Back in S City, Gu Xu sent news that the old residence and two storefronts, which she had the lawyers handle, had been transferred to her name, and the tenants of the two storefronts were urged to leave quickly by May 1.
Upon receiving this message, Huo Sining was naturally overjoyed. After communicating with Bai Yishan, she decided to entrust the decoration and layout of the storefronts to Li Quan and Wu Jun, and asked Jiang Xiaoqin to learn from them.
Since Huo Sining was planning to open an antique shop in Liulichang, she introduced Li Quan to Yin Yizhai and requested Manager Lu to mentor him; as a result, Li Quan had been concentrating on studying antique appraisal recently.
Huo Sining continued to pay Li Quan’s salary but felt unsettled as he hadn’t been able to help her.
Now that Huo Sining finally had work for him, Li Quan was delighted, eagerly taking on the task and vowing to complete it with flying colors.
Li Quan had been to the Imperial Capital with Huo Sining before and knew where the new storefront was. Considering his reliability, Huo Sining was quite willing to trust him.
After sending the three of them to the Imperial Capital, Huo Sining finally got some respite and caught up on the schoolwork she had missed. She also went to the Yellow River again, catching plenty of river fish and game to replenish Xianyu Shop’s inventory.
After several busy days, having just finished breakfast that morning and with nothing particular to do, Huo Sining leisurely entered the study, planning to flip through a large stack of books on antique appreciation given to her by Zhou Shitao.
However, while flipping through the books, she came across one on ancient painting appraisal and remembered that she had bid on two ancient paintings for 31,000 yuan in Tengchong. With all the busyness, she had left the paintings in the storage ring and had forgotten to take them out.
Thinking of the inexplicable sense of familiarity the "Buzhou Mountain" painting had given her, Huo Sining quickly took out the two paintings from the storage ring and, as if possessed, unfolded the one named "Buzhou Mountain."
Since the painting had been purchased as an add-on, Huo Sining hadn’t looked closely at it before. Now, examining the ancient painting, she realized it had many issues.
Before, Huo Sining had only noticed the content of the painting without paying attention to the material used. Now, looking closely, she found that the paper was very strange.
The paper didn’t look like paper and the silk didn’t resemble silk. With the naked eye, no issues seemed present in the paper, but under Huo Sining’s Heavenly Eye Skill, it was clear that the paper was uneven. The watermark she had previously noticed was indeed seeping through this piece of paper.
The lighting at the black market hadn’t been bright enough, and without a doubt, Hong Si had done that on purpose. Now, looking at the painting again, Huo Sining easily identified numerous problems.
The painting, nearly two meters long, had so far only drawn Huo Sining’s attention to the Taoist on the left side and the mermaids in the clear pond, without noticing the blank area in the center. She assumed it was simply the white space commonly used in splash-ink paintings. Upon closer inspection, she realized that wasn’t the case.
Something seemed to have been painted in the center as well, but because it was a splash-ink painting, the colors were so faint in the middle that it was hard to make out. It looked a bit like overlapping mountains, but on closer examination, they didn’t seem to be mountains—it seemed more like a person. But if it was a person, why were there no facial features?
The more Huo Sining looked at the painting, the more serious her expression became. There was something peculiar not only about the paper but also about the items depicted on it.
Without a colophon or private seal, apart from the mention of Buzhou Mountain and a line from the Classic of Mountains and Seas, the entire painting exuded a strange and eerie atmosphere, as if hiding some immense secret.
However, Huo Sining was still certain of one thing, this painting was definitely an old piece. Of course, when Huo Sining held the painting, the purple spiritual energy enveloping it, seen through the Heavenly Eye, was absolutely not deceiving. Furthermore, as soon as the painting was unfurled, it emitted an aura of an old object, leaving no doubt that it was an antique.
Huo Sining fetched her notebook in an attempt to search for relevant information online, but found it futile. Although there were records online for ancient paintings without colophons or private seals, there was nothing matching "Buzhou Mountain".
Huo Sining then searched for information on the strange kind of paper used for this painting, but despite a painstaking half-day effort, she failed to find any useful information.
This made Huo Sining feel somewhat helpless. With such an odd ancient painting, even though she knew it was the real deal, it was useless without a provenance.
It was like a person without an ID card, unable to register, thus unable to confirm their birthplace and exact identity.
At that moment, Auntie Li brought up a pot of tea. Seeing that Huo Sining was intently researching, she did not disturb her, placing the tray with the warm teapot and cup on the desk before going back downstairs.
Yan Feng did not find Huo Sining in the living room and, upon hearing from Auntie Li that she was in the study, he went there. Seeing that Huo Sining seemed to be looking up information, he did not pay it much mind and handed her a porcelain bottle, "Here, the medicine you wanted, I’ve prepared it for you."
Huo Sining looked up, glanced at the porcelain bottle in Yan Feng’s hand, and took it without hesitation.
"Didn’t I give you a bottle before you went to Ruili? Have you used it up?" Yan Feng asked curiously.
Interest flickered in Yan Feng’s eyes, "Which unlucky guy crossed paths with you without looking?"
Thoughts of the middle-aged man who had bumped her, causing injury, uttered vulgarities, and demanded an apology from her on the Ruili gambling game surfaced in Huo Sining’s mind. A look of disgust appeared in her eyes, and she looked up at Yan Feng with a disdainful glance, asking irritably, "Are you particularly free today?"
Yan Feng shrugged, "Not bad. I’ve finished processing your batch of raw jade material, and I’m waiting for Bai Yishan’s design drafts."
Huo Sining was speechless. The design drafts of jadeite jewelry that Bai Yishan carefully crafted were casually tossed aside by Yan Feng, who would throw a few Wind Blades at them, shaping the jadeite as if machined, with a result that was accurate to the millimeter and incredibly fast.
If Bai Yishan knew that the finished jewelry pieces in her store were carved out in such a manner, it was uncertain whether she would cry or laugh.
"What are you researching?" Yan Feng only then noticed an ancient painting spread out on the desk, while Huo Sining’s computer seemed to be open to a certain webpage. Huo Sining’s eyes were intently staring at a segment of text on the webpage, lost in thought,
"I’m looking up information related to this painting. Take a look for yourself, does this ’Buzhou Mountain’ not bear a striking resemblance to the descriptions in this article?"