I must also thank you for helping me thoroughly thrash that scoundrel!"
Candice suddenly spoke from the side, and Jin Muchen had long known that there must be some story between her and Matt, so he turned his head to look at her.
Candice lowered her head, her gaze profound. "That guy used to be my boyfriend. We both came from Concord, New Hampshire. He was a year ahead of me in college, and I came to New York just for him. We were doing fine before, but recently my family went bankrupt, and then this jerk suddenly disappeared from my life. Later, I found out that he was pursuing my best friend at the time, who is the Helen you saw today..."
Candice spoke softly, confirming Jin Muchen's guess. It was indeed a foreign version of the story of a devoted woman and an unfaithful man.
Harvey and Mike looked at him with sympathetic eyes. Being betrayed by both her boyfriend and best friend was indeed a terrible experience. They didn't even know how to comfort Candice.
Meanwhile, Jin Muchen reached out and firmly grasped Candice's hand, giving it a squeeze. Candice looked up at him, her eyes filled with different emotions.
"However, I'm much better now. The fact that I can say all this in front of you today means that I've moved on from it in my heart. Thank you, Muchen!"
Jin Muchen remained silent, just squeezing her hand tightly.
"Oh, by the way, what about you and Shawn? And that woman, do you have any stories between you?"
The awkwardness between Jin Muchen and Ma Ling when they first met, Candice was watching all along. She was just as curious, as were Harvey and Mike.
Jin Muchen didn't hide anything. Since it was all in the past, he told them the story between him and Ma Ling, and everyone sighed with emotion.
It turned out that everyone had similar past experiences. Now that they shared this common bond, they were even more likely to become good friends.
"Oh, Muchen, so you're in the antique business now?"
"Yes! During the day, I work as a porter at the distribution center, and at night, I study antique knowledge with my uncle. On weekends, I go to antique markets to browse around. That's how it is for now!"
"Ha ha, that's a good business. You should learn more. In the future, when we talk about investment, we might need you! You know, antiques are hard currency, sometimes even more reliable than the dollar!"
Harvey laughed heartily. Indeed, in economically developed areas like the United States and Western Europe, the wealthy were keen on investing in antiques, both to showcase their taste and to secure their investments more reasonably and safely.
After all, the financial market was risky, and the global economy operated in cycles. Regardless of the currency, there would always be fluctuations. Smart wealthy people wouldn't put all their eggs in one basket.
Especially in recent years, after experiencing the largest economic crisis in U.S. history, even wealthy Americans were wary of their own currency and financial markets.
Despite the recent strong performance of the U.S. economy, true wealthy people knew that it was just an illusion, just a bubble.
Mainly because of the economic weakness in the eurozone and Russia's beating of Ukraine, leading to a large outflow of funds from the eurozone into the U.S. stock market to avoid risks.
In fact, the real U.S. economy was still in a precarious state. Once peace was restored in Europe, the beautiful bubble in the United States might burst. By then, the U.S. economy would surely take a nosedive.
So, taking advantage of the strong dollar at this time, investing in antiques was a quite good way to protect the safety of funds.
Nowadays, it was not only the big merchants in the United States who were investing in antiques, but many commercial conglomerates were also investing a lot in antiques. Many world-class paintings auctioned on the market were bought by these big companies and hung in the boardrooms or insurance vaults of company executives.
Because Harvey's father was one of the most famous commercial lawyers in New York, he was well aware of the current market situation for antiques.
Then he told Jin Muchen and the others a few anecdotes he had heard from his father about antiques and commercial conglomerates, which made everyone stunned. Even Jin Muchen, who had always prided himself on being steady, was quite excited. It seemed like this business had quite a promising future!
By now, the two girls had prepared supper, so everyone went inside to eat and chat.
"Oh, Muchen, why don't you stay here tonight? Tomorrow, the Bentleys next door are having a garage sale. You might as well go and take a look."
Harvey said while chewing on steak. Jin Muchen listened with surprise.
"Mr. Bentley and my old man were colleagues, and he was also a very famous commercial lawyer, but that's in the past tense. The old man had a stroke and died a month ago. His children are dividing the estate. They plan to sell the house here and then split the money. Tomorrow, they plan to get rid of the second-hand furniture in the villa. Hehe, you know, Mr. Bentley, although not a collector of antiques, was a traveler. Every time he traveled, he would bring back some souvenirs from around the world. I've seen them when I was little. There are indeed many good things in his house."
Seeing that Jin Muchen didn't quite understand, Harvey explained to him.
Only then did Jin Muchen realize. So that's how it was. It would be worth taking a look. Who knows what treasures the late Mr. Bentley might have bought during his travels?
Moreover, the definition of antiques for Americans was completely different from ours. As long as they were well-preserved, exquisitely crafted, and made of fine materials, second-hand crafts could be considered antiques as long as they were old enough. Maybe he could find something good for himself?
It was already past two in the morning after dinner, and they had been busy all night and had drunk quite a bit. Everyone was tired.
Harvey went upstairs to claim the master bedroom for himself, while others picked their rooms at random. Jin Muchen chose a quiet guest room downstairs, and Candice slept in the room next to his.
Originally, he had some romantic thoughts, wondering if things would progress further with Candice. However, he soon realized Candice's devoutness as a Catholic. She only gave him a good-bye kiss and left him alone in bed.
When he learned about the United States back in China, most of his impressions came from American movies, which portrayed the country as all about guns and sex!
But after coming to the United States and interacting with Americans, he realized it wasn't like that at all. Americans were actually quite conservative when it came to sex.
Especially in the agricultural regions of the Midwest and several provinces in northern New England, if they were also Catholic families, they were even more conservative in this regard.
Jin Muchen even suspected that Matt broke up with Candice because he couldn't get satisfaction from her in this regard, so...
He pondered on the bed for a while before falling asleep. When he woke up the next
day, he found that it was already past eleven in the morning.
Coming out of the room, he found that only Candice had woken up, and she was busy preparing breakfast in the kitchen.
Jin Muchen was the first one to enjoy Candice's breakfast. It was a typical American breakfast: oatmeal with milk, pancakes, and, of course, bacon, which Americans loved for breakfast.
After sweetly enjoying breakfast with Candice, the two upstairs still hadn't woken up.
Not wanting to wait any longer, Jin Muchen and Candice left breakfast and a note, then left the villa and headed straight for the neighboring house.
Although it was called next door, the two houses were actually quite far apart. It took them ten minutes to walk there, showing the extravagance of Americans when it came to land.
Mr. Bentley's villa, like Harvey's, was a seaside mansion. You could see it from Harvey's house through the floor-to-ceiling windows facing the sea, but it was not easy to spot from the road behind the villa.
This was because the villa was located on a small peninsula protruding from the land into the sea, and the entrance was hidden in a dense forest.
If it weren't for the large sign at the entrance saying "Garage Sale", it would have been very difficult for Jin Muchen and Candice, two outsiders, to find it.
When they arrived, the garage sale had been going on for most of the day, which also showed the wealth of the Bentley family.
If it were an ordinary family, they would just lay out some cardboard boxes along the street and throw in some unused second-hand goods. If they sold quickly, it would be over in an hour or two.
But the Bentley family was selling for a whole day.
Upon entering the gate was a two-way driveway hidden in the shade of the trees. It took a few more minutes to see Mr. Bentley's castle-like mansion.
At this time, many small trucks, vans, and many movers were parked at the door of the mansion, and workers were constantly coming in and out of the mansion, occasionally carrying one or two things out and putting them in the vans.
Jin Muchen, who was participating in such a garage sale for the first time, couldn't help but stare in amazement.
Candice, who came from a wealthy family, was not surprised and kept explaining to Jin Muchen.
She had participated in many such garage sales at wealthy homes before.
"It seems that Harvey still doesn't understand. Mr. Bentley must have collected a lot of good things. These workers should all be brought by antique dealers who are participating in the garage sale. Those dealers negotiate prices with the homeowners for anything they like. If they agree, they buy it directly."