Gasp! She's a Time Traveler Using Modern Tech to Improve Ancient Life-Chapter 558 - 557: Antique Shop

The Great Tang Night City Pedestrian Street is filled with splendid buildings, dazzling lights, and bright illuminations. Among the dense crowd, half of the people are dressed in ancient attire, posing in front of retro buildings to take photos for their social media.

Lin Wanwan weaves through it all, feeling the lively atmosphere as she brushes past others.

Heading south, the crowd gets even denser, and there’s a floral carriage display in the plaza ahead.

The floral carriages are filled with beautiful women wearing Tang Dynasty skirts in red, green, and yellow, each graceful and full of life.

However, for Lin Wanwan, who has witnessed the grand spectacle of the Great Tang’s Lantern Tower and the street parade of floral carriages during the Shangyuan Festival, these performances fall a bit short.

The Pusa Man and Oiran of the Great Tang were exploited their entire lives, as singing and dancing for entertainment was their means of survival.

Thus, they performed each dance with their lives, and the elegance displayed naturally could not be compared to workers who clock in and out on a schedule.

Workers have choices, but they had none in history.

No matter how much applause they received or how much wealth they earned during their youthful years, they couldn’t avoid the bleak later years that followed the fading of their beauty.

Their best route was to be chosen by someone wealthy and powerful, bought home as a small concubine. Being used for entertainment by their master was their fortune, as the fear was that if no one entertained them, they would only face a difficult and painful death.

Like Lin Wanwan’s female musician Heng Wu, who could live a stable life in Lin Wanwan’s residence—this was beyond her wildest dreams.

The Pusa Man of the Great Tang and the vibrant performers on the floral carriages before her gradually merged in Lin Wanwan’s eyes, half historical, half real, as if time itself had gained depth.

The bright flourishing era before her was the true peaceful era; the Great Tang’s flourishing was merely the revelry of the upper class.

Lin Wanwan looked up at the moon, murmuring to herself, "It’s so good to be able to return to the modern world."

Just then, she noticed a flash of light in front of her.

Looking sideways, not far away, a young man had just lowered his DSLR camera.

Realizing he had been caught taking candid shots, the young man awkwardly approached, saying, "Sorry, the atmosphere in that moment was too beautiful, you were as dazzling as the lights, and I couldn’t help but snap a picture. Would you like the negative? I can send it to you, and if you mind, I can delete the negatives here."

As he spoke, he showed Lin Wanwan the photo he had just taken on the small screen of his camera, "Look, it’s really quite artistic."

Lin Wanwan glanced at the small screen of the DSLR, and indeed, from lighting to composition, it was quite artistic, with a beauty of interwoven time and space.

"Does it have Bluetooth? Can it send files wirelessly?"

"Wireless transfer isn’t possible, my DSLR doesn’t have that feature. Would it be okay to add me on WeChat? Once I import it to my computer, I’ll send you the original file."

"I’ll give you my email, thanks." With that, Lin Wanwan took out a pen and a sticky note from her bag, wrote down her email address, and handed it to him.

Compared to the privacy of WeChat, email is more official. Lin Wanwan usually only uses it for work purposes.

The young man raised an eyebrow, self-deprecatingly saying, "Can’t add me on WeChat? Afraid I’m a bad guy?"

Lin Wanwan smiled without responding and turned to continue her journey.

But it’s just a passerby, there’s not much more to say. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Having been candidly photographed, Lin Wanwan thought for a moment and took a disposable mask from her bag, put it on.

After all, being somewhat of a minor internet celebrity, Lin Wanwan decided to be more careful.

As she continued to stroll, Lin Wanwan discovered an antique shop hidden in the bustling market. The Ancient City lives up to its name; even the pedestrian street has an antique shop.

They say in the antique business, you might not make a sale for three years, but one sale can feed you for three years.

However, this particular shop Lin Wanwan entered clearly wasn’t like that. Looking around, these were probably not antiques but rather imitation souvenirs, all aimed at making money from tourists.

In the shop, besides young customers dressed in ancient attire like Lin Wanwan, there were also many foreigners, all picking out souvenirs.

Lin Wanwan wasn’t interested in crude "antiques" produced last week. Her gaze lingered on the premium items placed in the highest glass showcase in the shop.

Perhaps Lin Wanwan was staring somewhat intently, as a middle-aged man approached her, "Miss, you have a good eye. These up here are the premium items in our store. Would you like me to introduce them to you?"

"No, thank you, I’ll just have a look myself," Lin Wanwan politely declined.

Knowing she was turned down, the middle-aged man realized this was a lost sale; the elegant lady in ancient attire before him was clearly the type to look but not buy, as evidenced by the indifference in her eyes, devoid of excitement.

His gaze circled the hairpin and beaded hairpin in Lin Wanwan’s hair and finally landed on the Jade Bracelet on her wrist. Suddenly, he regained interest, "Miss, we also have a lot of Nephrite Jade and jadeite raw stones in the shop. I can see you’re quite interested in antiquities, wouldn’t you like to buy a few stones to play around with and try your luck?"

"Oh, what kind?" Lin Wanwan casually asked.

"Come over here to have a look. We have raw stones and pebbles right over here."

Lin Wanwan followed him to the iron shelf stands at the back, where a variety of stones were piled up.

But Lin Wanwan didn’t really understand stones; she just looked around aimlessly. After a while, she suddenly asked, "Do you accept ceramics here?"

"Of course, we do, definitely."

Lin Wanwan smiled and said, "Then perhaps we can do some business."

"Oh, do you have some good stuff on hand, miss?"

"Just a few pieces of family-heirloom Yue Kiln celadon from the Tang Dynasty."

"Tang Dynasty celadon, huh? Well, there’s quite a lot surviving. Our store also has a few pieces." The middle-aged man pointed to the ceramics in the showcase below, "Here, like this one. How’s the quality of yours compared to this?"

Lin Wanwan had actually noticed that particular piece when she walked over. It was one of the items stolen during a theft at her home last time.

The thief was caught back then, but the ceramics they had sold off were never recovered, having changed hands several times. Unexpectedly, she found it in this store.

For a store to have stolen goods, Lin Wanwan didn’t believe they hadn’t engaged in some gray-area activities.

However, Lin Wanwan didn’t expose it immediately. Instead, she feigned surprise as she pointed at the celadon and said, "Did you buy this from an old connection? Can I take a look?"

"Sure, you know your stuff! This is a genuine item. If you want it, it’s thirty-eight thousand." The middle-aged man grabbed the celadon and handed it over for Lin Wanwan to inspect.

Lin Wanwan held it in her hand and examined it carefully for a while. She was certain this was indeed the piece her family had lost, and this store was really connected with stolen goods.

Although quite certain, Lin Wanwan thought for a moment and decided not to call the police. Mainly, it was hard to prove it was hers, and after all, the Ancient City was unfamiliar territory to her.