Chapter 88: Left or Right
"Zhang Yang? You mean the handsome guy at the east end of the village, right?"

"I heard that the guy likes foreign tastes. He brought a white beauty home. I have never seen such a white person in my life..."

Xiao Pan was in the village asking for news about Zhang Yang on behalf of Mr. Cai.

Hearing the words of the old man at the entrance of the village, he showed an expression of admiration on his face:

As expected, she is an idol!

At such a young age, he has already “opened his eyes and seen the world”.

According to the information Xiao Pan has collected so far, Zhang Yang's only flaw seems to be his attraction to women.

He quickly synchronized this information to Mr. Cai.

When the day came to see the goods, Mr. Cai spent a lot of money and invited the third runner-up of Miss Universe Asia to come.

A beauty from Thailand.

We can only be sure that she is a beauty, but not necessarily a pretty lady.

"Come here, Boss Zhang, let me introduce you. This is Manard. She admires you very much and insisted on coming over to meet you."

Mr. Cai deliberately put emphasis on the word "know".

How did we meet? By learning a foreign language.

But Zhang Yang's reaction was very cold, and he nodded:

"Okay, let's check out the goods first."

It’s not that Zhang Yang is not interested in women, nor that he has discovered the Y chromosome of this Thai beauty in front of him, but now is the critical moment to protect the national treasure!

Great, needless to say.

"It's okay. Just leave the inspection of the goods to those old guys."

Mr. Cai pointed outside the door and saw a black Alpha parked on the side of the road. Several gray-haired old men were queuing up to get off the car.

However, Zhang Yang didn't know that these people were from the museum. He just thought they were appraisers invited by Mr. Cai.

"so many people?"

"Haha, nowadays these experts only study one thing for their whole life, and some even only study one type of bronze ware. I can only invite them all here."

"It sounds very impressive. I will study it carefully later." Zhang Yang said seriously.

"Ah? No way, Boss Zhang."

"You left a beautiful woman like Manard here and went to get close to some old men? Isn't that a bad idea?"

President Cai raised an eyebrow at Zhang Yang, still hinting.

The Thai man also knew a lot and walked towards Zhang Yang while saying "Sawadee KA".

“Thai?”

Zhang Yang finally noticed the other party's identity and immediately took a step back and kept his distance.

"Boss Cai, the experts are here, let's hurry up, there are a lot of stuff."

"Don't delay the work."

Five "authentic" bronzes and five corresponding imitations;

Six "authentic" murals and twelve corresponding replicas.

Zhang Yang pointed at the goods in the yard, and finally brought Mr. Cai's thoughts back to the main business.

"Okay then, let's check out the goods first. Later, let's go out and get together. I'll find someone to book a place."

"OK, I'll follow your instructions, Mr. Cai."

Zhang Yang saw that the team of experts had already walked in and had no mood to chat with them.

The "final exam" is about to begin!

Zhang Yang first worked with Xiao Pan to move all five pairs of bronze artifacts onto the table.

He took the initiative to introduce: "Dear teachers, here..."

"Hey! Don't tell them." President Cai was in a playful mood and interrupted Zhang Yang, saying, "Let them identify it themselves."

"Teachers, please pick out the one you think is the real thing. Boss Zhang will reveal the answer later to see if you are right."

"If I'm mistaken..."

"You've read it wrong. I won't charge you for your hard work, old man." One of the old men replied.

"Sure. Then I will transfer your hard work fee to Boss Zhang."

"Hey! This is much more interesting. If you don't mind, let's get started now!"

Mr. Cai made a gesture of invitation.

Each old man walked towards the bronze ware collected in his own museum.

"Let me interview you. How do you feel now?" Mr. Cai walked over and patted Zhang Yang on the shoulder and asked.

"It's OK. I'm quite confident about bronze ware."

"Hahaha, I think so too. I feel your level is a little higher than your master."

Mr. Cai also knows something about bronze ware.

Otherwise, he would not have discovered the amazingness of Xiao Shen’s bronze chimes at the exhibition.

Now, when he took a quick glance at the items on the table, he couldn't tell the real ones from the fake ones, and he was naturally very satisfied.

When he thought about the fact that he would soon be able to bring the authentic product abroad, he couldn't help but become excited and talkative.

In comparison, the old men sitting around the table were not so happy.

Some people were scratching their heads, some were in deep thought, some were sighing, and some were secretly looking at Zhang Yang.

Although the small actions are different, everyone’s ideas are similar:

"This young man has no moral principles!"

"Why don't you leave some obvious flaws? Isn't this embarrassing for us?"

In fact, even the replicas made by the old experts in the National Museum can be seen to be slightly different when placed next to the originals.

Of course, there are differences among the five pairs on the table, such as different sizes of scratches, different textures of rust, and so on.

But this difference is enough to distinguish between two things; it is far from enough to distinguish between true and false.

Some people even started to play tricks:
He deliberately picked up one at random, making "tsk tsk tsk" sounds with his mouth, trying to judge by Zhang Yang's reaction.

But Zhang Yang didn't react at all.

He was thinking about how he would announce the results later.

Finally, a few old men gathered together and discussed in a low voice.

Person A: "How do you mean?" Person B: "I can't quite tell the difference, but I know one thing, that is, if I can't tell the difference, then Boss Zhang certainly can't tell the difference either."

C: "Yeah, the hair on his mouth hasn't even grown out yet!"

Ding: "I understand what you mean. I think he must have judged based on the location."

C: "Yes, yes, that's it. Put the real ones aside and the fake ones aside."

B: "So you see the direction I'm facing now, is it the left or the right in your museum?"

E: “I tend to lean to the left.”

C: “Great, me too.”

Ding: "Then it must be the left side."

Person A: "Um, brothers, when I looked at it just now, it seemed that the two pieces were switched back and forth several times. What should I do about this?"

B/C/D/E: "Cold!"

The five old men reached a consensus that "the one on the left is the authentic one."

Among them, the old man A who had naughty hands, the rest of the people didn't want to pay any attention to him.

There has to be someone who makes a fool of himself, otherwise how can the others look superior?

"Have you all made your choice?" Mr. Cai asked.

The four of them answered in unison: "Done!"

Old Man A hesitated for a long time, and finally followed the crowd and chose the one on the left, but he didn't dare to say anything.

"OK, now is the exciting moment. Welcome Boss Zhang to announce the answer."

Mr. Cai made a gesture of invitation to Zhang Yang.

The latter did not rush to talk about the antiques, but asked:
"Mr. Cai, how much are the appearance fees of these teachers? I'm a little curious."

"Oh? Are you already calculating how much you can get? Looks like someone made a mistake."

"You should announce your answer first. As for your hard work fee, it will be yours sooner or later."

Mr. Cai did not give a direct answer, which made Zhang Yang feel that it should not be a small amount.

That’s good. How can we talk about the “amount involved in the case” without tens of thousands of yuan?

Experts, please hold on to this money!
Zhang Yang smiled, stretched out his hands, and clapped: "Congratulations everyone, you all made the right choice!"

Then he sighed: "It seems that my skills are still not enough."

Person B: “No, no, no, your level is already very high.”

C: "Yes, if I hadn't kept it for so many years, I would definitely not be able to tell the real thing from the fake."

Ding: "It's different for me. I just got it right by sheer luck."

Wu: "Boss Zhang is amazing..."

The four old men who chose the left side all showed their style and praised Zhang Yang's craftsmanship.

Only Old Man A was very confused. He wanted to ask Zhang Yang how he knew that.

But after the other four people finished speaking, he just became cowardly.

Asking in front of so many people, isn't that showing off one's weakness? How can one earn this money in the future?

So the words were on the tip of his tongue, but he held them back and joined in the applause.

The atmosphere at the scene was like an offline gathering of a group of people praising each other.

……

Mr. Cai also laughed for a while.

When the atmosphere gradually calmed down, he waved his hand and asked Xiao Pan to load the bronze ware into the car.

At the same time, several old men were asked to leave.

"Huh? Why did they all leave?" Zhang Yang asked puzzledly.

The old men just now were very much to his liking.

They are all parallel imports, but they still care about face.

It's a real pleasure to deal with such people.

"We won't show them the murals. You know the reason." Mr. Cai gave Zhang Yang a subtle smile.

"Then do you still inspect the goods?"

"Yes, but not now. Let's go back and use high-tech methods to test it."

"High-tech?" Zhang Yang's heart skipped a beat.

I thought to myself, what you fear will come true.

The real stuff is now in the cellar under the master's bed. Zhang Yang moved it overnight. Now there is not a single real thing here.

If you use a machine to verify, won’t it be exposed immediately?
However, in front of Mr. Cai, he didn't dare to show it, and could only remind him indirectly:
"These murals are painted with mineral pigments. If they are not kept at normal temperature and humidity, they may fade. Mr. Cai, you must pay attention when you inspect them."

"I understand. We have a professional gallery." Mr. Cai responded with a smile.

"Now tell me first, among all these boxes, which ones are real? I can mark them."

"It's definitely not okay to just choose one from left to right like those old guys did just now."

"So, Mr. Cai, you also heard what they were discussing?" Zhang Yang asked with a smile.

It was quite funny to see a few old men plotting loudly beside him just now.

"I didn't hear anything, but their behavior was too obvious. I was lucky, otherwise I would have been ruined by you today."

"That's not the case."

Zhang Yang chuckled.

The prerequisite for being disgraced is that you have to be famous.

He really didn't think those old guys were celebrities.

After Zhang Yang helped Mr. Cai select six "real" murals, today's transaction was actually over.

After Mr. Cai left, Zhang Yang closed the door immediately.

Now, it's time to make the second move.

Zhang Yang called Lao Hu.

"Uncle Hu, let's go and rescue Boss Deng!"

(End of this chapter)