Chapter 80 - Appraise Separately (1/2)

Instead of bringing Zheng Ziwen, Ni Yinghong, and Ou Yangming to the town, Lin Yichen brought them to a village.

Since they traveled in a carriage, other than Lin Yichen, n.o.body knew where they were. Even Ou Yangming, who was locally born and raised, could not identify the location right away.

“Masters, this is just a temporary base that I’ve set up. This place will be useless once the batch of goods is sent away, so please bear with the simple arrangement.”

Zheng Ziwen laughed and responded, “Head Shopkeeper, as long as the task is completed quickly, we’ll be able to return to the prefecture, so there’s no need to be too particular about other things.”

When Lin Yichen turned to look at Ou Yangming and Ni Yinghong, they nodded in agreement too. They had not come here for an enjoyable time, after all, hence as long as it was not a disgusting environment, they would not be bothered about the small issue.

Although the place was only a temporary base, Lin Yichen had put some thought into the decoration. It was obviously nothing close to a luxurious house, but was not at all inferior to Ou Yangming’s little courtyard.

Lin Yichen led them into the house after a short briefing, where he opened a door on the ground and revealed a bas.e.m.e.nt.

Ou Yangming and the others could not help but look astonished once they entered the bas.e.m.e.nt.

The bas.e.m.e.nt actually stored at least a hundred different pieces of equipment. Apart from that, a pile of a.s.sorted ores was seen sitting in a corner.

Ou Yangming was puzzled after he took a glance at them because he could not understand why the seemingly worthless ores were placed together with the other pieces of equipment.

Of course, it was none of his business how someone else liked to store their items, thus he was not going to raise the question.

“Masters, the pieces of equipment are all here, and I’ll leave everything to you.” Lin Yichen bowed at them, then informed them after a pause, “There’s a calling bell here, so someone will attend to you once you pull it a few times. If you’re tired, you may also go upstairs to rest.”

After explaining everything, Lin Yichen nodded apologetically at the masters and left.

Appraisers must be extremely focused during appraisals. One’s efficiency would be affected if an outsider was present.

The bas.e.m.e.nt was s.p.a.cious, so even though plenty of equipment and ores were stored, due to the ample s.p.a.ce it was not stuffy.

Ou Yangming knew very well that this place was certainly not built in a short period of time. If he actually believed that it was a temporary base, he would only be laughed at.

Nonetheless, he was not having wrongful thoughts, and was not interested in where this house was situated.

“Masters, let’s get to work. It won’t be easy to appraise every piece of equipment here,” Zheng Ziwen said with a deep voice. He was very familiar with equipment appraisal, thus was well aware of its difficulty, and had a headache after seeing the amount of equipment here.

Ou Yangming asked curiously, “Master Zheng, why does our town have so many pieces of equipment?”

Zheng Ziwen’s face changed a little, and he smiled awkwardly while replying to him, “Master Ou, I’m just following orders, I don’t know where they’re from.”

“Master Ou, we’re here to appraise them, so it’s best not to ask what we’re not supposed to know.” Ni Yinghong looked plainly at Ou Yangming instead. She hesitated for a while before she added, “This is a default rule among appraisers, and it’s also a way to protect ourselves.”

Ou Yangming was stunned. He pondered for a while and responded sincerely, “I understand, thank you, Master Ni.”

Appraisers were more likely to encounter unimaginable treasures as compared to ordinary people, and these treasures were usually a.s.sociated with secrets. If an appraiser was too curious, it would only mean bad things because it could very well be the source of misfortune.

Zheng Ziwen sighed a breath of relief. He was really afraid that Ou Yangming, the rash young fellow, was going to get to the bottom of the matter. If that was really the case, even if it was to protect himself, he would not be willing to stay with Ou Yangming.

However, since Ou Yangming could understand an appraiser’s hards.h.i.+p, it would be the best.

After taking a look around the bas.e.m.e.nt, Zheng Ziwen gestured with his hand while suggesting, “Let’s follow these boundaries and appraise the equipment in our own sections. We’ll attach our evaluations on the respective piece of equipment, then exchange sections and continue with the next round of appraisal. What do you think?”

Ni Yinghong and Ou Yangming naturally did not object to the suggestion. At the end of the day, Master Zheng Ziwen was the Yi Pavilion’s appraiser, whereas they were only there to help. It was a matter of course to obey the host’s arrangements.

Ou Yangming retrieved a writing brush, papers, and red strings, then proceeded to his section. Just as he was about to begin, Ni Yinghong called out to him, “Master Ou, if you happen to fancy any equipment here, you don’t need to leave an appraisal note.”

“What?” Ou Yangming was dumbfounded, so he asked in shock, “Why?”

Zheng Ziwen chuckled and explained, “Master Ou, according to the rule, if an appraiser is invited to appraise many items at once, the appraiser has the right to pick one of the treasures in the end. Hehe, but it’ll be up to one’s luck what kind of treasure is chosen.”

Ou Yangming furrowed his eyebrows and said, “Head Shopkeeper Lin told me that, but won’t the host suffer a loss?”

“Master Ou, while it looks like the host will suffer a loss, we as appraisers have to take responsibility for the other items. If someone finds a mistake in the appraisal in the future, our reputation will be ruined,” Zheng Ziwen answered seriously, then continued after a pause, “Besides, even if there’s really something valuable, the host wouldn’t have shown it to us.”

Ou Yangming came to a sudden realization that the pieces of equipment and treasures here were the ones that could not be identified by the host. Furthermore, incidents like the discovery of top-grade items in a bunch of items had only happened in legends. Since they were in the real world, it was best for one to not have one’s head in the clouds.