National Tide 1980.

Chapter 747

If it is said that the unexpected harvest in the feast made Ning Weimin happy and overjoyed.

Then after the banquet ended, he had an unexpected extra gain, which touched his soul a little bit, and made him feel very sad.

It was a precious gift that he had never thought about at all, it was given to him by Master San Yuling, a descendant of Putaochang.

To say that this old lady who is over seventy years old can really hold her breath.

From today when she came in a small car, she met Ning Weimin who greeted the guests in person and greeted each other politely.

Then when the awards ceremony started, Ning Weimin invited all the old craftsmen to the stage, introduced them to all the guests one by one, and asked them to accept everyone's applause.

When the banquet started, Ning Weimin came over to toast the old craftsmen, and each gave a big bonus.

She has always been quiet.

Finally, when the banquet was completely over, most of the guests had already left, and the old craftsmen were sent to the cart one by one by Ning Weimin.

As the last person at her table to leave, before the main hall of the Sacrifice Pavilion, as long as she takes one step out of this courtyard, she will get into the last stall of the car.

The old man stopped suddenly and dragged Ning Weimin to a remote place.

Then he took out an object wrapped in kraft paper from his bag and handed it to Ning Weimin.

A conversation began that only the two of them knew.

At that time, I didn't know whether it was cold or excited, and the old man's hands were trembling a little.

Ning Weimin didn't think too much, knowing that Chang Yuling must have something to say, so he took the things over first.

When I opened it, I found a small box inside, probably made of camphor wood, with mother-of-pearl inlaid.

It's just that it's been a long time, and it's not well kept, and a lot of mother-of-pearl has been lost.

Moreover, the wooden box was also cracked, and it was considered half useless.

"Master Chang, this is..."

"You open it..."

Ning Weimin made another move.

The objects inside are actually yellowed paper, written in small letters.

There is also a round emerald ring finger, glass kind, emperor green...

"This is a gift from the Queen Mother."

Ning Weimin didn't allow Ning Weimin to take a closer look, and he was immediately surprised by what the old lady said while pointing at the finger.

"Is this an object inherited from your ancestors! Or is it a gift from the emperor?"

Ning Weimin then eagerly cast his eyes on the jade wrench.

Although experts who like antiquities know that there is a taboo in this industry, don't believe in stories, only recognize things.

But Chang Yuling's personality, and the emerald green color, convinced Ning Weimin that it was true almost immediately.

"Hey, this thing has been in our family for more than a hundred years. It was passed down from my ancestors. Didn't our grapes become famous because they celebrated the Queen Mother's birthday? A plaque of "Tianyichang" was given to our family, and a "wealth and honor is always present" was awarded to my great-grandmother, and such a finger-wrench was awarded."

"Oh..." Ning Weimin was fascinated by the sound, and when he looked at the wrench carefully, he had to admit that the psychological reason was very important.

Anyway, after knowing this legend, he felt that this finger ring was so noble and oozing green.

But that's not all the legend about this wrench.

"Because of winning the lottery from the Empress Dowager, our grapes became famous all at once. Many people came to buy them, and our family became rich. Soon after, we lived in a big house, There is also our own special Buddhist hall. At that time, all the gifts from the emperor had to be offered. In addition to enshrining Buddha statues, our family’s Buddhist hall also enshrined this finger. Once when our family went to worship Buddha, my great-grandmother , it was inconvenient to move, so I accidentally touched it, and it fell into the incense burner."

"You should know that this is a crime of disrespect. So the whole family panicked immediately, and my grandfather Han Qiharibu hurried forward to pick it up from the incense burner. Unexpectedly, there was a layer of incense ash on the wrench , It looks like a frosted grape. At that time, my great-grandmother was very happy, saying that this is a blessing from the Buddha and Bodhisattva. The grapes in our family are very good, and it will be more real if we add a layer of frost.”

"Now do you understand? In fact, the inspiration for the cream in our Chang family came from here. Of course, the formula for hanging the cream is not as simple as rolling incense ash. The incense ash is too rough to hang, just It’s a bit of a meaning. Since then, at least three generations of our Chang family have continuously perfected the formula and color toning, and only then have today’s recipes for coloring and frosting that don’t fade and are extraordinarily realistic.”

"No, the original manuscripts of our family's coloring and frosting recipes are all here. There is also a copy that I re-transcribed and summarized. The proportions, raw materials, and processing methods are all clear. As long as you follow this recipe, you can It can make the usual frosting of grapes."

"We are destined, Manager Ning, I am lucky to know you in this life. It is for you to help our street production company reopen, and for you to make our Chang family's feeder grapes reappear in Human world. I have to thank you very much. I have thought about it, these things will continue to be kept here, and I am afraid they will be buried. From now on, they are all yours. "

Ning Weimin was already quite surprised by Chang Yuling's own account of the origin of the unique method of applying frost to grapes.

As he listened, he thought to himself, no wonder people say that the world is impermanent, and many things in this world are indeed incredible.

But what surprised him even more was the last few words Chang Yuling called him from "you" to "you".

He never thought that Chang Yuling would give such a precious thing to himself.

"What? You want to give these things to me? But this... This is your family heirloom? Especially these secret recipes! Shouldn't you pass it on to the Chang family? I remember that you have relatives... ..."

Chang Yuling immediately sighed, "I have relatives, but entrusting these things to them would be ruined. To tell you the truth, no one in the next generation of our Chang family has learned this, but they still don't like it. Ancestral craftsmanship."

"My nephew is in administration, and he is willing to let his children study and eat public food. My two grandnieces, let alone learning, have hated my pair of colored hands since they were young. They are afraid that they will become like me. Appearance. Probably because I mentioned it once, I wanted them to learn from me, and I was so scared that I dared not come to my door for the past two years."

"Tell me, if I don't give these things to you, what else can I do? I'm already my age. Could it be that when I'm gone, I'll burn these things with me? That's a pity to my ancestors." .Only when they are in your hands can they be regarded as having a good home."

Indeed, such things are not uncommon in this day and age.

What can people say?
There are so many treasures of real gold and silver, and many descendants of rich families don't know them with their big eyes, let alone such things as ancestral secret recipes.

Ning Weimin was very considerate of the old man's feelings.

"Okay. Master Chang, I thank you for treating me so highly. But I can't ask you for such a valuable thing..."

"That's out of the question. What kind of expensive thing? It's just a finger wrench, at most it's 800 yuan. I went to Liulichang to ask. They are willing to pay this price. This secret recipe is now considered to be a bit important. I can point to it to support dozens of people. But a few years ago, no one cared about it. You know, our Chang family once wanted to donate it to the country, in order to change jobs for the descendants of the Chang family , Get an iron rice bowl to eat public food. But people don’t like it. They despise us as folk pranksters. So this thing is expensive or cheap, how do you score..."

"Hey, Master Chang. That's really not the case. The more precious you are, the less you have a fixed price. When you asked the price, it was probably in the first few years, right? At that time, the market was bad. But I can't wait for it. Knowing that you are pretending to be confused, the market is not the same today. With your fingers, such a good water head, such a good color, and a gift from the imperial court, you have found the right buyer. Five thousand and eight thousand is it, twenty thousand Thirty thousand is the same, but tens of thousands of dollars is not easy in China, so that is the price of selling it overseas..."

Ning Weimin thought that his words would definitely startle Chang Yuling.

Most of the old people will be persuaded by him to change their minds.

As for myself, I offered a higher price than the market in the store - 1 yuan.

Then, with one hand of money and one hand of goods, he bought both the wrench and the secret recipe.

Even if he is worthy of his conscience, he will be at ease from now on.

But it never occurred to her that Chang Yuling didn't waver at all about the amount of money, and just shook her head.

"Manager Ning, I'm giving it away, not selling it. Don't say 30 to [-], it's [-] to [-]. I can't exchange it for money."

"Let me tell you this, when I was young, I also lived a prosperous life. Ever since our Chang family's grapes won the gold medal at the Panama Expo in the United States. After they came back, there was a lot of traffic at the door. At that time, not only Domestic customers bought it, and there are many foreign firms and villas.”

"At that time, I didn't know the money of various countries. It looked fresh and interesting. My uncle was in charge of collecting money. To amuse me, as long as a foreigner who ordered our Chang's grapes came to the shop every day, he would put it in my jewelry box. Put a foreign coin in it for me, and the money will belong to me. My uncle said it was my dowry when I grew up. In just a year or two, my jewelry box was full, and the money I saved was brought to the bank. Actually, five gold bars were exchanged."

"Of course, it didn't work later. The men of the Chang family smoked big cigarettes and owed a huge amount of money outside. Our Chang family can only rely on women to stand up and take care of the family business. That's why we, the five uncles and nephews Pay off the debts for the Chang family, and vowed not to marry for life. Later, the debts were finally paid off, but because of the war for many years, no one bought the grapes. The five of us, uncles and nephews, had to split up to sell roasted sweet potatoes and sugar Peas, selling candied haws and fried oil cakes, collecting cinders, unpacking and washing bedding for others to make a living."

"But it's hard to be like that, and poor like that, no one in our family is willing to sell this finger. Let me tell you the truth, in fact, when the Chang family owes foreign debts, if our family is willing to give up this finger, at least we can In exchange for [-] to [-] oceans, the house can be kept, and it won’t be so difficult in the future. Why not sell it? Because this finger is the soul of our Chang family. I can’t remember which painting I saw it Such a sentence. It seems to be 'butterfly is the spirit of flowers', probably that is what it means."

Chang Yuling's words immediately made Ning Weimin blush.

He heard it, and they were telling him—we have seen what money looks like, and you can’t sell your ancestors if you sell anything.

Of course he had to explain quickly.

"Master Chang, I don't mean anything else. Since I can't speak, we shouldn't talk about business, let's talk about material compensation..."

However, Chang Yuling shook her head even more violently.

"You, this is wrong again. What did I tell you just now? I can only rest assured that this thing is handed over to you. Don't mention the money, you have treated me well. In the past few years, let alone the salary And benefits. Just like today, how much will you give me just for the bonus? I don’t have to worry about the coffin for a long time. I can even help my relatives a lot. This is enough. what's the point?"

"Don't look at my old lady, she has no education, she can make grapes in feeders. But I have been a grapes feeder all my life, until now, I suddenly understand. No matter how good the Chang family's things are, no matter how good they are. Here, if the person who holds this thing is not successful, it will not be better."

"You see, the prosperity of our Chang family is due to my great-grandmother's ingenuity and my grandfather's good management. If it weren't for my great-grandmother's ability to draw inferences from one example and get inspiration from bad things. If it weren't for my grandfather sending grapes overseas to participate in expositions The grapes of our Chang family will not be so famous."

"After my three aunts and our two sisters took over the secret recipe of Chang's family, no matter how well we kept it secret, the five of us worked together and worked hard. We couldn't restore the Chang family's feeder grapes to the old one. Glory."

"In the past, I thought it was due to the impermanence of fate and bad luck, and I attributed it to the natural and man-made disasters during the war years. But after liberation, in the new society, the grapes of the Chang family still did not see any improvement. Although they received strong support from the government. But Often due to poor management and other reasons, there are still serious losses, leading to the dissolution of the production company several times."

"If you hadn't been in charge of all this, how could our Chang family's grapes have such a glorious chance to appear in the world? I understand in my heart that the prosperity of the feeder factory is all supported by you. If not With your help, everyone will not have such a good life."

"And your character also reassures me. I know that you are not a money-greedy person. If it was for money, you would not let me, Master Jiang and Master Zou, make this expensive and unsalable thing together Yes. Both Master Jiang and Master Zou said that the apprentices in our factory are now comparable to the fourth-level workers in their factory. It is all because of your support that these young people in the factory are motivated to practice and pay attention to technology. .”

"To be honest, I'm not afraid of anything. I'm afraid that one day you will have nothing to do with this plant. If you don't want to intervene in this plant, then the future of our Chang family's grapes will be hard to say. So, I After thinking about it, I decided to entrust the grapes of the Chang family to you. From now on, I don’t care whether you open the factory by yourself or cooperate with others, it’s up to you. If you want to rely on it, I’m happy for you. Here you go, I'm relieved."

"You, don't be embarrassed. This is something I beg you, not you begging me. If you really feel that you have to do something for me to feel good, then I don't want anything else, just beg Just give me a word. I hope you can promise me that in the future, the grapes made with our Chang family's recipe will always be called Putao Chang...then...then I will also read Buddha's name."

Speaking of this, the old man's tears came down.

Faced with such tears and such demands, Ning Weimin couldn't remain calm, let alone disappoint the old man.

He didn't hesitate anymore, he put away the things solemnly, and bowed to the old man to thank him.

So Chang Yuling got into the car and left with confidence.

However, I watched the small car slowly drive away with exhaust fumes, disappearing into the ancient stone road and the bright yellow afternoon sun.

Ning Weimin felt a heavy weight in his heart out of thin air, and an indescribable melancholy and embarrassment.

Suddenly, for some reason, he remembered an inscription written by Deng Tuo, the director of the People's Daily, for the Chang family.

The two generations of the Chang family kept the cold, and the centuries-old art has been passed down from generation to generation.

The color of grapes is purple and the beauty is damaged, and old dreams are like smoke.

Cooperation is unique, and man-made ingenuity is better than nature.

From now on, I will visit the technology, and I will be more beautiful than myself.

(End of this chapter)