Literary Master 1978

A few days later, Xia Chengying came to Yanda again. The delegation of Hong Kong Chinese University has ended its visit in the mainland and will return to Hong Kong tomorrow.

Xia Chengying has obtained the authorization of the publishing house today to sign a publishing contract with Lin Chaoyang. After the contract is signed, Lin Chaoyang only needs to wait for the royalties from Hong Kong Chinese University.

The only pity is that although he earns foreign exchange, he can only get RMB due to the mandatory foreign exchange settlement regulations.

On this day, Tao Yushu received the manuscript fee bill from Hebei Literature and Art. She had discussed with Zhang Dening about writing a review for Furong Town some time ago and it was accepted by Hebei Literature and Art. She received a manuscript fee of 24 yuan. This is the second review she published this year.

She was in a good mood after receiving the manuscript fee. She had an extra dish for dinner. In the evening, Tao Yushu calculated the family's savings again.

At the end of March, the couple paid off the last payment of 3,000 yuan for the Overseas Chinese Apartment.

In recent months, Lin Chaoyang has not received much royalties because he has not published or published any works, and only has sporadic royalties from the number of copies printed.

The only large amount is the royalties for "The Burning of the Old Summer Palace" and "Behind the Curtain". With the help of Li Hanxiang, he obtained more than 9,000 foreign exchange coupons. Previously, Lin Chaoyang exchanged 5,000 foreign exchange coupons through A Mao at a ratio of 1:1.4.

Excluding the more than 1,000 foreign exchange coupons spent before, the couple now still has nearly 13,000 foreign exchange coupons in their hands, and there are still 12,000 yuan in deposits.

"Spending fast is not enough to earn slowly!" Lin Chaoyang said complacently.

Tao Yushu smiled and said, "Didn't you say before that you can spend it easily?"

"Then I'll go to the trust store tomorrow. I have so many foreign exchange coupons in my hand. If I don't spend them and there is no interest, it means I'll lose money."

Tao Yushu rolled his eyes at him, "You are really good at calculating."

The next day was the weekend, and Lin Chaoyang rode his bicycle to the city early in the morning.

In the 1940s, a "Datong Entrusted Store" appeared in Yanjing City, located in Dashilan outside Qianmen. This was the earliest trust store in Yanjing, or it could be called an entrusted store.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the state established a reliable entrusted store and a state-owned material recycling company to replace the original pawnshop, and absorbed private entrusted stores and street "small drummers".

After the 1950s, state-owned entrusted stores gradually became the favorite of the people. State-owned stores were fair in transactions, reasonable in transactions, and fair to all, much more reliable than the pawnshops in the old society.

At that time, there were often news about state-owned entrusted stores, all of which were about someone going to the entrusted store to sell things, and the apprentice appraised the price too low, and the store compensated the customer for the difference.

The reputation of the entrusted store was accumulated bit by bit in such news. More importantly, because of the shortage of commodity supply, after the implementation of the ticket system, many ordinary people could not buy things even if they had money. Only in the entrusted store could they enjoy the pleasure of shopping with open supply.

Of course, the goods in the entrusted store were mostly old and useless items that were idle in each household. Selling in the entrusted store is also to alleviate the shortage of daily necessities.

The operation of the entrusted store is to take care of two things at once, and the purchase is also divided into two forms.

One is consignment, where the seller offers a suitable price to sell the items in the entrusted store, and the store charges a handling fee after the items are sold. This handling fee is 7% for general items, and 4% for furniture, bicycles, etc.

The other form is for sellers who are in a hurry to use money. They can directly hand over the goods to the entrusted store for valuation, and then take the money and leave directly.

Compared with consignment, the price of this method is naturally lower.

There are many entrusted stores in Yanjing City, including Xidan, Dongdan, Xisi, Beixinqiao, Tianqiao, Xinjiekou, and Caishikou.

Xisi Entrusted Store is the closest to Lin Chaoyang's home, so he came here early in the morning.

Xisi Entrusted Store is one of the larger entrusted stores in Yanjing City. It is just north of the Xisi Crossroads. The light in the store is a little dim, and the lights are on in broad daylight.

There is a strange musty smell as soon as you enter the door. It is a place where miscellaneous items are collected and sold, so it is not surprising to have this smell.

This was Lin Chaoyang's first time to visit the commission store. After a round, he felt a little disappointed.

According to some articles in later generations, the commission store was almost full of gold, but the reality was that most of the things here were daily necessities for ordinary people.

Old clothes, fur coats, bedding, watches, phonographs, cameras...

The commission store was full of second-hand goods. Customers like Lin Chaoyang, who were not short of money, naturally looked down on most of the goods when they came here, but he still patiently walked around the store for several rounds.

At this time, the store was full of closed counters. If you needed to buy goods, you had to ask the salesperson to take them from the shelves in the counter and put them on the counter.

Lin Chaoyang looked around and found that there were several cameras on a shelf. He approached the salesperson and said, "Comrade, can you show me that camera?"

The salesperson first glanced at Lin Chaoyang, then picked one from the several cameras on the shelf and brought it over.

This was a Zenit camera made in the Soviet Union, estimated to be 70% new. Lin Chaoyang looked at it and put it on the counter. This camera was a bit old.

After looking for a long time, Lin Chaoyang found something valuable on the shelf of porcelain, which was two blue and white bowls with the inscription "Made in the Qianlong Period of the Qing Dynasty".

When he asked the price, he found out that each bowl was ten yuan.

Two bowls cost twenty yuan, which was almost half a month's salary for him.

After thinking about it, Lin Chaoyang understood the reason behind it.

Most of the sellers who come to the commissioned store to sell things are because they have no money to use. You can't expect a poor peasant family with three generations to sell antiques and calligraphy and paintings, so most of the goods here are definitely not worth collecting for Lin Chaoyang.

There is also a small number of people who sell good things for emergency, but the state-owned commissioned store is not a pawnshop. It pursues reasonable profits, not extreme profits. The valuations given by the masters are basically in line with the prices of this era.

The commissioned store also knows that this thing is an antique, of course it can't be sold at the price of daily necessities, but the market for antique collections these days is not as hot as in later generations, so the premium is naturally limited.

After thinking it through, Lin Chaoyang happily asked the salesperson to issue an invoice and paid.

One advantage of buying things in the commissioned store is that you don't have to worry about buying counterfeits and fakes. The things here have all been through the master's eyes.

After buying these two bowls, there is nothing else to look at, and Lin Chaoyang thinks of his own courtyard again.

The furniture and daily necessities for the main house have been purchased, but the wing room is still empty. Anyway, no one lives there often, so it's good to get some second-hand furniture and daily necessities.

"Comrade, don't you have second-hand furniture?" Lin Chaoyang asked the salesperson.

The salesperson replied: "We buy and sell miscellaneous items. If you want to buy furniture, you can go to Donghuamen Trust. There is also a furniture store at Di'anmen Trust Store."

Lin Chaoyang rode his bicycle to Donghuamen Trust Store. The storefront here looks a little more impressive than Xisi Trust Store.

Because it specializes in furniture, a group of tricycle drivers gathered at the door. They are responsible for helping buyers transport large furniture to their homes, and their service is attentive and thoughtful.

Compared with the fine products in the second-hand goods department of Long Shuncheng Furniture Factory, the second-hand goods here are basically daily furniture.

After a long time of selection, Lin Chaoyang found a rosewood eight-immortal table and a large rosewood square stool. They are both good things from the mid-Qing Dynasty, and are no worse than the two pieces of furniture that Lin Chaoyang bought from Long Shuncheng before.

Lin Chaoyang asked the salesperson about the price. The salesperson said that the customers put them in the store for consignment. The red sandalwood eight-immortal table costs 100 yuan, and the red sandalwood square stool costs 30 yuan. They want foreign exchange coupons.

The consignment goods of the trust store are subject to the conditions of the seller. Of course, the premise is that the seller's asking price is approved by the appraisal master.

A small number of sellers of fine goods will choose to ask for foreign exchange or foreign exchange coupons. Sometimes, if they really can't meet a suitable buyer, the seller will lower the requirements and agree to RMB transactions.

This red sandalwood eight-immortal table and square stool are fine furniture from the mid-Qing Dynasty. It is naturally not expensive to ask for this price.

This seller was also lucky. Lin Chaoyang had more foreign exchange coupons than RMB, so he was naturally not short of money and bought these two things happily.

Then Lin Chaoyang picked a few old furniture in the store. At this time, most people couldn't tell the difference between red sandalwood, huanghuali, and chicken wing wood, and they were all called red wood.

Lin Chaoyang picked out two beds, two eight-immortal tables, a desk, six armchairs and two wardrobes from a pile of old furniture. They were all made of red sandalwood or huanghuali wood, and he emptied out all the good stuff in the store.

After checking out, excluding the two antique furniture, the total cost of so many furniture was only 178 yuan, and no tickets or foreign exchange certificates were required.

Lin Chaoyang now finally understood why the people of Yanjing loved the trust store so much. This shopping experience is so cool!

This is probably what the Americans in the future would feel when shopping with the overseas version of Pinduoduo, right?

After paying the bill, there was another more important thing, which was to transport the goods. At this time, the tricycle drivers at the door came in handy.

Lin Chaoyang not only bought all the furniture in the Donghuamen Trust Store today, but also the tricycle drivers at the door got a piece of the cake. They even had to transport it a second time.

Lin Chaoyang rode a bicycle in front to lead the way, and the tricycle pulling furniture followed behind. It took half an hour to reach Mianhua Hutong.

He arrived at the gate of the courtyard and found that the gate was not locked, but the bolt was inserted. Thinking that today was Sunday, he knew that it must be Du Feng who came.

He knocked on the door knocker. After more than a minute, the gate was opened from the inside. It was indeed Du Feng's face.

Looking at the long line of tricycles and furniture on the tricycles at the gate of the courtyard, Du Feng was surprised, "Brother-in-law, what's the matter with you?"

"The wing room is not furnished yet. I went to the trust store to match some today."

Lin Chaoyang said, directing the masters to carry the furniture into the yard, and Du Feng took the initiative to help.

Lin Chaoyang and Du Feng carried an eight-immortal table together. When they walked to the middle of the yard, they saw a pretty female comrade with a round face, big eyes, and two big braids on her chest standing at the door of the west wing, looking a little flustered.

The two carried the eight-immortal table into the house, and Lin Chaoyang teased, "Will you introduce this female comrade to me?"

Hearing this, the female comrade was shy, and Du Feng was also a little embarrassed, but he still pulled her over and introduced her, "This is Feng Juan, my comrade-in-arms from the art troupe."

"This is my brother-in-law Lin Chaoyang, a writer."

"Hello, brother-in-law!" After Du Feng introduced both parties, Feng Juan took the initiative to greet Lin Chaoyang, "Du Feng always mentioned you to me."

Lin Chaoyang smiled and asked, "Hello, Comrade Feng Juan. What did he say about me?"

"He said you are talented and very powerful."

Feng Juan's eyes were shining. In this day and age, the identity of a writer has a halo in the eyes of many ordinary people.

"Haha, as long as you don't say bad things about me behind my back. Are you taking a break today?"

Du Feng replied, "We went to Xidan for a stroll in the morning, and came back to rest after lunch. We plan to go to the movies in the evening."

Perhaps afraid that Lin Chaoyang would embarrass Feng Juan if he continued to ask, Du Feng pulled Lin Chaoyang out of the room, "Brother-in-law, don't ask so many questions."

"A lot? I just asked one question."

Lin Chaoyang looked mischievous, which made Du Feng a little embarrassed.

"Hey, move this bed to the west wing, and move the wardrobe here too..."

Lin Chaoyang directed people to match the furniture in the west wing from inside to outside. This room was previously reserved for Du Feng, and he couldn't help but give Lin Chaoyang a thumbs up.

He is my dear brother-in-law!

After two trips back and forth, Lin Chaoyang finally transported all the furniture he bought today to Mianhua Hutong. It was already past four o'clock in the afternoon when the furniture was moved.

He invited Du Feng and Feng Juan to have a meal and talked about their work and life in the art troupe.