Chapter: 5547

An Chong Qiu suddenly raised his hand and said: "I think we should give up investigating Noble Lord's identity. He seems to know every step we take, so if we continue to investigate his identity, he might become displeased with us."

An Kai Feng agreed, saying: "Big brother is right. We have already arrived in Jinling, which means we are under Noble Lord's surveillance. In this situation, it's best to keep a low profile and not make any sudden moves."

Lee Yalin looked at the two brothers with solemn faces, his heart racing with anxiety. He didn't dare reveal too much, but only felt like lamenting in his heart: "You two brothers are indeed dragons and phoenixes. If we miss this opportunity, it will be as difficult to find Ye Chen as climbing Mount Tai!"

...

The next morning, the northern suburbs of Jinling.

The sky was not yet fully bright, but Zhang Erma had already stood at the edge of a farmer's yard, holding an iron rake.

He retrieved the three artifacts given by Ye Chen from the muddy soil beside the cesspit.

These three artifacts were mixed with the rotten and stinking pig intestines that had been buried for two days. As soon as they were dug out, there was a pungent smell of blood and filth.

He held his nose and retrieved the artifacts from the soil, then used a soft-bristled brush to gently brush off the dirt around them. After that, he carefully wiped them with a piece of dry cotton cloth and sniffed them heavily under his nose.

At this point, the bloody and pungent smells had weakened significantly. According to Zhang Erma's experience in rummaging through antique shops before, these odors were already very close to those of newly unearthed jade.

The things that come out of a grave, especially jade artifacts that are buried with the corpse, will still retain this faintly pungent smell even after being cleaned and washed for some time. This smell may linger for up to a year after they're unearthed, but ordinary people might not be able to detect it. However, someone like Zhang Erma who is familiar with antique shops can recognize the smell just by sniffing it.

These two jade artifacts are already old items with a history. Now that they have this kind of smell, most experts will almost certainly determine that these items come from a grave.

After confirming the authenticity of the items, Zhang Erma hurried back to the city and straight away went to the antique street.

In Jinling's antique industry, there is still a tradition of operating during the day and closing at night. According to insiders' language, when it gets dark, one cannot do business in antiques because, on the one hand, it's afraid of getting taken advantage of, and on the other hand, it's worried about being robbed.

Therefore, most antique dealers and stall owners on Antique Street usually start their business at dawn and close shop before nightfall.

Today just happens to be Saturday, so when Zhang Erma arrived at Antique Street, it was already bustling like a morning market.

Zhang Erma is an old-timer in Antique Street. After following Hong Wu for some time, he left this place and never came back. So when he suddenly appeared, many people recognized him and greeted him warmly: "Erma brother, what brings you here today?"

"Just so, Erma brother," someone else chimed in. "You're now a red person around Hong Wu's side. How do you still have time to run around looking at our bunch of poor brothers?"

Zhang Erma thought to himself: "In the past when I was swindling people on Antique Street, no one looked up to me. Everyone would scold and mock me, with my three characters 'Zhang Erma' stuck in their mouths all day? Now that I'm following Hong Wu, you're all starting to call me Erma brother."

Thinking of this, Zhang Erma chuckled twice and told the crowd: "I'm not kidding, everyone. I'm no longer following Hong Wu."

"What's wrong?" a man who was still calling him "Erma brother" earlier asked, his eyes fixed on Zhang Erma. "Zhang Erma, you're doing well with Hong Wu, why did you suddenly say you won't follow him anymore?"

"That's it." Another man spoke up. "I mean, Zhang Erma, when you're following Hong Wu, drinking tea and eating snacks, isn't that stronger than all the nonsense you were involved in on Antique Street?"

A woman who sold fake copper coins laughed. "Zhang Erma, didn't you make some kind of mistake and get kicked out by Hong Wu?"

Zhang Erma waved his hand dismissively. "Forget about these things. I'm planning to come back and set up my stall again."

As he spoke, he glanced at the man who had first greeted him. "Zhao Lao Si, do you know that after I left, I lent out my original stall to you for free? And now that I've returned, will you still give me back my position?" JrNovels.com