The tractor was emitting black smoke and bypassed a village. The ducks with their butts on the road were frightened and screamed, and all jumped into the river.

The old man seemed a little anxious and drove the tractor away, which forced Lin Yi to remind him to slow down.

The old man said, "It's okay, I'm familiar with this place, and I can drive home with my eyes closed."

Before he finished speaking, the tractor hit an old sow. The old man was startled and smiled embarrassedly with black teeth, saying, "I'm so confused, this pig is a little stupid."

Lin Yi said, "If it's almost here, why don't I get off the bus."

"What's wrong, I think I'm so driving?"

"No, I feel sore in my back."

"Oh, then I'll drive slowly."

...

The old man's house is a common farmyard, with red brick and tile houses and large iron gates, with large locust trees planted inside.

There is no "blind old woman" in his family, only a big daughter in her thirties.

When my father led a stranger into the house, my daughter asked what was going on. The old man said he bought books. I had sold a batch of them before, so I showed him some at home.

My daughter hurried to make tea for Lin Yi. Lin Yi said she didn't have to be too busy, so she took a look and left.

The old man started to work hard and entered the house. Because it was someone else's residence, Lin Yi was embarrassed to go in and waited outside. After a while, there was no movement inside. Lin Yi turned around and saw the old man lifting the curtain and carrying out a thread-bound book.

Lin Yi saw it and hurriedly stepped forward to take it.

When Lin Yi saw it, he was stunned. He thought it would be a good book, but it was a photocopy of ancient and modern zaju and selection of zaju in one letter and eight copies.

The photocopy of this letter in the early 1950s was precisely a "shrink printing", which was a little smaller than the original version. The paper was quite particular. First, he used jade buckle paper, and then he thought it was too wasteful during compilation, so he used rice paper with a slightly lower quality. After all, in special times, the country had difficulties, so he had to be more frugal in publishing books. Among them, five volumes of zaju operas in ancient and modern times, and three volumes of zaju operas were selected.

If you remember well, this set of books was also compiled by Zheng Zhenduo, because there are beautiful "prints" in many versions of Yuan Zaju. As a "first print fan", how could Mr. Zheng let the compilation of this set of books be spared?

It’s just a pity that this set of books is too huge. The unified name is the ancient opera series, with a total of four episodes and eight types of 120 volumes.

The letter in front of me is not very valuable and does not belong to the category of rare books, but you can also get the "original appearance" of woodcuts in the Yuan and Ming dynasties through these photocopy.

Lin Yi casually looked at the selection of zajus. Basically, each volume has seven or eight beautiful illustrations. The characters in those illustrations are round and lifelike, and have the style of figure painting in the Ming Dynasty. It is also very eye-catching for Lin Yi, who likes the art of printmaking.

After Lin Yi appreciated the prints, he carefully studied the contents of the two sets of books. The preface says: The ancient and modern zajus selected the collection of Liuzhi, the collection of Fengjiang, the collection of Ming Meng's name, and the collection of 56 kinds of zajus. It is worth noting that the ancient zajus carved by Gu Quzhai, the collection of Liuzhi, the collection of Fengjiang, and the collection of Fengjiang, were collected by various schools, and then it was able to be combined into a complete volume, which was enough to add color to this collection.

Lin Yi has not studied much about zaju, but he roughly knows the value of this series of books. If you trade online, you can buy about 80,300 yuan.

Why is there such a price difference?

The main thing is whether there are exquisite prints inside!

To put it bluntly, there are not many people studying zaju now, and not many people can understand zaju. The reason why people like this set of books is because there are exquisite Yuan and Ming prints in this set of books.

Therefore, the value of this kind of zaju series is determined by the number of prints in the book.

For example, the eight volumes of the letter in Lin Yi's hand have a total of more than 70 prints, which can be said to be a rare print material. It can be said to be both pictures and texts. In a very fashionable sentence, it is called "immediate visual sense".

There is no way. With the development of technology, most people have become "visual animals", and this is also the main reason why various "calligraphy and painting" are popular in the collection of old books.

In fact, it is not only in China, but also abroad. Oil paintings and illustrations from abroad are sold more expensive than diamonds. For example, the precious original version of an illustration poem created by the British poet William Black was sold at a sky-high price of 370,000 US dollars last year. The booklet is called Song of Innocence. It was created and printed and published in 1789. The illustrations are hand-painted. According to the photographer, "There are those paintings in my heart..."

As a lover of old book collections, Lin Yi sometimes doesn’t understand what happened.

Celebrities make money by their faces, while old books make money by their prints.

Okay, I don’t think so much. Lin Yi feels that no matter what, after walking like this, he can’t go back empty-handed. If he can, he will buy this set of books.

...

When Lin Yi was thinking about this thread-bound book carefully, the old man was also thinking about Lin Yi. He saw that Lin Yi was dressed very well, and he looked like a person with status no matter how he looked. He brought a lot of things, and his tone of speaking and attitude towards others were not ordinary people.

If you are not an ordinary person, you must be a rich person.

The old man came to the conclusion.

Then the old man began to think about how much Lin Yi would cost? Judging from his appearance, he seemed to like this set of books very much. I also like this set of books very much. There are many beautiful pictures in this set of books, and the characters look so excited.

He said that the books I sold were worth tens of thousands of dollars, so should this set of books be worth some money?

The old man doesn't understand books and is afraid of selling them again. He is very cautious and wants to sell them to make a fortune.

As a rural person, he has no hope. He does not expect gold to grow in the valley, nor does he expect golden carp to pop out in the small river, but he expects that his own things can be sold for more money.

It is not easy for ordinary people, and it is even more difficult for old farmers.

With a little hope, they will expand their fantasy several times, which is also a disguised self-comfort and anesthesia.

So when Lin Yi asked the old man how much you want to make this set of books, the old man slapped him without hesitation: Five thousand!

Lin Yi was a little confused. It was not because of the scared little five thousand, but because of the old man's hot eyes. It seemed that this set of books must be sold for five thousand yuan today, otherwise you wouldn't even think about leaving.

Lin Yi could only smile and explain to the old man that this set of books was a photocopy, not the original woodcut. If it was a woodcut, it would be worth 5,000 or even 50,000 yuan. He also said that this set of books could only cost 2,000 yuan at most.

When he heard this, the old man immediately shook his head like a rattle, and slapped five thousand again!

Lin Yi never thought that he would meet such a stubborn old man, and it was useless to say anything to him. He didn't understand and couldn't listen. He just recognized two words in his eyes: Five thousand!

Finally, Lin Yi couldn't help but ask, "Why do you have to sell for 5,000 yuan?"

The old man pointed to his daughter and said, "For her."

Only then did Lin Yi realize that the woman's waist was a bit thick. She should have been pregnant and said, "Your daughter is going to get married?"

The old man looked helpless, "Where can we get married? We have to wait until the Spring Festival."

Lin Yi was puzzled, "The Spring Festival has just passed, so why don't you wait for a year? The child will be almost one year old by then. If you get married at that time, isn't it going to make people laugh at?"

"You don't know that most of our villagers have gone to work in the city, and they only come back for the New Year during the Spring Festival. If we hold a wedding now, we will not be able to receive gifts. I have sent so much gifts and can't just waste it. That's a disadvantage. This is not the first example. If you want to make a joke, let others laugh at me."

After the old man said that, he said to Lin Yi again: "Don't think I'm greedy for money, it's all impossible. I want you five thousand yuan to take care of her... My daughter is so big that I can't just ignore anything, right? It's so difficult to be someone's father!" He sighed.

Lin Yi stopped talking.

In the end, he paid five thousand to the old man, and gave three thousand more books to the two thousand, so he thought it was a gift.

Before leaving, the daughter wrapped the cooked eggs for Lin Yi, and then smiled embarrassedly.

It was the old man who drove the tractor to send Lin Yi back. On the way back, the old man sang a big show all the way, and his broken gong-like voice was high and desolate.

Lin Yi arrived at the entrance of the village, and the old man drove the tractor and left.

Watching the tractor slowly disappearing on the road in the distance, Lin Yi turned around and walked towards home. His originally heavy mood was immediately startled by the lively scene at the doorstep.

I saw that the originally deserted doorstep was full of people, and everyone was waiting for him in line, as if we were welcoming the return hero. To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to Qidian. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile phone users please read it.

...
Chapter completed!