Chapter 92

With a bit of trepidation, Yang Bo followed Lu Dongxing and the others into the car.

Yang Bo did not contact Yuan Yezhi again, and neither did she contact him. The connection between the two seemed to have been severed. Yang Bo vaguely felt that in Dangshan, they would meet again.

Although Dangshan has a mountain in its name, it is actually a vast plain without any hills. The car moved very slowly, as if it were driving in circles.

After a long time, a bell rang, and Li Er answered the phone.

"Old Six, I trust you so much, but we are still driving in circles. When are you going to show up!" Li Er burst into a fit of anger as soon as he answered the phone.

The voice on the other end of the line said, "Little Li, don't be angry. We all want to make money, and we all want to be safe!"

"Recently, the authorities have been checking too closely. My brothers can't act too boldly. You know, in our line of work, we have to be like rats, and it's not easy. Safety is always the top priority!"

"Alright! Alright! Stop talking nonsense. When and where will you show up?" Li Er impatiently interrupted the other party.

"Alright, now you head to the outskirts of Jiuli Village. I'll be waiting for you there!"

The car finally started moving, speeding through the dark night.

The car stopped, and Yang Bo got out. It was pitch black, and he couldn't see far. The headlights were turned off, and the engine was shut down.

"Little Li!"

A low voice called out from the opposite side. Li Er quickly lowered his voice and responded.

A black figure approached, carrying a strong smell of earth, and shook hands with Li Er. "Thank you! Thank you!"

Li Er smiled. "As long as the goods you provide are good, no matter how hard it is, it's worth it!"

"You can rest assured. They just came out, still hot!" Old Six said.

After that, Old Six gestured for the group to follow him into a pear orchard.

The pear trees were about one and a half times the height of a person, dark and indistinct. Everyone walked quietly, but a dog guarding the orchard started barking, and soon other dogs in the vicinity joined in.

Everyone paused, hesitant to move forward.

A scolding voice was heard, and the dog barked pitifully a couple of times before stopping. Only then did everyone continue moving forward.

When they reached a small wooden house, Old Six finally stopped.

He gestured toward the wooden house, opened the door, and went in. A bodyguard followed, and when he signaled that everything was fine, Li Er, Yang Bo, and Lu Dongxing entered in sequence.

The wooden house was narrow, and not many people could stand inside. A dim candle was lit in the center. Old Six explained, "There's no electricity here, and we rarely use flashlights. We try to avoid using any light sources to prevent them from leaking, which would be detrimental to our transaction."

Yang Bo nodded. The conditions were better than he had imagined. He had thought they would be doing the transaction outdoors.

Old Six glanced at Lu Dongxing. With his experience, he could tell that this group was led by Lu Dongxing, who had the strongest presence and was likely the big client. However, he didn't ask any more questions.

There were many miscellaneous items piled up in front of them. Some seemed to have been only roughly cleaned, still covered in mud.

Yang Bo frowned, unsure if this was a deliberate disguise or due to haste.

A blue-and-white porcelain vase was already broken, the broken edges fresh, clearly broken during transportation. Yang Bo felt a pang of pain and turned to look at the other items.

"How about this bronze ding?" Old Six, seeing Lu Dongxing leaning in to examine the items, quickly pointed to the bronze ding.

The bronze ding was covered in green rust and a layer of mud, immediately catching Lu Dongxing's attention.

Lu Dongxing had always been fond of bronze artifacts. When Yang Bo first met him at the ghost market, it was because of a bronze artifact. So, seeing the bronze ding, he couldn't help but focus on it.

Yang Bo gradually picked out over ten bronze artifacts, but they were all small pieces, relatively well-preserved. He also noticed that the other party seemed very honest and had not included any fakes among the small pieces.

Lu Dongxing beckoned to Yang Bo. "Come and look at this ding. How does it look?"

Yang Bo walked over, tapped the bronze ding, and listened to the deep resonance. Then, he circled around the ding.

He quickly realized that this ding was almost the same size as the fake one he had seen at the night market, and the patterns were very similar. The key was that this ding had inscriptions, and the inscriptions were in traditional Chinese characters!

Yang Bo recognized the characters "Tong Ding." During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, traditional Chinese characters were not used, which meant that this ding might be a later imitation.

A light flashed before Yang Bo's eyes, and a thin light ring appeared, indicating that the ding was no more than twenty years old. The surface of the ding looked as if it had just been dug up, and it was impressive that they had taken so much time to create a fake!

Yang Bo took a step back and shook his head. "I can't tell with such a significant artifact!"

Lu Dongxing looked somewhat surprised, as if he thought the ding should be genuine. However, he still decided to trust Yang Bo and stood aside without saying anything.

Yang Bo continued to pick through the items and realized that there were not many good pieces. Even the ones he picked out were the best of the worst. At this point, he understood that Lu Dongxing had come specifically for the bronze ding!

Since the bronze ding couldn't be taken away, did the items he picked out have any meaning?

With this thought, Yang Bo quickly finished his selection. A few minutes later, he stood up and pointed to the pile of items he had chosen. "You guys can talk about the price!"

Yang Bo didn't get involved in the negotiation, listening to Li Er and Old Six argue in hushed voices, which he found very exciting.

Yang Bo began to examine the room. The candlelight was dim, and there was a small wooden table on the side with a teapot, teacup, and a bowl with half a bowl of noodles, the chopsticks scattered.

Yang Bo walked over, picked up a glass cup from the table, and poured some water. He didn't drink it but tested the water temperature with his hand, finding it cold. He immediately complained, "You don't even have hot water here?"

Old Six turned and looked at him. He could tell that Yang Bo was the appraiser for the group, so he spoke politely. "Little brother, you're funny. That's the old man's cup. Don't you think it's dirty?"

Yang Bo looked at the bottom of the cup and saw that it was indeed blackened, and the cup was somewhat cloudy.

Lu Dongxing advised, "There's water in the car. You can drink it later."

Yang Bo pinched the cup and poured out the water. "Why is this cup so dirty?"

"It's been used for a long time. To be honest, I didn't have money, so I took this cup from a tomb and have been using it ever since. It's been over ten years, and it hasn't broken yet!" Old Six explained.

After hearing Old Six's explanation, everyone felt a bit disgusted.