Literary Master 1978

What the young man took out from his bag was an exquisite snuff bottle, large and small, rich in color.

If you look closely, you will see that the oval-shaped tobacco bottle is painted with enamel to create a beautiful scene. There are trees and rocks nearby, then there are houses hidden among the rolling hills, and further away there are distant mountains and river scenery.

A painting is full, but there is no sense of filling. On the contrary, it gives people a feeling of clear sound in the empty valley and the wind of pine trees in the dense forest. The scenery progresses layer by layer, and the horizontal distance method should be used.

The trees on the left and right sides are mainly dotted leaves, supplemented by hooked leaves, with virtual and solid leaves. The outlines of the trees are varied and lush, all over the mountains, and have a strong three-dimensional effect.

In the use of colors, juice green, three greens, and ink greens are mixed but the layers are distinct. This hand painting must have been made by a famous artist.

Lin Chaoyang turned the snuff bottle over again. The bottom of the snuff bottle was made of white glaze, and the inscription was in blue regular script with the words "Made in the Qianlong Year" written on it.

Snuff was originally a tobacco product, which was prepared by baking, removing stems, powdering, fermenting, and adding spices, and was sniffed through the nose.

It was introduced to China in the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty. Later, the palace craftsmen of the Qing Dynasty gradually refined the container. Because it can refresh the mind and the shape is small and exquisite, it was loved by emperors of all dynasties. It spread and flourished for a long time.

At the end of the Qing Dynasty, snuff bottles appeared with internal paintings, that is, figures, landscapes, flowers and birds, etc. were painted on the frosted inner wall of the container. The manufacturing technology reached its peak and was known as "a miniature handicraft that combines the achievements of various crafts from various countries."

The snuff bottle Lin Chaoyang was holding in his hand was an imperial snuff bottle, but it was exquisitely made, elegant in color, and vivid in scene. It should have been among the finest enamel snuff bottles made in the palace.

In future generations, a few million would definitely be worth it.

Lin Chaoyang looked at each other for a long time, and the young man couldn't help but ask: "What do you think?"

"The stuff is good, how much do you plan to sell it for?"

Lin Chaoyang said happily.

"This is a snuff bottle from the Qianlong period, or something that came out of the palace. Our family has always regarded it as a heirloom..."

The young man walked around for a long time. How could Lin Chaoyang not see what he was thinking? He interrupted and said, "Just tell me how much it is?"

"One hundred yuan..." After the young man said the price, he added: "I want a foreign exchange coupon."

Lin Chaoyang has a prophet who is ahead of his time and never deliberately belittles things when buying antiques.

Regardless of whether it was a slap in the face or a high price, he couldn't suffer any loss, so why should he exploit these poor people?

But his generosity is based on the background of the times, and he will not be taken advantage of.

"It's a bit high. You snuff bottle, if you go to the cultural relics store, they will give you thirty or forty yuan at most, which is still RMB."

After listening to Lin Chaoyang's words, the young man wanted to negotiate the price again, but an old comrade in his fifties stood aside and pushed him aside.

"Comrade, look at me, this is our family's ancestral treasure..."

The two temperaments of simplicity and cunning are mixed in the genes of Chinese farmers, and they will show different temperaments depending on the situation.

Bringing out the words "ancestral" is nothing more than bargaining, but the premise is that the things must be good.

What the old comrade brought was a blue and white bowl. The bottom of the bowl was signed in the Tongzhi year. It was of good age, but it was a pity that it came from a private kiln, and not from a famous kiln. The workmanship was rough, and a piece of the bowl even broke off the mouth.

"Uncle, I don't like this bowl. I want you to go to the store and have a look."

Lin Chaoyang said it euphemistically, but everyone present understood what he meant, but the old comrade found it a little hard to accept, "This is something from Tongzhi's time, a hundred years ago."

Lin Chaoyang smiled and said nothing. The old comrade muttered a few words and was reluctantly squeezed away by the young man just now.

"Fifty yuan, give me fifty yuan of foreign exchange coupons and you take it." The young man said.

"Thirty dollars."

Lin Chaoyang said something. Seeing the hesitation on the young man's face, he said: "The price I give you is definitely higher than the price given by the cultural relics store, and what I give you is a foreign exchange coupon. If you are not in a hurry, you can wait for a while. Wait, when the buying point opens, go in and ask, and we’ll talk.”

After listening to Lin Chaoyang's words, the eyes of the people around him became much softer when they looked at Lin Chaoyang.

If nothing else, his attitude is indeed kind.

When the young man hesitated for a moment, Lin Chaoyang took a look at the things brought by the other two people. He fell in love with the pink green glaze Fuqing continuous scroll mouth dragon ear bottle brought by one of them.

The bottle was from the Jiaqing period and was in quite good condition. He paid the other party 60 yuan for it.

After reading a few people's things, Lin Chaoyang repeated what he had just said.

Several people showed joy on their faces. They had to shop around when buying things and when selling things. Lin Chaoyang said that everyone felt more at ease.

Lin Chaoyang hid on the side of the road, and when the buying point opened, several people swarmed in, and soon someone came out of the buying point.

The four people just brought a total of five things, two of which were antiques with collectible value that Lin Chaoyang favored, two of which were popular goods of a certain age, and one was a fake from the Republic of China period.

After coming out of the cultural relics acquisition point, the two people who had just been bid on happily ran to Lin Chaoyang to complete the transaction with him.

"Brother, you are a kind person. If I want to sell something in the future, I will come back to you." The young man said with a smile after counting the money.

Lin Chaoyang was happy when he heard this. The young man's family is quite rich.

"Okay, if you need anything from now on, come here. I'll come over in a few weeks."

"become."

While the two were talking, Lin Chaoyang caught a glimpse of the purchaser at the purchase point walking out of the door and looking in their direction.

Just now, these people went to the store and let people look at the things but didn't sell them. The purchaser was knowledgeable and naturally understood what was going on.

Seeing this, Lin Chaoyang said no more and rode away on his bicycle.

Although he was not speculating, it was still a bit unkind to argue with people in front of the state-owned cultural relics store purchase point.

If people were really angry and called the anti-voting office, he would inevitably be beaten up, so it was right to collect the things and run away quickly.

After returning home with the things, Lin Chaoyang carefully placed them in the study. Tao Yushu complained, "There is almost no place to put these things at home."

Lin Chaoyang said, "Don't worry. When my parents come, I will move these things to the courtyard. Isn't there anyone there now?"

No one has lived in the Mianhua Hutong courtyard since it was repaired. Du Feng used to go there every now and then, but recently he started a business and hasn't seen him for almost a month.

There are only some antique furniture in the courtyard now. Those things are large in size and the preservation conditions are not so precious, so there is no need to worry about them.

"Do you think your parents are here to keep watch for you?" Tao Yushu said unhappily, and then said: "Should I write to them again to urge them? Winter is coming, and they haven't made any movement."

"Okay, I'll write a letter right away."

After saying this, Lin Chaoyang wrote a letter to his parents. Tao Yushu was preparing lunch. He had put the stamps on and was about to put the letter into the mailbox at the gate of the courtyard when the internal phone at home suddenly rang.

Less than two minutes after answering the phone, Du Feng appeared at the door.

He wore a flowered shirt on the upper body, bell-bottom pants on the lower body, pointed leather shoes on his feet, and frog-eye glasses on his nose. If it weren't for his explosive hair, Du Feng in front of Lin Chaoyang could almost be called a textbook-level trendsetter in the 1980s.

"Hey! Who is this?" Lin Chaoyang asked in an exaggerated tone.

Du Feng took off his sunglasses and replied proudly: "Brother-in-law, I'm Du Feng!"

"What a jerk!" Tao Yushu, who came over, rolled his eyes when he saw Du Feng like this, and cursed: "Look how proud you are, I thought it was Sister Hua who ran away."

Faced with his sister's belittlement, Du Feng was not angry. He walked in with a playful smile and took out two pairs of sunglasses.

"You came all the way here, and you just brought us this thing?" Lin Chaoyang teased.

"Hehe, how could I!"

As Du Feng spoke, he took out 500 yuan and handed it to Tao Yushu.

"Sister, this is the money I borrowed from you. You said you don't want interest."

Tao Yushu snorted and put the money away. Du Feng then took out two Marlboro cigarettes from his arms, "Brother-in-law!"

Then he took out another plastic hairpin with pink plastic beads on the surface.

"Sister, this is for you."

Nowadays, lesbians don't have any decent headwear. They basically use black steel wire hairpins and rubber bands to fix their hair. Some girls who love beauty will use colorful silk ropes and hair flowers to dress up. Tao Yushu is already past that age.

The hairpin that Du Feng took out looks a bit cheap and even a bit rustic from the perspective of later generations, but from the perspective of today's aesthetics, the style is extremely exquisite and rare.

After getting the pink hairpin, Tao Yushu's attitude finally softened, and she deeply practiced the principle of their sisters to be soft-mouthed when they eat someone.

"It seems that you have made a lot of money recently?" Lin Chaoyang asked Du Feng with a smile.

Listening to his words, Du Feng showed an irrepressible pride on his face, "Not bad, not bad."

It has been almost a month since Du Feng came to his house for a drink. On the third day after drinking, he went to Shenzhen.

It takes at least a week to go back and forth from Yanjing to Shenzhen. During this time, there is no need to ask, Du Feng is naturally busy selling the sunglasses he bought from Shenzhen.

When talking about his experiences during this period, Du Feng's face was full of excitement and he talked about it nonstop.

"Brother-in-law, if you don't go to Shenzhen, you won't know. I don't understand what reform and opening up means until now. Here, you have to run around and beg for favors to open a small restaurant. If you sell something, people will say it's speculation.

Over there, all you can see are new construction sites. People like me are everywhere on the street to buy goods and do business. Foreign investors invest millions of dollars.

The parallel imports from Hong Kong are so cheap. When they come to us, they have to increase by at least five or eight times. Ten or twenty times is not a big deal. It's just like picking up money...

I talked to the boss about this batch of sunglasses for a long time. I couldn't get the price down to three yuan. I talked to the locals and they said that the cost of this thing is only a few cents.

Later, I told the boss that I would buy 1,000 pairs next time, and he agreed to give me 2.5 yuan a pair.

Hehe, guess how much I sold it for?"

Du Feng asked Lin Chaoyang mysteriously when he said this.

"Eighteen yuan." Lin Chaoyang said.

Du Feng immediately raised his thumbs, as if he had heard something profound, "Great, brother-in-law!"

"Stop flattering me." Tao Yushu said impatiently.

The price of frog-eye glasses is no secret on the street, so Lin Chaoyang is not surprised to know that Du Feng's attitude is a complete flatterer.

Then Du Feng talked about some of his sales.

He bought 240 pairs of frog-eye glasses from Shenzhen. In more than half a month, he sold nearly 200 pairs, nearly half of which were sold to his comrades in the army. The remaining 40 pairs should be sold out in the next two days.

The purchase price was 2.5 yuan and the selling price was 18 yuan. Du Feng made a net profit of 3,720 yuan.

However, according to him, he also asked two friends to help sell on his behalf, and he had to give them more than 500 yuan.

"After deducting my board and lodging and travel expenses to Shenzhen, I made nearly 3,000 yuan on this trip." Du Feng said proudly.

According to Du Feng's salary in the army, this money is almost equivalent to his income for eight or nine years without food or drink.

Tao Yushu couldn't help showing a surprised expression on his face, "You guys make money too easily, right?"

Du Feng couldn't help laughing, "I also think it's a little easier to make money. Except for the few days of buying goods, I don't have to worry about selling things. Everyone is rushing to buy."

"The shortage of commodity supply and supply less than demand will naturally produce this effect." Lin Chaoyang said.

"Brother-in-law is right."

"What's next? Are you going to continue?" Tao Yushu asked.

"Of course." Du Feng was in high spirits, exuding confidence, "I will go to Shenzhen in a few days when this batch of sunglasses is almost sold out. This time I will buy 1,000 pairs. Sister, next time you see me, I will be a millionaire!"

"You are so arrogant!" Tao Yushu rolled his eyes at Du Feng.

Lin Chaoyang looked at his brother-in-law's smug look and smiled without saying anything.