Antique Appraisal in the ’80s: The Wild Young Officer Spoils Me Rotten

She was a country woman cast aside after her ex-husband smashed her family’s heirloom jade bangle and nearly sold her to a fool.

With nowhere left to turn, she fled to Beijing. Penniless and faint with hunger, she relied on her inherited eye for antiques to spot an authentic Xuande incense burner from the Ming dynasty at a roadside stall.

Su Nanzhi doesn’t cry or beg. With her hands and her eyes, she carves out a way to survive in the treacherous world of antiques.

He is the real power behind the Huo family, a ruthless, cold-blooded veteran who trusts no one. Yet he finds himself drawn to her “honest eyes.”

When three mountain ginseng roots are laid before her, she closes her eyes for three seconds, then points out which are real and which are fake.

From then on, she identifies genuine pieces and exposes fakes, delivering face-slapping humiliation in public, while he backs her up, protects the scene, and takes care of whatever comes afterward.

At Panjiayuan, Liulichang, and underground black-market arenas, she repeatedly stuns the city’s antique experts with her true skill, while painstakingly piecing together the shattered jade bangle.

The coded writing that appears on its inner surface leads to an old case involving the extermination of a late-Qing family of antique experts, as well as a blood oath the Huo family has kept for forty years.

She wants to reclaim what belongs to the Su family and clear the family’s reputation for its discerning eye.

He wants to protect her, and uncover the truth behind the gold ring engraved with the character “Oath.”

This is a Republican-era antique appraisal story about a cast-off wife who rises to fame through her discerning eye, and a cold-faced young military officer who protects his wife every step of the way.