Chapter 47 These are all the assets of the future!

To be honest, it was not easy to get antiques, calligraphy and paintings in 1977, as there were very few places where you could buy them openly.

After all, most of the stores have been closed for well-known reasons.

But there was only one company that survived this disaster safely, and that was Rong Bao Zhai.

Rongbaozhai, located on Liulichang West Street, is a 200-year-old brand that mainly deals in calligraphy and painting.

When Li Changhe strolled to the entrance of Rongbaozhai, there were not many people inside.

After what happened in the past few years, ordinary people have stayed away from painting.

In addition, the paintings in Rongbaozhai were not cheap. To be honest, in this era, they were not affordable for ordinary families.

Li Changhe did not hesitate and walked straight in.

"Hello, comrade. Are you buying a painting, paper, or the four treasures of the study?"

In the early days, Rongbaozhai's main business was actually the four treasures of the study - pens, ink, paper and inkstones, and later it started selling calligraphy and paintings as well.

"I just rented a house and wanted to buy some paintings to decorate it, so I came to take a look."

Li Changhe said gently, and then looked at the various calligraphy and paintings hanging on the wall.

"So do you want an ancient painting, or one from the last few decades?"

Upon hearing this, the salesperson immediately asked seriously.

"Are there any masterpieces by Qi Baishi, Xu Beihong, etc.? I want to see them."

Li Changhe did not mention Zhang Daqian's name, mainly because this person has a bad reputation now and is the type who is determined to go to the other side of the strait no matter what.

"Yes, please follow me. We have all their masterpieces here."

The salesperson immediately led Li Changhe to the other side of the wall.

Sure enough, there were all kinds of paintings of different sizes hanging on the walls, with various signatures on them.

"This is Mr. Baishi's painting of shrimps playing. You should know that Mr. Qi Baishi is an expert at painting shrimps."

"Mr. Baishi's paintings are now 8 yuan per square foot."

One square foot is 33.33cm x 33.33cm
"This is a painting by Mr. Xu Beihong. Mr. Xu is particularly good at painting horses. Galloping horses have always been his outstanding masterpieces. Now the price of Mr. Xu's paintings is 12 yuan per square foot."

"Here are paintings by Mr. Li Keran, who was a disciple of Mr. Qi Baishi. He was best at painting cows and landscapes. The current price is 15 yuan per square foot."

"Here are also paintings by Mr. Huang Binhong. Both his paintings and calligraphy are unique. His works are now priced at 3 yuan per square foot."

Li Changhe listened to the salesperson's endless introduction, then looked at what Huang Binhong said.

The signature on the painting is Bin Hong. Isn’t this the signature on the painting in Old Man Zhang’s house?

It turns out that Binhong is Huang Binhong. The price is still a bit lower than that of Qi Baishi and Li Keran.

Li Changhe did not know the name of Huang Binhong and could only make a preliminary judgment based on the price.

"I heard that Mr. Li Keran once painted several paintings of "Red Mountains All Over the World", which are very famous. I wonder if we have this painting in our store?"

Li Changhe thought about it and asked curiously.

Hearing what Li Changhe said, the salesperson hesitated for a moment, then nodded: "We do have a painting of 'Red Mountains All Over' in the store, but I don't know if it's for sale to the public. If you like it, I can ask for you."

"Okay, then please ask for me, including the fine paintings of Mr. Qi Baishi and Mr. Xu Beihong. I remember Mr. Qi Baishi's "Pine and Cypress Standing Tall" seems to be good. Do we have it in our store?"

"Okay, please wait a moment, I'll go ask the manager!" The salesperson walked in, and Li Changhe started looking at the paintings.

Li Changhe doesn't know much about art, and the information he mentioned is from information he found when he was writing a book in his previous life.

In the past, many people liked to complain when reading period literature, saying that if they went back to the past, they would only know how to buy antiques and artworks.

But now, in Li Changhe's opinion, what else can he do if he doesn't buy this thing?
The current social structure is cadres, workers, and farmers. Apart from these, all other commercial activities are not allowed.

On the other hand, everyone knows that calligraphy and paintings are a great tool for appreciation in value. It is obvious that a masterpiece can increase in value from a few dollars to tens of millions or even hundreds of millions.

Antiques are valuable in prosperous times, gold is valuable in troubled times, these are the golden words left by our ancestors.

Of course, if you invest in Alibaba, Tencent and the like, the room for appreciation will be even higher than this, but there is a prerequisite: you have to be able to become an investor.

Many people have a mysterious confidence in rebirth, that is, if I go back to the past, I will definitely succeed.

But the reality is that even if you are standing on the right cusp, you may not be the pig.

Would it be so easy for the two Jack Mas to accept investment from just anyone?
Not to mention starting your own business, you know whether you have the ability to do so.

During the Internet entrepreneurship boom, there were more than just Alibaba as an e-commerce platform. Eachnet was the undisputed leader at the time, but later on only Alibaba became successful, while Eachnet was left unsuccessful.

As for social platforms, China Mobile once launched Fetion relying on its huge user base, but has it ever challenged Tencent QQ in any way?
Bitcoin will become very popular in the future. There were at least hundreds of thousands of people who bought Bitcoin at that time, but how many of them held on to it firmly and did not lose it and kept it intact until it becomes very popular in the future?

What is strengthened after rebirth is only one's personal vision, not one's ability and leadership.

Li Changhe has a clear understanding of himself. In his previous life, he could earn hundreds of thousands of yuan a year by writing, but later he opened a store in partnership with someone and still lost everything.

He couldn't even run a roadside store, so he didn't think that he would be able to run a large enterprise with tens or even hundreds of thousands of employees after he was reborn.

Of course, this kind of business ability can be learned later, and can be learned slowly in this era.

But in addition to this, it is inevitable to add some calligraphy and paintings to support it.

Li Changhe didn’t know whether his business would be successful in the future, but he was very sure that buying a batch of calligraphy and paintings would guarantee that he could become a billionaire.

Just as Li Changhe was thinking, the salesperson came back.

"Hello, comrade. The painting "A Myriad of Mountains in Red" in our store is currently a collectible and is not for sale to the public for the time being."

"We have some other works by Mr. Li Keran here, all of which are also excellent. Would you like to take a look?"

After hearing this, Li Changhe sighed helplessly.

You see, no one is a fool these days, and everyone knows how to hide good things.

Without the help of memory, Li Changhe honestly didn't know which ones were good and which ones were bad.

But he still had some different judgments. He remembered that when it came to calligraphy and painting, longer pieces were better than shorter ones.

In the end, Li Changhe spent about 110 yuan to buy five masterpieces by Qi Baishi, Li Keran and Xu Beihong.

He didn’t buy too much because Li Changhe felt the price was still too high.

Anyway, Li Changhe remembered that in the 1980s, the prices of these modern paintings would fall further, at least by half of their current prices.

After the reform and opening up, it will be cheaper to buy with foreign currency in the Friendship Store, so there is no need to buy more at this time.

Afterwards, holding the bundled painting tubes, Li Changhe took a taxi home.

These are our future assets. If the bus is damaged due to squeezing, we will suffer a huge loss.

(End of this chapter)