Xu Damao's Thirty-Six Stratagems in Siheyuan

The typhoon at the end of October caused great suffering to Ningbo. Hangzhou was not bad, but it rained for several days in a row and the wind was quite strong. Today the sun finally came out. It was a long-lost autumn temperature.

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"Mom, this time Momo changed her surname and married into the Lou family. Should we tell the second branch?"

"Whatever you say, Shi Caiping is not an easy person to get along with. Your two brothers have not cared about us since the family split. They have their surname Lou, and we have ours. Huohuo, Ningning, and Panpan are all grown up now, and they will soon be able to set up their own households. Why should we care about their faces? If Shi Caiping, the tigress, sees how prosperous our family is now, who knows what trouble she will cause. There is no need to invite them when Ningning gets married."

"Okay, I'll listen to mom. Just like my aunt and the others, they didn't care about Huo Huo in Los Angeles. Fortunately, my eldest sister and I are pretty good friends. Mainly, my eldest sister doesn't have any children, so she treats Huo Huo as her own son."

"Well, Xiaohui is a cowardly person, so how could she not be bullied by Yuanhang? If your father hadn't specifically instructed to give Xiaohui a share of the property, I think she would not be able to make a living and would have been bullied to death by your eldest brother and second sister."

"Mom, everything is fine now. Sister Hui remarried, and Damao said that the couple is living a happy life. Damao also invested in a factory set up by my eldest brother-in-law, and he and Huohuo set it up together. They will definitely make money. Life will be good in the future."

Tan Yali and her daughter Lou Xiao'e basically set the tone for the family's development: go their own way and completely break up with the Lou family's eldest concubine.

The registration and name change of Lou Boxu and the Bai siblings were also very smooth. Lou Xiaoe took advantage of the free time to discuss with her future daughter-in-law Zeng Zixuan and re-registered an investment company, mainly for the three Lou siblings. This was also Tan Yali's idea. The future beneficiaries of this company named Wenxu Trading Company are mainly Lou Wenting, Lou Wenming, and Lou Boxu.

Xu Nian is already on summer vacation, but Xu Damao is still waiting for his eldest son Xu Jun to come. He was supposed to come in a few days, but was notified that something happened in the United States, so he was postponed for another week. Just wait, since he has nothing to do anyway.

"Pan Pan, take Dad to tour Victoria Harbor and visit the Free City. Follow Dad to pick up money."

Xu Nian took Xu Damao to stroll around the prosperous free city, walking through the streets every day looking for valuable objects.

Xu Damao's eyes are now very sharp and his ability to learn languages ​​is extremely strong. He can speak dozens of Cantonese sentences in just a few days.

"How much is this pair of plates?"

Xu Damao unexpectedly discovered a pair of Qing Dynasty Yongzheng era enamel plates in an antique shop in a small alley in Kowloon.

Although Xu Nian is studying Chinese and business at the University of Hong Kong, he currently knows nothing about cultural relics.

After bargaining, Xu Damao spent 60 Hong Kong dollars to buy the pair of dirty plates, which made Xu Nian a little puzzled.

"Dad, these two small plates are not worth even five dollars, and you paid ten times the price for them."

Xu Damao did not explain too much. He chatted with his daughter while walking on the street. Xu Damao felt guilty about his precious daughter. When she was still in her infancy, she started to escape with Lou Xiao'e. Later, Lou Xiao'e mentioned in the chat that on the way to escape, Xu Nian was almost suffocated by the gas in the engine room on the bottom floor of the 10,000-ton ship.

"Pan Pan, do you have a life plan for the future? What do you plan to do in the future?"

"As for me, I plan to be an independent woman in the future and never rely on anyone to live, at least not like my mother, who has no autonomy. So the first thing I have to do is to make money and be financially independent, and then I can be independent in human rights. So I minored in business in college."

Xu Damao didn't expect that his eldest daughter would have such a complicated heart.

"Pan Pan, do you have a cognitive bias towards your mother?"

"Dad, you don't know. I don't know much about my childhood. I knew a lot when I was five years old. At that time, my grandfather gave my mother to Bai Shizong as a concubine. The next year, I had a younger sister and brother. My second and third uncles and their families often bullied the three of us, and my grandmother had no say at all. It wasn't until my grandfather divided the family that our family got better. You said that if women don't have autonomy, how can they have human rights, right?"

"My daughter, you have suffered. But you can't blame your grandma or your mother. You study Chinese and understand history. Sometimes the world cannot be changed by you alone. In troubled times, human life is worthless. You can only choose to live. Because only by living can you have a future. You are old enough to go to college now. Your mother's IQ and academic performance are not worse than yours, so why can't she go to college? Because there are too many helplessness. Eight out of ten people are not satisfied with their lives. You can't use your personal perspective to observe the entire society, otherwise you will easily get into a dead end. Society will not change greatly because of you alone, unless you have the ability to see through the world. What should we do? Only by adapting to society and integrating into society can we make better use of resources and live a fulfilling life. Just now you said that I spent 50 yuan to buy a pair of discs. Dad gave it to you today. You keep it well. In less than three years, this pair of discs can be sold for 50. Do you believe it?"

"How can this be!"

"My daughter, you have been in Hong Kong for so long, do you know Sotheby's? It's an auction house. Take me there, and I will ask them to appraise the price right now. It's less than 50,000. From now on, dad will listen to you and you can arrange all your activities freely. Your mother and I will not interfere at all."

Xu Nian was not convinced. "Well, Dad, I'm not saying that you and my mom can't interfere with me. I've just been used to seeing this since I was a child, and I feel very depressed. My second uncle's youngest son is now my schoolmate and a junior, and I often meet him. He always says that I'm just a slave. In fact, I think his grandmother is also a concubine, how can she be higher than me, right?"

"Oh, girl, that's fine, you know that too. He's quite a character. Yes, he can't be that great, he's still a piece of shit. Let's ignore him, we'll make it so that their family can't afford him in the future. Take me to Sotheby's or Christie's someday. I'll show you the value of this pair of small plates."

Xu Nian was excited, so he took Xu Damao to Sotheby's auction house the next day.

When the Sotheby's manager offered a starting price of 110,000 Hong Kong dollars for the Yongzheng-style famille rose dish that Xu Damao had cleaned, Xu Nian, who was standing by, almost fainted. "How much?"

"Miss, if you think this price is too low, we can discuss it. After all, we are discussing the starting price, and the high or low price has not yet been hammered down. Conservatively estimated, this autumn auction will be sold for more than 300,000."

Xu Nian almost went crazy. Xu Damao quickly tried to smooth things over, "We understand. We'll go back and discuss it with your family. If they agree, we'll definitely send it to your auction house for the autumn sale."

After collecting the things, he helped Xu Nian out of the building.

"Dad, is what the manager just said true? Oh my god, the transaction was over 300,000, and it was bought for 50."

"So, knowledge is money. As the ancients said: one has eyes but cannot recognize. In the Ming Dynasty, there was a story about the wealthy merchant Shen Wansan who found a golden cat at a bargain price. The shopkeeper thought that the golden cat painted with black lacquer was a lump of iron, but only Shen Wansan guessed that a cat with night-shining pearls as eyes could not be a lump of iron. This is cause and effect. Panpan, have you ever thought about going back to Kyoto to study and learn about antiques?"

"Dad, can I do it?"

"Hey, you said yesterday that you wanted to be independent. Why not? None of my children, Xu Damao, are cowards. Okay, I'll definitely do it. How about considering returning to Kyoto to study for a master's degree?"

Xu Nian was fooled by a pair of pastel plates and decided to return to Kyoto to learn about its ancient culture.