A Close Call and a Lifeline
[Highest bid: $230,000 (siuu**123)]
'I won!'
He had been sitting in that chair for more than three hours.
He hadn’t gone anywhere, hadn’t done anything but stare at the screen.
And yet he had been so focused he couldn’t even feel time passing.
When he saw the final gap in the bids, cold sweat ran down his back.
Only twenty thousand dollars apart.
'If I’d written even a little lower, I’d have been in real trouble.'
At $50,000, the other side still hadn’t bid again.
He had thought the stubborn rival would never give up.
But there had always been the chance they’d throw down a huge sum at the end.
Si-woo could see the relic’s information in the status window, so he had been certain.
But the other party was different.
They were clearly someone from the industry.
Otherwise, it would have been hard to bid such a huge amount with that kind of confidence.
The one who had lost by $20,000 was probably smashing their keyboard with a shotgun right about now.
Then again, when he thought about the possibility that the internet had lagged and prevented a bid, he felt a chill.
If something like this happened again, he was going to have to replace his old computer.
'For now, I should shower.'
By then, his T-shirt was damp with sweat and felt disgusting against his skin.
He stood under the hot water and hummed softly to himself.
The chorus of some nameless idol song kept circling his mouth.
He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt this kind of triumph.
It felt as though dopamine were bursting from deep inside his body.
Even the face in the mirror looked better-looking than usual.
But once he finished the shower and came out feeling refreshed, reality hit him hard in the back of the head.
Wait. How was he supposed to get that thing home?
What if the seller just shrugged, stuffed in a few bits of padding, wrapped it in layers of bubble wrap, and called it good?
He could almost hear the phantom sound of some Qing-dynasty porcelain worth more than 30 billion won going crack, shattered inside a swaying container somewhere in the middle of the Pacific.
Absolutely not.
He even wondered if he should fly out personally and bring it back in the seat next to him.
But there was no way he could board a plane carrying a massive vase over sixty centimeters tall.
He searched for international art transport.
A few specialist companies caught his eye.
Crosier Fine Art, Hasselblay, Covilis...
Names he had never heard in his life.
And yet all of them were companies used by world-class museums.
'Good. I can use one of these.'
But when he opened each company’s website, Si-woo’s face darkened little by little.
This was nothing like a normal delivery service.
There was no friendly button for booking a shipment anywhere.
Instead, the screen was filled with a note saying it was for corporate clients only.
Looking into it more closely only made things worse.
[Guidance for Individual Customers]
When he clicked it, the explanation was written in English.
In short, an individual customer needed every document imaginable: an official recommendation letter from a museum, gallery, or institution, proof of the source of funds, an appraisal certificate, and more.
'At this rate, it almost looks easier to go there myself and pack it up.'
It said they would refuse to accept a private object of unverified provenance unless insurance had already been arranged.
It was a measure to prevent insurance fraud.
Even if an individual could technically commission them, the paperwork alone was no small matter.
After a short hesitation, he picked up his smartphone.
It was late evening, but he didn’t have another option.
Carefully, he sent Representative Shin A-young a text.
Less than thirty seconds after he sent it, his phone started ringing like mad.
The caller was Shin A-young.
- Si-woo, a porcelain piece from the Qianlong era? Is that really true?
He was a little startled by the excitement in her voice, but he answered calmly.
“Yes. I’ll still need other experts to verify it, but in my opinion it looks authentic. The glaze coloration, the nine dragons, and even the blue-and-white seal-script mark on the base all match the period’s characteristics.”
- How on earth did you find that out?
“Well...”
He gave her a brief summary of everything that had happened.
- So you appraised it from a photo, just like you did with Shin Yun-bok in Hye-won? That’s hard to believe. You really won it for 300 million won?
“It was close. If I’d made a mistake, I might not have won it at all.”
There was laughter in Shin A-young’s voice.
- With eyes like yours, I can believe it. If it’s authentic, you could easily make hundreds of billions of won. I’ll introduce you to a company.
“Really?”
- Of course. There’s a reason regular private customers can’t use specialist firms. Companies like Crosier Fine Art believe that if they transport a relic that turns out to be fake, or worse, a looted cultural property, it would be fatal to their reputation. That’s why they only work with thoroughly vetted partners. A private customer probably wouldn’t even get a consultation appointment.
“I thought as much.”
- But our gallery has maintained a partnership with Crosier Fine Art for more than ten years. I’ll speak to them by phone. That said, they’ll still need to confirm that the relic isn’t illegally looted cultural property or something designated by UNESCO, so it’ll take some time. Keep that in mind.
“Understood. As long as it can be delivered safely, I don’t mind how long it takes.”
Not long after the call ended, Shin A-young contacted him again.
One phone call with her had taken care of everything that had been worrying him.
“I was wondering if I’d need to go there myself. Thank you, Representative.”
- It’ll be a VIP-level transfer, with security guards attached. The cost will sting a bit, but what’s that compared to bringing back a treasure that might be worth hundreds of billions of won? Just text the seller not to ship the item themselves. I’ll send over the related contract and all the other files.
“Yes. Thank you.”
After hanging up, he sent a message.
Immediately, the seller replied.
It was only natural to be suspicious if, out of nowhere, a massive transaction went through and a professional art transport team was sent.
* * *
Mei Lin let out a sigh of relief as she looked at her smartphone.
Jessica, sitting on the edge of the bed beside her, asked, “Mei... is this real? Is there really going to be $230,000 in your account?”
She asked it as if she still couldn’t believe it.
“I’m not sure yet either.”
“Wait, Mei. Think about it. If someone bid that high, doesn’t that mean the porcelain is really an expensive relic?”
Jessica leaned in closer to Mei.
“Just cancel it. Say it got broken during shipping, or that it was your grandmother’s keepsake and you changed your mind. If you had it appraised yourself and then sold it, you might get ten times this much!”
Mei’s eyes wavered.
If Jessica was right, the vase might hold value beyond anything she could imagine.
But then she shook her head.
“Don’t be ridiculous. It was something I shoved into storage because I was going to throw it away if it didn’t sell. And look at the buyer. He’s someone who can spend $230,000 on an item he hasn’t even seen in person. He’s even sending a specialist transport team. If you can use a service like that, he must be an incredible person.”
“Still...”
Jessica wasn’t the one affected, but she couldn’t help feeling frustrated.
“What if they sue and say they’re holding you legally responsible? And did you see the name of the transport company he sent? Crosier Fine Art. I looked it up, and it really is a world-class art logistics company.”
Mei Lin took a deep breath.
She checked the buyer’s message one more time.
“I’m going to sell it. To me, that’s still an enormous amount of money. If I get greedy for no reason, I might end up with nothing.”
Jessica nodded readily.
In the end, it was Mei’s item, and Mei’s decision.
* * *
On a weekend afternoon, in Visitacion Valley on the southeastern edge of San Francisco.
This was a typical working-class neighborhood, where old pastel-colored row houses crowded tightly along the slope of the valley.
Mei left her dorm and arrived home in a beat-up old Ford pickup with peeling paint.
'I’ve already checked everything.'
She had gone onto the official site and confirmed every detail.
Even so, as the promised hour drew near, her heart kept pounding.
Before long, two huge black security vehicles came to a stop in front of the house.
The side of each vehicle clearly bore the logo CROSIER FINE ART.
The doors opened, and five specialists in white gloves stepped out.
They were carrying a specially made transport case and all kinds of equipment.
“Are you Mei Lin?”
The middle-aged man at the front greeted her politely and showed his ID.
“I’m Michael, the transport manager from Crosier Fine Art. We’ve come to collect the porcelain piece commissioned by Eterna Gallery.”
Mei Lin checked the ID.
Everything matched what had already been verified on the website.
Nodding, she led them inside.
“Yes, come in. It’s in the back of the living room.”
They were meticulous, like surgeons entering an operating room.
They laid down a soft custom mat and placed the porcelain on top of it.
Michael, wearing white gloves, shone a high-intensity flashlight over the surface and began scanning the piece centimeter by centimeter.
“I’ll prepare the pre-transfer condition report. There’s a fine scratch at the opening. A tiny pinhole is visible on the lower body. However, it appears to be a natural effect of age.”
He carefully recorded the condition on a tablet and took high-resolution photographs from every angle.
That was the most important procedure for assigning responsibility if anything were damaged during transport later.
“Now we’ll pack it. Since this vase is over 60 cm tall, we’ll start with a specially made soft case.”
The specialists accepted the vase as carefully as if it were a newborn child.
They first wrapped it in special acid-free paper, then secured it inside custom cushioning shaped to the porcelain’s curves.
Vibration sensors and temperature-humidity loggers were attached on top of that.
Finally, they placed it in a double wooden crate that completely blocked outside impact and sealed it with tape.
“Transfer complete. Please sign here. Once the signature is finished, the escrow will be released.”
Not long after Mei Lin finished signing, her smartphone rang.
[Bank of America]
[Deposit: $207,000 (Ebea escrow account)]
“Oh my God...”
Even after Ebea’s fees were deducted from the $230,000 hammer price, more than $200,000 had been deposited.
Mei Lin rubbed the phone screen with trembling fingers.
She was afraid the numbers might vanish like a mirage.
The student loan notices that used to fill her mailbox every month.
The months she had spent racing from one part-time job to another without even a break after class, all to cover her mother’s hospital bills.
All the worries that had always pressed down on her scattered into nothingness with the arrival of a single deposit notification.
Putting that porcelain piece up on Ebea, the thing that had nearly disappeared as trash, was the best decision of her short life.
She was grateful to the person known as siuu**123.
Without him, it would have been the sort of item that sold for only a few hundred dollars.
Competing with others had driven the price this far up.
“With this money, I can pay off the rest of my student loans, and all the debt from Mom’s treatment too...”
Mei wiped at the tears gathering at the corners of her eyes.
She called her mother to tell her the news.
“Mom... it’s me. Mei.”
At her daughter’s trembling voice, her mother’s tone immediately filled with concern.
“Mei, what’s wrong? Is something happening? If there’s a problem, tell Mom.”
“No, Mom. It’s good news. Something unbelievable happened.”
She told her that the umbrella stand she’d kept in storage for so long had been listed on Ebea and sold for $230,000.
Her mother found it hard to believe.
So Mei sent her the screenshot.
There was silence on the other end of the line for a long time.
Then, at last, she heard the faint sound of sobbing.
“Mom. It’s okay now. We can pay off all the debt. You don’t have to keep working the night shift anymore. It’s been so hard watching you struggle, and I couldn’t do anything for you. From now on, let’s live happily.”
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