Chu Wan stopped arguing and started seriously bargaining with the shop owner. The two went back and forth, and in the end the shop owner insisted on 150 yuan, but Chu Wan refused to budge on 120 yuan.

The negotiation had gone this far with only 30 yuan left. Su Hongyan couldn’t hold back any longer. She wanted to say, ‘What’s wrong with 30 yuan more? A blue and white porcelain piece that costs 150 yuan is definitely worth it. This is a steal!

Before she could say anything, Chu Wan said in a deep voice, “Shut up. If you agree to the extra 30 yuan, you can forget about doing business with me. If you want to buy it, buy it yourself right now. I’m not going to help you with your blind eyes!”

She was just a young girl, dressed in sportswear, looking like an innocent high school student. But now, when she got angry, her face turned red, and she was quite imposing.

Su Hongyan was startled and looked at Lu Jianzhao beside her.

Lu Jianzhao was also surprised. He thought Chu Wan usually had a good temper, but he didn’t expect her to get so angry over bargaining. He quickly coaxed her, “Wanwan, don’t be angry, don’t be angry. It’s only 30 yuan, let’s not get angry over it!”

The shop owner looked at Chu Wan with amusement. “Look at this girl, anyone who didn’t know better would think something was wrong. It’s just 30 yuan, who can’t afford that?”

The shop owner was clearly using reverse psychology. Chu Wan looked at the shop owner and said, “120 yuan, not a penny more, or this deal is off!”

The shop owner responded, “Then I’ll be firm: 150 yuan, not a jiao less, or this deal is off!”

Su Hongyan and Lu Jianzhao exchanged a helpless glance; the two of them were at odds again.

Sometimes buying and selling things wasn’t just about money anymore; it was like taking a gamble.

The shop owner smiled at Su Hongyan, “This little girl, she doesn’t look very big, but she’s really energetic. She’s determined to argue with me over this 30 yuan!”

Chu Wan raised an eyebrow, “So what if I’m stubborn about 30 yuan? 30 yuan is a month’s wages for an ordinary worker.”

The shop owner shrugged and said, “Fine, I’ll let you throw something in, okay? If I give you something else, you’ll be able to swallow this insult, right?”

He clearly wanted the sale to succeed, but he didn’t want to lose those 30 dollars.

Chu Wan glanced at him and asked, “What should I get?”

The young shop owner leaned casually against a doorpost, smiling at Chu Wan, “Little one, take a look yourself. If you like it, and I can swallow it, I’ll give it to you.”

Chu Wan casually picked up a snuff bottle from the side. The snuff bottle looked exquisite, with a white glaze. “This?”

The shop owner smiled at her. “Good eye! You just reached out and took my good stuff? I can’t let you have it, I’d go bankrupt!”

Seeing that things were going well, Su Hongyan quickly started picking through the bottles and jars. Chu Wan also watched but didn’t do anything.

She hoped that she and Su Hongyan could achieve a magical telepathic connection, and that Su Hongyan could directly obtain the authentic blue and white porcelain covered jar.

The shop owner clearly saw that Su Hongyan was an amateur. He wouldn’t suspect anything if Su Hongyan took the items, but if Chu Wan did it herself, the shop owner would have to think twice.

Unfortunately, she was disappointed; Su Hongyan couldn’t possibly care less about such an insignificant little thing.

Su Hongyan took a pottery monkey from the Han Dynasty, which she estimated to be worth 10 or 8 yuan.

She looked at Chu Wan with a hint of approval, “Is this alright?”

Chu Wan frowned. “Let’s add another one, this one isn’t worth much.”

The shop owner was so angry he laughed, shaking his head and sighing repeatedly. “Young lady, are you ever going to stop? You don’t want it, but I’m still waiting to watch TV. My drama is already over, Chen Zhenren has run away, and you still haven’t chosen one?!”

Chu Wan said, “Let’s just add one more item, otherwise it’ll still feel like a loss, and I won’t feel comfortable with it.”

The shop owner sighed helplessly, “Alright, alright, I’ll let you have your way today since you’re good-looking and young. Take something inconspicuous, I really can’t handle anything too fancy! I’m in business too, I can’t afford to lose money!”

Chu Wan said, “Sister Hongyan, get another one.”

Su Hongyan was somewhat bewildered, “Which one?”

Chu Wan said, “Just grab one.”

She pointed and said, “Take that covered jar; we can use it to pickle vegetables at home later!”

Su Hongyan: “Alright…”

She actually didn’t like the covered jar, but she reluctantly took it so that Chu Wan could calm down and stop being angry.

Actually, she felt that this was already good enough.

The shop owner glanced at the covered jar and sighed, “This is an old item. Since we’ve come this far today, let’s consider it a fated connection and I’ll give it to you as a gift.”

Chu Wan ignored this and said, “The house is a mess. If I look and find that the year is wrong, I can come back and look for it.”

The shop owner’s smile held a hint of sarcasm. “Young lady, you think you’re so capable? I think you’re an expert, so don’t spout such layman’s talk!”

Chu Wan: “How about we take another look?”

Shop owner: “Sure, feel free to look around!”

Chu Wan deliberately shifted her attention to the Qing dynasty imitation blue and white porcelain. After all, the shop owner seemed to be an expert, and if she paid attention to the covered jar, she might lose the duck that was about to be eaten.

While Su Hongyan and Lu Jianzhao were examining the Qing dynasty-style blue and white porcelain piece closely, Chu Wan’s eyes were fixed on the fish basin over there.

Among all those beads, she rediscovered the pale yellow jade that she had noticed before.

In his book ‘Yanxian Qingshang Jian’¹ written during the Ming Dynasty, Gao Lian mentioned that the best jade was yellow jade, followed by mutton fat jade. At that time, yellow jade was already ranked first among jades, and mutton fat jade was ranked after yellow jade.

More than a decade later, ancient jade became very popular, and yellow jade was even more sought after. As far as she could remember, a Han Dynasty yellow jade belt pendant will be auctioned for more than three million yuan.

This piece of light yellow jade was not very important right now, but if she kept it for ten years or so, it would be worth at least a million.

Most importantly, Chu Wan felt that she might be able to pick up this bargain while she was at it.

She glanced at the shop owner indifferently and said, “How about this, my sister has been squatting there picking up beads for ages, and you just offered them for over ten yuan each. Why don’t you give us a few more beads?”

Upon hearing this, the shop owner nearly fainted from anger. “Young lady, you’re not satisfied with just taking advantage! You’ve already got two additional items, and you still want more beads?! How about I just give it to you for free?”

Of course, he knew that a mere post-painted Republican era porcelain was worth at most 10 or 20 yuan, and he was selling it for 150 yuan, making a sure profit and definitely ripping off the girl.

Adding 10 more beads wouldn’t make a difference!

But sometimes it was just a matter of pride. Even if he knew he was making a huge profit, if she kept adding more and more, it would never end, and he’d get angry too!

Chu Wan naturally knew what he was thinking. She glanced at the shopkeeper and said, “We’re paying 150 yuan for a jar. We’re regular customers, after all. Don’t you think about the possibility of repeat customers? With your trick of letting customers pick out the good beads, let’s be frank, are you being fair? What’s wrong with you adding a few more?”

Su Hongyan, who was standing next to her, also felt cheated when she remembered sorting through the beads earlier. “Yeah, why don’t you give us a few more beads!”

Shop owner: “Young lady, those beads of mine also cost money!”

Chu Wan then said, “How about this, bring out those few we picked out before and sell them to us for two yuan each.”

The shop owner glanced at her casually, “Well, why didn’t you say so earlier? I would have thrown it in already. But where am I supposed to find it for you now?”

Chu Wan then said, “Can I just take a few from here?”

Shop owner: “If you have time, then go ahead and choose!”

Su Hongyan: “Forget it, forget it, my eyes are already tired from picking out so many, let’s stop.”

Chu Wan: “I’m too lazy to pick, so I’ll just grab a few at random. I’ll give them to my relatives’ kids to hang around their necks with red string for good luck.”

The shop owner shook his head helplessly, “Take it, take it, take it!”

Chu Wan squatted there without looking much and casually grabbed a handful. Then, she let most of the beads slip through her fingers, leaving only five beads within her fingers.

When she made this gesture, she didn’t even look at the beads; she just stared at the shopkeeper. “It’s 5. 10 yuan?”

Shop owner: “Yes,10 yuan—”

He said, “Why don’t you guys hand over that jar first?”

Su Hongyan finally breathed a sigh of relief. She was afraid that Chu Wan would use some tricks or make some demands again. She felt that the shop owner was about to be annoyed by Chu Wan.

They quickly paid the money, then collected the imitation Qing Dynasty blue and white porcelain, the pottery figure, and the covered jar, then carried them all out with Lu Jianzhao.

Chu Wan handed over 10 yuan and casually tossed the 5 small beads into her canvas bag.

When the group left the courtyard, the shop owner even went out to see them off.

He smiled and looked at Chu Wan. “Little girl, I’m impressed. What’s your name?”

Chu Wan glanced at him. “Do I have to leave my name to buy your stuff?”

Shop owner: “No deal is made without a fight, so we can do more business together in the future!”

Chu Wan then said, “Chu Wan.”

The shop owner, pushing his luck, asked with a smile, “Which ‘Chu’? Which ‘Wan’?”

Chu Wan was reluctant to reveal her name, but considering that he had quite a few good things inside and that she would probably have to deal with him in the future, she said, “Chu as in the first day of the lunar month, and Wan as in saving.”

The shop owner suddenly realized, looked down at Chu Wan with a smile, raised an eyebrow and said, “Chu as in ‘the first stirrings of love’, Wan as in ‘save the day’. Okay, I’ll remember that.”

Chu Wan glanced at the shop owner, but didn’t want to say anything.

She felt like she was being teased.

Actually, how she was dressed before was pretty good. People didn’t see her as male or female, so she was inconspicuous and it was easy to get things done.

After all, this industry was ultimately dominated by men.

She smiled, then turned to leave.

The shop owner replied, “I am Nie Nangui.”

Nie Nangui?

Chu Wan raised an eyebrow, stopped in her tracks, and looked at him in surprise.

He had delicate, handsome features, a slightly roguish smile, and an air of nonchalance.

Nie Nangui actually looked like this when he was young.

Nie Nangui smiled and said lazily, “The ‘gui’ in green-blue jade gui, not the ‘gui’ in tortoise.”

Pearls and Jade Beside Me in the ’80s translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

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T/N: Many Chinese characters (hanzi) sound the same, so when a person introduces themselves, they would say a common phrase that includes their hanzi so the other person would know which one they meant. 

Chu means ‘at first’, ‘in the beginning’. Wan, in the literal sense means ‘to pull or draw back’ (like a bow); figuratively it means to pull against or recover.  

‘First stirrings of love’ is an idiom and contains ‘chu’.  For ‘save the day’, the literal phrase is ‘pull back the sun’. It means not just to save the day but to do it in such impossible odds like that of pulling back the sun.

As for gui, we encountered this a few chapters back. The green-blue jade gui is one of the ancient ritual artifacts.

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FOOTNOTE:

1.  I can’t find a reliable English translation so let’s just keep it in pinyin. It’s a treatise on the appreciation of fine objects, covering the identification (genuine vs forgery) of ancient bronzes , jades, porcelains, rubbings from ancient steles, paintings, guqin, etc. ↩︎