Chapter 48 February 1977, 10

Inside the courtyard, Zhang Shiqi was lying leisurely in the yard.

That wooden rocking chair seemed to have magical powers. Every time Li Changhe came, the old guy would lie on it.

Hearing the noise, Zhang Shiqi knew without opening his eyes that Li Changhe had come. After all, there was no one else in the yard except him.

When Zhang Shiqi opened his eyes and saw the painting tube in Li Changhe's hand, he became interested.

"Li Changhe, are you going to buy a painting?"

"Yup!"

Li Changhe walked into the house holding the painting tube, then found a cabinet and prepared to put the painting tube in it.

"Wait, don't put it away so quickly, take it out and let me show you."

Seeing that Li Changhe was about to put it in the cabinet, Zhang Shiqi hurriedly stopped him and said.

Li Changhe turned his head and looked at Zhang Shiqi curiously: "Why, you also know painting?"

"I know a little bit, so I can see what you bought and whether you were cheated!"

Zhang Shiqi walked up and took out a painting tube from the cabinet.

"It's from Rong Bao Zhai. That's right. Apart from Rong Bao Zhai, it's hard to buy these things anywhere else."

"If nothing else, at least the things from Rong Bao Zhai are authentic!"

As Zhang Shiqi spoke, he opened the painting tube.

Then he slowly spread out the scroll on Li Changhe's bed and started reading it.

"Wow, Qi Baishi's Ink Shrimp Painting is not his best, but it is also a masterpiece among his paintings."

Zhang Shiqi took a few glances and then began to comment.

Li Changhe glanced at Old Man Zhang for a few times. It seems that this guy is also an expert in cultural relics?

Zhang Shiqi also looked at the following paintings.

The general evaluation is similar to Qi Baishi's, not as good as the best but better than the worst.

"Are you buying this to keep as a collection?"

After Zhang Shiqi closed the scroll, he smiled and asked Li Changhe.

Li Changhe nodded: "I guess so. I passed by Liulichang and bought a few paintings. They didn't cost much anyway, so I bought them for collection."

"Not bad. These paintings are considered fine works. If it were a peaceful time, they could be considered family heirlooms. But the situation outside is like this now. Just hide them well and don't let anyone find out and report them."

After giving Li Changhe some instructions, Zhang Shiqi walked out.

Li Changhe threw the painting into the cabinet and walked out.

There were still a few watermelons hanging in the well. Li Changhe fished out another one and then split it open.

The varieties of melons these days are relatively few compared to the future, and there are no high-end seedless watermelons.

But then again, it’s good to have something to eat.

"Come on, give it!"

Li Changhe took a piece and handed it to Old Man Zhang, then said while eating: "Actually, I went to Rongbaozhai and wanted to buy a painting of Li Keran's "Red Mountains All Over", but they didn't sell it."

"Nonsense, I definitely won't sell it to you."

"It's just that the situation is special now. If it were the same as before, you wouldn't have been able to buy the paintings you have. Giving you a few ordinary paintings is considered fair to you."

Zhang Shiqi said as a matter of course.

Li Changhe looked at Zhang Shiqi and said, "Uncle, can you tell me about the details?"

"What's so particular about it? The business of collecting antiques tests your eyesight. If you have that knowledge, you can buy good things."

"Otherwise, if you have a high status, they will sell you to you."

"If you go to a store to look at paintings, people will know you are an amateur as soon as they start talking to you."

"It's easy for laymen. I'll sell you market goods at the market price. They are all painted by the artist himself, and there is no adulteration."

"But the level of a painter can be good or bad. The painting skills at an early stage are completely different from those at the peak of their career, so the value of their paintings is naturally different."

"To put it bluntly, a painter can only reach the level of perfection in a few years in his life, and the works he produces are limited."

"Like the 'Red Mountains' you mentioned, it is Li Keran's masterpiece. The one in Rongbaozhai is one of the works Li Keran painted in Xishanju in 64. It is 3.1 square feet in size and I spent a total of yuan on it."

"It's impossible for you to get it at the market price. How can I sell such a treasure to you so easily?" Zhang Shiqi seemed to be very familiar with Rongbaozhai, and he could tell you the information about the painting "Red Mountains All Over".

Li Changhe looked at him thoughtfully.

"Uncle, the foreign-related unit you worked for back then, couldn't it be Rong Bao Zhai?"

This old man doesn't look like a serious worker or cadre. He has an air of nobility about him, just like Uncle Qian from a certain crosstalk club in later generations.

When Zhang Shiqi heard Li Changhe reveal his identity, he did not deny it.

"You're quite clever. Why, do you want me to buy you a copy of 'A Thousand Mountains Are Red'?"

"No need. If you can buy it, you can buy it. If you can't buy it, then forget it. I don't have to have it."

Li Changhe doesn't have any obsession. To put it bluntly, some of those blockbuster works worth hundreds of millions of dollars do have high artistic elements, while others involve financial operations.

For example, if a person has a hundred paintings by Qi Baishi, and raises the price of one or two paintings, the price of Qi Baishi's works as a whole will naturally go up. The money earned from the auction would have been earned back long ago, without any loss, and it could even be turned into some kind of hard currency.

Therefore, in the future, even if there is no "Red Mountains All Over" in the auction, there may be other paintings that are sold at high prices.

It doesn't necessarily have to be this one.

"There is no shortcut to acquiring cultural relics. You just need to look at them more, play with them more, and you will naturally develop a good eye for them after you have handled them more."

"The capital is a 600-year-old capital. Over the past few hundred years, most of the good things in the world have gathered here, and there are also many scattered among the people."

"If you want to try this business, just look around carefully, and you'll always find a lot of good stuff."

Zhang Shiqi pointed and said to Li Changhe.

Li Changhe subconsciously asked at this time: "Are you talking about Panjiayuan?"

Liulichang

Panjiayuan

Of the two major antique commercial districts in the capital of later generations, Liulichang is considered the mainstream, while Panjiayuan is basically the wild way of Taobao black market transactions.

However, what surprised Li Changhe was that Zhang Shiqi seemed to have never heard of the name Panjiayuan.

"What Panjiayuan? You should be talking about Panjiayao, right? Why is there a market for antiques there? Isn't that just a mud pit?"

Zhang Shiqi asked Li Changhe in surprise.

Li Changhe was also a little confused: "Panjiayao?"

"Yes, there is no Panjiayuan in the capital, there is only Panjiayao. That area used to be a brick kiln outside the capital. There was a boss named Pan, so it was later called Panjiayao. It was a desolate area with only earthen pits left over from digging kilns."

"Don't be fooled, kid. I've never heard of anyone dealing in antiques there. Be careful not to get tricked by someone there."

Zhang Shiqi instructed Li Changhe.

Li Changhe nodded, and at the same time he had a guess in his mind that the famous Panjiayuan in the future was probably still a wasteland.

"Okay, I get it!"

Li Changhe did not give much explanation, but just continued chatting with Old Man Zhang.

In the following days, Li Changhe's life became regular.

Review, write, and go visit Zhu Lin.

Then, every now and then, he would go out with Old Man Zhang to improve his diet, and take Li Changhe to eat at restaurants like Lao Mo, Quanjude, and Cuihualou.

Old Zhang is a very particular person and has plenty of money. Basically, whenever Li Changhe treats him to a meal, he will treat him as well, without taking advantage of the situation or suffering any loss.

During this period, the whole country celebrated the National Day, but Li Changhe and Zhang Shiqi stayed in the courtyard that day and did not go out to hang out. There was a lot of noise outside with the beating of gongs and drums.

Just like that, time passed quickly and from summer to autumn.

On October 21, Li Changhe looked at the People's Daily and saw the front-page headline.

Major reforms in college admissions

It reported on the resumption of the college entrance examination and set a date. One month later, the college entrance examination would be held nationwide, divided into two subjects: liberal arts and science and engineering.

In addition to the three subjects of Chinese, mathematics and politics, the humanities and history subjects include history and geography (history and geography), and the science and engineering subjects include physics and chemistry (physics and chemistry).
Li Changhe was looking at the news in the newspaper, and at this moment he couldn't help but clench his fists tightly.

After waiting for half a year, I finally received the notification of the college entrance examination.

This also means that Li Changhe's long-awaited opportunity to transform into a dragon from shallow water has finally come.

(End of this chapter)