The first attempt proved to be not practical, which made Fang Tang somewhat frustrated. As the saying goes, man can't get rich immediately without a sudden windfall like horses couldn't be fat fast without feeding them grass at night. If he wants to get 20 million yuan within two weeks, it would be generally impossible except cutting corners.
On his way back, an idea hit Fang Tang while he was passing a pawnshop. He suddenly realized that the lottery was not the only lucrative way that could solve his urgent issue, the pawnshop business may also be a solution. People usually describe the pawnshop business as the earning of each deal would be sufficient for them to live for 3 years.
Like the lottery station, the odds of winning a bid is also quite low for pawnshop business. Therefore, he had to go to a place that gathers more antiques in order to observe more items with data perception in a limited time. Immediately, he grabbed a car to Waist Lane.
Waist Lane is a famous antique row in South Hill city. The east and west ends of this street are both two lanes wide, but the closer you walk to the middle part the narrower. And its middle part is only one lane wide.
In the past, Waist Lane had traffic jams all year round. Later, the government decided to change it into a pedestrian street, and the two ends, which are more spacious, became the area for antique stalls.
Fang Tang liked to collect stamps when he was a child, therefore, Waist Lane was the place he often came to. As his interest in stamps faded, he stopped coming here anymore. But this place still remained its original look, the pawn booth is set one by one from the intersection.
There are also various antique shops along the street, but the prices are much higher. People who like to collect antiques usually prefer to snap up a bargain, so, there are often more people surrounding the booth than standing in the store.
Because counterfeits are everywhere in the antique market, it is normal if you happen to buy one. Chinese people are talented and skilled at counterfeiting. Sometimes, you can barely distinguish the real from the fake. Therefore, luck plays an important role in deciding whether you could buy an authentic antique. Even the most professional treasure evaluation person can also go wrong.
Fang Tang has a few customers who like buying antiques. They often talk about the tales about the pawnshop market such as "It is said that a man bought a cheap basin with 200 RMB and was evaluated as the burial object in the tomb of the Warring States. That basin was then sold 4 million yuan immediately." These kind of tales attract those antique fans hoping to snap up a bargain.
Data perception can detect the composition of the analyzed items, by linking this function to antiques, Fang Tang thought of the detection method of carbon-14. Carbon-14 is a radioactive isotope, and its half-life is about 573,040 years. Therefore, the year of antiques can be estimated by measuring the content of carbon-14 in carbon-containing items now and comparing it with the content it originally had. Of course, this test would have certain errors and can only detect carbon-containing items such as charcoal, wood, bone, paper, and leather.
On the way to Waist Lane, Fang Tang has, through his cellphone, downloaded relevant research materials for data perception. What's more, he also added a "Carbon-14 Year Detection Method" plug-in.
Due to the limitations of carbon-14 detection, items like metal, jade and carbon-free porcelain are out of Fang Tang's consideration. As to the calligraphy and painting, even if the year is detected, it may still not be the authentic work because there are imitations of masterpieces in different ages. What's more, there are many talented people in the latter generations who can produce fake calligraphy and painting by using the paper that is made in the year when the authentic works were done. Therefore, it's still inadequate to make a certain judgement even though the year of the paper matches.
Fang Tang got these tips while listening to the patrons showing off their experience. Since he had Alpha system, the things he heard and saw in the past are well stored and can be retrieved from the memory area by the Alpha system whenever he needs them.
After getting there, Fang Tang was busy looking at stuff from different booths and finally walked to a stall that was mostly about wooden artworks, such as Buddha statues, Buddha beads, wooden combs, cigarette holders, and sariputra.
The seller is a skinny old man. Seeing Fang Tang, who was young and in cheap suits, he didn't even try to make an introduction. From his expression, it seemed like he was telling you to watch only, and do not touch.
He had consumed quite a bit of bio-energy before while he was observing lotteries and downloading the materials about carbon-14, but there is no room for more food in his stomach now. Finally, Fang Tang still decided to turn on data perception for 10 seconds through "Faith in Food".
With a fast glance at these items, he really saw the difference. Among these things, only the ebony comb has a long history, which is no more than two hundred years. As to that so called sariputra, it is made of bone power and only has a five years' history. Obviously, it is from the mass production of profiteers. In terms of its value, this so-called sariputra is not more expensive than glass beads.
On the contrary, the 30-cm high Buddha statue is a little different. Although it only has an 80 years' history, Fang Tang finds that its inside material is not wood. He can sense, through the data perception, that there is an interlayer inside, but couldn't tell what is hidden inside because there is no comparable reference object.
Another strange item is a stone, because his test shows that this item contains carbon, which is beyond the scope of its detection. This surprises Fang Tang, because he knew that one limitation of carbon-14 is that it can only detect things whose history is not more than 60,000 years. To those beyond, carbon-14 won't work for them.
Fang Tang did not expect that there would be an item from the middle of the Paleolithic period on this small stall. At that time, the ancestors of human beings were still in the bud of civilization, and then they retracted into the caves to make a living by hunting.
This is not to say that the things of the Paleolithic era can be called antiques. The reason why antiques are valuable is because of their historical and artistic value. If you pick up a stone on a mountain, it may have existed hundreds of thousands of years ago, but it is still only a stone, like the stones thousands of years ago, or hundreds of years ago, worthless.
Don't know why, Fang Tang felt that this stone was particularly attractive to him.
"This is a fossil." The old man saw Fang Tang staring at the stone and finally said this.
"Dinosaur fossils?" Fang Tang asked with shock.
"Ha, boy, you have a pretty amazing imagination." The old man was amused by Fang Tan's silly question.
"The fossil of a dinosaur egg can sell at least 200,000 US dollars. If this is dinosaur fossil then why would I still stay here with my stall?" The old man felt that Fang Tang was not like a person that could afford a dinosaur egg, so he didn't intend to fool him.
"How much is this?" asked Fang Tang.
"If you are serious about buying it, then one thousand yuan." said the old man.
"Can I touch it?" asked Fang Tang.
The old man hesitated for a moment, still agreed. Fang Tang took this stone with both hands and found it unexpectedly light. No wonder this old man hasn't offered a high price. For this weight, it is difficult to deceive people that it is a valuable thing.
Fang Tang put down the stone pointing to the Buddha statue and asked: "How much is this?"
"Fifty thousand." The old man said with some impatience.
"This one is not in a good condition and it might be less than a hundred years. Can it be cheaper?" said Fang Tang.
"Nonsense! You don't know anything about this. This Buddha statue is carved by an eminent monk of the Tang Dynasty! Piss off if you're not buying it!" The old man exclaimed with anger.
"Five thousand for this statue and that stone, deal?" Fang Tang was not discouraged at all and directly cut 90% off. Although he does not know much about the average price of the antique market, he is not bad at bargaining. At the age of 10, he would follow his father to the farmer's market. At the age of 12, he was already professional at bargaining. The vegetable sellers were all amazed by his bargaining ability and said this bastard would be something in the future.
Hearing the bid from Fang Tang, though the old man still kept his angry face, his eyes were rolling, which indicates he was thinking about accepting this.
"5800 yuan, that's what I can offer because I need to leave 100 for taking taxi. Yes or no?" Fang Tang opened his wallet to prove what he said. In fact, he only took 5,000 today, and nine hundred were won from the lottery.
The old man was thinking that this stone was a cheap ship, and it had not been sold for several years. And the Buddha statue is bought with a few hundred yuan. So, if he sells them for 5,800 yuan, it will be ten times more profitable. Then he pretended to be unwillingly and sighed: "This is my first business, for a good luck, it's a deal! Lucky boy, aren't you? You really snapped up a bargain."