Top Grade Immortal Emperor in the Flower City

On Antique Street, every holiday or weekend, the place was teeming with people. Fortunately, it wasn't yet the weekend, so the two were able to stroll leisurely down the street, eliciting envious looks from many men at Ye Ling.

"Yu Qing, what are we doing on Antique Street?" Ye Ling was somewhat puzzled. Wasn't going out supposed to involve amusement parks, movie theaters, or walking around shopping streets?

Lin Yuqing smiled playfully, "Today is my grandfather's birthday. He really enjoys calligraphy, painting, and antiques, so I thought I'd come here to try my luck. What if I find an unrecognized genuine article?"

Ye Ling was taken aback, "So it's Grandpa's birthday. Leave the gift to me then, rest assured, I'll definitely make Grandpa happy!"
Enjoy new chapters from M V L

Joking? As the mighty Immortal Emperor, his eyes were more precise than any instrument on Earth. The common mishap of being deceived on Antique Street simply couldn't happen to Ye Ling.

Lin Yuqing lifted her nose with a smile, "Hmph, keep boasting here. When you've burst your bubble of bragging, I'll see how you square it."

"Heh, what's this, you don't believe me? Let's make a bet. If I find a treasure that Grandpa likes, you'll let me 'check' your physical development. How about that?" Saying this, Ye Ling stared at Lin Yuqing with no good intentions, his eyes rolling around.

Lin Yuqing glanced at Ye Ling, "Bragging too much, huh? If you don't find anything, hmph, don't you ever touch me again." Having said that, Lin Yuqing turned and bounced away, walking ahead with her hands behind her back.

Ye Ling was stunned for a moment, then elation spread over his face, "Hehe, success! Tsk tsk, it can't be helped, the Immortal Emperor is just this perfect. Look, look, which stunning beauty doesn't admire the Immortal Emperor?"

Inside a shop, filled with calligraphy and paintings, Ye Ling and Lin Yuqing walked in, and a clerk immediately rushed over to greet them.

"Sir, Miss, what might you be looking for? Our shop's calligraphy and paintings are quite famous throughout Antique Street, with very few fakes. Many masters of calligraphy and painting often visit our shop, and we have an extensive collection of genuine originals from ancient calligraphers and painters. Please have a look." The clerk's mouth was running smooth as silk.

Lin Yuqing couldn't help laughing directly, thinking the clerk was quite funny with his bold claims.

Hearing this, Ye Ling also became interested and whispered, "I'd like a genuine 'Along the River During the Qingming Festival' by Zhang Zeduan, mind you."

At these words, the clerk was stunned, and his eyes changed as he looked at Ye Ling. Are you kidding? I was just making conversation, and you took it seriously, daring to actually ask.

'Along the River During the Qingming Festival', one of Huaxia's top ten masterpieces, a rare surviving gem, a national treasure-level cultural relic, currently resides in the Imperial Palace Museum in Imperial Capital. Even if it was available, do I dare sell it, and would you dare buy it?

The clerk ranted in his heart, of course not daring to say it out loud but rather gave an awkward smile, "This gentleman surely jests. We do not have 'Along the River During the Qingming Festival' here. Of course, we do still have many other paintings."

Ye Ling nodded, asking the clerk to pick out a fine piece. The clerk nodded repeatedly, taking out a painting and slowly unfolding it to reveal a pristine scroll. In its center, there was only a fan-shaped section bearing four bold characters: "Uprightness Overwhelms," and signed by Liu Shi'an at the bottom of the fan.

"Sir, this is a gem of our shop. You should know, among the fans of Liu Yong, it is considered a masterpiece. Even Emperor Qianlong highly praised it. This fan has been passed down from Liu Yong, collected by someone with significant clout during the Republic era and then mounted on this scroll. If you take it out, it will surely make many envious." The clerk said excitedly, pointing at the fan as if it were a family heirloom.

Ye Ling and Lin Yuqing exchanged glances. Liu Yong's fan was indeed a marvel. Isn't there a saying? Zheng Banqiao's bamboos, Tang Bohu's beauties, Liu Shi'an's fans, and Songzhong Tang's single-brushstroke tiger; these were hailed as the "Four Excellences."

But is this fan really a genuine work of Liu Yong?

Who is Ye Ling? In his past life, he was the Immortal Emperor; could his eyes fail to discern the authenticity of historical relics?

Forget the damaged scroll, just take this fan for instance—the paper's rough and certainly not more than ten years old, clearly a modern counterfeit.

"How much for this fan?" Ye Ling asked with a cough.

Upon hearing this, the waiter grew even more excited, a glint of cunning flickering in his eyes. He had been waiting for such a long time and finally, a sucker had arrived—heh, time to fleece him!

"Sir, go out and ask around, a fan from Liu Yong could fetch hundreds of thousands. However, this particular one has fewer words, so it's quite a bit cheaper. How about this, I'll give it to you for eighty thousand—you're just paying a service fee, so you'll come back next time," said the waiter with utmost seriousness.

Ye Ling nodded, then turned to Lin Yuqing, "Lin Yuqing, a fan from Liu Yong for only eighty thousand, not bad, eh?"

"Not bad indeed, eighty thousand is really inexpensive. This fan must've been painted by Liu Yong on his deathbed, an ultimate masterpiece that shocks and awes," Lin Yuqing remarked sarcastically, unable to let the storefront's charade go unchallenged given her literary family background.

Infuriatingly, the waiter completely misunderstood their sarcasm, and mistook it for praise, hastily saying, "Isn't that why I said you two have a keen eye? This fan, it's absolutely a choice item! I'll wrap it up for you right now, and we welcome you back anytime!"

"Mhm, we'll be sure to come back," the two of them replied in agreement.

When the waiter looked up after rolling up the scroll, the entire room was empty—no one was there. The promise of a "next visit" buzzed annoyingly in his brain as his face turned pale.

After browsing a few more shops and not finding anything good—not even coming across a single genuine article—to add insult to injury, some of the shopkeepers had the audacity to claim an ordinary chamber pot was a true antique used by Emperor Qianlong himself, nearly driving Ye Ling to stuff the pot into the shopkeeper's mouth.

"Yu Qing, it's not that I'm incompetent, it's just that this street doesn't have a single ancient hair to be found," Ye Ling heaved a deep sigh, his lament profound.

Lin Yuqing's forehead creased with three black lines: "Sigh, it seems I need to think of another gift for grandfather."

No sooner had she finished speaking when Lin Yuqing bumped into an acquaintance, a schoolmate, and the two quickly struck up a cheerful conversation. Ye Ling, left to his own devices, began to survey his surroundings out of boredom. Suddenly, he noticed a street stall not far away surrounded by a crowd. Intrigued, he hurried over.

Huaxia's cultural tradition is to join in the excitement, and after much effort, Ye Ling squeezed into the throng of people. There, he saw a man in a suit with a haughty expression, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, standing in front of the stall and cursing loudly, "Your shabby stall is filled with nothing but fakes; you dare try to deceive me? I'll smash your stall today!"

The onlookers were whispering and pointing; it turned out that this man had wanted to buy something at the stall, but upon closer inspection, everything turned out to be fake. An altercation with the stall owner had erupted, leading to the outburst of curses.

However, amidst the disorderly stall, Ye Ling spotted two items that immediately made his eyes gleam. He broke into a grin—indeed, there's no need to look any further; what he sought was right here, effortlessly found.