It's been over a day since we last met.
Hans didn't show any sign of missing Chen Yiyang, rather, he seemed quite content and at ease here.
Good-natured large dogs are really popular among girls. Hans didn't even need to be confined in a cage here, he just followed the staff around all day waiting to be fed with delicious food.
"Look at you, couldn't you have a bit more ambition?" Chen Yiyang began to chastise Hans after getting him into the car.
"How could this place be better than home? You can do whatever you want in such a big house, I take you out to play every day and stay up late with you.
The freeze-dried dog food I feed you is more than enough, although I'm busy with work and sometimes the feeding isn't exactly on time, at least I feed you, right?
Look at you, just one day away from me, and I feel like you've gained some weight, that's not healthy, we need to change that."
Hans showed no interest in responding to Chen Yiyang, he quietly lay on the back seat of the Porsche 911, his ears not moving at all, as if feeling sorrowful about being taken away involuntarily.
After taking Hans home, Chen Yiyang gave Zhang Guichen a call.
"Long time no contact, brother, did you succeed in your divorce yet?"
Divorce?
Chen Yiyang froze for a moment before remembering that during a previous idle chat at Zhang Guichen's shop, he had fabricated Sun Xingguo's character as his own.
So he replied, "Thanks for the concern, brother, everything's dealt with. I'm a free man now. Recently I've been dabbling in small business, and I was wondering if you could be a mediator to make some connections."
"Then come over here to the Spring Tide Tea House, I'll send you the location."
This old buddy is either drinking tea or getting massages.
Chen Yiyang went downstairs, drove over.
When he found the private room where Zhang Guichen was, Chen Yiyang realized.
Is this supposed to be a tea house? Isn't this just a disguised club?
They just replaced drinking with tea, but the high-end girls accompanying them are still from the club.
"Hey buddy!" Zhang Guichen greeted Chen Yiyang to sit down, then said, "I've called some girls in here, you can pick one in a bit."
"Forget it, I just got divorced, feeling a little bit sexless now." Chen Yiyang declined Zhang Guichen's proposal.
Recently he had met several unique and attractive girls, which raised Chen Yiyang's standards.
Xu Qing's smile is so sweet. Chang Yuning's figure is amazing. Xu Xiaosheng is so adorably blurry.
Sitting with these club women doesn't do anything for him.
"Did your ex-wife break your heart?" An older buddy by Zhang Guichen's side leaned over to Chen Yiyang and said, "Since you've moved on, let me introduce you to a hobby. I guarantee once you like it, you'll no longer think about finding a woman."
"Liu Chen, you rascal, get out, don't lead my brother astray." Zhang Guichen stepped in to stop him.
"What hobby is that?" Chen Yiyang was a bit curious.
Although Zhang Guichen likes massages and foot baths, he doesn't seem like someone involved in illegal activities.
What kind of hobby would he know that makes men give up women?
"Fishing!" Liu Chen slapped his thigh excitedly and said, "If you find yourself missing women when you're free, just go fishing with me. I guarantee you'll fish from morning till night, and then from night till early morning.
Catch a big fish today and you'll want to catch another tomorrow. If you didn't catch anything today, you'll be thinking about how to catch one tomorrow. By then, you won't even care about any alien invasions, just whether there are any bites in the fish pond."
"Uh." Chen Yiyang didn't expect this answer.
He really never got into this hobby of fishing.
"Don't listen to him." Zhang Guichen got anxious and tugged Chen Yiyang saying, "Several of the buddies I used to hang out with for tea and massages have all been taken fishing by him. They got so into it that their wives came to me complaining, asking if I set them up with mistresses because they were never home."
Despite Zhang Guichen's attempt to stop it, Liu Chen was determined to introduce Chen Yiyang to the joys of fishing.
He even stopped dealing with the girls just to sit beside Chen Yiyang, educating him about fishing.
By the time his throat was dry from talking, the room finally quieted down.
Then Chen Yiyang looked around, wondering where the hell did Zhang Guichen go.
"You guys finished talking?" Zhang Guichen came back into the room fastening his belt, "I'm done."
"You were really quick." Chen Yiyang gave him a thumbs up.
"Let's talk business then. Buddy, what's the small business you mentioned?"
"I know some people from before, they have some good stuff they don't use anymore, so I'm helping them deal with it."
After saying that, Chen Yiyang showed Zhang Guichen photos of Great Ming Treasure Notes and the Patek Philippe pocket watch casing.
"Do you have any connections for these two items, buddy?"
"I don't know anyone in the antique circle, but there's a place that would surely take them, just the price would be low."
"What place?"
"Pawnshop."
A saying from ancient times describes the pawn industry: When the pawnshop opens, I seek profit, you seek emergency relief; there's a high barrier, I don't see your hardship, you don't urge me to be generous.
It seems to discuss the business methods of the pawn industry, but actually it also talks about how pawnshops operated in ancient times.
Unlike in TV shows where characters walk into shops to pawn items, ancient pawnshops didn't even open their doors; they opened two windows instead.
These two windows were built high up, so customers had to raise their hands to pass items to the pawnshop.
The reason behind this is simple: you and I don't meet face-to-face, so how hard your life is, or why you are pawning things, has nothing to do with me.
You hand over the item, I give a price; if we agree, I'll give you the money, if not, I'll return the item to you.
From start to finish, the person pawning the item never sees the face of the pawnshop's worker.
If it were really like TV shows, with the pawnshop's door wide open, allowing people to come and go freely.
The ones coming to pawn items were generally at their wits' end.
If you provoke them a bit, aren't you afraid they'll come in with a knife and stab you?
Back then, there were no burglar-proof windows; wooden fences could only hold off people for a few kicks.
But in modern times, pawnshops obviously can't do business like that anymore.
Chen Yiyang retrieved the Great Ming Treasure Notes and pocket watch casing from a convenient storage and, following Zhang Guichen's address, arrived at the bottom of a commercial center's building.
Entering a shop that appeared to be some kind of luxury brand store, a well-dressed man came over to greet him.
"Mr. Chen, right? Mr. Zhang called in to introduce you to us."
"Yes." Chen Yiyang nodded.
"Our store's appraiser is with a client right now, so please have a seat and wait for a moment."
"No problem." Instead of sitting down, Chen Yiyang started to browse around the store with interest.
This modern pawnshop, or rather, pawn house, was built like a gallery, with various items placed in glass display cabinets, and price tags attached nearby.
Chen Yiyang casually looked around and found a variety of luxury handbags, watches, pearls, jades, and fine jewelry.
The selection was extremely diverse.
Seeing this, Chen Yiyang understood why in modern times, ordinary people seldom hear about pawnshops.
Because the kind of business they operate is something everyday people simply cannot access.
Like in ancient times, impoverished families at their last resort could still pawn their old clothes and quilts.
But in modern times, the entry requirement for pawnshops has become various luxury goods.
Even when ordinary families don't need to pawn, they don't have these items at home anyway.
Chen Yiyang stood in the lobby for a while and saw a girl with an aura of wealth dragging a suitcase, weeping and wailing as she walked out from a private room inside the pawnshop. As she walked, she said, "A bag worth more than a million, and you can't even offer a hundred thousand here. It's outrageous."
"Sorry to let you see that." The staff member from earlier came out and said to Chen Yiyang, "You can go in now."
So, Chen Yiyang took his items and entered that private room.
The room wasn't large, with two sofas and a table.
But the environment was quite comfortable, akin to a high-end coffee shop.
Surveillance cameras were installed in all four corners, and there were no blind spots in the entire room.
Inside sat an appraiser, a man, and a woman. When they saw Chen Yiyang come in, they greeted him.
Chen Yiyang took out his items and placed them on the table. The two of them, wearing gloves, began to examine them.
"Your five Great Ming Circulation Treasure Notes are indeed made by the Ministry of Revenue in the Ming Dynasty, they're genuine, no doubt."
"So what's the price you can offer?" Chen Yiyang inquired.
"Each note is forty thousand for a live pawn, sixty thousand for a dead pawn." The appraiser stated the price and then added, "Our prices here are fixed, no bargaining. But if you do decide to sell, we can wire the funds immediately after signing the contract."
Of course, the price from the pawnshop was naturally lower.
However, Chen Yiyang had mentally prepared for this.
He had already researched that when selling items at a pawnshop, depending on the type, prices might be thirty to forty percent lower than market value.
But the advantage of pawnshops is their abundant cash flow, legitimacy, and safety.
For those wealthy but cash-strapped, instead of slowly finding channels to sell those hard-to-move luxury items, it's better to just get the cash directly from the pawnshop. It also saves the hassle of bargaining.
Chen Yiyang hesitated for a moment but then nodded in agreement to the transaction.
These five Great Ming Treasure Notes, if sold through antique channels, could fetch at least eighty to one hundred thousand each.
But for an outsider, finding the proper channels is quite troublesome, and often you don't know the credentials of others, getting duped or fooled is not uncommon.
Pawnshops essentially earn their money by saving you these troubles.
"What about this pocket watch casing?" Chen Yiyang continued to ask.
"This watch casing is indeed rose gold, but you're definitely hoping to trade it as a collectible, right."
"Yes."
"We don't usually deal with such items, and even if we do, the offered price would be very low. However, I've sent pictures to our colleagues in Macao; they expressed great interest in this pocket watch casing. If you're willing, you can take a trip to Macao."