38 The little crane emblem and mountain tapestry exchange(1)

"Hey! Come over!We have some new vases! Some might be antiques !" A middle aged man with a potbelly yelled into the crowd standing in front of his stall.

Song Xia took a casual glance of his items and couldn't detect any energy so she continued walking.

She passed the majority of the stalls and was close to the shop section when she heard the voice of a woman.

"Hello , girl would you like to buy a jewelry box?" The women who spoke to Song Xia was thin and her clothes worn out. She looked a bit desperate and sickly.Regardless her condition the woman had a dignified and scholarly bearing.

Song Xia knew that her financial situation must not be great and decided to purchase something from her stall.

" Sure, Aunty, I'll have a look."

As she approached the stall she felt an abundance of spiritual power.

" Have a look child."

One the table was a dark wooden box with delicate engraving of a family of rabbits. Another silver box with leaf patterns with velvet covering on the inside. Lastly was a red and gold wooden box. It looked old and worn but was intricately made.

Surprisingly all of the boxes contained a little gold coloured spiritual energy. All of them were antiques!

Song Xia was stunned.These boxes were worth a small fortune.

" Only a thousand yuan!"Looking at Song Xia 's surprised expression the woman rushed to speak.

" Little girl, all of these objects are real! My family was once part of the big aristocratic families before my great grandfather joined the army. I recently got divorced and now my husband doesn't support us anymore. So I've been forced to sell all of the objects from my dowry."

The proud , dignified woman put down her pride and told Song Xia her tragic truth. She had not made a sale the whole week and she was becoming desperate. She had two daughters to support and her heartless husband refused to support them. His whole family was patriarchal so they despised her and her daughters but she managed to bear their disdain until her husband cheated on her. It wasn't only cheating- he wanted to marry his pregnant mistress! Since finding out that his mistress was pregnant with a boy her husband and his family had had all but kicked them out onto the street with just the clothes on their back.

Luckily she had a friend from college who was a lawyer managed to help her get her dowery back but her husband had some powerful friends who helped him avoid paying child support. It had been years since she had been to college and she only worked a short while before getting married so it was very difficult for her to get a job.

Song Xia became furious.She felt that certain men were spineless, idiotic cowards!

'How could people in this day and age behave like this! A girl and a boy were equally capable! Even a tiger wouldn't eat it's own cubs! Those girls were his own blood but he abandoned them.'

Song Xia walked up to the boxes and gently touched the glossy black wood.

" Aunty , I like all of them! I'll take them all."

It was a win-win situation. This lady could make money and she could pick up some great antiques.

Now it was the lady's turn to be surprised. She didn't realize that this customer that she had casually brought over was rich! I mean that was a total of 3000 yuan casually spent.

A relived smile appeared on the lady's face showing that once upon a time she was a beauty.

" Is there anything else you would like?" Her tone slightly more polite than before towards Song Xia.

Song Xia could see a partially covered kang table in the back of the small store. It was covered with an old table cloth and had a few boxes on out.Yet this was the treasure of this dilapidated store. Streams of golden spiritual energy seeped from the small opening beckoning Song Xia.

" Aunty, I really like the look of that table. How much is it?"Song Xia asked gesturing towards the back of the store.

The lady was startled and then looked apologetically at Song Xia.

"Girl, this Kang Table is the most expensive thing in my dowry. I can only sell it for no less than 150000 yuan . "

Then she pointed at a few vases and hair accessories.

" Is there anything else that you want to buy? I will give you a discount."

Song Xia thought about it and decided to buy the table she was sure it's value far exceeded the price.

" Aunty, I'll buy the table and the jewelry boxes. I will do an EFT to you. "

The lady looked at Song Xia blankly. Can a student really have that much money? Then she looked closely at Song Xia 's bearing. This girl must be from a super rich family! The Gods had eyes and now there was someone to finally help her!

She stammered " Yes! Yes,of course! Thank you for your patronage!"

After Song Xia transferred the money to her bank account and left she stared at the zeros in her bank account dumbfounded.

++++

Nearing the middle section of the shops in the Antique Market Song Xia began to hear a flute's melody. The tune leading her to a medium sized shop that had a wooden board with the characters Songhui Antiques . The calligraphy

was bold and upright but somehow smooth and soothing.

As she entered she heard screaming.

" You old man have one foot in the grave so why are you interfering with my life!"

A man who looked about 25 years old was shaking a fist at a tall, thin elderly man threatening him.They both bore some resemblance to each other .

Before she could react the old man grabbed the hooligans hand and said in a gentle voice.

" Son, I'm just worried about you. You spend so much time drinking and partying! Sometimes you don't come home for days. As your father don't I have the right to question you?"

The man seemed not to even hear him and pushed him of his arm resulting in the old man falling to the floor.

" This is my life! Don't question Lao Zi will not listen to you anymore! What father !" The man spat on the floor and pushed past her in an aggressive manner. He stormed out the shop and slammed the door behind him.

Song Xia didn't bother with him and rushed to help the old man on the floor. He sat pale face ;staring in disbelief at the door.He clutched his chest and had red,watery eyes .

Perhaps he could believe that his own child behaved as a white eyed wolf.