.
“Oh, Dad is drinking tea in the side hall. I’ll take you there.”
“No need, you do your work. I’ll go by myself.”
“Elder Brother.” In the side hall, Feng Jian respectfully calls out to Li Lang who is drinking tea.
“Second child, why aren’t you working at the Tongji Office at this hour? What are you doing running over here?”
“Don’t think that just because you’ve had a bit of dog shit luck you can let your guard down. Your elder brother spent a fortune to get you that position.”
“If you’re asking about the whereabouts of that batch of goods, that’s four words: no comment.”
“Every trade has its rules. We take goods without asking where they come from, and you don’t worry about how I handle them.”
Feng Jian ignores Li Lang’s lecture and takes out the thing Chen Yang gave him from the black bag, hands it to Li Lang and says, “Elder Brother, appraise it.”
Li Lang glances at it without even touching it, and says indifferently, “Fake. There are plenty of street vendors on the ancient street selling them—one silver dollar gets you one and two free.”
“I say, Second child, you stayed at Wanxiang Ju for a while at least. This kind of thing couldn’t fool a three-year-old kid. You bring it to me—aren’t you full?”
Feng Jian says with a troubled face, “I know this thing isn’t right, but the officer insists it’s worth thirty thousand and wants you to write a slip.”
“Before I could say anything, he said that you’d understand the situation as soon as you see the thing.”
Li Lang, who had been drinking tea, suddenly contracts his pupils, his right hand shakes, and the tea spills all over the floor instantly.
“Second child, what did you say? This is what your officer asked you to bring over?”
Feng Jian nods and says, “Yes, the officer asked me to bring it.”
Li Lang stands up abruptly and says seriously, “Tell me every detail of your conversation with the officer, word for word—not a single word omitted.”
Feng Jian is startled by Li Lang’s expression but still follows his instruction and recounts his conversation with Chen Yang.
“Good, good, good.” After hearing Feng Jian’s words, Li Lang bursts into loud laughter, saying “good” three times.
“Elder Brother, what’s wrong?” Feng Jian is somewhat baffled.
Li Lang ignores him, turns and enters the counter, takes out a piece of paper printed with the Wanxiang Ju shop name, picks up a brush and writes a slip swish swish swish.
Then he commands his busy son, “Dabao, go get a fine brocade box.”
“Got it.” Li Dabao responds, nimbly fetching a gift box from behind the counter specially for holding valuable antiques.
Li Lang takes the gift box, gets professional tools, and cleans that wine vessel thoroughly front and back.
It must be said, after this treatment, it really looks the part.
But Li Dabao beside him frowns: “Dad, this is just a fake worth three for a dollar.”
“If you do this, you’re going to ruin Wanxiang Ju’s brand.”
“What do you know?” Li Lang curses, packages the gift box neatly and properly, then asks his son, “How much cash is on the books now?”
Li Dabao quickly sets down his work, takes out the account book and flips to the back: “Dad, the shop has over ten thousand silver dollars in liquid funds.”
“Last month we took in some items, and the money is tied up in them.”
Li Lang frowns: “Not enough, far short. Dabao, go contact Shopkeeper Zhou, Shopkeeper Pan and the others, ask them to come to the shop.”
“Say it’s Dad’s instruction: any items in the shop they like, they can take at cost price, but with one requirement—I want only cash.”
“Then go find Boss Qian of Rich Yu Tang, tell him I’m willing to sell that courtyard he liked before, bottom price thirty-eight thousand, can settle in US dollars, but no legal tender.”
This series of moves completely baffles Li Dabao: “Dad, what’s going on with our family? These things together are worth at least a hundred and fifty thousand silver dollars.”
“You’re selling everything off—what big trouble has our family gotten into?”
“It couldn’t be Second Uncle causing trouble again, could it?”
“What trouble did your second uncle cause? He’s bringing wealth to our family.” Li Lang scolds him, picks up the abacus on the table and rattles off a flurry of calculations, then looks at the numbers on the abacus, frowns again, and mutters to himself, “One hundred and sixty-seven thousand, hmm, still not enough. We need to scrape together at least two hundred thousand no matter what.”
Li Dabao watches Li Lang muttering to himself and thinks he’s possessed.
What kind of spell did Second Uncle cast on his dad to make their family squander all its wealth?
This family is probably done for.
Shanghai, City Hall, Director of the Economic Department’s Office.
Feng Jian pushes open the office door and places the packaged brocade box on the desk.
The next second, he takes out a small bag and places its contents one by one in front of Chen Yang, then says respectfully, “Officer, my elder brother said to do the play full set.”
“Your item’s appearance is really too poor; if it comes to real investigation, it definitely won’t hold up.”
“My elder brother specially prepared these for you; all items are from the hand of Jia Si Zhen—ordinary people can’t spot the issues.”
“If you have other needs, we can also provide customization.”
