Aiden Finnegan's Medical Odyssey novel Chapter 10

Aiden immediately strode toward the small stall in the corner. Still, he ensured that he didn't show an interest in that particular item as his eyes roved around at the old antiques displayed in the little shop. He pretended to be casually browsing through them, fearing that his interest might garner unwanted attention.

"Have a look, young man! All items in my stall are good stuff!" the seller said with a smile, ready to charm him or perhaps scam his latest customer.

Aiden merely nodded to the seller as he continued looking through the items. He was somewhat surprised when he spotted the thing with a relatively strong energy field. It's actually an extremely ordinary ceramic vase?!

It's about 24 inches in height, and not a section of it screams extraordinary.

A sense of disappointment was written all over the seller's face when he saw that Aiden's gaze was fixated on the ceramic vase. He even instantly lost his energy to speak. I know that vase! It's just a worthless contemporary counterfeit!

And most importantly, I can't scam this man with it, for its craftsmanship is so poor that even non-collectors can tell that it's a poorly made counterfeit.

"Young man, please tell me you don't have eyes on this…" the seller asked feebly.

Aiden merely placed the ceramic vase down and asked with a smile, "What's your starting price?"

"500 dollars! I'll give you the original price. It was also 500 dollars when I collected it, but as you can tell, the craftsmanship of this counterfeit is inferior. Anyone with discerning eyes can tell it at a glance!" The seller still wanted to rake in some cash.

Aiden got up and left without hesitation when he heard those remarks.

"Hey! Hey! Don't go, young man! Why are you pulling such an unconventional approach?! At least give me a counteroffer for me to work with!" the seller shouted helplessly.

The people who strolled around the stall chuckled in amusement when they heard the seller. They shook their heads after they glanced at the ceramic vase in the seller's hand. It's no wonder that the young man didn't bother haggling earlier. That vase isn't something authentic in the first place. That young man probably saw through the seller's intention of ripping him off.

Aiden turned around and returned to the stall once again. Then, he offered with a wave of his hand, "80 dollars! I'll take it if it's a deal!"

"80 dollars?!" The seller widened his eyes in shock. There was a disbelief look on his face as he stammered, "I offered 500, yet you counter-offer 80?! Young man, that's not the right way to haggle!"

"I'm only interested in buying this vase because I think it's big enough for me to store my pickles. It's fine if you aren't interested in doing business. I'll just buy some smaller ones, then." Aiden pursed his lips.

"But the price you've given is too low," the seller said with slight discontent.

Aiden didn't rise to the bait as he shook his head and said, "Although I'm a mere layman regarding antiques, I can still tell this is nothing but a defective product. If it weren't for the fact that I can use it as a container for my pickles, I wouldn't even bother looking at it!"

The onlookers couldn't help but burst out laughing. This young man is right. Any form of useless items will only be deemed as a waste of space at home, even if it's given away for free.

"Make it 200! 200, and it's yours!" The seller made his final offer after seemingly having made up his mind.

Once again, Aiden took one step out of the store before saying lightly, "I thought you would give me a discount, yet you still want to hike up the offer?! In that case, you can keep it and store your pickles instead!"

"Hahaha!!!" Everyone in the marketplace dissolved into hearty laughter. This young man's words are rather interesting.

"Hey! Hey! Come back! Take it! Take it! Final offer 80! No more, no less!" the seller cried out helplessly.

Yet, Aiden retorted, "Can't you give me a few dollars discount?"

"80! I won't sell it to you for a penny less. Otherwise, I'd rather break it," the seller said impatiently.

With that, Aiden 'reluctantly' took out his cash and paid the seller 80 dollars. Then, he picked up the ceramic vase and uttered to himself, "This should be able to fill up to 178 ounces of pickles!"

When their little audience saw that Aiden actually bought the vase, they concluded that he was an idiot. Who else will be this idiotic to spend 80 dollars on a crappy-looking vase just to fill it up with pickles?

Alas, only Aiden knew that there was something mysterious concealed inside this ceramic vase.

Otherwise, it's impossible for it to emanate the most robust energy field in the entire Antiquities City!

As for why Linda was home, Aiden knew without needing to ask. She definitely lost all her money to her poker buddies!

Angelina's frown deepened at his answer. At this point, she felt that Aiden was hopeless. On top of that, he still does nothing worthwhile!