Su Jin was still thinking about how to reply when three round copper coins with square holes in the middle[1]Traditional Chinese cash coins were often round with a square central hole, allowing them to be threaded together on strings. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3717537_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3717537_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); appeared on her desk.
One had blurry characters and was badly worn.
The other two were in better condition and bore the four characters “Dayue Tongbao.”
She had been studying Yue history for over a year, but this was the first time she had ever seen a Yue Dynasty copper coin.
After turning them over and examining them for a while, Su Jin reluctantly set them down and wrote Shen Yubai a letter: “You gave me all the money you had, so you must be broke now, right? I only need to keep one for my research.”
She sent the two coins back along with the letter.
A few minutes later, the two coins came back, accompanied by a reply.
“Mother borrowed six large coins from my maternal grandfather’s family to buy medicine for me. I’ve improved a great deal after taking the medicine you gave me, so there’s no need to buy more. Keeping three large coins should be enough for emergencies. Since you study Yue history, I imagine Dayue Tongbao may be valuable for your research. You could try selling it; perhaps you might get some money for it.”
Su Jin was stunned by the letter.
A man from a thousand years ago actually knew about selling antiques?
If these coins really could be sold as antiques, she wouldn’t have to worry about living expenses this month—and she could even help Shen Yubai and his mother.
Su Jin decided to try her luck at an antique shop.
She put two of the coins in her pocket and opened the dormitory door. Her roommate, Wang Qiqi, was standing anxiously in the living room, as though she hadn’t expected Su Jin to open the door so suddenly.
Su Jin smiled and greeted her. “Don’t you have class this afternoon?”
Wang Qiqi gave a strained laugh and awkwardly fiddled with her bangs. “I asked for leave.”
Su Jin didn’t ask any more.
Though they were roommates, they usually stayed in their own rooms and weren’t close.
Su Jin locked the dormitory door, waved goodbye, and left.
As soon as Su Jin was gone, Wang Qiqi rushed to her bedroom door and tried forcefully pressing down on the handle.
It wouldn’t open.
“She was actually keeping me out!”
Wang Qiqi was furious.
Jiangcheng University had an old campus and a new one.
Most graduate dormitories on the old campus were four-person rooms, and they were run-down everywhere you looked.
The new campus was different.
Undergraduates still lived in four-person rooms, but graduate students had private apartments with two bedrooms and a living room.
Only Su Jin and Wang Qiqi lived in this apartment, so Wang Qiqi naturally assumed Su Jin was keeping her out.
If she couldn’t get into the room, she wouldn’t find any evidence.
Wang Qiqi had thought she would come away empty-handed today, but then she spotted all kinds of medicine boxes and bottles in the living-room trash can.
She practically pounced on them, picking up the boxes and bottles and photographing them over and over.
…
Jiangcheng had plenty of antique shops. The best-known was Little Panjiayuan[2]The name recalls Panjiayuan, a well-known antiques and collectibles market in Beijing; the passage does not establish whether this local market is real or fictional. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3717537_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3717537_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, but it was too far from campus, so Su Jin searched the map for a shop closer to the university and went there.
A young female appraiser in her early twenties stood inside the shop, wearing a pale blue qipao. A wooden hairpin was tucked into her hair.
At the sound of the door chime, she looked up with a sweet smile. “Welcome.”
But when she saw that the customer was a girl dressed like a student, her smile faded.
Students couldn’t afford the antiques in the shop.
Su Jin stepped forward. “Excuse me, do you buy antiques here?”
The appraiser looked her up and down, then asked coolly, “What kind of antique? Let me see it.”
Su Jin took a plastic bag from her pocket and, right in front of the appraiser, pulled two copper coins out of the cheap kind of bag used for fruit.
The appraiser already didn’t want to look at them.
But professional courtesy made her take them anyway.
She gave a snort, then looked at Su Jin with disdain and disgust. “You’ve got some nerve, little miss, trying to pull a scam on me.”
Su Jin bristled. “What am I trying to scam you with?”
“Dayue Tongbao? There was never any such thing as Dayue in history. If you’re making fakes, at least base them on real objects.”
The appraiser tossed the coins onto the table in front of her with a look of disgust. “Take them away!”
Su Jin picked up the coins, put them back in the plastic bag, tucked it into her pocket, and turned to leave.
Behind her, the appraiser scoffed. “First, learn to be a decent person. Stop thinking about taking shortcuts all the time.”
Su Jin stopped.
She turned back. “Who are you saying isn’t a decent person?”
Seeing Su Jin still daring to act so boldly in the shop, the appraiser made no effort to hide her scorn. “Anyone who tries to pass off fakes as real isn’t a decent person.”
Anger simmered inside Su Jin.
She could accept it if the woman simply wouldn’t buy the coins. But what was with all the taunting?
She thought Su Jin was an easy target.
Su Jin wasn’t the type to swallow her anger.
She strode back over.
“If you don’t have a good eye, get someone who does to look at them. I’ll wait right here.”
Su Jin’s forceful manner startled the appraiser, but she quickly grew angry.
“Still playing this up, are you? Fine. When someone exposes you to your face, don’t start crying.”
Su Jin said, “Sure. Go get someone, then. Don’t tell me a shop this big doesn’t have a single person who knows antiques.”
She wasn’t stupid. From the moment she’d walked in, the appraiser had been sizing her up. Her clothes had clearly made the woman look down on her.
Even if she went to another shop, she’d still be treated with contempt.
She might as well deliberately provoke the appraiser into calling over all the experienced appraisers. Perhaps one of them would know about the Yue Dynasty, and then she might be able to sell her coins.
If nobody recognized them, she’d try another shop.
It wasn’t long before an old man wearing reading glasses and a Sun Yat-sen suit entered the shop.
As soon as the appraiser saw him, she hurried over like a gust of wind. “Grandpa!”
The old man patted the back of her hand. “What is it you can’t identify?”
The appraiser pointed at Su Jin. “She brought in two fake copper coins. I wouldn’t buy them, so she refused to leave. She said I didn’t know what I was doing and insisted on having someone with a good eye take a look. I had no choice but to call you over.”
By the time the old man looked over, Su Jin had already stood up. “I have two copper coins. Could you take a look at them for me?”
“They’re fake,” the appraiser hurriedly warned him. “She thinks I’m young and wants to trick me.”
The old man stopped her from saying anything more, then smiled at Su Jin. “May I see them?”
Su Jin took two pitch-black copper coins from the crumpled plastic bag and placed them on the table.
The old man couldn’t help laughing.
He’d appraised antiques for years, but this was the first time he’d seen anyone carry antiques like this.
Even fakes usually came in fancy boxes.
No wonder his precious granddaughter suspected they were fake.
The old man stepped forward and casually picked up a coin from the table, taking a cursory glance at it.
Then he couldn’t take his eyes off it.
“Yaoyao, bring me a flashlight and a magnifying glass!”
The appraiser, Yaoyao, didn’t think there was any need, but when her grandfather asked, she went to get them.
The old man snatched the flashlight from her, carefully shone it all around the coin, then examined it bit by bit through the magnifying glass.
“It’s exactly the same as the form described in the books!”
The old man trembled with excitement, but couldn’t bear to take his eyes away.
It hadn’t been dug out of the ground.
“I never thought I’d come across a copper coin from the Dayue Dynasty!”
Su Jin’s heart stirred. “Have you studied the Dayue Dynasty?”
The old man reluctantly lifted his gaze from the coins and looked at Su Jin. “I’ve been studying Yue Dynasty history for years, but I’ve never come across a real artifact. The coin you brought may help us lift the veil of mystery surrounding Dayue.”
“Grandpa, don’t let her trick you!”
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