"Gu, Gu Ming, have you finished reading?" Zhou Tao couldn't help but wipe the sweat that had seeped out of his forehead and asked in a low voice.

  "After finishing." Gu Mian glanced at the paper with the answers written on it placed in the center of the table.

  "What do you think is true?" Zhou Tao shifted uncomfortably in his seat, clearly lacking confidence.

  "It's all not true." Gu Mian said directly.

  Zhou Tao widened his eyes and stared at Gu Mian in surprise: "What did you say? None of it is true?"

  Gu Mei nodded and continued: "Although the blue glaze three-legged incense burner and the bird-beak-shaped jade pendant look quite authentic, they are not genuine antiques from previous dynasties."

  "The blue glaze three-legged incense burner I'm not sure about, but that bird-beak flower-shaped jade pendant should be the real deal, it's indeed an old piece of jade, and the carving technique is also exquisite." Zhou Tao stared tightly at Gu Mian, his expression extremely tense.

  "The old jade and the old craftsmanship may not necessarily be genuine, anyway that bird-beak-shaped jade pendant is definitely not authentic." Those two things were imitated so well that Gu Mian couldn't explain it clearly either, she could only insist that they were fake, without saying anything else.

  The bird-beak-shaped jade pendant not only looks very similar, but it is indeed carved from old jade. When Gu Ming touched it with his left hand, he did feel a warmth, but deep down, he didn't have much joy or sense the vitality of the bird-beak-shaped jade pendant.

  The anger of this jade pendant is all on the surface, but inside it's empty, there's nothing.

  After so many times of appraisal, Gu Mei had grasped the characteristics of her heterochromia, temperature, mood and sound or the emotions expressed by things she touched. These elements were indispensable, and lacking any one of them would indicate that there was a problem with what she appraised.

  "This..." Zhou Tao hesitated.

  His disagreement with Gu Mian lies in the blue glaze three-footed incense burner and the bird-beaked flower-shaped jade pendant, where he is more inclined towards the latter. He thinks that the pendant is genuine, but Gu Mian says it's fake, which puts him in a difficult position.

  If he hadn't experienced a setback before, he might have stuck to his own judgment, but now is the crucial moment, and if he misjudges just one thing, then his uncle's emerald ring will be gone for good.

  "Gu Mian......" Zhou Tao looked at Gu Mian, hoping she would say something.

  "I can only speak for myself, as for the final outcome, you have to decide for yourself." Gu Ming paused and added: "Think about what happened today."

  Zhou Tao's heart skipped a beat, and he was vaguely unclear why Gu Mian suddenly brought this up, but he felt that it should be an important key.

  "Time's up, have you two made a decision?" The man slightly swayed the wine glass in his hand and narrowed his eyes as he looked at Gu Mian and Zhou Tao.

  Zhou Tao heard this and couldn't help but tremble, stuttering and unable to speak.

  "Stop stalling and speak up." The man looked at his watch on his wrist and said softly: "Three, two, one..."

  "None of it is real! All five items are fake, there's not a single genuine antique!" Zhou Tao blurted out as soon as the other person started counting down.

  "Are you sure? If I'm wrong, this emerald ring..." The man raised an eyebrow.

  Zhou Tao's body began to shake uncontrollably, his face filled with struggle.

  Gu Meng sighed secretly, obviously the other side was shaking Zhou Tao, but this fool actually fell for it.

  At this critical juncture, she still didn't want Zhou Tao to lose the opportunity to retrieve the jade ring, so she pretended to cough lightly.

  Zhou Tao heard Gu Mian's cough, as if he had found the mainstay, took a deep breath and nodded heavily: "I'm sure, all these things are counterfeit."

  The man tilted his head and suddenly turned to Zhang Tingting beside him: "You say, is what he said right or wrong?"

  "I, I don't know." Zhang Tingting was taken aback, the smile on her face froze there, and she suddenly became somewhat at a loss.

  "So you want him to be right or wrong?" the man continued to ask.

  Zhang Tingting subconsciously glanced at Zhou Tao standing not far away, and found that he was staring at her with a hint of expectation.

  "How is it?" the man asked.

  Zhang Tingting bit her lip and finally lowered her head, saying nothing.

  Her actions, though silent, dealt a severe blow to Zhou Tao, causing the expectant look in his eyes to fade instantly, and his expression to wilt significantly.

  The man let out a soft laugh and stopped asking further questions. Instead, he pointed to the paper on the table with the written answer: "You can see for yourselves."

  Zhou Tao's whole person reacted sluggishly due to Zhang Tingting's attitude, and now he stood there in a daze, seemingly not having heard the man's words.

  Facing Zhou Tao who was like being pinched by a door, Gu Mei could only take a step forward and took the paper with the answer in her hand.

  She really didn't know what to say, if she hadn't seen Zhou Tao's infatuated attitude towards Zhang Tingting with her own eyes, she wouldn't have believed that there were still such men in this world.

  Zhang Tingting didn't say it out loud, but judging from her expression, she obviously preferred to get the jade ring, even though the man hadn't specified who the jade ring was for.

  Gu Meng had great confidence in her own judgment, so when she held the paper with the correct answer written on it, she wasn't particularly nervous. Her only concern was whether that person called Ming Shao would keep his word or not.

  At this time, Zhou Tao finally came back to his senses and walked nervously to Gu Mian's side.

  After seeing the answers written on the paper clearly, Zhou Tao couldn't help but excitedly shouted: "They're all fake! We were all right!"

  Zhou Tao snatched the paper from Gu Mei's hand and looked at the man excitedly.

  "Yes, you're all right." The man's face showed no displeasure, but instead a hint of a smile, as he frankly acknowledged.

  At that moment, several women sitting next to her let out a sigh of regret, and even Zhang Tingting's face showed a few points of disappointment.

  The man held the box containing the jade ring up to his eyes, then suddenly turned his head and said to the man sitting at the far end who had not spoken a word: "Look, unexpectedly they still have some real skills, they were able to fool you with something that they actually got right. I was looking forward to seeing a good show, unfortunately, unfortunately."

  "All I can say is you don't have that kind of luck." The other person chuckled quietly.

  "Now that we've agreed on it, are you going to return the jade ring to me?" Zhou Tao's eyes were fixed tightly on the box in the man's hand.

  The man picked up the box and put it in his palm: "Before that, you answer me a question. I don't want to ask anything else. I just want to know how you can tell that the blue glaze tripod incense burner and the bird-beak-shaped jade pendant are fake. You know, I've had many people look at these two things, but very few people can make a completely correct judgment."

  "You didn't say before that as long as the result is correct, it's okay, without having to give the basis for the judgment." Zhou Tao frowned.

  "But now I'm curious again. Of course, you can choose not to say, but this emerald ring... " The man smiled slyly.

  The man's words were clearly threatening. If Zhou Tao and Gu Mian didn't say something, it was uncertain whether the jade ring would be returned to them.

  Zhou Tao could only look at Gu Mian with a pleading expression, the others were easy to deal with, but that blue glaze three-legged incense burner and bird-beak-shaped jade pendant he really had no idea about.

  "We're guessing." Gu Mian received Zhou Tao's pleading gaze and could only see it through, lifting her head to stare directly into the man's eyes.

  "What are you guessing? Why would you guess that, did you find something unusual about those two things?" the man asked.

  "The blue glaze three-legged incense burner and the bird-beaked flower-shaped jade pendant are indeed very similar, to be honest I really didn't find any flaws in these two things. The reason why I'm guessing this is completely because of you." Gu Can's mouth corner rose with a smile.

  "Why me? What makes you think these two things are fake?" The man looked at Gu Mian with curiosity, a hint of surprise in his eyes.

  (Throwing flowers, kitty is strongly recommended to go up later for the second update~~~~~ Thank you to Luoyan Xianju for sending mooncakes, thank you all for your support~~~~)