My childhood by the Yellow River didn't last long, so I followed my father back to his hometown and returned to the city. As my new life unfolded, this story of my grandma gradually became blurred in my memory and finally completely forgotten. My life also became peaceful.

The protagonists in many stories are typical but not special.

After growing up, I experienced many careers and finally became an ordinary antique dealer in Shanghai. I made a living by purchasing and identifying antiques for some private entrepreneurs. My life was dull but still nourishing.

The job I studied and was assigned in college was electrical engineering, which meant designing national grids and power stations, which has nothing to do with my current career. The reason why I got into the so-called side business of antiques was because of my ex-wife.

My ex-wife is of mixed Tibetan and Chinese descent, and my father-in-law is a Tibetan. My wife received two kinds of education since she was a child, and has a very good language talent. When she became an adult, she worked as a Tibetan translator in a state agency. My father-in-law is in the antique business, and I have a good knowledge of antiques.

After flattering him all day long, I gradually became interested in these things.

Once anyone comes into contact with antiques, it is difficult not to be attracted by the high value, high risk and high reward contained in them. So I started some small businesses related to antiques in my spare time at work.

However, God was not willing. In the second year of our marriage, my ex-wife joined a leadership team to explore the border between China and Mongolia. We were separated for three years. I waited for her for three years. In the end, she did not come back. I heard that she was on good terms with a leader on her side.

They sent me a divorce notice the year before last year, but there has been no news since.

Later, when my work unit was reorganized, I was kicked out and relegated to the lowest level because of my relationship problems.

When I thought about it, they were all my apprentices. Will I be comfortable if I go down and take care of them? I simply went to sea. Business was not easy at that time and I lost a lot of business. In the end, I just decided to make a living instead of getting into it after I became familiar with it.

Got into the antique business.

The art of looking at antiques was passed down from my ancestors and my father-in-law taught me a little bit. Before liberation, my family was a famous Shanxi merchant and opened a dental shop. However, during the "Great Revolution", several of my elders were beaten badly. My old man

I was disheartened and didn’t want me to do this job anymore, so I sent me to college. But in the end, I couldn’t escape this fate.

So sometimes we really have to respect fate as a thing.

The whole thing started at Taiyuan Nangong Antique Market in July 1997.

At that time, Nangong was already very large and crowded with hundreds of stalls filled with porcelain, bronzes, and woodware, filling the view.

The weather was suffocatingly hot, and I felt very unhappy squeezing among the crowds alone.

At that time, I had been in Shanxi for more than a month. I walked around Nangong every day. I don’t know why. Things were so bad. I didn’t even see anything that caught my eye. I watched all the antique enthusiasts picking through the piles of fakes.

I get upset when I have to pick and bargain.

The business I run is called antique plates. I am in Shanghai. I stay in Shanxi for two months every year. Sometimes I go to the countryside to collect antiques, and sometimes I tinker in this market and earn a living by relying on my own skills.

Shanxi is a place where Chinese culture gathers. Take a look at the underground cultural relics in Shaanxi. Take a look at the above-ground cultural relics in Shanxi. At that time, the owner of a bank in Shanxi made the country rich and wealthy. A large number of antiquities came to Shanxi from all over the country. Shanxi became the center of antique trading. After ten years of catastrophe, most of the antiquities were lost.

According to folklore, many people from all over the country come to Shanxi to hunt for treasures.

The so-called antique plates refer to the selling of antiques in the two places to earn the price difference. Theoretically speaking, antiques themselves have no practical value, and their value is reflected by the purchaser's own preferences. Therefore, our profession is profitable. Antiques in Shanxi and Shanghai

The price may differ by more than ten times.

That time I came here mainly to pick out some bronzes for a guest from Shanghai. In recent years, the trend of collecting bronzes has been very popular, and it means to catch up with traditional porcelain. However, after several trips back and forth, I basically didn’t see anything that might be genuine or even anything.

I didn't see any fake goods that I could see. Later, I squeezed in to a few stall owners who had done business before and handed them a few cigarettes. After chatting for a while, I found out what was going on. It turned out that Changsha had been cracking down on tomb robberies for more than a month.

With the good stuff in hand, the rats can't transport it out. With the supply gone, how much can we rely on the private sector to collect? Naturally, it's a depression.

As soon as I thought about it, I felt a hint of despair in my heart. I was afraid that the market would not be able to recover in a short time and I might have to return to Shanghai empty-handed this time.

It's a pity that my business, which has a lot of profit, has gone to waste like this. I'm really frustrated. It's still a small business. After my reputation is ruined, it will be difficult for me to put the dishes in order.

I walked around the market without really looking at anything, and before I knew it, the sun had already set to the west in another thirty minutes. Even if there were good things after dark, I didn’t dare to look at them because evening is the time when my eyesight is the best.

At this time, there are too many fakes and they are too confusing. The counterfeit bronzes are extremely realistic and can be "eye-catching" with just a slight oversight.

I felt in my heart that it looked like today was wasted again. This is really annoying. The more I thought about it, the more depressed I became. I simply couldn’t stand it anymore. I lit a cigarette, cursed to myself, and walked to the guest house.

If I had decided to look at it a few more times or sit down and take a rest, the following things might have nothing to do with me, but fate is like this. Whatever happened to me happened to me.

The guest house I stayed in was just over 100 meters away from the Nangong Palace. It was an unlicensed operation where people of all kinds gathered so the price was cheap and they could live in it.

Although the room is only about five square meters, I live alone and have an independent bathroom. I don’t have to queue for the shower and toilet. This is already the level of a presidential suite in this guest house. At this time, I am smelly with sweat and miss the independence that two people can’t squeeze in.

bathroom.

I had only walked a few steps when suddenly a man stabbed me with his finger from behind. I thought it was a thief. I quickly covered my pockets and turned around to see a dry little old man, about fifty or sixty years old, wearing white clothes.

The man in the rustic blue overalls was holding a bag in his hand and looking at me helplessly. He looked like a miserable man.

This old man didn't look like he was from the city. Could he be asking me for directions? I looked strange and asked, "What are you doing?"

The old man first looked around furtively and said to me softly: "Are you just waiting for a beating?"

When I heard what I said in my heart, you are waiting for a fucking beating on the table and stools, so I said, "I don't want a table or a stool either."

The old man was stunned for a moment, as if he didn't understand what I said, and then said: "Waiting for a while, waiting for a beating?"

I was in a bad mood and got angry, so I said to him: "I won't wait to beat you. If you wait, I can go find someone to kick you. You don't have to wait!"

The old man scratched his head and gave me a scared look. He looked at me for a few times and then slowly walked away.

"I'm sick," I cursed in my mind and continued walking towards the guest house until I reached the gate of Nangong. When I looked back, I saw that the old man hadn't followed me and I didn't know where he had gone.

I was wondering in my heart. He didn't speak the Shanxi dialect and didn't sound like someone from surrounding provinces. What was he doing? Was he a beggar?

If he is a beggar, this old man can be considered smart. People who find treasures are in a good mood and will naturally give alms when they encounter beggars. However, this old man is unlucky and encounters me, who is in a bad mood.

I returned to my usual room in the guest house. I first took a shower to wash off the sweat, and then went to the restaurant below to eat. The owner of the restaurant is my fellow countryman named Young Master Li. He is the young master of this restaurant, so we all call him him.

Master.

I always eat at his place when I come to Taiyuan. This guy is very antique and is particularly interested in antiques. Every time I come over, he will talk to me about antiques. From time to time, he will bring out some so-called treasures for me to look at, so I sit down and watch them.

He walked up to me with two bottles of beer between his legs and knew this guy was here again.

When I looked up, I saw that he was munching peanuts. He had two bottles of beer in one hand and a plate of honey-glazed barbecued pork duck in his hand. He sat across from me and asked, "How was your harvest today, buddy?"

I took the beer and let out a long sigh. I couldn't bear to think about the harvest. I don't want to keep struggling like this. Sooner or later, my plate will have to be closed. Then we will set up a street stall here to sell Xibei products.

The young master smiled and said: "You found that yourself. You don't think your Shanghai customer is a sharp-eyed person. You can spend 180 yuan here on high imitation goods or find a few leftovers and go to Xicheng to find some masters to replace them with old ones."

Why should you have trouble with yourself if you have a new face and a slim body? I don’t believe that your Shanghai guest can have such good eyesight."

I shook my head and smiled but didn't answer. The young master's method is something everyone wants, but the antique plate business is not like a street vendor. One kills one, kills one hundred, or one hundred. In this business, you have to make people feel at ease, otherwise no one will get it from you.

Get the goods? If I deceive you once, there is always a chance that you will be found out in the future. At that time, you will not be able to gain a foothold in this industry.

The young master saw that I didn't speak and knew that I didn't agree with him and said: "Hey, don't laugh at me. What I said is true. You see in this world, we can close sooner or later. You might as well make a profit before closing. It's better than starving to death. Now let's go."

You don’t know how difficult the dish is. Some of the people you met long ago changed careers long ago.”

I hear this argument from the young master almost every day. Then he sighed and waved his hands: "Don't fucking stop talking about it. You are not from this industry. What do you think? I have my own principles in doing things."

The young master chuckled and said: "Principles? People who make antiques still have principles. You are so poor that you have nothing to do."

It's normal for the young master to ridicule me. They say antiques are in the golden age of troubled times. No one who makes antiques these days, even the worst, has a household worth ten thousand yuan. But I only have a good outfit and I don't have half of the money left. I eat it up and use it up. It's not healthy.

This situation is indeed related to my principles. None of the street vendors in Shanxi are stupid. As long as the goods are good, they are not cheap. I don’t sell fake goods, and if I occasionally trick others, I won’t keep the money.

Speaking of the misery in my heart, I couldn't help but sigh when I thought of the bronze business.

As he was talking, a young master suddenly came in from the door. When he saw the guests, he naturally wanted to greet the guests and immediately stood up and asked: "What can you have something to eat, boss?"

I turned around and looked at him. The person who came in was none other than the old man I met just now. He was holding a broken bag like that. When the young master asked, he ordered a bowl of noodles in Mandarin with a heavy accent. He didn't seem to notice that I was looking for it.

He took a seat and sat down.

When the young master saw that it was a small business, he stopped greeting him. He went into the kitchen and asked the cook to cook something. Then he walked out and continued chatting with me. I lowered my voice and pointed to the person next to me with the tip of my chopsticks and asked, "Where is this person?"

Can you hear me?"

"Shanxi, Shanxi accent." The young master also lowered his voice: "You have spent a lot of time in Shanxi and you don't have any hearing skills?"

I turned my head slightly and secretly looked at the old man who had his head lowered and didn't know what he was thinking. He said in his mind, "Shanxi. What he just said to me was Shanxi dialect, wasn't it? Although I spend a lot of time in other provinces, there is no way I can listen to Shanxi dialect."

I don’t understand. How about waiting for a fight? Is it Xinming’s Shanxi dialect?

The young master patted me and asked: "What are you doing? Are you crazy about selling antiques and even the old man likes it?"

When I heard this, I laughed and turned around and said, "What are you talking about? I think something is very strange..." As I said that, I suddenly remembered that the young master also has a Shanxi accent and immediately asked, "Oh, by the way, you are a native of Shanxi, right? Let me ask you about the Shanxi dialect."

What does waiting for a fight mean?”

"Waiting for a fight?" The young master frowned and his expression changed. "Where did you hear this?"

"What are these words?" I asked and felt strange about the change in his expression.

The young master lowered his voice and said, "This is a barbaric saying from a Nan crawler. I have heard a few old men say something in a hotel before, but I don't understand it. I asked my uncle if it was my uncle who said it to me."

I screamed and was shocked, turned around and looked at the old man again and thought to myself, could this old man with an unattractive appearance actually be a south crawler?

Nanpaizi is the name given to tomb robbers by people from all walks of life in Shanxi. I have also heard my family say that Nanpaizi is very mysterious. There are many ancient tombs in Shanxi, and rice dumplings are easy to come out of large tombs in Shanxi. The world raises corpses and goes to "two"

The first one is Shaanxi. The second one is Shanxi. The means of living in Shanxi are much better than those of wandering immortals and mountain ghosts in other places.

Generally speaking, there are two people in Nancraizi, one old and one young, wearing big coats and felt hats. Some even set up stalls to tell fortunes, just like Feng Shui masters. They usually don't dig holes in the ground themselves. They usually rob tombs.

The method used to make a living is called "eye recognition", which means to locate other tomb robbers. They have special means to take care of the mountains and rivers, and know where the ancient tombs are. When the market is the best, they can use it for 15 yuan to go out and look around.

The fan goes away after a little bit and never goes empty.

Only in some special circumstances, such as when the world is bad or when they encounter an ancient tomb with a very high standard, they will go down to the ground in person. In the lingo, it is called a pot. If it is set up, it means it is stolen. If the pot cannot be set up, it will be empty.

Nan Paizi pays great attention to the rules when robbing tombs and never forms a group. Usually, the uncle takes his nephew to rob the tomb. When the uncle enters the tomb, he must wash his hands and burn 9 inches of incense before the incense burns out. They and the Tatars outside the pass

You also have your own set of code words when doing work without speaking in human language. This set of words is basically incomprehensible to people who are not in the industry. It is said that to learn this language, you must have mastered Nanlizi. If you have not mastered this skill, someone will teach you.
To be continued...