Demons Beside You

“Mr. Doman, I have a collection with me right now. I can’t determine its value. Can you help me appraise them?”

“Of course.”

Thinking a bit, Chen Zhao decided to keep the splash ink landscape painting. After his house was built, he could use it to decorate his bedroom. He would bring the other items to Mr. Doman for him to appraise.

In the afternoon, Chen Zhao went to Mr. Doman’s house early with the items.

Seeing him pull so many things out of his bag, Mr. Doman was surprised. “Mr. Chen, do you plan on selling these things?”

“That’s the plan.”

Mr. Doman started appraising each item. He first held up a piece of porcelain. It was a dish.

“Judging from the craftsmanship, it should be the bone china that British royalty used in mid-17th century. It’s well preserved and has a high market value. It should be around $100,000.”

This was a good start. Chen Zhao nodded.

The most valuable porcelain should be from the Chinese Ming and Qing Dynasty. The ones from Jingdezhen were renown throughout the world. A complete authentic piece could be worth more than millions in the antique market.

Most foreign china was also imported from China, but at the end of the 16th century, the British invented bone china.

After firing, the bone china’s texture was completely different from Chinese porcelain. The latter was harder and with finer details. The patterns were more flowery. On the other hand, bone china felt softer. It had a gentle feeling like touching skin.

When looking with a backlight, it would be more transparent the more bone powder it contained. More than 40% would have a semi-transparent texture.

Next, Mr. Doman picked up the second item. It was a copper incense burner.

“Judging from the craftsmanship, this should be an incense burner used by Spanish nobles in the 13th century. There’s a Spanish word here: Medina… The House of Medina Sidonia is one of the oldest Spanish noble families. I’ll have to do radiocarbon detection to determine its exact age, so my conservative estimate is from $300,000 to $350,000.”

Hearing this price, Chen Zhao was overjoyed. The china that he’d had the most hope for was only $100,000 but this incense burner could actually be sold for more than $300,000.

Mr. Doman picked up the ratty old notebook. Flipping through the pages, he said, “It’s also in Spanish. It’s a nautical diary from the 17th century. The writer is a sailor named Beja Cambris. It doesn’t have much value.”

He placed the diary on the side and started appraising the next item. During this process, he put the valuable and valueless on either side.

The most valuable was that incense burner while the least valuable was a mirror. An item from the early 12th century with finer details, it was only $10,000.

After finishing the last one, there were 12 items that had a certain or very high value. Four didn’t have any value or were very cheap. The 12 items ranged from $10,000 to $300,000. The total value was around $800,000 to $1,000,000.

As for the other four items, Chen Zhao kept them himself.

However, Mr. Doman’s own appraisal wasn’t enough if he wanted to sell the items. He had to go through a professional appraisal agency or have Mr. Doman’s company provide a report.

Mr. Doman was very professional, but his appraisal was only to provide a basis. He had an accuracy rate of above 80%. As for the final price, more appraisals had to be done.

Chen Zhao agreed for Mr. Doman to take the items to his company for more detailed and scientific appraisals.

They signed a preliminary contract. Chen Zhao mainly signed a collaboration agreement to ensure that this wasn’t a dirty exchange. Mr. Doman also had priority acquisition power and paid $300,000 as a deposit.

If other institutions or people had a higher bid, Chen Zhao could definitely sell to them, but he’d have to return the deposit with interest.

Chen Zhao and Mr. Doman were friends, but they were both serious about the contract and collaboration.

After finishing business, they began chatting.

“Mr. Chen, when do you think Normans can finish the weight loss plan?”

“Around ten more days.”

“You had her go from 308 pounds to 154 in 20 days, but it’ll take ten more days to go from 154 to 130?”

“Mr. Doman, weight loss doesn’t work like that. The weight loss before was fat and water content. Now, Normans has very low BMI, so the effect isn’t as obvious as before. Actually, I suggest that she go to do skin surgery now. Future weight loss will be easier. Running with all that flaccid skin now makes things harder.”

“Normans told me about this. She wants to do surgery when her weight is at a satisfactory level instead of now.”

“It’s not that big of a deal. If Normans is willing to continue in her present state, I won’t object.”

When Normans performed surgery wasn’t part of Chen Zhao’s responsibilities. He didn’t have to care even if she never did it. He was only responsible for her weight, not her looks.

Afterward, Chen Zhao went to train Normans.

“Normans, your arms are still thick. We’ll add more training for your arm.”

“How?”

“Boxing while jogging. Keep moving your legs while punching. Like this, keep doing it.”

The day’s training started again. Normans followed Chen Zhao’s plans seriously. The boxing jogging lasted for half an hour. Then it was butterfly swimming.

“Chen, I plan on getting skin surgery. Do you have suggestions.”

“No, but you’ll get scars. If you want to get rid of the scars and recover as soon as possible, you can ask me. I can provide those services too.”

“A*shole.” Normans gritted her teeth. “I definitely won’t let you do it. After the weight loss ends, I’ll never give you another job.”

“As you wish.” Chen Zhao shrugged. “Don’t eat spicy food after surgery and don’t touch water for three days. We’ll take a break one day before the surgery.”

“Why?”

“This relaxes the muscles. If you exercise as intensely as today, your muscles will grow taut. After the surgery, your muscles might be in the wrong place. That’ll be annoying. It’s best if you get a massage to relax your muscles too.”