CHAPTER 33: CHAPTER 33: ARTIFACTS BANNED FROM TRADE

As it turned out.

The owner of this fish pond had no intention of stocking large fish for show.

Those few fishing buddies finally couldn’t hold on and left around seven or eight in the evening.

One of them, unwilling to give up, even added Chen Yiyang as a friend, saying that if Chen Yiyang caught any fish later, he should let him know.

Then, in the not-so-big fish pond, only Chen Yiyang and his two companions were left.

The owner here was quite keen, coming over to check on Chen Yiyang every few days.

He wasn’t interested in whether Chen Yiyang caught any fish but kept brainwashing him that there were plenty of fish here, and his failure to catch any was due to the bait being ineffective.

Thus, Chen Yiyang gradually bought five or six types of bait from him.

By nine o’clock in the evening.

It was already dark, and Chen Yiyang, let alone big fish, hadn’t even caught a few small ones.

The owner came over again at this time.

"Is today a bad luck day?" the owner chuckled, "I have plenty of big fish here. But today, they just didn’t surface much. Perhaps the previous anglers were too lousy and fed the fish to full so they wouldn’t come out to eat the bait."

"Yes, that’s probably the reason."

Upon hearing the owner’s words, Chang Yuning immediately came over, squatted beside Chen Yiyang, and said, "Honey, let’s go back now. Can we come again tomorrow?"

"I refuse to believe I can’t catch big fish today. I’ll fish until the second day if I have to," Chen Yiyang said, looking at the pond with a skeptical expression.

"But it’s too cold here; I want to go home," Chang Yuning said.

"Then go back to the car first," Chen Yiyang waved his hand.

Deliberately acting out, Chen Yiyang and Chang Yuning soon started arguing over the fishing issue.

The owner on the side didn’t even know how to chime in.

"Damn it!" Chen Yiyang acted irritated by Chang Yuning and directly cursed at the fish pond,

"The worm doesn’t eat, the red maggot doesn’t eat, nothing damn eats, what the hell do you want to eat?

Shameless fish.

The spot’s been baited, the food’s been changed, I dared not even light the mosquito incense too much, just begging your dumb fish to take a bite, and you just won’t, you just won’t, spoiled you, I’m not serving you anymore."

Chen Yiyang threw the fishing rod to the ground in a fit of anger, then turned and glared at the owner.

"Drain the water, I want to drain the water, I’ll drain the pond dry to see if I still can’t get big fish!"

"Renting the whole pond won’t be cheap," the owner seemed a bit flustered hearing Chen Yiyang’s plan to drain the entire pond.

"How expensive? Name your price!" Chen Yiyang shouted.

"Twenty thousand!" the owner quoted directly.

For such a scattered little fish pond, even if there were big fish indeed, drying the water and catching all fish wouldn’t be worth twenty thousand.

The owner’s price was clearly trying to dissuade Chen Yiyang.

However, Chen Yiyang agreed straight away, "Twenty thousand it is. I’ll transfer it to you right now. Bring your water pump over, and I’ll drain it tonight!"

"Just to be clear, once you lease the pond, I am not responsible for however many fish you end up with,"

"Get out your phone, I’ll scan the payment for you!" Chen Yiyang yelled with reddened eyes.

After some hesitation, the fish pond owner decisively pulled out his phone.

After all, the deal was to lease the pond, and there were no rules about how many fish had to be in it.

He had no reason not to pocket this money.

After receiving the money from Chen Yiyang, the owner brought over the pump for him, then simply said,

"I’m too old to stay up all night, you folks do what you want tonight. I’m heading back. Remember to return the pump tomorrow."

The fish pond owner left right after saying that.

He was worried that if he stayed until Chen Yiyang finished draining the pond and found no big fish, Chen would come looking for trouble.

As for the pump, it only cost a few hundred yuan. Plus, if it got lost, he would just call the police, and with the license plate on record, they’d definitely find them.

After seeing the owner leave, Chen Yiyang instructed Zhou Jianming to fetch waterproof work clothes from the car’s trunk, while turning to look at Chang Yuning.

"Good acting, you’re done here, go rest in the car."

"Use and throw, so heartless." Chang Yuning wanted to ask what Chen Yiyang and his team were up to.

But she didn’t dare to speak out. After all, this matter seemed unusual, and earning three thousand with just saying a few words certainly included a hush fee.

So she obediently went back to rest in the car.

Chen Yiyang and Zhou Jianjun, dressed in waterproof suits, set up the water pump and began pumping water.

When the pond water was almost drained, Chen Yiyang had Zhou Jianjun take a box from his car, which contained a folding entrenching shovel.

Once the pond water was basically drained,

Chen Yiyang found that what that fishing buddy had said earlier was right after all.

There weren’t many big fish in the entire pond.

What met his eye were only two or three that could be served on a table, while the rest were just small fry.

Turns out the owner usually raised fish for sale, and when there were no fish left, he’d buy fry and throw them in, then deceive anglers to come and feed the fish while trying to bait them.

Taking the anglers’ money while feeding the fish fry, it’s a total profit game.

"Go over there and watch, tell me if someone comes." Chen Yiyang said as he placed the box down and picked up the entrenching shovel, addressing Zhou Jianjun.

"Sure thing, Mr. Chen. Let me know if you need anything." Zhou Jianjun replied without further questioning, and moved to a high spot nearby to check the surroundings for any approaching people.

Then Chen Yiyang started digging in the place indicated in the intelligence report, all by himself.

After a dozen minutes.

The physically fit Chen Yiyang finally felt his shovel hit something before he was totally exhausted.

He quickly continued digging.

A clay pot appeared before his eyes.

Without examining it closely, Chen Yiyang directly dug out the clay pot, tossed it with its contents and the entrenching tool into a box, and then locked the box.

He called Zhou Jianjun over to fill the hole he had dug earlier. Chen Yiyang carried the box and placed it back into the car.

"Open up the canal over there and let the water flow back into the fish pond," Chen Yiyang instructed Zhou Jianjun to open up the nearby canal after he filled back the hole, so that water could flow into the fish pond.

This way, when the pond owner comes by tomorrow,

even if they pump the water again, they wouldn’t know what Chen Yiyang and his team did in the fish pond last night.

"Let’s go, time to head home." Chen Yiyang transferred three thousand to Zhou Jianjun.

Zhou Jianjun glanced at the amount, said nothing, and silently accepted the money.

Zhou Jianjun’s demeanor greatly satisfied Chen Yiyang.

This middle-aged man in his thirties worked efficiently, was reliable, and most importantly, knew when to stay quiet.

If he ever decided to open a shop in the future, he might consider hiring this person, making it easier to call on him for tasks.

Chang Yuning, meanwhile, was already asleep in the back seat of the car.

Chen Yiyang tried to wake her but to no avail.

So he had to slowly drive back to the city under the cover of night.

"I’m tired, don’t want to move, carry me upstairs," Chang Yuning said as she reached out to Chen Yiyang at her doorstep.

Chen Yiyang’s arms were sore from the digging at the fish pond today.

Unlike digging on flat ground, the mud at the bottom of the pond was heavy and sticky, making it a laborious task to shovel.

At this point, all he wanted was to go home and collapse, carrying Chang Yuning was the last thing on his mind.

He simply unwrapped his coat from Chang Yuning’s waist, took it back, then dragged her out of the car and said, "Young people should exercise more, go up on your own."

"You!" Chang Yuning hadn’t even gotten around to cursing.

And Chen Yiyang had already driven away.

Once home, Chen Yiyang placed the box in the living room, then quickly stripped and lay back down in bed.

He ended up sleeping all the way until ten o’clock the next morning.

Not having to go to work is great.

Chen Yiyang happily stretched, then picked up his phone.

Today’s intelligence report: Prohibited trade item, Jin City’s Guan City District on Mingyang Street, Warehouse No. 17 contains a set of traditional ivory-carved Mahjong.

Note: This type of artwork has been prohibited for trade in the market.

Ivory-carved Mahjong?

Upon reading the intelligence, Chen Yiyang immediately understood why today’s report was titled as forbidden trade items.

The engraving technique used in such artworks—ivory carving—is indeed a traditional domestic craft.

However, to protect related wildlife, artworks using these techniques and materials are no longer allowed to be traded within the country.

Nevertheless, antique artworks produced using this technique and materials can still be collected by the holders, as long as they are not traded publicly.

This has led to these kinds of artworks lacking market price references, even attempting to trade them privately would be a huge hassle.

Additionally, there’s another issue.

This item is in someone else’s warehouse; Chen Yiyang can’t just buy the shop and then go digging through the warehouse, can he?

But first, he decided not to dwell on it too much.

After confirming it wasn’t an urgent opportunity to exploit, Chen Yiyang resumed his usual routine.

Walking the dog, eating.

Then he opened the box he brought back yesterday.

Inside lay an almost damaged clay pot, stuffed fully with silver items.

Chen Yiyang carried the pot to the bathroom, smashed the clay pot, and carefully rinsed away the dirt and clay fragments with a shower.

After everything was done, over one hundred pristine ’Yuan Datou’ silver coins lay quietly on the bathroom floor.

A total of 121 pieces of ’Yuan Datou’ minted in the eighth year of the Republic.

Judging by their condition, these ’Yuan Datou’ didn’t seem to have circulated much, so taking them out now, they still looked as if newly minted.

This also indicated that the old man’s fish pond hadn’t been built for long, and the damp environment at the bottom of the pond hadn’t affected the coins’ condition.

Carefully wiping and storing away the 121 ’Yuan Datou’.

Chen Yiyang called a contact he knew at the Silver City Pawnshop located in Mage, inquiring about the price of the silver coins he had.

He wasn’t really planning to sell these silver coins in Mage.

He just wanted to get a price estimate to facilitate selling them later.

After seeing the pictures Chen Yiyang sent, the pawnshop gave a quote of sixteen hundred per piece.

So, would the normal market price be about two thousand yuan per piece?

Based on Silver City Pawnshop’s typical pricing leverage, Chen Yiyang estimated a market price for himself.