Opening an antique shop and getting rich through all the worlds

Chapter 50

“These items of yours are absolutely wonderful.” Shen You said after examining the collection thoroughly.

“The donor Mr. Xu Zhongxu whom I saw at the museum last time—that was you, wasn’t it?”

“Indeed, that was me.” Old Master Xu laughed heartily.

“Your name was also listed there. I only donated a Ru kiln plate, which hardly compares to your tea set. Come now, please take your seats for dinner. Don’t be reserved—treat this as your own home.”

While the old man spoke this way, and Shen You agreed politely, she didn’t take his words to heart completely.

At home, she had no proper sitting posture whatsoever. She would lounge in her reclining chair like Ge You, munching on fried chicken without bothering to sit up properly.

The evening’s dishes were quite abundant. Gu Shaoyu, who was usually eloquent and talkative, restrained himself considerably in front of Old Master Xu, answering whatever questions were asked of him.

“Miss Shen You, this tea of yours is excellent.” The old man said as he set down his teacup with praise. “Fragrant!”

Someone of the old man’s caliber could drink any fine tea on ordinary days, so common items really couldn’t earn a word of praise from him.

Gu Yue felt even more uncomfortable inside. She and Gu Shaoyu had also brought tea leaves, which were premium tea that their family had specifically asked someone to purchase.

One box cost tens of thousands of yuan.

Old Master Xu had only politely said “good” about their tea before having someone put it away.

The tea leaves Shen You brought had packaging that looked far inferior, and it resembled something from a small workshop and appeared rather shabby.

However, Old Master Xu immediately wanted to taste it and treated it like a treasure, having the family’s housekeeper place it on the shelf in his personal tea room.

She didn’t believe Shen You could have bought any rare, fine tea.

Truly good tea couldn’t be bought even with money, as only so much was produced each year, what’s more it definitely wouldn’t come in such packaging.

Moreover, she was just an antique shop owner who relied on Professor Li’s reputation and had no family background.

Old Master Xu was simply giving her face, and not that the items she brought were genuinely excellent.

“Where did you buy this tea? I’d like to purchase some to give to those old friends of mine.” Old Master Xu asked again.

“A friend of mine has a private tea workshop where everything is handcrafted using traditional ancient methods. However, the production is limited, so they don’t sell much to outsiders. If you like it, I still have some at my place. I’ll bring it over for you later.”

Tea that could make these discerning connoisseurs appreciate it could only come from a few of the finest tea workshops in the Great Qi dynasty.

Most of them supplied exclusively to noble families.

“How could I take it for free? I’ll buy it.” Old Master Xu said quietly. “Since the quantity is limited, I won’t give any to them. I’ll keep it all for myself to drink.”

“If you insist on paying, then I won’t bring it.” Shen You said, looking at the items Old Master Xu was having them take away.

He claimed they were gifts from others that he couldn’t finish eating.

However, these items were bird’s nest, cordyceps, and the matsutake mushrooms they had eaten that evening.

Old Master Xu smiled happily and didn’t pursue the matter of paying for the tea any further.

Gu Yue glanced at the portion of items the Xu family’s butler had prepared for Shen You. It was the same as her own portion, causing the expression on her face to relax somewhat.

“We also need to leave, so why don’t we have Shaoyu conveniently drive Miss Shen back.” She suggested.

Before Gu Shaoyu could respond, Old Master Xu cleared his throat. “I still have some items I want her to examine. I’ll have Jiayan drive her back later.”

Gu Yue was about to say that they could wait for her when Gu Shaoyu quickly spoke up: “Alright, then we’ll head back first.”

Old Master Xu nodded.

The Gu family siblings were escorted to their car by the butler. Once no outsiders were present, Gu Yue said, “Gu Shaoyu, what are you doing?!”

“Can’t you see that the old man simply wanted to keep her for a private conversation?” Gu Shaoyu sighed.

His sister had definitely noticed this, which was exactly why she didn’t want Xu Jiayan to drive Shen You home.

The Xu family wasn’t lacking drivers. When inviting guests for dinner, having one’s own grandson provide transportation clearly indicated they weren’t treating Shen You as an ordinary guest.

Shen You thought there really were items for her to examine, but unexpectedly, the butler came carrying several more boxes to the car’s back seat.

“What are these?” She asked.

Old Master Xu smiled kindly. “Since you’re returning home tomorrow, these are Mid-Autumn Festival gifts that Jiayan and I prepared.”

The earlier items were ordinary gifts, but this portion was specially prepared by the Xu family. Each gift was numbered, and the recipients were different. Apart from Shen You, all the others were big shots of equivalent status.

Although they were just mooncakes, the packaging boxes featured intangible cultural heritage brocade and mother-of-pearl inlay.

There were also contemporary fired teacups and expensive wine.

After saying goodbye to Old Master Xu, the car slowly drove out of the Xu family’s main gate.

In the car, Xu Jiayan asked, “I heard from Professor Li that your family is in Qinghe County?”

“Yes.” Shen You responded.

“If you encounter any problems, you can message me anytime. My grandfather should have acquaintances there.”

Xu Jiayan remembered what Gu Shaoyu had mentioned earlier, that back in university, one of Shen You’s roommates had said her family had met some trouble.

Although with her current capabilities, resolving such matters wouldn’t be difficult, he still hoped he could help her.

Shen You smiled, her tone calm: “I’m just going home for the festival. There’s nothing that would require troubling Old Master Xu.”

Xu Jiayan didn’t mention what he had heard, only saying, “Grandfather is still interested in seeing your collection, so if anything comes up, don’t hesitate to ask.”

“Alright.” Shen You still agreed politely.

When they arrived at her place, Xu Jiayan helped carry the items from the trunk inside. Shen You took the tea leaves she had just received that morning, divided more than half of them into packages, and had him take them back to Old Master Xu as a return gift.

Neighbors passing by saw so many gift boxes—all expensive items—and couldn’t help but take a few extra glances.

“Is that Shen You’s boyfriend? He looks quite distinguished.”

“Bringing so many gifts, his family’s financial situation must be quite good.”

“Sister Cui was still thinking of setting up her nephew with someone, coveting that she has a shop, but people like that wouldn’t even consider it.”

Shen You closed the door and took out the food box from the counter, opened it, and brewed a pot of tea.

The palace pastries were indeed more refined than those from outside, made with the finest honey. Eating them alone was too sweet, but pairing them with tea allowed the bitterness to balance the sweetness nicely.

What made them precious was that these were genuine ancient imperial court pastries, along with the food box itself—three tiers total, with really beautiful openwork patterns on top.

In modern times, anyone capable of such craftsmanship would be considered a master artisan.

She planned to depart in the afternoon, hence the next morning, she packed her belongings and also sent a box of mooncakes to the enthusiastic elderly neighbor with whom she had a good relationship.

The elderly man’s son worked at the police station, and Shen You wanted the neighbor to help keep an eye on her house.

This provided double security.

The other layer of security was the shop system’s daily expenditure of 100 points—equivalent to ten thousand yuan—to activate the managed security mode, which could even monitor the current world.

If anyone entered to steal things, they would be able to see but not touch anything.

This function could be used once per month.

Then she sent Wen Zhi a message telling him when the shop would reopen next, to prevent him from making a wasted trip.

An automatic reply of three words came back: “No signal”. He was probably still in the Great Qi dynasty.

Just as she was worrying about the several remaining boxes of mooncakes in the house, Wen Zhi arrived.

He paused, and watching her eating mooncakes and sighing deeply, asked in confusion, “Did you switch to selling mooncakes?”

“You’ve come at just the right time. Pick two boxes?” Shen You said as she stuffed mooncakes into his hands. The ones she was taking back were already loaded in the car. These were the ones she was trying to get rid of.

No matter how delicious they were, eating two in a row was too much.

“Are you certain you’re not giving these to me because you can’t finish them?” His beautiful eyes looked toward Shen You.