Chapter 67: Learned from a Japanese book?

The noodles had long since gone cold, and Wang Qi Zhi ordered two more portions of Noodle Skin.

Ye Anning only kept a very small amount, and pushed all the rest to Lin Sicheng.

Yet she remained absent-minded, taking a long time to pick up a chopstick-full, bringing it to her mouth, and chewing mechanically.

It felt as if she wasn't eating food, but wood?

The two were sitting face-to-face, and Lin Sicheng kept feeling that those eyes were staring at his face. But looking closer: the eyes were hollow, completely devoid of focus.

Lin Sicheng felt creeped out by the stare and truly couldn't help but ask: "Sister Anning, are you not feeling well?"

"Huh?" Ye Anning woke as if from a dream, "No, why?"

"Don't mind her!" Wang Qi Zhi waved his hand, "She's been like this since she was little..."

Unsurprisingly, this earned him a pair of eye-rolls from Ye Anning.

They weren't very familiar, so he didn't press for details; Lin Sicheng lowered his head and finished his noodles.

Leaving the restaurant, it was already five in the afternoon. Wang Qi Zhi said his mind felt a bit unsettled, so he asked Lin Sicheng to drive on the way back.

Lin Sicheng, of course, had no problem with that.

Although he had only held his driver's license for three years, his twenty years of driving experience were the real deal.

The drive was fast and steady, and by the time the sky was just turning dark, the three of them had returned to the school.

After parking steadily in the garage and giving a few instructions for Lin Sicheng not to run around tomorrow and to prepare well for the battle, Wang Qi Zhi took Ye Anning upstairs.

The television was playing a cartoon: Grey Wolf was chasing Lazy Sheep, and they both tumbled into a mud pit.

The mother and son were sitting cross-legged on the sofa, laughing until they were doubled over.

Hearing the sound of the door opening, Dan Wangshu stood up: "Have you eaten?"

"I've eaten, I'm quite full, but Anning basically didn't eat anything!"

"Not to her taste, I suppose? What would you like to eat, girl?"

Wang Qi Zhi grinned: "No need, this is an illness of hers; she'll be fine once she's hungry!"

Ye Anning rolled her eyes at Wang Qi Zhi: "Aunt, you don't need to worry about me, I'll just drink some milk later!"

After exchanging greetings, Ye Anning returned to her room.

Dan Wangshu was confused: they were perfectly fine when they went out in the morning, so why were they so wilted after playing for a day?

"What's wrong with Anning?"

"She's been stimulated!" Wang Qi Zhi thought for a moment, "Just like when you three siblings first met me!"

Dan Wangshu suddenly understood.

Thinking back to those years, she had always felt she was very outstanding: pretty, good figure, high education, cultured, and from a good family.

But that was until she met Wang Qi Zhi.

At the time, she really couldn't wrap her head around it; everyone was born of a mother and father, so why was he good at everything, and why was he so much better than her in every way?

Her pride was too high back then, and she had been depressed for a long time.

Compared to that, Ye Anning's pride was even higher, and she was more competitive. But correspondingly, her personality was also more reserved.

So, this shouldn't be happening, right?

Dan Wangshu was very curious: "How was she stimulated?"

Wang Qi Zhi sighed: "Because of an oil painting!"

And it wasn't just Ye Anning; it included himself as well.

Asking himself, hadn't he already been considered outstanding enough? Outstanding enough that before anything was even set in stone, his brother-in-law and sister-in-law were already calling him brother-in-law the moment they saw him. As soon as he visited, his mother-in-law would beam with joy, preparing a whole table of delicious food and drink.

Outstanding enough that on the day of the engagement, when he simply changed his address to 'Dad', his father-in-law actually let out a huge sigh of relief, looking as if to say, "Heaven has mercy, there is finally a successor."

Even more outstanding was that when he first arrived in Baoji, he was ostracized by everyone, but when he left three years later, a group of old Experts were so reluctant to see him go that they were pounding the table in protest at the farewell party.

But today, wasn't he still shaken to the core, filled with endless emotion, and even so unsettled that he didn't dare drive on the way back?

The reason was simple: those seven Kaiyuan Tongbao Hebei Coins.

He had been right there, watching clearly: Lin Sicheng basically picked them up, glanced at them, and put them down, picked up the second one, glanced at it, and put it down... From start to finish, those seven copper coins hadn't stayed in Lin Sicheng's hands for even a minute.

But when it was his turn, even though he knew the remaining six were problematic, he still looked again and again, touched them again and again, and thought again and again.

Including the one Lin Sicheng had picked out, he had also compared it repeatedly for a long time before finding the features that made it different from the other six.

If compared, did this count as a gap?

He was thirty-five, Lin Sicheng was only twenty; did this count as a gap?

He had been professionally researching copper Cultural Relics for seventeen years, almost catching up to Lin Sicheng's age, while Lin Sicheng had only been researching for a few days?

Did this count as a gap?

And the feeling of an outstanding talent being defeated by someone else in the field they were most proficient and proud of, yet being unable to do anything about it, was truly devastating.

It was fortunate that he was broad-minded and had an easygoing personality, otherwise he would have been too depressed to eat.

Let alone Ye Anning?

Wang Qi Zhi recounted the story, and Dan Wangshu's eyes slowly widened, her pupils gradually shrinking.

Although Wang Qi Zhi often teased the three siblings, saying they had wasted such an impressive father, Dan Wangshu still possessed basic Appraisal knowledge from growing up in that environment.

The magazine from the first time, that Iron Certificate, the Cloisonne Sunflower Bowl from the second time.

Today's porcelain, Jade, hornware, woodwork, ancient coins, Calligraphy and Painting... and the fly swatter and Buddha statue that Wang Qi Zhi had mentioned repeatedly, which Lin Sicheng had used to leverage small gains into hundreds of thousands... how many categories was that?

But what Dan Wangshu found most incredible was the speed at which Lin Sicheng made money: if those two cups were repaired, it meant that from start to finish in about a month, Lin Sicheng had earned four or five million?

Four or five million could buy a building in Xijing.

If they relied on their salaries, she and Wang Qi Zhi would have to save for a hundred years without eating or drinking...

Wang Qi Zhi was indifferent: "Talking about money is so vulgar."

"If you think it's vulgar, then don't eat!"

After retorting, Dan Wangshu stood up and walked toward Ye Anning's bedroom. Her hand had already grasped the doorknob, but she paused and walked back.

"Typing on the keyboard quite fast, looks like you're chatting?"

Wang Qi Zhi shook his head violently: "Impossible!"

What kind of personality Ye Anning had, didn't he understand?

She didn't have that hobby of "wanting to find someone to vent to whenever she's in a bad mood."

After thinking for a moment, Wang Qi Zhi let out a "ha": Nine times out of ten, she's working hard to improve herself...

The screen was very bright, reflecting light in her eyes; the computer would occasionally receive an email, and occasionally a dialogue box would pop up.

There were pictures, text materials, and even more answers from her mentor to the questions she had raised:

Ordinary scanning technology can only analyze the color values on the surface of an oil painting, but cannot analyze the deeper base composition...

If one wants to analyze the force of the brushstrokes and the chronological order of color blending, one must apply 3D scanning technology. But this technology has not yet been introduced domestically...

If it is an Artifact Restoration work by Li Shutong, then it is highly likely to have come from Japan: there are clear reports that the number of his works left in Japan is very large. The wife and daughter he left in Japan live by selling his works...

The mentor explained a lot, and Ye Anning read it back and forth, over and over again, many times.

At the same time, she also became more and more curious: why did Lin Sicheng know so clearly about high-tech technology that hadn't been introduced domestically yet?

Thinking back to his catchphrase: learned it from books... It couldn't be, could it, that he learned it from the Japanese people's books?

Subconsciously, Ye Anning picked up her phone, but after looking at the time, she hesitated again.

Ten o'clock, it's too late.

Forget it, I'll ask him when I see him another day...