“Hey, A Chang, didn’t your grandma just dig up some bamboo shoots a few days ago? Why are you digging again today?” Zheng Guohong, who was also carrying a hoe and coming down from the mountain fields, immediately had a sour expression on his face when he saw A Chang. The moso bamboo growing in this forest was a shared resource for the village. Every year, the villagers sold some of it, and the money earned was considered communal property used for things like road repairs and installing power lines. If one family digs up bamboo shoots too frequently, others in the village wouldn’t be happy.
“Got too much internal heat. Digging some bamboo shoots to cool down,” Gao Chang replied without much interest, tossing back a line before heading deeper into the bamboo forest.
The village chief, Zheng Guobang, is a soft egg[mfn](软蛋, ruǎn dàn) weakling/ coward, a slang term for someone lacking backbone[/mfn], who is only good at saying nice things but lacks any real ability. He and Zheng Guohong are cousins, sharing the same grandfather. Village chief Zheng Guobang could handle dealings with higher-level officials well, thanks to his silver tongue, but he wasn’t particularly good at managing the affairs under his jurisdiction. Most of the work ended up falling to Zheng Guohong, and over time, he practically became the real village chief himself.
Before, it was Zheng Guobang’s idea to have Grandma Gao send away Rhubarb. He said it was for the sake of their villagers’ safety, so there was nothing they could say about it. Still, Gao Chang just didn’t like him.
Luckily, Rhubarb had recovered from his cold now. Its fur was once again sleek and shiny, and its spirit had returned. Now, no matter how one looks at it, it no longer looks like a sickly dog from before. And since it poses no risk of spreading any viruses, Gao Chang is free to keep him, and nobody else could say anything about it. Except for Zheng Guohong, who seemed to still hold a grudge, likely dissatisfied with Gao Chang’s behaviour of pretending to be obedient but secretly defying him, feeling that he didn’t take him seriously.
Gao Chang had disliked Zheng Guohong in his previous life and still didn’t like him after being reborn. Still, he felt that he should probably be more restrained in the future, since he still had to live in the village. In short, as long as Zheng Guohong doesn’t provoke him, Gao Chang won’t go out of his way to make life difficult for him either.
Gao Chang followed Rhubarb through the bamboo forest for quite a while before finally stopping in front of a crumbling wall. The bamboo in this area grew quite thickly, and few people ventured into these parts.
“Right here, ah?” Gao Chang grew up on the edge of this bamboo forest, but he rarely comes this deep in. The bamboo here grew too densely. One downside of moso bamboo was that as it grew taller, it shed its husks, which had tiny burrs on them, which fall off when touched, and stick stubbornly to clothes and arenearly impossible to wash off.
“Here! Just dig here!” Rhubarb extended its two front paws and began pawing at the ground, clearing away a thick layer of dead leaves and branches to reveal black soil.
“Step aside, I’ll do it.”
Gao Chang reached out and picked up Rhubarb, placing it on the wall beside him. With those tiny paws, it wouldn’t be able to dig a hole even if it worked until nightfall.
Gao Chang had also done farm work before; the food they ate at home was all grown by themselves. His grandma was getting old and could manage some housework, but she couldn’t handle farm work, so since middle school, Gao Chang had been tending their rice paddies himself. Initially, his grandmother guided him, sometimes lending a hand, but over time, the responsibility of farming fell entirely on him. Granny Gao only needed to take care of the small vegetable patch behind their house.
With just a few swings of the hoe, the soil was quickly loosened. Gao Chang originally thought he would have to dig very deep, but to his surprise, in less than five minutes, the hoe hit something with a “clang”. Gao Chang hurriedly dropped the hoe and started digging with his hands. Goodness, who knows whether the jar buried underground was worth more or whether what was inside was more valuable? With this swing, there’s a chance it might’ve struck an actual antique!
“Did you find it?” Rhubarb immediately jumped down from the wall and dove into the pit, then tossed out a few broken pieces of pottery. Gao Chang took a look—dull and unremarkable, lacking aesthetic appeal. If it’s not from ancient times, then it wouldn’t be worth much anyway, so he simply didn’t care.
“Can these be sold for money?” Rhubarb crawled out of the pit with a copper coin in its mouth. Gao Chang took it for a look. It was a copper coin, the kind commonly seen at street stalls in the city: round with a square hole, one side reading “Kangxi Tongbao” and the other side bearing a symbol he didn’t recognize along with the character “Nan”. Hard to say if it was valuable, but there were lots of them. After gathering all the coins from the pit, he counted a total of 273—at the very least, they could fetch 500 to 800 yuan.
“It can be sold for money.” Gao Chang nodded, giving Rhubarb a definite answer. Upon hearing this, Rhubarb was overjoyed—his mahjong set was finally within reach.
Gao Chang refilled the pit, took off his clothes, wrapped the coins in his shirt, slung his hoe over his shoulder, and headed home with Rhubarb.
This time, he was feeling unexpectedly generous. Without waiting for the copper coins to be sold, he went to town and bought a set of mahjong tiles. He picked out the Bamboo and Circle tiles, leaving only the Character tiles, along with the Wind and Dragon tiles, plus the 16 Flower tiles.
“Are you sure you want to play?” The desk in Gao Chang’s room was moved to the center of the room, with him and Da Huang sitting opposite each other at either end. Gao Chang sat on a stool, while Rhubarb sat on the tabletop.
“I want to play,” Rhubarb replied with a serious expression.
“Then come on.” Gao Chang smiled brightly, with a hint of cunning glinting in his pitch-black eyes.
After Gao Chang picked the tiles, the game played out quickly and intensely, favoring high-scoring combinations with hands like Pure Suit, One Dragon, Little Three Dragons, and Little Four Winds appearing frequently. The copper coins they had dug up from the bamboo forest had been evenly split between them and were now used directly as their betting chips. Fifteen minutes later, Rhubarb was left with nothing. Every single coin had fallen into Gao Chang’s hands.
“You’ve already lost everything,” Gao Chang said.
“……Just one more round, ba.” It’s only been fifteen minutes, but for a descendant of the Inugami who has just become addicted to mahjong, this is simply too cruel.
“Come back and play with me once you have the capital.” Gao Chang yawned and stretched lazily. He had been busy all day and hadn’t even begun his cultivation practice, so he sat cross-legged on the bed and began meditating.
Rhubarb, feeling helpless, had no choice but to squat alone at the table and sort the mahjong tiles. Using its claws, it picked up the tiles one by one and placed them into the box. After finishing, it dumped them out again and repeated the process. Clearly, it hadn’t gotten its fill of fun today.
On the bed, Gao Chang peeked with half-lidded eyes and glanced over at the movements on the other side. The corners of his mouth curled into a smile—he simply didn’t believe that this descendant of the Inugami could only dig up this small amount of copper coins. It seemed their funds were finally secured, paving the way for their preparations for the apocalypse. Right now, the thing Gao Chang lacked most was money.
And sure enough, Rhubarb indeed did not disappoint his expectations. Early the next morning, it set out on its own, and when Gao Chang returned from school later that day, he found the dog waiting at the village entrance. Gao Chang understood without asking any questions. He went home, grabbed a basket, took a small sickle used for cutting grass, and followed it up the mountain.
That night, Rhubarb naturally lost again. After repeating this several times, Gao Chang felt it was about time to make a trip to the city. So that weekend, he didn’t go anywhere else. He told Grandma Gao he needed to go out for a couple of days and would be back in two or three days, then carefully packed up the antiques and took them with him.
How much did Gao Chang actually win from Rhubarb? Well, the answer can be inferred from the words of the descendant of the Inugami as he watched his partner packing up antiques: “I want to quit gambling”. Rhubarb scratched the broken floorboards fiercely with its claws, feeling deeply regretful and ashamed of its poor gambling skills and lack of self-control.
“It’s okay, fertile water doesn’t flow into outsiders’ fields[mfn](肥水不流外人田, féishuǐ bù liú wàirén tián) An idiom that means to keep good things within the family[/mfn].” Gao Chang patted Rhubarb’s head, offering comfort.
Since he was carrying a lot of valuable items, Gao Chang decided not to sell them in his own city to avoid bringing trouble to their doorstep later. N City, where the antique market is relatively developed, is about ten hours away by train from their home in F City. On Friday afternoon, Gao Chang skipped two classes and hurried all the way to their city to catch the night train. Since it’s currently the off-season, he didn’t have to worry about not being able to buy a ticket upon arrival.
Gao Chang bought a hard seat ticket, but since there was no one sitting around him, he put his things under the seat, leaned back, and dozed off. There were bound to be pickpockets on the train, but Gao Chang had the advantage of his cultivation—his five senses were far sharper than the average person’s. Besides, this time he had brought Rhubarb along for the journey. After all, it was just a tiny dog, curled up inside a woven bag, completely hidden, unnoticed by anyone.
Probably because Gao Chang and his belongings looked too shabby, they slept peacefully through the night without anyone bothering them. By the next morning, they arrived safely in N City. After leaving the station, he took a taxi straight to the antique street.
“Can you tell what’s real from what’s fake?” On this street, there are not only shops on both sides, but also many stalls along the roadside.
“Child’s play.” Rhubarb lay on Gao Chang’s shoulder, yawning widely. It had never been on a train before and hadn’t slept well on it yesterday.
“I’ll walk down the street from here. Just give me a signal when you spot the stall with the most fake goods.” With that, he strolled over, looking around as he went. Seeing that he was just a kid from the countryside, most of the stall owners didn’t bother paying much attention to him.
“Wu wu……” Rhubarb on Gao Chang’s shoulder made a sound, so Gao Chang stopped in front of the stall next to him. The stall owner was quite old—his hair and beard were a mix of white and gray. He was even wearing a Taoist robe, giving off an air of mystery. Truly a case of cheating people to death without paying with their life[mfn](真是骗死人不偿命, Zhēnshi piàn sǐrén bù chángmìng), it means deception so extreme it could ruin people, yet the trickster faces no consequences[/mfn].
“Which treasure on this humble Taoist’s stall has caught the eye of the young benefactor?” As soon as he said this, it was as if everything he had on the stall was treasure.
“Taoist master, how much for this teapot?” Gao Chang blinked, his whole demeanor exuding a sense of naivety.”
“This is a purple clay teapot from the Ming dynasty, freshly acquired this morning. In this humble one’s opinion, the young benefactor and this teapot have a predestined fate to be together! How about I sell it to you for 1000 yuan?” The stall owner probably thought Gao Chang was easy to deceive, so he asked for an outrageous price.
“But Daoist Master, I don’t have that much money on me.”
“No problem, no problem. Meeting is fate. How much money do you have?” Seeing the fish about to take the bait, the stall owner‘s eyes lit up, and he smiled warmly, his tone becoming even more amiable.
“50 yuan.” Gao Chang bargained with a completely straight face.
The expression on the stall owner’s face suddenly stiffened, as if he had swallowed a fly. Then he shook his head with regret and said： “Ai, it seems you and this purple clay teapot are destined to part ways.”
“Then I guess that’s it.” Gao Chang reluctantly glanced at the imitation purple clay teapot. The craftsmanship was actually quite decent.
“Young benefactor, please wait a moment. Since fate has brought us together, I must fulfill this connection. Take this Ming Dynasty purple clay teapot with you.”
It’s not even eight o’clock, and most stalls haven’t even opened yet. Selling a counterfeit teapot for 50 yuan wasn’t much profit, but at least it was a good start to the day.
So Gao Chang spent 50 yuan to buy a counterfeit purple clay teapot from his stall, and then spent another 10 yuan on twelve fake copper coins. Passing by a breakfast stall, he casually bought four steamed buns. From last night until now, both he and Rhubarb were starving. The man and the dog sat on the steps in front of the bank, gnawing on the buns. Then he divided up the items in his bag and turned around and entered a small antique shop.
Gao Chang didn’t understand antiques, but Rhubarb did. Unfortunately, it had no concept of money and couldn’t be relied on for appraisals, so they decided to try their luck at a store, which was at least more reliable than a street stall. Inside the store, Gao Chang took out a few items to get a quote, including the “Ming dynasty purple clay teapot” and the fake copper coins he had just bought.
“You’d better keep this thing for yourself. These copper coins—some are real, some are fake. Young man, where did you get all these?” The store wasn’t big, and the boss was quite diligent, so he usually kept an eye on things himself rather than letting assistants handle everything.
“My grandfather liked to collect these things, but he passed away not long ago. These items don’t have much use for me now, so I plan to sell them.”
Gao Chang’s grandfather had died a long time ago, so saying he had died at this point wouldn’t be considered disrespectful. Since it was a private collection, it was normal for the items to be a mix of real and fake. Gao Chang was still worried about being targeted, especially since everything he brought was genuine and in such large quantities, which was really too eye-catching. Some people might even assume that their mountain was full of buried treasures. Even if these antique shops communicated with each other behind the scenes, it wouldn’t be so quick. By the time they figure things out, Gao Chang will have already sold everything and gone home. They wouldn’t find anyone even if they tried.
“How much did you bring out this time?” The boss said, glancing at the woven bag in Gao Chang’s hand and the backpack on his back.
“Can you help me appraise how much these items are worth first?” If the price were reasonable, Gao Chang would be willing to continue pulling out more items. If not, he’ll move to another place. After all, he doesn’t understand antiques, nor does he have time to waste in N City. After weighing his options, this seems like the only viable approach. If he still gets swindled, he’ll just consider himself unlucky.
“This Qing dynasty porcelain bowl, how about I give you 200 yuan for it?” This bowl is the least valuable item, the boss probably wants to test Gao Chang’s bottom line first.
“From the Ming Dynasty.” Gao Chang had heard about the origins of these items from Rhubarb and still remembered them clearly.
“Oh?” The boss, half-serious and half-joking, examined the porcelain bowl closely for a while before saying, “It is indeed a common folk kiln piece from the Ming dynasty. I misjudged it. How about 500 yuan?”
Gao Chang kept his expression neutral and waited for him to continue quoting the price. There were still a few more antiques laid out on the table, and the boss quoted prices for each one. Seeing that Gao Chang remained silent, he added: “I’m also sincerely doing business here. The total price for these items on the table is 8,700 yuan. I’ll buy them all for 10,000 yuan. That’s already the highest price you’ll get on this street.”
Hearing what he said, Gao Chang pulled out a few more items and let the boss continue quoting the prices. But he didn’t take everything out. Once the pricing seemed reasonable, he picked out a few items he thought could fetch a higher price elsewhere and sold the rest in this shop.
When he went to another shop, Gao Chang still had to mix a few fake items with the genuine ones and take them out together. But, as expected, none of the shop owners on this street could be fooled. Gao Chang explained that they were all from his late grandfather’s collection. Since some of the items had already been quoted by other shopkeepers, he had a rough idea of their value. When the shopkeepers made their offers, he simply aimed for higher prices. If a shopkeeper gave a low estimate, he remained silent. Once all the prices were listed, he would then slowly negotiate with them.
In this way, by the time he sold everything, Gao Chang had more than 50,000 yuan in his pocket. The villagers were right; their ancestors were poor, and there weren’t many valuable things buried underground. It’s only because of their age that they’re worth anything.
With more than 50,000 yuan, Gao Chang felt much more at ease. When passing by the Taoist’s stall, Gao Chang stopped in his tracks once again.
“Taoist master, I feel like I don’t have much of a connection with this teapot after all. Can I sell it back to you for 30 yuan? ”
Was that the end?