From Wage Slave to Tycoon

Chapter 116: Chapter 99: Holy Cow! A Complete Set of the ’3 Ancient Divine Artifacts

Scams like swapping out goods and organized crews—shills and the like—are common. To avoid getting tricked at an antique market, you just have to remember one simple rule: look more, ask less, and touch less!

While none of this was a major issue for Su Chen, it was still a mood killer.

Yu Qian and Wu Jing left, grinning as they carried away the ten-year-aged wine Su Chen had given them.

After they left, Su Chen also headed out with Chen Fei and Xiao Peng.

Pan Garden, Liulichang, and Baoguo Temple were all roughly the same distance from Su Chen’s place, but in the end, he still chose Pan Garden.

There was no particular reason, other than Pan Garden being the one that had made the deepest impression on him. He’d heard about it for ages and figured today was as good a day as any to see it for himself.

Pan Garden was located next to Longtan Lake, about a twenty-minute drive away.

Su Chen didn’t have Xiao Peng drive directly to Pan Garden, instead telling him to find a parking spot nearby.

After all, a Rolls-Royce was quite conspicuous in this area. If they drove right up to the entrance, he worried the vendors would treat them like lambs to the slaughter.

Don’t underestimate the stall vendors at Pan Garden. Their information networks are surprisingly vast. They might target you the moment you set foot in the place.

"So this is Pan Garden, huh? Look at all these people. Wow..."

People were milling about everywhere, with curious crowds gathered around each stall.

Su Chen glanced at a few of the nearby stalls. They mostly sold porcelain shards; there were hardly any intact pieces.

He’d heard about shard collectors before. ’Those people are truly hardcore,’ he thought. A tiny shard, if it was of high quality, could sell for one hundred or even two hundred thousand!

"Boss, take a look at this! What do you think?" At some point, Xiao Peng had drifted over to a stall and picked up what looked like a bronze object.

Seeing the object in his hand, Chen Fei gasped. "Holy shit! Awesome, Pengzai! Are you gonna turn into Ultraman or something?"

The item in Xiao Peng’s hand was precisely an Ultraman transformation device—and it was bronze!

This piqued Su Chen’s interest. He walked over and took the transformation device from Xiao Peng’s hand, brandishing it a little. It had a nice feel to it.

"How much is this?" Su Chen asked the vendor.

"One-fifty!" The stall owner had overheard their conversation. ’Anyone who brings bodyguards on an outing must be rich,’ he figured.

He hadn’t inflated the price too much—only by 140 yuan. After all, an item like this was all about the novelty.

"Twenty-five! Sell it for that, and I’ll take it." Su Chen countered, making a ridiculously low offer. He fully expected the vendor to haggle a bit.

But to his surprise, the stall owner agreed instantly, gleefully whipping out the QR code hanging from his chest. "No problem! Twenty-five it is! Are you scanning or paying cash, sir?"

Su Chen glanced down at the bronze transformation device in his hand, then back at the all-too-agreeable vendor. He couldn’t help but feel like he’d just been played for a fool.

At his side, Xiao Peng deftly pulled out his phone, scanned the code, and paid.

Walking around the market, Su Chen found quite a few other "treasures." He even managed to assemble a complete set for his bronze transformation device, creating the "Ancient Supergroup"!

The bronze transformation device, a Western Zhou Dynasty Doraemon, and an AK-47 made of Sumani blue-and-white porcelain!

Especially the porcelain AK-47. The vendor claimed it was an imperial treasure from the Eunuch Admiral Zheng He’s voyages to the West. Su Chen bought it for 30 yuan in the end.

It was all just for a laugh!

The Pan Garden of today was different from the one in Su Chen’s imagination. It was now mostly a flea market, though of course, there were still plenty of scammers.

He was especially drawn to a stall where people were cracking open "bodhi seeds." Su Chen watched for a moment, noticing that the vendor kept revealing brightly colored nuts—reds, pinks—which was fascinating to see.

Just as Su Chen was thinking of spending two hundred to try his luck and was about to step forward, Chen Fei pulled him back.

"Boss, it’s a scam," Chen Fei whispered at his side. "I fell for it once before."

Su Chen paused for a moment. He knew Chen Fei wouldn’t lie to him, so he took a couple of steps to the side, signaling for Chen Fei to explain.

Chen Fei didn’t beat around the bush and immediately laid out the whole scheme.

It turns out the bodhi seeds are naturally white. The vendors pry them open beforehand, dye them, and then use glue mixed with pulp to seal them back up. That way, whenever a customer has one "opened," the result is guaranteed to be dazzling.

Su Chen didn’t feel the need to be a busybody and expose them. There must be a reason they’d been able to operate here for so long. As for the people who fell for it...

They could just chalk it up to paying for a bit of fun!