Chapter 9 – Forgery
The person probably saw Supervisor’s Tong’s strange expression and also turned around.
Yu Tang saw an extremely handsome and imposing face.
Her breath caught. But she was soon pierced by the cold indifference in the eyes of the man dressed in blue.
Yutang’s face burned with embarrassment, and she tried to explain, “I’m not here pawn off a fake, it’s my father, he bought a painting from a friend ……”
The man in blue clearly did not believe her words. He ignored her as if she weren’t there, and he slightly raised his well-defined jaw and nodded towards Supervisor Tong, before brushing past Yu Tang to leave.
How could this happen?!
Yu Tong protested inside her heart, and was confused for a moment. She couldn’t help but chase after him and said defensively “I really did not come to deceive……”
The man in blue glanced back at her.
His pitch black eyes were clear and cold, just like a deep lake in the autumn, with a coldness that could pierce the bones.
Yu Tang shivered internally.
Her words that she wanted to say to defend herself were stuck in her throat.
She was frozen in place.
Supervisor Tong hurriedly chased after him and courteously escorted the man out.
Only then did Yu Tang realize that at some point, a carriage had stopped outside the entrance.
Supervisor Tong personally took a footstool and wanted to assist the blue-robed man into the carriage, but was stopped by a person dressed in a brown robe who was standing beside the carriage who assisted instead. Supervisor Tong was not offended. Instead, he quickly bowed as he stepped back a few steps, as he watched the carriage move away. Only when the carriage was out of sight, only then did he stood straight and turned back to the pawn store, saying with a smile: “Little miss, why did you come back? Do you have something important?”
Yu Tang couldn’t help but smile towards the shopkeeper, saying, “Who is that esteemed person just now?”
Supervisor Tong smiled warmly, but he didn’t answer her question directly. Instead, he bent down and gestured with his hand, indicating to her to talk inside, and said with a smile, “Let’s speak more inside.”
Yu Tang came back to her senses.
Although in her these two lives combined, she had not seen anyone better looking than that person in blue, but she was still considered a young girl yet to reach maturity. Daring to pester another person to ask who that man was…… fortunately, Supervisor Tong was kind, and did not criticize her faults, otherwise she could only kneel down in shame.
Yu Tang composed herself and handed the painting to Supervisor Tong, and sincerely asked for advice, saying. “Supervisor Tong, when you said this painting was a fake, what evidence do you have?”
Supervisor Tong was stunned.
His son, little supervisor Tong probably thought that she was trying to cause a scene, as he hurriedly made his way and stood in front of Supervisor Tong. “Young miss, our pawn store in Lin’an is a century old shop. When you saw the name ‘Tong’, I’m sure you must have inquired carefully. If you do not trust our words, you can also check the painting carefully, and examine how you gave the painting to us and how we returned it to you. Although “Pine Creek Fishing Hidden Painting” is a famous antique work, it’s not the only antique that we have seen. We will not tarnish our reputation just for one painting. This is something we would never do.”
Yu Tang’s face turned red with shame and she said, “No, no. You misunderstood. I don’t suspect you of deliberately switching a real painting for a fake one. I just want to know what’s wrong with this painting, so that I can go and settle accounts with the person that sold this to me!”
Both Supervisor Tong and his son let out sighs of relief.
Little Supervisor Tong quickly said: “You should not be be tempted by small profits – our Pei family pawn store has been in business for so many years. Whether is it a ‘live’ pawn or a ‘dead’ pawn, we will not force others to sell. If the person really lacked silver, why wouldn’t he have come straight to us to sell it directly?”
Big Supervisor Tong immediately reprimanded him. “Is this how you speak to customers?” He thought for a while and said, “To say that this painting is a fake is not entirely true.”
Yu Tang’s spirit lifted and said, “What do you mean by that?”
Big Supervisor Tong remarked. “Young miss may not be aware that ancient paintings that were passed down from generations to generations, were mostly done on Xuan(Rice) paper. There are two characteristics of Xuan paper. One, it is very good at absorbing ink, meaning that the ink can easily seep through to the back of the paper. The second feature is that it is made of several layers of pulp that was repeatedly sun-dried. A skilled framer can usually peel away the paper layer by layer. It will be more accurate to describe your painting as a forgery rather than a fake. We have just given this painting to our in-house expert who specializes in appreciating ancient paintings, and your painting was indeed made by Li Tang. However, the top layer has been peeled away by someone, and so your painting is only the bottom layer, so you see-“
He said, as he opened the scroll, and pointed for Yu Tang to see. “Here and here, it is obvious that it was added on later, as it lacked a few points …….”
However, he did not mention anything about the seals.
Yu Tang was a little confused.
Big supervisor Tong looked at Yu Tang’s tender-looking face, and his heart felt a little pity, and sympathetically said: “If young miss is in dire straits and wants to pawn this painting, it is not impossible. It’s just that you can’t get much silver for it.”
Yu Tang listened and said as she pointed to the seal on the painting stamped with “Plum Forest” and said, “Is there any problem with this seal?”
Big supervisor Tong after listening, gave her a deep contemplative stare.
Yu Tang immediately knew she misspoke.
If she asked this question, it was clear that she already had some suspicion about the authenticity of this painting – since she knew this painting was defective and yet brought it to the pawnshop to sell……
Yu Tang looked again at Big Supervisor Tong’s expression and sure enough, there was no trace of any pleasantness from before.
She said hurriedly: “No. Since this painting is from Minister Zuo’s collection, there should be no mistake ……”
However Big Supervisor Tong obviously did not believe her. With the characteristic politeness and detachment of a businessman, he gave a polite smile and said, “Young miss is right, this painting did end up in Minister Zuo’s hands, but this painting is indeed a forgery, so I’m sorry we can’t accept it at our pawnshop. If you have any other things, feel free to drop by again.”
Little Supervisor Tong then sent her away personally.
Yu Tang was so angry until her head felt dizzy and she didn’t know how she managed her way home. After reaching home, she drank two cups of coarse tea, and finally recovered.
This Lu Xin! What a ‘good’ person!
How can you just run away after taking their family’s silver? How could it be so easy?
Yu Tang shouted for Ah Cam to come over. She gave him a few copper coins, and instructed him, “You go and inquire about the whereabouts of Lu Xin. Make sure not to let my father know about this.”
Ah Cam often bought snacks for Yu Tang behind Yu Wen’s and Chen Shi’s backs, so he smilingly agreed and went out to inquire about Lu Xin.
In the afternoon, he came to report to Yu Tang and said worriedly, “Has Master Lu committed something bad? He sold his house to others and said he was going to the capital to join his relatives. But even if there are relatives in the capital, is he planning to stay in his relatives’ house for the rest of his life?”
In her previous life, Lu Xin never returned to Lin’an.
Yu Tang laughed coldly and said, “Has he left then?”
“Everyone thought that he had left,” Ah Cam said cleverly, “But according to my sources, he has a lover in Hua’er Lane, and he was staying there for the past few days, clearly he must be reluctant to leave her.
Yu Tang quickly processed this information and sighed, and crossed her fingers before beckoning Ah Cam to come over, and gave him many instructions.
Hua’er Lane was located at the back of Changxing Street. It was a curved alley, with the east leading to Changxing Street, and the west side leading to the main residence street. Along both sides were thick camphor trees, and in the evening the red lights shone high, filled with birds chirping and the sounds of boisterous voices in the crowd.
However, because of the ChangXing Street fire, the stores were burnt, and the ruins were unpleasant to look at, so people used a rain cloth to cover the road entrance to this side of Changxing Street, leaving only the road to the residences and governors’ street.
Late at night, during the most lively time in Hua’er Lane, a carriage stopped in front of the courtyard of Big Madam Chu. From the carriage came seven or eight strong and big women, holding mallets, who barged into the courtyard.
Passer-bys were all familiar with this scene, only from a glance, they knew that it must be the wife of the main house coming to make trouble for the mistress. Excitedly, they started to crowd around to see and gossip.
A woman who was tall and big, grabbed Lu Xin’s collar and came out from Chu Madam’s courtyard, walking and speaking in a loud voice: “You go to her courtyard to drink wine, but how dare you still sell the main house just for her? Where do you want us to live in the future? What will we eat? What will we drink?”
The city of Lin’an couldn’t be considered big, but was also not small either. Not to mention how Lu Xin is a nosy person, who always wants to be involved, as such, many people recognized him. Seeing this scene, they all laughed.
Some people said: “No wonder Lu Xin ran to this courtyard every day, as it turns out, the madam in his family is strong and rough, if it was me, I also couldn’t bear it.”
Others wondered, “I thought it was said that Lu Xin’s previous wife died and he never remarried? And he had no children? Where did this woman come from?”
Some people guessed, “Perhaps they too are lovers, but one is in his own courtyard and one is kept outside.”
Lu Xin was so angry that his mouth twisted. He also didn’t know where these women came from and why they were making trouble for him. He also wanted to retort with a few words, but his collar pulled tightly against his neck, which made it hard for him to speak. So the woman dragged him into the carriage, and stuffed his mouth with a pile of rags, drove out of the Hua’er Lane.
This incident will most probably be spread around by the people of Lin’an for the rest of his life.
Lu Xin closed his eyes and grinded his teeth.
If he knew who was set him up, he would never let him get away with it!
The carriage stopped at the corner of Changxing Street.
Lu Xin was dragged out of the carriage.
The moonlight shone on the broken beams and broken tiles of Changxing Street, faint shadows made it look even more desolate. Next door, the laughter and music from Hua’er Lane was a little eerie, making his scalp tingle and his legs tremble.
“What do you people want to do?” Lu Xin trembled warily.
Yu Tang wearing a head scarf came out from the shadows of a broken wall.
Lu Xin recognized her at once.
He jumped up as if his tail had been stepped on and glared, “Why is it you? What do you want? I will find your father to discipline you!”
Yu Tang smiled and said coldly, “Why go to my father? I’ll let the magistrate deal with you!”
Lu Xin was stunned.
Yu Tang threw the painting at Lu Xin’s feet: “Didn’t you say this is the “Pine Creek Fishing Hidden Picture” of Li Tang in the previous dynasty? The Pei family pawnshop’s Tong Supervisor happens to be close to my family, so I took it to Supervisor Tong to check. He said that this is a forgery, which was at most only worth three or five taels of silver. Either I go to the court with you, or you return the silver that you cheated my father out of!”
Lu Xin jumped to his feet: “You are still a little girl, trying to pull wool over my eyes, and want to use the Pei family to pressure me? You think I still don’t know what your family’s background is like? You said it’s a forgery so it must be a forgery. I also can say you stole my painting and didn’t want to pay the silver, falsely accusing me of selling it to your family as a forgery.”
The woman gave Lu Xin a shove and pressed Lu Xin to the ground again.
Yu Tang said disdainfully. “I also know you will not admit it, and did not expect you to do so. We will go to the magistrate at dawn, I have asked Supervisor Tong to be a witness. The real thing can’t be forged, and what is forged cannot be real. At that time, you will only be waiting to lose your reputation and be punished!”
Chapter 9 – Forgery
The person probably saw Supervisor’s Tong’s strange expression and also turned around.
Yu Tang saw an extremely handsome and imposing face.
Her breath caught. But she was soon pierced by the cold indifference in the eyes of the man dressed in blue.
Yutang’s face burned with embarrassment, and she tried to explain, “I’m not here pawn off a fake, it’s my father, he bought a painting from a friend ……”
The man in blue clearly did not believe her words. He ignored her as if she weren’t there, and he slightly raised his well-defined jaw and nodded towards Supervisor Tong, before brushing past Yu Tang to leave.
How could this happen?!
Yu Tong protested inside her heart, and was confused for a moment. She couldn’t help but chase after him and said defensively “I really did not come to deceive……”
The man in blue glanced back at her.
His pitch black eyes were clear and cold, just like a deep lake in the autumn, with a coldness that could pierce the bones.
Yu Tang shivered internally.
Her words that she wanted to say to defend herself were stuck in her throat.
She was frozen in place.
Supervisor Tong hurriedly chased after him and courteously escorted the man out.
Only then did Yu Tang realize that at some point, a carriage had stopped outside the entrance.
Supervisor Tong personally took a footstool and wanted to assist the blue-robed man into the carriage, but was stopped by a person dressed in a brown robe who was standing beside the carriage who assisted instead. Supervisor Tong was not offended. Instead, he quickly bowed as he stepped back a few steps, as he watched the carriage move away. Only when the carriage was out of sight, only then did he stood straight and turned back to the pawn store, saying with a smile: “Little miss, why did you come back? Do you have something important?”
Yu Tang couldn’t help but smile towards the shopkeeper, saying, “Who is that esteemed person just now?”
Supervisor Tong smiled warmly, but he didn’t answer her question directly. Instead, he bent down and gestured with his hand, indicating to her to talk inside, and said with a smile, “Let’s speak more inside.”
Yu Tang came back to her senses.
Although in her these two lives combined, she had not seen anyone better looking than that person in blue, but she was still considered a young girl yet to reach maturity. Daring to pester another person to ask who that man was…… fortunately, Supervisor Tong was kind, and did not criticize her faults, otherwise she could only kneel down in shame.
Yu Tang composed herself and handed the painting to Supervisor Tong, and sincerely asked for advice, saying. “Supervisor Tong, when you said this painting was a fake, what evidence do you have?”
Supervisor Tong was stunned.
His son, little supervisor Tong probably thought that she was trying to cause a scene, as he hurriedly made his way and stood in front of Supervisor Tong. “Young miss, our pawn store in Lin’an is a century old shop. When you saw the name ‘Tong’, I’m sure you must have inquired carefully. If you do not trust our words, you can also check the painting carefully, and examine how you gave the painting to us and how we returned it to you. Although “Pine Creek Fishing Hidden Painting” is a famous antique work, it’s not the only antique that we have seen. We will not tarnish our reputation just for one painting. This is something we would never do.”
Yu Tang’s face turned red with shame and she said, “No, no. You misunderstood. I don’t suspect you of deliberately switching a real painting for a fake one. I just want to know what’s wrong with this painting, so that I can go and settle accounts with the person that sold this to me!”
Both Supervisor Tong and his son let out sighs of relief.
Little Supervisor Tong quickly said: “You should not be be tempted by small profits – our Pei family pawn store has been in business for so many years. Whether is it a ‘live’ pawn or a ‘dead’ pawn, we will not force others to sell. If the person really lacked silver, why wouldn’t he have come straight to us to sell it directly?”
Big Supervisor Tong immediately reprimanded him. “Is this how you speak to customers?” He thought for a while and said, “To say that this painting is a fake is not entirely true.”
Yu Tang’s spirit lifted and said, “What do you mean by that?”
Big Supervisor Tong remarked. “Young miss may not be aware that ancient paintings that were passed down from generations to generations, were mostly done on Xuan(Rice) paper. There are two characteristics of Xuan paper. One, it is very good at absorbing ink, meaning that the ink can easily seep through to the back of the paper. The second feature is that it is made of several layers of pulp that was repeatedly sun-dried. A skilled framer can usually peel away the paper layer by layer. It will be more accurate to describe your painting as a forgery rather than a fake. We have just given this painting to our in-house expert who specializes in appreciating ancient paintings, and your painting was indeed made by Li Tang. However, the top layer has been peeled away by someone, and so your painting is only the bottom layer, so you see-“
He said, as he opened the scroll, and pointed for Yu Tang to see. “Here and here, it is obvious that it was added on later, as it lacked a few points …….”
However, he did not mention anything about the seals.
Yu Tang was a little confused.
Big supervisor Tong looked at Yu Tang’s tender-looking face, and his heart felt a little pity, and sympathetically said: “If young miss is in dire straits and wants to pawn this painting, it is not impossible. It’s just that you can’t get much silver for it.”
Yu Tang listened and said as she pointed to the seal on the painting stamped with “Plum Forest” and said, “Is there any problem with this seal?”
Big supervisor Tong after listening, gave her a deep contemplative stare.
Yu Tang immediately knew she misspoke.
If she asked this question, it was clear that she already had some suspicion about the authenticity of this painting – since she knew this painting was defective and yet brought it to the pawnshop to sell……
Yu Tang looked again at Big Supervisor Tong’s expression and sure enough, there was no trace of any pleasantness from before.
She said hurriedly: “No. Since this painting is from Minister Zuo’s collection, there should be no mistake ……”
However Big Supervisor Tong obviously did not believe her. With the characteristic politeness and detachment of a businessman, he gave a polite smile and said, “Young miss is right, this painting did end up in Minister Zuo’s hands, but this painting is indeed a forgery, so I’m sorry we can’t accept it at our pawnshop. If you have any other things, feel free to drop by again.”
Little Supervisor Tong then sent her away personally.
Yu Tang was so angry until her head felt dizzy and she didn’t know how she managed her way home. After reaching home, she drank two cups of coarse tea, and finally recovered.
This Lu Xin! What a ‘good’ person!
How can you just run away after taking their family’s silver? How could it be so easy?
Yu Tang shouted for Ah Cam to come over. She gave him a few copper coins, and instructed him, “You go and inquire about the whereabouts of Lu Xin. Make sure not to let my father know about this.”
Ah Cam often bought snacks for Yu Tang behind Yu Wen’s and Chen Shi’s backs, so he smilingly agreed and went out to inquire about Lu Xin.
In the afternoon, he came to report to Yu Tang and said worriedly, “Has Master Lu committed something bad? He sold his house to others and said he was going to the capital to join his relatives. But even if there are relatives in the capital, is he planning to stay in his relatives’ house for the rest of his life?”
In her previous life, Lu Xin never returned to Lin’an.
Yu Tang laughed coldly and said, “Has he left then?”
“Everyone thought that he had left,” Ah Cam said cleverly, “But according to my sources, he has a lover in Hua’er Lane, and he was staying there for the past few days, clearly he must be reluctant to leave her.
Yu Tang quickly processed this information and sighed, and crossed her fingers before beckoning Ah Cam to come over, and gave him many instructions.
Hua’er Lane was located at the back of Changxing Street. It was a curved alley, with the east leading to Changxing Street, and the west side leading to the main residence street. Along both sides were thick camphor trees, and in the evening the red lights shone high, filled with birds chirping and the sounds of boisterous voices in the crowd.
However, because of the ChangXing Street fire, the stores were burnt, and the ruins were unpleasant to look at, so people used a rain cloth to cover the road entrance to this side of Changxing Street, leaving only the road to the residences and governors’ street.
Late at night, during the most lively time in Hua’er Lane, a carriage stopped in front of the courtyard of Big Madam Chu. From the carriage came seven or eight strong and big women, holding mallets, who barged into the courtyard.
Passer-bys were all familiar with this scene, only from a glance, they knew that it must be the wife of the main house coming to make trouble for the mistress. Excitedly, they started to crowd around to see and gossip.
A woman who was tall and big, grabbed Lu Xin’s collar and came out from Chu Madam’s courtyard, walking and speaking in a loud voice: “You go to her courtyard to drink wine, but how dare you still sell the main house just for her? Where do you want us to live in the future? What will we eat? What will we drink?”
The city of Lin’an couldn’t be considered big, but was also not small either. Not to mention how Lu Xin is a nosy person, who always wants to be involved, as such, many people recognized him. Seeing this scene, they all laughed.
Some people said: “No wonder Lu Xin ran to this courtyard every day, as it turns out, the madam in his family is strong and rough, if it was me, I also couldn’t bear it.”
Others wondered, “I thought it was said that Lu Xin’s previous wife died and he never remarried? And he had no children? Where did this woman come from?”
Some people guessed, “Perhaps they too are lovers, but one is in his own courtyard and one is kept outside.”
Lu Xin was so angry that his mouth twisted. He also didn’t know where these women came from and why they were making trouble for him. He also wanted to retort with a few words, but his collar pulled tightly against his neck, which made it hard for him to speak. So the woman dragged him into the carriage, and stuffed his mouth with a pile of rags, drove out of the Hua’er Lane.
This incident will most probably be spread around by the people of Lin’an for the rest of his life.
Lu Xin closed his eyes and grinded his teeth.
If he knew who was set him up, he would never let him get away with it!
The carriage stopped at the corner of Changxing Street.
Lu Xin was dragged out of the carriage.
The moonlight shone on the broken beams and broken tiles of Changxing Street, faint shadows made it look even more desolate. Next door, the laughter and music from Hua’er Lane was a little eerie, making his scalp tingle and his legs tremble.
“What do you people want to do?” Lu Xin trembled warily.
Yu Tang wearing a head scarf came out from the shadows of a broken wall.
Lu Xin recognized her at once.
He jumped up as if his tail had been stepped on and glared, “Why is it you? What do you want? I will find your father to discipline you!”
Yu Tang smiled and said coldly, “Why go to my father? I’ll let the magistrate deal with you!”
Lu Xin was stunned.
Yu Tang threw the painting at Lu Xin’s feet: “Didn’t you say this is the “Pine Creek Fishing Hidden Picture” of Li Tang in the previous dynasty? The Pei family pawnshop’s Tong Supervisor happens to be close to my family, so I took it to Supervisor Tong to check. He said that this is a forgery, which was at most only worth three or five taels of silver. Either I go to the court with you, or you return the silver that you cheated my father out of!”
Lu Xin jumped to his feet: “You are still a little girl, trying to pull wool over my eyes, and want to use the Pei family to pressure me? You think I still don’t know what your family’s background is like? You said it’s a forgery so it must be a forgery. I also can say you stole my painting and didn’t want to pay the silver, falsely accusing me of selling it to your family as a forgery.”
The woman gave Lu Xin a shove and pressed Lu Xin to the ground again.
Yu Tang said disdainfully. “I also know you will not admit it, and did not expect you to do so. We will go to the magistrate at dawn, I have asked Supervisor Tong to be a witness. The real thing can’t be forged, and what is forged cannot be real. At that time, you will only be waiting to lose your reputation and be punished!”
