A middle-aged man, appearing to be around fifty, stood before the stall, his eyes fixed on the oil-stained Shiqiang pan.
His Adam's apple visibly bobbed rhythmically.
His hair had turned white. The weathered aura he should have exuded was contradicted by his eyes, filled with a greedy glint, making him appear out of place.
He wore extremely ordinary, cheap clothes bought from street vendors, some parts stained and dirty, giving him a look of destitution.
“Ah, a customer! What would you like in it?” the boss, seeing a patron, quickly stood up.
Li Chonglou’s gaze grew more solemn.
He recognized this person. His name was Zeng Qiang.
He was a scrap collector.
More accurately, he was a ruthless individual who had been smuggling cultural relics and feigning his identity as a scrap collector for over thirty years.
He was also his only enemy in Qin Prefecture in his previous life, besides Jiang Tao, Xu Tianhou, and others.
“This shouldn’t be… he shouldn’t have arrived in Qin Prefecture yet at this time. Could my appearance have altered fate again?” Li Chonglou was filled with doubt.
This Zeng Qiang was no ordinary man. He had spent his life collecting scrap, honing an exceptional discerning eye.
His judgment was far superior to many antique appraisal masters.
He rarely made mistakes in his appraisals, but his moral character was despicable. He would go to any lengths to obtain what he desired.
Furthermore, he had illegally sold a vast number of cultural relics abroad, causing irreparable damage to the country's history and culture.
Their first encounter in his previous life was over a cultural relic.
At that time, he had only recently gained fame.
He possessed status, influence, and immense wealth.
Even so, he had almost suffered a significant loss at Zeng Qiang’s hands. Although he narrowly won, he was involved in a car accident on his way back with the item, the treasure was destroyed. Had it not been for Xu Lie, he would have been reduced to ashes.
Although he didn’t know why Zeng Qiang was in Qin Prefecture at this time, he knew very well that the Shiqiang pan was now exposed.
If it fell into the hands of someone like him, it would be a loss for all of China!
“Boss, are you selling your stall?” As he thought, Zeng Qiang had already spoken, deliberately glancing away, suppressing his urge to look at the Shiqiang pan.
He never expected that helping someone scout Qin Prefecture would yield such a great reward.
Buying a jianbing guozi, he had stumbled upon such a treasure from the Zhou Dynasty.
And it was so well-preserved. It was clearly a heirloom, not unearthed from a tomb.
This treasure, he was determined to have!
“That’s very strange. You’re the second person to want to buy my stall. Is my stall that good?” The boss seemed to be questioning his own reality.
“The second? Then who was the first?” Zeng Qiang’s pupils constricted.
“Me.” Li Chonglou stood up.
The situation had reached a point where an unavoidable reunion with Zeng Qiang was imminent. He might as well be forthright.
“You’re such a young fellow. You look well-dressed, surely you’re not considering taking up making jianbing, are you?” Zeng Qiang sized Li Chonglou up, a hint of disdain flashing in his eyes, unable to conceal it.
He had initially thought the other person was a master in the antique trade, someone who, like him, had recognized the Shiqiang pan.
He hadn’t expected it to be a mere youngster in his early twenties.
Let alone something like the Shiqiang pan, which was quite obscure in the antique world, few people knew about it.
Even if Li Chonglou was an anomaly and recognized this item, he wouldn’t be afraid.
As the saying goes, experience is the best teacher.
Having navigated the underworld for years, how could he possibly fall prey to a junior?
“You guessed quite accurately. He is indeed here to learn making jianbing from me, and he even angered his wife to do so,” the boss interjected with a playful remark.
Li Chonglou smiled without speaking.
He trusted his instinct, the intuition between kindred spirits. Zeng Qiang had likely realized he was no ordinary person.
His pretense of learning to make jianbing was undoubtedly a ploy to acquire the Shiqiang pan.
However, such matters were best left unsaid, not brought into the open.
“Kid, this water is very murky. Step into it carelessly, and you might just fall into a pit. It wouldn’t be good to get hurt,” Zeng Qiang walked up to Li Chonglou and warned him with ill intent.
“I’m young and can handle being tossed around. It’s your old bones, however, that could get hurt if you fall,” Li Chonglou parried subtly.
In his past life, he had already looked down on Zeng Qiang’s character. It seemed this life would be no different.
If you can discern something with your eyes, then compete with your skills. Threatening him outright was unnecessary; there was no need to show any courtesy to such a person.
“Fine, let’s settle this with our skills.” Seeing Li Chonglou unfazed, Zeng Qiang sneered, “Boss, twenty thousand yuan, for your stall.”
“I’ve collected scrap for half my life; it’s too tiring. I want to switch to an easier livelihood.”
“Are you joking?” The boss’s eyes widened in disbelief.
A dilapidated jianbing stall for twenty thousand yuan.
Where would he find such a good deal?
It was as fantastical as a myth.
“I’m not joking. You have until I finish my jianbing,” Zeng Qiang said, with a triumphant look towards Li Chonglou.
In his eyes, Li Chonglou was merely a hot-headed youngster.
As for treasures in the hands of ordinary people, even if he bought them directly, they wouldn't recognize their worth. Why bother pretending to learn jianbing? It was a pure waste of time.
He didn’t care whether Li Chonglou made a bid.
As long as the money offered was substantial enough, no one would remain unmoved.
“Are you trying to break the rules?” Li Chonglou’s eyes turned cold.
Although he knew Zeng Qiang was not a good person, he hadn’t expected him to be so brazenly disruptive from the start.
It seemed that twenty years younger, he was even less of a decent human.
“Rules? Those are for insiders. Do you count yourself as one?” Zeng Qiang scoffed, “I don’t know what knowledge you’ve acquired, but I can tell you clearly: possessing a treasure brings trouble. ‘He who possesses jade without guilt will only invite punishment.’”
“Some meat is too hot for your mouth; you can’t eat it.”
“Little brother, go home obediently. Practice for a few more years, so you can walk more steadily.”
His words were filled with condescension and disdain.
Of course, he had the right to be arrogant. Anyone with ability could be proud, and Li Chonglou was no exception.
However, pride and arrogance were entirely different matters.
“I’m not talking about who came first. Simply buying and selling is illegal,” Li Chonglou said calmly, “Some things cannot be measured by money, like intelligence.”
“Whether it’s illegal or not depends on one standard: whether you knew in advance and had a deliberate intention.”
“Do I need to educate you?”
The antique trade was a deep water, not just for making mistakes or being swindled, but also for potentially breaking the law.
For example, many bronze wares, ivory artifacts, and burial objects.
However, the law struggled to contain human desires. Given sufficient profit, many people risked breaking the law and acted with impunity.
Numerous smugglers of cultural relics were engaged in this very business.
He hadn’t expected Zeng Qiang to dare to speak of it so openly; it was too arrogant.
Li Chonglou would never be polite to such a person.
“Kid, you’ve got some nerve talking to me like that?” Zeng Qiang’s expression changed slightly. He hadn’t expected Li Chonglou to be such a tough opponent.
Few people dared to speak to him in such a manner, and even fewer who did lived to tell the tale.
He had been dealing in cultural relics since the eighties and remained unscathed, which was not purely due to luck.
How could he be intimidated by a greenhorn like Li Chonglou?
He didn’t know if Li Chonglou’s words were a bluff or if he had somehow guessed his identity. In any case, since it had come to this, there was no longer anything to hide.
“Are you two acquainted? Let’s talk it over properly,” the boss, seeing the increasingly tense atmosphere as they exchanged words, quickly interjected, trying to ease the situation.
“Hmph, an unknown nobody. How could I possibly know him?” Zeng Qiang snorted coldly, with an air of superiority, “I don’t know your background, but even if you’re from the Qin Prefecture Association, they would respectfully call me ‘Master.’”
“Being young and brash is nothing, but being blind is a problem.”
“Today, I must buy this stall. I’d like to see what right you have to stop me.”
The “association” he mentioned was naturally the Antique Association.
Zeng Qiang’s reputation might not be widely known in Qin Prefecture, but in terms of discerning eye and experience, fewer than three people in Qin Prefecture could match him.
Li Chonglou was clearly not among them.
Hence, he was unconcerned.
“Alright, twenty thousand yuan, right? Boss, don’t hesitate, sell it to him.” Li Chonglou, too lazy to argue further, walked to the stall and whispered a few words into the boss’s ear.
He couldn’t compete with this item using money, as it was a cultural relic and would be donated to the country upon acquisition.
Furthermore, in terms of financial power, he was no match for Zeng Qiang at this moment.
He had to find an alternative approach.
Immediately, the boss’s face lit up with joy, beaming. “Sell, sell, sell! Thank you, little brother. You are truly my benefactor!”
“What did you say to him?” Zeng Qiang’s eyes narrowed, radiating venom.
Did Li Chonglou tell him the true nature of the Shiqiang pan?
No, that was impossible.
Unless he no longer wanted the item, he wouldn’t shoot himself in the foot.
“What I said is none of your business. You wanted to buy it, and now he’s agreed. Scan the code and pay.” Li Chonglou smiled faintly, provoking him. “What, you’re not going to go back on your word, are you?”
“Childish. I’d like to see what trickery you’re up to.” Zeng Qiang took out a brand-new mobile phone, clearly not matching his attire, and resentfully scanned the code, paying twenty thousand yuan on the spot.
After paying, he reached for the Shiqiang pan.
But Li Chonglou’s movements were much faster. Before Zeng Qiang could react, he had already gripped the two handles of the pan.
He directly pulled the entire Shiqiang pan down.
“What you bought for twenty thousand yuan was the stall. Now the stall is yours, but this pot is not included.” Li Chonglou handed the Shiqiang pan to the boss, advising him, “Brother, hold onto it carefully. Perhaps with this, buying a few houses in Qin Prefecture won’t be difficult.”
Zeng Qiang’s face turned ashen.
He had never expected Li Chonglou to do what he least expected so easily and casually.
Did he know he couldn’t outbid him and, seeing no hope, decided to destroy it all?
That would be underestimating him too much.
Once this Shiqiang pan was resold abroad, it would fetch at least ten billion yuan.
Let alone twenty thousand, even twenty million would be a huge profit.
If all else failed, he would simply crush him with money.
“A few houses, you say?” Zeng Qiang grinned menacingly, looking at the boss, his voice filled with seductive temptation. “It’s a small matter. Give me the pot, and you can pick any three houses in Qin Prefecture, in any location.”
“What do you say? I have the ability to make you soar overnight. It all depends on whether you can seize the opportunity.”
With these words, the boss’s eyes bulged, and he trembled with excitement.
His gaze fixed, he actually raised the Shiqiang pan and slowly offered it to Zeng Qiang.
The dream of overnight riches was something that an ordinary person struggling at the bottom could not resist.