Upon hearing Fang Bo's words, Jin Muchen concurred, and thus refrained from being overly sentimental.
However, as the sky outside darkened, they arrived just in time for the antique shop to close for the day. Nonetheless, Jin Muchen insisted on treating Fang Bo to a lavish dinner to celebrate.
After leaving the restaurant, Fang Bo adhered to his usual routine and went to play cards with his old friends, while Jin Muchen returned to the antique shop alone. However, throughout the journey, his mind was in a daze. The money had come so quickly and effortlessly.
Just a few days ago, he was merely a laborer at the distribution center during the day and delivering takeout at night, barely making ends meet. Yet, now, in just over ten days, he had earned nearly one hundred and eighty thousand US dollars.
Such earning speed was beyond his wildest imagination.
It seemed that even after graduating in pharmacology, it wouldn't be so easy to earn as much money.
Back in school, Jin Muchen was actually somewhat proud of his major. Though pharmacology at Columbia University might not be as prestigious as Harvard, Johns Hopkins, or Washington University, it still ranked among the top ten pharmacology programs in the United States.
Moreover, this major wasn't something anyone could easily pass. Back then, Jin Muchen had devoted a lot of effort to get into this department, facing challenges comparable to re-taking the college entrance examination in China and getting admitted to one of the top ten universities under Project 211.
After struggling in this major for a year and becoming familiar with the curriculum, Jin Muchen, though not a top student, was confident in obtaining a degree in pharmacology.
With this degree, finding a job in the United States would be a breeze. Moreover, the starting salary for graduates in his field was quite high. Typically, they would go to research institutes or large pharmaceutical companies. However, as long as they persevered for three to five years and earned annual salaries ranging from eighty to one hundred thousand dollars, it wouldn't be a problem at all.
Despite recent claims by Congress about increasing employment opportunities, a closer look revealed that most of these jobs were in low-paying service industries, with the risk of unemployment ever-present.
In China, the situation was even worse. Every year, there were millions of college graduates, but the probability of becoming a white-collar or gold-collar worker among these millions of graduates did not exceed twenty percent.
Many college graduates spent several years in society, only to find that their annual salaries were perhaps lower than those of laborers on construction sites by the end of the year.
Therefore, Jin Muchen had some pride in his major and the prospects after graduation.
Although pharmacology was extremely challenging during his school years, requiring him to pass many exams, memorize many obscure words, endure tedious chemistry experiments, and study numerous brain-numbing mathematical subjects, once he obtained his degree and entered society to find work, he realized that the hardships he endured were worthwhile.
Medical research was one of America's crucial industries, with nearly all of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies having research centers in the United States.
Moreover, there were tens of thousands of private research institutes, some formed by doctors or pharmaceutical professionals themselves, while others were sponsored by wealthy individuals or foundations.
So, as long as his academic performance wasn't too poor, obtaining a job in one of these pharmaceutical company research institutes or private research institutes after obtaining his degree would be quite easy.
And once inside, it was like entering a middle-class safe haven.
That was one of the main reasons why Ma Ling had taken an interest in him back then. Getting a job after graduation would be stable and promising.
After a few years, he could truly become a white-collar worker. If he achieved some success, he could even become a gold-collar worker in the future.
Becoming a gold-collar worker meant that his annual salary would start at least at a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, guaranteeing unquestionable social status and lifestyle in the future.
Now, with this comparison in mind, Jin Muchen was somewhat uncertain. What was there left to be proud of in his professional knowledge? Certainly, working in pharmaceutical research was noble.
But what about the antique business? It didn't seem lowly either!
More importantly, it seemed quite profitable. He had only just entered the field, but in just over ten days, he had earned nearly one hundred and eighty thousand dollars.
As far as he knew, this kind of income was something that many middle-level employees in small and medium-sized research institutes had struggled to achieve in almost twenty years.
With this comparison, the idea of studying antique appraisal knowledge became even more firmly entrenched in Jin Muchen's mind. Having an additional expertise and skill set couldn't be a bad thing.
In the following days, Jin Muchen resigned from his job delivering takeout, and the distribution center also reduced his working hours as much as possible, allowing him to spend most of his time in Fang Bo's shop.
Seizing every moment, he studied antique appraisal knowledge with Fang Bo, feeling that his mind was much sharper than before. Not only had his memory greatly improved, but his comprehension abilities had also been greatly enhanced.
Many of the antique-related knowledge Fang Bo explained to him could be remembered after hearing it once. The same applied to the antique appraisal books Fang Bo provided. After reading through them once, he could remember most of the content.
Fang Bo praised his talent and even brought out some items he had collected earlier to hone his skills, letting him make judgments and appraisals based on the antique knowledge Fang Bo had taught him.
His performance delighted Fang Bo, and almost every day, he visibly improved at a rapid pace. Though he couldn't be considered an expert yet, he soon possessed the qualities of a junior antique appraiser, especially in the field of Chinese antique appraisal.
During this time, aside from studying antique appraisal with Fang Bo, Jin Muchen continued to research his own supernatural ability.
Since the transaction incident, he had made an unexpected discovery regarding his supernatural ability.
That day, Fang Bo had handed him all the one hundred and fifty thousand US dollars from Wang Xueming for the Yuan Datou. He had originally planned to deposit it in the bank the next day. However, that night, wanting to experience the feeling of counting money until his hands cramped, he fell asleep holding onto the money. But the next morning, when he woke up, the money was gone.
Jin Muchen was terrified, thinking it had been stolen, and was about to call the police.
Just before reporting it, he decided to carefully recall whether he had placed the money somewhere and forgotten about it. However, in that moment of intense concentration, he unexpectedly discovered that the money was actually in a space in his mind.
It was a purple mental space, and the shape of the space was actually an enlarged gourd. As for how big the gourd was exactly, Jin Muchen hadn't measured it carefully, but it was definitely not small.
This discovery brought him a burst of ecstasy, for a portable space was incredibly powerful. As a longtime reader of web novels, he readily accepted the idea of a personal space.
Moreover, there had already been some inexplicable changes happening to him before. Now, with the addition of this portable space, it seemed acceptable.
He carefully pondered the origin of this portable space and concluded that it was definitely related to the three gourd tattoos on his body. Those three tattoos seemed to have brought him
three different changes.
The red gourd seemed to grant him immense strength, while the orange gourd enhanced his senses. This purple gourd should have given him this portable space.
Although he couldn't be sure, that's how he judged it.
Moreover, this purple portable space seemed to be more than just a portable space, because after he took out the dollars from the space, he unexpectedly found that all the bills had become brand new, as if they had just been printed from a money press. He could even smell the scent of ink on the money.
When Mr. Wang gave them the money before, all those bills were half new and old, having circulated on the market for a long time.
But after spending a night in the space and taking them out, they had become new bills.
Could it be that this purple portable space also had the ability to repair items?
For some time afterward, Jin Muchen quietly conducted experiments. He first thought of some antiques in Fang Bo's antique shop that were not in perfect condition.
After repairing several damaged antiques one after another, Jin Muchen finally confirmed that this purple portable space had a miraculous effect: it could renew and repair items.
For Jin Muchen, who was currently obsessed with antiques, this was like a big pie falling from the sky. It was worth noting that there were many well-preserved antiques in the world, but those antiques were generally quite expensive, and some were even priceless. With his current financial situation, not only could he not afford to buy them, he couldn't even afford to look at them.
However, there seemed to be no shortage of broken antiques in the world, and their number was even greater than that of well-preserved ones. Moreover, the prices of these defective items seemed generally not very high.
If he were to collect a few, repair them with this purple jade space, and then take them out, turning defective items into perfect ones, wouldn't this open up a bright path for him?
Thinking of these things, Jin Muchen's interest in studying antique appraisal knowledge soared even higher.