Chapter 109: Daring to Buy Anything?

"Sister Anning, you all go to the office first, I'll be there in a moment!"

"Xiao Yuzhu, go make some tea!"

Just as he was arranging this, the woman waved her hand: "No need, here is fine!"

As she spoke, she stepped through the door, staring at the two bowls on the table, her eyes shining: "Hello, could I take a look?"

What could there be to not look at?

Lin Sicheng nodded: "Of course!"

"Thank you!"

The woman nodded and took a pair of glasses out of her bag. After putting them on, she stared at the two bowls, her face revealing deep admiration.

"Beautiful..."

"Too beautiful..."

Lin Sicheng was stunned: he felt this person's aesthetic sense was on par with Xiao Yuzhu's?

The Sprinkled Gold Bowl was fine; it was already finished, painted with colors, and gilded, so the visual effect was indeed quite good.

But the other one was only half-painted and had not yet been refined; the colors of several leaves hadn't even been blended evenly. The cracks hadn't been touched up at all, and there were even two chips on the rim of the bowl.

In any case, Lin Sicheng felt it didn't have the slightest thing to do with being "beautiful."

After glancing at it twice, Li Zhen handed over a towel, and Lin Sicheng took it to wipe his hands: "Sister Anning, you all sit down first, I'm going to wash up!"

Ye Anning nodded, then slowly looked around.

The studio was a full two hundred square meters; only half was currently in use, and the other half was still empty. But even so, it seemed very spacious.

Yet it was very tidy, and the few machines were polished until they shone. The walls were very white, and the windowsills and wooden shelves were filled with green plants; one couldn't smell any scent of fresh paint.

Thinking about it, the machines must have arrived only a week or so ago, and Lin Sicheng had been busy planning projects and designing reports with his uncle, so he certainly hadn't had time to manage it.

That meant it was the other two.

She had met Li Zhen, and the impression was still very deep: very beautiful, exuding a sense of gentleness and a faint scholarly air. Also very efficient: it felt like she and Lin Sicheng had an extremely tacit understanding at the workbench.

The other one was slightly younger, about the same age as Lin Sicheng, with lively eyes and very sharp. But one would think she was more playful.

Therefore, for this place to be so tidy, this Teacher Li must have worked hard for several days...

In the blink of an eye, Xiao Yuzhu brought over tea, and Ye Anning said thank you, took it, and sipped it.

Xiao Yuzhu smiled, her eyes brightening: So beautiful?

Her skin was so tender and white, her smile was pretty, and her hair shone like satin.

She was also tall, and those two legs were straighter and longer than her own life.

Just as she was staring intently, Lin Sicheng came out of the partition.

Hearing the movement, the woman straightened her back, her gaze swept around, and landed on Lin Sicheng's face.

When she came, Ye Anning said the person invited today was a bit young, and reminded her: this person's level of Appraisal was very high, and his level of Cultural Relic Restoration was even higher.

Bai Wan had even made a joke: How high?

Now she knew...

Secretly marveling, she reached out her hand: "Student Lin, my name is Bai Wan. I'm here in Xijing for a trip and happened to pick up two items. I don't know anyone here, so I wanted to ask Anning to invite someone to help me take a look... Sorry to trouble you!"

"You're too kind!"

Lin Sicheng shook her hand: "What exactly are they?"

"Gold ornaments!"

Bai Wan replied, lowered her head, and unzipped her bag.

Lin Sicheng, however, was stunned for a moment and looked at Ye Anning.

Ye Anning pursed her lips and smiled, nodded slightly, and then gently shook her head.

Lin Sicheng understood immediately.

He asked: An expert?

Ye Anning: Knows a little, but basically still a layman.

Therefore, Lin Sicheng had to admire her.

The reason was simple: gold ornaments were expensive, let alone antiques; one piece would be at least tens of thousands.

Of course, losing one would also be tens of thousands...

While pondering, Bai Wan took out two boxes, not large, about the size of a palm. Although they weren't antiques, they were carved in a very archaic style.

She opened them gently and pushed them forward, and a flash of gold light shone on Lin Sicheng's face.

He squinted his eyes: Wrapped Arm Gold Bracelet?

At first glance, it looked like a spring:

Five inner and outer coils, linked and overlapping, the gold rings were of equal thickness and the same diameter.

The twelve zodiac animals were engraved on the outside of the rings, arranged in sequence; the head and tail of the rings gradually narrowed, without any ornaments. Overall, it was both beautiful and simple.

The *Yuefu* "Poem of Settling Love" from the end of the Han Dynasty: "How to express deep affection, a pair of gold bracelets to wrap the arms..." that was exactly what this was.

The three gold items for weddings in the Song Dynasty: gold bracelet, gold anklet, and gold pendant, also referred to this.

But this type of form was actually an import: it originated from the "snake" worship culture of the Eurasian steppe Bronze Age, flowed in through the Western Regions during the Warring States to Han periods, gradually became Sinicized, and the craftsmanship became increasingly complex.

Looking at this piece again: melted and cast into a blank, shaped by Hammering, spirally coiled, engraved with patterns, inlaid with Gold-gilding... it actually possessed three of the eight arts of Tang Dynasty gold?

And it was done properly: the outside of the gold ring was convex and the inside was flat, smooth as a mirror, without any traces left behind... typical of the moldless Hammering technique originating from the Tang Dynasty.

Looking at the engraving: the patterns had depth, with line-chasing, surface-chasing, sand-ground chasing, and even more delicate, higher-difficulty openwork carving techniques.

Looking at the Gold-gilding layer: it was less than 1 millimeter, and it was even and firm... it was definitely the Jin Red Flag method of the Tang Dynasty.

It wasn't that it hadn't been passed down, but the process was too complex and the toxicity was too high, so not many people knew how to do it.

Although there were some shortcomings in some places, this gold ring was definitely purely handmade. After looking for so long, Lin Sicheng did not find any traces of machine assistance.

Including the Gold-gilding, it also uses the most primitive chemical materials.

What is more critical is that it is old enough: although the gold ring is bright, the color is slightly deep, a bit like natural aging. If one calculates the time, it seems just right: gold is an inert metal, and it is impossible for it to change color to this extent without a thousand years.

So at first glance, it really looks like an object from the Tang Dynasty Directorate for Palace Buildings and the Gold and Silver Workshop; to put it bluntly: Tang Dynasty Imperial Palace Ware.

But Lin Sicheng intuitively felt it was unlikely: such an object might appear in the Forbidden City or the National Museum of China. It might also still be buried deep in the tomb of some Tang Dynasty emperor, empress, prince, or Princess, but it is simply impossible for it to appear here.

It is also unlikely that one could just go on a trip and find it; it feels like the probability of winning five million in the lottery twice is even higher than this.

After roughly glancing around, Lin Sicheng stretched out his hand.

The old three items: high-magnification lens, High-intensity Flashlight, and gloves; Li Zhen handed them to him one by one.

Then he looked closely, and the more he looked, the brighter Lin Sicheng's eyes became.

Ye Anning blinked: surely, this thing couldn't actually be real?

Just as she was secretly suspicious, Lin Sicheng asked out of the blue: "How much did you buy it for?"

Bai Wan was stunned for a moment: "Twenty-five thousand!"

As expected?

If it were real, let alone twenty-five thousand, you couldn't even buy it for twenty-five million.

Because this thing is already at the level of a national treasure.

If it is fake, of course, it is a total loss.

The price of gold in 2007 was around one hundred forty; this ring looks quite long, but it is actually only fifty or sixty grams. Even if this ring were all real gold, it would only be seven or eight thousand.

What's more, gold only accounts for a very small part.

After looking for about ten minutes, Lin Sicheng raised his head and took off his gloves: "Teacher Bai, you need to be mentally prepared!"

Bai Wan's heart skipped a beat, and she forced a smile: "Okay!"

"First, let's talk about the craftsmanship: moldless Hammering, Layered Chasing, openwork carving, Jin Red Flag gold... all meet the craftsmanship requirements of the eight true gold arts of the Tang Dynasty, and no modern machinery or chemical agents were used..."

Bai Wan's spirits lifted slightly: "But what?"

Lin Sicheng smiled: "But, it is a modern imitation!"

"Ah?" Bai Wan was stunned for a moment and pointed at the gold ring, "But the gold color is dark; no matter how you look at it, it looks like natural aging?"

"Because it was made old according to the natural aging process!"

Lin Sicheng asked for a cotton swab and explained while wiping, "The reason why gold Cultural Relics age is that ancient Craftsman would mix copper and silver into the gold to increase hardness and luster, smelting it into a gold-copper-silver alloy, which is what the ancients called 'red gold'..."

"But copper contains lead, and long-term contact with air will form lead sulfide; silver is the same, forming silver sulfide... and sulfides are precisely one of the few common chemical substances that can cause gold to oxidize and darken..."

Lin Sicheng gestured: "Teacher Bai must have gold jewelry, like earrings or necklaces; don't they turn black after being worn for a long time? That is because gold rubs against the skin and reacts with the lead and sulfides in cosmetics..."

Except for the overly focused Teacher Bai, the remaining three women were all stunned for a moment: according to what Lin Sicheng said, are cosmetics full of poison?

Lin Sicheng smiled and continued: "If it were a real gold cultural relic, the lead and silver would be inside the gold, so the process is extremely slow; it takes about a thousand years to oxidize to the slightly dark color you see..."

"Then if it is an imitation, how can goldware quickly reach this degree of aging? Very simple: cover the surface with a sulfide layer for a rapid reaction..."

As he spoke, Lin Sicheng put the cotton swab head into a test tube and handed it to Li Zhen. Then he smiled again: "As for whether it is, send it to the laboratory, and one test will tell..."

Bai Wan's heart sank: did she misjudge it?

Just as he said, as for whether it is, one test will tell.

After being stunned for a long time, she sighed again: "Fortunately, at least it is gold!"

Lin Sicheng poured a bucket of cold water over her: "It really isn't; although gold accounts for a part, it is very little, about ten percent, and the rest is all copper and silver."

"Ah, how is that possible?" Bai Wan was suddenly stunned, "When I bought it, I even burned it with a spray gun; it neither turned black nor softened?"

"Because the surface is a Gold-gilding layer, and a little bit of Rhenium was added. This metal has a characteristic: an extremely high melting point, over 3000 degrees, and even higher hardness... so no matter how you roast it, this ring will not turn black, let alone soften, unless you cut it open directly..."

Bai Wan looked confused: "What is Rhenium?"

"It is a rare dispersed element, that is, a rare earth type, and its application range is very narrow: airplanes, spacecraft, and the like, so you may not have seen it..."

Not just not seen it, she hadn't even heard of it?

Subconsciously, Bai Wan looked at Ye Anning, and Ye Anning shook her head directly: she hadn't heard of it either!

Lin Sicheng smiled and pushed the gold ring back: "If you can return it, try your best to return it. If you can't return it, then you can only keep it as a collection...

However, in all fairness: the craftsmanship of this bracelet is extremely exquisite; except for the addition of Rhenium in the Gold Plating layer, everything else follows ancient methods, and the artistic component is quite high!"

No matter how high the artistic component is, it is still just an imitation, and what's more, over ninety percent is copper and silver?

Secretly annoyed, Bai Wan put the gold ring away and opened another box: "I have to trouble you again!"

Lin Sicheng nodded and took a look, and immediately, his pupils could not help but shrink: A gold-inlaid Beast-Headed Agate Cup?

What did he just say?

National treasure!

As a result, in the time it took to turn around, he saw one?

I am truly impressed by this big sister; is there anything you dare not buy?