66 Pass
But why was there only a little bit of temperature in a part of it? A thumb ring had two values? Vivian was confused.
Vivian looked at it for a while, and then looked up at Fred. “Mr. Fred, I’d like to borrow your magnifying glass.”
Fred got up to get the tools. “No problem.”
With a magnifying glass, Vivian could clearly see two cracks on the ring, but they were not obvious, as if they had been accidentally hit.
Vivian touched the crack with her fingers and had a bold guess.
When she looked up again, Vivian looked at Fred and said with certainty, “Mr. Fred, this is a synthetic product. It’s a ring made from the combination of ancient and new Jade.”
Shock flashed in Fred’s eyes. “How did you know?”
Vivian said with a smile. “I feel like these are two different types of Jade. It feels weird when I touch it. This piece of Jade was so well-made that even the quality of the Jade could be said to be exactly the same.” Vivian was just trying to find some points to describe it.
But Fred didn’t think that this reason was far-fetched. Instead, he felt he had picked up a treasure. This kind of touch and insight was something that only many old players in this industry had.
After repairing the Jade, Fred also showed it to a few famous collectors and antique dealers. Only one of them intuitively felt something was wrong, but no one dared to say with certainty something was wrong with the ring like Vivian and even pointed out the specific problems.
Fred looked at Vivian with a happy expression and praised, “It seems that you are indeed capable!”
Then Fred picked up the Jade ring and explained, “It’s indeed a synthetic one. I bought it from an antique dealer when I first entered this industry 20 years ago. This ring was buried with the ruler of the ancient Yue State in Southeast Asia more than a thousand years ago. However, I accidentally broke it at my wife’s funeral two years ago.”
“After that, I cut a small piece of suet Jade that my late wife liked very much and went to H Country to find a master who was very good at repairing ancient Jade to mend it. I didn’t expect that there would be no difference at all after it was mended. Even those experts were fooled by me.”
Vivian didn’t expect that there was such a story behind the ring. She looked at Fred and asked, “Mr. Fred, I’ve passed the test, right?”
Fred laughed. “Of course, you passed! Each guest with an invitation card can bring an extra person in. You can just follow me tomorrow.”
Vivian laughed after getting an affirmative answer. “Alright, it’s my first time there. If there’s anything I don’t understand, I’ll have to trouble you to give me some pointers.
“It’s just a place for trading. Where do you live?” asked Fred with a smile. “I’ll pick you up at 10 tomorrow morning. Oh, there’s no place to eat inside, you can bring some food in.”
Vivian was just a freeloader, so she didn’t want to trouble him to pick her up, so she said, “I don’t live too far away, I can come over myself.”
Fred didn’t insist. “Okay, it’s a deal then.”
They exchanged a few more words before Vivian said goodbye and left.
Vivian got up early the next morning. Under Leon’s strong request, she changed her original 5cm square-heel shoes to 3cm high flathoes.
Her hair was tied up in a bun and she was wearing a gray-white dress. She looked capable and mature. With a chain bag on her shoulder, she had the image of a city beauty.
After meeting up with Fred, Vivian took another hour’s car ride to the manor in the suburbs.
When they first entered the manor, Vivian thought it was just an ordinary garden. It was not until they passed through a maple forest and entered another door that Vivian saw the real underground relic trading site.
Behind the door was an oriental-style garden with pavilions, corridors, and pavilions. There were bells hanging under the flying eaves, and they jingled when the breeze blew. Together with the small bridges and flowing water, the octagonal pavilion, the ancient trees and straight green bamboo, and the staggered stones, these unique elements combined together made Vivian feel like she was looking at a painting. She also felt the unique features of a classical garden.