Chapter 170: They Scramble, I Scavenge—Heh! Just Playing.

She then waited patiently for the first artifact to be presented.

The auctioneer was Miss Chen Liangling, a woman who had gone viral online for her elegance. Today, she wore a blue cheongsam, her expression cool yet pure, her beautiful eyes captivating.

Her voice was crisp yet steady; she was indeed a very poised auctioneer.

When she began to auction the first artifact, she introduced it as a Beast Head Agate Cup made of Twisted Agate.

Gu Shengsheng knew it was a high-quality fake, so she did nothing.

But the people around her were bidding frantically. The item, with a starting price of 300,000 yuan, was bid up to 9 million yuan.

Gu Shengsheng found it strange.

’These people... they shouldn’t be acting like this.’

Next came the second artifact. The auctioneer, Chen Liangling, introduced it as the Gilded Silver Pot with Dancing Horse and Cup Pattern, inspired by the shape of a Skin Bag Pot used by nomadic peoples.

The System identified this artifact as authentic, and Gu Shengsheng was also certain it was real. She had seen it before in a parallel universe.

But... not a single person around her made a bid.

The starting price was 700,000. Seeing that no one was raising their paddle, Gu Shengsheng snapped it up when the final call came.

Everyone around her stared at her with strange expressions, as if they were looking at an idiot.

Gu Shengsheng was no stranger to such looks.

’The way they’re acting... it’s as if they know in advance which items are real and which are fake.’

Then they would bid accordingly.

Because most of the people attending this auction weren’t the bosses themselves, but proxy bidders they had hired.

Gu Shengsheng didn’t know where the process had gone wrong.

The stout man beside her looked helpless, even a bit regretful. "Why are you wasting your money like this?"

"No one else bid on it. Are you here to buy junk? I know you’re a novice, but there’s no grace period for beginners in the antique appraisal business."

Gu Shengsheng nodded and smiled. "It’s fine. Spending money is part of the learning process."

"..." The stout man was clearly a talkative person. "It’s not just me, but those people who were bidding... it’s obvious they know something in advance. I’m afraid we’re just here for show."

Gu Shengsheng nodded. Even he could see it. These people were being too obvious.

’If that’s the case, does it mean the final artifacts are different from what they were led to believe? Could the ones they think are fake all turn out to be real?’

At first, Gu Shengsheng was only guessing, but when she snagged a bargain on the fifth item and the situation was still the same, she knew something must have gone wrong within the antique dealer circles.

Her heart was pounding. She had already spent 30 million, snagging items that the System valued at 80 million...

’Whatever. Why pass up a good deal?’

Gu Shengsheng snatched up every bargain she could.

Then, for the second-to-last item, the auctioneer announced the grape flower bird pattern silver sachet, which was full of ancient Silk Road style... The System’s material analysis quickly identified it as authentic.

But the others knew it too. The bidding war drove the price to 30 million. Gu Shengsheng didn’t go for it, withdrawing directly. It was won by a wealthy businessman.

Then came the final artifact. Gu Shengsheng saw that it was a painting, and she could tell at a glance that it was from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.

It hadn’t been displayed during the preview.

But now, placed here... everyone around her said it looked familiar.

"Isn’t that thing a painting by the artist Li Xingwu, based on the ’Twenty-four Musicians’ from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms? I remember it’s a famous exhibit from the Municipal Museum!"

"The one in the museum is definitely real. They’re trying to fool people with this piece of junk again."

"These rushed auctions are so annoying. They’ll sell anything. Good thing there’s a little girl here to collect the trash, right!"

"..."

Everyone was chattering away without restraint, and their words reached the ears of Gu Shengsheng, the "little girl who collects trash."

Once again, no one bid. The stout man beside her sighed. "Well, you’re going to bid on it again, aren’t you."

"Suit yourself. I won’t say any more. Just now you told me you were learning. Looks to me like you’ve learned nothing at all."

Gu Shengsheng smiled. "I have my reasons, of course. Thank you for your advice, sir."

After speaking, Gu Shengsheng raised her paddle and bid.

Everyone was used to it by now.

Many of them were from Xiangjiang, so they didn’t know about Gu Shengsheng’s reputation on the mainland.

They could only sigh. ’This is just a young girl with no background, and more importantly, no discerning eye at all.’

After winning the bid, Gu Shengsheng suppressed her excitement. She calmly had the items packed up and took possession of them.

She had originally planned to pick one of the pieces she’d won at auction for Shang Jinhao, but now, no painting was more suitable than the *Twenty-four Musicians*.

The *Twenty-four Musicians* was a work from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. The painting was lifelike and exquisitely crafted, but most importantly, Gu Shengsheng discovered that it came with the carved panel.

The carved panel was worth far more than the painting!

The most precious artifact of Yongling was, of course, the *Twenty-four Musicians* carved into the alcoves of the coffin platform.

The System couldn’t appraise this carved panel, but the moment Gu Shengsheng saw it, she felt like crying.

In another parallel universe, she had worked as an artifact appraiser. This carved panel had appeared around the year 2045. At the time, she spent three years restoring it... and after it was revealed to the world, it was confirmed as a genuine artifact.

None of her efforts had been in vain.

She had studied this piece so deeply that she could recognize it from a single section, let alone a complete and undamaged one like this.

To think that in the year 2023... this carved panel of the *Twenty-four Musicians* hadn’t been destroyed!

Unfortunately, everyone present was only staring at the painting and had not noticed the master panel behind it...

The painting was a later copy; the true spirit lay in the master panel behind it.

This artifact had a starting price of 30 million. Gu Shengsheng stood up and bid without a moment’s hesitation.

Everyone around her thought she was crazy. Not a single person competed with her.

Of course, she herself didn’t care.

’This item must be placed in a museum. If it’s put in the Imperial Palace Museum, it can even be exhibited to the public and build a reputation. That would be perfect!’

After all, there were too many fakes of the *Twenty-four Musicians* nowadays. At one point, Japan claimed one had surfaced there, and then the United States...

In the end, one was jointly purchased by the Hang City Museum and the Han Wu City Museum.

It seemed now that a foreign country had sold them a fake.

It was already difficult enough for us to buy back our own cultural relics from abroad, often at a high price. Now, she could use this opportunity to establish the formidable presence of Huaxia’s appraisal world.

When the auction ended, Gu Shengsheng went to find Shang Jinhao and explained the situation.

She thought Shang Jinhao would be displeased. To her surprise, he didn’t doubt her at all. "Miss Gu, you make the arrangements."

"I don’t really understand this stuff anyway. Although many people were bad-mouthing you just now, Mr. Qiu Xiaojun, Zhang Rulan, and Zhang Zhengyi all strongly support you. I have no reason to doubt you."

"I’m just worried, if I take this carved panel and painting of the *Twenty-four Musicians* from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms to be exhibited, should we inform the Hanwu Museum and the Hang City Museum in advance? After all, they currently have an identical artifact on display."