Explore Changbai Mountain

Chapter 257 The Edge of the Antique Market

Chen Ziyang really wanted to study this compass, but the current conditions did not allow him to do so.Because he was afraid that if he went to another secluded place, the compass would stop turning, so he couldn't leave the wooden bench now.

Moreover, although this place is remote, there are still many vendors operating there. Although the flow of people is not very large, there are occasional people walking around. If I just hold the compass in my hand and study it, I will inevitably suffer. coveted by others.

So Chen Ziyang had no choice but to study the compass in his backpack.He put the backpack on his chest, stretched his arms into the backpack, and used the backpack to block the sight of others. From the perspective of others, he seemed to be looking for something in the backpack, but Chen Ziyang's hands were still dead. He clings to the compass tightly, and keeps his eyes fixed on the compass.

The Tianchi of the compass is stationary, but the inner disk of the compass is constantly rotating, and the rotation is very regular. Every few seconds, the outer disk of the compass will rotate a grid, making a click sound .Chen Ziyang looked at it for a long time but didn't see why.

The purpose of the compass is nothing more than to calibrate the orientation. Since the compass turns by itself, it must be a reminder to the owner of the compass that there is something unusual nearby.Although Chen Ziyang didn't understand why the compass rotated by itself and where its power came from, he was now more interested in what the compass indicated.

If you want to indicate the direction, there must be a straight line or an arrow pointing to a certain direction, so that the person using the compass can find it, but the inner disk of the compass has been slowly rotating in one direction.Although there are many lines on the compass, the length and thickness of these lines are all exactly the same, and there is nothing special about it, that is to say, the things that can indicate the direction are not on the inner disk.

Only the outer pan of the compass and Tianchi are left.Chen Ziyang observed the outer plate of the compass countless times, and there were no notches or marks on it, so the only thing left that can indicate the direction is the Tianchi Lake of the compass.

The pointer in Tianchi is still facing the north-south direction, which is very normal, so it is not the compass pointer that indicates the direction.This is strange, Chen Ziyang carefully stared at the Tianchi of the compass, and at this moment he suddenly realized.

On the edge of the compass Tianchi, near the inner plate, there is a small gap. Chen Ziyang had noticed this gap when he was studying the compass before. He thought that this place was because the compass was too old, so in It was broken when it was in use, but now it seems that the only part of the entire compass that can indicate the direction is this gap.

Thinking of this, Chen Ziyang slowly turned the Tianchi of the compass by a small angle.Adjusting the gap to another direction, he held the compass and watched quietly, wanting to see if his guess was correct.

A few seconds later, with the rotation of the inner disk of the compass, the Tianchi of the compass also turned, but the rotation direction of the Tianchi was completely opposite to that of the inner disk, but to Chen Ziyang's delight, the compass turned The direction is exactly the opposite of the direction he adjusted the opening before, which means that the opening is turning in the direction indicated just now.

Not long after, the gap stopped at the position before Chen Ziyang rotated the Tianchi, and after arriving at this position, the Tianchi of the compass stopped rotating.Seeing this, Chen Ziyang knew he had found the right method.

In order to verify his idea again, Chen Ziyang turned the Tianchi again, making the gap deviate from the original position again, but this time the direction of the Tianchi turning the compass was opposite to the direction of his rotation.

Similarly, after a few seconds, the Tianchi of the compass rotated again. This time, the direction of rotation of the Tianchi of the compass was exactly the same as that of the inner disk of the compass, and the gap pointed to the previously indicated position again.

There is no need to try again, Chen Ziyang is now very sure that this gap is a hidden thing to indicate the direction.Although the current Chen Ziyang was full of doubts, he did not continue to study the reason for the compass rotation, but turned his attention to the direction pointed by the opening of the Tianchi Lake.

According to Chen Ziyang's guess, the compass would stop turning when it left the range near the bench, probably because the compass is like a radar with a certain detection range.And according to his previous experiments, the detection range of this compass should not be too far away, so when Chen Ziyang looked at the gap to indicate the direction, he also looked from near to far.

There are a few small vendors setting up stalls and selling things in the place directly opposite the gap in the Luopan Tianchi. Because this area is already the edge of the antique city, there are not many vendors here.

There was nothing far away, so Chen Ziyang guessed that the things suggested by the compass should be in the hands of those small traders.So he walked to the place where the small vendors were with his sore feet.

The three booths were next to each other, not very far from each other. Chen Ziyang walked over one by one and looked at each one.The first small vendor sells some porcelain, which are different in size or shape, but every kind of porcelain here looks very awkward. Chen Ziyang knows that most of the items sold by this small vendor are It is a modern anti-fraud, and the antique craftsmanship is very poor.

When visiting this antique market before, Chen Ziyang found that he could distinguish antique items with poor craftsmanship at a glance.This is not because he has the knowledge of antique appreciation, but because he has seen more real things.

I see too many real things, and I feel very awkward when I see some imitation and fake products. I always feel that something is wrong here and something wrong there.Chen Ziyang has visited many tombs, and at the same time, he has seen many fine works in Wang Lele's and fifth grandfather Chen Benzhong's, so he has a relatively high starting point for antique appreciation.

When Chen Ziyang discovered that he still had such eyesight when he was visiting this market, he thought of the reason.Chen Ziyang remembers that he once read a story about a foreign bank trying to train the counter staff to identify counterfeit currency in order to avoid receiving counterfeit currency by mistake.

However, there are endless ways to make counterfeit coins, and batch after batch of counterfeit coins are made. These counterfeit coins are all made by different people, and the methods of identifying counterfeit coins are also varied, so complicated that they can't be remembered at all.

By the time this group of people has learned to identify all types of counterfeit money on the market today, dozens of new counterfeit money have appeared on the market, so this method of training has little effect.

Later, a manager of the lobby proposed a method. He did not let these tellers touch the counterfeit money, but only let them touch the real money. When dealing with coins, these people need to keep touching all kinds of real coins of different degrees of old and new to get familiar with the feel of this real coin.

Later, when counterfeit money came into the hands of these personnel, although they could not immediately identify it as a counterfeit money, they would feel very uncomfortable when they touched the counterfeit money, which immediately raised their vigilance and made them feel uncomfortable. Because of this, the bank has almost never received a counterfeit currency by mistake.

Chen Ziyang knew that the reason why he had some eyesight for antique appreciation was the same as this reason, it was because he really saw a lot of things, and he felt awkward when he saw these low-end imitations.

But my appreciation ability is limited to this. If there are some imitation and more real items in front of my eyes, I will still punch my eyes, not to mention the things made by counterfeiters like Yu Linglong. Not to mention the things I created, it is estimated that even many experts do not have the ability to distinguish.

Seeing that the items on this small porcelain vendor were all inferior imitations, Chen Ziyang walked towards the second booth.

The second stall is full of old copper coins.These copper coins vary in size and size.Although there are many types of copper coins, Chen Ziyang took a rough look. Except for a few copper coins from the Song Dynasty that were placed in special boxes and placed in more conspicuous positions, although there were many other copper coins, most of them Both belong to the Ming and Qing dynasties.

These copper coins cannot be what the compass indicates, because Chen Ziyang feels that these copper coins do not match the age of the compass.When studying the ancient sword of Qingming, Chen Ziyang conducted a detailed investigation on the casting of bronze wares.

Although he doesn't know when the compass left by the Du family was cast, but he can be sure that the bronze compass was cast farther than the Ming Dynasty.

However, Chen Ziyang felt that there was a loophole in his idea. It was very likely that the compass would rotate on its own in response to some special substances, and it had nothing to do with the age of the indicated objects.

But he just had the feeling that this compass had nothing to do with these copper coins.So Chen Ziyang walked to the front of the last stall.

The things placed on the third stall are very miscellaneous, including jade wares, porcelain wares, bronze wares, etc., and even some ancient books.These things are placed in a mess, and the placement of these items is very random, and the goods are not arranged in an orderly manner like other stalls.

The entire antique market is well planned. There are some vendors who specialize in a certain category, and the market will manage them in sections.If you want to buy jade, you can go to this area, where most of them sell jade, and if you want to buy porcelain, you have to go to the other side, which basically sells all porcelain.

Although the goods sold by each stall are not necessarily limited to one category, these stall owners will arrange their products in an orderly manner.Jade wares are put together, porcelain wares are put together, and so on. Although they are not necessarily neatly arranged, people can find what they like at a glance.

Maybe it's because it's the edge of the market, the lack of management, the stall owner's laziness, or his informality, everything here is messed up.It took Chen Ziyang a lot of effort to find what the compass indicated among these things.

Seeing someone standing still in front of his stall, the stall owner became enthusiastic and greeted Chen Ziyang proactively.Chen Ziyang looked at the stall owner. This person looked just like the things he was selling. He was really an informal person.

The stall owner was very sloppy, this was Chen Ziyang's first impression of him.The stall owner is a man, 55 years old, and his hair has not been washed for an unknown amount of time. is gray.

Moreover, the big beard on the face of the stall owner is also unkempt. These beards may be long or short, and it seems that they have not been trimmed for a long time.The clothes worn by the stall owner were also very dirty. There were dark spots and shallow spots on the clothes, and they hadn't been washed for an unknown amount of time.Moreover, there was an unpleasant smell emanating from his body. Chen Ziyang rubbed his nose subconsciously when he smelled the strange smell.

Although Chen Ziyang was not a very clean person, he really felt very uncomfortable when he saw the beggar-like stall owner in front of him.It's no wonder that there are more or less people asking for prices in front of other booths, but there are not many people here.But in order to find what the compass indicated, Chen Ziyang didn't care so much.

"Little brother, what are you going to buy? I see you looking here and there. You probably haven't decided what to buy. It seems that you didn't come here specifically for a certain item, but you want to buy a gift for someone. ? Do you need me to introduce you, I have a lot of good things here." The stall owner said to Chen Ziyang enthusiastically.

"Oh, I just took a look. You are busy with your work. If there is anything I like, I will ask you." Chen Ziyang replied perfunctorily.

Hearing what Chen Ziyang said, the smile on the stall owner's face froze immediately.Chen Ziyang's answer was almost a standard one. Although he said it very politely, the stall owner could tell that Chen Ziyang was just taking a look. There are a lot of tourists, and most of them come to Xi'an to see the antique market here, so the possibility of such people buying things is very small.

So the stall owner really ignored Chen Ziyang, but turned around and sat on his chair, posing in a very lazy posture.Seeing his laziness, he seemed to regret that he spent so much effort talking to Chen Ziyang just now.Chen Ziyang didn't care about the change in the stall owner's attitude, but concentrated on looking for what he wanted to find in this stall.

Although the compass was installed in the backpack behind his back, Chen Ziyang could still hear the clicking sound from the compass. I wonder if it was his illusion. Chen Ziyang actually felt that since he stood in front of this booth, , The frequency of this clicking sound seems to be getting faster and faster, as if the compass is urging himself, telling himself that what he is looking for is right in front of him.

(End of this chapter)