The waiting time always feels long, and with thoughts in his mind, Lin Yi found it hard to fall asleep.
Finally, after the excruciating wait, the digital clock in the bedroom clicked to 0:00.
Seeing this, Lin Yi, who could no longer contain himself, flipped over immediately, eagerly grabbing the small cardboard box.
To ensure nothing went wrong, Lin Yi simply reached in and grabbed a handful of ceramic shards, clutching them tightly in his palm.
With everything ready, Lin Yi took a deep breath and called upon the system in his mind.
"System, system, help me disassemble these ceramic shards and remake them into a complete antique porcelain piece!"
Shh!
As this thought appeared, the heavy feeling in his hand suddenly lightened, and at the same time, a mechanical voice echoed in his mind.
[Collected a handful of broken porcelain pieces from Master, system has disassembled for Master, system is selecting and optimizing molecules, selection and optimization completed, remanufacturing in progress, Master obtained a Yuan Dynasty blue and white peony pattern tall foot cup.]
As the system's voice faded, Lin Yi suddenly felt something appear in his empty hand.
Instinctively, he tightened his grip, and upon looking, he found a complete little porcelain cup in his hand.
The small porcelain cup wasn't big, only about the size of half a palm, with a height around ten centimeters.
The overall design was similar to that of a modern goblet, but the upper part was bowl-shaped, as if a small bowl was mounted onto a base.
Anyway, as Lin Yi saw it, he didn't find anything special about it.
However, although he didn't find it attractive, he knew that this thing definitely wasn't cheap.
"Hehe, system, you're really something. You've actually managed to conjure an antique for me. Alright, I'll head to the antique market tomorrow noon after school to sell you and get my first bucket of gold!"
Having waited for most of the night, Lin Yi was already sleepy, but now, looking at the small porcelain cup in front of him, his original sleepiness vanished instantly.
Carefully placing the small porcelain cup on the desk, Lin Yi casually opened his computer to search for information. There was no way around it, since high school students weren't allowed to use mobile phones.
Even though he wasn't good at studying, his mom, following the school's instructions seriously, had decisively confiscated his mobile phone as he was approaching the college entrance examination.
Determining the value of an antique is notoriously difficult, especially when it comes to porcelain. Some can be worth tens of millions, while others are only worth a few hundred yuan.
As an amateur, Lin Yi couldn't ascertain the true value of this porcelain cup.
He didn't want something originally worth tens or hundreds of thousands to be tricked into thinking it was worth just a few thousand yuan.
Of course, there was actually a more straightforward method, which was to ask his dad.
With his dad's understanding of antiques, it was believable that he could estimate the cup's worth fairly accurately.
At the very least, he'd know if it's worth thousands or tens of thousands.
But Lin Yi didn't plan on letting his dad see it now; otherwise, it would be hard to explain.
Thinking back to the system's prompt, Lin Yi typed 'Yuan Dynasty blue and white peony pattern tall foot cup' into the computer.
After hitting the search button, Lin Yi was immediately stunned, exclaiming out loud in surprise:
"Whoa! Is this little thing really worth so much?"
According to the search results, Lin Yi was shocked to find that if this little thing was authentic, it would be worth at least over two million.
A similar tall foot cup had once been auctioned by a company in Shanghai, fetching a final price of two million seven hundred and ten thousand!
Who would have thought? Who could have expected that his first bucket of gold could directly lead to financial freedom!
Two million, what kind of concept is that? With his dad's monthly salary of five thousand, it would take thirty years without spending a penny to earn that!
Thinking about this, Lin Yi became even more excited. Looking at the goblet-shaped porcelain cup again, he couldn't help but see money signs in his eyes.
He almost wanted to kiss it.
To ensure the safety of this treasure, Lin Yi brought a roll of toilet paper and carefully wrapped it from inside out.
Still feeling uneasy, he then used some tape to give it a thorough wrapping.
Looking at the cup wrapped up like a dumpling, Lin Yi nodded in satisfaction.
"Hehe, now it's foolproof. Even if it falls on the ground, it won't break my treasure!"
After carefully placing it into his backpack, he excitedly returned to bed, pondering how he would use this immense fortune.
Early the next morning, the first thing Lin Yi did upon waking was to open his backpack and check the 'dumpling.' Seeing it lying quietly inside, he let out a long sigh of relief.
As the saying goes, joy invigorates the spirit, and that's exactly how Lin Yi felt now.
"Calm, calm; after all, I'm a cool guy with a system. How can I get excited over such a small amount? Breathe... calm."
Riding his bike on the road in the community, Lin Yi took a few deep breaths to calm his excited mood.
Beep beep beep!!
Suddenly, the urgent honking behind startled Lin Yi.
He checked his position and realized he was already quite close to the side. Was there something wrong with the car behind him?
Turning around, just as he was about to see if it was a female driver, an angry voice from behind shouted:
"The kid riding the bike in front, is this road yours? Didn't you hear the car coming? Move aside quickly! If my car gets scratched, selling you won't be enough to compensate!"
Hearing the scolding from behind, Lin Yi couldn't help but furrow his brows.
Turning his head, he saw an old black Porsche Cayenne approaching, with a middle-aged man inside looking at him angrily.
When Lin Yi turned his head, the middle-aged man inside the car was noticeably taken aback. But before Lin Yi could speak, the man's patronizing voice spoke first:
"Oh, it's the Lin family's kid. Almost time for the college entrance exam, right? I heard from your Aunt Liu that your grades aren't good. So, where do you plan to work after the exams? Want to join our company? Others start with an internship salary of fifteen hundred a month; I'll give you eighteen hundred, how about that?"
The middle-aged man in the car was Sun Zhi, who lived in the same community as Lin Yi. Additionally, his wife, Liu Mei, was a coworker of Lin Yi's mom.
However, her relationship with Lin Yi's mom wasn't very good. To be more precise, she didn't get along well with any women in her workplace these days.
The reason being related, naturally, to her husband, who was said to have just been promoted to a senior executive position in a certain company a couple of months ago.
At home, Lin Yi often heard his mom complaining that ever since Liu Mei's husband got promoted, she treated everyone at work with disdain, always speaking with a sarcastic tone.
[To be continued....]