Chapter 358: Why should I return it to you?

Xu Tian didn't like children much; he just glanced at the family of three indifferently, then put his carry-on luggage on the overhead luggage rack and sat down in his seat.

The distance from Huaxia to Y Country wasn't short, but the journey would take at least four hours.

After fastening his seatbelt, Xu Tian rubbed his eyebrows with some fatigue. During this period, in order to seize the time to cram knowledge about antiques, he had been staying up late for more than half a month.

Originally, he just wanted to take a nap when the plane just took off, but as soon as he closed his eyes, he thought of all kinds of memories from his past life.

At this time in his past life, Tang Bingyan also didn't go to Y Country to attend the auction in person because of her serious illness. Of course, the person chosen by the group to be in charge at that time wasn't him, but Gu Beicheng.

The Gu family had once dabbled in the antique industry, and Gu Beicheng also had a certain amount of research on antique porcelain from various dynasties, so he took the initiative to take on this arduous task, wanting to represent the Tang Group to go to Y Country to attend the auction.

Of course, after the itinerary was set, he also collected information everywhere and did a lot of homework, and he specifically asked several professors in their seventies or eighties for advice. He could be said to be high-spirited when he set off, feeling that he would definitely be able to photograph genuine items and bring them back to Huaxia.

But no one expected that even if Gu Beicheng and the Tang Group's expert team were full of confidence, they still brought back fakes, not only causing heavy losses but also damaging the Tang Group's reputation.

Because the Tang Group was a leading family enterprise in Huaxia, coupled with the Tang family's reputation, they were closely and frequently in contact with the high-level officials in Huaxia.

The reason why the Tang family went to Y Country to attend the private auction this time was that they received a commission from the high-level officials to go over and find antiques lost by Huaxia abroad.

That humiliating history nearly a hundred years ago caused many rare treasures of Huaxia to be scattered overseas, and what was even more excessive was that in the past ten years, with the development of Huaxia, more and more patriotic wealthy businessmen chose to find antiques lost abroad and spend high prices to buy them back to the country and donate them to domestic museums.

Therefore, certain unscrupulous merchants overseas saw the business opportunity and deliberately raised the price of Huaxia antiques, among which porcelain was the most outrageous.

This time, the catalog of that private auction in Y Country had two sets of Song Dynasty porcelain that Huaxia's high-level officials had been looking for for a long time.

However, many of the auction items in such private auctions couldn't see the light of day, so they weren't open to the public, which was why Huaxia's high-level officials sent the Tang family, who also had a certain influence internationally, to come forward.

Of course, the Tang family went to Y Country as private collectors on the surface this time, because when the Tang family did antique business before, they had dealt with the organizers of this auction, which was how they got the invitation.

In his past life, although Xu Tian also followed Gu Beicheng and the expert team to Y Country under Tang Bingyan's arrangement, for the entire group, he was just a decoration, and no one cared about his opinion.

As for Gu Beicheng, he wouldn't allow him to participate in the discussion of the auction, so in his past life's trip to Y Country, he was more like a transparent person, dispensable.

But even though he didn't participate in the bidding throughout the process, based on observation and memory, he still mastered some details that Gu Beicheng and others ignored, so he still had some confidence in this auction.

Although Xu Tian's greatest understanding of antique knowledge before this was the elective course he took in university, after searching for information and learning everywhere during this period, he also roughly summarized a few points of experience.

Antique appraisal is a relatively general term, which needs to be detailed according to different types of antiques. But now that technology is developed, forgery technology is also constantly developing, and some can actually reach the level of being fake and real.

Therefore, even old experts with decades of rich experience don't dare to guarantee 100% that the porcelain they have handled is definitely fine.

Of course, with the development of technology, Huaxia's high-level officials have also developed many scientific technologies used to identify porcelain. Of course, these instruments are expensive, and not everyone has the conditions to send them for testing.

Although the antique industry is very hot now, many rich people like to put one or two porcelain bottles or jade calligraphy and paintings in their homes, and tourists in the antique streets of every city are endless.

But the chance of wanting to buy genuine items in these places is minimal, otherwise, if antiques are everywhere, then these antiques wouldn't be valuable.

Xu Tian echoed the details of all kinds of experiences from his past life in his mind. From the beginning of arriving in Y Country to returning to the country, after confirming that he hadn't missed any details, he took out a tablet computer from his bag, opened the video software, and started playing a treasure appraisal program that had been very popular in the past few years.

This was what Xu Tian specifically downloaded before setting off, wanting to kill time on the plane and accumulate a little more treasure appraisal common sense by the way.

However, just as he put on his headphones and hadn't had time to click play, the tablet in front of him was suddenly snatched away by two little chubby hands.

Xu Tian was startled. He turned his head and found that the little girl brought by the middle-aged couple had come to his side at some point. At this time, the little girl was holding the tablet computer and fiddling with it, and soon the sound of the built-in game came from the computer.

The little girl didn't even look at Xu Tian and was about to run back to her seat holding the tablet.

Xu Tian immediately opened his mouth to stop her and said to her in a negotiating tone: "Uncle still needs to use the tablet to work. Can you lend it to me to play with in a while?"

Although having the tablet snatched away made Xu Tian somewhat unhappy, the other party was after all a child under ten years old, so he just wanted to get the tablet back and didn't want to argue.

However, the little girl held the tablet tightly in her arms with justification and even showed a deliberately fierce expression to Xu Tian.

"I snatched it, so it's mine. Why should I return it to you?"

Xu Tian was confused by the little girl's justified attitude. Perhaps the other party was too justified, which even made Xu Tian start to doubt who the owner of this tablet actually was.

He was stunned for a full five seconds before he took a deep breath and looked at a seat not far away.

That middle-aged couple was crossing their legs, drinking tea, and reading the newspaper, turning a deaf ear to the little girl's actions, as if they didn't think her behavior just now had anything inappropriate at all.

Xu Tian finally understood why this little girl was so impolite and so justified. Parents who think everyone in the world should indulge their own children, one can imagine what kind of children they can teach.

Xu Tian frowned and said to the middle-aged couple with a serious expression: "This little girl is your daughter, right?"

The middle-aged woman looked up impatiently, gave Xu Tian a white eye, and then said: "Speak if you have something to say."

"Didn't you see that she took my tablet computer?" Xu Tian's tone grew colder. ===== CHAPTER 359 =====