Chapter Twenty: The Rogue Merchant

  Li Shishi walked down the stairs with a gentle swaying motion. If she had tied her apron strings behind her, she would have looked just like a princess.

  She asked me what was going on, I pointed at that bottle and whispered: "Take a look at this thing, isn't it the one you guys used back then?"

  Li Shishi casually picked it up and took a look. Chen saw that her hands were greasy and said discontentedly, "Can you read? Be careful!"

  Li Shishi smiled and said: "It's just a wind bottle, what's the big deal?"

  Mr. Chen's face changed, and he stretched out his hand in a gesture of invitation.

  Li Shishi had already put the bottle back in the box, lifted her skirt to wipe her hands, and looked at the weather outside, as if what she had just seen was not an antique but an apple covered with insect eyes.

  I asked her with my eyes, and she smiled slightly: "The thing is indeed from the Song Dynasty, but at that time it was a common product, not worth putting on a big stage." Mr. Chen solemnly stood up and said: "Unexpectedly, this young lady is really an expert, since you've already seen the thing, please give me a price."

  I'm confused now. I only know that ceramics are from Jingdezhen and Erliqiao, the latter being a place where we produce a lot of salted vegetable jars.

  I pulled Li Shishi to the staircase and asked her: "What exactly is that thing?"

  Li Shishi said: "At that time, families with money and status had a hollow carved cabinet in the side house. You also saw that the bottle was about the same thickness up and down, placed on the cabinet, and would slightly shake with a slight breeze, it's really interesting. In order not to let it fall, its bottom is actually hexagonal - if you don't touch it carefully, you can't feel it at all, then add a identical base, this base is very thin, and can't be seen when placed on the cabinet."

  "That wind bottle is mediocre, unfortunately it's not the work of a famous craftsman. If it were a masterpiece, they would usually engrave their name on the bottom of the bottle, which can only be felt by hand."

  "How much would this thing be worth in modern times?" Unconsciously, I had already treated Li Shishi as a modern person.

  Li Shishi hesitated and gritted her teeth: "First tell me the exchange rate of silver to RMB (where did you learn this term?)"

  I don't know where to go? I asked her: "How much is pork per catty in your place?"

  "I haven't bought it before, but I think it's 1.6 yuan per kilogram."

  "It's 16 yuan per kilogram now, but only 10 liang - one liang of silver is counted as 200 yuan, how much does that bottle cost in your place?"

  "Twenty taels of silver will do."

  "4,000 yuan?" I said in doubt. I feel like a Song Dynasty vase shouldn't be this cheap, right? A spittoon without a lid wouldn't even cost that much, would it?

  I slapped my forehead and suddenly realized that I had spent half a day making something of equivalent value to pork, but it was myself who had led myself into the ditch - I forgot to add those 1000 years!

  This Li Shishi can't help me, she's still confused herself. I sent her away and sat back on the sofa with a swagger, propping up my legs and pointing at the box: "Where is the base of this thing?" Chen became even more polite and said: "The base is gone, but it's already very rare to be able to preserve it so intact."

  "I said in a tone of 'the landlord's family doesn't even have leftover grain': 'That won't do - without a seat, it can only stay in the box, no use value you know, just like badminton, the racket is great but without a ball it's useless.'"

  "Uh..."

  "Besides, this thing isn't even made by a famous craftsman. You know how particular rich people are about their decorations? Have you ever seen anyone display a Maneki-Neko, let alone worship Garfield?"

  Now even a fool should see that I've already shown my axe, revealing the sinister face of the pawnshop owner. Chen smiled slightly: "So much talk is useless, just name a price."

  At this time, Old Pan called back, and I walked to a quiet place to answer it. I asked him directly: "How much can a wind bottle sell for now?"

  Lao Pan was taken aback and said, "You've made progress, knowing the name 'Listening Wind Bottle' is no easy feat. This thing has been extinct since the 'Jingkang' change, I saw it once at an auction two years ago, a very ordinary one sold for 1.8 million. At today's market price, if not hyped, selling for 2 million should be no problem." Lao Pan suddenly asked vigilantly, "Have you invited another expert?"

  I smiled and said: "Do I need to ask for a higher price from someone else?"

  "Alright." Old Pan hung up the phone.

  What a good thing worth 2 million!

  I walked back calmly, only then did I remember to take a look at Chen's business card. The card only had "Personal Assistant" and his phone number on it, not even the name of the company he worked for. I pretended to be sincere and said: "Assistant Chen, my assistant and I discussed this and think your offer is acceptable. Currently, the market price is around 1 million (don't worry about exaggerating, let's first lower the price by half), according to the rules, 2% of that would be 20,000, and each year the discount would also be 2%, which means if you want to redeem it after a year, you'll have to give me 240,000. I'm sure you understand, we can't just lend you 200,000 without interest, it's not like we're running a charity. If it's less than a year, we'll count it as one year. If you think this is acceptable, I have the contract right here..."

  "No need to bother, I'll just go along with it. As you said, 20 million." Chen Assistant shook his head and smiled sarcastically, "20 million - Manager Xiao, we're both sensible people, we understand that the market price of this thing is at least ten times more than this number. The reason we're selling it to you for 20 million is because you appreciate its value, and secondly, consider it a gift to your company, for our future long-term cooperation." Chen Assistant pulled out a stack of documents from his briefcase: "This is the transfer agreement and the official appraisal document for the Wind Bottle. As soon as you transfer the money into our account, I'll sign it immediately."

  I stretched out my hand, and he handed me an account. I leaned over the computer and fiddled with it for a few moments before finishing up. In just a few minutes, he had also received the information. He signed everything that needed to be signed with great ease, shook hands with me, and said: "Cooperating with you requires caution, but at least it's efficient." I chuckled and replied: "Oh, come on."

  I made a 2 million deal! Following the rules, I have a 5% commission, plus the 2% that should go to Old Pan, so today I earned 140,000! If it were any other time, who knows how ecstatic I would be, but now I just can't get excited - 140,000, even adding another 10,000 is barely enough to support those people for a month. And thinking about it, Liu Lao Liu still hasn't given them money to buy clothes, and even if they only wore loincloths like in "300", that would still cost a lot!

  Actually, there's another way, which is for me to come up with 2 million yuan to make up for Old Hao's money and get this bottle back. If it were in the past, I might have fantasized about what it would be like to be a rich person, but now I haven't even thought about that. Even if I had 2 million yuan, it wouldn't be enough for them to squander in half a year. Do you want me to use this 2 million yuan to make more money?

  Although my brother Xiaoqiang has mastered the four arithmetic operations in theory, he often stands on the riverbank and gets his shoes wet, and after drifting in the rivers and lakes for a long time, he can't avoid being stabbed by knives. After walking on the night road many times, I will inevitably meet ghosts - out of ten times, it's hard to avoid making mistakes two or three times. So I love buying things that cost one yuan per kilogram, and only buy 10 kilograms at a time. If you let me do business with 2 million yuan, after a month, if there is still half left, you will scold me as a swindler!

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  Today is really unlucky, WORD went wrong, all files opened are garbled, fortunately, Xiaohua's memory is super strong and recalled this chapter. In addition, if I don't ask for leave in the future, it will definitely be updated before 12 o'clock.