National Tide 1980.

Chapter 1269 Sophisticated

It can be said that the above two points are mainly paid by the auction companies.

As for Masahiro Mihara, the financial cost he has to pay actually lies in how to obtain a stable supply of goods.

According to the terms he and Somei had agreed upon, he was expected to pay 400 million to 600 million yen to buy out Somei's paintings in the next three years.

This amount of money is certainly not a small sum, and he actually cannot afford it.

Even if his collection is valuable, it is impossible to sell it all at once.

What's more, he wanted to continue hoarding the goods and was reluctant to sell them immediately.

However, he was very shrewd and had thought of a brilliant solution, which was to find someone else to cooperate with, transfer the economic risk to others, and make himself 100% safe.

And the person he fell in love with was Ning Weimin.

So after sending away the two accomplices from the auction house, Mihara Masahiro immediately called his wife Mihara Ruriko and made special preparations to attend Ning Weimin's wedding tomorrow.

"Madam, please find me a better wooden box. And help me wrap it with a high-quality furoshiki to make it more beautiful."

"What are you doing?"

"Loading things."

"What are you packing?"

"Here, these are the wedding gifts I'm going to give to President Ning tomorrow."

As he spoke, Masahiro Mihara opened a plastic package from a cardboard box.

Then he took out a metal object that looked like a strange bird and placed it on the table.

This was not the end, he took out another object, a large jar made of the same material.

The two items were disliked by the director's wife immediately because of their strange appearance, complicated decorations, flamboyant patterns, and green copper rust. They were incompatible with the clean, simple, bright and open environment of the house.

"Oh, husband. What the hell are these two? You're putting them on my imported oak table.

It's dirty, weird-looking, and looks like garbage. How can you give it away?"

"What do you know? I had to ask the two auctioneers to get these. They are all Chinese antiques. I heard they were collected by an old noble family. I bought them at the internal price of 500,000 yen by relying on my connections."

However, Mihara Masatsune's words still did not win his wife's loyalty.

The lady's contempt remained unchanged.

"Oh, husband. Please don't joke with me. What Chinese antiques? They are collected by a Chinese family. They sound impressive. But if they are really good, why are two of them only worth 500,000 yen? You have always collected paintings, and you don't understand these things. You won't be cheated by those people in the auction house with things from the flea market, right?"

"Hey, how is that possible? Don't worry, they will never cheat me. Only a fool would cheat me for these hundreds of thousands of yen and destroy the basis of cooperation between the two parties. In fact, these two items are cheap, mainly because Chinese antiques are not popular in the art market all over the world. Nowadays, Chinese antiques are not as popular as our Japanese antiques. I heard that this thing has not been sold after several auctions at Xinyi East. The owner who was short of money was a descendant of the Chinese clan. He secretly took things from his family to cash in, but was unwilling to pay the commission. In the end, he had to mortgage this thing to the auction house and nothing happened. In fact, it stands to reason that if someone else wants to take these two items from the auction house, they must pay millions of yen, otherwise it will not be enough to cover the commission that the auction house should receive. But I am different. In view of the cooperation, the auction house gave it to me at half the price. I will use it to give it to President Ning. Do you think it is appropriate? President Ning likes Chinese antiques the most, and he must know the goods."

Mihara Masatsugi remained firm, and his explanation did make some sense, so the director's wife finally changed her attitude.

Soon, she brought two black lacquered paulownia wood boxes for her husband.

Then, while putting something in to test the size, she said, "Oh, husband, you are so smart. Using 500,000 yen to give a gift worth 1 million yen is really a good deal, cheap and pleasing. However, you spent so much time and effort to give such a gift. Are you sure that President Ning will agree to your request? The money we need is several hundred million yen. Doesn't it seem that you are not sincere enough to just give such a gift? What if he doesn't agree?"

"Don't worry about this. President Ning is a smart man, otherwise he wouldn't have made so much money alone in Japan. He is also an expert in the art market, so he must be aware of the recent market trends of those paintings. I'm not using his money for nothing. It's such a good thing to make money easily. I want him to be a partner, so there's no reason for him to refuse. In fact, giving gifts is just a courtesy..."

Mihara Masahiro was comforting his wife, but when he saw that his wife did not comment and still did not seem convinced, he changed his words temporarily and gave her an extra reason.

"Besides, think about it. Last year, he was willing to spend so much money to organize the Japanese Record Awards in order to support Teresa Dunn. I don't believe that Miss Matsumoto, who he is going to marry, doesn't mind this at all as a new wife. Besides, I remember that Miss Matsumoto seemed to like singing very much, but she didn't seem to have been selected for the Record Awards. Otherwise, you can privately express your feelings to Miss Matsumoto tomorrow and persuade her to record a new album. No matter what her results are, I guarantee that she will have no problem winning the gold medal, which will also be considered as fulfilling her wish."

Don't say it, women are women, they lack a sense of the overall situation, but from the perspective of a jealous woman, the director's wife really understood her husband's intentions at once.

"Oh, that's right. As a wife, she's also a big star. How could she be indifferent to her husband praising another woman? You have a sharp eye, husband. As long as she has desires, she's someone we can use. As long as she still wants to use the record awards to prove her singing skills, we still have the cards on their chest. The worst that can happen is another private transaction."

But women are women after all, and they tend to be quick to achieve success and cannot see things clearly.

The wife of the director closed the box and stopped looking for the wrapping. She actually said, "But husband, you have to raise the price this time. Have you ever thought about the paintings we sold to President Ning for 80 million last time? Although we didn't think much of them, we only spent about 40 to 50 million at the time. But according to the current market, these things have actually increased in value. They are now worth at least more than 100 million. President Ning is really lucky. For him, last year's grand prize was equivalent to getting it without spending any money, and he also made a small profit. This is too much of a bargain. I feel uncomfortable when I think about this."

Fortunately, Mihara Masahiro was clear-headed and did not let his wife do whatever she wanted.

"Haha, don't mind this. You said it yourself, it's just good luck. And don't forget, it's because President Ning made money that he was more likely to agree when I asked him this time. You might as well think about it again. It's not convenient for him, a Chinese, to do many things in Japan. We can help him contact the auction house to sell his paintings. In this way, we can at least get a few million in benefits, right? We are now upper-class people who make money from art. So the most important thing is to convince President Ning to take out money to form a partnership. As long as we seize the opportunity this time and make this big thing happen, then the rest will be nothing. By then, even if I retire early and give up my position, it won't matter. My wife, have you ever thought about what our life will be like after owning billions or tens of billions of assets? If we can sell all the paintings in our hands smoothly, then we can travel around the world, live in a single-family villa, have our own butler and servants, and hold cocktail parties or dances from time to time. It is even possible that we can move our home to Qingshan."

The director's wife's enthusiasm was really ignited by his description, and she clasped her hands together in joy and anticipation.

"Oh, husband, what you said really makes me look forward to it. To be a member of the community living in Aoyama, Minato-ku, and living next to politicians and famous scholars. What a happy old age it would be. And if, in addition to being the wife of a director and a composer, I could also be the wife of a collector and the wife of an art connoisseur, then I would have no regrets in my life. Even our children and grandchildren would be proud of us, and they would be descendants of a real famous family."

"Haha, that's right. So tomorrow, let's work together to persuade that newlywed couple."

At this point, Mihara Masatsune and his wife Ruriko laughed unrestrainedly, as if a bright future was already in their hands.

It should be said that this Masahiro Mihara is really an old fox who eats people without leaving any bones.

They are so bold and resourceful that they want to feed on the nouveau riche who have just started to grow up in the bubble.

He is truly a "greedy, lazy, treacherous, evil, vicious, cruel and ruthless" genius, and even Ning Weimin will inevitably become a tool for him to use.

But it must be said that man proposes, always inferior to God disposes.

His complacency was based on the fact that he did not know the true value of the two things he gave to Ning Weimin.

If he knew several years later that what he had casually given away were actually the precious artifacts of the late Shang Dynasty that were lost in a foreign country - the "Shan Fang Lei" and the "Xiao Zun".

If he knew, according to the standards of Chinese cultural relics, these are two priceless first-class cultural relics, whose value alone is equal to all the Japanese paintings he intends to hype.

God knows how he will calculate the gains and losses. And this is in line with the old saying, "If it is destined to happen, it will happen. If it is not destined to happen, don't force it."

No matter how scheming some people are, they are destined to be helping others and can only be the God of Wealth.

…………

But then again, whether it's tragic or not depends on who you compare it with.

Compared with Deputy Director Kaga, another accomplice in operating the award, Mihara Masahiro's current situation is actually quite good.

Although he missed the real treasure without knowing it, at least he was happy in his heart, and his family was harmonious and he and his wife were of one mind.

Although the couple were greedy and calculating, they were ultimately like-minded in their common pursuit of money.

This is much better than the situation of Director Kaga and his wife, who are an old man and a young wife, sleeping in the same bed but having different dreams.

In fact, although Ning Weimin fulfilled his promise and gave Master Kaga and his wife what they needed in return - funding them to open a beauty salon of their own.

But sometimes "getting" may lead to new problems.

Like the Kaga couple, the couple's financial conditions improved significantly as a result.

The profits they earned from this were far greater than what Deputy Director Kaga earned at TBS.

Moreover, Mrs. Kaga, Isako, finally had her own business and no longer had to ask her husband for money.

However, the original conflicts between the couple not only did not decrease, but the internal rifts were unknowingly exacerbated, which was definitely something no one had expected at the beginning.

For no other reason than that the profits in beauty salons are too high.

In addition to receiving more than 200 million in membership fees right after opening.

After officially opening for business, it has maintained a profit of tens of millions every month.

The income was so high that Isakako thought she no longer needed to rely on her husband and could be completely independent in finance and life.

It was so high that Isako had shifted the focus of her life from her family and husband to her beauty salon business. She was no longer content to be a housewife and believed that her husband was far less important than her side job.

This would naturally make her husband, Deputy Director Kaga, feel dissatisfied and even hurt his self-esteem.

This is by no means alarmist. After all, Japan is a society where male chauvinism prevails, not to mention that Deputy Director Kaga is over 60 years old.

Although he loves money, he has always been torn about the balance of property between his two daughters and his new wife.

But what matters to him most is that his later years can be peaceful and that he is adequately cared for.

Now he felt his life was totally out of balance.

Not only is he gradually losing everything he needs, but if the situation gets any worse, even his reputation and marriage will be in jeopardy. One can imagine the anger and fear he feels inside.

He also felt extremely regretful and missed his relatively stable marriage in the past.

To be honest, the disharmony in the life of an older man and his young wife was an objective existence from the very beginning, not to mention that it was a marriage that happened later in life.

Apart from anything else, the problem is huge when it comes to the most basic diet.

Because the young wife has a good stomach and is used to rushing at school and work, bread and coffee are indispensable staples in her daily life, not only for breakfast but also for meals.

But Deputy Director Kaga never liked bread, especially the French baguettes that looked like logs.

Old-fashioned Japanese like him only eat rice, and have miso soup and rice for breakfast.

If you feel uncomfortable in your stomach when eating rice, add 30% wheat to it and it will taste better.

This is the living habit of people like him, and this kind of meal will naturally be cooked by his wife.

Although Isako disliked this troublesome and rustic meal, she had been fulfilling her wife's duties for a long time.

In return, Director Kaga would not only buy some expensive gifts for his young wife, but would also try his best to get opportunities to go overseas to give his wife a vacation to satisfy the woman's vanity.

Even when traveling abroad, they have different interests.

For example, last year when he went to Basel, Switzerland for a cultural exchange meeting, Director Kaga brought his wife with him.

While he was at the meeting, Isako hired a tour guide and visited scenic spots such as Mount Youngwomen and Lake Constance.

After the three-day meeting, they took a car tour to Lausanne, Geneva, Annecy, climbed Mont Blanc, and toured the Lyon area.

Afterwards, we flew to Paris, where we stayed for a week, doing sightseeing and shopping.

Then we went to Nice, a seaside resort in southern France, to bathe in the sea and play roulette in the casino in Monaco.

All in all I lost about twelve hundred dollars.

Wherever Isako went, she was welcomed by men.

Especially in Rome and Venice, she was treated like a star by Italian young people.

Although I can only speak a few words of English, I don't feel any inconvenience.

When I didn't understand, the other party expressed it in Japanese.