Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1624 A Big Job

After they came back from completing the formalities, Leah and Old John suddenly became much more polite to Zhou Zhi, which made Zhou Zhi a little uncomfortable.

Because of the "Johann Strauss II's baton" incident, Zhou Zhi's purchase of another "Chinese box" attracted no attention at all.

The two boxes were sold for a total of US$4,600, which totaled over US$5,000 including taxes and commissions. The Louis Vuitton desk box was then sold to Old Leah for US$7,000. Not only did Zhou Zhi make a small profit of over US$1,000, he also got a high-end white silk shirt, a conductor's tuxedo, a set of collar and cufflinks with platinum, pink and blue Brazilian tourmaline and small diamonds, four gem-encrusted gold pens customized by Leopold Stokowski, three crystal ink bottles, a stack of music manuscripts, a pocket watch with a gold case, a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, a gem-encrusted tie clip, a high-end silk scarf, two walrus briar pipes, one straight and one curved, two bottles of Egon wine, two bottles of White Tsar vodka, and two bottles of Red Tsar wine.

Of course, there is also the baton of Johann Strauss II made of narwhal tooth and whale baleen. Because of its celebrity effect, it is the most precious of all.

Under everyone's envious gaze, Old John took Zhou Zhi away. When they got in the car, Zhou Zhi immediately took out his mobile phone and called Grandpa Qi: "Grandpa, in the Republic of China or the late Qing Dynasty, there was a man named Li Foqing in Yuhang. Do you know him?"

"Are you calling from a mobile phone?" The old man's phone seemed to have caller ID: "Do you want to change to a landline?"

"I bought a box at the New York Customs Auction. There is a nameplate on it that says Yuhang Li Buddhist Chime." Zhou Zhi said, "There are also a few scrolls. Judging from the ribbons on the outside of the wrapping, they should be made by the imperial court."

"Bring him back." The old man said very simply: "He is one of my elders, a very powerful person. His nephew is very familiar with us and taught us in a stern voice. Do you have any impression of him?"

"No."

"Hehehe... It's not clear over the phone. When will you be back?"

"In the next two days." Zhou Zhi said, "Once the special edition film is finished, Lao An has authorized us to make high-definition prints of the restored "The Inscription on the Buried Crane" and "The Thousand Character Classic."

"That's great! This is also very important." The old man said, "Li Foqing's real name is Li Erkang, and Foqing is his courtesy name. He is the second son of Li Liangyu. You're not going to tell me that you don't know Li Liangyu either, right?"

"I know." Zhou Zhi nodded quickly: "The founder of Xiling Seal Society, this is really the descendant of Yuhang Li family. There must be good things in the box."

"Hahaha, that's not necessarily true," Old Master Qi laughed over there, "Although he came from a scholarly family, he became a military strategist and a lieutenant general in the Republic of China. Have you not opened the box yet?"

Zhou Zhi explained the rules of the customs auction to Mr. Qi, who couldn't help but mutter, "Is there such a weird way of playing?"

After chatting for a few minutes, Zhou Zhi hung up the phone, and he became even more excited.

At least we know that the owner of this rattan box is not an ordinary person, so the possibility that there are good things inside is a little greater.

This time, Old John sent Zhou Zhi directly to the Manhattan Apartment at 62 Fifth Avenue. In fact, he was very curious and wanted to know whether Zhou Zhi really lived there.

The waiter at the door saw Zhou Zhi and Old John getting off the car with a lot of things, and immediately came up: "George, you have a lot of gains today, please give the box to me." "Thank you, Joseph, I always bother you." Zhou Zhi handed Joseph twenty dollars as a consumption.

Old George understood that Zhou Zhi was indeed a regular customer of this apartment. If he was a stranger, he should have waited until the waiter delivered the things to the room before giving the tip. It seemed that the two were already very familiar with each other.

However, Zhou Zhi's residence was not among An Siyuan's twenty-two rooms, but a standard guest room on another floor of the apartment. Although An Siyuan lived on the floor above, Old John still could not see him.

Of course Zhou Zhi would not deliberately introduce Old John to others, after all, he himself was a newcomer.

But this information is enough. Those who can live here are generally scholars, professors, collectors, and business partners invited by An Siyuan. They know that this young man does live here. In addition, the incident of Johann Strauss II's baton being opened at the airport customs is enough for old John to brag about for half a year.

After seeing Old John off, Zhou Zhi finally had time to see what he had photographed.

The inner workshops of the Qing Dynasty were a very large system that needed to produce a large number of exquisite handicrafts and was also responsible for the maintenance, care, or recycling of previous handicrafts.

For example, Qianlong, who was obsessed with stamping, not only liked to put his own seal on ancient paintings, but also liked to grind off the writing on the jade seals of previous dynasties and re-engraved the words he wanted, or engrave his own poems on the bottom of Song Dynasty porcelain. He really wasted a lot of good things.

Of course, many good things were also created. For example, there is a kind of porcelain that even Jingde could only make raw materials for. After it was sent to the capital, it was colored and fired a second time by porcelain workers in the imperial palace. This is an extremely precious variety of porcelain in the imperial palace of the Qing Dynasty - the enamel porcelain known as the "Queen of Porcelain".

When the auction just started, Zhou Zhi had already determined from the ribbons that these paintings must be ancient paintings, because judging from the style, craftsmanship and materials of the ribbons, they were all craftsmanship of the imperial court of Qing Dynasty. The ribbon used in one of the scrolls was even apricot yellow, with two enameled lotus pendants on the top of the ribbon.

When the bag was opened, there was a brocade border on the linen, and a wenge wood shaft was wrapped around it. It could be preliminarily determined that it was a very good thing.

However, judging from the state of the scroll at the edge of the world, its preservation condition over the past few decades at the customs was worrying. Zhou Zhi didn't dare to open it now, for fear of getting a pile of debris, which would make it even more difficult to deal with.

He opened four pockets in succession and found the same thing in all of them. Zhou Zhi tried to gently pry open a painting, but found that the core of the painting had turned black. He could not help but curse, and quickly restored the scroll bundle to its original state, tied it up with a ribbon and put it aside.

In this situation, he could only wait and see after returning home, but Zhou Zhi was sure that he would be burdened with a lot of heavy work again.

His eyes fell on the wicker box. Now he had no choice but to take action on it.

The wicker box was locked, but this thing can only protect against gentlemen but not villains. Zhou Zhi put the box on the workbench with his back to himself, found a screwdriver to remove the loose-leaf screws on the back, and opened the box from the opposite side.

The things in the box were a few uniforms and a set of military uniforms. Zhou Zhi couldn't understand the military rank on them. The rest were a few books in Japanese and German, a few medals similar to military medals, and a bunch of small boxes.

(End of this chapter)