Antique Appraisal: I See the Forgery in Action Whenever I Touch a Fake

The day I entered the trade, my father told me, “When it comes to antiques, it’s better to let one slip by than to misjudge it.” Later, he fell victim to a counterfeit scam. His reputation was ruined, and he never came back. Chen Mo is an apprentice at Jubaozhai. The first thing he touches is a jade pendant priced at eighty yuan and labeled a fake. The instant his fingers make contact, long-buried scenes burst into view. There’s something strange about his hands. Touch a genuine artifact, and he can see the memories it holds. Touch a forgery, and he can witness the entire process of its creation in a counterfeit workshop. But his ability has limits: he can use it only three times a day. Overuse gives him a nosebleed and dizziness; push it further, and he temporarily goes blind. While others rely on decades of experience to tell real from fake, he uses his hands to rip away the layers of deception surrounding the antiques trade. Fake blue-and-white porcelain with a glossy glaze, carefully aged ancient jade, and traps hidden beneath the packaging: nothing escapes his notice. His cool-headed boss, Su Wanqing; the tomboy from Panjiayuan; a female PhD from the museum; and the appraisal girl on the livestream: everyone thinks he’s just a lucky apprentice who stumbled into a bargain. No one knows that every time he steps in to appraise an artifact, what he’s really searching for is the group of people who set up the scheme that drove his father to his death twenty years ago.