Mr. Brown glared at the young man. His face flushed, and he spluttered as he berated him. "What kind of nonsense are you talking about?"
Just as Mr. Brown reached out to the man's ears. With a good precision, the man instantly sidestepped, avoiding the old man's hand. He snorted before shifting his attention to Thalira again.
"Thalira?"
Thalira recovered from her daze. It took her a few seconds to sort out who this familiar man was, Austin Brown. He was an upperclassman in the same department, two years above her.
Her throat felt stuck, wishing she was only a small ragdoll cat right now. He actually recognize her even when she covered half her face. She felt so embarrassed, and her face slightly flushed, just like the old man's earlier. If she met an acquaintance like that, her lie could be exposed, right? What to do…
"What are you doing here? Go back." Mr. Brown frowned at Austin. "Aren't you cleaning the antique we just took from the warehouse? Have you finished them all?"
Austin pursed his lips. "Second Grandpa, don't cheat a customer like that. It won't look good on our shop."
Thalira watched the conversation in front of her in silence, pondering how to explain. Austin knew about her family somewhat, having a relation with the original body owner's third brother.
"She is an acquaintance. Don't embarrass me." Austin shook his head and turned to Thalira. "We might need a while to appraise it. According to the procedure, we need at least three appraisers. Your vase looks very old, and it is worth at least two hundred and fifty thousand points at the lowest."
He didn't have a judging look in his eyes, even though he knew her real family condition. His eyes also looked very honest, making her have a good feeling about him.
Mr. Brown snorted, but then sighed. "Nevermind, don't tell your grandpa about this. I will be more honest in the future."
"Old man, are you trying to cheat someone again?" A voice came from the direction of the door. A wrinkled face with hair full of gray color entered. The sunken cheeks made him appear unfavorable to others, especially his pair of cunning and restless eyes.
"Nonsense." Mr. Brown frowned. This time, dislike was apparent on his face. Unlike when he berated Austin earlier, he didn't show any politeness or restraint at all. "What are you doing here? Wanting to cheat and steal customers again?"
If Mr. Brown sometimes took some high profit from the customer, cutting the price lower than usual, the old man who had just come was worse. His reputation in the treasure market was the worst.
He often cheated customers, lying through his teeth. If the customers brought something valuable, he would convince them that the antique was actually useless, a mere imitation. He would even go as far as bribing the appraisers for it. Some appraisers working in the treasure market often received benefits from working together with him.
Even if the customer later found out the truth, they would still lose. He was a member of a prominent leading family in this city, and most aspects were controlled by the family.
Kane Slade was his name. At this moment, his eyes flitted to the vase on the table. Mr. Brown was alarmed that he grabbed and clutched the vase tightly.
"Let me take a look. This is a good antique." Mr. Slade approached Mr. Brown, who only snorted and didn't let go of the vase.
"Miss, is this yours? Are you selling it?" He was afraid if he used force to take the vase out of Edgar Brown, it would damage it, so he switched his target to the vase owner. He had heard bits of the conversation when he just entered the door earlier.
"Yes." Thalira nodded honestly, looking very innocent–like a teenager who was oblivious to the world and easily deceived. Definitely an excellent target.
"Although this is a good antique, some parts have been damaged." He had a regretful look on his face. "This old man Edgar here might deceive you. What price did he say to you?"
"Two hundred thousand points." Thalira answered without hesitation. Austin already walked beside her, part of his body shielding her. He just raised his eyebrow when he heard Thalira's words. Well, she wasn't exactly wrong. However, he wasn't going to interfere in this one. After all, his second grandpa loved vases the most.
Mr. Slade clicked his tongue and made a condemning look at Mr. Brown. "This price is too low. How about I offer you two hundred and twenty thousand points? Let's quickly settle it, shall we?"
Thalira blinked, and she glanced at the silent Austin beside her.
"Is it not enough?" Mr. Slade frowned. "I can only offer an additional ten thousand points at most."
Usually, when he stole customers from Mr. Brown, he asked the price his rival had quoted and raised it a bit higher. With Mr. Brown's arrogance and pride, he would rarely raise the price higher. Mr. Slade was actually not very good at appraising antique, but Mr. Brown was one of the best in Z country. Something that Mr. Brown had his eyes on must have been very good.
Thalira was also curious. Would Mr. Brown raise the price higher just to obtain her approval? After all, his eyes told her that he liked this vase very much. That was only natural because such a vase wasn't from this world, so there might be some uniqueness that didn't exist here.
Most likely, he wanted to study it.
"You bastard, you always want to steal those customers from me. Get out, get out!" Mr. Brown yelled as he raged. Then he turned to Thalira and took a deep breath. "I will add seventy thousand points more from the original price I have offered."
"I can also offer the same price." Mr. Slade hurriedly followed.
Both looked at each other, each not willing to give up. Sparks flew as their eyes locked on each other. They snorted, then each turned their head away. Austin's mouth twitched, but Thalira only had a curious look on her small face.
After a while, they didn't raise the price. Thalira understood their feelings; even though the vase looked valuable, it hasn't been appraised yet. It wasn't bad because she still had more things to sell. Anyway, she was in a hurry to gather money.
"Who are you going to sell it to, Miss?" Mr. Slade asked.
She fell silent for a while, looking like she was in a tight spot. It made the two old men anxious. Until she opened her mouth. "Since I came to this shop, I will sell the vase to Mr. Brown."
As her voice fell, someone tried to grab the vase that Mr. Brown had put it on the table. Fortunately, Austin was quick enough.
"You despicable asshole. Call the security!" Mr. Brown yelled. Two security guards came running in not long after, restraining Mr. Slade.
The look in his eyes was quite scary when they escorted him out. His true colors of not willing to lose, vengeful, and petty, were thus revealed.
Thalira held her small heart, sighing inwardly. Once again, humans surprised her.
Mr. Brown and Austin thought Thalira might be scared, so they ordered her to take a seat and gave some refreshment after they settled the transaction.
The Brown family was from the military and they were quite influential. So, they weren't that scared of the Slade family. Even so, this antique shop was still located in the territory of the Slade family. It made Mr. Brown sometimes had to swallow some losses.
Fortunately, the Brown family didn't lack money too much. It was just that Mr. Brown, who had lived as an unscrupulous businessman, had his hand itch occasionally when he did business, squeezing as much profit as possible.
Since they were acquaintances, Mr. Brown left the younger generations alone to talk and went to another room. Of course, that was merely an excuse–he was in a hurry to study the vase.
Thalira now felt awkward. How should she explain? She pursed her lips. Let's just blame her eldest brother! "My eldest brother wants me to learn to make money myself, so I started to try to sell antiques just to try my luck. Unexpectedly, I got lucky."
"I understand." Austin had a smile on his face. His eyes flashed with something.
"Is that your grandfather's antiques?"
Thalira secretly cursed inside. Then she nodded seriously. "Yes, private collection. It is actually from my great-great-grandfather. I found it on a property that had just been handed over to me. Now, the property is mine, and the collection is also mine."
She made a gesture of putting her index finger to her lips. "My family actually doesn't know this since it's an old warehouse. Can you not tell anyone?"
Austin's eyes were filled with mirth, but he still nodded seriously. Thalira secretly scrutinized his face for a bit, then smiled.
"Are you going to sell some more of your collection? We can give a fair price." Austin suddenly proposed. Thalira found that he was quite honest and directly agreed.
They talked about auction and other means of selling antiques for a while until it was time for her to go back.
However, things didn't go as smoothly as she thought. Two people with a thug-like appearance approached her and threatened, "Hand over your things or die!"