"An expert in ancient books?" Zhang Yuling asked in surprise upon receiving the call, "Why are you looking for an expert in this field?"
"There are a few ancient books that need to be authenticated." Chen Yiyang said honestly.
"I have a friend who is currently in Jin City, you can ask her to take a look. Although she’s not exactly an expert, she’s published many papers in the related field with her advisor."
"Thank you very much." Chen Yiyang hung up the phone, then added the shared contact card, noting that it was Zhang Yuling’s introduction.
"Hello, Zhang Yuling’s friend." The other party sent a ssage first.
Chen Yiyang copied and pasted the prepared words and sent them over.
The general idea is that he spent a lot on three valuable ancient books and hoped the other person could look at them.
Having said that, Chen Yiyang sent over the photos of the three ancient books he had just taken.
It was a full half hour later that the other party replied, "Where are you now, is it convenient for to co over?"
"How about we et at a coffee shop or sothing like a library?" Chen Yiyang suggested.
"No, no, no, you need to find a quiet place with a computer."
"How about an esports hotel?" The first place that popped into Chen Yiyang’s mind was an esports hotel.
Perfectly ets the requirents.
Of course, the rental apartnt he is in now also ets the requirents and wouldn’t cost money.
However, he was still sowhat against having unfamiliar strangers know his living place.
Last ti Zhao Qiankun sent him ho, he just dropped off at the neighborhood entrance.
"Alright." The other party agreed readily.
So, Chen Yiyang ordered the esports hotel he often stayed at before through the app, then sent the address to the other party.
Chen Yiyang stuffed the ancient books into his backpack and imdiately headed out to the esports hotel.
After Chen Yiyang played gas for two hours, a knock on the hotel room door was finally heard.
Chen Yiyang opened the door.
A girl with waist-length hair, wearing black-frad glasses, and dressed in modified Hanfu stood at the door looking at him.
With knowledge cos elegance.
This was Chen Yiyang’s first impression of this girl.
The second impression was that this girl looked like Lin Daiyu in the old version of the Red Chamber Dream TV series.
"I am the one you contacted on WeChat earlier." The girl introduced herself in a soft voice. "You can call Xu Xiaosheng."
"Hello, I am Chen Yiyang." Chen Yiyang quickly snapped back to attention and said his na.
"So, shall we go inside and chat?" Xu Xiaosheng pointed inside the room.
"Sure, welco." Chen Yiyang stood aside to let the girl in.
If only he had agreed to et at ho.
Chen Yiyang regretted not having the habit of imdiately checking people’s social dia monts after adding them.
He thought Zhang Yuling’s friend was a guy.
He fell victim to the mix-up between ’he’ and ’she’ in spoken Chinese.
"The books are here." After locking the door, Chen Yiyang took out the three ancient books for the girl to see.
"Thank you." Xu Xiaosheng took the books and sat down in front of the table to carefully examine them.
She quickly opened her computer and began checking things while looking.
"These books are extrely precious."
It was not until the evening that Xu Xiaosheng started speaking as if she had found a treasure.
"What exactly makes them precious?" Chen Yiyang was fully absorbed in his gaming at this point.
Today he was gaming extrely well, having long since put the matter of the ancient books in the back of his mind.
Only when Xu Xiaosheng took the initiative to speak to him did he spare a mont to reply while still gaming.
"I’ll wait until you finish this round." Xu Xiaosheng indicated she was willing to wait for Chen Yiyang to finish the ga.
"Alright." Chen Yiyang put on his headphones again and continued his gaming spree.
When he finally put down the mouse, feeling satisfied, he turned to see Xu Xiaosheng, who had at so point taken out a piece of bread and was nibbling away.
Seeing Chen Yiyang turn his head over, she instinctively tried to hide the bread.
Halfway through hiding, she realized where she was, so she explained, "I have a bit of low blood sugar, so I need to eat sothing."
"No worries, sorry for making you wait." Chen Yiyang asked, "You said those books are very precious, what exactly makes them precious?"
"Earlier, oh, you an three hours ago."
Has it already been three hours?
Chen Yiyang incredulously checked his phone.
It was already after ten at night.
He had forgotten to eat dinner and started feeling a bit hungry.
So, he asked Xu Xiaosheng, "Is there more bread, could you share a piece?"
"No more, but I can give you half." Xu Xiaosheng tore a bit of bread for Chen Yiyang, and the two continued discussing the books.
"Do you have any knowledge of miscellaneous words?"
"No." Chen Yiyang shook his head decisively.
"The so-called miscellaneous words are collections of various common word suffixes compiled into rhys for easy morization. It serves as an ancient prir for literacy, gathering various common characters into rhyd phrases for beginners to morize.
In ancient tis, the miscellaneous character scripts were particularly practical, but they weren’t valued by the authorities and were left to fend for themselves.
Therefore, the compilers of these books rarely left their nas or the dates of composition, and they were seldom included in official bibliographies or catalogs.
This has resulted in the fact that, in our country, the extant miscellaneous character books are generally from the Qing Dynasty or the Republic. Ming Dynasty examples are extrely rare, and from the Song and Yuan periods, not a single one can be found."
"So, which dynasty are these three books from?" Chen Yiyang asked.
"At least from the Ming, or possibly even earlier," Xu Xiaosheng concluded, "As I ntioned before, miscellaneous character books don’t indicate dates.
So the way to determine the date is by comparing the content. If it doesn’t match those from the Republic or Qing Dynasty, one can determine it to be from the Ming or earlier.
If there are significant differences from the surviving Ming miscellaneous scripts, one might infer they are from the Yuan or even the Song Dynasty."
"Does that an these three books have significant research value and could sell for quite a sum?" Chen Yiyang was not interested in researching ancient books, but was quite interested in how much they could sell for.
"You want to sell them?" Xu Xiaosheng’s mouth dropped open.
"Am I coming off a bit too materialistic?" Chen Yiyang thought the girl was disdaining him.
"No, if you’re going to sell, could you sell them to ?" Xu Xiaosheng quickly explained, "These three books are of great research value, and I could write many papers and advance studies in miscellaneous characters with others based on them."
"Ambitious, impressive." Chen Yiyang gave the girl a thumbs-up.
Her passion for ancient books was apparent to the naked eye.
Plus, she seed quite green, the kind of green that was unworldly.
So he wasn’t worried she’d deliberately offer a low price.
Given that these are hard to sell, with no use for the average collector, one has to find a scholar specializing in this field to sell them to.
Therefore, as long as the price she offered wasn’t exceptionally low, Chen Yiyang was inclined to sell them to her.
"Na your price." Chen Yiyang said.
"Let ask soone first." Xu Xiaosheng opened her phone and began ssaging others.
An entire hour later, she replied, "I consulted with my teacher and so seniors. They said these books have no set market price; it’s generally whoever needs to research in this field or wants to publish papers who cos looking for them.
Ming Dynasty miscellaneous scripts usually go for about thirty thousand each. Yours might be earlier than Ming, though it’s uncertain. How about fifty thousand per book, a total of one hundred fifty thousand for all three?"
"Sure." Chen Yiyang thought this price was reasonable.
With this hundred fifty thousand, he would officially beco a millionaire.
"Could I just buy one first?" After seeing Chen Yiyang agree, the girl said sheepishly, "I only have sixty thousand in my account right now. When I get back to the Imperial Capital, I’ll find a way to earn more to buy the other two."
Chen Yiyang looked at the girl, then at his books.
He resisted the generous impulse to let her take the books and pay him bit by bit.
Chen Yiyang, oh Chen Yiyang, to beco so generous after earning just a little money.
If you keep indulging like this, who knows, you might squander yourself into bankruptcy in the future.
After all, the future is unpredictable.
What if the bargain-hunting app disappeared in a few days?
Perhaps this twelve thousand could help pay a few more installnts of his mortgage.
So, after pondering it over for a while, Chen Yiyang finally said, "Then I’ll sell you one book first. Choose one for yourself to take.
As for the other two, I can’t guarantee to keep them for you. If soone else cos to buy them later and the price is right, I might sell them."
"Okay, okay." Xu Xiaosheng’s expression didn’t change at all. She nodded, saying, "Just let know before you sell them. I will work hard to raise money once I get back."
"Alright." Chen Yiyang let Xu Xiaosheng pick a book to take and then packed the remaining two into his bag.
"Let’s go, it’s late, and I guess you’re not in a rush to go back. Let treat you to a late-night snack."
"Thank you so much." Xu Xiaosheng quickly expressed her gratitude.
So the two left the esports hotel and found a fast-food place still open by the street, where they filled up on so hamburgers and fries.
After sending Xu Xiaosheng off in a taxi, Chen Yiyang took out his cellphone.
Today’s bargain-hunting information had also co through.
Today’s scoop: Who says paper wallets are safe: In front of the shop at No. 29 Nanyang Road, Guan City District, Jin City, there’s a tal box in the trash containing half of a Bitcoin paper wallet (with two Bitcoins on it). Take it, and you’ve scored a bargain.
A Bitcoin paper wallet?
Chen Yiyang was a bit puzzled after seeing this ssage.
He knew about Bitcoin, but what’s a paper wallet?
So he imdiately searched on his phone.
And quickly understood.
A paper wallet is when the private key for a Bitcoin is printed in text or QR code form on paper.
This ensures that no one can steal your Bitcoins through hacking or account theft.
The downside is that its usage is stricter than paper currency.
If lost, burnt, or otherwise damaged so that the information is incomplete.
The Bitcoins recorded on it vanish entirely from the world.
No one can ever regain control of those Bitcoins.
You can imagine the rarity of such an item.
The current market price, as per online information, is around ninety thousand US dollars for one Bitcoin.
This ti around, the bargain’s value is high, but Chen Yiyang had one question.
With half a Bitcoin paper wallet, how does one cash it out?
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