Reborn As Super Heiress

Chapter 503: Chapter 499: Great Potential

A greyish-white fabric slowly rose from the crevice until it stopped above the chessboard surface, and the whole Chessboard Stone finally came to a complete rest.

Su Qingqing looked on with surprise and uncertainty, while Yan Feng quickly reacted, confirming there was no danger before he was the first to step forward and take the fabric into his hands.

”Wow, what is this thing that’s hidden so well?!”

Only then did Su Qingqing snap to her senses, becoming excited in an instant like she was injected with adrenaline, ”Ningning, you’re amazing, this Chessboard Stone really has an issue, this thing must be a treasure, it could even be a treasure map!”

As soon as Yan Feng picked up the fabric, he was somewhat surprised. The fabric was somewhat heavy, and he carefully unfolded the layers of wrapping to reveal a long, dark and slippery-looking stone.

”Why is it still a stone?” Su Qingqing had expected some rare treasure to appear; the greater her expectation, the greater her disappointment when she saw what it was.

Huo Sining shook his head, took the stone into his hands for a closer look, and carefully wiped it with a towel. After the dust was wiped away, the pitch-black surface of the stone was revealed, its shiny black color looking very familiar.

”It’s the same color as the lines drawn on the chessboard,” said Yan Feng affirmatively from the side.

”Are you saying... this is paint?” Huo Sining’s heart stirred, and he gently scraped the black surface of the stone with a knife. In no time, a layer of faint black powder was ground onto the blade.

Seeing that layer of powder, Huo Sining’s eyes suddenly lit up.

The entire stone was coated in a thick layer of paint. To hide the stone so elaborately in the chessboard, and then to paint it, it was clear that the owner of this object definitely wanted to conceal something extraordinary.

Huo Sining could think of these things, and Su Qingqing naturally could too. She glanced at Huo Sining, then at the stone, and took out her phone to make a call:

”Go to Antique Street and buy two bottles of the best paint remover, have them delivered to Ningning’s villa. We need it urgently.”

It was obvious that she was calling Wu Jun.

Huo Sining gave Su Qingqing a smile that wasn’t quite a smile, and Su Qingqing, feeling her face heat up, shifted the topic somewhat guiltily, ”Does this stone have any special provenance?”

Huo Sining nodded and explained, ”This paint should be several decades old. It’s very likely it was applied during the Cultural Revolution. If I’m not mistaken, there is something significant about this stone!”

Seasoned antique experts all know the story about painted porcelain. During the Cultural Revolution, many people were persecuted, especially as many households had antique collections, which were virtually all looted by the Red Guards.

To protect their possessions from disaster, quite a few people came up with the clever idea of painting their antiques. That way, the Red Guards couldn’t recognize them, and this method indeed saved many family heirlooms from being confiscated.

For this reason, many painted porcelains remained in the country after the Cultural Revolution. Many lucky finds involved noticing paint on porcelain pieces; this became a feature used by many to initially assess the authenticity of porcelain, as basically anything painted over was an old item.

Su Qingqing, of course, had heard this story, so when she heard Huo Sining say this, her eyes widened with curiosity, eagerly examining the pitch-black stone in Huo Sining’s hands.

”Just a piece of stone, she wouldn’t want it even if it were given to her for free, who could have imagined that it was actually hiding an antique? Weighing that stone in her hand, she asked with puzzlement, ”This isn’t light, could it be jade?”

Huo Sining shook her head, in fact, as soon as she got her hands on the jade, she had already seen the situation inside the stone through her Heavenly Eye.

But Su Qingqing didn’t know that, so Huo Sining could only keep her in suspense for now, waiting until the paint was cleaned off, when the true nature of the item would naturally reveal itself.

Wu Jun quickly bought some cleaning solution and brought it over, an essential item for antique shops, easy to obtain.

Such cleaning solution is specifically used to clean off the paint on antique items; it only reacts with the paint without damaging the antiques inside.

If it was just ordinary items stained with paint, gasoline or kerosene could clean it off, but what Huo Sining held in her hands was an antique, any damage would be devastating, she couldn’t be careless.

At this moment, Su Qingqing’s heart was itching like a cat’s paw, only wanting to know what was so peculiar about this stone, but Huo Sining was unhurried, leaving Su Qingqing with nothing to do but stare intently, how could she not be anxious?

Taking a basin of water and a clean brush, Huo Sining placed the stone in the basin and dabbed the cleaning solution onto the brush, applying it bit by bit to the surface of the stone.

As soon as the solvent touched the dull black paint, it quickly reacted, turning into a thick, ink-like liquid that flowed off.

The stone’s surface was thickly coated with paint, it took several layers of solution before more and more paint came off, and it was unclear how many times it had been brushed before a bit of yellow slowly began to show through.

”Yellow?” Su Qingqing leaned in close, her eyes wide open, fixated on the stone which continued to dissolve the black sludge, suddenly catching a glimpse of a bit of yellow emerging, both excited and puzzled.

Yan Feng frowned. Yellow stones, other than Hetian Jade and Jadeite, the more famous ones included Guang Province’s yellow wax stone, Yun Province’s yellow dragon jade and Shoushan’s Yellow Field Stone, but the differences in their prices could be by a hundred or thousand times.

The values of yellow wax stone and yellow dragon jade have been hyped only in recent years, and their actual collectible value is not high, but if it’s one of the other three, then this stone is truly extraordinary.

Yan Feng did not rush to speak, but he was more inclined to believe the latter, as a stone hidden this deep could not possibly be ordinary.

As solvent kept pouring, layers of paint peeled off the stone; the entire basin was full of black water, completely obscuring the object within, but Huo Sining did not lift the stone out, instead repeatedly brushing it.

”There are carvings on it!” Su Qingqing had sharp eyes and couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise, pointing at the stone, on that yellow stone were some unclear markings, ”Looks like an animal’s head!”

Yan Feng had been about to get a basin of clean water when he heard Su Qingqing say this, he quickly turned back, looking at the stone that appeared and disappeared in the black water, his expression indecipherable.

He had a vague guess in his mind, but it was not yet certain.

After a good twenty minutes, the thick layer of paint on the stone had been dissolved by seventy to eighty percent. Huo Sining placed the stone in clean water, and the previously clear basin instantly turned a dark black, while the stone, although still covered in spots of paint, had revealed its true face.