Chapter 1979 — The Antique Market
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
Fortunately Wei Zhao did not care about such a trifling sum. After parking the car, he and Han Jingyi walked into the antique market together.
The market was vast, selling every kind of thing imaginable, a dazzling array in which genuine pieces, fakes and reproductions were all on offer. Unless one was a connoisseur, it was generally very hard to buy the real thing.
But Wei Zhao had no interest in buying antiques. Back in that ancient tomb there had been so many treasures, yet he had not carried away a single one — much less would he spend his own money on such things.
What Han Jingyi wanted to buy was a medicine cauldron. Such things were not common and generally required luck to come across, though there were plenty of reproductions. In this sort of item, however, reproduction and genuine article differed little in material — either cast iron or solid bronze — and for a novice alchemy master that was quite sufficient.
The two of them had come with purposes: Wei Zhao with the notion of simply having a look around, and Han Jingyi searching specifically for a medicine cauldron. So they basically skimmed past things, and after covering most of the market, Han Jingyi finally found a stall specializing in medicine cauldrons.
"How much for this medicine cauldron?" Han Jingyi picked up a cast-iron cauldron that looked about right and asked directly.
"Brother Wei Zhao, is this man an idiot? I asked him how much it costs, so why is he spouting all this nonsense?" Han Jingyi put the cauldron down and said to Wei Zhao.
"Hey? Little girl, what kind of talk is that? Who are you calling an idiot?" Hearing Han Jingyi insult him, the stall owner immediately grew rather displeased.
"Brother Wei Zhao, look — the man's not only an idiot but has no self-awareness either. Whatever he's selling can't be any good. Let's go look at someone else's stall," Han Jingyi said, turning to leave.
"Wait, don't go! I was only introducing you to the history of this medicine cauldron. If you don't want to hear it, we can talk price..." Seeing that Han Jingyi meant to leave, the stall owner grew anxious at once and hurriedly called her back.
"Brother Wei Zhao, let's go," Han Jingyi said, dead set on leaving.
Wei Zhao had no choice but to turn and follow her...
But before the two had gone far, two burly, broad-shouldered men blocked their path.
"What do you want?" Han Jingyi eyed the two men warily.
"You damage a medicine cauldron and think you can just walk away? Not so easy!" one of the men said coldly.
They were local thugs. Every merchant in the antique market paid them protection money, and in return they naturally helped these people settle their troubles — a matter of mutual benefit.
The stall owner had been stung by Han Jingyi's insults, and seeing the deal slip through his fingers had soured him further, so he had fetched two hoodlums to teach Wei Zhao and Han Jingyi a lesson.
In the stall owner's eyes, both of them were dressed like students, and Han Jingyi was clad head to toe in designer labels — plainly a rich girl. Squeezing some money out of them would be no trouble at all.