Chapter 342: Mobile Phone Tracking

Red Sandalwood outer box, red silk lining, the inner lid is deep red, like congealed blood jelly.

The Ivory lid and rim glow with a warm white; the edge of the lid is decorated with an Intaglio Chi Dragon, polished round and blunt, and the patina of the body has a glass-like quality.

Turning it over to look again, the navel is like a coin, the skin has a waxy luster, a top-grade gourd vessel: an "Ant Belly" from Xushui, Hebei.

Top-tier body, top-tier inner lid and rim, including the degree of aging, as well as the workmanship and patterns: the rim features a Chi Dragon, the belly features scrolling vines; no matter how you look at it, this is the craftsmanship of a palace Craftsman from the early or mid-Qing period.

Looking inside: an authentic Shandong Yimeng Iron Wing Golden Sound Great General, the king of insects. In the old society, one such insect could be traded for ten such jars.

Of course, it's not that expensive now; firstly, they are easy to breed, and secondly, not many people play with them. Even the best insects only go for ten thousand or eight thousand.

Like this one, the pity is that it broke a horn.

What's more of a pity is: the Ivory lid has cracked, and a piece the size of a grain of rice has caved in on the waist and belly; it looks like it's about to break open.

How could he still care about playing games? The man had an expression of "what a waste of a heavenly treasure": "Did it fall?"

Lin Sicheng nodded: "It fell!"

"At least several tens of thousands are gone, maybe even over a hundred thousand!"

The man sighed and put the jar down, "The insect is easy to replace, but the jar is not."

Lin Sicheng looked slightly anxious and cupped his hands: "It was meant to be a gift, and the day is almost here; I wasn't careful and dropped it. Please, help me out!"

The man shook his head: "It's not that I won't help; it's not just that we don't have one, but in the entire Tianjiao City, there isn't a single shop that has a jar of this quality!"

"Is there any place that can repair it?"

"There is, and it could be repaired to look eight or nine parts like the original!" The man examined it for a few moments. "If it were for your own collection, or to sell at a discount, then of course there would be no problem. But if it's for a gift, I advise the guest to forget it."

If this thing hadn't been dropped, it would be worth at least three to five hundred thousand; if it's worth paying such a high price for a gift, what level must the recipient be?

The more such a person is, the more taboos they have; you could even choose not to give a gift at all, but to give something broken?

Lin Sicheng sighed, reached out a hand, and the Special Duty Team member behind him handed over another box.

He placed it on the table and pushed it forward: "Please take another look, see if there is any way for this one!"

The man took a look: Nanmu Wood Wood Wood outer box, still the imperial-grade Ben Chang Tai, the inner lid is Tortoiseshell, and the lid rim is Rhinoceros Horn.

The rim is inlaid with Mother-of-Pearl Inlay, the gourd belly is embossed with Intaglio longevity patterns, the patina is natural, and the luster is warm and moist.

In terms of material and quality, it doesn't lose to the one beside it, and is even slightly better. The key is the mark on the bottom: Ku Zun.

If this isn't a fake, it must be the three-layered hollow-core resonant gourd by the mid-Qing gourd master Liang Jiu. If one were to estimate its value, it would be worth three of the ones next to it.

There is only one point: the gourd body is covered in black spots.

This is the unique silver-dotting technique of Qing dynasty Craftsmen; the principle is similar to the "Jin Red Flag" technique of Gold-gilding.

When first dotted, the gourd body would shimmer with silver light, like the starry sky, known at the time as "Starry Sky." But because sulfur was used on the gourd body to prevent insects, over time, the silver reacted with the sulfide to form silver sulfide, turning into these black spots.

Also known as black-spotted gourds, it is considered a unique feature of Qing dynasty gourd vessels.

The man understood what Lin Sicheng meant: could these black spots be restored to silver, or even removed entirely?

But to be honest, it is difficult to handle; at least the man, including his old father, had no way to deal with it.

"It's hard to handle!" The man shook his head. "Whether it's restoration or decomposition, it will leave traces. Not to mention anything else, at the very least, this layer of glass-like patina on top would definitely not be left at all."

"Antiques are antiques; if this layer of old luster is gone, what kind of antique is it? I think you'd be better off just giving it as is."

After a slight pause, the man seemed to suddenly remember: "However, I can point you to a place: there is a shop in the market that specializes in fakes, their imitation of old gourd vessels is superb, and among them is this kind of mercury spot."

I don't know exactly where he gets his goods from. But if he can imitate mercury spots, he should be able to remove them. You go and ask him if he takes on this kind of work..."

If there is money to be made, why not take it?

It's nothing more than spending a bit more money.

Lin Sicheng's spirits lifted: "Boss, where exactly is it?"

"Not far, go out the door, turn right, pass two alleys, then turn left; the shop is called 'Paozhentang'. If you can't find it, ask someone..."

Lin Sicheng thanked him repeatedly and spent another two thousand to buy an insect.

The two boxes were handed to Liu Guojun, and the three of them went out the door.

It was indeed not far, just two streets away. The storefront was not large, and the plaque was not very conspicuous.

Inside the door was a small tea table with four rattan chairs, and around it were five or six standing racks, all filled with gourd vessels:

Cricket cages, katydid jars, Bowls, basins, vases, pots, boxes, stoves, as well as Brush Pots, and even flower inserts. Every gourd vessel on the market was here.

They varied in shape and size, and the craftsmanship was Five Flowers and Eight Gates. They were quite neat and looked exquisite, but anyone with a bit of an eye could tell: most were machine-molded, machine-embossed, and machine-carved.

To put it bluntly, they were all fakes.

The techniques for making them look old were quite high-level; there were imitation black spots, simulated fungal infections, and even insect bites, diseases, and oxidative damage.

As for whether they had found the right place and whether it had anything to do with that "Fragrant Fruit Garden," it was not yet known.

But that's how investigating a case is: peeling the cocoon, a Water Mill effort. So Lin Sicheng said to Yu Guang: the certainty is not very high...

In a flash, a woman came out from the back, in her thirties, with an ordinary appearance.

"A few of you, what do you need?"

"May I ask if the master is in? We would like to ask him to repair these two gourds!"

As he spoke, Lin Sicheng took out the boxes. The woman clearly didn't know the value of the goods, staring for a long time: "Are these fakes?"

What fakes? These were Zhao Shixiong's genuine family heirlooms. At that time, he was only in his twenties, and when his old father was still alive, he had traded ten catties of corn grits for them from a peer.

They were like this when they were acquired: one had a broken belly and a broken lid, and the other had developed black spots. But neither Zhao Laotaiye nor the old lady had the confidence to repair them, so they had just been kept. Counting the time, it had been forty years.

Lin Sicheng was noncommittal: "Could you please ask the Manager to come out and take a look!"

"I am the boss, but I only sell goods, and the goods are imported from other places. If you want to repair them, I can help you ask..."

Halfway through, the woman paused, and Lin Sicheng understood in a second: "I know, a referral fee!"

The woman nodded: "Fine, then leave a phone number!"

"Can't you contact them now?"

The woman spouted nonsense: "There's no signal in that place!"

In truth, she hadn't memorized the number, and even if she had dialed it, the other party might not necessarily answer.

"I won't hide it from you, I went to Tingqiushan Hall specifically, and the boss recommended me to come here..."

The woman remained indifferent: "There's no way, we really can't get in touch right now!"

Lin Sicheng looked slightly disappointed and pointed at the box, "Boss, how about this, does our shop have anything of this quality? It doesn't have to be a Cricket Gourd, but it must look old!"

"We do have some!"

In this line of work, the main thing is to observe expressions and gauge people, and at a glance, she knew this young man was in a hurry.

The woman rolled her eyes, "But the price is quite high!"

"It's fine, just take them out for me to have a look."

"Alright!"

The woman replied, went into the back room, and a moment later, came out carrying a rattan box.

It was quite large, a semi-handmade craft, made quite ingeniously: once the lid was lifted, a three-tiered stepped partition was brought out.

Each layer was divided into several small compartments, mostly containing small items: there were Seal Boxes, Tea Cups, Brush Pots, and the most numerous were Cricket Gourds.

Although they were all High Imitations, the workmanship was exquisite and vivid.

After taking a few looks, Lin Sicheng picked up a Snuff Bottle with longevity patterns covered in black spots: dyed with cinnabar, aged with mercury.

The former was fine; anyone who could imitate gourd ware could generally do it. But using the "Jin Red Flag" technique to dot silver onto a gourd required extremely superb craftsmanship.

Because this thing was a gourd, it was wood skin, only one or two millimeters thick; not only was it thin, but it was also brittle. If the temperature wasn't mastered well, one dot would create a hole.

So the boss at "Tingqiushan Hall" wasn't wrong; the craftsman's skill at this shop was indeed quite high.

But after recalling the hand from that "Xiangguoyuan," he felt it was still a bit lacking.

It wasn't that the craftsmanship was poor, but the characteristics of that "cricket" hand: cinnabar seeped into the web of the thumb, caused by frequent dyeing. The skin cracked like tree bark, caused by using sulfur to imitate sulfurized silver black spots.

Both of these could be seen on this gourd Snuff Bottle, but it was still missing something: the spherical calluses on the finger pads.

This was caused by long-term manual polishing of gourd ware to imitate natural patina, but there were none of these in this box.

To put it simply: these were all polished with the help of tools and materials, such as cowhide, cotton cloth, or even sawdust and fine rice bran.

After looking carefully, Lin Sicheng shook his head: "The wave patterns are quite realistic, but the 'thief's luster' is too floating, the oil stains are too heavy, and the egg white is almost caked into grime. You don't even need to taste it; you can smell the beeswax with your nose... Boss, do you have anything more authentic, something older? If you do, the price is negotiable..."

The woman was startled and looked at him strangely.

There were only a few methods for artificially polishing gourd ware to imitate patina: walnut oil mixed with Turpentine, chicken fat mixed with lard, tea paste mixed with egg white, and beeswax mixed with rapeseed oil.

As long as one knew one of these and could imitate the characteristics of a relatively natural old patina, one could be called a master craftsman; those with extremely rich experience only knew two or three.

Being able to mix all four and imitate the wave patterns of manual polishing meant one was at least at a master level.

To be able to see the flaws in a master-level imitation at a single glance—what level must this eye for detail be?

At the very least, it showed that this person was indeed here to buy something.

The woman closed the box and said, "Wait a moment."

After about two minutes, she brought out another small casket.

It was only about ten centimeters high, the size of an A4 sheet of paper. There weren't many items, just five or six pieces of various sizes.

But at just one glance, Lin Sicheng's eyes lit up: he had found it.

Was it really purely hand-polished?

The method wasn't complicated: sitting in a hot room, constantly drinking hot tea to induce sweating, and then continuously polishing it by hand while covered in sweat.

Afterward, it would pass through an X-ray, and most machines couldn't detect items polished in this way.

But it was extremely time-consuming and required extreme skill: for those who knew how to polish, under a High-power Microscope, the oil film would appear as regular island-like chains, which was the so-called wave pattern.

For those who didn't know how, it would be in clumps, as messy as cow hair.

Lin Sicheng nodded: "How much for these few?"

The woman was startled again: "You want them all?"

"If the price is right, I'll take them all!"

She hadn't polished the items herself, so the woman really didn't know how much to sell them for.

Because no one with such a sharp eye had ever come before; even if they specifically asked for High Imitations, she could generally send them away just by bringing out the first rattan box.

Items like these were all sold as genuine, but not sold here; rather, after the man found a buyer, he would have the customer come here to pick them up.

"Oh, wait a moment, I have to ask!"

As she spoke, the woman took out her mobile phone, preparing to go inside to make a call. After she had already turned around, she reacted, gave a sheepish smile, closed the casket, and held it to her chest.

Each one was worth tens of thousands; she couldn't let him just snatch one away.

Lin Sicheng gave a look, and the female Special Duty Team member understood instantly: "Big sister, there's a restroom inside, right? Could I borrow it?"

The woman was stunned for a moment: "I'll take you!"

For a deal worth at least tens of thousands, perhaps over a hundred thousand, letting someone use the restroom was definitely not a problem.

The woman took Su Ye into the back room; after about five minutes, the female Special Duty Team member returned and nodded lightly at Lin Sicheng.

It meant the bug had already been installed.

It really wasn't difficult; for something the size of a matchbox, just finding a slightly hidden spot was enough.

The male Special Duty Team member left the shop without leaving a trace.

At the same time, the equipment in the command vehicle at the parking lot was fully activated.

A "clatter" of noise, as if flipping through paper, and then the woman could be heard "muttering": "Changing numbers every day, like a thief?"

Afterward, there was the sound of dialing a number.

Several technical investigators held their headsets, fully focused, while the two Captains and two Deputy Detachment Leaders stood to the side, not daring to even breathe loudly.

Several sets of numbers were dialed, and the ten digit-key sounds were all different; the technical investigators deciphered them on the spot.

Suddenly, a phone ringtone sounded inside the command vehicle.

Everyone was stunned for a moment, and then, their faces filled with joy: had Lin Sicheng really found the source?

This is a "Fragrant Fruit Garden" mobile phone.

Before coming, the team leaders actually didn't hold much hope. Just as Lin Sicheng said, they could only treat a dead horse as if it were alive.

It wasn't that the public security couldn't investigate: at the very least, they had caught the person, and as long as there was a den here, they could take a photo and ask around the market one by one; sooner or later, they would find out.

But you have to guarantee that there are no eyes and ears of this gang in the market, and even more so, guarantee that you won't be unlucky enough to bump into the gang's den.

Therefore, they could only use an unconventional strategy: Zhao Xiuneng used his social connections to select the three most suitable, most professional, relatively clean-record, and least likely to be involved with this gang.

Sure enough, professional matters should be left to professional people: no one expected that Lin Sicheng would find a clue after visiting just one place, and it was the most direct clue at that.

Not to mention anything else, just checking the six sets of calls this woman just made and checking the call records would very likely lead to finding that Qi Song, as well as his subordinates and accomplices...

Everyone held their breath, and the command vehicle was extremely quiet. Two more numbers were dialed, both prompting that the phones were powered off.

The woman muttered a curse and dialed another number. It rang twice, the call was connected, and the woman said directly: "Big Brother, where is Qi Hao?"

"What's wrong?"

"A few experts came looking for hand-played gourds, just the few in the box, but I don't know the price!"

"Regardless of size, at least twenty thousand each!"

"He wants them quite urgently, and quite a few."

"Then add ten thousand to each; if you can't negotiate that, adding five thousand is fine too."

"Got it!" After replying, the woman changed the subject, "Big Brother, when is Qi Hao coming back?"

"He is busy; he will go back once he is done!"

The woman gave an "oh," hung up the phone, and started "muttering" curses again.

In the command vehicle, the group of people was dumbfounded.

"Fragrant Fruit Garden" is called Qi Hao?

The key is, who is this Big Brother?

After monitoring for more than a week, the information that should have been collected was already in place: real names, ages, fingerprints, and even voices.

There was no need for instrument comparison at all; the technical reconnaissance team could tell by ear that this was that Qi Song's voice.

The key is, the number the woman dialed must be the new mobile number Qi Song switched to...

Yu Guang had a look of joy on his face: "Lao Han, notify the perimeter team, track the mobile phone location!"

(End of this chapter)