Appraising Jade

Liu Chuanqing straightened his back and became arrogant. As expected of the disciple he had personally nurtured. Look at Li Mo's sharpness and aura. He had a unique personality even when sitting on the steps and drinking water.

"Little Mo, what's the first test?"

Liu Chuanqing was more curious. The other parents also pricked up their ears to listen. After all, he was the first to enter the next assessment.

Li Mo kept them in suspense and chuckled. "It's a test of one's mental state."

The old men looked at each other in confusion. What kind of question was this? Liu Chuanqing clapped his hands and said in admiration, "The questions that the professors of the three universities put together are really profound."

The others came to a realization and nodded in agreement.

About 10 minutes later, Lin Dong walked over with a jewelry box. When he saw Li Mo sitting leisurely outside under the sun, he said with a dark expression, "It was just a fluke. Next is the time to test your real talent. You were recommended by Professor Zhu for the interview. Just don't embarrass him then."

"Assistant Lin, just do your job. You don't have to worry about anything else."

Li Mo couldn't be bothered to waste his breath on him.

"Hmph, you're too uncivilized."

Li Mo was so angry that he almost choked on his water. Why did he have no manners?

"Why are you still sitting there in a daze? Professor Zhu informed you to go in." Lin Dong's attitude was unfriendly, and his hostility became more and more obvious.

"Little Mo, let's endure it." Liu Chuanqing had a friendly attitude at first, but now, he was angered by Lin Dong's inexplicable hostility. Thinking of his relationship with Professor Zhu, he endured it and did not flare up.

After enduring for a while, Li Mo muttered a few times in his heart and returned to normal.

The atmosphere in the classroom was much more relaxed. Li Mo sat back in his chair. The boy with acne and thick glasses beside him whispered, "Brother, the topic of the assessment later is appraising jade. This is your paper and pen."

"Thank you."

"I should thank you. Otherwise, I would have lost face just now."

Li Mo smiled gently. He had raised his hand the most just now and almost jumped up impulsively to be the first to speak.

"Let's work together."

Lin Dong and another assistant had already prepared three long tables. After spreading the tablecloth, they took out pieces of jade artifacts from the boxes by their feet. There were a total of 10 pieces. They were of different types and colors.

"Students, this second round is a jade appraising session. What everyone has to do is to determine the type of jade according to what you've learned. The style of jade artifacts. Of course, there are also fake jades inside, so you have to differentiate between real and fake jades at the same time. Fake jades don't need to be appraised. I have to remind everyone that other than high-quality fake jades, the rest are used by Beijing University as academic research institutes. They're expensive, so you have to be careful."

This was a test of their true basic skills. Of course, not everyone was good at judging jade. Li Mo was best at porcelain, antiques, and miscellaneous things. He could only be said to know jade, calligraphy, and painting, but he was not proficient in them.

Fortunately, this assessment was only general knowledge. It was much easier for him.

The nine of them began to act separately and appraise the jade artifacts.

The first jade artifact Li Mo picked up was a hairpin. As soon as he touched it, his face fell. It was a jade imitation, but its design was exquisite and there were obvious signs of it being made to look old.

He put down the hairpin and picked up the second jade artifact. It was a toad. He only flipped through it a few times before putting it down in disappointment. It was another imitation jade. His luck was not good. Both of them were fake.

He turned to look at the others. They were all focused on appraising the jade artifacts in their hands and writing something on the answer sheet from time to time.

About three minutes later, someone finished the appraisal and exchanged positions with Li Mo.

"This jade is of good quality." Li Mo felt that it was not bad at first glance. However, once he started, he immediately wanted to scold them in his heart. Did those people who set the questions want to trap them? The third one was actually a fake jade. The boy who did the appraisal just now had written a lot of content. He must have treated it as the real thing.

After Li Mo picked up the fourth, fifth, and sixth jade artifact, he turned to look at the professors who were communicating softly and made a preliminary judgment.

About half an hour later, Li Mo had already gone through 10 ten jade artifacts. He felt like he was about to break down. These professors actually had times when they were still childish and toyed them for so long.

On second thought, Li Mo realized that he was not an expert in jade appraisal after all, or there were times when he made a mistake. To be on the safe side, he pretended to scratch his forehead with his right hand. His alternate pupils' gaze swept past the 10 jade artifacts, but there was no reaction.

It was confirmed that they were all fake jade. This was definitely a huge trap dug by the professors. It was unknown if Lin Dong knew the truth, but he said those words seriously at the beginning, making everyone nervous, afraid that they would accidentally drop the jade.

Everyone heaved a sigh of relief after submitting the answer. Li Mo was also working very hard. He accompanied everyone for half an hour.

Lin Dong put away the answer sheet. When he saw Li Mo's answer, he glanced at him in disdain.

The three professors flipped through everyone's appraisal results one after another. There was nothing abnormal on their faces.

"Professor Zhu, you should make the announcement."

Only then did Zhu Changping look meaningfully in Li Mo's direction and say, "Those whose names are called have to participate in a last-minute additional test question."

There was an additional test question?

"Li Mo, Zheng Guanluo, Hu Zhiqiang, Zheng Qi, and Li Xiaolin."

The remaining four looked at each other, not understanding what he meant. The situation seemed to be a little bad.

Lin Dong carefully placed the box in his hand on the table and opened it so that everyone could see what was inside.

"Everyone has at most two minutes. Li Mo, start first." Lin Dong looked at Li Mo with more wariness. He vaguely guessed that he might have made a wrong judgment of the 10 jade artifacts because the five people in this additional test were the top five who had identified the most numbers of fake jade.

Li Mo walked closer. There was a jade cicada lying in the box. Just as he was about to reach out and take it out, he suddenly smelled a faint fragrance. The fragrance was very special, making him retract his right hand after some hesitation. Then, he picked up the box and observed it carefully.

The more he looked at the cicada's body, wings and eyes, the more shocked he became. He could not help but use his alternate pupils to look. He saw a pale white halo emitting from a jade cicada's body. This meant that the carving was completed very recently, about 10 years ago. However, there were 40 to 50 halos. This meant that it had considerable artistic achievements and value.

This was the level of a grandmaster's carving skills. It came from a famous master.

Li Mo gently put down the box and took a few steps back with admiration on his face.

Since it was an additional test question, this jade cicada must be something. The other four looked at it one by one and felt the exquisiteness of the jade in their hands. They distinguished the transparency of the jade against the sunlight that shone in, then carefully observed its carving skills.

10 minutes later, the five of them made their own judgments.

"You don't have to answer the additional questions first. Just say whatever you think of. Other people have already said that you can speak if you have anything else to add," Professor Yu from Tsinghua University said amiably. "Before answering, I discovered a strange detail. I'm more curious, so I want to ask Student Li Mo a question first."

"Hello, Professor Yu. What do you want to ask?"

"I realized that when you wanted to take out the jade cicada, you paused for a moment. Then, you picked up the box with both hands and observed the jade cicada inside. We all know that the most direct way to appraise jade is to carefully sense its differences, but you gave up this method at the last moment. Is it absolute confidence in your judgment or a different kind of giving up?"

"After hearing Professor Yu's words, I think it's true. This pause is indeed strange. I want to hear what he has to say." Professor He gave off the impression that he was serious. At this moment, his curiosity was piqued.

"Haha, in this way, Student Li Mo is under a lot of pressure." Professor Zhu laughed. "Li Mo, tell me about it."

Li Mo looked hesitant. Seeing that everyone was staring at him, it seemed like he had to say it.

"Actually, I smelled a faint fragrance when I approached that jade cicada. This fragrance is the purest, most natural, and most intoxicating fragrance in the world. It should be the body fragrance of a young girl. Previously, when I saw Assistant Lin go out to get this box, I guessed that this jade cicada should have just been taken from a woman, so there is still a body fragrance on it."

"I thought that since it's a woman's personal item, it's a little offensive to handle it directly. It's really inappropriate, so I gave up."

The classroom was dead silent.