Chapter XII

Buying and selling

Guanchao Street is very long, in fact, it is divided into two parts: East Street and West Street. East Street is mostly filled with galleries, pawnshops, and occasionally some jewelry and silver buildings, all in all, most of them are modern people's objects. Although there are also those who have lost their eyes or have been slaughtered because of the market, at least the things are always real money and genuine, even if they are lost, they will not hurt their muscles and bones, and the price will not be prohibitive, so the business of East Street is often the most lively, and the customers are also men, women and children. As for West Street, it is only the boundary of antiques.

Watching the tide and watching the tide, I don't know whether it is a metaphor for the unpredictable entertainment market with the ebb and flow of the tide or the surging dark tide.

Ling Xiao was not in a hurry - she was not in the mood to read today, so she simply gave herself a whole day off and walked down East Street unhurriedly, not looking at any purpose, just pushing the door door and entering.

The first one on the street is a shop selling paintings and calligraphy. Ling Xiao pushed the door and entered, and saw that the walls of the small store were full of large and small painting scrolls and frames, and the two customers were repaying the price with the boss.

Ling Xiao didn't speak, and looked at the calligraphy and paintings in the store one by one unhurriedly. The boss may have seen her young age and thought that she didn't know how to do it, but he was just curious to take a casual look, and he didn't pay attention to her, and still talked about the price with the two customers on the side.

Ling Xiao didn't care, and listened to the bargaining of the first few people for a long time-in fact, the volume of those three people was not very loud, and they were quite far away, and ordinary people probably couldn't hear it clearly. But Ling Xiao's internal strength is not bad, and he is naturally much more deaf and clear-sighted than ordinary people, and he can hear it clearly without difficulty. While listening, she quickly read all the calligraphy and paintings in the store, and finally subconsciously looked at the words that the three bosses were talking about, nodded thoughtfully, turned and pushed the door to leave.

Then, there was the second, the third......

By the time Ling Xiao finally stopped at the door of the largest calligraphy and painting shop called "Lin Quange" on the entire street, it was already nearly three o'clock in the afternoon.

"Lin Quan's ......?" Ling Xiao stood in the doorway, muttered for a moment, and soon pushed the door open without hesitation, as he had done every time before.

"The Elegance of Forests and Springs" is said to be a masterpiece of landscape painting in the Song Dynasty -- she happened to see it a few days ago when she was doing a language exercise.

It's the biggest shop on the street. As soon as Ling Xiao entered the door, he immediately felt that the store was bright and spacious, and the decoration was simple but not gaudy; Although there are many calligraphy and paintings on display, they are neither crowded nor too sparse, but rather scattered and quite chic.

"Oh, it's quite interesting......," the girl whispered a compliment, and looked at the calligraphy and paintings in the shop unhurriedly as usual.

"What does Miss want to buy? Maybe I can recommend some to you. "The clerk is a young girl in her twenties, and she smiles kindly but not flatteringly, which makes people feel good when they hear it.

Ling Xiao had already roughly looked at a few calligraphy and paintings at this time, and when she heard this, she turned around, looked at her and smiled: "Your store - do you accept calligraphy and paintings?" ”

It seemed that she didn't expect Ling Xiao to ask like this, the girl was slightly stunned, but she quickly nodded: "Accept it." Does Miss have any famous works to sell? Rest assured, our prices are always fair. ”

If it weren't for the exquisite clothes of the girl in front of her, and obviously the wealthy family, otherwise she would not have said "receive" at such a young age to sell calligraphy and paintings - their family does still accept calligraphy and paintings, but to achieve today's scale, it has long been a non-famous family that does not accept it. Therefore, although she responded with a "receiving", she still vaguely reminded the little girl in front of her - they only accept famous people here.

Ling Xiao didn't know if she understood what she meant, she just smiled when she heard the words, but she didn't answer, but continued to say to herself:

"Just take it. Is the boss available? I want to meet him face to face. ”

"This ......," the clerk girl was visibly hesitant. The girl was reluctant to answer her question, and I am afraid that it was not a masterpiece that she wanted to make. It stands to reason that she should have politely refused, their store is very popular, and every day I don't know how many people come to the door to sell their "masterpieces", but I don't know why, obviously she is such a young girl, just standing there calmly, inexplicably giving her a sense of existence that is difficult to ignore, and she can't afford to refute the slightest thought.

"I can't say anything about this, or else, you wait a while, I'll ask the boss." After a while, the clerk finally took the lead in compromise.

Ling Xiao thanked her, watched her pack up a little, turned around and went inside, habitually wanting to turn the pen, but suddenly remembered that her pen was in the backpack and it was inconvenient to take it out, so she could only sigh a little helplessly, turn around with her hands and continue to look at those calligraphy and paintings.

When Yan Kuang came out, he saw a little girl in a black dress looking intently at the calligraphy and paintings in the store - probably because she was young and had not fully grown up, and her body was not high, but her back was straight, and she was standing in place with her hands in her hands, looking like she had a rare graceful bearing.

"I'm the boss here, little girl, you're looking for me?" Yan Kuang was a little confused about the origin of this little girl for a while, hesitated for a while, and simply opened his mouth first.

"Yes, I'm looking for you." The girl turned her head when she heard this, and her words were almost rude, but Yan Kuang, who was the person concerned, couldn't get angry at all, and felt inexplicably as if she should be like this.

He didn't answer again for a while, and Ling Xiao took the opportunity to take a look at the person who came - the boss was a middle-aged man in his forties, who looked a little fat, but his temperament was quite elegant, and his smiling face was sincere and just right, and it was easy to win people's favor.

Ling Xiao quietly withdrew his gaze and smiled: "I don't know what the boss is called?" ”

"My surname is Yan, Yan Zhenqing's Yan, a single name and a Kuang character, you can just call me Yan Kuang." The boss seemed to have a good temper and replied with a smile.

As soon as these words came out, Ling Xiao was slightly stunned, but after only a moment of effort, he quickly came back to his senses, and bowed slightly to the boss: "Boss Yan, I'm bothered." I'm here to sell a few calligraphy and paintings. ”

Presumably the clerk had already told him about it before, and he was not surprised to hear it, but he still asked her with a smile: "I don't know which famous master?" ”

Ling Xiao glanced at him.

Yan Kuang was stunned for a moment - in the eyes of the little girl, he clearly read the meaning of "you and I know well, don't pretend to go around in circles". His stunned kung fu was only a second or two, but when he came back to his senses, he saw that the little girl had arrived at some point.

Their family also does some high-end study four treasures business, and there are pen, ink, paper and inkstones in front of the counter, which are for guests to try. The little girl shook off a piece of rice paper, and before he could speak, she had already dipped it in ink and dropped it without hesitation.

In an instant—in the blink of an eye, she had put the pen back in its place.

Yan Kuang leaned his neck in some surprise and saw that there were three big characters on the rice paper that had not dried - Lin Quan Pavilion.

Strength through the back of the paper, graceful and majestic, muscles and bones - this is obviously the style of the face, but compared with the plump and simple face, it seems to be a little more uninhibited, but it seems to have a bit of Zhang Xu's chic, even shocking vulgarity.

He has been immersed in calligraphy and painting for decades, and if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, it would have been impossible to believe that such a character would have been written by a sixteen or seventeen-year-old girl.

This is not inferior to many calligraphers who are dozens of years old.

And more importantly - she was young, almost as young as anyone could have imagined.

"What does the boss think?" Ling Xiao put down his pen and raised his eyebrows slightly.

"Good word! I took this word! Yan Kuang nodded without hesitation, and finally glanced at her again, with a slight hesitation in his expression, "As for the price, you also know that although the word is a good word, it ...... These years, I like to speculate on famous masterpieces, and I can only get a thousand of yours. ”

The corners of Ling Xiao's eyes raised slightly, and he laughed in a low voice: "The boss is a person who understands, is it not that he bullied me and didn't know how to do it?" ”

She spent a whole morning and half an afternoon walking around the whole street, and saw several negotiated deals with her own eyes, and she already knew the price of calligraphy and painting today. For a little-known "newcomer", selling three words for 1,000 is already a high price, but-

"Doing business starts with one sitting on the ground and paying back the money on the spot, but-" Ling Xiao paused slightly and raised his chin slightly, "It's a pity that my patience is extremely poor, and I am not the material for doing business." ”

This sounds like a "threat". However, looking at the little girl's eyebrows, eyes and chin were slightly raised, full of conceit, Yan Kuang inexplicably felt that she seemed to be just talking about a certain fact, but when the counter-offer came to her mouth, she choked suddenly, and was silent for a while, so she could only smile helplessly and sigh: "That's it, why don't you go inside and have a good talk?" It's also not very convenient here. ”

Ling Xiao replied noncommittally, and followed him into the inner room—he hadn't forgotten to bring the painting she had just written before entering the door.

Closing the door and making a cup of tea for the little girl, the slightly chubby middle-aged man sat down opposite Ling Xiao and asked with a gentle smile: "The little girl writes well, how long has she been practicing?" ”

Ling Xiao didn't answer, took a slow sip of tea, and glanced at him obliquely.

- His eyes were slightly impatient.

Yan Kuang sighed, put away the temptation, still with a smile on his face, but his expression suddenly became serious: "Miss is also an understanding person, so I will say it directly." There is no doubt that the word is a good word, if I really want to say, it will not lose those masterpieces. But you also know that in recent years, there are few people who know how to buy calligraphy and paintings, and most of them are vassals and elegant, to put it bluntly, they don't understand, they just want to pretend to be literate and tasteful. ”

He said, a little helplessly: "You said that if you have an award certificate for some competition, or even if you are a member of a local book association, you can also have an examination certificate if you can't do it, then we can sell it at a good price if we promote and package it......

He had never seen this girl's words before—with such words, it was impossible not to be famous if he had participated in a competition; Even if you pass the exam and have a certificate in hand, you won't be so miserable that you have to come to the store to sell calligraphy and paintings.