Emerging from a narrow corridor at the under-renovation Beijing Railway Station, I hailed a three-wheeled electric scooter. The driver nimbly stowed my suitcase in the back, closed the door, and weaved through the congested traffic like a loach.
I checked into a chain hotel, costing a hundred and seventy to eighty yuan a day. The service in this big city was excellent. After a brief inquiry, I headed to the police station of the district where Old Tie was being held. Having been detained for several days, Old Tie looked somewhat haggard. Seeing me, he appeared a little embarrassed. "Why didn't my father come? It's just a matter of money, no need to trouble you."
It had been over half a year since we last met, and Old Tie's words made me feel a bit distant. However, I didn't exchange pleasantries. I got straight to the point: "Old Tie, what did you get into?"
"I was scammed in a deal. Some things are hard to explain, but it really wasn't me."
Frowning, I found his statement unclear. I pondered for a moment. "Start from the beginning. Don't leave out any details."
Over the past half-year, Old Tie had leveraged his learned knowledge of jade to mingle in the antique circle, making small profits by buying low and selling high. His strong professional learning ability had indeed earned him some money.
One day, Old Tie spotted a treasure in the ghost market. This treasure was a stone, dull gray, placed on a red cloth spread on the ground alongside other trinkets. Old Tie took a liking to this gem, took out his flashlight, and crouched down.
The rule in the ghost market is to examine the item, not the person. As Old Tie shone his strong light, a bright reflection appeared on the surface of the stone. In gemology, this phenomenon is called the "cat's eye effect."
Many types of gemstones can exhibit the cat's eye effect. Common quartz can have it, and even rare aquamarine can display this characteristic.
"How much?"
"Twenty thousand."
Old Tie returned the gem to its place. The stall owner reached out to take it, but Old Tie skillfully dodged. Old Tie had been frequenting the ghost market for some time and knew its rules: no direct handover. If you hand the treasure to someone and they accidentally drop it, who's liable? The best approach is to place it back where you found it.
Seeing Old Tie's technique, the stall owner chuckled, "You're an expert. My treasure has found its destined owner. What do you think is a fair price?"
Old Tie looked at the stone again. It was about the size of a man's shirt button, at least five carats. When Old Tie had shone his light, the yellow was very rich, and the light band was extremely narrow. It was a top-quality specimen. This kind of cat's eye is called a Chrysoberyl cat's eye, typically found only in Sri Lanka. Moreover, a cat's eye stone exceeding five carats already holds collectible value, with prices fluctuating with the market.
With this in mind, Old Tie picked up the cat's eye again and examined it closely. Having been deceived before, Old Tie was extremely cautious. After confirming its quality, he didn't return the gem, holding it as he countered the price.
In the ghost market, if the seller asks for twenty thousand and you disagree, you can simply put it back and walk away without them saying another word. If you truly like it, you hold it and negotiate. You state your desired price, which doesn't matter. If they say twenty thousand and it's a cat's eye, you might acknowledge it's a cat's eye but say the quality isn't good, perhaps worth only two thousand. This is all acceptable. If the seller agrees, you take it. If they don't, you return it to its original spot according to the rules.
"The quality is average, eight thousand."
"Please take it!"
For eight thousand, Old Tie purchased the cat's eye gem.
...
Hearing this, I interrupted, "What did that stall owner look like?"
"In the ghost market, you inspect the goods, not the person. However, during the transaction, I did glance at him. He wore a small Qing Dynasty vest, a skullcap, and a fake queue. He had small, round black glasses, smooth, fair skin, and a thin, upswept mustache. He wasn't very old."
"He looked like he was in a play?"
"Items in the ghost market have questionable origins. It's normal for sellers to disguise themselves."
"What about authenticity?"
"There are both genuine and fake items. It all depends on your discerning eye. If you buy a fake, you can only blame yourself."
"So, was what you bought real or fake?"
"Real."
...
Beijing has its modern CBD commercial areas like Xidan, Wangfujing, and Zhongguancun. However, collectors prefer the antique markets surrounding these modern districts. Panjiayuan Furniture City, Old Beijing Antique City, the Flea Market, and Huasheng Old Tiantan Market are places where all sorts of strange items are sold, imbued with a rich historical and cultural atmosphere. Those familiar with the area collectively refer to it as Panjiayuan. Old Tie rented a small storefront in the Flea Market, with quite high rent.
Old Tie named his shop "Cheng Nuo Ge," aiming for honest business. The shop was small, barely enough space for three or four people to turn around. However, this small space was filled with various items: walnuts, snuff bottles, jewelry, jade, and even old radios and calendars.
As dawn broke, the ghost market dispersed.
Old Tie returned to Cheng Nuo Ge, polished the gem with a glasses cloth, and examined it under strong light multiple times. He consulted references and compared images. Only after confirming it was genuine did he ask a familiar acquaintance in the flea market to authenticate it, which confirmed it was indeed real.
After months of exploring the ghost market, he had finally found a bargain. Old Tie was overjoyed.
...
News of Old Tie acquiring the treasure spread quickly. A few days later, a customer visited. He wore a string of sandalwood beads around his neck and a jade ring on his finger. He was bald and clearly a wealthy tycooon.
This tycoon, who called himself Boss Bi, claimed he was interested in a young lady who liked cat's eye gems. He had visited several shops without success and heard that Old Tie had one.
Although Old Tie had some small jade pieces, seeing someone wearing jade jewelry made him uneasy, always recalling the moment he felt cheated and almost jumped off a building. He glanced at the bright green jade ring on Boss Bi's finger and impatiently said, "One hundred thousand. Not a penny less."
Boss Bi grinned. "Are you looking down on me? If this thing wasn't hard to get, I'd slap you right now. Money is nothing."
Boss Bi paid on the spot, and the gem was sold. However, Boss Bi returned shortly after leaving. Old Tie's heart sank. "No returns once sold."
"Are you even in business? Why are you acting like you're begging for a beating? I just remembered, I like that girl and want a pair of cat's eye earrings. How can I make a single one work? Sell me another one, swipe your card, one hundred thousand."
Old Tie's face contorted into a grimace. "Boss, my gems aren't manufactured. Where would I get another one for you?"
"You want to make money, right? Tell me, how much? One hundred and fifty thousand? Hmm, not budging? Two hundred thousand."
"Please don't go higher. Even for two million, I don't have it. How about this, I'll help you ask for two hundred thousand and see if I can find a matching one."
"Alright, I'll leave you my phone number. Hurry, that girl's birthday is coming up. Try to win her over by her birthday."
Although I wasn't entirely sure of Boss Bi's methods, it was from this point that I realized Old Tie had fallen into a trap.
"You were scammed, weren't you?"
"Yes, at that time, I had no idea. I was still diligently helping that fellow surnamed Bi find gems."
Old Tie had been in the flea market for several months and still had acquaintances. After making extensive inquiries, he actually found someone selling a cat's eye stone of about five carats, also a Chrysoberyl cat's eye. So, Old Tie arranged to meet the person at his shop. The seller was a woman in her twenties, with delicate features and fashionable attire. She carried an Lv bag on her arm. Old Tie had a sharp eye and immediately recognized the Lv bag as a fake, sold in Xidan.
Old Tie didn't mind, as long as the gem was genuine. The woman was selling a necklace with a pendant that was a cat's eye gem. It was a genuine Chrysoberyl cat's eye, with a very rich yellow and a narrow light band.
After some haggling, Old Tie paid the woman fifteen thousand and bought the Chrysoberyl cat's eye.
"Was the gem fake?" I asked.
Old Tie gave a wry smile. "It was also real."
After obtaining the cat's eye, Old Tie immediately contacted Boss Bi, but Boss Bi's phone was out of service due to unpaid bills. For such a wealthy person, a phone with unpaid bills and turned off seemed suspicious. Old Tie tried calling again after a few days, but the number had been disconnected.
It was then that Old Tie realized he had been scammed. He quickly took out the cat's eye gem and examined it repeatedly, confirming it was real. He then asked an experienced colleague to take a look. The colleague, after examining it, asked in surprise, "Didn't you ask me to look at this cat's eye a few days ago?"
Old Tie's heart leaped. With a heavy heart, he returned to his shop and carefully removed the silver casing. He noticed the craftsmanship was very rough. After removing the silver and revealing the gem, Old Tie also realized that this gem was the very same one he had sold to Boss Bi for one hundred thousand yuan. He had just bought it back for fifteen thousand.