"You can't just name an exorbitant price just because the girl is young."
The two con men were not worried about the crowd's discussion.
They were professional con men; they were well prepared. The certificate might have been fake, but the vase was an actual antique from the Yuan Dynasty, although they had only spent a thousand bucks to purchase it.
The two purposely chose to act on someone with a luxurious car. They placed the luggage behind the vehicle and waited for the driver to knock over it when they reversed their car. Then they would appear and accuse the driver of breaking their vase.
The driver would be bitter if they were to know about it.
"You don't believe that it's worth two million bucks? Anyone here from the antique field? Come and decide if we are lying." The skinny man scanned through the crowd and said confidently.
"I work at Donghai City Museum; I can take a look."
A middle-aged man with gold-rimmed glassed approached them and showed them his employee card.
The crowd immediately grew silent.
The middle-aged man took a piece of the porcelain and observed it. Then he turned to the fat man and said "Do you know the vase belonged to which dynasty?"
"Of course. it's palace delftware from the Yuan Dynasty." The fat man replied without any hesitation.
The middle-aged man nodded. "You're right; it is indeed delftware. This is a delftware vase from the Yuan Dynasty because it has aged firing. The pattern on the vase is also a significant trait. The composition is rich and layered but not messy; it is much simpler and elegant than the delftware from Tang and Song Dynasty."
He raised the porcelain in his hand for the crowd to examine as he continued to say "Here, look at this. The thick patterns rendered on the delftware was formed from one strong yet smooth stroke. I can verify that this delftware procelain was from the Yuan Dynasty, and it should be worth two million bucks!"
The crowd immediately gasped when they heard that.
It was delftware from the Yuan Dynasty, indeed.
The crowd shifted their gaze toward Dora after the revelation.
'The reckless young lady is doomed for breaking the vase.'
Dora was utterly dumbfounded and on the verge of tears. "I don't have any money. I'm just a student, and I'm working as a driver. This is my employer's car."
She was worried that the two might not believe her, so she took out her student identification card and passed it to them. "Maybe I can write an IOU and pay you back in installments? You can take my student identification as a pledge."
The con men glanced at each other before they shook their heads in unison.
An IOU? No way!
They would flee as soon as they got their money; there was no way that they would want an IOU!
"What can we do with your student identification? You can call your family to give you the money if you don't have it." The skinny man said indifferently as he pushed the identification aside.
The fat man said "We're not trying to blackmail you; everyone else is watching us, too! Don't make this harder for the two of us; money doesn't grow on trees. We are upset because our vase is broken."
Dora could not think of a reply. She bit her lips as her tears started to fall.
Where would she get two million bucks to pay them?
Darryl could no longer bear to stand idle. He took two steps forward and smiled as he said "Alright, you can stop your acts now."
The con men had no virtue at all.
They refused to let the girl go even though she was clearly a poor university student.
"Who the f*ck are you?!"
The con men got angry and scolded him.
Darryl maintained a light smile on his face as he continued forward; he ignored the two con men. He took a procelain piece from the luggage and said calmly "I admite that your acting skills are not bad, but your conning tactic is too despicable."
Darryl walked toward the middle-aged man who claimed to be an employee at the museum and said in a serious one "You were right; this is indeed delftware from the Yuan Dynasty, but you only looked at the surface, and you did not look further into it. Let me give you a lesson on how to look at antiques."
Shawn Larson thought that Darryl was hilarious. It was the first time someone had offered to teach him how to identify antiques after he had worked in the museum for 20 years.
Shawn's wife chuckled and said "Boy, are you trying to teach my husband how to identify an antique?"
