The record of burning rhino horns to see ghosts comes from the Book of Jin: raw rhinos dare not burn, burning them has a strange fragrance, staining clothes and belts, and people can communicate with ghosts.

Regardless of whether it is true or not, the account of "people can communicate with ghosts" in the book is the best selling point for those merchants in the antique market. So there are often nearby bosses who come to lobby grandpa and want to take his piece of rhino horn.

There was a boss who even directly pulled the buyer to his grandfather's store, saying that he would let the buyer negotiate the price with his grandfather, and give him a 2,000 yuan introduction fee after the matter was completed. The buyer was an old man from the United States, who was obsessed with those ghosts and gods, and directly asked for $120,000 when he entered the store.

The year was 1992, not to mention that 120,000 US dollars is 120,000 yuan is a huge amount, that year was still the era of 10,000 households, not to mention that the exchange rate between the US dollar and the RMB in the foreign exchange adjustment market that year was 8.5.

Later, my grandfather told me that he was not unmoved when he heard this price, because the quality of this thing was really not good, and many rhino horn handicrafts with good quality on the market at that time may not be sold at this price. Moreover, just like the old lady said, the fragrance of this thing is incense, but the fragrance is very strange. Grandpa burned it, and he didn't like it. And this thing doesn't have the shape of a rhino horn, a small irregular sphere, at a glance it is a piece of leftovers, if it weren't for an old connoisseur in the market to see it, grandpa couldn't have imagined that this piece was actually a rhinoceros horn. So when the price is really attractive, it is not as good as it is out.

In fact, grandpa once said that even now he doesn't believe that this thing is rhinoceros horn, that is, listen to it. Seriously, he didn't know whether to say that this expert really had eyesight, or if he simply admitted that he was wrong. But antiques are like this, there are senior connoisseurs who identify you as real, then even if you are fake, there are real prices. But if everyone says that you are a fake, and connoisseurs can't tell that you are the real thing, then even if you are a treasure that fell from the sky, it is worthless.

However, even if there is a connoisseur's certification, as far as the rhinoceros horn at that time is concerned, the price of this overseas Chinese old man is too high, and the nearby boss is not blushing when he hears it? Grandpa naturally really started the idea of selling this thing at that time.

It's just that this rhinoceros horn is a relic left by the old lady, and it is explained that it will be passed down, so grandpa is very reluctant, and grandma regards it as a treasure. If you want to sell it, grandpa really doesn't know how to open this mouth with grandma.

But to grandpa's surprise, when grandma knew that grandpa had the intention of selling this thing, she told grandpa frankly that in fact, as early as when she knew that this thing was rhinoceros horn, she took the initiative to hint that grandpa could make a move and hurry up, because this thing is very cloudy, and grandma feels very inappropriate when it is placed at home.

Before the liberation of the old lady, she was a businessman who opened an antique shop, and her grandmother was naturally a young lady of a capitalist, and she read a lot, not to mention that the idea of women's independence began to prevail at that time in the Republic of China. Although my grandmother was an intellectual and had read foreign books in church schools, the only difference between her and those who had read foreign books was that she was superstitious. Maybe this has something to do with the fact that the family used to open an antique shop.

Therefore, although my grandmother can speak English fluently, she loves to study ancient texts and antiques, but she does not care about the quality and value of things, but loves to study the origin of things. These old pieces, which ones are not behind the few rendered stories, may be because I have studied a lot and seen a lot, so there are many things that grandma is very taboo about.

It's just that in the end, grandma didn't insist on grandpa to make a move, because grandpa didn't understand it for a long time, but grandma mistakenly thought that grandpa was reluctant to sell, so she deliberately pretended to be stupid. Thinking that this was the only relic left by the old lady, grandma herself was very reluctant, so although she was taboo, she no longer insisted on it.

However, for this, I still think utilitarianly that the prices that used to be were not in place at all, so grandma didn't have much motivation to insist, and it didn't arouse grandpa's interest enough. No, once someone offered such a high price, grandpa was still interested in thinking about the problem.

However, in the end, it still didn't come out.

The reason why he didn't sell it was because he refused to sell it at the last moment, but it wasn't because he was reluctant.

In Grandpa's own words, "That overseas Chinese old man has a problem with his brain, how can he trade with him!" ”

The old man said that money was not a problem, the problem was to receive real rhino horn incense, and he took out a stack of photos from his bag, which were all kinds of rhino horn crafts, but they were more or less damaged, and asked him what was going on, and he disagreed and said that he knocked it down as incense.

"It turns out that this old man doesn't like to collect or collect at all, it's nothing more than that there is so much money that he has nowhere to spend, and he has enjoyed all the good drinks and fun, and now he has nothing to pursue, so he loves to play with ghosts." These are grandpa's exact words, and they are all completely derogatory, but I have some ideas of my own. I think that old man is just fascinated by the study of the supernatural, but it can't be regarded as a brain disease, at least people are serious about it, and the photos or something are empirical evidence. What's more, the overseas Chinese old man himself said: "The exquisite rhino horn handicrafts on the market can't reach this price, and the one in your hand is just a scrap, and if you take out one-tenth of the price, no one will accept it." This shows that his thinking is still clear, at least what he says is objective facts, and there is nothing wrong with his brain.

Even so, why did he pay such an uncharacteristically high price?

He also gave a reasonable explanation, because he bet that this scrap was a rhino horn. When it comes to Tongtian rhino, I'm afraid it's really rare on the market.

The rhinoceros is not a species of rhinoceros, but refers to the kind of rhinoceros that has rhinoceros horns running up and down. The so-called rhino horn that runs through the top and bottom refers to a kind of rhino horn that is long and sharp, with a hole in the middle, which can penetrate up and down and can breathe. Because it can breathe through the sky, it is called Tongtian rhino horn. Generally, this kind of rhino horn is only found on the head of wild rhinoceros in China, and the rhinoceros that can be seen in China today are all rhinoceros introduced from overseas after the founding of New China, and the rhinoceros that was born and raised in China since ancient times has long been extinct.

There are three species of rhinoceros in China, namely the two-horned rhinoceros, the large one-horned rhinoceros and the small one-horned rhinoceros. The so-called two-horned rhinoceros is now known as the Sumatran rhino, the last of which was born and raised in China, and was killed in 1916. The Great One-Horned Rhino is the Indian Rhino, the last of which was native to China and was killed in 1920. The small one-horned rhino is the Javan rhinoceros, the last of which was born and raised in China and was killed in 1922.

In other words, the probability of finding the horn of the rhino is small, and after 1922, there is no rhino at all, so you can only start from the old pieces on the market. Rare things are expensive, so if grandpa really has rhino horns in his hands, it is really worth the price.

But how did he prove that it was a rhino horn?

According to the old man of overseas Chinese, as long as the top of the rhino horn is ground into powder, and the wick of cotton thread is added to ignite, the light can shine on the ghosts wherever it goes. This is what the ancients called the real "rhino photo".

However, when the grandfather heard this, he became angry.

Why, if you can't shine on the ghosts, you don't want it? Then I also burned a lot of this thing by you, and since then I have been called a fake, so I can't think about it, so I got on fire and blasted the old man out along with the owner of the stall next door that I introduced.

My brother and I agree very much on this point, if this is really tossed by the old man like this, we will not be touched, and we will be in trouble. What's more, grandpa also said that when he first got his hands on it, he grinded out some powder and lit it, and he didn't see any ghosts, so it can be seen that it is just some deified legends.

It's just that grandma doesn't think so, she says maybe there are no ghosts in the neighborhood at the time, or maybe you burned too little. If I hadn't heard this from my grandmother later, I would have thought it came from some uneducated old rural lady. But my grandmother was very serious, and she could come up with a bunch of truths to chatter, but my brother and I often listened to it and didn't take it seriously. But the grandfather said more seriously: "Then I can't give him a try, this object is only 27.6 grams (this is the habit of the incense seller, the objects in hand, all the following names first), this is more than a little more than I don't have half of it!" ”

After more than half a year, in the middle of the following year, the state promulgated another law, reiterating the prohibition of buying and selling rhino horn and tiger bones, strengthening the inspection of the customs, strictly prohibiting the carrying of any related items out of the ban, into the ban, and even canceled the medicinal standards for these two things. So during that time, all the merchants in the antique market put away the rhino horn products, and even the cheapest African rhino horn that could not be associated with "psychic" at all disappeared from the market. (African rhino horn is the most common rhino horn on the market, because it does not have a fragrance when burned, but has a fishy smell, which is easy to distinguish)

After a few more years, the wind began to loosen, and many people began to quietly release the goods. Even now, if you really want to find rhino horn products, you can still find them, but in the past few years, the bosses in the market have gradually forgotten that grandpa has such a piece of rhino horn.

And grandpa himself slowly quit the habit of touching and looking at it every day because of the fact that as soon as he put it away. So this thing has been lying silently in a small box at home, until six or seven years ago, when my brother took over my grandfather's antique shop, and he took this rhino horn with him.