My happy life in a courtyard house with triplets.

Chapter 294: Strolling through Liulichang

Lou Xiao'e said, somewhat confused, "Honey, if you really like these, go find my dad. I remember he has a lot of them, and many were gifts from others. They look much better than these."

Zhang Lei waved his hand and said, "Your dad is your dad. We're just here to join in the fun. Think about it, we only spend a few cents or a few dollars, but we can resell them for hundreds of dollars..."

Listening to Zhang Lei's persuasive talk, Lou Xiao'e immediately became interested and said, "Alright then, let's just treat it as entertainment."

Soon, the two started looking around and came to a shop that looked quite nice. They went inside. Zhang Lei and Lou Xiao'e had only glanced at the shop a couple of times when an apprentice approached them, smiling, and asked, "What would you two like to see? We have calligraphy and paintings, antiques, and some rare and precious items."

Looking at the apprentice, Zhang Lei smiled and said, "Then tell me, which one here is real and which one is fake?"

When Zhang Lei asked this question, the apprentice was completely dumbfounded. Who would ask such a question?

At this moment, the apprentice realized that the two men were definitely not knowledgeable about the products, so he smiled and said to Zhang Lei, "Sir, what do you mean? Rongbaozhai is a centuries-old brand. There are no fakes in our products, they are all genuine."

Hearing his words, Zhang Lei shook his head and pointed to a painting, asking, "How much is this painting?"

Zhang Lei was looking at the "Cold Food Festival Poems of Huangzhou," which also had Su Shi's signature on it.

Upon seeing the calligraphy scroll Zhang Lei pointed to, the apprentice exclaimed excitedly, "Sir, you have an excellent eye! This is our shop's prized possession. Look at the quality, and look at how well it's been preserved..."

Zhang Lei waved his hand and said, "Hurry up and name a price, how much?"

The apprentice held up three fingers.

Zhang Lei laughed and said, "That's all the money? Okay, I'll buy it."

As he spoke, he took out three yuan from his pocket.

When the apprentice saw that Zhang Lei had only taken out three yuan, he immediately said angrily, "Sir, are you kidding me?"

Zhang Lei said, "What are you joking about? You held up three fingers, so it's just three yuan. I can afford it."

The apprentice angrily retorted, "I held up three fingers to tell you it's three thousand dollars!"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Lei exclaimed in shock, "Are you robbing me? Three thousand?"

At this moment, the owner of Rongbaozhai, a fat man, came downstairs and asked, "What's going on? Why is there so much noise?"

The apprentice quickly ran up and said, "Boss, someone's causing trouble."

The owner of Rongbaozhai looked at Zhang Lei and Lou Xiao'e and said, "Who is it? Let me see. They dare to cause trouble in my Rongbaozhai. They've really gone too far."

Zhang Lei looked at the owner of Rongbaozhai and said, "Hey, is your shop a rip-off? You dare to charge me three thousand for just a lousy painting?"

Hearing Zhang Lei's words, the owner of Rongbaozhai said, "My friend, the painting you're looking at is by Su Shi. Even three thousand is a loss for us."

Lou Xiao'e stood aside, looked at the shop owner and the apprentice, and said, "What's going on between you two? You say three thousand, so it's three thousand? Besides, your apprentice only held up three fingers, how is anyone supposed to know what he meant?"

At this moment, the owner of Rongbaozhai also realized that these two people clearly didn't know anything and were probably rich young masters who had come to join in the fun.

The owner of Rongbaozhai looked at the two and said, "You two seem to be newbies as well. Since you are newbies, I will pretend that nothing happened today. Go back to where you came from."

Upon hearing the Rongbaozhai owner's words, Zhang Lei immediately became displeased and said, "We don't even know if this painting is real or fake, yet you're asking for so much money right off the bat. How can you prove that this painting is genuine?"

Upon hearing this, the owner of Rongbaozhai said, "Rongbaozhai's reputation alone proves its authenticity."

Zhang Lei spat and said, "Bullshit! I'd say I have sharp eyes, but I can tell this painting is fake."

Zhang Lei provoked the owner of Rongbaozhai so much because he wanted to see if the store was a shady business. If it was, he wouldn't hold back; if not, he'd just learn something new.

The owner of Rongbaozhai looked at Zhang Lei and said, "This painting of ours has been approved by the director of the National Museum. If you two believe that our painting is fake, you can have it appraised."

As he spoke, the owner of Rongbaozhai went on to describe the calligraphy scroll, detailing its material, style, and signature. Zhang Lei and Lou Xiao'e were completely bewildered.

Zhang Lei thought for a moment, then waved his hand and said, "Forget it, we don't know anything about this, how would we know if what you're saying is true or false? I'll find someone who knows about this to come and take a look another day before deciding whether to buy it or not."

With that, he grabbed Lou Xiao'e and ran off in a flash.

Seeing Zhang Lei's expression, Lou Xiao'e said with amusement, "Honey, you don't understand and you're making the boss explain things to you. What if the boss has connections and leaves us here?"

Zhang Lei secretly hoped this place was a rip-off, but he couldn't say it aloud. So he said, "I just brought you here to broaden your horizons, didn't I?"

Listening to the shop owner's seemingly convincing explanation, Zhang Lei realized he couldn't go back into the store. He didn't understand it and couldn't argue with him, so he started looking around on both sides of the road.

Suddenly, he saw a colorful camel. Zhang Lei looked closely and realized that it was a tricolor camel carrying musicians.

Zhang Lei remembered this thing because he had seen it in the Xi'an Museum in Shaanxi Province in his previous life. He remembered that it was marked as unearthed in 1959, but he never expected to see it here.

He immediately squatted down, intrigued, and said, "Hey, boss, how much is this colorful camel?"

Seeing a customer come in, the shopkeeper, who was sitting on the ground, immediately said, "Boss, take a look at my colorful camel, it's a real gem."

Lou Xiao'e curled her lip and said, "Honey, it's just a camel, and it's so ugly. If you ask me, you should buy an elephant. Elephants are much bigger than camels."

Hearing Lou Xiao'e's words, the stall owner sitting on the ground almost burst out laughing.

Zhang Lei glanced at the boss's attire—a cloth bag, and the earthy smell emanating from him—and immediately guessed what was going on—this must be a tomb raider.

Zhang Lei thought to himself, "These people are really capable; they managed to get this stuff out."

Zhang Lei thought for a moment, then casually pointed and said, "Boss, how much are these for each one? If they're cheap, I'll buy a few to display at home."

The tomb raider glanced at them, then waved his hand dismissively, saying, "Go away, what do you mean by a few dollars each? These are all genuine, three hundred dollars each."

Upon hearing the price of three hundred yuan each, Lou Xiao'e exclaimed in shock, "What the hell? You want three hundred yuan for this lousy thing? Are you robbing me? Come on, let's go, husband!"

Zhang Lei echoed Lou Xiao'e's words, saying, "Yes, yes, that's right. These things cost three hundred yuan each. They must be money-grubbing bastards. I wonder where these country bumpkins came from, daring to come to Beijing to rip people off."

Hearing Zhang Lei's words, the stall owner gritted his teeth in anger, but he didn't dare to really argue with the two of them because he could tell that their clothes were unusual. He simply waved his hand and said, "What a damn bad luck."

As he spoke, he began to stuff his belongings into his pockets.

Zhang Lei watched as the shopkeeper put the tricolor camel carrying musicians into his pocket, and he was overjoyed—his opportunity had arrived.

He immediately used his personal space to collect a pile of bricks. Taking advantage of the stall owner's inattention, he instantly swapped all the bricks with the antiques in the owner's pocket.

Zhang Lei was overjoyed when he saw the pile of strange and unusual antiques in the space.