Chapter Sixty-Four: Smart People

(1/3)

Ms. Lin made breakfast in the morning and dropped the child off at school.

Chen Zhou picked the child up in the evening and cooked dinner.

Whether intentional or not, the household always maintained a certain stable balance.

Of course, dinner tasted slightly better than breakfast.

Chen Zhou gained 1.5 favorable review points, rounding off his total nicely.

Meanwhile, little Chen Taotao swapped out the Guanzhong dialect phrase "very good" she had learned at her maternal grandparents' place for the Mandarin version "very good."

The couple asked her about it out of curiosity.

It turned out that Teacher Li at the kindergarten had recently been playing the song Jasmine Flower for the children.

That was the song that goes—

"Such a beautiful Jasmine Flower."

From this, Chen Taotao realized that the two words meant the exact same thing.

Lacking the linguistic environment of Guanzhong, the little girl simply updated her catchphrase.

Chen Zhou and Ms. Lin exchanged a glance:

"Do you think Taotao has some sort of talent for singing?"

"That's what I was thinking, too."

As long as a child is young enough, they seem to have a talent for everything.

...

The next day was Saturday.

The family of three arrived at the Ancient Culture Street.

It looked just as it had during their last visit, though even more crowded due to the weekend.

Chen Taotao walked along the shaded areas, taking special delight in stepping on the moss sprouting between the flagstones.

Before she knew it, she had led the two of them to the spot where young women dressed in Hanfu were taking photographs.

The breezy attire caused Ms. Lin to let out a soft sigh:

"I think I've gained a bit of weight recently."

...You couldn't possibly gain weight; you just don't understand yourself well enough.

Chen Zhou smiled and said, "After having a child, you're definitely heavier than when you were in school, but you're still at a standard weight."

Ms. Lin frowned, "I've actually been dieting lately!"

Chen Zhou thought back and recalled that he had indeed seen his wife stepping on the scale in the morning.

However, over these past few days, Ms. Lin had been receiving a steady stream of favorable reviews. Even though she was watching her weight, it was probably difficult for her to lose much.

The ultimate result of her diet would likely be remaining exactly as she was.

Yet perhaps this was precisely Ms. Lin's way of rebelling against destiny.

Strolling and browsing, they didn't buy anything particularly serious, though they did pick up some snacks like fried dough cakes and sugar figurines.

The family of three found a spot to sit down.

They enjoyed the shade while eating.

Chen Zhou checked the time, figuring the mother and daughter would need a little longer to finish eating.

So he said, "I'm going to step out for a bit, I'll come back and find you here later."

"Okay, go ahead."

The little girl was busy eating her fried dough cake and didn't have time to speak.

...

(1/3)

(2/3)

A few minutes later, Chen Zhou arrived at the location mentioned in the intelligence. This was a centralized area for street stalls, with upwards of a hundred vendors sprawling as far as the eye could see.

Most of what was being sold consisted of antiques like jade and similar items.

Just as he was about to search for that vegetable cleaver, Chen Zhou happened to run into an old acquaintance—

Boss Cui, whom he had previously bought the pickled cucumber porcelain plate from.

He was still wearing his frog-button Tang suit, which didn't look out of place on this Ancient Culture Street.

Chen Zhou greeted him:

"Fancy running into you here again, Boss Cui."

Old Cui turned his head toward Chen Zhou and recognized him instantly.

He smiled and said, "Well, what a coincidence. Looking for some treasures today? Care to walk around together?"

...It seemed the intelligence regarding being here before ten o'clock applied directly to Boss Cui.

"Sure," Chen Zhou agreed, "I'm actually looking to buy a vegetable cleaver."

"A vegetable cleaver?" Boss Cui smacked his lips, "Do they sell cleavers here? Why wouldn't you just go to the supermarket?"

Chen Zhou pointed it out to him: "Look over there."

Boss Cui peered closely:

"Well, I'll be damned, they really do!"

His curiosity was piqued even more than Chen Zhou's.

After all, Cui Hong had seen it all—even people trying to pass off frozen cabbage stalks as jade back in the day—but he had genuinely never seen anyone selling kitchen cleavers at an antique market.

"Let's go take a look together, there's definitely more to this."

Given his previous experience with Uncle Yu buying the plate, Boss Cui regarded Chen Zhou as someone with profound expertise in antiques.

The two strolled over to the stall just as someone else was inquiring about the cleaver.

So they stood by and watched—

The vendor picked up the cleaver from a square stone block and introduced it to the customer:

"This vegetable cleaver was hand-forged by veteran masters before the founding of the nation using over a hundred processes. Don't mind the rust; take it home and sharpen it on a whetstone, and it'll be good as new. A strand of hair will snap the moment you blow across it."

While speaking, the vendor gave the blade a pretentious swipe against the stone.

The customer looked pleased and asked, "How much?"

The vendor held up three fingers.

"Three thousand."

The customer took the cleaver and the stone from the vendor's hands, hesitating inwardly: How could a beat-up vegetable cleaver be worth this much? Isn't this a scam? But he was also secretly thrilled, thinking that the stone alone was worth well over three thousand.

Not far away,

Chen Zhou watched as someone else swooped in on the top-tier kitchenware from his intelligence, yet he wasn't particularly anxious.

First, shopping is a matter of first-come, first-served.

Second, Chen Zhou had seen people sharpening scissors and cleavers when he was a child.

However, that stone didn't look much like a knife-sharpening tool; there was definitely something fishy about it.

Chen Zhou asked Boss Cui beside him:

"That's not a whetstone, is it?"

"Smart!" Cui Hong lowered his voice, "Looks more like an She inkstone. They're targeting clever people."

"She inkstone?"

"Right, one of the four famous inkstones."

Sure enough, the customer showed signs of reaching for his wallet.

(2/3)

(3/3)

However, as soon as the vendor collected the money, he immediately grabbed a real whetstone and swapped it for the inkstone.

The customer, now holding the cleaver, quickly waved his hands:

"No need to swap, the one from just now was just fine."

The vendor smiled: "My friend, I'm selling a vegetable cleaver, I never said I was selling that stone. That's an She inkstone, are you kidding me?"

Furious upon hearing this, the customer yelled:

"Damn it... Refund my money!!!"

The vendor tucked the inkstone away and said unhurriedly, "You can't go back on the rules now. You were the one who said you wanted to buy it, no returns once it's in your hands!"

The two quickly descended into a heated argument.

It wasn't until the customer pulled out his phone to call the police that the vendor finally agreed to return the money.

...

Witnessing the scene unfold, Cui Hong said to Chen Zhou, "The market is ruined by this sort of people."

"At least you do business with integrity, Boss Cui."

Cui Hong felt rather pleased upon hearing this. "I ought to go teach him a lesson about integrity."

Of course, he had no intention of actually buying this rusty "broken cleaver," but he couldn't resist teasing the vendor:

"Boss, I'd like to buy this cleaver too. Will you sell it for twenty-five hundred?"

The vendor thought to himself: You've been standing here watching the commotion for ages, did you not understand what just happened? We're all old foxes here, don't play games with me.

So he offered two words: "Not selling."

Cui Hong smiled:

"My friend, your routine is too outdated; even treasure-appraising novels don't write plots like this anymore."

Boss Cui had a somewhat sharp tongue, and seeing that the vendor refused to speak, he even threw out a piece of advice:

"You'd get a much better price if you claimed it was an artifact repatriated from overseas."

This remark made the vendor blush with embarrassment.

"Where did you even come from?"

Realizing that he himself had nearly fallen into the trap of trying to be too clever, Boss Cui hurriedly backpedaled:

"I'm not from around here, just traveling with a friend, just passing through."

With that, he pulled Chen Zhou to leave.

He tugged, but Chen Zhou didn't budge.

Chen Zhou said, "I actually really want to buy that cleaver."

"That cleaver isn't worth anything! The valuable thing is that stone!" Cui Hong's voice fluctuated between loud and soft.

Chen Zhou deeply appreciated Boss Cui's reminder.

However, he had indeed come specifically for the cleaver. "Like I said just now, what I'm buying is the cleaver."

Boss Cui thought about it: It seemed that was indeed what he had said.

So he couldn't help asking:

"What are you buying it to do? Actually chop vegetables?"

Chen Zhou smiled: "That's right, I run a breakfast shop, after all."

(3/3)