The ups and downs of life in the Siheyuan

Li Yuan settled his family neatly, asked Leader Xu to write a research letter, and rushed to Xiangjiang again.

In a VIP room of the Far East Stock Exchange, Li Yuan met his stockbroker Jack Wang.

"Mr. Li, congratulations, your stock has risen to 24.5 yuan, almost doubled. I suggest you sell now."

As Li Yuan's exclusive stock broker, the stock gains have been so huge in more than half a year that he feels the need to advise his clients to settle for safety.

In the past few years, he has seen many ups and downs in stocks, so he has become more and more cautious.

"Really? I'm only over 24. If you have nothing to do, you can just let it go."

"Okay, Mr. Li. But someone has asked about your stock and wants to buy it at a premium. What is your opinion?"

"What's the premium?"

"5%".

Li Yuan curled his lips and said, "No, let's leave it for now. Thank you for the coffee, I'll leave first."

"Okay, please walk slowly." Jack Wang looked at Li Yuan's back, feeling extremely confused.

He was worried that the commission he was about to receive would go away.

Li Yuan's confidence was infected, and he was eager for more profits.

But he is also afraid that the stock will turn around and his commission will shrink significantly.

Li Yuan came here today on a whim. He left the building and looked at the sun. It was almost evening, so he ordered a pig's trotter rice on the roadside.

At the beginning of the night, Li Yuan appeared on Hollywood Antique Street.

There are three antique streets, the most famous of which is Hollywood Road. This long and winding street stretches from Central to Sheung Wan and Western District. There are more than a hundred antique shops.

Hollywood Antique Street was the first street in Hong Kong during the colonial period. It is home to shops selling porcelain and jade, jewelry, stone furniture, calligraphy and painting, etc. The division of labor is meticulous and professional.

There are a lot of foreigners here, probably because they have such a short history and in order to improve their taste, they are very obsessed with ancient Chinese porcelain and bronze ware.

Li Yuan's purpose here is very simple, which is to find out the leaks and find a way out for the source of funds.

Of course, Li Yuan wouldn't be able to make much money if he relied on these genuine and fake antiques on the roadside.

What he values ​​​​is betting on stones every night.

As I walked and looked around, I saw a few items of good quality, but they were all from the late Qing Dynasty and were of little value.

I visited more than 20 stalls, and the items in each stall were similar, with nothing of high value.

When you come to Antique Street, near Queen's Road West, there is a stone betting shop.

Because the pavement is not large, the stones are not large. The largest one does not exceed 100 kilograms, and most of them are less than ten kilograms.

Stones the size of an adult's fist account for almost 50%.

Those larger stones look more like signboards, and few people care about them.

The shop is not big. The roadside stall plus the shop are more than 30 square meters at most. There is a small stone-breaking machine in the end. It can't do anything for stones weighing more than 20 kilograms.

There are two rows of wooden shelves in the store, on which are placed stones carefully selected by the boss. The prices are much higher than those at the stalls.

The roadside stall is actually covered with a rainproof cloth, with two piles of stones piled on it, one big stone and one small stone.

Li Yuan, like other customers, squatted down, picked up the stone and groped for it.

Use the headlight at the door to examine the texture of the stone.

"The skin is dark and shiny, and you can tell it's black sand at a glance," a customer next to me showed off to the people around me.

"Hei Wusha will lose nine times out of ten!", the man responded.

"Hehe, so the price is cheap. Once the bet is right, it will be a huge profit."

"The problem is, in most cases there is nothing."

. . . . . .

Li Yuan listened with interest for a while and found it very interesting.

After scanning it with his mind, Li Yuan smiled secretly in his heart. This piece of material weighed ten kilograms, and the price was probably not less than 3.

There is only a little green bean seed in it, so it can be said that it is not of much value.

Common species are divided into: glass species, ice species, ice waxy species, waxy species, bean species, etc.

The finer the crystal particles, the higher the transparency, and the stronger the transflective luster, the better the seed will be, such as glass seed and ice seed; otherwise, the worse the seed will be, such as bean seed.

The transparency of jade is called "water head" in the industry. A long and sufficient water head means good transparency.

On the contrary, poor water head or short water head means poor transparency.

Water, clean and clear, is a metaphorical description of jade.

Jadeite with good water head and high transparency has strong light transmission effect. No matter what color it is, it will appear vivid and lively. There is a saying that "one point of water increases, and silver increases by ten taels".

Therefore, the water head is divided into 3 points of water, 2 points of water, 1 point of water, poor water head and no water, which correspond to glass species, ice species, ice waxy species, waxy species, and bean species respectively.

So the bean seed is actually a stone with a higher dry hardness.

Li Yuan walked to the material weighing five or six kilograms and began to search.

With a sweep of thought, everything comes into view.

There are nearly 50 rough stones here, most of which are just stones that have not been accumulated.

However, there is a piece of rough glass-shaped stone inside, which is about the size of a palm. It can only be used to make 2 bracelets and 2 handles, which is a pity.

Li Yuan walked over and picked up the stone numbered 221. After thinking about it, he picked up the stone numbered 206 next to it.

Holding one piece in each hand, he placed it on the small counter.

A rather attractive little girl turned over the numbers with a smile on her face and opened the ledger, "No. 221 is 1000 yuan, No. 206 is 1200 yuan."

Li Yuan took out the Hong Kong dollars he had prepared from his "pocket" and counted out 2200 yuan.

"Help with invoicing."

The little girl looked at Li Yuan in surprise and wrote a receipt with a seal.

"Sir, we can help you solve the stone for free."

"Okay, just look at my luck."

The two pieces Li Yuan picked were not oily enough. Several people turned around to look at them, but they didn't care.

Following the little girl inside, a middle-aged man took two stones.

"How to cut it?"

Li Yuan gestured with his hand to indicate the location of incision No. 206.

The master quickly fixed the rough stone, put down the cover, and started cutting.

Ten minutes later, the master handed the two stones together to Li Yuan expressionlessly.

Li Yuan pretended to look forward to slowly separating, with a disappointed look on his face, and cursed in a low voice.

"Do you want to cut it again?" The master is very professional.

"No," Li Yuan threw the stone in his hand into the rubble pile.

Picking up No. 221, he fumbled around in his hands carefully, with a worried expression.

The master watched patiently, he was already used to this kind of scene.

At this time, a person came over from behind and placed a stone weighing more than 10 kilograms at his feet.

Looking at the stone in Li Yuan's hand curiously.

"Master, you cut it from here," Li Yuan gestured to the old master.

The master nodded, and after fixing it, asked Li Yuan to confirm and then cut.

Under Li Yuan's telepathic gaze, the knife cut along the edge of the jade.

"Yeah!" After listening attentively for a few minutes, he shouted behind him, "Boss."

The boss is a thin old man in his 50s with sharp eyes.

The old man listened for a few times, frowned and thought, and then stood still, waiting for complete incision.

Li Yuan knew that they heard something unusual from the voice.

Time passed by like a long time, and after 15 minutes, the stone was finally cut.

The master put the two halves of the stone together and handed them to Li Yuan, while nodding to the old man, who immediately looked happy.

The old man was also helpless. The jadeite cut out of the recent batch of rough stones from "Moxi Shachangkou" was rare.

It has affected business. Some old customers often complain and ask whether he got the goods from the small market.

The conscience of heaven and earth, although these stones are left over from large customers, they are actually rough stones from the entrance of Moxi Shachangkou.

The stone in the hands of the young man in front of him is his best proof, and he will definitely publicize it later.