Chapter 3078: Tailor-made

Before Zhou Liangyun even appeared on the antique street, more and more collectors had arrived at the door to collect the Northern Song bronze Buddha.

In a short while, more than a dozen collectors had gathered outside the shop.

Because Zhou Liangyun only left ten numbers, the remaining few left one after another in disappointment after seeing they couldn't get a number. As for the ten who got numbers, except for the first one, the others were also quite uneasy.

The message the seller posted online was: 20 million, no bargaining, first come, first served. If the first person bought it directly, the other nine would have made the trip for nothing.

However, if the seller held a small auction on the spot, the other nine wouldn't be without a chance. But if that happened, the profit would likely get thinner and thinner during the bidding.

If they bought it for 20 million, they were confident in making 8 million. If a bidding war really started, they would at least dare to bid up to 27 million.

But if it went any higher, this collection would become a chicken rib—if you don't take it, you made the trip for nothing; if you do take it, you won't make much money on this trip.

And it's not certain when it can be cashed out. After all, it's over 20 million in funds. If it's tied up for a long time, it's equivalent to losing money in disguise.

People on the antique street also found it strange at this time.

Many couldn't understand why so many people were waiting at the door of Zhou Liangyun's shop.

The vendor who specifically tipped off Chen Yufei no longer had the mood to run his stall. All his attention was focused on Zhou Liangyun's Zhenbaoge. Seeing so many people waiting at the door, he felt more and more that something wasn't quite right.

He reported the situation to Chen Yufei, but Chen Yufei just told him to keep watching, focusing on what would happen after Zhou Liangyun met these people.

At the same time, Ye Chen and Xiao Xiao Churan had already sent Xiao Xiao Changkun and Ma Lan to the airport.

After waving goodbye to the two at the security checkpoint, Ye Chen drove Xiao Xiao Churan to the company.

Xiao Xiao Changkun and Ma Lan, after passing through security and customs, arrived at the first-class lounge, happily waiting for the boarding announcement.

Sitting on the sofa, Xiao Xiao Changkun didn't forget to take out his phone and scroll through the video of Chen Yufei slapping the scammer in the face yesterday.

He mainly focused on the comment section, because yesterday he had posted a comment saying that Zhou Liangyun had been scammed. Besides that, he also reminded all local antique enthusiasts in Jin Ling not to buy anything from Zhou Liangyun, because this person's eye for antiques was truly terrible, and his professional ability was also very poor.

This comment received many likes and replies. Many people were thanking him for sharing the information, and some were mocking Zhou Liangyun in the comments.

Every time he saw someone mocking Zhou Liangyun, Xiao Xiao Changkun was so happy he couldn't close his mouth. To him, this was both satisfying and exciting.

At the same time, Song Wanting left home early in the morning and took her private car to the Song Group.

On the way, she scrolled through a few short videos and happened to see the video that Chen Yufei had spent money to promote.

When she saw that the Jiqingtang video had become a hot topic, she watched the entire video without blinking.

After watching it, her impression of Chen Yufei changed significantly.

In fact, Song Wanting was also very clear that Jiqingtang's current performance was getting worse and worse, and it likely had a lot to do with Chen Yufei's lack of personal ability.

However, she was now in charge of the Song Group, which had a market value of over 100 billion RMB. She really didn't have the extra energy to ask about Jiqingtang's business. Therefore, in her view, as long as Jiqingtang didn't lose too much money or ruin the reputation that had been painstakingly built, she wasn't willing to make major changes to Jiqingtang's current operations.

This mentality was similar to Liu Manqiong begging her father to maintain that snack street in Hong Kong—it was mainly for sentiment.

Now seeing that Chen Yufei did have some skills, she felt a bit relieved.

After watching the video, she couldn't help but click on the comments, finding that most people were praising the professional level of the Jiqingtang manager and also praising the old brand of Jiqingtang, which was indeed unrivaled in Jin Ling.

Immediately after, she saw the video comment posted by Xiao Xiao Changkun.

When she saw the name Zhou Liangyun, she couldn't help but feel surprised. She didn't expect that Zhou Liangyun, whom she had fired for offending Ye Chen, had actually returned.

She subconsciously sent a message to Ye Chen: "Master Ye, I just scrolled through a short video and found that Zhou Liangyun, the former manager of Jiqingtang, has returned to Jin Ling. He offended you and your father-in-law at Jiqingtang back then. Do you think Wanting needs to do anything?"

For Song Wanting, everything she had today depended on Ye Chen. Although she didn't want to be the kind of petty person who squeezed others out, once she thought that Ye Chen might still be dissatisfied with this person, she made a decision without hesitation: as long as Ye Chen didn't want to see Zhou Liangyun, she would definitely make him leave Jin Ling.

Ye Chen was walking to the parking lot at this time. Upon receiving Song Wanting's message, he immediately replied with a line: "I am not a petty person, and I never said he couldn't return to Jin Ling. If he wants to return, let him return. No one needs to interfere."

Seeing this message, Song Wanting immediately realized that she had thought of Ye Chen as too petty, so she hurriedly replied: "I'm sorry, Master Ye, it was Wanting's narrow-mindedness. How could you be on the same level as him? Don't worry, Wanting will definitely not interfere with him in any way."

Ye Chen replied: "No need to say sorry. After all, you were thinking of sharing my worries."

When Ye Chen told Song Wanting not to interfere with Zhou Liangyun in any way, Zhou Liangyun, carrying a shoulder bag, came out of the hotel and walked to the antique street, preparing to open Zhenbaoge.

When he was two or three hundred meters away from Zhenbaoge, he was stopped by the vendor: "Oh, Manager Zhou, why are you here so late?"

Zhou Liangyun smiled: "Is this late? Don't shops on the antique street open late?"

The vendor said: "It's just that people have been waiting at your shop door for a long time, and there are quite a few of them."

As he spoke, he deliberately leaned closer and asked gossiping: "Manager Zhou, are those people all here to buy things from you?"

Zhou Liangyun felt that the other party seemed particularly concerned about him and was likely ill-intentioned. However, he didn't hide it and said frankly: "That's right. I received an item yesterday and wanted to sell it quickly, so I posted information online. They should all be here to see the item."

After saying that, he waved his hand and said: "Let's not talk for now. I'll go over and take a look. Don't let them wait too long."

The vendor hurriedly said: "Don't be in a hurry, Manager Zhou. I have something I want to ask of you. I wonder if you can give me some face?"

Zhou Liangyun asked him: "What is it? Tell me."

The vendor said: "Look, I don't have any business here either. Why don't you let me go to your shop with you and see how they collect your items? I'm particularly interested in this kind of thing and want to follow along and learn more."

After saying that, fearing Zhou Liangyun wouldn't agree, he hurriedly added: "Don't worry, I'll just watch from the side."

Zhou Liangyun guessed that the other party must be scouting information for someone else. As for whether it was Zhang Zhang Ermao, Xiao Xiao Changkun, or Chen Yufei, it didn't matter to him anymore, because these three must be connected. As long as the news reached the ears of any one of them, it meant all three knew.

Moreover, the vendor in front of him was naturally very gossipy. If he let him witness the whole process, he would definitely spread the news to every corner of the antique street.

Therefore, such a person could just be used by him, and now it was equivalent to him delivering himself to his door.

Having made up his mind, Zhou Liangyun smiled and said: "Since you're interested, come along and take a look. Anyway, there's nothing shameful going on."

As he spoke, Zhou Liangyun reminded: "However, if you want to go to my shop, you have to agree to three conditions and follow my rules."

The vendor hurriedly said: "No problem, Manager Zhou. Tell me what to do, and I'll do it."

Zhou Liangyun said: "First, when you get to my shop, your phone must be handed over to me for safekeeping, because the people who come to my shop are big clients from all over the country. You absolutely cannot film them or infringe on their privacy."

The vendor agreed immediately without any thought, blurting out: "Okay, okay, no problem. I'll hand my phone to you right now!"

As he spoke, he took out his phone and handed it to Zhou Liangyun.

He was very clear in his heart that the task Chen Yufei gave him was to scout for information, not to film videos. If he could witness it with his own eyes on the spot, he would definitely get the most accurate and fastest first-hand news. What did it matter if he handed his phone to Zhou Liangyun?

And Zhou Liangyun thought very clearly: the vendor wanted to get inside information on his sale, and he could just use him to reverse the public opinion from last night.

The only thing to watch out for was to absolutely not let him film a video and spread it randomly, because today he would likely make 20 million directly, which meant he would have earned 19.7 million on his first day of business.

The matter of losing 300,000 yesterday was nothing nationwide, but earning nearly 20 million in one night—if that really spread, it might go directly to the hot search.

Since short videos became mainstream on the internet, to get on the hot search, you must have a video. If there's no video, and you just rely on word of mouth that someone earned 20 million in one night, netizens won't believe it.

Collecting the vendor's phone could eliminate the hidden danger of the video spreading.

Therefore, he took the phone handed over by the vendor and said to him: "Besides not being able to film videos, once I start receiving guests today, you cannot leave without permission until I finish receiving guests or the item is sold."

"Okay! No problem!" The vendor agreed readily, thinking to himself: "I was afraid you'd kick me out halfway. Since I promised Manager Chen to help him scout for information, I definitely have to find a way to watch until the end."

Zhou Liangyun nodded and added: "One last point: you can watch after you go, but you absolutely cannot speak. Don't say anything. If you have something to say, wait until it's over."

"Okay!" The vendor said without hesitation: "Don't worry. After entering your shop, I absolutely won't speak. When you tell me I can speak, then I'll speak."

Zhou Liangyun nodded slightly with satisfaction: "Good, then let's go."

"Alright, alright!" The vendor was very attentive and followed behind Zhou Liangyun.

At this time, in front of Zhenbaoge, twenty or thirty people had been waiting for a long time, because the 10 collectors who got numbers almost all came in groups of two or three.

In fact, before Zhou Liangyun left the hotel, he had already seen the faces of these collectors outside the door through the shop's surveillance.

Finding no familiar faces, he truly felt relieved.

He had been dealing with Chinese antiques overseas for so many years and had had dealings with some top collectors in the country.

However, he was also very clear that the top collectors he knew had extremely strict requirements for collections. Most of them only collected good items with near-perfect condition. They shouldn't be interested in a Northern Song bronze Buddha like his, whose patina had been completely destroyed.

But he was also a little worried. What if one of the top collectors he knew wasn't doing well now and started to downgrade their consumption, and happened to take a fancy to his Northern Song bronze Buddha after downgrading? Then today's matter would be a bit tricky.

Fortunately, everything didn't deviate from his expectations. This Northern Song bronze Buddha perfectly filtered out the big collectors he knew. To Zhou Liangyun, the appearance of this item was as perfect as a tailor-made suit, and every point was extremely consistent with his needs. If things went well today, he would really have to thank the opportunity sent by Xiao Xiao Changkun.

At this time, Zhou Liangyun came to the door, cupped his hands to everyone, and smiled: "Sorry to keep you all waiting. I am the boss of Zhenbaoge. Please come in and chat."

Seeing that the boss had arrived, everyone cupped their hands to him politely.

The Yan Jing collector who got number one asked: "Boss, I have number one, so I want to ask, will we go in one by one in order, or all together now?"

This Yan Jing collector's thought was very simple. He felt that since he had number one, it would be best for him to see the item first. If there was no problem with the item, he would directly close the deal with Zhou Liangyun at the 20 million price tag posted online.

In this way, there would be no need for the others to come in.

He wasn't afraid of these people seeing the item, but he was afraid of them bidding against him on the spot.

Although the boss had already set a fixed price of 20 million online, this kind of thing wasn't legally binding and could change at any time.

If someone offered him 25 million and he was tempted to overturn the promise of a fixed price, he would have no way to deal with it.

Zhou Liangyun smiled and said: "Since everyone has been waiting at the door for so long, there's no reason to keep you waiting outside."

"After everyone goes in, each person can appreciate the bronze Buddha in the order of the numbers. After everyone has seen it, I won't raise the price temporarily. It will still be the fixed price I posted online. At that time, everyone can decide whether they are willing to buy it in the order of the numbers."

"If number one is willing to buy, the purchase right will go directly to number one, and I can only say sorry to the others. But if number one is not prepared to buy, or cannot transfer the payment to the account immediately within five minutes, the purchase right will be extended to number two."

Upon hearing this, the number one collector felt relieved, and the others weren't immediately desperate, because no matter what, they could first go in and take a look at this treasure. Secondly, if the person in front didn't want it after seeing it, or couldn't come up with so much money in a short time, they would still have a chance.

The vendor following along started to feel nervous, secretly speculating: "What kind of medicine is Zhou Liangyun selling in his gourd? These people seem to be quite capable, but they seem very interested in Zhou Liangyun's items. Could it be that someone is really going to be bluffed by him today?" ===== CHAPTER 3079 =====