Chapter 49: The Annoying Father-in-Law

After lunch, my father-in-law, Xiao Changkun, was already dressed and urged Ye Chen, saying, “Ye Chen, hurry up and get ready. Drive our new car with me to the antique street. A shop just received a Tang Dynasty official kiln vase, and I want to go and appreciate it.”

Ye Chen couldn’t help but advise, “Dad, are you starting to play with antiques again? We don’t have much money; isn’t buying antiques a bit extravagant?”

Xiao Changkun wasn’t particularly skilled at making money, but he had plenty of dreams about getting rich. He liked to wander around the antique street, dreaming of finding a hidden treasure.

However, over the past few years, he had mostly been taken advantage of.

He had calmed down for a while, but now he was not only back at it but seemed to be even more enthusiastic.

Seeing that Ye Chen dared to point fingers at him, Xiao Changkun snorted coldly and said, “Stop talking nonsense and hurry up and take me there.”

Ye Chen felt helpless but didn’t want to disobey, so he drove his father-in-law to the antique street.

On the way, Xiao Changkun sat in the newly bought BMW, feeling quite pleased with himself.

He didn’t sit in the passenger seat but rather in the spacious back seat, with his legs crossed, directing Ye Chen on how to drive while also asking him to play his favorite treasure-hunting audio novels on the sound system.

In his words, he was getting older and reading was hard on his eyes, so he preferred to listen every day.

That was one thing, but after listening to a few segments with him, Ye Chen realized that in the stories he was hearing, the protagonist could spend ten yuan to gamble on a piece of jadeite worth a billion.

Hearing this, Ye Chen understood why his father-in-law had endless dreams of getting rich every day.

Xiao Changkun was engrossed in the story, listening intently while lamenting, “Ah, when will I, old Xiao, hit such a big fortune, buying a stone for ten yuan and making a billion? Well, I’d be satisfied with just one billion…”

Ye Chen awkwardly coughed twice and said, “Dad, don’t think about gambling on stones; that’s all a scam.”

Xiao Changkun scoffed, “You don’t know anything.”

After saying that, seeing that they had arrived at the antique street, he hurriedly instructed, “Quickly find a parking space and park the car. Don’t delay my scheduled time to look at the goods!”

Jinling is a historical city, and the antique street outside the scenic area is somewhat famous in the country, attracting antique dealers and treasure hunters from all over.

The local tourism department also took advantage of this, spending a fortune to renovate the antique street, turning it into a tourist attraction.

Upon arriving at the antique street, Xiao Changkun confidently approached the entrance of an antique shop and informed the staff that he had an appointment. They invited the two of them to the VIP room at the back to view the goods.

Just as Ye Chen was about to follow him inside, Xiao Changkun turned back and said, “You don’t need to come in; you won’t understand anything. Just wait for me at the door of the VIP room!”

Ye Chen could only nod, “Got it, Dad!”

Xiao Changkun walked in with his hands behind his back, following the staff into the VIP room, while Ye Chen sat down in the waiting area.

…

A few minutes later, Ye Chen suddenly heard a loud crash from inside the VIP room.

Then, he saw his father-in-law, Xiao Changkun, running out with a panicked expression.

He was muttering, “It’s over, it’s over! This is it!”

Ye Chen hurried over and looked behind his father-in-law, only to see a tall, thin ceramic vase lying on the ground, broken into two pieces, with many small ceramic shards scattered around.

From the fragments, it was vaguely recognizable that the broken piece was a Tang Dynasty jade pot spring vase.

Having grown up in the Ye family, Ye Chen was well-informed and could tell at a glance that this vase was a genuine antique, likely worth several million in the market.

It seemed that his father-in-law had gotten himself into big trouble this time.

Inside the VIP room, a middle-aged man with a dark expression said, “Mr. Xiao, this jade pot spring vase was purchased for over five million. Now that you’ve broken it, you must compensate us at the original price!”

This man was Zhou Liangyun, the manager of Jiqingtang.

Xiao Changkun pulled Ye Chen over, unable to hide his panic, and said, “This is my precious son-in-law; do you know how much money he has? Don’t talk about five million; even fifty million is nothing for him! You two can discuss the compensation! I have things to do, so I’m leaving first!”

After saying that, Xiao Changkun pushed Ye Chen inside and turned to run out.

Ye Chen was dumbfounded; this father-in-law was too shameless, clearly trying to make him take the blame!

Zhou Liangyun looked at Ye Chen and coldly asked, “Sir, the total is five hundred thirty-eight thousand. Will you be paying by card or bank transfer?”

Ye Chen spread his hands, “I don’t have any money.”

It wasn’t that he couldn’t afford it; he just wanted his father-in-law to learn a lesson to avoid being dragged to the antique street every day in the future.

“No money?” Zhou Liangyun gritted his teeth, “You think you can just say you have no money and escape after breaking our Jiqingtang’s property?”

Ye Chen helplessly replied, “I’m not trying to escape, but I really don’t have any money. Besides, it wasn’t me who broke the vase; why should I pay?”

Zhou Liangyun was furious, “Isn’t that your father-in-law?”

Ye Chen nodded, “You said it yourself; he’s my father-in-law, not me. Whoever broke it should pay for it. This is about debts being settled with the right person; you don’t understand this principle?”

Zhou Liangyun was furious but realized that Ye Chen had a point.

If he forced Ye Chen to pay, it would ruin Jiqingtang’s reputation.

So he quickly shouted to a few people nearby, “You guys, hurry up and catch that old guy for me!”

Ye Chen watched them frantically chase after his father-in-law, smiling silently to himself.

He could have directly paid with a card, but that would only benefit his shameless father-in-law.

Rather than that, it was better to let this old guy suffer a bit.

Otherwise, if he encountered such a situation again in the future, he would still be the one getting taken advantage of.

Everyone from Jiqingtang was mobilized to catch Ye Chen’s father-in-law, while Ye Chen had nothing to do and looked at the vase that had broken into two pieces on the ground.

The vase was about half a meter tall and had now split into two halves and a pile of shards, which was indeed a bit of a pity.

However, he suddenly noticed that something seemed to be hidden in the bottom of the lower half of the vase.

He quickly reached in and pulled out a small wooden box!

Unexpectedly, there was such a secret hidden inside this vase!

The jade pot spring vase had a small mouth and a large body, and this wooden box was clearly two or three circles larger than the vase’s opening, indicating that it wasn’t something added later but was made inside the vase during its creation!

This meant that the wooden box should also date back to the Tang Dynasty!

He held the wooden box in his hand and examined it closely. Then, with a bit of force, he opened it with a snap.

As the box opened, an exquisite fragrance wafted out, and Ye Chen took a breath, feeling refreshed.

Upon closer inspection, inside the wooden box lay a tiny ancient book, no larger than the palm of his hand!

Ye Chen picked up this very compact ancient book and saw that the title page had the four ancient seal characters “Nine Mysterious Heavenly Scriptures.”

“This name is quite interesting; I wonder what it records.” Ye Chen flipped the book to look further.

The first section was “Medical Techniques,” which contained numerous case studies and treatment methods.

Ye Chen frowned slightly; he had some knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine and understood some basic theories, but the content recorded in this book was evidently far superior to the methods used in modern Chinese medicine.

Some diagnostic and treatment techniques were unheard of, and even at the end of the medical section, Ye Chen saw alchemy techniques and the effects of various elixirs that were simply beyond the realm of reality.

Ye Chen became interested and sat down on the ground, flipping through the pages.

Unexpectedly, this “Nine Mysterious Heavenly Scriptures” also contained content on feng shui divination, as well as various extraordinary techniques for appraising treasures and restoration, along with many other peculiar things.

Ye Chen read for a long time, feeling as if every word in the book was drilling into his mind, his heart boiling like water.

He had struck gold!

This was an extraordinary treasure!