Year: I had a good time when I was young

Chapter 793: Blocking the Road Again

When the second uncle heard Yan Laokou say that his eldest son went to work as a temporary worker at the Huaxiang Agricultural Reclamation Base in the suburbs of Beijing,

The corners of his mouth could not help but curl up slightly, thinking to himself that Yan Jiecheng was really stupid. Why did he have to offend Chu Xiangqian when he could offend anyone else?

And after offending someone, he doesn't know how to give in.

The second son Guang Tian was smart. Although he had offended Chu Xiangqian, he surrendered immediately and even fawned on Chu Xiangqian like a follower.

Look, the reward for being an apprentice is that not only do I work in the street canteen during the day, but I also became a regular employee within two years.

Even the third son Guangfu benefited from this and became an apprentice in a steel rolling mill.

Although he, as a father, also spent money when asking Chu Xiangqian for help, there were still families who could afford to pay three to five hundred yuan.

It doesn’t matter, you can’t give away your money.

Not to mention that next year, when the three-year apprenticeship period is over, with Chu Xiangqian's reputation, the factory will definitely promote Guang Fucheng to a formal employee.

Thinking of this, Liu Haizhong suddenly felt that his second son Liu Guangtian was not completely useless.

Then he thought, should I find a wife for Guangtian?
Moreover, he has made a lot of money trading antiques with Chu Xiangqian in the past two years.

Every year, it is no less than my own salary.

Thinking of this, Liu Haizhong suddenly felt confident.

Chu Xiangqian thought about it and wanted to let the past go with Yan Laokou.

But then I thought, why should I pretend to be generous?

If you don't like Yan Jiecheng, then so be it. Besides, the second son of the Yan family was transferred to the street canteen on his own initiative.

The third child, Yan Jiekuang, is almost 16 years old. If this kid doesn’t want to study, it’s time for him to find a job.

And to be honest, it would be a good thing for Yan Jiekuang to find a job next year. Otherwise, given his age, he would basically be among the first batch of educated youth going to the countryside.

This group is also the most miserable.

Then think about my own fourth child, Chu Ailin. During the first three years of the special period, he was either in the third year of junior high school or the first year of high school, which happened to be the third class.

Thinking of this, Chu Xiangqian suddenly felt that he should take the fourth child to Hong Kong Island to attend junior high school next year, so that he would not go there too late and not be able to adapt to the teaching progress in Hong Kong Island.

No, you have to go in the second half of this year and start grade 5 first, otherwise you won’t even be able to get into middle school.

Thinking of this, Chu Xiangqian suddenly felt that as long as he captured the second and third brothers of Yan, no matter how much Yan Jiecheng, the eldest brother, hated him, the Yan family would not make the wrong decision because of him.

So Chu Xiangqian ignored Yan Laokou's hint and said with a smile that it was good to be in the agricultural reclamation base, where he could support himself and also help out at home.

Liu Haizhong almost laughed out loud after hearing this, while Yan Laokou opened his mouth, but after thinking about it, he gave up the idea of ​​saying good things to Jie Cheng.

It’s not that I haven’t said good things for Jie Cheng in the past few years, but although Chu Xiangqian said that he didn’t mind, his words and deeds showed no intention of reconciliation.

Old Yan sighed in his heart. Now it was his own family that asked him, Chu Xiangqian, to sacrifice his eldest son in exchange for the second and third sons and the antique business worth several hundred dollars every year. Just thinking about it made him feel that he had made a lot of money.

And what Chu Xiangqian said was also correct. Although the agricultural reclamation base is tiring, it is still state-owned after all.

City people look down on this job, but to people in the surrounding villages and towns, it is an excellent unit.

Not only can they eat the fixed grain, but they can also get some sweet potatoes, vegetables and other things to supplement the family.

But marrying a daughter-in-law is a bit troublesome.

After thinking it over, Yan Laokou decided that a country wife would definitely not work, so he could only find a girl for his eldest son from the Huaxiang Agricultural Reclamation Base who also worked in the city.
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Old Yan didn't mention the matter of his eldest son anymore. Naturally, he wanted to sell all the antiques his family had acquired over the past six months to Chu Xiangqian as soon as possible.

He winked at Liu Haizhong, who nodded and went out and went home.

When he came back with a canvas bag, he saw Chu Xiangqian sitting at the table, looking at pieces of porcelain, copper coins, calligraphy and paintings.

When Chu Xiangqian saw the antiques that Liu Haizhong took out, he just glanced at them and began to look at the two old men with a new respect.

But when you think about it, it makes sense. I have been trading antiques with them for almost two years.

The money they earned from their own hands was at least eight hundred.

If you add food stamps or grain, the value will double.

Although there is no shortage of food in the capital now, the three difficult years have basically emptied out the assets of many people.

This is a family with a wealthy background. Many of the old people and young people have already used all the money and gold bars they had to buy food.

Those who couldn't hold on had to sell off not only antiques, but even furniture, pots and pans.

Last year, when the food problem began to be solved, those wealthy families felt uneasy when they were left with only antiques.

Since the beginning of this year, the price of antiques has risen a lot compared to the past three or four years. Naturally, some people will take the opportunity to sell some of them for money to avoid another famine. If they have no money and only have antiques, they will still starve.

And since the transaction has been going on for almost two years, even a pig can find some channels to get more and better antiques.

Chu Xiangqian looked at them one by one and soon confirmed that they were basically true.

Finally I reached out and picked it up to take a look, and a reminder sound rang in my mind, and there was nothing wrong.

It can be seen that Chu Xiangqian's eyesight is getting better and better as he has seen more and more real things.

Of course, basically no one is counterfeiting in this era, and many of those things that look wrong are actually old things that were imitated from the Tang and Song dynasties by the Qing Dynasty or the Ming Dynasty.

But after a hundred or several hundred years, these imitations have actually become antiques.

Some imitations made in the palace have become fine products and treasures.

Of course, the fact that there are fewer people commit fraud does not mean that there are no frauds.

As long as old stuff keeps flowing overseas, there will definitely be people who forge them to deceive antique dealers in Hong Kong and overseas.

But these things are basically impossible for ordinary people to have.

And if we have to imitate it, it has to be a heavy-duty imitation.

Simply put, whatever is expensive, we copy.

Otherwise, you won’t be able to recover the costs, and only a fool would do it.

There were 72 pieces in total, but Chu Xiangqian only picked out 9. Liu Haizhong and Yan Laokou didn't say anything either.

In previous transactions, anything picked out by Chu Xiangqian had problems or was not old enough, so the price had to be renegotiated.

Chu Xiangqian no longer collects things from the late Qing Dynasty and the early years of the Republic of China.

Since I have no shortage of gold coupons, of course I will only accept the good things.

However, Yan Laokou and Liu Haizhong were not happy about it. After all, they were the antiques they bought with their own money.

If Chu Xiangqian doesn't take it, they will have to bear the consequences.

Chu Xiangqian thought about it and nodded. It was indeed him who did not tell them about this in advance.

But if you get something worse next time, don't blame yourself for being ruthless.

Half an hour later, after Chu Xiangqian negotiated with Liu Haizhong and Yan Fugui, he used the excuse that he didn't have enough money and had to go back to his second and third uncles to borrow some money. He returned to the bedroom in the east wing and dawdled for a few minutes before returning to Yan's house and handing Liu Haizhong and the other two 920 yuan.

If it were last year or the year before, these 63 antiques would be worth at most two or three hundred yuan.

By using food and dried meat to offset half of the cash, Chu Xiangqian was able to lower the price by half again, to between two and three hundred yuan.

Even at the end of last year, after the problem of food shortage was basically solved, antiques fell even more sharply for a period of time.

Unfortunately, in just over half a year, the prices of antiques have returned to the levels of the late 59 and early 60s.

And with continued bumper harvests in the next two or three years, the prices of antiques will surely return to the level of the mid-50s.

It is no longer realistic to buy antiques at 20% or 30% of the price.

After that, a lot of good things were destroyed.

Since there is no shortage of food this year, the prices of food and meat in the pigeon market naturally began to fall.

Why do we say antiques flourish in prosperous times? To put it bluntly, the antique market will flourish only when people have enough food to eat and have some spare money.

When the day comes when you have enough to eat and have nothing to do, that is when the prices of antiques will skyrocket.

This time, Yan Laokou and Liu Haizhong also only wanted money, and did not mention food and meat.

Chu Xiangqian didn't care about it. The price had been suppressed for more than two years, so it was normal to sell it at the normal market price now.

Moreover, the so-called normal market price is actually 20% to 30% lower than the outside price.

With Yan Lao's stingy personality, he cannot fool experts, but he is very good at fooling ordinary people who don't understand the market.

However, 9% of people these days don’t understand the antique market at all.

Even for people twenty or thirty years later, it is normal to be undervalued.

Even though it cost 920 yuan, the average price of each of the 63 Ming and Qing antiques was less than 15 yuan.

If you take this to Hong Kong Island, the price will increase dozens of times.

If the cherry blossoms were sold, the price would have to be more than ten times higher.

Of course, among these 63 antiques, only a few pieces of porcelain and calligraphy and paintings can catch the attention of antique dealers in Hong Kong Island.

There are really too many good things these days. Many of them will be sold for at least millions a few decades later, but people in this era simply don't look down on them.

Chu Xiang carried two canvas bags with him when he went out, and Yan Laokou and Liu Haizhong did not see him off, so as to avoid being seen by other neighbors in the courtyard.

But to be honest, apart from the Yan family, the east wing, the back house, and the east ear room in the front yard all belong to the Chu family. Only the west ear room has an outsider living there.

If Chu Xiangqian was willing to let Aiguo and Yu Shui exchange the house and people in the backyard, then the front yard would be the Yan family surrounded by the Chu family.

But if he really does this, Yan Laokou will definitely not be able to sleep in the future.

So think about it and forget it.

Before Chu Xiangqian left the Yan family, he had already confirmed through Shanque and Huang Diao'er that the family in the west ear room had already gone to bed.

When he went out, he casually put the two canvas bags into the warehouse in the Novice Village, and rode his bicycle back to his home in Qianmen.

But before they had walked far, the tit gave a warning.

Chu Xiangqian immediately focused his attention on Shanque's sight, and then he was ready to take out the pistol from his portable storage space at any time.

Fortunately, it was only a moment, and Chu Xiangqian remembered that Qin Huairu had blocked the road before.

Sure enough, through the sight of the tit, I saw a woman in gray clothes standing in the same alley about ten meters away as before.

Without even looking closely, just by looking at her figure, Chu Xiangqian knew that the woman was Qin Huairu.

Come to think of it, I've been away for more than two months. It would be a problem if the widow Qin Huairu didn't feel worried.

In addition to worrying about whether her trip would go smoothly and whether her health would be the same as before, Qin Huairu was also worried that Chu Xiangqian would break off relations with her after having a son.

Chu Xiangqian was quite interested in this woman. Apart from the fact that the 28-year-old Qin Huairu still looked like a 20-year-old girl, her figure was also much fuller than that of a young girl.

Plus, she's so obedient, doesn't ask for status, and doesn't cause any trouble for herself, so only a fool wouldn't want her.

And to be honest, Qin Huairu was his first woman after he came into this world.

Although life was not hard at that time, it was indeed a bit boring.

In addition, influenced by the halo of a star and the mentality of being a thief, he will certainly not let go if he encounters one.

However, Chu Xiangqian has been on guard against this woman in recent years, also influenced by his memories of his past life.

If during a special period I cannot return to the capital, I will have to take a break for a few years.

If Qin Huairu is still devoted to him, then this relationship should last for many years.
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In order not to scare Qin Huairu, Chu Xiangqian pretended not to notice and continued walking forward. However, Qin Huairu had actually seen him when Chu Xiangqian went out and rode his bicycle onto the street.

When they were only two or three meters away, he coughed gently a few times to attract Chu Xiangqian's attention, and he hurriedly walked out and sat down on the back seat.

He put his arm around Chu Xiangqian's waist and said, "Come on, let's go to Xiao'e."

Chu Xiangqian was delighted. It seemed that the two women knew that he would come here to eat today and had already planned to block his way.

Twenty minutes later, they entered the small courtyard on Shatan Street on the Jingshan side. Before they could stand up their bicycle, Lou Xiao'e, who had opened the door, hugged him tightly from behind.

Although Qin Huairu missed him badly, she also knew that she had to lock the door first.

Before long, the sound of opera singing could be heard in the house, and it started to rain heavily outside, easily covering up the increasingly uncontrollable sound of playing cards.

When the sound of raindrops began to sound, Qin Huairu and Lou Xiaoe simply suppressed their voices and sang the opera happily for more than an hour.

But after venting, I soon felt my throat a little hoarse.

Moreover, singing and dancing at the same time, and even doing somersaults, made the two of them very tired.

The rain kept falling heavily. Chu Xiangqian looked at his watch and saw that it was almost dawn, so he decided to stay here.

Qin Huairu and Lou Xiaoe originally wanted to let him stay, and they were very happy.

Not only did she help him wash and brush his teeth, she also took out the prepared wine and food for him to have a midnight snack.

When Chu Xiangqian saw that there was wine, meat, fish soup and fried peanuts, he knew that the two women had a good year.

Although peanuts are insignificant, frying them requires a lot of oil. Urban residents only have 3.6 taels of oil per month, so they are reluctant to use much oil for cooking, let alone frying peanuts.

However, before Chu Xiangqian left the capital last time, he left them a lot of food, dried meat, dried fish, deer glue, dried fruits and fresh fruits.

You don't have to use up your own rations, and you can bring some back for your family. You don't have to worry about pocket money, so it's not difficult to buy some fresh meat, fish and pork fat at the pigeon market.

If all else fails, you can still exchange your food coupons and money for a lot of good things.

But if you think about it carefully, even during the three difficult years, Lou Xiao'e actually never suffered.

Chu Xiangqian had actually hooked up with her in the last few months of 59. With the help from her parents, she had no problem getting enough food.

(End of this chapter)