Chapter 4 Antique Dealer

"My son's father, do you think what Xiaoshi said is true? This bowl is really worth tens of thousands of yuan?" Although Zhong's mother spoke to Zhong's father who was sitting at the table and smoking a pipe, her eyes did not change. Consciously glanced at the white porcelain bowl placed on the coffee table in the main room.

Ever since her youngest son heard that this bowl was worth tens of thousands of yuan, Mother Zhong was too frightened to serve rice in this white porcelain bowl. She carefully placed the white porcelain bowl on the coffee table, and covered the bottom with newspapers, for fear of being careless. broke.

  Zhong’s mother’s surname was Liu, and she only had a junior high school education, but at that time, junior high school students were no longer easy. The Zhong family bought a Lihai watch and a Phoenix brand bicycle before marrying Liu Lan back home. The farthest place Liu Lan has been to is the county town dozens of miles away, and the money she has handled is at most dozens of yuan. Where has she seen tens of thousands of yuan?

  Father Zhong didn't answer, he drank up the bad wine in the bowl with a "chiliu", picked up another chopsticks of fried peanuts, and began to chew with gusto.

   "My son's father, you should say something!" Liu Lan couldn't help complaining in a low voice when she saw that her husband was silent and only cared about drinking and smoking.

  At this time, it was already dark, and Zhong Shi had already gone to bed after dinner, leaving only Zhong father and Zhong mother sitting around the table, discussing in low voices in front of the dim oil lamp.

  Zhong Shi also has an older sister, but now she is studying in the junior high school in the town, and she can only go home on weekends.

"Let's think about it. This thing is probably true. My dad once said that when the educated youth gave him this bowl, he said the same thing. If it's worth tens of thousands of yuan, then it's just right Come to do business, isn’t it often said on the radio that there is a special zone in eastern Guangdong, I want to go and have a look.” Father Zhong put down his chopsticks and said thoughtfully.

   "Xiaoshi is only eight years old, what can such a young child know?" After hearing this, Mother Zhong couldn't help shouting, her voice raised a lot unconsciously.

"Shh, keep your voice down! Don't you think our son has become different since he fell ill?" Father Zhong made a small gesture, and then poured it out of the bottle. Half a bowl of wine, took a sip.

"Drink! Drink! Drink! You know how to drink! I thought you hadn't noticed!" Zhong's mother was furious when she saw that Zhong's father was still in a relaxed manner. She grabbed the wine bottle and put it heavily on the table. There was a low "bang".

   "Hey, I said you can't lighten it!" Father Zhong grabbed the wine bottle in a flash, looked carefully at the bottom of the bottle, and saw that there was no crack, so he was relieved. "Little Shitou is much more sensible than before. He doesn't make any noise, and is always in a daze. At first, I was worried about the sequelae. Later, Da Yizi (Zhong Yi) said that he was enlightened, so I was relieved."!

   "Is that what Dayizi really said?" Mother Zhong stopped cleaning the dishes and looked at Father Zhong with both surprise and joy. For the words of the only college student in the village, Mother Zhong undoubtedly believed very much.

"Well! Don't worry, it shouldn't be a big deal. I will take him to the county in two days to see if anyone buys this bowl. If not, I will go to the south again." Slightly drunk, he hummed "Shajiabang" in a low voice:

   "I escaped a catastrophe by deceiving the Japanese soldiers..."

  Mother Zhong gave him a blank look, and took the dishes and chopsticks to wash on her own.

  …

Early the next morning, before the early risers started cooking, the sound of tractors was heard at the entrance of the village. Tractors are a rare thing these days. There is no tractor in Zhongzhuang yet. People surrounded him one after another.

  The Zhong father and son packed their luggage early and waited for the tractor to arrive. In fact, they didn't have any luggage, just a few changed clothes, and the tightly wrapped white porcelain bowl.

   "Yo! Where is this going?" A middle-aged woman with a sharp mouth and monkey cheeks at the head of the village saw Zhong and his son holding the box, and yelled loudly, as if others could not hear.

   "It turned out to be Mrs. Bu, who woke up so early, and Xiao Shitou and I went to the county seat." Father Zhong showed a faint smile on his face, and greeted the bluffing middle-aged woman.

  This Mrs. Bu has a big mouth. In less than half a day, the entire Zhongzhuang will know the whereabouts of Zhong and his son. Relying on her relative relationship with a certain cadre in the village, she often gossips in the village and tells stories. Of course Father Zhong didn't like such a person, but because of his fellow villagers, he could only bite the bullet and say hello.

After bidding farewell to this disgusting Mrs. Bu, Father Zhong said hello to a few folks watching the excitement around the tractor, and then boarded the tractor with Zhong Shi, and headed for the county seat in the "chug-chug" of black smoke. rush to.

This tractor belonged to a friend of Zhong's father, and his friend would send a batch of bricks to the brick factory in the county every half a month. .

The tractor was walking on the dirt road, which was very bumpy. Zhong Shi, who was holding the white porcelain bowl tightly in his arms, stumbled along the way and was hit hard by the surrounding bricks. While enduring the suffering, he lamented the backwardness of the country's infrastructure construction , It wasn't until he got on the cement road and entered the county town that his mood improved.

   After bidding farewell to that worker, Zhong and his son wandered around the county town. Zhong Shi looked around while eating buns, trying to find a place to buy antiques as soon as possible.

   "Hey, the movie theater is showing "Shaolin Temple"!" Father Zhong looked at the huge artificial oil painting poster and said to himself.

  The "Shaolin Temple" in 1982 caused a sensation in the entire Chinese-speaking world. People saw the charm of action movies for the first time, and became crazy for the monk Jueyuan in the movie.

At that time, movie tickets in Mainland China only cost a dime, and the box office of this movie reached an astonishing 100 million yuan. That is to say, a total of 1 billion people watched this movie. In the 1982 census, China The total population is only about one billion thirty million.

"Shaolin Temple" not only made Jet Li popular in the Chinese film industry in the future, but also influenced a generation of young people. At that time, Shaolin Temple in Songshan became a holy place for passionate young people. Many young people who were still immature ran away from home. Go to HN to learn art from a teacher.

  Although Father Zhong has passed the age of passion, this famous movie still has enough attraction for him.

   "What's so interesting, the action design and scenes are too rough, it can't be any more rotten!" Zhong Shi curled his lips in disdain and muttered in a low voice. In his mind, "Jing Wu Hero" and "Tai Chi Zhang Sanfeng" are the pinnacle of Jet Li's action movies, but now that Jet Li has not gone to Hong Kong to develop, naturally there will be no these two movies.

  Although this is only a small county, there may be hundreds of counties in China that are bigger and more prosperous than it. But for Zhong Shi, this may be the land of Longxing where he made his fortune, so he looked at it very carefully.

  In these days, it is impossible to open an antique shop, and it is also impossible to start a company, so those who collect antiques are most likely to appear in the flea market.

The most famous antique markets are Panjiayuan Market in Yanjing in the north and Yu Garden in the south facing the sea. Antiques in this era are rarely counterfeited. Those who have just become rich have begun to intervene in the antique market, and cultural relics dealers often go to the countryside Rural to collect antiques.

  In this small county town, some people began to collect antiques. They sold the antiques collected here at low prices to antique dealers in big cities at high prices, and made a profit from the difference.

   But in this line of work, the most important thing is eyesight. If you hit your eyes (jargon: look away), you will most likely lose your money. The cultural relic dealers in small places are better, and the capital invested is not a lot, even if they drill holes, they won't lose too much.

  Zhong Shi told Father Zhong about his analysis, and Father Zhong also felt that it made sense, so he immediately stopped an old man who collected rags, took out a big front door, and asked politely:

   "Master, I want to ask you something, do you know which place in this county collects second-hand goods, that is, to buy antiques?"

  The dark-complexioned uncle put down the rags, took the cigarette, sniffed it greedily under his nose, and then replied absent-mindedly:

"What do you want to sell, and you still want to find a place to collect antiques? If you ask me, you are right. I know a big boss who has been collecting old calligraphy and paintings, bottles and jars in the county. Would you Give me a cigarette, and I'll take you there, how about it, old cousin."

Father Zhong quickly handed him another cigarette, and lighted it for him casually. The tattered uncle took a puff beautifully, and then clipped the previous cigarette to his ear, and then he picked up the tattered burden and walked forward. He also yelled: "Collect the tatters, take out the waste paper, copper and iron of the wine bottles and sell them..."

In his previous life, Zhong Shi was born in a well-to-do family, and he had never seen such a life in the city. He was a little curious when he first saw it, but as the uncle who collected the rags became louder and louder, the surrounding people became more and more excited. More and more, his face also became red.

The busy crowd in the county looked at a trash collector who looked like no one else and shouted loudly, followed by a pair of people who looked like father and son. Among them, the little boy with a blushing face was still holding a big package tightly in his arms, so they all stopped. All of a sudden, he looked at this strange pair of people, and even some good-natured people pointed at them. Father Zhong also obviously noticed something was wrong, and quickly handed the middle-aged man who collected the rags another big front door, urging him to leave quickly.

  The middle-aged man felt a little embarrassed when he benefited, so he stopped yelling and strode forward. Zhong's father and son, dressed in plain clothes, followed closely behind him, and soon disappeared before everyone's eyes.

"Boss, someone is here to sell antiques today!" The middle-aged man walked to a junk collection place on the outskirts of the city in one breath, put down the burden on his shoulders, and poured a big mouthful of cold water from the green water bottle he carried, before he was out of breath. shouted angrily.

   "Oh? It's these two? I don't know what you want to sell?" A man in a long robe and mandarin jacket walked out of the junk station, and said with a half-smile.

This person is about fifty years old, with a watermelon hat on his head, a wrinkled face full of pockmarks, a mustache around his lips, if not for the lack of a mole, and the lack of long braids at the back of his head, Zhong Shi thought he had met the genuine Master Shaoxing!

   "Boss, where's my bounty?" Before Father Zhong could answer, the middle-aged man who collected the rags hurriedly asked.

   "I can't do without you!" There was a trace of disgust on the master's face, he waved his hand, and a yellow five-cent coin flew in front of the middle-aged man.

  (end of this chapter)