A few days later, Xia Chengying came to Yanda again. The Chinese University of Hong Kong delegation’s visit to the mainland has ended and they will return to Xiangjiang tomorrow.
Xia Chengying has obtained the authorization from the publishing house today to sign a publishing contract with Lin Chaoyang. After the contract is signed, Lin Chaoyang only needs to wait for the royalties from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
The only pity is that although he earned foreign exchange, due to the mandatory foreign exchange settlement regulations, he could only get RMB.
On this day, Tao Yushu received the manuscript fee bill from "Hebei Literature and Art". She had discussed with Zhang Dening to write a review for "Furong Town" some time ago, and it was adopted by "Hebei Literature and Art" and received a manuscript fee of twenty-four yuan.
This is her second comment this year.
After receiving the royalties, Tao Yushu was in a good mood and added an extra dish to dinner. In the evening, Tao Yushu calculated the family's savings again.
At the end of March, the couple paid off the last payment of 3,000 yuan for the overseas Chinese apartment.
In recent months, Lin Chaoyang has not had much income from royalties because he has not published any works, and has only received sporadic royalties for the number of prints.
The only big sum was the royalties for "The Burning of the Old Summer Palace" and "The Government Behind the Curtain". Thanks to Li Hanxiang's help, he obtained a foreign exchange certificate of over 9,000 yuan. Previously, Lin Chaoyang exchanged 5,000 yuan for it through Amao at a ratio of 1:1.4.
Dollar currency exchange coupons.
After excluding the more than 1,000 yuan in foreign exchange coupons they spent before, the couple now still holds nearly 13,000 yuan in foreign exchange coupons, and there is still 12,000 yuan in savings.
"Tight flowers are not enough to make money quickly!" Lin Chaoyang said proudly.
Tao Yushu said with a smile: "Didn't you say before that you can spend it easily?"
"Then I'll go to the trust store tomorrow. I have so many foreign exchange certificates in my hand. If I don't spend them and there's no interest, I'll lose money."
Tao Yushu rolled her eyes at him, "You are really good at settling accounts."
The next day was the weekend, and Lin Chaoyang rode his bicycle to the city early in the morning.
In the 1940s, a "Datong Trust Store" appeared in the city of Yanjing. It was located in Dashilan outside Qianmen. This was the earliest trust store in Yanjing, or it could also be called a trust store.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the state established high-quality commission shops and state-owned material recycling companies to replace the original pawnshops, and also absorbed private commission shops and street "players".
After the 1950s, state-owned entrusted stores have gradually become the favorite of ordinary people. State-owned stores have fair and reasonable transactions, and they are honest and trustworthy. They are much more reliable than pawn shops in the old society.
At that time, there were often news about state-owned entrusted stores. It was all about someone going to the entrusted store to sell something, and the apprentice appraised the price and the price was lower, and the store made up the difference to the customer.
The reputation of entrusted shops has been accumulated bit by bit in such news. More importantly, due to the shortage of product supply, after the implementation of the ticket system, many ordinary people cannot buy things even if they have money, and can only enjoy them in entrusted shops.
The thrill of shopping with open supplies.
Of course, most of the products in the commission store are old and useless items from various households. Selling them in the commission shop is also to alleviate the shortage of daily necessities.
The operation of entrusted stores is entrusted to two companies by one hand, and acquisitions are also divided into two forms.
One is consignment, in which the seller puts the items for sale in a consigned store at a suitable price. After the items are sold, the store charges a handling fee. This handling fee is generally 7% for items, and 4% for furniture, bicycles, etc.
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Another form is for sellers who are in a hurry for money. They can directly submit the goods to the entrusted store for valuation, and then take the money and leave.
Compared with consignment, the price of this method is naturally lower.
There are many commissioned stores in Yanjing City, including Xidan, Dongdan, Xisi, Beixinqiao, Tianqiao, Xinjiekou and Caishikou.
The Xisi Commission Store is the closest one to Lin Chaoyang's home, so he came here early in the morning.
The Xisi Commission Store is one of the larger commission stores in Yanjing City. It is just north of the Xisi Crossing. The light in the store is a bit dim, and the lights are on even in broad daylight.
There is a strange musty smell as soon as you enter the door. Miscellaneous items are sold here, so it is not surprising to have this smell.
This was Lin Chaoyang's first time to come to the commission store. After walking around, he felt slightly disappointed.
According to some later articles, gold was almost everywhere in the entrustment store, but the reality is that most of the things here were daily necessities for ordinary people.
Old clothes, leather jackets, bedding, watches, phonographs, cameras...
The consignment store is full of second-hand goods. When a customer like Lin Chaoyang, who is not short of money, comes here, he will naturally look down on most of the products, but he still patiently walked around the store several times.
At this time, the stores all had closed counters, and the goods that needed to be purchased had to be taken from the shelves in the counter by the salesperson and placed on the counter.
Lin Chaoyang looked around and found a shelf with several cameras. He approached the salesperson and said, "Comrade, can you show me that camera?"
The salesperson first glanced at Lin Chaoyang, then picked out one of the several cameras on the shelf and brought it over.
This was a Zenit camera made in the Soviet Union. It was estimated to be 70% new. Lin Chaoyang looked at it and put it on the counter. This camera was a bit old.
After looking at them for a long time, Lin Chaoyang found something valuable on the porcelain shelves, which were two blue and white bowls signed "Made in the Qianlong Year of the Qing Dynasty".
When I asked about the price, it was ten yuan each.
Two bowls cost twenty yuan, almost half a month's salary of his.
After a second thought, Lin Chaoyang understood the truth behind this.
Most of the sellers who come to the entrusted store to sell things do so because they have no money to spare. You can't expect a third-generation poor farmer to come up with antique calligraphy and paintings to sell, so most of the goods here are definitely of no collection value to Lin Chaoyang.
There are also a small number of people who sell good things for emergency purposes, but state-owned entrusted stores are not pawn shops. What they pursue is reasonable profits, not extreme profits. The valuations given by the masters are basically in line with the prices of this era.
The store that commissioned it also knew that this item was an antique, and of course it could not be sold at the price of daily necessities. However, the market for antique collection was not as popular as it would be in later generations, so the premium was naturally limited.
After thinking about it, Lin Chaoyang happily asked the salesperson to issue an invoice and pay the money.
The advantage of buying things in a commissioned store is that you basically don’t have to worry about buying fakes and counterfeit goods. Everything here has been carefully inspected by master craftsmen.
After buying these two bowls, there was nothing else interesting to look at. Lin Chaoyang thought of his courtyard again.
The furniture for the main house has been purchased for daily use, but the side room is still empty. People don't live there often anyway, so it would be good to get some second-hand furniture for daily use.
"Comrade, don't you have any second-hand furniture here?" Lin Chaoyang asked the salesperson.
The salesperson replied: "We sell miscellaneous items. If you want to buy furniture, you can go to Donghuamen Trust. There is also a furniture sales department at Di'anmen Trust Store."
Lin Chaoyang rode his bicycle to the Donghuamen Trust Store. The storefront here looked a bit more impressive than the Xisi Trust Store.
Because it specializes in furniture, there is a group of tricycle workers gathered at the door. They are responsible for helping buyers transport large pieces of furniture to their homes, and they provide attentive and thoughtful service.
Compared with the fine products in the second-hand goods department of Long Shuncheng Furniture Factory, the second-hand goods here are basically daily furniture.
Lin Chaoyang spent a long time shopping and found a red sandalwood Eight Immortals table and a large red sandalwood square stool. They were both good things from the mid-Qing Dynasty, and were no worse than the two pieces of furniture Lin Chaoyang bought at Long Shuncheng before.
Lin Chaoyang asked the salesperson about the price, and the salesperson said that the customer put it on consignment in the store. The Eight Immortals table with red sandalwood cost 100 yuan, and the large square red sandalwood stool cost 30 yuan. They wanted foreign exchange certificates.
The consignment goods in the trust store are subject to the seller's conditions. Of course, the premise is that the seller's asking price is approved by the appraiser.
A small number of sellers of high-quality products will choose to ask for foreign exchange or foreign exchange coupons. Sometimes, if they really cannot find a suitable buyer, the seller will lower their requirements and agree to trade in RMB.
This red sandalwood Eight Immortals table and large square stool are high-quality furniture from the mid-Qing Dynasty, so the price is certainly not expensive.
This seller was lucky. Lin Chaoyang had more foreign exchange coupons than RMB, so he was not short of money and happily bought these two things.
Then Lin Chaoyang picked up some old furniture in the store. At this time, most people couldn't tell the difference between red sandalwood, huanghuali, and chicken wing wood. They were all called mahogany.
Lin Chaoyang picked out two beds, two Eight Immortals tables, a desk, six Taishi chairs and two wardrobes from a pile of old furniture. The clear ones were either rosewood or huanghuali, and he directly bought the ones from the sales department.
All the goods were taken out.
After checking out, not counting the two pieces of antique furniture, the total cost of the furniture was one hundred and seventy-eight yuan, and no tickets or foreign exchange coupons were required.
Lin Chaoyang now finally understands why the people of Yanjing love trust stores so much. This shopping experience is so awesome!
Later generations of Americans use the overseas version of Pinduoduo for shopping, and that’s probably how it feels, right?
After settling the bill, the more important thing is to transport the goods. At this time, the tricycle workers at the door come in handy.
Lin Chaoyang not only bagged the furniture of Donghuamen Trust Store today, but also all the tricycle workers at the door took advantage of it. They even had to make a second trip.
Lin Chaoyang led the way on his bicycle, followed by a tricycle pulling furniture. It took half an hour to reach Mianmian Hutong.
When he came to the entrance of the courtyard, he found that the door was unlocked but the latch was stuck. Thinking that today was Sunday, he knew that it must be Du Feng.
He patted the door knocker, and after more than a minute, the courtyard door opened from the inside, and it turned out to be Du Feng's face.
Looking at the long line of tricycles and furniture at the entrance of the courtyard, Du Feng was full of surprise and asked, "Brother-in-law, what's going on with you?"
"The wing doesn't have any furniture yet. I went to the trust store to buy some furniture today."
Lin Chaoyang said, instructing the masters to carry the furniture into the courtyard, and Du Feng took the initiative to help.
Lin Chaoyang and Du Feng jointly carried an Eight Immortals table and walked to the middle of the courtyard. They saw a comely lesbian with a round face, big eyes and two big braids on her chest standing at the door of the west wing, looking slightly panicked.
The two of them carried the Eight Immortals Table into the room, and Lin Chaoyang joked: "Won't this lesbian introduce me to you?"
Hearing this, the lesbian looked shy, and Du Feng was a little embarrassed, but he still pulled her over and introduced: "This is Feng Juan, a comrade from my art troupe."
"This is my brother-in-law Lin Chaoyang, a writer."
"Hello, brother-in-law!" After Du Feng introduced both parties, Feng Juan took the initiative to say hello to Lin Chaoyang, "Du Feng always mentions you to me."
Lin Chaoyang smiled and asked: "Hello, Comrade Feng Juan. What did he say about me?"
"You are said to be very talented. You are extremely talented."
Feng Juan's eyes sparkled. The identity of a writer these days has a halo in the eyes of many ordinary people.
"Haha, as long as you don't say bad things about me behind my back. Are you guys off today?"
Du Feng replied: "We went shopping in Xidan in the morning. We came back to have a rest after lunch and planned to watch a movie in the evening."
Perhaps because he was afraid that Lin Chaoyang would embarrass Feng Juan if he continued to ask questions, Du Feng pulled Lin Chaoyang out of the house and said, "Brother-in-law, don't ask so many questions."
"Is it much? I just asked."
Lin Chaoyang's expression narrowed, making Du Feng a little embarrassed.
"Hey, this bed has been moved to the west wing, and the wardrobe has also been moved here..."
Lin Chaoyang directed people to arrange the furniture in the west wing neatly from inside to outside. This room was previously reserved for Du Feng. He couldn't help but give Lin Chaoyang a thumbs up.
He has to be my brother-in-law!
After two trips back and forth, Lin Chaoyang transported all the furniture he bought today to Mianmian Hutong. By the time he finished moving the furniture, it was already past four o'clock in the afternoon.
He invited Du Feng and Feng Juan to have a meal and chatted about their work and life in the art troupe.
Chapter completed!