A gardenia or two, a packet of black tea, ten acorns?

I'm baffled, what is this? What is the Chinese medicine prescription or the drink formula? These three things are not rare, and they can impress Liu Zhan with this? Someone's message couldn't have been sent by mistake, right?

At this time, the third one jumped out and urged: "Time is running out." ”

"Let's be a dead horse doctor...... "I put the BP machine back on my waist.

Don't look at these three things, it's quite troublesome to get them together. I first found a Chinese medicine shop near Huaihai Road, endured the contempt of others and asked for a gardenia or two, then went to a small store to buy a box of bagged black tea (people don't only sell it), and finally counted ten acorns in a dried fruit store.

I put these three things in a small plastic bag and visited Liu Zhanzhan again. Liu Zhanzhan was answering the phone, and he was talking in high spirits, and when he saw me going and returning, his mouth kept talking, and he waved his gestures impatiently, telling me to get out.

I didn't say a word, but put the plastic bag on his desk, and a few gardenias and acorns rolled out, revealing half a tea bag.

It is strange to say, when Liu Zhanzhan saw these three things, his complexion suddenly changed greatly. He said a few perfunctory words on the phone, quickly hung up, and when he looked at me, his eyes almost burst into flames.

"What do you mean by that?" He asked.

"Are you sure you want me to say it here?" I really don't know what's going on, but I still have the consciousness to make a fool of myself.

Liu Zhan obviously couldn't sit still, as if his bonsai was all running between the chair and his butt. I seemed to be smiling, calm and calm, and kept looking straight at me. Liu Zhanzhan couldn't bear this kind of gaze, so he had to lower his voice and say, "What do you want?" ”

"I heard that this prescription can improve people's memory, so I sent it to you." I said carefully, firstly, it seems confident to say this, and secondly, I am afraid that I will say too much.

Liu Zhan's cheeks trembled, and after a while, he barely squeezed out a smile on his white face: "Xiao Xu, after you left, I thought about it carefully, and I remembered it a little." Since Old Man Liu asked you to check, you can't let his old man down. "I was secretly amazed in my heart. The effect of this prescription is really immediate, it can't be the witch Gu of some martial arts novel, right? Otherwise, there is no way to explain Liu's transformation before and after the battle.

"Then you can say it, I'll listen."

Liu Zhanzhan took out a cloth and wiped the sweat from his forehead, only to find out that it was a glasses cloth. He shook his hand angrily and told me, "That shop is called Fan Huhao, and the shopkeeper's surname is Fan." This shop is a small shop in Shanghai, with a small scale and good credit. ”

"Is he the old shopkeeper you are embarrassed about?"

"I didn't mean to embarrass him at the time. At that time, the poorer the more honorable, who would think about making money with antiques. I'm suffering...... Well, you know, who was entrusted by that to kill the price. Who knew that Mr. Huang was here on a business trip. ”

I saw him spitting and spitting, and my heart was full of suspicion, it sounded like this Liu Zhan seemed to be in collusion with someone, and he thought that I "should" know. I had the heart to ask more, but I was afraid of revealing flaws, so I had to nod expressionlessly: "What about the shopkeeper Fan?" ”

"I have died of illness a long time ago, and Fan Huji's shop has also been closed."

"Didn't there be a descendant who accompanied him at that time?"

"Oh, you said Fan Bo. It was his nephew, who worked as a factory worker and is still in Shanghai. ”

"You're still in touch?"

Liu Zhanzhan showed a wry smile: "Yes." A few years ago, he came to me once, saying that the price of the antiques he bought was unfair, and asked for restitution or compensation. I said it was a uniform policy of the National Heritage Store and had nothing to do with me. He was not convinced, so he wrote up one complaint letter after another, and he was not annoyed. ”

I asked him where the letters were, and Liu Zhan got up and took out a stack of letters from a filing cabinet, and handed them to me in a somewhat smug tone: "These are Fan Bo's complaint letters, and as soon as the higher authorities received them, they directly transferred them to me." He is still stupidly writing one letter after another, what use can it be? ”

I didn't like Liu Zhan's tone very much, so I didn't pick up his stubble, and picked up a letter of appeal to read. I am so familiar with this cover, when I write the appeal materials to my parents, I write them one after another, and the format of the cover is very familiar. Thinking of this, my heart hurts slightly.

I found that all the letters were unopened, and it seems that Fan Bo's hard work of appealing year after year was all in vain. I took the letter and glanced at Liu Zhanzhan, who hurriedly said, "Whatever you want, it's all nonsense anyway." "I tore open the seal, and inside was three pages of letterhead, and in addition to telling the story of the acquisition, there was also a list of antiques that had been forcibly acquired, including the missing Qi Tongbao. However, this Fan Bo is obviously a layman, not only did he write many words wrong, but also regarded Daqi Tongbao as a worthless thing and listed it at the end of the list.

My heart sank, and I thought to myself, I'm in trouble, don't break the clue here. There are a lot of such things, the previous generation obviously left a lot of good things and stories, but the latter generation does not know the goods, and is reluctant to pass them on to outsiders, so the inheritance is broken. In the past, someone specially collected the list of famous Peking Opera actors in Beijing and regarded them as treasures, but his son was not interested in Peking Opera at all, and after his father died, he threw the collection in a warehouse corner. When someone remembered this incident and wanted to buy it from him, as soon as he opened the warehouse, the drama list was all moldy.

This Fan Bo doesn't seem to know much about antiques, and he may not know what the story is between Fan Huji and Daqi Tongbao.

I secretly prayed that this conjecture would not come true, and I continued to look down to see that Fan Bo had left his home address at the end of the letter, which is the standard format for a letter of appeal. I took a pen and copied the address, and suddenly thought about it, I looked for it so rashly, and people might not be willing to speak, so I looked up and said to Liu Zhan: "You can accompany me to have a look." ”

"What am I going to do? He didn't have a crush on me at all. Liu Zhanzhan looked reluctant.

"The bell must also be tied to the bell. It is precisely because he has repeatedly appealed to you that he has not been able to do so, and now that you take the initiative to visit, he will definitely raise the hope of a solution, and as soon as people have hope, it is easy to talk. ”

Liu Zhanzhan jumped up and was furious: "Make a wish, don't you have to make an inch!" Why should I agree to such an unreasonable request! ”

"I just asked you to accompany me to have a look, and I don't need you to do anything else." After saying that, I glanced at the plastic bag containing gardenias, acorns, and black tea bags, and Liu Zhanzhan sharpened his teeth, so he had to reluctantly agree.

I'm more and more curious, what kind of prescription is this prescription for medicine, it's like the Three Corpses Brain Pill in Jin Yong's novel, which can control people like puppets.

The place where Fan Bo lives is located in a small alley in Zhabei District. The alley is narrow, flanked by low, dilapidated two-story buildings, with blackened brick walls and peeling wooden frames, and when you look up, the cramped sky is cut into countless tiny shapes by rows of withered yellow clothespoles. Two or three old men sat at the door of the alley basking in the sun, their eyes cloudy. After inquiring with Liu Zhan all the way, he learned that Fan Bo's family lived in an attic. The building itself is quite old, and the staircase with the black hole is crumbling and full of debris. We walked to the third floor and had to climb up a large bamboo staircase stained with paint to reach the attic.

The attic had no door, just a grease-stained curtain. I shouted that Fan Bo was not there, and there was a crackling sound inside, and I felt that there were several people. After tossing for a while, a man with a wrinkled face lifted the curtain and came out: "I'm Fan Bo, who are you?" ”

This guy should be about the same age as Liu Zhan, but the faces of the two are really different. The furrows on his face are full of the sorrows of life, and life must not be very smooth.

"We are from the Shanghai Painting and Calligraphy Appreciation Association, and we want to find you something to know." I say. Fan Bo saw Liu Zhan behind me with an unhappy face, his eyes lit up, and he hurriedly let us in.

As soon as I entered, I realized why it had been so long in the house. The height of this attic is about 1.7 meters, and you can't straighten your body after entering, with a total area of more than 20 square meters, but there are two wooden beds stacked together, a desk, a gas stove, and even two white cloth sheets in the corner of the house to separate a toilet. In this pigeon cage, there are five members of the Fan family. There are two old people lying on the bed, a half-sized child leaning on the desk, and there should be another one in the toilet, it is estimated that it is his wife, who heard that an outsider is coming, and he dare not come out. There was a smell of fumes, fishy stench and decay in the room—it seemed that Fan Bo's life was very bad.

The attic was too low, so Fan Bo diligently dragged out two benches from under the bed and brushed them with his sleeves for us to sit on. Liu Zhanzhan frowned and covered his nose with a handkerchief. As soon as I saw this situation, I went straight to the point and said, "We came this time to ask you about the Fan Hu. ”

"Got a response to the appeal?" Fan Bo was so excited that he puffed out his chest and almost hit the ceiling.

Liu Zhan hurriedly said: "Those are all unreasonable demands of yours, and the state has no policy." Fan Bo was furious: "Then what are you going to do!" I glared at Liu Zhanzhan and said with relief: "I want to find you to understand the situation." Fan Bo let out an "oh" and sat back down: "My situation is very clear in the appeal letter. ”

"We need to finalize the details of the list of antiques attached to your complaint letter – such as this missing big Qi Tongbao, we want to know when and from whom it was purchased." I try to be as pleasant as possible. I didn't want to lie to him, but I couldn't clearly state my purpose, so I had to be as vague as possible.

Unexpectedly, Fan Bo's eyes rolled and he said: "Unless the state gives me a word, I won't say it." Liu Zhan was unhappy: "Fan Bo, you are not small, you dare to negotiate conditions with the country?" Fan Bo moved his buttocks and smiled: "Over the years, I have seen many people come to me under various banners to ask me about Fan Huji, and they are not coveting Fan Lao's shopkeeper?" ”

Liu Zhanzhan approached me and explained in a whisper. Only then did I understand that Fan Huji was also a well-known shop in Shanghai, and although the old shopkeeper had folded two large boxes of treasures to the cultural relics store, no one knew whether he had some small pieces hidden and where he hid them. In recent years, the cultural relics market has recovered, and many people have come to Fan Bo to knock on the side, coveting the things left by the old shopkeeper. It was only after they pounced on Fan Bo a few times that he had the heart to complain, wanting the country to compensate the Fan family for what he had done back then.

So as soon as I opened my mouth, Fan Bo could hear it, we had a request for him, and we didn't hesitate to talk about the conditions.

"If you don't cooperate, I won't care about the appeal." Liu Zhanhu said with a tiger face. Fan Bo was also stiff: "It's as if you have been in charge before." My uncle has accumulated a lifetime of hard work, and you ruined it back then. I tell you, I will not say a word until his hard work is returned. ”

The scene suddenly became very embarrassing, Fan Bo had no way to appeal for so many years, and finally found an opportunity to blackmail, just like a drowning person caught a straw, and he grabbed it. The old man on the bed was slightly hairy, and the woman in the toilet coughed uneasily, these details made Fan Bo's eyes more determined.

I am familiar with this kind of look, it is not some kind of ideal hope to be realized, but some kind of desire to be satisfied. In other words, Fan Bo is not very interested in the hard work of the old shopkeeper, he is concerned about how to change the embarrassing status quo.

I was quickly thinking about how to persuade him to speak, when Liu Zhan squatted at the door and made a proposal: "The things that the old shopkeeper Fan sold to the cultural relics store back then have long been scattered all over the place, and it is impossible to recover them. However, now in the Painting and Calligraphy Appreciation Association, there is a collection of Xia Gui's "Cloud Mountain Smoke Tree", which was also acquired from Fan Hu Ji. I can donate to you personally, but you have to promise that you won't appeal in the future, and that you will be able to tell you what you know. ”

Liu Zhan's proposal greatly surprised Fan Bo and me. He was very reluctant to accompany me, and now he actually offered to compensate, could it be that he has changed sex?

"Xia Gui's "Smoke and Trees in the Clouds and Mountains" ......" Fan Bo repeated hesitantly, and then nodded, this painting is indeed in the list of complaint letters.

"Xia Gui is one of the four masters of the Southern Song Dynasty, and his authentic works can now be sold for a very good price." With Liu Zhan's vision, he naturally saw through that Fan Bo was seeking wealth rather than things, so he simply skipped the artistic value of the painting and directly pointed out the price.

"You're just going to give me back this one?" Fan Bo seemed ambivalent.

Liu Zhan's face turned cold: "It's not a return, it's a donation." I see that you are pitiful, so I will donate a personal collection to you. It was a legal deal, and the country and I never owed you anything. When he said this, lest Fan Bo would still be instigated, he emphasized, "This is your last chance, either take the painting and leave, or obediently lie on your stomach in this pigeon cage and write your letter of appeal." ”

Small benefits at your fingertips, and big goals in the distance, it is not difficult for a person who is eager to change his family situation. Fan exhaled: "I want that painting." Then he added vigilantly, "I won't tell you about Fan Huji until you send it over." ”

Liu and I left the attic and went back to his office. Liu Zhanzhan grabbed the phone in front of me and said that he would quickly send me a copy of Xia Gui's silk book "Smoke and Trees in the Clouds and Mountains". I frowned, listening to his tone, as if there was more than one thing. But I didn't move, just sat on the couch and waited. Liu Zhanzhan didn't mean to talk to me, picked up the scissors and continued to serve his bonsai. From time to time, people come to visit, talking about the topic of calligraphy and painting, and it seems that the business is quite busy.

Half an hour later, a secretary brought a scroll of paintings. After Liu Zhanzhan got it, he spread it out on the table and beckoned me to see it. This is an ink book on paper framed on a vertical scroll, the picture scroll is surrounded by clouds and mist, and the mountains and trees are integrated, which is quite meaningful. The smoke tree is a popular theme in Chinese painting, and many people have painted it, and this painting is very good, but I can't say why. I don't know much about calligraphy and painting, and I don't know much about the characteristics of Xia Gui's brushwork, and I only pay attention to some technical details, for example, the color of the brocade eyebrows at the upper and lower ends of the painting center is very new, indicating that it is newly framed, and the silk color is faint and yellowish, like autumn leaves, which is really not short after many years.

"How?" Liu Zhanzhan asked.

"It's not bad, it's worthy of being a master of the red letter door." I replied ambiguously, no matter how I understood it, I couldn't be wrong.

Liu Zhanzhan smiled: "It's also my proud work." ”

"So it's a fake?" I looked at it again and then.

Liu Zhanzhan proudly lifted a corner and twisted it with his fingers: "You see, this silk is a double silk silk, even and thick, the best courtyard silk." ”

"What is a courtyard silk?" I'm not ashamed to ask. That's right, that's what I want to do.

Liu Zhanzhan thought that I was not at ease, but he did not hide his selfishness at all, so he explained to me: "The texture of silk used for painting in the Song Dynasty is divided into two types, one is single silk silk and the other is double silk silk. The warp thread of the double silk is a group of two, the weft is a single filament, and the warp thread is one on the top and one on the bottom when staggered, which is denser and more compact than the monofilament, and can last for a long time. This kind of silk was very difficult to manufacture at that time, and only the Imperial Painting Academy could afford to use it. There is also a kind of tribute silk, which has a better texture, and that is exclusive to the royal family. ”

Xia Gui is known as the courtyard school, so this fake imitation of him naturally has to be painted with courtyard silk.

"Ordinary fakes, but not as thoughtful as I am - it's a pity that Fan Bo is an uneducated bun, I can't tell the subtlety, I can't appreciate my ingenuity." Liu Zhan chattered endlessly, as if he felt that such a well-carved fake fell into the hands of people who did not know the goods, and he was really wronged.

After listening to him, I deliberately observed the silk quality, and it was indeed very good. I picked up a magnifying glass and carefully examined the structure of the silk silk, and it was indeed a double filament. Fortunately, I used to do odd jobs in a textile factory before, so I know a little bit about the principles of weaving, otherwise I really wouldn't understand it. Liu Zhan looked at my clumsy appearance with a magnifying glass, and sneered: "The veteran knows it as soon as he twists it, why use it so hard." ”

"It's exquisite." I have to admit.

Liu Zhan still felt that his ingenious thoughts were not fully explained, and he pointed to the painting again: "Look at this silk yellow." ”

I looked down and saw that the silk was evenly distributed and had a dry texture. I've seen other fakes, the paper yellow silk yellow is bitten out with smoke or tea dirt, the shades are different, and the yellowing lines and the texture of the paper are often inconsistent. And this yellow floats on the surface and falls off as soon as you rub it. I stretched out my finger and rubbed it, but it didn't fade.

"It's good to be old."

"Of course. That's the power of the recipe of gardenia, black tea and acorn shells. Gardenia water is brown, tea is deep red, and the water boiled from acorn shells is ochre yellow. With these three colors, you can bring out the old color and fragrant gray you want. Coupled with the embrittlement of ultraviolet radiation, it is really seamless, and the effect is much better than that of tea scale alone. ”

As soon as I heard his words, my mind "soared", and the fog dissipated.

These three things were originally used for old calligraphy and painting.

I said, how could Liu Zhanzhan immediately change his face as soon as he saw me take out these three things. I'm afraid this guy has been secretly dealing in calligraphy and painting fakes for the past few years, and this is the recipe he uses. He thought I had insight into what he was doing, and he was afraid that I would denounce him, so he relented.

The principle of Wumai is to "remove the false and retain the true", and it is unthinkable that Liu Zhan, as the middle-level backbone of the Red Character Gate, actually does such a set behind his back, which is a serious violation of discipline in both public and private. It seems that Professor Zheng's worries are right, since the reform and opening up, the five veins have also changed people's minds. The principles of the past are being ignored by more and more people, and the ideals of the past have gradually become worthless in the face of money. Liu Yiming's desire to start an auction house may not be his own will, but I am afraid that he is also forced to comply with the mainstream call for making money within the society.

But Liu Yiming opened an auction house, which was to put his interests on the bright side and make money in a dignified manner; Fraud like Liu Zhanzhan is a crime at all. He is the deputy secretary general of the Shanghai Painting and Calligraphy Appreciation Association, and he also has a five-pulse identity. With him in the middle, fakes can continue to flow into the market, and I can't imagine how big the impact will be. I speculated here, and when I thought that this formula was a medicine or it was given to me, he actually knew the secret of Liu Zhan's battle, what does this mean? This shows that Liu Zhanzhan must have been dragged into the water by Lao Chaofeng, and he was one of Lao Chaofeng's hidden agents in the five veins.

Otherwise, they actually told me this big secret, I really don't know what kind of medicine they sell in the gourd, is it a plan, or do they want to prove the sincerity of cooperation?

"Without further ado, let's go." Liu Zhanzhan saw that I was silent and urged.

"Nope." I said with a frown, making a big decision in my mind.

Liu Zhanzhan was halfway through the scroll, and when he heard me, he couldn't help but be stunned: "Is there a flaw in this painting?" ”

"The painting is not flawed, but it is a fake."

"Nonsense, if it's not a fake, I'll give it to Fan Bo?"

I said solemnly: "Have you forgotten the rules of the five veins? Eliminate the false and keep the true, and never fake. Take such a fake to him, where is the rule of the bright-eyed plum blossom? Liu Zhanzhan looked at me as if he didn't know me: "I wish you didn't have a high fever, right?" How did you start talking nonsense? ”

"You're the one with a high fever." I sat back on the couch and stared at the man who had betrayed the spirit of the five veins.

"Don't you really want to ask about Fan Huji? When this painting is sent out, Fan Bo will speak, isn't it a very simple thing? ”

"Yes, I'm in a hurry to get Fan Bo to speak, but it's a fake. People in the five veins can only recognize fakes, and there should never be counterfeits. ”

"Are you stupid?" Liu Zhanzhan couldn't help but curse.

"Maybe." I shrugged.

It is of course very cost-effective and convenient to take the fake of "Yunshan Smoke and Trees" to Fan Bo, but what is the difference between me and the old court? If my own insistence is denied, then what's the point of being busy all the way?

I can't control anyone else, but I must not do such a thing. Starting from my ancestor Xu Heng, to my grandfather Xu Yicheng, and my father Xu Heping, they have been fighting against fakes. If I take a fake to fool others now for the sake of convenience, then our Xu family's persistence for more than a thousand years will disappear.

People live in this world, and they always insist on something that seems stupid.

Huang Kewu asked me this question at Nanyuan Airport: When reality forces you to violate your principles, how do you deal with it?

That's my answer.

Liu Zhanzhan shook his head and refused when he saw me, and he didn't persuade him, so he painted a scroll: "It's worthy of being a hero who fights fakes, Gao Feng Liangjie, then you can move Fan Bo yourself." I sat on the sofa and didn't move, tapped the back of the chair with my fingers, squinted my eyes and stared at him, and said word by word: "Since you have a fake of "Yunshan Smoke and Trees", I think the real thing must be in your hands, right?" ”

When Liu Zhan heard this, he was furious: "You are insane! You want to be a saint yourself, and you want to be generous to others...... Uh......" He was halfway through his sentence before he realized that I was testing him. He threw the fake on the ground in hatred: "The real thing is in my hands, so what? Can you still grab it? ”

People like Liu Zhan will not be generous for no reason. Since he is willing to sell the fake, he must have the real thing in his hand, so that it will be beneficial.

I didn't hesitate to say: "If I can't ask Fan Bo for news, I can't do what Old Man Liu entrusted." If the matter is messed up, I have to go back to Beijing to excuse his old man's guilt. Liu Zhan's eyes were gloomy, but his movements were stiff.

Wumai now has a lot of industries, and many people are secretly engaging in fakes in private, but no one dares to admit it on the surface. If I stab this matter to Liu Yiming, Liu Zhan will definitely be completely on the wax. I don't think much of myself, I just want him to give up a genuine Xia Gui, although this painting can be sold for a lot of money, but compared to what he has secretly earned in the past few years, it is only a drop in the bucket.

It can be seen from the incident of bullying Fan's shopkeeper that Liu Zhan is narrow-minded and bullying the soft and afraid of the hard. With his current status and wealth, he must have feared that he would lose everything he had. I can't use the same technique against Fan Bo, he has nothing, so he is not afraid of losing anything.

Under my gaze, Liu Zhanzhan had no choice but to hate: "Okay...... You're ruthless! He grabbed the phone and said a few words in Shanghainese. I didn't understand, but I wasn't afraid of what he was doing.

After a while, the secretary who had delivered the painting appeared at the door again, this time holding five scrolls in his hand. Liu Zhanzhan took it, closed the door, and placed the scrolls on the table in front of me one by one.

The corners of Liu Zhanzhan's mouth showed a trace of disdain: "Don't you want the real thing?" I'll put it here for you, and you can find it yourself. ”

The outside world hypes that I am a hero and a master of identification, but in fact, I am a layman in the appreciation of calligraphy and painting. Liu Zhanzhan saw through the shortcomings of my knowledge in this area and deliberately gave me a problem. If I choose a fake wrongly, it's my own ignorance and it has nothing to do with him.

"Why don't you just tell me which one is real?" I asked dissatisfied.

"I forgot, I have to work hard for you." Liu Zhanzhan spread his hands, looking villainous.

I looked down at the five scrolls, and without hesitation, I reached out and picked up the second scroll in my left hand. Liu Zhan was stupid there, his mouth open enough to fit a goose egg. When I saw his expression, I knew I had chosen the right one, and this volume was genuine.

"How...... How could it be, you didn't even open the reel to see! How could it be selected! Liu Zhanzhan shouted hoarsely.

I looked at him innocently: "It's very simple. When your secretary came in to deliver the paintings, he picked up four rolls in his right hand, while he only held one roll in his left hand, and he didn't hold them firmly, for fear of hurting the painting's heart. I think this competent secretary will definitely be extra careful to protect the authenticity. ”

As soon as I finished praising his secretary, Liu Zhanzhan spurted out a mouthful of blood, literally. I can understand him very well, it's really infuriating.

Liu Zhan vomited blood, and the whole person collapsed on the sofa, silently.

I knew he couldn't die, so I picked up the original painting of Xia Gui's "Smoke and Trees in the Cloud Mountain" and left the office. Before leaving, I patted the secretary on the shoulder in the hallway and praised him for being a good and competent person.

I rushed to Fan Bo's house, and when Fan Bo saw the painting, he was overjoyed. I told him that this was a little compensation for the old shopkeeper Fan back then. Fan Bo sighed repeatedly, saying that his uncle had been holding his hand when he died, and that he must try to redeem everything. It's a pity that he himself is miserable, and there is no other way than to insist on writing a letter of appeal every year. Speaking of this, Fan Bo actually cried, saying that he couldn't bear it and was sorry for the old shopkeeper.

"This painting can be regarded as a comfort to his old man." I comforted.

Fan Bo smiled bitterly: "How is it possible, I have to go and sell it immediately." He looked back at the bed in the low attic: "The old man is waiting to see a doctor and buy medicine, the child is waiting to go to school, everything needs money......

I didn't say anything, it's really hard to criticize. For him, the artistic value of antiques is far less important than its commercial value, the former is only related to taste, and the latter is related to survival, which is the most realistic problem. I comforted him a few words and brought the topic to Fan Huji. Fan Bo got the "Picture of Smoke and Trees in the Cloud Mountain", and he unloaded a big stone in his heart, and naturally he became happy to speak, telling me about his experience in Fan Huji.

Fan Bo said that the old shopkeeper Fan was originally a pilgrimage to other big pawnshops, and later saved some money by himself, and in 1927 he became independent, opened such an antique shop, and found his nephew to be a helper. As I listened, my heart sank. My biggest fear has arisen: this Fan Bo doesn't understand antiques at all. The reason why he works in Fan Huji is only because he is a relative of Fan Lao's shopkeeper. The old shopkeeper Fan also knew his level, so he only let him be in charge of the miscellaneous helpers in the store, and never let him touch the specific business.

The antique trade is a secret transaction, and it is rarely human. Since Fan Bo is not involved in the business, he is naturally ignorant of the twists and turns inside. Asking him to find out about Fan Huji's transactions is like asking the security guard at the bank door about the loan.

"Did Fan Huji leave any archival texts or anything?"

Fan Bo shook his head: "They were all burned when the four old ones were broken." The list of artifacts in my complaint letter was still copied from the antiquities store. ”

"So who did the old shopkeeper Fan deal with before?" I asked, a little reluctantly.

The problem is too big. Although Fan Huji is not a big store, it is also one of the famous ones, and the number of people who have dealt with them is countless. Fan Bo stayed for a long time before he slowly swallowed: "I've seen a lot, but I don't remember the name." ”

"Do you remember some of his best friends?" I asked. Fan Lao's shopkeeper's good friends must all be in the antique circle, maybe they can know the inside story of Fan Lao's shopkeeper's acquisition of the missing corner of Qi Tongbao.

Fan Bo thought for a long time and said: "The best with the old shopkeeper should be a gentleman named Zhou Shunxun." ”

"The owner of which shop?"

"Uh...... It's not an antique seller, it's the manager of the Jinjing Huiyin number. ”

"Where is this Mr. Zhou Shunxun?" I asked.

"I went to Taiwan in '49."

"Tsk." I regret it greatly.

Seeing that I didn't speak, Fan Bo thought that I was not satisfied with the information he provided, so he said: "Mr. Zhou is very good, he takes the initiative to greet me every time, and sometimes he even rewards me with a few yuan. The old shopkeeper often said that without Mr. Zhou's help in turnover, there would be no Fan Huji, so I must be polite and rude when I see him. ”

I grabbed him by the shoulder: "Say it again!" ”

"Mr. Zhou is very good......"

"Next!"

"The old shopkeeper often said that without Mr. Zhou's help in turnover, there would be no Fan Huji......"

My eyes lit up, and I was already desperate, but I didn't expect it to be another village.

The antique industry is characterized by "not opening for three years, opening for three years", and it is difficult to predict when an antique will be sold. Small-scale shops rely on capital turnover, and the cash flow is easy to break, and the slightest carelessness will lead to bankruptcy. However, since the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Western banking industry has entered China, bringing advanced financial concepts, especially in the five trade areas of Guangzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo, and Shanghai.

For example, if they fancy a certain piece of goods, and it happens that the money is not ready to be turned over, they take an antique to find a silver number as a mortgage, and the loan cash receives the goods in their hands, and when the turnover is opened, they go to repay the money and redeem the collateral. In this way, it is actually equivalent to converting the inventory into working capital, which is flexible, fast to receive, and easy to turnover, especially for some small shops that want to receive large goods.

Fan Huji is not large-scale, and if you want to buy antiques of this level like Qi Tongbao, it is too risky to pay for it yourself, and it is very likely that you will take the road of bank loans. For this kind of loan, it is inevitable to find someone who knows each other. Listening to the words of Fan Lao's shopkeeper, it is obvious that Zhou Shunxun's Jinjing Huiyin is the channel that Fan Huji most often goes to get loans.

Antiques are different from gold bars, houses, factories and the like, they are too specialized, difficult to estimate, and the types are ever-changing. Therefore, when banks make this kind of loans, they will attach the goods and collateral information to the right side of the ledger, what type, what style, what color pattern, what texture, etc., so as to query and evaluate. As an authoritative appraisal agency, Wumai is often asked by banks to do appraisals, so I am very familiar with this set.

In other words, if you can find the account book of the Jinjing Huiyin number, maybe there is the detailed information of Dai Xi's copybook.

I asked Fan Bo a few more questions about the Jinjing Huiyin. Fan Bo only knew that this silver number was opened by a Shanxi official in Beijing, and the head office was in Beijing, and there were several branches in Shanghai and other places, and the scale was not large. It's more like a private loan shark than a bank. I know in my heart that this kind of silver account is very tightly organized, and every month the shopkeeper has to report to the general account, and the account books must be regularly sealed and transported to the general account in Beijing for archiving.

If it were someone else, they might have given up hope. After such a long time and so many chaos, I'm afraid this little silver account has already gone out of business, where to find it?

But I'm not completely hopeless.

Because I happen to know such a guy who takes pleasure in collecting archives......

I hurriedly said goodbye to Fan Bo, left the alley, and found a place where I could make long-distance calls.

I didn't call Professor Zheng or Liu Yiming, I called the library.

When I went to look for the photos of "The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival", the library told me proudly: "If you want to find the account book of the silver number, Hurd's customs file, and Zhang Xueliang's telegram code book, we can dig it out for you." This sentence made a deep impression on me and I have always remembered it. He has been collecting all kinds of dilapidated archives for so many years, maybe he can really find something.

The library was impatient when answering the phone, probably interrupted by something busy. I said I was making a wish, and he paused for a moment before he said, "Oh, it's you, what's the matter?" I know his temper, and I don't instigate: "I want to check an account book called Jinjing Huiyin, do you have it there?" ”

"Twenty thousand." The library is not ambiguous at all.

"I'm just looking it up, not buying."

The library said: "I don't know if there is such an unpopular thing, I have to turn it over for you." Don't you need money for retrieval? ”

"Then it won't take 20,000, right? Didn't you just collect 2,000 last time? ”

"Hmph, you're embarrassed to say! If I had known that you would make such a big fuss in the newspaper, I should have charged you ten times more. The library said hatefully, and then said into the microphone, "That's the price, I don't want you to find someone else." ”

"By the way, you gave me a glass of orange water last time, right?" I abruptly changed the subject.

"I knew that Lao Tzu wouldn't give you a glass of tap water!"

I said, "After I left that day, I was sent directly to 301 for rescue and almost died. The hospital had a written diagnosis that it was caused by the glass of expired orange water. ”

"Two thousand, cash." The library did not hesitate to compromise.

"I'm not in Beijing, I'll have someone send you the money."

"Deal—say, what do you want to look up?"

For a pure money worshipper, the conversation becomes especially simple. As long as the price is negotiated, there is no need to worry about other things. I said to the library, "I'm going to look up a silver number called Jin Jinghui, Beijing." I'd like to know its antique mortgage loan records in Shanghai between 1927 and 1946. ”

"You're asking for a lot......" the library complained.

"The loan handler is called Zhou Shunxun, and the lender's surname is Fan, Fan Huji."

"Okay, okay, I got it."

"Can you find it?"

"Tell you the results tonight – if your money arrives." After saying that, the library hung up the phone.