188: Skills can also be used like this

Just as the internet said, the employees at Shiyuan Secondhand Shop truly do not follow you around; they simply let customers browse the shop at their leisure.

Ye Su was happy to enjoy the peace and quiet, wandering around the first floor alone, planning to learn how the owner conducted business.

After walking a full round, Ye Su realized that the first floor was essentially a free exhibit area specially set up by the owner for customers to take pictures and check in.

The items displayed on the first floor were all sorts of vintage goods, such as brick phones, electric fans, and bookcases.

Among them, Ye Su even spotted the pedal sewing machine that Su Wan used to mend his clothes when he was a child.

After finishing his walk, Ye Su headed up to the second floor, where vintage goods were actually for sale.

The second floor had been divided by the staff into sections based on category, such as home appliances, cameras, and cups and ornaments.

It didn't take much effort for Ye Su to spot a seven-piece tin tea set on a table in the cups and ornaments section; among them, a lozenge-shaped tea canister was emitting a deep blue glow that stood out against its surroundings.

Since no staff members were following him, and it being Wednesday with only a few scattered customers in the shop—none of whom were in the cups and ornaments section—Ye Su reached out and began to examine the tea canister.

However, after examining it thoroughly, Ye Su still couldn't figure out how to open the hidden compartment at the bottom.

"Forget it, I'll buy it and study it later."

Ye Su stacked the five tea cups, which were shaped like lotus leaf coasters, and picked up the teapot and tea canister before heading down to the first-floor counter.

"Hello, I'd like to buy this tea set. How much is it in total?"

Ye Su had originally intended to introduce himself to the owner, but unfortunately, he had come at the wrong time; the owner was not in the shop, and he was greeted at the counter by a Female Sales Clerk:

"Hello, sir. The owner has priced this tea set at 6,800 yuan."

"Alright."

Ye Su didn't haggle and readily scanned the code to pay.

The Female Sales Clerk was slightly surprised by Ye Su's generous demeanor but didn't ask any questions. Once she confirmed the payment, she took out a suitable gift box and carefully packed the seven pieces of the tea set inside.

"We look forward to your next visit."

With the Female Sales Clerk watching him leave, Ye Su departed from the Shiyuan Secondhand Shop. He drove around for a while before finally finding a secluded spot. After parking the car, he took out the tea canister to continue his research.

"It really is traditional craftsmanship; even finding a hidden compartment is this difficult."

Although the information hadn't mentioned how much this tea set was worth,

it was, after all, an antique from the late Qing Dynasty. Ye Su figured it had to be worth something, and he couldn't bring himself to force the tea canister open.

"I wonder if Wan Yuanliang or his old man have ever acquired this type of tea canister before and would know how to open the hidden compartment."

Ye Su was just about to take a photo and send it to Wan Yuanliang to ask for his help,

when he suddenly had a flash of inspiration, his hand freezing in mid-air as he held his phone:

"If I use the [Item Appraisal] skill, could I identify the method to open this tea canister?"

An appraisal only costs 99 yuan, so even if it didn't work, there wouldn't be much of a loss. Ye Su decided to act immediately.

"Use [Item Appraisal] skill on [Late Qing Dynasty Tin Lozenge-Shaped Tea Canister]."

[Item Name: Tin Lozenge-Shaped Double-Layer Tea Canister]

[Cast Date: August 18, 1879]

[Market Value: Approximately 13,000 yuan (Full seven-piece set sold together, market value approximately 18,000 yuan)]

[Craftsmanship: Late Qing moisture-proof double-bottom technique]

[How to open the hidden compartment: Hold the two lozenge patterns on the left and right sides of the tea canister's base, pull them upward simultaneously, and finally twist clockwise to open the hidden compartment at the bottom.]

[...]

As the appraisal results appeared, a look of delight crossed Ye Su's face:

"It actually worked!"

Ignoring the rest of the information, Ye Su hurriedly followed the instructions from the appraisal to open the hidden compartment.

However, the base of the tea canister was surrounded by a full circle of eight uniquely shaped lozenge patterns, and Ye Su didn't know which two were the mechanism.

"Logically, it should be a pair of symmetrical patterns. I'll just have to try them all."

Ye Su turned the tea canister upside down, selected a pair of lozenge patterns, and pressed them toward the opening of the canister.

"Huh? Is my luck that good? Did I pick the right one on the first try?"

As he pressed down, Ye Su could clearly feel the two lozenge patterns depress slightly.

"Clockwise."

Ye Su glanced at his watch to confirm the clockwise direction before attempting to twist the base of the canister.

"Hmm, why won't it turn?"

After realizing it wouldn't budge, Ye Su applied more force, but the result remained the same; the base didn't move an inch.

"Could it mean the body of the canister needs to be twisted clockwise?"

Fearing that twisting in the wrong direction might tighten it further, Ye Su abandoned that attempt and tried applying force with the hand holding the body of the canister instead, but the result was the same—the entire canister remained completely immobile.

"Damn, even knowing how to open it is this difficult; no wonder no one ever discovered that this tea canister had a hidden compartment."

He placed the canister on his lap, wiped his hands on his clothes, and then resumed his attempts.

"Hmm? Which two flowers was it again?"

After picking up the tea canister, Ye Su realized he hadn't noted which two flowers activated the mechanism.

Fortunately, since he knew the method for opening the hidden compartment, he simply picked two random lozenge patterns and decided to try them all one by one.

"Huh? Did I pick the right one on the first try again?"

Ye Su discovered that after randomly selecting two lozenge patterns and pressing down, he felt that same subtle sensation of the pattern shifting.

"In an exam, it's hard to guess correctly twice in a row on multiple-choice questions. How is my luck so good that I've managed to pick the correct lozenge patterns with the mechanism both times?"

Ye Su suddenly realized something; he switched to two different lozenge patterns and pressed down again.

"As I thought!"

As he pressed, that familiar sensation of the pattern shifting returned, confirming his theory.

It turned out that all eight lozenge patterns in the circle at the bottom could be slightly moved.

With this design, even if someone discovered that the lozenge patterns could move, they would likely never suspect it was related to the hidden compartment in the base.

"It seems the craftsmen of the past really put a lot of thought into their designs."

After figuring out the trick to the tea canister, Ye Su began trying them one by one to see which two lozenge patterns were the actual mechanism.

Hard work pays off.

While trying to press the third pair of lozenges, Ye Su faintly felt that the sensation was different from before.

He twisted the base hard in a clockwise direction, and amidst the [rustling] sound of friction, Ye Su managed to unscrew the base.

Upon lifting the base, Ye Su saw several folded, yellowed sheets of paper inside.

Because they weren't folded down completely, the papers sprang up slightly when the base was opened.

Picking up the paper, Ye Su placed the tea canister in the passenger seat and then couldn't wait to unfold the sheets.

Much like the banknotes seen in television dramas, the three unfolded sheets of paper were all around a dozen centimeters by twenty-something centimeters in size.

Each sheet had a large square box drawn on it.

The large box was divided, with a smaller box at the top containing the four characters [Daqing Baochao] written from right to left.

Below that, inside the large box, was another smaller box with the text [Zhun Zu Zhi Qian Wushi Qianwen] written vertically from top to bottom, along with various information such as the year of issue and official seals.