Riding the wind of rebirth

Next to the back door of Gongmei Mall, a plaque was hung on a storefront with the words "Hanya Auction House" written on it.

It was said to be an auction house, but it still had the layout of an art and antiques store. When Zhou Zhi took Jasmine into the store, Zhang Cheng limped up and said with a smile: "Brother Zhou is here? This store is After you start driving, you should come back, right?"

"Brother Zhang Cheng, are you interesting?" Zhou Zhi said with a smile: "The boss is not right and he came here to work as a wage earner. What will happen to your store over there?"

Zhang Cheng shook his head: "I can't help it. There are art and toy shops all around, and there are so many fakes. In the whole market, I and my family are the only ones selling real ones. When people come in, they say that the exact same stuff outside only costs fifty. Why are you selling it here?" If you dare to sell it for five thousand, what do you think I should do?"

"You really can't afford to offend me." Zhou Zhi laughed so hard: "The best way is to move all your genuine goods away and rent the store to them to sell fake goods."

"No!" Zhang Cheng was both angry and funny: "Except for the ghost market on Wednesdays and Sundays, there is something to see there now, but I really can't stay there the rest of the time."

"Let's just speak Mandarin. This friend of mine is a bit confused when it comes to listening to Sichuan dialect." Zhou Zhi changed to Mandarin: "Let me introduce, this is my friend from Hong Kong Island, named Jasmin; Jasmin, this is Han Mr. Zhang Cheng, the appraiser of Ya Auction House and the store manager.”

After everyone said hello, Zhang Cheng invited the two of them to take a seat, and Zhou Zhi said: "Is that Kangxi emerald-blue bell-ringing statue still there?"

"Here," Zhang Cheng turned around and opened the cabinet, took out a small bottle from the depths of the counter and placed it on the countertop covered with purple velvet: "This."

"Jasmine, take a look, what do you think of this thing?"

The characteristics of Kangxi Emerald Blue are very obvious. It is green and rich. People who are used to seeing bright blue and white flowers may even find it unaccustomed to its somewhat superficial "coquettishness".

However, thanks to the advancement of craftsmen's techniques, the Kangxi Dynasty blue and white used the "color separation" technology for the first time, which made the blue and white colors distinct and the ink color can show multiple layers of shades. The jargon is called "the five colors of ink".

Later, due to the shift in royal aesthetic preferences, the requirements for blue and white porcelain were somewhat relaxed and lowered, resulting in the Kangxi blue and white porcelain becoming an isolated peak of the green blue and white porcelain in the Qing Dynasty.

Just like Zhou Zhi for wine, Jasmin is also a pure layman for Kangxi blue and white. Fortunately, she still has a "sample", which is the pendant.

So Zhou Zhi used the pendant and the rattle statue as references, and then compared them with a Daoguang blue and white opera bowl to explain the identification knowledge to Jasmine.

The rattle statue is a cute porcelain shape, just like the rattle held in the temple turned upside down on the table. The bottom is in the shape of an inverted small bowl, and above it is a straight bottle tube with a thick handle and a neat Flat mouth.

Because the shape of the vessel is small, the seemingly clumsy shape becomes stable and dignified. It is small but large. It will be very elegant when placed on the desk with a branch of flowers.

Jasmin held the neck of the bottle with her hand and felt very comfortable: "Can this be used to hold wine? Is Zun the name of an ancient wine vessel?"

"Well... although the name is Zun, it has evolved a lot from the original bronze type. By the Kangxi Dynasty, it had become a name for a display type of porcelain, which has nothing to do with its function." Zhou Zhi was dumbfounded: "This Serve the wine, I think it will overflow when you pour it out..."

"It would be good to use this." Zhang Cheng joined the conversation at the right time and took out another Guangcai small object from the counter: "This wine corner is a practical device, it was made during the reign of Guangxu, and it is good for holding and warming wine. "

"This one looks good too." Jazmin also liked it at first sight. Most of the things made by Zhijin Guangcai are rather tacky, but this wine corner is pretty good. There is only a pot of small daffodils painted on it, leaving a large area of ​​white space.

In the Guangcai style, which advocates full work and full painting, this thing is basically cutting corners. However, with the addition of time, the former bargains have become more in line with modern people's aesthetics, turning this wine corner into A small object that can make people’s eyes shine.

"This is something from the late Qing Dynasty, and it is not from an official kiln. It is not very valuable." Zhou Zhi said, "If you buy that blue and white piece, I will ask Brother Zhang to give you a gift at this wine corner."

"How much does this bottle cost?" Jasmine asked.

"You are a friend brought by Jiuzi, so I'll give you 126,000." Zhang Cheng smiled and said, "Although I'm not the boss, I can still do this."

Zhou Zhi heard it funny. The base price of this bell-ringing statue is actually around 100,000 yuan. The extra 26,000 yuan is Zhang Cheng's way of bargaining and spending money. If the customer digs a little, then he will slowly spend the 20,000 yuan on it. Sixth, if the customer is more generous, he can directly remove the six thousand and earn an additional twenty thousand.

Unexpectedly, Jasmine said directly: "But I don't have RMB, Hong Kong dollars, can I pay with a credit card?"

"Okay, okay..." Zhang Cheng's face was filled with joy, and he took out the POS machine from the counter: "We can swipe MasterCard and VISA. Wait for me to connect the line first..."

This thing is very rare, because although the country's financial giant has started, it was extremely slow in the initial stage. It was not until last year that the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank introduced the country's first POS machine and installed it at the credit card counter in the headquarters business hall.

Now, another year has passed, and there are still very few outlets with POS machines across the country, and merchants who can own POS machines are even rarer.

In the stage of trying to cross the river by feeling for stones, merchants must have qualifications and strength, must have clear needs for settlement, and must have extremely low credit risks. The transaction volume cannot be too large or too small... With various restrictions, this It’s really difficult to choose a merchant.

It is different from the situation where POS machines will be hard to find for a long time in the future, and it is even different from the situation in the future when even small mobile phone accessories stores will be full of POS machines from major banks. The handling fees are quite high, and most merchants would rather take customers to the bank's credit card counter to use the POS machine than open the equipment on their own counter.

Only "big places" like People's Mall, Dongfeng Mall, and Heng Supermarket dare to put it up.

Now that Hanya put this machine on, he was a brave "crab eater". Zhou Zhi guessed that Fei Guan was confused by the wind in the pillow in order to solve the task target for his wife.

"Great. It's very inconvenient to swipe credit cards in many places in the mainland." Jasmine was very happy and took out her credit card: "I didn't expect that this place is not big, but I can still swipe credit cards."

Zhou Zhi smiled and said: "Brother Zhang, Jasmine is going back to Hong Kong Island tonight. Is it too late to go through the customs clearance procedures?"

"The customs department at the airport is familiar, and Lao Fei relies on this to support his business." Zhang Cheng said, "He is at the airport now. Please wait for me to call him."

After saying that, he picked up the phone and dialed: "Hey Mr. Fei, here are two items to be replenished... The customers brought by Xiuzi, um, swipe their cards, swipe their cards, Citibank credit cards, they still settle in Hong Kong dollars... By the way, you can use the current exchange rate Tell me...Okay, okay, I'll ask Zhou Zhi to come find you when things are done here."