Artifact Reading Inspector

In Korea, when it comes to antiques, most people would think of Insadong. Therefore, Korea Auction was located in quite a good spot since it was at the entrance of Insadong.

The truth was that Heajin had never really been in an auction house. His father always dealt with the dealers, who bought his artifacts in secret, so he had no reason to go there.

So, when Haejin saw a lot of people walking around the auction house, he started to look at the surroundings and was wondering about what to do.

He theoretically knew how things worked in there, but he panicked when he was actually there.

A woman, wearing a neat two-piece suit, came to him. Her face was round with cute dimples.

“Can I help you?”

Haejin came to his senses at the calm and polite greeting.

“Oh, it’s my first time here.”

“Really? Let me help. Are you here for today’s preview?”

The preview was an event where you would exhibit things 1-2 weeks prior to the actual auction.

Haejin, of course, knew that as he understood, more or less, how everything worked in theory.

“No, I am not here to bid.”

“Then, have you come for consignment?”

Consignment meant entrusting items to the auction house to sell them.

“Yes. Where should I go?”

“I can help you quickly if you tell me what kind of object you want to entrust,” the woman replied with a pleasant smile.

It made Haejin feel better. f𝓇𝘦𝒆𝘄𝑒𝗯𝑛𝗼ѵ𝙚l.𝒄𝘰𝓶

“It’s a white porcelain. Blue Flower White Porcelain. A water container.”

“Oh, then follow me, please.”

Haejin followed her and got on an elevator. Suddenly, he got curious.

“What kind of artifacts will be exhibited on today’s preview?”

“Some artifacts from the Song, Yuan and Ming periods of China, a few of Goryeo and Joseon, and many from the Japanese colonial era.

“There are multiple Chinese artifacts?”

“Yes, a private owner has put them on auction.”

“Oh…”

Nowadays, almost all countries were keen about importing their artifacts, including China. So, except for private properties, Chinese artifacts almost never came up on auction.

“Therefore, a lot of people are here for today’s preview.” 𝘧𝔯e𝗲𝙬ℯ𝙗𝓷o𝘷e𝗹.𝐜𝑜𝒎

“I see.”

They arrived on the 3 rd floor. The interior was different from the ground floor. Warm yellow lights brightened up the simple space. It looked quite luxurious.

“Could you please wait here?”

The woman took Haejin to a small conference room. She gave him a cup of juice and disappeared.

He waited for about 20 minutes while reading the Korea Auction’s brochures. Then, the door opened and someone came in.

“Hello. I am Hong Mijin, porcelain appraiser of Korea Auction.”

The woman looked to be in her late 40s. She adjusted her glasses and gave Haejin her name card.

She seemed to be an elite.

“Nice to meet you. Please take a look at this first.”

She studied Haejin’s water container for a long time. Then, she opened her mouth.

“It’s a good artifact.”

It was a simple remark, but that was enough.

“That’s good,” Haejin said.

“I will have it on the next major auction. The warranty will be in my name. Do you have any more question?”

“No, I’m fine.”

With interest, Mijin looked at Haejin as he stood up.

“That’s strange. Normally, people ask how much the minimum bid would be and at what price would it be sold…”

“You said it is real. Then, I will get as much as it’s worth.”

Was the auction the best way of selling antiques at its real price? Haejin didn’t think so.

Real artifacts could be sold at the right price only when the buyer was someone who knew about artifacts. If there are only ignorant people at the auction, the artifacts would be sold at a low price.

If things were to be sold on auction at a decent price, why is it that the dealers don’t put their things on auction? They wanted to sell at the right price to those who appreciated the item’s value.

Of course, that was only if the item was real. If it wasn’t, they would just try to rip people off.

Nevertheless, Haejin was putting his porcelain on auction even though finding someone who would pay the right price would be hard. Moreover, he was confident that people would definitely want this beautiful porcelain.

“A wise answer.”

“Hmm… I also have a question. Why are you not asking where I got it?”

The source of an artifact was a very sensitive and important problem. If Korea Auction sold stolen good, its reputation would plummet.

“Because I have never seen it. If I don’t know it, it cannot be a stolen good.”

She meant that even if it was a stolen artifact, it didn’t matter because it had never been exposed to the world. It showed her great confidence.

It meant that she knew all of the white porcelains that had been found.

“And, if it had been stolen, you would not have been so calm when you showed it to me. Anyway, thank you for your first deal. Please come to Korea Auction if you get another good artifact again. For that, I will charge an 8% fee for the first deal.”

“I like it. I have a few more of these.”

“Then, I will look forward to it. Would you like to see the preview on the first floor? We can help you.”

“No, I will look around on my own.”

“Okay. Then…”

Haejin left her and went down to the first floor. Seeing artifacts was always entertaining.

The exhibition hall was full of people. They were all wearing expensive clothes.

Haejin mingled with them to watch artifacts quietly. Then, he heard a sharp and rude voice.

“You know nothing…”

Haejin had nothing to do with it, but it still made him feel offended. Then, how was the one who received the sentence feeling? Curious, he looked toward their direction.

“I know nothing?”

White skin. Delicate eyelashes. Proud but deep eyes. High nose. There was a beautiful woman standing there. She was biting her lip in anger but, even that, looked beautiful.

Haejin had never been called ugly. This was why he could perform the miracle of winning a girl while working as a truck driver.

He used to spend the money he made through work at clubs to defy his father, but he had never seen such a beautiful woman.

“Well, if you don’t want to be fooled again, you should know that it is safe to buy items in an auction. Why would you believe that foolish story? Even I am getting ashamed of it.”

The woman, who was letting her anger out on that beautiful woman, was wearing luxury brand items from the bottom to the top.

She looked quite pretty. Men would probably look at her everywhere. However, as Haejin had just seen a goddess, she was just one of the many ordinary women.

“Hu… yes, I made a mistake. I admit it. But what are you doing here? The media says that your father is about to get summoned to the prosecution. How can you even come here?”

Haejin had thought that the beautiful woman would just suffer through it, but he was wrong. She also had a thorny tongue.

“What?”

“Don’t buy something here when you can’t even afford it. You might get attached to it. Aren’t you supposed to go abroad now?”

“It’s-it’s not like that!”

“I heard that … is managing your family’s money … you look extremely relaxed.”

The women kept firing at each other, but they still kept their voice low. Heajin could barely hear their conversation.

He wanted to hear more, but he was missing some parts of their talk. Therefore, he went a step closer.

“You don’t know what you are talking about. The prosecutors have already done something similar in the past. They will always fire some garbage and then give up. Well, what do you know? You just manage a small gallery with a few cheap goods. If you were smart enough, you wouldn’t have been fooled by a crude scheme that even my youngest sibling would not fall for. Oh, have I already told you this? He is in fifth grade now.”

The fight was about to get physical. Haejin watched, half worried and half expecting a nice scene, but then someone interrupted.

“Miss, please. There are many eyes watching.”

An attendant of the woman who started the fight arrived and stopped her.

He looked over forty, but he wasn’t that tall and wasn’t that bulky. So, he didn’t seem to be a bodyguard.

“Oh, I lost my temper. Sorry. It happens when I see a friend who doesn’t have a discerning eye… really, I get really angry when I see kids who have a lot of money but know nothing about artifacts. I always get mad!”

Now, Haejin wondered who she was.

“What is the problem? Which artifact is this about?”

‘Huh?’

Haejin thought the man would just take his angry miss away, but he lit the dying fire again. She immediately started again.

“Oh, look at this. This jade buddha. I heard someone saying it was valuable and worth at least billions, so I stopped here. Then, it was Eunhae (grace)! How are you going to repay your parents’ ‘grace’ with that stupidity?”

A stupid joke… nevertheless, Haejin was happy to know that her name was Eunhae.

On the other hand, Eunhae couldn’t say anything. She just stared at the man.

The jade buddha was right in front of Haejin. It was as big as the hand of a seven-year-old child. It didn’t seem that special, more like a souvenir sold on tourist sites.

It was in a glass box, so it could only be examined with the eyes. The explanation card said nothing much, except that it was probably from the Ming dynasty period.

“Hmm… jade buddha of the Ming period. Its color is beautiful, but its line is crude, and the balance is not right. Looking closely, the end of the buddha’s cloth has been damaged. Hmm… I don’t think it is worth more than a billion.”

There was a reason Eunhae stared at him. He wasn’t just an attendant, he was a personal appraiser.

Eunhae’s face burned red: she had been conned. So, as if someone saw her secret diary that she wrote in her puberty, she was ashamed.

Haejin wanted to help her. There wasn’t a particular reason. It was just… she was pretty. That was the most important and only reason.

He applied some saliva on his finger, drew on the glass box of jade buddha and quietly chanted the spell.

“Huk…”

His head spun. His legs trembled. The world went dark and, when he could see again, the beautiful lady was standing in front of him.

“Are you alright?”

“Oh, yes, I’m okay. I probably drank too much yesterday. But… I was going to just leave; however, this is so absurd that I can’t.”

In fact, he was about to vomit and wanted to leave, but he looked at her face and endured it.

“What?”

“This jade buddha… if you only judge it from its appearance, it means that you know nothing. With that taste and discernment, I think you would even throw away a Greyish Blue Powdered Celadon while calling it dull…”

The attendant’s face quickly hardened.