Song Xuan

Yang ZiMei crouched down in front of the stall.

Once the old man saw that she might be interested in his wares, his original drowsy self immediately turned spirited. He started to boast about those few coins, which dynasty it’s from, the value of those antique coins and so on.

He even purposefully picked out a dark coin with the characters “Da Qi Tong Bao” and held it up to Yang ZiMei, saying: “Little miss, you know about this coin? Da Qi Tong Bao is one of the most valuable kinds of antique coins on the market. It was created in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period by the Southern Tang Kingdom Sovereign. Presently, there are only two in the world, incomparably priceless and this here is the third one dug up. I only want to sell it to those predestined with it and you are such a predestined person. So, I’ll take a bit of loss, for only 30,000 kuai and it’s a deal.”

(Da Qi copper coin)

Da Qi Tong Bao was created in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period by the Southern Tang Kingdom Sovereign, Xu ZhiGao (Li Bian). Li Bian had been Xu Wen’s adopted son, hence the name Xu ZhiGao and had once been bestowed the name Qi w.a.n.g

by Xu Wen. In Yang Wu Tianzou 3rd  year (937 AD), Wu Rui abdicated for the new Da Qi rule and the Da Qi Tong Bao were minted, which now only had two left in the world. One had a missing corner on the top right, named “Missing Corner Da Qi” in the ancient coin niche. The other one had small 4 holes drilled into it and was called “Four Eyed Da Qi”. “Missing Corner Da Qi” was kept by a Qing Dynasty Southern Yangzi’s famous scholar, Dai Xi. At the time, there was already someone willing to spend a fortune to procure it, but he was could not bear parting with it. When the Taiping army advanced on Hangzhou, he was had wore it when he went to commit suicide by jumping in deep water. But before his death, he had buried Da Qi Tong Bao along with other things. To obtain this rare treasure, his later generations fought to purchase the Dai residence and dug its grounds numerous times but came out empty handed. The “Four Eyed Da Qi” was discovered in the 1920’s by coin archaeologists Dai BaoTing and Zhu KeZhuang in the Jiangxi province’s Poyang lake area when rural village children were kicking around a shuttlec.o.c.k. Although this Da Qi Tong Bao wasn’t missing a corner, but because

because it was used as a part of the shuttlec.o.c.k, it had four little holes drilled into it. It was later bought with a large sum by famous collector Zhang ShuXun and kept in his private room, never shown to others. Moreover, it was named the “Qi Room”, along with other Da Qi Tong Bao treasures to see. Da Qi Tong Bao was rarely seen, extremely precious, and counted as one of China’s 50 most precious ancient coins. [1]

Yang ZiMei looked at that dull, lightless, and very obvious counterfeit coin and smiled as she said, “Elder, I don’t like to take advantage of others much. This kind of precious thing, you should just sell it to someone else. Besides, I’m just a student so I don’t have much money.”

“Then, how much do you have?” Asked the old man.

“Counting everything on me, there’s only thirty kuai.” Yang ZiMei said.

“Fine fine. Since I only sell to those predestined and since little miss looks so pretty and adorable, take it as this old man’s in a good mood. I’ll do you a favor and sell it for thirty kuai.” The old man said with a very honest appearance.

Yang ZiMei shook her head, “I don’t like the look of this coin, keep it for someone else, I’ll pick some other ones.”

Finished talking, her hand reached toward the item

the item giving off a white object qi with a unique shape. It’s shaped like any key the modern person would use, a coin with a circular head and body like a knife. However, this coin was just too filthy, the circular part had some dark ink tracings on it as if to hide what’s beneath.

“How much is this?”

The old man’s eyes turned, seeing that she liked it, he wanted to raise the price, but he remembered that she just told him she only had thirty kuai. So, he feared he’d scare her and quickly said, “I’ll take a loss and give it to you for thirty kuai.”

Yang ZiMei was too lazy to haggle and took thirty kuai from her purse. After giving it to him, she left with the knife coin.

Seeing her figure going farther away, the old man happily shook the money, “Met another dimwit today, how nice, here’s another meal.”

Yang ZiMei carefully wrapped the knife coin in a handkerchief. She could only recognize its object qi but don’t know its value, later, she’ll find Song Xuan to appraise it.

She wasn’t in a hurry to Song Xuan’s place. Once the appraisal results come out, news of her finding a leftover treasure would spread throughout WenLai street which would make it hard for her to continue. She might as well sweep

as well sweep through the other stalls first.

In addition to the knife coin, she’d found four other items that gave off object qi. A double fish porcelain plate with a broken corner, a little lined jade piece, an a.s.sorted flower scroll painting, and a small crane copper figure. In total, it costed her three hundred kuai.

She carefully placed those items into her bag since she didn’t want to have Song Xuan suddenly appraise them all and arouse suspicion. She briskly and leisurely thought of what their background and history would be. When her family’s in urgent need of money she can bring them out to sell.

What she was most curious about now was the knife coin because the object qi it gave off was a very propitious white color, a truly auspicious item.

The front of Mo Pavilion antique shop still had people lined up waiting for appraisal.

Yang ZiMei looked up and only saw a green robed Song Xuan, head down and holding a magnifying gla.s.s, in the midst of examining a white jade bowl with a concentrated expression. Although his face had become slimmer, it hadn’t lost its gentle refinement and his hair had indistinct tints of white.

1. Wiki says Li Bian but the characters used here was Li Sheng, not sure why… Uh, don’t quote me on any of this section.