Super-rich: Spending money is just a job!

Charlie's treasure room was a large room with high ceilings, as big as three or four ordinary rooms, with few windows.

The room is filled with various oil paintings and sculptures by their ancestors, which are displayed on the walls, fireplace, and tables.

Charlie said that some of these items were painted by famous artists, while others were painted by his family members.

Xiaomeng found it quite interesting. From the portrait, it could be seen that the family members all looked quite alike, with a slightly sunken chin in the middle, regardless of gender.

The people in their family are all good-looking, which is probably why they have been able to keep their family tradition going.

Xiaomeng pondered the family history Charlie mentioned. Over the past two hundred years, their family had also had spendthrift sons, but thanks to their good looks, they could always find wealthy marriage partners to take over, and so the family has continued to this day.

Even in modern times, their family fortune still includes such a large house and estate.

"Your family is quite capable of maintaining such a large estate; these antique houses must require considerable maintenance and management costs every year."

"Yes, we've tried many ways to maintain it, and we even sold a lot of family collections in the past to pay inheritance tax."

Xiaomeng thought to herself, "Isn't that just a spendthrift?"

Charlie showed Xiaomeng a screen and asked, "What do you think of this screen?"

"It's quite nice, a carved gray lacquer screen with a ring of mother-of-pearl inlaid around the edge. Your screen is very well preserved." Xiaomeng recognized it at a glance. She had bought similar lacquerware in China, and now a twelve-panel screen custom-made would cost several hundred thousand yuan. After all, there aren't many skilled craftsmen willing to work with something as allergenic as lacquer.

“Ah, you really are Chinese, I recognized you immediately. So tell me, are you from your country or Japan?” Charlie asked her.

"From the land of cherry blossoms?" Xiao Meng was a little confused. Had she misjudged it? She quickly used her points to redeem an appraisal, and the description of the lacquer screen appeared in her mind.

[A Ming Dynasty gray lacquer screen with floral, bird, and rock carvings. The entire screen is lacquered in black, with a border of endless longevity patterns on the outermost edge. The main body of the screen features a design of mountains, rocks, flowers, and birds. It was a birthday gift from a Ming Dynasty official to a member of the imperial family and later entered the Qing Dynasty imperial palace as a daily item.]

The techniques used are carving and inlaying with mother-of-pearl, and as an excellent work by folk artists, it has considerable cultural and artistic value.

Market price: Between 1 million and 1.2 million yuan.

"Once used as daily necessities in the imperial harem?" Xiaomeng glanced at Charlie's family with a complicated look. Could their ancestors have been bandits?

"How was it?" Charlie asked curiously.

"Nothing much. I'm pretty sure it's an antique from China. Look at our style, it's well-balanced. There's plenty of blank space between the flowers, birds, rocks, and mountains, it's intricate yet not chaotic. It's not the same as the ukiyo-e style from Japan." Xiaomeng has seen a lot of things now, so she can tell you a thing or two.

"Then I'm relieved. A businessman from Japan came to see it before and said it was a modern replica from their country. I was a little skeptical."

"Even if you can't see the style of the painting, don't you recognize Chinese characters? Can't you recognize the row of small Chinese characters under the screen?" Xiaomeng reminded him to look at the bottom of the screen.

Charlie scratched his chin awkwardly. "I don't recognize them. The writing systems in the countries around you all look similar, like pictures."

Xiaomeng raised an eyebrow and gave him a disdainful look. After thinking for a moment, she realized she couldn't expect too much from foreigners. "Alright, after all, you didn't have time to study culture when you were practicing horseback riding, so I forgive you. By the way, why did you bring in merchants from Japan? Are you planning to sell the screen?"

"Yes, my family is planning to renovate the estate on a large scale and open it to the public for weekend visits or as a wedding homestay."

Because of a lack of budget, I plan to sell some of my collectibles to raise some funds.

"So you were almost scammed by that Japanese businessman?"

"His offer was too low, so we didn't agree."

"Selling it to me is worse than selling it to him. I'm planning to set up a museum and I'm currently collecting some of our country's antiques. How much are you planning to sell it for? If it's not too expensive, I'll take it."

Charlie was taken aback. "If this is a genuine antique, it's very expensive. You're that wealthy?"

"I can't really say I have the ability. I'm just asking about the price to see if it's suitable. If it is, I'll take it; if not, I'll pass." Xiaomeng was very frank; that was truly what she thought.

Charlie's family discussed it. The merchant from the cherry blossom country was only willing to pay 10,000 pounds last time. They originally wanted to sell it for 20,000 pounds, but the merchant refused. The two sides couldn't agree on a price, so the screen is still in their hands.

Now Xiaomeng tells them that this thing is not a modern craft as the merchant said, but a genuine antique, so the price is different.

In this situation, the best option is to go to auction, but going to auction is actually very troublesome, incurs high transaction fees, and can also have a negative impact on their family.

So selling it to Xiaomeng wouldn't be bad, if she's willing to pay a high price.

Charlie opened his phone and searched online, finding auction information for similar screens. He discovered that someone had auctioned a similar screen a few years ago for about $20.

“Look, that screen has 12 panels, while yours only has six. The price should be halved.” Xiaomeng leaned over and studied it with them. “Moreover, the craftsmanship of that screen is more exquisite and shines brightly. Yours should be discounted even more.”

"Wow, you're really good at bargaining! How about $10?"

Xiao Meng thought about it; $10 was roughly equivalent to 70 RMB. That price was still acceptable.

She was about to agree, but then she realized she shouldn't let them think she was getting a great deal. A sudden idea struck her...

"By the way, Charlie, you must need a lot of building materials to repair the manor, right? How about I purchase building materials of equal value from China and we can barter?"

Where I live, a 50-kilogram bag of ordinary cement only weighs 1.5 pounds. Other building materials are also much cheaper here. I have connections to help you purchase them, which will save you a lot of money.

"No way, it's so cheap!" Charlie and his family were absolutely thrilled. The price was so low it seemed unbelievable.