National Tide 1980.

Monday, August 1987, 11.

On this day, almost everyone in the world was focused on the Korean Air Flight 858 crash that occurred yesterday.

Japanese citizens in particular are all speculating whether the two terrorists who carried out yesterday's sudden terrorist attack, bombing the plane and killing all 104 passengers and 11 crew members on board are Japanese.

You know, although Shinichi Hachitani and Mayumi Hachitani, father and daughter, were successfully intercepted when they tried to escape from customs after doing this, according to their passports, their names and nationalities were shown as Japanese.

However, the South Korean police, who are in charge of detaining them and stepping up their interrogation, revealed to the news media that they suspected that they were North Korean agents who had sneaked into Japan to obtain legal status.

Therefore, all of this makes this tragedy full of mystery and has caused the world to worry about the intensification of friction between North Korea and South Korea.

However, at this time, Ning Weimin had no time to care about these gossips, nor did he want to worry about the situation where North Korea and South Korea seemed to be on the verge of an accidental conflict.

This is not only because he has long known that these two little Karamis are cowards who can only curse and not fight, but also because the peace in Asia is as stable as Mount Tai.

Moreover, he was actually very tired in France. He was exhausted both physically and mentally, and his physical and mental strength were overdrawn.

After returning to Tokyo today, he actually just wanted to be lazy for a few days and live a simple life where he could hug his wife when he got on the bed and find his shoes when he got off.

I just want to enjoy the comfort of having everything provided for me, and I don’t care about anything else.

Even his antiques, he didn't want to fiddle with them much recently, and it gave him a headache to look at them. He began to feel that these things were a bit annoying, a burden and a nuisance.

This is not him being pretentious, but his true feelings.

Because to be honest, a big part of the reason why he has been so exhausted in France recently is because of this antique.

It turns out that when Ning Weimin was in France, his original itinerary was for him, Alain Delon and lawyer Henri to tour his territory together.

Then, after completing the legal transfer procedures for these properties, he left here and flew back to Tokyo from Paris.

But when he arranged the renovation of the castle and returned to Paris alone, booked the plane ticket, and went back to the Champs-Elysées apartment he had been given to rest, Ning Weimin discovered that there had been earth-shaking changes here.

This new change caused him to cancel his flight ticket directly and he didn't even leave.

What changes?

It turned out that Henri Lacamier seemed to still feel that the gift he gave to Ning Weimin was a little insignificant, and was afraid that he would not like the ancient castle.

Because he remembered hearing Pierre Cardon say that Ning Weimin liked Chinese antiques and artworks very much, the old man remembered that his family seemed to have a lot of things related to China.

He suddenly had an idea and asked people to find all these things from his home and warehouse, packed most of them and sent them to Ning Weimin's apartment.

Then he used these things to redecorate Ning Weimin's apartment in Paris.

So one can imagine what Ning Weimin’s reaction would be when he came back and saw the brand new apartment.

He had little thought at the time except that he might have walked into the wrong house.

It was not until he went to find the administrator to confirm that he found out what had happened.

When he walked into his apartment again, he was gradually amazed by the unexpected gift from Henry, the old naughty boy.

Apart from anything else, this apartment became more comfortable after being cleaned up by Henri Lacamier.

The key is that Henri Racamier integrated the antique collections given to him into his daily life, and they seemed to have transcended the collection itself.

You know, as the head of LV, Henri Lacamier's extraordinary cultural taste and aesthetics are not comparable to ordinary people.

He is recognized by the Parisian fashion and art circles as the most discerning and tasteful "old money". It was also he who transformed LV's previously more secular brand image into an artistic one.

Although it was just a spontaneous act, he easily used balance, juxtaposition, contrast and difference to create a living art museum that spans Eastern and Western cultures and is unrivalled in ancient and modern times.

He is particularly good at combining furniture from different cultures, eras and styles, and is very clever in the way he arranges them.

So in Ning Weimin's eyes, the design sense of the layout and decoration of this apartment is actually comparable to that of Yves Saint Laurent's home.

This made him, who had visited Saint Laurent's mansion and had always been a little envious, feel relieved at once.

That’s not all. When Ning Weimin slowly saw the things in the room, he was even more shocked.

Because although Henri Racamier was more proficient in, he also loved Western art more.

It seems that he himself does not know much about Chinese antiquities, so he placed some Thai furniture, Burmese Buddha statues, and possibly jade from Vietnam in Ning Weimin's apartment.

However, most of the artifacts here are still Chinese, and there are many valuable items.

Ning Weimin soon discovered that a gilded bronze bear statue, which was purely of Chinese origin and was most likely from the Western Han Dynasty, was placed on a Huanghuali table from the late Qing Dynasty in the apartment.

Not long after, he discovered a 15th-century seated statue of a "great achiever" in his study.

Looking down, the floor of the apartment was covered with Qing Dynasty palace carpets.

Go to the study, and there is a Tang Dynasty stone Buddha statue on the table.
There are Tang Dynasty pottery figurines standing by the door.

The bookcase and desk are made of rosewood, and the two chairs are made of wenge.

The ancient painting on the wall of the living room is "Fairy Mountain Picture" by Chen Ruyan from the Yuan Dynasty, and there is also a "Flower Picture" by Chen Zun from the Ming Dynasty in the study.

There are also Ming Chenghua Doucai Chicken Cup and Yuan Zhizheng 11th Year Blue and White Elephant Ear Vase with Cloud Dragon Pattern on the desk.

He even saw some Jun kiln and Ding kiln wares in the bookcase, but with his current appreciation ability, he was not able to distinguish the real from the fake...

Too much!
So beautiful!
It can be said that the variety and quality of these things were so great that even he was dumbfounded.

Originally, Ning Weimin thought that since he had seen those modern calligraphy and paintings that were gathering dust in the museum's storeroom a few years ago, he would never have the feeling of entering King Solomon's treasure house again in this life.

Unexpectedly, he had a similar feeling again while standing in his apartment on the Champs-Elysées.

What a surprise, what a shock!

He had to admit that "old money" was "old money". Even for someone like Henri Lacamier who didn't know much about China, the ancestral relics were better than those he had seen in some domestic museums.

Not to mention, he also learned more about the Champs-Elysées through Alain Delon and his lawyer.

He already knew that this was not a good location in the ordinary sense.

Since this is the first street where the dignitaries of Paris, France have lived for generations, even a small apartment is a scarce resource.

Not to mention buying a house here, even if you want to rent one, there are hundreds of people queuing up behind you. If Henri Lacamier had not inherited French "old money" from two families and his ancestors had not left behind many such properties, Ning Weimin would not have been able to settle down in such a place.

This is not about the money.

If it weren't for the fact that LV had not established the Champs-Elysées Committee after entering this avenue in 1914,

The leaders of LV company have always led a committee of more than 400 people on this street to "defend the reputation of the most beautiful promenade in the world."

It is very difficult for foreigners like Ning Weimin to rent a house here.

Therefore, at this time, Ning Weimin was really grateful to Henri Lacamier.

The next day he went to express his gratitude.

Although he knew that many of the antiques in the house were probably looted by the British and French forces, they were not obtained with any benefit.

But the other person was so generous and gave it to him for free without asking him for a penny, what else could he say?

On the contrary, I felt a little guilty and had a vague feeling that I had gone too far in taking such a big advantage.

So, in the spirit of fairness, he frankly told Henry that many of the gifts he had received were extremely rare treasures.

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

In order to prevent the other party from suffering a loss, he also took the initiative to offer to buy it for 100 million francs.

But even so, he knew that the value of these things was far more than that figure even at the moment.

He made a rough inventory of these things and found that there were as many as 44 rare fine porcelain pieces, including five from Ru kiln and Jun kiln alone. All of them were complete, rare in shape, and had superior body and glaze.

There are eleven scrolls of calligraphy and painting, thirty-nine large pieces of wooden furniture, and an extremely large number of miscellaneous items.

He simply didn't have time to calculate and categorize the money carefully; the amount was not much anyway.

But who would have thought that even if it was hundreds of millions of francs, Henry was not interested and actually shook his head and refused.

"Young man, what I gave you is a gift, not a transaction. The most important thing about giving a gift is to make the recipient happy. Now I know that you are very satisfied, and that is enough for me. Especially now that I know through this incident that you are honest enough to your friends, and your character is just as I believe, then I am even happier. I don't need the money. Since you told me these things whose value I don't understand, you can just keep them with peace of mind. Frankly speaking, you have solved a problem for me. Otherwise, when I make a will, I am afraid I will have to worry about how to properly deal with these things..."

Similar words, similar thoughts, just like what Kang Shude once said to Ning Weimin.

Maybe it’s because “whiteness can hide a hundred flaws”.

When Ning Weimin saw a side of Henri Lacamier that was completely different from what he knew, all his negative views of this French "old money" disappeared.

Of course, maybe it’s also because “one should be grateful to the one who has benefited from the favor.”

Even though he had previously disliked his arrogance and pride, and could not stand his ignorance and self-righteousness, after receiving so many benefits from him this time, Ning Weimin felt that he was lovable and respectable.

Afterwards, Ning Weimin went back and carefully counted the things in his room again. The more he looked, the more excited he became.

Needless to say, he was definitely not at ease leaving those exquisite little pieces and porcelain in France. If they were really lost or broken by the maid when cleaning the room, he would have no place to cry and would become a national sinner.

So in the following days, he packed up the most fragile and important things and wanted to bring them back home.

He spent more than 100,000 francs just on cardboard boxes and soft packaging for padding and shock absorption, and he also had to seal up everything he wanted to take by himself.

That’s not all. It’s also a hassle to get these things through customs and take them away.

Given the specific situation in France, it is simply impossible for him to ship his treasures back to the country openly by air. If he does, he will be intercepted by French customs and he will be charged with being a cultural relic dealer.

Moreover, due to different ideologies, the inspections on flights from Western Europe to the mainland are particularly strict, making it difficult to pass off fakes as genuine.

Later, Ning Weimin, who had been thinking about it for a long time but could not find a solution, finally consulted lawyer Henry and got a solution, which was that he had to spend money, a lot of money, to save the country in a roundabout way.

He spent five million francs to charter a special plane from Paris to Tokyo.

Then he put the various gifts given to him by LVMH and the packaging boxes of the porcelain onto the plane, declared them through customs in the name of commercial samples and personal belongings, and passed the inspection smoothly.

And so, on November 11, he finally left France and returned to Tokyo with these precious treasures and a large number of LVMH luxury goods and wines.

As for how to get these cultural relics back from Tokyo to China, that would be something he would continue to worry about in the future.

Anyway, Ning Weimin has been buying things in Tokyo all the time, and in terms of distance, Japan is closer to China than France.

Get the things over there first, and then we can find another solution if worst comes to worst.

In fact, it can be said that Tokyo has not only become Ning Weimin’s private bank, but also a transit station for him to repatriate cultural relics to China.

As for this flight, it was definitely the most decent one for Ning Weimin so far.

This time, let alone first class and business class, Ning Weimin even stayed in the captain's cockpit.

Three French flight attendants served him alone, and the entire plane obeyed his commands, such as when to take off.

This feeling is so refreshing.

Ning Weimin, who had experience in chartering a car, understood why rich people like to buy private jets on his first chartered plane. It felt so good.

It’s a pity that packing these antiques is really a physically demanding job. Ning Weimin was so tired that he fell asleep not long after getting on the plane.

Otherwise, he really needed to experience what it felt like to have three blonde maids busying around him.

The work of picking up the guests at the airport was handled by Bian Gang and Zheng Qiang.

They brought along acquaintances from the embassy who helped with the customs clearance procedures for the goods.

So after getting off the plane, Ning Weimin finally relaxed. It felt great to be back at his "overseas military base" and no longer have to take care of these trivial matters.

In addition, he also learned the good news from his two subordinates that the branches of Dangu Restaurant in Osaka and Kyoto had basically resumed operations.

What surprised him most was that Bian Gang told him that the 500 kilograms of new rouge rice sent by the Agricultural University from Beijing and a ton of cleaned and plastic-sealed dried chestnut mushrooms had already arrived in Japan.

They are now in the warehouse at the port, waiting for him to pick them up.

At the same time, there was a piece of news that made Ning Weimin most disdainful, but was also completely expected.

Bian Gang told him that the Guo family, the Asian sugar king, had tried various methods to contact him, and even asked people from the embassy to contact him on their behalf.

Is this panic?
Now, it was finally the other party's turn to be defeated. (End of this chapter)