Chapter 154: True and False

Sui Yi did not seem to mind this much. She just took a shallow breath, her fingers finally resting on the teacup, her expression and eyes composed.

"The uprising part... is also real."

Real?! Lu Haobai stared with wide eyes, feeling rather anxious. Come on, Sis, didn't I say this is a replica...

Won't saying that get someone into trouble? Most importantly, you can't trick people with that!

Yi Chilian also frowned slightly. He hadn't seen the marvelous intricacies of this ink block himself; he only felt there was something a bit odd about it. How come Sui Yi acted as if there was already a profound mystery hidden inside?

Could it be...

Yi Chilian's insight into cultural relics might surpass everyone present here, including Sui Yi, but after all, he did not possess Sui Yi's special abilities. Therefore, he could not achieve god-like perception, nor could he know that there was an entire universe hidden inside this Jiang Zheng Xuan Jade Ink.

That man had been very impatient and even somewhat irritable earlier, but now he grew quiet instead. He just stared viciously at Sui Yi and sneered, "Ha, this is getting interesting. Sui Yi, are you trying to fool us inspection team members into thinking we don't understand cultural relics? You're saying this piece is real? Then why don't you tell us how it's real?"

Pausing for a moment, he laughed again, "A genuine famous ink block, and you managed to buy it for just tens of thousands?"

He even knew that Sui Yi bought it for tens of thousands, and knew it not long after she made the purchase... One could easily imagine that the other party had spent some effort and manpower on this.

Lu Haobai subconsciously looked around at the others, his gaze lingering particularly on Bai Xiong and the others, seemingly suspecting them of leaking information.

As a seasoned old hand, how could Bai Xiong fail to notice someone else's suspicion? He merely wiped the sweat from his forehead, his lips trembling slightly.

At this moment, the man flicked his hand and took a step back. "Is there any expert on ink here among you? Come take a look, consider it a summons from our inspection group..."

With official orders issued, quite a few businessmen were still willing to oblige, especially... people like Boss Qian.

The sudden appearance of Boss Qian and Boss Quan made Elder Tang and the others sneer coldly.

Could this be considered voluntarily exposing their relationship?

Seeing the frustrated expressions on Elder Tang and the others, and then looking at Sui Yi surrounded tightly by the inspection group, Boss Qian and Boss Quan felt a surging sense of vindication, as if the tables had finally turned.

They walked over with swaggering steps.

Boss Qian even smiled and said to Sui Yi, "Miss Sui, I told you earlier that you can't break the law. Oh, why did you have to do this~~"

Sui Yi said nothing.

He then smiled again and pointed at the Jiang Zheng Xuan Jade Ink on the table, "I'll take a look at this ink of yours. You don't mind, do you?"

Sui Yi did not stop Boss Qian and the other man. She just gave a slight nod. "Go ahead."

Such crisp and unhurried composure... was truly grating to the nerves.

Boss Qian let out a scoff, while Boss Quan glanced at Sui Yi.

In truth, he was not very willing to meddle in this kind of affair. After all, a starved camel is still bigger than a horse; if he offended Elder Tang, Elder De, and the others, and the Li family failed to fulfill their previous conditions, he would suffer a devastating loss.

Unfortunately, the arrow was already on the bow and had to be released...

The two men picked up the Jiang Zheng Xuan Jade Ink to examine it, and many nearby businessmen also gathered around to look, pointing and discussing.

Sui Yi simply leaned against the table and sipped her tea.

The inspector also seemed quite calm, sitting in a chair in a leisurely manner... while pulling out his phone to send a text message.

As for what the text message contained, Sui Yi and the others had no way of knowing.

——————

Meanwhile, across the street from the Antiquity Museum in a teahouse, the Li family group sat peacefully. Li Yuan looked at the message on his phone and smiled with satisfaction.

At the sight of Li Yuan's expression, Li Run knew the matter was done.

"Ha, Second Uncle, that Sui Yi really..."

Li Yuan glanced at him and smiled, "Hmph, she already has a criminal record to begin with, and we have people on our side. Taking her down couldn't be easier... She's still a student; we'll report this matter to her school and get her expelled along the way..."

"Good, that would be best!" Han Yuanzhong had no idea how great his relief and joy were at this moment!

He had been forced to leave his school precisely because of Sui Yi. Although he later found a better place, this thorn in his heart would never go away.

Seeing her so easily acquire immense wealth and rise rapidly in status, his resentment knew no bounds.

Fortunately, Sui Yi now had a fatal handle in their hands.

With a single strike, they could drag her into the abyss!

"What a pity about that piece of jade... Who told her not to give the jade to our family? Offending the Li family is extremely foolish." Both uncles and nephews of the Li family thought this way.

Then they all smiled.

While this group was busy rejoicing,

Inside the Antiquity Museum,

Boss Qian said with a cheerful smile, "This is fake! A replica!"

Boss Quan also nodded in agreement.

As for the other businessmen, naturally they all said the same thing. There was even a lack of one or two people who had heard Lu Haobai's remarks at his shop earlier, such as those parents of students, who now began chattering away all at once.

Hearing these people's comments, the man looked over at Lu Haobai.

"Heh, it seems everyone agrees this ink is fake... Boss Lu, what do you think?"

Lu Haobai's expression turned hesitant. After lingering in gloom for a long time, he finally said, "This isn't fake... Uh, to be precise, it's a replica."

Damn it!

Isn't that still fake?!

Regarding Lu Haobai's honesty, Elder Tang and the others felt helpless as well. After all, this item seemed unable to withstand scrutiny, so what on earth did Sui Yi mean by her previous words?

She shouldn't have been so rash.

Everyone looked toward Sui Yi.

Under the gaze of everyone, Sui Yi placed her teacup back on the table, picked up the piece of Jiang Zheng Xuan Jade Ink, and said to Elder Tang and the others, "Can someone bring a basin of water?"

Water? What did she need water for?

Although he didn't understand the reason, Elder Tang still instructed Li Jing and Yan Yang to fetch a basin of water.

Soon, a basin of water was placed on the table.

Everyone watched as Sui Yi very casually dropped the Jiang Zheng Xuan Jade Ink into the water.

To be honest, when they saw this scene, let alone that man, even many of the businessmen nearby burst out laughing.

What was this young lady trying to do? Grind the ink?

"Heh, this isn't grinding ink; it's soaking ink, right?" Boss Qian ridiculed without any politeness.

Sui Yi did not like engaging in verbal disputes with people, nor did she speak. She simply withdrew her hand and let the ink soak in the water.

Soon, the clear water began to produce ink color, bleeding outward and gradually turning the entire basin of water black.

There were still quite a few people on the scene commenting on the ink wash, calling it low-grade, poor, trashy, and so on.

Yi Chilian, meanwhile, sat back lazily to watch the show, occasionally glancing at Sui Yi's profile as she faced the outer exhibition hall.

They had seemingly met not long ago, but every time he looked at her, he felt she had changed a lot. Yet upon closer inspection, he felt nothing had changed at all.

It was as if the profound heritage flowing in her bones was something she was born with.

This feeling was very strange.

It was his first time encountering such a person.

——————

After a moment, the man grew somewhat impatient and was just about to say something when Boss Qian sneered, "Sui Yi, you don't mean to tell us that just because it can bleed ink water, it's the real Jiang Zheng Xuan Jade Ink! Heh, Elder Tang, you sure taught a good apprentice!"

Elder Tang let out a cold snort, yet looked at Sui Yi with worry.

Sui Yi, what on earth are you trying to do?

At this moment, Sui Yi had already withdrawn her gaze from outside the exhibition hall. Turning slightly, she slowly reached her slender, fair fingers into the basin.

Her hands were truly gorgeous, so gorgeous that many people inevitably had their attention diverted, focusing entirely on her hands for a moment.

Delicate as jade and gracefully slender, they looked like the finest snow in the world molded together, soaked in the softest water. Her knuckles were faintly visible with clear contours. When immersed in the pitch-black ink water, they possessed a hint of ascetic aestheticism.

The surroundings grew somewhat quiet.

After a long while, with a gentle splash of water, she lifted the Jiang Zheng Xuan Jade Ink out.

Perhaps due to being soaked in water, the Jiang Zheng Xuan Jade Ink looked even blacker and shinier than usual.

Extremely black!

Black to the point of shining...

Shining?

Hey, wait!

"What is that!"

"What?"

Those standing closer widened their eyes, wanting to step forward, yet not daring to.

Meanwhile, Sui Yi lowered her gaze and said indifferently, "Gentlemen present here should all know the story behind the Jiang Zheng Xuan Jade Ink. Back then, the famous Jiangnan ink-making master Han Gongfang accepted a commission from the owner to help preserve the Jiang Zheng Xuan Jade Ink. However, the head of Han Gongfang loved this ink so much that he secretly replicated a few similar ones based on its appearance..."

"We know about this."

"This story is quite famous; we all know it. But Miss Sui, what was the meaning of your action just now? Is it related?"

Sui Yi still had ink stains lingering on her fingers. The ink trickled across her slender fingers and clung to the Jiang Zheng Xuan Jade Ink as well.

Her tone was very soft.

"What I want to say is that, actually, the head of Han Gongfang back then did not merely harbor a simple fondness for the Jiang Zheng Xuan Jade Ink."

"What he felt was more of a greedy desire for possession."

The crowd was dumbfounded.

Then they heard someone trembling slightly as they asked, "You mean..."

"The so-called replica, meant to pass off the fake as genuine, was actually to return a fake in place of the real object without anyone noticing. What Han Gongfang kept back then was the genuine Jiang Zheng Xuan Jade Ink."

With a single sentence, Sui Yi stirred up monstrous waves among the crowd.

"How is that possible!"

"Is this real or fake!"

"Miss Sui, if you say such things, do you have any proof!"

Exactly! Making such groundless claims about events from so many years ago—who knew if it was true or false!

That man especially refused to believe it, even letting out a light chuckle, "Interesting, a very interesting, very interesting story. Surely you aren't going to say the piece in your hand is that real Jiang Zheng Xuan Jade Ink?"

Sui Yi glanced at him and said, "The genuine item has the characters 'Xuan Jade' in raised seal script engraved on its back, and the side of the ink block is inscribed with 'Made by Jiang Zheng of Qinchuan in the Gengzi Year of Jiajing,' whereas the replica bears the name Han Gongfang. Am I right?"

Others hurriedly chimed in.

"Right! Just now, the back of the ink block in your hand said Han Gongfang, so how could it possibly be real? Miss Sui, it seems you are..."

Before he could finish, everyone watched as Sui Yi turned the back of the Jiang Zheng Xuan Jade Ink in her hand around to face everyone directly.

On the back of the ink, the raised seal script read "Xuan Jade," but the inscription on the side was no longer the original Han Gongfang, but rather...

"Made by Jiang Zheng of Qinchuan in the Gengzi Year of Jiajing... How could this be!" Someone muttered the words aloud, instantly struck with utter astonishment!