Feng Yang put away the smile on his face, glanced at Huo Sining disdainfully, and whispered to Li Xuanbing:
"Professor Ji Kun is probably just bragging with an eighty to ninety percent chance, and now he must be about to shoot himself in the foot. Look at Huo Sining, she’s clearly a rookie. She can’t even use a magnifying glass properly, you can tell she’s a beginner at first glance!"
Li Xuanbing was slightly taken aback; she had been busy examining her assigned box and hadn’t paid attention to Huo Sining’s side. Now, hearing what Feng Yang said, she quickly looked over, only to be stunned by what she saw.
"Zhou Shitao took her on as an apprentice, I really don’t know what he saw in her. Just look at how she is distinguishing jade, you can tell her skills aren’t great. Especially with that speed, does she think she’s picking cabbages? With all this picking and choosing, won’t we have to re-select for her later?"
Feng Yang continued to sneer at how carelessly Huo Sining was appraising jade artifacts, all while displaying a smug, superior demeanor.
This time, Li Xuanbing did not respond.
She had shared Feng Yang’s condescending attitude towards Huo Sining, but Ding Liang’s words had made her wary, and she was now somewhat puzzled by this girl.
A person who had selected the only ten genuine pieces from the Baiyang Box in just twenty minutes, with a one hundred percent hit rate, should not be underestimated by anyone;
Yet judging from Huo Sining’s manner when appraising the jade, she indeed looked like a novice, without a flashlight or even using a magnifying glass, which seemed odd no matter how one looked at it.
Li Xuanbing didn’t dare to doubt the veracity of Ding Liang’s words. She remembered his complex expression; clearly, he both admired and envied Huo Sining, and it was obvious that he considered her a challenging rival.
Anyone capable of being Ding Liang’s rival was definitely not a nobody.
Huo Sining concentrated on appraising the box in front of her in her own way, obviously unaware of Feng Yang and Li Xuanbing’s surreptitious whispers.
Unlike everyone else, Huo Sining picked up and examined each item in her box one by one.
Having had lucky finds with enamel and Opal Glaze before, Huo Sining was convinced that what met the eye might not always be genuine with antiques, so even for items that were evidently fakes, she preferred to trust her "Heavenly Eye".
Because the Heavenly Eye could tell her clearly which items were real and which were fake, even those hidden using the Hidden Mist technique could not escape detection in her presence.
Even so, Huo Sining deliberately slowed down her pace so as not to stand out too much, fearing that going too fast might arouse suspicion from others.
The tricks to fake jade artifacts weren’t numerous, either dyeing or aging them. She ignored these, knowing instantly upon inspection with her hand.
The entire box of jade artifacts was modern crafts; not a single one was an antique.
By this time, Li Xuanbing and Feng Yang had already found several suspected genuine items and handed them over to their respective professors.
Seeing that the two of them only had two or three items left unappraised in their boxes, Huo Sining then calmly packed up the items she had examined, and carried them all at once over to Ji Kun.
Seeing Huo Sining shake her head, Ji Kun looked at the box in Huo Sining’s hands in surprise.
Although he was somewhat confident in Huo Sining’s abilities, jade appraisal wasn’t exactly her forte.
Ji Kun remembered very clearly that during their time in Hetian, Huo Sining had sought his advice on distinguishing Hetian Seed Jade, so Ji Kun was somewhat skeptical toward the result that Huo Sining submitted to him.
However, before the grouping, it had been agreed that the teachers were not to intervene in the students’ tests, so even though Ji Kun had his doubts, upon hearing her, he did not say much, merely giving the box a brief glance before nodding:
"Okay, you go put this box in for screening first. There are three more boxes over there—you pick one to continue with. It doesn’t matter if you’re slow; what’s important is to be careful. Don’t carelessly overlook any potential doubt."
Huo Sining nodded. Since she was a bit faster than Li Xuanbing and Feng Yang, she had priority over the second box, and this time, Huo Sining naturally hesitated no longer and chose the box filled with porcelain.
Ma Liwen, of course, had noticed Huo Sining picking a box. Seeing that she chose the porcelain, he was instantly flustered, glaring at the dawdling Feng Yang with intense irritation as if to blame him for being so slow and letting someone else get ahead.
Feng Yang felt a wave of panic when Ma Liwen glared at him like that.
He knew Ma Liwen’s personality very well; he valued winning and losing greatly and had repeatedly emphasized during breakfast that they could not let Huo Sining steal the limelight.
To suppress Huo Sining, Ma Liwen even went so far as to claim the first box of porcelain for Feng Yang, but Feng Yang also felt some resentment. Although Huo Sining wasn’t skilled in jade, it didn’t mean his expertise was necessarily in porcelain.
Feng Yang had been with Ma Liwen for several years, majoring in the appreciation of ancient paintings, and his research on porcelain wasn’t deep. His knowledge of porcelain appraisal was also limited. Therefore, when Ma Liwen handed him a box of porcelain, it wasn’t to make things difficult for Huo Sining, but rather for him.
Facing an entire box of porcelain, Feng Yang felt as if his hands were tied. Worried about making any oversights, he had to be carefully observant, and thus his speed naturally couldn’t match Huo Sining’s.
Fortunately, during the appraisal process, he occasionally sneaked peeks at Huo Sining and noticed that she didn’t even know how to use a magnifying glass.
Feng Yang thought of Huo Sining as just a novice, figuring that her swiftly submitted box was probably a half-baked job, which suddenly gave him a bit of confidence, believing he couldn’t possibly do worse than a newbie.
Because he thought she didn’t know how to use a magnifying glass, Feng Yang had labeled Huo Sining as a novice, and so he was doomed to lose to her because of his arrogance and underestimation.
This time, the box she had was porcelain. Although her understanding of porcelain was no better than that of jade, Huo Sining was very willing to leave Ma Liwen feeling vexed and anxious.
Compared to the previous box of jade forgeries, the craftsmanship of this batch of porcelain was clearly much higher, and it even included a few masterpieces.
The concentration of purple qi within the porcelain indicated its age, but regrettably, despite the exquisite workmanship of these pieces, Huo Sining’s appraisal result was still that they were fakes.
After having seen so much yet gained nothing, Huo Sining couldn’t help but doubt. Could it be that Gu Xu and the others had made a mistake?
Just when she was about to give up, a row of teacups caught Huo Sining’s attention.
They were a set of celadon teacups, ten in all, with the saucer edges curled to resemble lotus leaves and the teacups shaped like flower petals.
This was a set of high-quality imitations of Chai kiln; although the antique porcelain’s glaze color and quality had been aged, the sides were incised with the ink-glazed inscription "Tianjie xiao yu run ru su caose yao kan jin que wu," and the bottom bore the stamp "Qianlong Period Made."