"Ah?" Lu Xuan looked surprised.
She had thought Li Chonglou would help her search for treasures elsewhere and hadn't expected it to be so simple.
"Sister Lu Xuan, I come from an antique family, and we have some resources. Your matter is on me," Ji Ling said generously. "I guarantee it won't lose to that guy Zhong Liang."
"You know everything?" Lu Xuan's beautiful eyes shimmered with shock.
She knew Ji Ling was no ordinary person; she'd realized it when she came to tell Li Chonglou that Li Chonglou would win the bid.
They were all smart people and didn't bother pretending to be foolish.
But how had she figured out that she and Zhong Liang were rivals?
"Of course. In our line of work, eyesight is paramount. If we can't see the open and secret struggles between you, wouldn't that make us blind?" Ji Ling's pretty face was filled with pride. "Right, Li Chonglou?"
Li Chonglou was speechless.
He thought, *If you want to boast, go ahead, why drag me into it?*
However, he found Ji Ling's frankness quite likable.
At least she wasn't playing mind games with him. Otherwise, with just a little more money, not even twenty million more, he would have been unable to get the pair of jade seals.
And it wouldn't have been worth exchanging twenty million worth of antiques for one of them.
With both Li Chonglou and Ji Ling guaranteeing her, a great weight was lifted from Lu Xuan's heart, and her expression visibly relaxed.
After asking the driver to drop the three of them off at a coffee shop near the hotel, she went upstairs first.
"Can you tell me now?" Li Chonglou ordered a latte for Xu Lie and requested a pot of Tieguanyin for himself.
"Don't you drink coffee?" Ji Ling asked instead of answering.
"Not accustomed to it," Li Chonglou said with a smile.
He loved tea, which was almost a common hobby for most Chinese men in middle age.
Although he didn't understand tea well, he loved drinking it.
Especially under his senior sister's influence, it was also a form of remembrance for his senior sister in his past life.
Tea could calm the mind, while coffee made one restless.
However, it didn't matter to Xu Lie.
"Do you believe me if I said my father carved this?" Ji Ling first looked at Xu Lie, then said, half-jokingly, half-seriously.
Upon hearing this, Li Chonglou's pupils contracted. He was surprised at first, then his eyes lit up.
He nodded and said, "I believe it!"
Why wouldn't he believe it? He himself was a transmigrator from the future.
He had initially assumed Ji Ling might be like him, otherwise, at her age, her eyesight couldn't possibly be so sharp.
And this pair of seals was a genuine treasure from the Kangxi period.
Yet Ji Ling claimed her father had carved them.
Li Chonglou noticed a detail: Ji Ling called her father "die," not "ba."
In this era of rapid information dissemination, Mandarin had long been popularized, and many children couldn't even speak their local dialect from a young age.
Ji Ling was at most a post-90s generation. Unless she came from a deeply rooted family or grew up in a remote area, it was rare to directly call her father "die" in spoken language.
They usually called him "ba."
Could it be...
"You actually believe me? My heavens, why?" Ji Ling's reaction exceeded Li Chonglou's expectations, and she showed a surprised expression instead.
She hadn't just told Li Chonglou that she had been reborn from the Kangxi era to the present; everyone else had said she had lost her mind.
Some even wanted to send her to a mental hospital.
Only Li Chonglou showed no suspicion at all.
Why was that?
Looking at Xu Lie, who was sitting next to Li Chonglou, he also appeared calm and composed.
It was as if her words were not worth mentioning.
Did this person have no curiosity at all?
What strange people these two were.
"Judging from the details of your actions and words, your father must be a renowned carver from the Kangxi era," Li Chonglou smiled slightly, no longer concealing his thoughts. "No wonder your eyesight is so extraordinary. You must be quite old now that you've been reborn to the present."
"During the prosperous Kangxi and Qianlong eras, you had ample opportunities to hone your eyesight with antiques."
"Although the carver of this pair of rectangular seals did not leave their name, one can still infer something from the carving techniques and brushwork."
"The brushwork is excellent, and the carving is robust."
"To have become the imperial seals of Emperor Kangxi based on this, it should be Ji Cunwan, who was skilled in calligraphy, carving, and textual research!"
"That is, the grandfather of Ji Yun, also known as Ji Xiaolan."
With these few words, Ji Ling's beautiful eyes widened, and a hint of panic flickered in them.
She was accustomed to people thinking she was spouting nonsense when she told the truth, so she had never deliberately hidden her rebirth.
The more indifferent she appeared, the more others thought she was joking.
But today, she hadn't mentioned rebirth to Li Chonglou at all, only half-truthfully saying that her father had carved the pair of seals, and he had guessed her reborn identity.
He had even guessed that her father was Ji Cunwan.
This person's eyesight was terrifyingly profound!
Was he really just a young man? Or was he, like her, also a transmigrator?
For a moment, Ji Ling's expression was a mixture of emotions.
"Don't be shocked, I'm just guessing. Didn't you say your father carved the rectangular seals?" Li Chonglou saw her reaction and smiled slightly.
He didn't reveal his own identity.
He knew Ji Ling well enough. Although he also wanted to be open and honest, who knew if it was a trap?
He had suffered too many setbacks since childhood. Being open and honest also depended on who he was dealing with.
He could be completely open with Xu Lie, his master, senior sister, and Jiang Yuxin, but not with a woman he had just met.
Upon hearing this, Ji Ling breathed a sigh of relief, but she wasn't reassured.
Although Li Chonglou seemed to be joking, his words had startled her. This person was absolutely not simple.
"I'm convinced," Ji Ling sighed. "I didn't want to compete with you before because I saw you weren't simple, but I didn't expect you to be so terrifying."
"Secondly, I didn't want to be too high-profile and attract attention."
"'A tall tree attracts the wind; a tree that stands out in the forest will be destroyed by the wind.' That's a lesson my father taught me."
"In this world, I have many enemies who want to kill me."
"Only you, from the moment I met you, I felt we had the same aura, no... you are even better!"
She was as frank as ever.
Despite being a woman, Ji Ling's words and actions had, so far, made Li Chonglou feel that she was second to none.
"Ji Xiaolan? The 'Iron-Mouthed Scholar Ji Xiaolan' from the TV shows? Then what's your relationship with him?" Xu Lie's eyes widened at this point, and he scrutinized Ji Ling like he was looking at a monkey.
Seeing him like this, Ji Ling's pretty face turned red. "Of course, he's my nephew."
"You're really slow to react!"
"Here, take it." Li Chonglou took out the seal carved with the four characters "Ri Jing Yun Shen" and pushed it towards Ji Ling.
Since he knew the reason, he naturally wouldn't break his promise.
Ji Ling took the rectangular seal in her hand, her eyes slightly moist.
Back then, she had personally watched her father carve this pair of seals and present them to the emperor.
It symbolized his aspiration to care for the world and benefit the people.
But now, they were separated by life and death. She lived in an era without an emperor, a free and prosperous time.
How fortunate were the people here.
Her father's wish had finally come true.
"The item is yours, don't forget your promise," Li Chonglou reminded her after she had examined it for a while.
This pair of rectangular seals, if put up for auction, would start at hundreds of millions.
Exchanging them for a piece of antique worth twenty million from Ji Ling was a way to repay the favor to both Lu Xuan and Ji Ling, and also a sign of mutual appreciation.
Since her rebirth, Li Chonglou had actually been very lonely. Despite the pressures of reality.
His mother's serious illness and the bullying from the Jiang family forced him to divert his attention to deal with them.
But subconsciously, he wanted to find someone like himself to share his thoughts with.
Therefore, he had unhesitatingly told Jiang Yuxin that he was a transmigrator from the future. Unfortunately, Jiang Yuxin's understanding wouldn't accept such a claim.
So, he had to give up on that.
Later, he confessed this to his master, senior sister, and Xu Lie.
The three of them believed him, but they couldn't empathize, as they had never experienced such a thing.
Now that he had met Ji Ling and knew they were alike, he felt a much closer connection.
"Don't worry, I'll have someone send it over now. I won't default on your payment," Ji Ling took a deep breath, suppressed her emotions, and carefully wrapped the seals in silk cloth and put them in her bag.
Then she made a phone call.
Less than twenty minutes later, a middle-aged woman in an OL suit with a ponytail drove a Maybach and stopped outside the coffee shop.
Carrying a small box made of huanghuali wood, she pushed open the door and entered.
The woman didn't look ordinary; she walked with purpose, her expression serious, and exuded an air of authority without being angry.
"Auntie, over here," Ji Ling stood up and called out.
"Ji girl, made new friends again?" The woman walked over to their three-person table and lightly leaned beside Ji Ling.
After carefully scrutinizing Li Chonglou and Xu Lie, she fixed her gaze on Li Chonglou.
"Let me introduce you, this is Li Chonglou, and his friend is Xu Lie." Ji Ling nodded and said, "This is my aunt, Ms. Chen Lihua."
"She is a well-known female entrepreneur in Chang'an. I came to Chang'an this time to find her."
After speaking, she took the huanghuali box from Chen Lihua.
She placed it in front of Li Chonglou and opened it: "Take a look at this. I found it as a lucky find in Chang'an. It should meet your requirements!"
Inside the box, on golden brocade with shock-absorbing foam, lay a colorful porcelain jar.
The jar was painted with four children holding different objects, two with pigtails tied up like horns, and two with a single braid down the middle.
Their expressions were naive and adorable, full of spirit.
"A good item, a Qianlong doucai and fencai jar depicting children playing," Li Chonglou's eyes lit up, and he praised, "At current market value, it's at least fifteen million to start. It's suitable."
With this jar, Zhong Liang's kesis brocade painting was nothing.
Sister Xuan was already in an invincible position.
He had finally lived up to his mission, and this exchange meeting had been very rewarding.
Because of these few words, Chen Lihua's eyes showed appreciation. "Young man, your eyesight is extraordinary; you recognized its origin at a glance."
She was also an antique connoisseur with a deep family heritage.
She had been shocked when her niece had run to a peasant's house and made a great lucky find. Now, Li Chonglou recognized it at a glance, making her feel that the younger generation was stronger than the last.
"You flatter me."
Li Chonglou called Lu Xuan to inform her to come downstairs to collect it herself.
Then, he chatted with Ji Ling and Chen Lihua for a while and found that both women's understanding of antiques far surpassed that of so-called masters.
They exchanged phone numbers before reluctantly parting.
As soon as he returned upstairs, he heard an angry roar coming from his master's room.
Li Chonglou's heart trembled, and he quickly rushed over with Xu Lie.