The crowd looked over in the direction where the voice came from.
Immediately, they saw that the speaker was no other than the current head of the He family, He Yongqiang.
Since a while ago, He Yongqiang’s mind had been thinking about something, so he had not spoken up, and it was only when he suddenly spoke up that everyone’s attention fell on him.
At this moment, He Yongqiang’s eyes were wide open, and his face was filled with an incomparable expression of shock.
His gaze, on the other hand, was staring straight at the top of the pair of characters in He Shishi’s hand.
“Could this …… be …… the Sui Dynasty’s “Ode to the Division”?!”
He Yongqiang looked at the pair of characters and said incredulously.
“The Ode to the Master’s Emergence? What ‘Ode to the Division Out’?”
He Shishi had a puzzled look on her face.
The crowd was also confused by He Yongqiang’s words.
He Yongqiang explained with a grim look on his face, “It is said that the Ode to the Coming Out of the Division of the Sui Dynasty was originally recorded as being collected by Princess Taiping, daughter of Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty, and later, in the Song Dynasty, it was taken into the court of Emperor Gaozong of Song. When it came to the Qing Dynasty, it was hidden in the Forbidden City by the Qianlong Emperor!”
“Qianlong?!”
Hearing this, the crowd around them all gasped.
Those before them might not have been clear to them, but when it came to Emperor Qianlong, that was basically something even children had heard of, after all, it was surprising that they would be acted out in the television.
At this point, I heard He Yongqiang continue, “Later, when the Qing Dynasty collapsed, this Ode to the Master was taken out of the palace by the last emperor Pu Yi, until the collapse of the False Manchus, and this Ode to the Master fell into the hands of the people again, and was said to have been torn into two pieces by people who did not know the truth. The ode was then completely lost. But I never thought ……”
He Yongqiang looked at the pair of words in He Shishi’s hand in front of him, and his face was filled with a sizzling look.
At this point, He Shishi He Jianming and the others were all finally able to understand what He Yongqiang meant when he said this.
“Dad, do you mean to say that this rag is the Sui ‘Ode to the Master’ that you were talking about just now?!”
He Jianming said with a look of disbelief.
He Yongqiang came to the front, his eyes critically examining the pair of characters in front of him.
“Look, there are inscriptions left by the great calligrapher Mi Youren in the Song Dynasty and Zhang Dashan in the Yuan Dynasty, so I’m afraid there’s no mistaking it! This is really the Sui ‘Ode to the Master’!”
He Yongqiang said with great certainty.
When this statement was made, the whole hall was suddenly abuzz with discussion.
Even Old Madam He’s face changed slightly.
If these words had been said by someone else, she, Old Madam He, might not have believed them.
However, He Yongqiang was Old Madam He’s eldest son.
Moreover, He Yongqiang had followed Master He since he was a child, and was extremely professional in antiques, calligraphy and paintings, so even those so-called experts could not compare with him.
Now, He Yongqiang had concluded that this painting was the Sui’s “Ode to the Master”, so I was afraid that it was absolutely right.
At this moment, He Shishi sneered and said disdainfully, “Uncle, even if this is really the Sui Ode to the Master that you are talking about, but look at how rotten this painting has become, it’s no different from a rag. I wonder if it was picked up from the rubbish heap by someone. Just this kind of thing, I’m afraid it’s not worth a few dollars!”
Although He Shishi didn’t know anything about literary objects, in her opinion, things were only worth more if they were intact.
But this pair of broken characters in front of her was obviously not worth much money.
Not only He Shishi, but also most of the people in the room thought the same thing.
However, after hearing He Shishi’s words, He Yongqiang shook his head with a bitter smile.
“You are too underestimating the value of this piece of writing. In this business of antiques, although there is a requirement for completeness, it is not all. At times, it is also the opposite!”
He Yongqiang explained.
“For example, if there was originally an antique vase, a pair of them, kept in the hands of two separate collectors, their value might add up to two million. But if one of the vases is broken, then the other vase, although not a complete pair, is definitely worth more than it was before. That’s the rule of literary art, things are valuable when they are rare!”
When this statement was made, many of the people in the surrounding crowd agreed and all nodded their heads.
“In that case, this ode to the division is still worth something too, isn’t it?”
He Shishi asked tentatively.
“It’s not worth a bit of money, it’s worth a lot of money!”
He Yongqiang said excitedly.
“As far as I know, this Ode to the Master was once auctioned off at Guardian back in ’03, and the price listed at that time was twenty-two million!”
“What?!”
“More than twenty million?!”
When the crowd heard this, they were all astonished.
At this moment, they heard He Yongqiang continue, “This is still the price in ’03, after so many years, the price of this masterpiece has already exceeded this. In my estimation, the conservative valuation of this ode to the Master has increased by at least ten times!”
He Yongqiang’s voice was incomparably excited as he said this.
The crowd around him, however, was clearly more excited than He Yongqiang.
“Ten …… ten times?! Wouldn’t that be more than two hundred million?!”
“My God, that can’t be right ……”
All the people present were completely dumbfounded, simply unable to believe their ears.
Even Old Mrs. He’s mouth was wide open at this moment, and her jaw was about to drop to the ground.
It was true that the He family was rich, but the total a*sets of the He family was only ten billion dollars.
But now, this painting alone was worth over two hundred million dollars, which was definitely a huge fortune for the He family!
Shen Yiqiu’s family at the side were also full of incredulity.
They didn’t expect that Li Nan would be so generous as soon as he made the offer, that a painting and calligraphy worth two hundred million dollars would be given away directly like this, this was too exaggerated!
“Dad, you …… are not mistaken, right? This word, can really be worth so much money?!”
He Jianming was also stunned with wide eyes and asked incredulously.
“Wrong? You’ve been with me for so long, have you ever seen me look away?!”
He Yongqiang said with some displeasure.
For an old player like He Yongqiang, daring to question his eyesight was almost as bad as insulting him!
“No, no, no, I didn’t mean that!”
He hurriedly explained.
“It’s just that ……”
He Jianming paused for a moment, before his gaze fell back on Li Nan’s body.
“With the look of this kid, how could he have something that would be so valuable?!”
He Jianming said with a suspicious look on his face.
Not only He Jianming, but everyone present, only wanted to know the answer to this question.