Chapter 48: Treating Guests

Wang Qi Zhi took away the Sunflower-mouth Plate, leaving only a photograph on the computer.

Shang Yan stared at the screen, her eyes unfocused, her fingertips tapping the desktop unconsciously, "Tap-tap... tap-tap..."

Suddenly, she turned her head back: "Li Zhen, have you mentioned the matter of Lin Sicheng applying for graduate studies today?"

"I haven't had the chance yet; I originally intended for him to discuss it with you in person!"

"That's good... don't mention it ever again!"

"Huh?"

When asked yesterday, Professor Shang had still been so eager?

Seeing Li Zhen stunned, Shang Yan recalled the few things Wang Qi Zhi had said before leaving:

Professor Shang, if you let Lin Sicheng come, how will you arrange it?

Treat him the same as everyone else, follow the standard procedure, and just treat him as a new graduate student? Or teach according to his aptitude and treat him differently?

If it is the latter, how should the other students be managed?

So Professor Shang, you must first consider: you have more than just Lin Sicheng as a graduate student under you. There are second-year students, third-year students, and even Doctors, and even post-docs... After he comes, what will be done about these students?

A single remark awakened the dreamer!

She sighed and looked at Li Zhen very seriously: "If I let him come, later in the laboratory, will you listen to him, or will he listen to you?"

Li Zhen was stunned.

She knew very clearly that whether it was knowledge base, proficiency in experimental procedures, or even research level, she was a bit inferior to Lin Sicheng.

The so-called "learning has no order of seniority, the accomplished are the teachers"; logically, it should be that she listens to Lin Sicheng.

But what should the other graduate students do, listen to Lin Sicheng too? The problem is, would they listen?

Then let Lin Sicheng listen to her?

Not to mention whether Lin Sicheng would be willing, what if she were the one who made a mistake?

She understood the logic, Li Zhen just felt it was a pity.

"There is nothing to pity!" Shang Yan shook her head, "Just as Professor Wang said: one cannot abandon the entire forest for the sake of a single piece of good timber... Since one is a teacher, one must have the moral integrity that one ought to have!"

Li Zhen moved her lips, not daring to speak again.

She just felt that the teacher seemed to have fallen for Professor Wang's trick?

Wang Qi Zhi lay half-reclined on the sofa, staring at the two fish at the bottom of the plate, feeling that he could never look at them enough.

How beautiful, how vivid, how natural?

Why not give Lin Sicheng a little more trust and let him repair it directly?

Just as he was feeling annoyed, with a "click," the latch sprang open, and Ye Anning pushed the door open.

Wang Qi Zhi glanced over, then continued looking at the basin.

He didn't even move his body, just lying half-reclined on the sofa like that, absent-minded and distracted.

Yet his eyes revealed a deep sense of attachment and appreciation.

Ye Anning was taken aback for a moment and muttered in a low voice: "Aunt, Uncle seems to have been dumped!"

"You dead girl!"

Dan Wangshu gave her a push, and the family filed in one after another.

Looking at Wang Qi Zhi again, his mental state was indeed a bit strange—lazy, listless, his eyes blinking without pause, as if he were daydreaming, yet there was a smile on his face.

"What kind of madness are you having?"

Dan Wangshu scolded him and walked over to take a look: "Eh, the plate is repaired?"

"So fast?"

Wang Qi Hua perked up, and the family followed closely behind, all crowding around.

"Wow, it's really beautiful?"

"These fish are just like they're alive, they're even blowing bubbles?"

"It seems it's not finished yet, look Uncle, the fish hasn't been glued on yet, this bronze plate should be a sample... but these scales are so fine, and there are ripples and water droplets, it's too realistic..."

Ye Anning clicked her tongue in wonder, "This glaze color is so full, an ordinary person definitely couldn't fire this!"

Wang Qi Zhi nodded: "It was painted with blue six times, how could it not be full?"

"How many times?"

Wang Qi Zhi gestured with his fingers: "Six times, Six Point Six Burn!"

Ye Anning was stunned for a moment: "Uncle, this Deputy Director Lin of yours... is quite impressive?"

What was impressive wasn't Deputy Director Lin, but Lin Sicheng.

Wang Qi Zhi sighed softly: "Why use a butcher's knife to slaughter a chicken!"

"What?"

"Lin Sicheng's own words: repairing this plate doesn't even require his grandfather to step in!"

Wang Qi Zhi sat up straight and pointed at the sample, "This was fired by Lin Sicheng, the same young man you met yesterday; this plate was actually found by him... what a coincidence, right?"

"He even knows how to repair glaze?"

"There's a lot he knows... A couple of days ago, the entire maintenance procedure for the Iron Certificate you were asked to help with was taught by him!"

Ye Anning was completely at a loss.

The day she first arrived, Uncle had been showing off the Iron Certificate and asked her to help him maintain it.

She had been quite surprised at the time: Uncle had always researched Bronze, she hadn't expected him to be so proficient with ironware as well?

But he had said: his student taught him.

She hadn't believed it at the time, but as it turned out, it really was his student who taught him?

"Where did he learn that?"

"From books!"

Tch, can't even tell a convincing lie?

Ye Anning didn't ask again; she turned her head to stare at the bronze plate, circling it as she looked: "With this level of craftsmanship, wouldn't it be enough to get into the Shaanxi Provincial Museum?"

"The Shaanxi Provincial Museum?" Wang Qi Zhi couldn't help but laugh, "Believe it or not, if I took a plate like this to Beijing, the Forbidden City and the Enamel Factory would fight over it?"

Isn't that an exaggeration?

The words reached her lips, but Ye Anning swallowed them back: Six Point Six Burn, to be able to fire to this level, even if placed in the Forbidden City or the Enamel Factory, could absolutely be called superb craftsmanship; of course they would fight over it.

Doesn't this mean that before he has even graduated, he has already paved a golden path beneath his own feet?

Stunned for a moment, Ye Anning suddenly remembered: "Then the Iron Certificate was also sold to you by him?"

"Right, the Iron Certificate cost him forty, he sold it to me for five hundred thousand. The Sunflower-mouth Plate was a freebie, he sold it to Big Brother for eight hundred thousand..."

Wang Qi Zhi laughed happily, "That means in three days, he earned one million three hundred thousand from our family!"

"No... how old is he?"

"A senior in college, how old could he be?"

Ye Anning moved her lips, not knowing how to evaluate this.

Subconsciously, the figure of Lin Sicheng appeared in her mind: young, full of vitality, and even carrying a bit of childishness.

To say that at this age he has such an eye for antiques, that's still somewhat possible. But to say he has the Artifact Research ability and craftsmanship to rival an Expert who has painstakingly studied for ten or several decades... how could that be possible?

The others were laymen and weren't very knowledgeable about research or craftsmanship. But at the very least, they knew what one million three hundred thousand meant.

Thinking about that young man again... with these skills, why even bother with school?

The atmosphere was somewhat quiet, everyone lost in their own thoughts, when suddenly, the mobile phone on the coffee table rang.

Wang Qi Zhi answered it smoothly, his spirits lifting: "You've arrived? Downstairs? Yes, alright..."

"What do you mean what kind of alcohol? What, no drinking... how can a man not drink?"

"Give me three minutes..."

He only said three sentences in total, put away the phone, and Wang Qi Zhi scrambled up.

"Big Brother, you all have already eaten, right? Then I won't worry about you... the person is waiting downstairs!"

"Wife, where did I put that case of alcohol I brought from Beijing?"

Watching him rummage through cabinets and drawers, the whole family was confused.

Before long, Wang Qi Zhi stood up, carrying two bottles of Moutai in his hands.

The porcelain bottles were yellowed, and the characters on the labels were already somewhat blurred.

Wang Qi Hua was stunned for a moment: This alcohol was at least ten years old; the day he first arrived, he drank two bottles with the third brother, and he was still thinking about how to swipe the remaining four when he left.

Well, that's great, only two bottles left?

Just as he was feeling suspicious, Wang Qi Zhi had already reached the door, and with a "bang," he vanished from sight.

The family looked at each other in dismay: Why is he acting like he's being chased by a dog?

After thinking for a moment, Ye Anning walked to the window and pulled back the curtains; the family followed.

Twilight was about to fall, and the evening glow shone through the branches of the old locust tree, casting brilliant spots of light on the ground.

The youth stood under the tree, his back against the rough bark. The evening Wind blew gently, lifting the fringe of hair on his forehead, revealing his slightly callow, handsome, and good-looking brows and eyes.

Wang Qi Zhi exited the building and threw his arm around Lin Sicheng's shoulder...