chapter 8 Real and fake longevity peaches

Katrina's words immediately attracted everyone's attention to Ashburn.
In the past, every time the Willow family had a gathering, as long as Ashburn was present, he would be made fun of. Anyway, it was just idle time for the Willows as an entertainment show.
So there were boos everywhere, some people were ridiculing, and some people were waiting to see the show.
A young man next to Katrina stood up. He was Katrina’s new boyfriend Marico York. He was in a neat suit and was said to be born into a rich family.
"Isn't he holding something in his hand?" Marico rushed directly to Ashburn and snatched the folding fan from Ashburn’s hand. "Isn't it a gift for Mr. Willow? Let me see what kind of treasure it is."
Katrina sang along, "Marico, you may not know, but my brother-in-law is different from you. He married into our family to pay off his father's debt. His family is very shabby, how can he take out anything decent?"
Marico took out the folding fan from the fan cover, took a look, and laughed, "Who said it is valueless? Isn't this a fan painted by Recluse Baishi? Coincidentally, today I also brought a gift, a painting by Recluse Baishi, which also painted longevity peaches. Haha, Ashburn, you even copied my idea of giving gifts. What a pity, what a pity. Even if you copied my idea, you can only copy the superficial form, and you can’t copy the real value. Do you know how much of Recluse Baishi’s paintings are worth?”
"Do you suspect this is fake?"
"Can it be true?" Marico looked at Ashburn teasingly.
Relatives of the Willow family who knew Ashburn well also began to mock him. With Ashburn's financial strength, he could not afford paintings by ordinary modern painters, let alone Recluse Baishi's paintings.
Marico threw the folding fan to Ashburn in disgust, "Let you see what authenticity is. Kathy, take out the "Picture of Longevity Peach" that I just gave to Mr. Willow, and let this bumpkin have a look."
When he presented "Picture of Longevity Peach" just now, there were relatively few guests. Marico didn't show off enough, so now he wanted to show off again while the people were almost here.
Katrina immediately took out "Picture of Longevity Peach" and unfolded it on the long table in the living room.
Marico said proudly, "Everyone knows the value of Recluse Baishi's paintings, right? The auction prices start at least ten million, and even the most expensive ones are worth more than one hundred million. Although my painting cannot reach such a high value, it is still worth it. I bought it from my friend for twenty million."
Twenty million!
Everyone immediately became excited and cast admiring glances at Hyman.
Hyman nodded appreciatively to Marico. This future son-in-law was much better than Ashburn, and he was so generous even though he hadn't even married Katrina yet.
While everyone was praising Marico, Ashburn suddenly said, "Fake."
"What?!"
Like one stone stirred up a thousand waves, the scene was boiling again.
Gina pulled Ashburn angrily, "Don't talk nonsense. With Marico’s wealth, how could he send a fake painting to my father?" She knew that what Marico just said made Ashburn unable to step down, but he couldn't say it was fake. Didn’t he think it was embarrassing enough?
Marico's expression changed slightly but soon returned to normal.

Indeed, his painting was fake. He and Katrina were not even engaged with each other, so he was not stupid enough to give Hyman a famous painting worth twenty million.
And he couldn't afford that much money as well.
He found someone to copy this painting. Hyman and others were arty people. The only thing they cared about was how much the artwork was worth. They didn't even have basic art appreciation, so they were easy to fool.
As for Ashburn, he didn't even care. What didn’t this trash know about art?
So he thought Ashburn was just jealous.
"You said this painting is fake?" Marico sneered and walked towards Ashburn, "You'd better apologize to me, otherwise I will never let you off."
"Yes, Ashburn, what you said was that Marico used fake paintings to fool my father. This is harmful to Marico’s reputation. You must apologize to him!" Katrina said confidently.
Gina glared at Katrina, "Okay, Kathy, there are so many guests here, why not stop this trouble."
"Who began this?" Katrina was very unconvinced, "It was obviously your good-for-nothing husband who made the fuss first. Sister, you can't spoil him too much. It doesn't matter if he is jealous of Marico, but he can't talk nonsense. This embarrassed Marico and I, how can we stay in this family in the future?"
She stared at Ashburn seriously again, "Didn't you say that the painting is fake? Come up with your evidence, or you will have to serve Marico tea to admit your mistake!"
Ashburn said calmly, "Qi is fake."
"What...what is fake?" Katrina was confused.
All the old items had a certain ancient Qi, which was left over from the years. No matter how realistic the imitation was, the precipitation of time couldn’t be imitated.
Just now Ashburn inspected Qi. Marico's painting only had fresh Qi and should be a work within a year.
Baishi Qi passed away in the 1950s, so how could there be work within a year?
But no one would believe him if he told them how to inspect Qi. Fortunately, when Frederic gave him a folding fan as a gift, this old gentleman told him some basic knowledge, so he walked over to Marico’s "Peach Painting of Longevity" to look at it.
Marico pushed Ashburn, "Please tell me now, why is this painting fake?"
"The color is wrong."
"What's wrong?" Marico knew what Ashburn's major was, but it had nothing to do with art. He didn't believe that Ashburn could tell what kind of shit he was about to say, he would just wait for him to make a fool of himself and humiliate him in the front.
"Recluse Baishi had painted many longevity peaches, using a pigment called magenta, which was a biological pigment extracted from the bodies of Brazilian fireflies. It can be said to be more expensive than gold. Due to its special characteristics, there is no other pigment in the world that can substitute.”
These few words were said professionally. Some people among the crowd had already begun to ponder. Marico had a guilty conscience and would never allow everyone to turn to Ashburn's side. He deliberately laughed loudly, "Who can't memorize a few terms? How can you prove that it's not the so-called magenta?”
Ashburn opened the folding fan in his hand and said, "The longevity peach on my folding fan was painted with magenta. You can compare them."
"Shit, you dare to say yours is real and mine is fake? Let me tell you, a poor guy like you can’t afford Recluse Baishi's paintings! It is with people like you in the market that causes bad money to drive out good money!”
As soon as these words came out, everyone immediately came to realize the truth, right, with Ashburn's financial strength, how could it be possible to buy Recluse Baishi's paintings?
Without any explanation, they all accused Ashburn of being shameless.
"It seems that you refuse to be convinced until facing with grim reality!" Ashburn sneered and pointed at the "Picture of Longevity Peach" on the table, "The signature can prove that this painting is fake!"
"Hahaha, you're such a clown, go back and read more books!" Marico laughed exaggeratedly, "Baishi Qi had many nicknames in his life, and Senior Jiping Tang was one of them. You didn’t even know this at all, but you dare to question me here, it’s so funny!”