The little fat man was sitting on a chair with his legs crossed. When he saw Yang Fan coming in, he stood up happily: "Brother Yang, the three largest pawn shops in the city are all opened by my family, and the shopkeepers have brought them to you."
"This is the shopkeeper Cao from Xinghe Pawnshop in Dongcheng, my shopkeeper Li from Baocheng Pawnshop in Xicheng, and the shopkeeper Zhao from Jiuli Pawnshop in Beicheng," the little fat man introduced. "This is my eldest brother, Dongzhu Yang."
Yang Fan had just inquired about the pawn shop with the little fat man before, but he didn't expect that this business was also monopolized by the Wei family.
Yang Fan nodded to the little fat man, turned around and greeted the three old men.
"Every shopkeeper, please take a seat. Please don't be offended by the invitation." Yang Fan said politely.
Unexpectedly, the little fat man directly called all the top shopkeepers. He was also a little embarrassed.
An old man with a goatee raised his hands and said, "It doesn't matter, Dongzhu Yang is the young master's savior. It's only right for me to come." The other two old men also raised their hands.
Xiangyi came up to serve tea.
"I don't want tea, Brother Yang. I want Coke, the same one I drank at your place last time."
The last time the little fat man came to see Yang Fan, he happened to see Yang Fan drinking Coke, so he also drank a bottle.
People in this era have an incomprehensible love for sweets, and they can't stop after drinking it once.
Yang Fan told him that tea is still healthy, and the little fat man always enjoys it.
Xiangyi went down and got a big bucket of Coke and poured a cup for the little fat man.
"Ha! It feels good." The little fat man took a sip and burped.
"Pour me a cup for all the shopkeepers." He looked very happy when he saw the three old men looking at the little fat man intently. Yang Fan said.
"Thank you, Mr. Yang." Several old men cupped their hands and thanked him.
The leader, Old Man Cao, took a sip. It tasted a bit like Chinese medicine, but after a while, it felt very sweet, and the carbon dioxide in the carbonated drink felt very comfortable in his stomach. He couldn't help but nodded.
"I have never tasted this coke from Dongzhu Yang. After a few sips, I feel like I can't stop."
Yang Fanxin said that this stuff is addictive and contains caffeine. If you drink it regularly, won’t you feel like you can’t stop drinking it?
Tea also contains caffeine, so drinking tea is equally addictive.
"Dr. Yang, did you produce this Coke yourself?" Shopkeeper Zhao also asked curiously.
"This is goods from overseas, from the Americas." Yang Fan replied. From now on, all modern products that appear here in Yang Fan will be called American goods.
"There are many barbarian countries overseas. I know that to the south of the Ming Dynasty is Nanyang, to the west is the Kingdom of Tianzhu, the Kingdom of Dashi, and further to the west is the Kingdom of Franji. I have never heard of this America."
"America is in the far east of the Ming Dynasty, and it is still thousands of miles away by sea to Japan," Yang Fan said.
The three shopkeepers and the little fat man were all surprised. This drink actually came from thousands of miles away. It's so precious.
"I invited three shopkeepers to come here today because they actually want to discuss a business deal."
"What kind of business does Mr. Yang want to discuss, but the capital turnover has been poor recently? Our Wei family has strong assets. As long as there is a suitable mortgage, tens of thousands of taels of silver is nothing." Old Man Cao said, stroking his beard.
"I don't want to pawn, I am interested in your death," Yang Fan said.
Pawns are generally used for short-term capital turnover.
There were three levels of pawnshops in the Ming Dynasty. The first category was pawnshops, which were large in scale, had many business types, had long terms, and had low interest rates. Take over manual and real estate properties as well as bulk supplies.
The second type is called a pawn shop, which generally only accepts movable properties. The capital is not as large as that of a pawn shop, and real estate takes up a lot of capital and is generally unaffordable.
The third category is called betian, which is the smallest in scale but the largest in number and can be found all over the streets and alleys in urban and rural areas.
It mainly accepts all kinds of useful items from people's homes, such as old clothes, pots, pans, tools, agricultural tools and other messy things. They are all easy to use and commonly used in daily life.
Yang Fan is interested in the high-value pawns such as porcelain, calligraphy and paintings, bronzes, jades, antiques, etc. that are pawned in the pawn shop.
Yang Fan only understood it after talking to the three shopkeepers. It turns out that valuable antiques in modern times were also good things in ancient times. In ancient times, they were also scarce resources and were not common commodities everywhere. It also needs to be searched carefully.
Huang Ying told him before. Most ancient daily necessities are not particularly valuable today. Ordinary folk kiln porcelain and the like range from a few hundred yuan to tens of thousands.
"I want to find some official kiln porcelain, famous people's calligraphy and paintings, jades and antiques from your dead body," Yang Fan said.
"We have some official kiln porcelain, antiques, celebrity calligraphy and paintings that Dongzhu Yang is interested in, but there are not many real treasures. Zunhua is only a small border town after all. There may be more in the capital or Jiangnan, and you can usually have these. They are all from well-known families. Unless the family business is in ruins, they usually won’t take action. There are many well-known families in Jiangnan who have passed down poetry and calligraphy, so the pawnshops there may be better."
Shopkeeper Cao continued: "Dealing with dead pawns is indeed a problem for the pawn shop to withdraw funds. It would be great if Boss Yang is willing to take over some of the pawns. Then I will send someone to bring these dead pawns from the warehouse. If Boss Yang is interested in them, Take your pick, and just send back the ones you don’t like.”
The little fat man's face was still very strong, and shopkeeper Cao directly gave him very good conditions.
In the afternoon of the same day, three pawn shops delivered items, which filled a warehouse.
Yang Fan and Yao Guang, together with the two maids Xiangying Xiangyi, set up the camera, lithium battery box, and photovoltaic power generation panel. Connected to the online video with Huang Ying.
After getting along for a period of time, Yang Fan recognized Xiangying and Xiangyi's loyalty and began to gradually let them in touch with some secrets.
"Hey, stinky brother, you haven't contacted me for so long, maybe you are in love with someone else?" Huang Ying was still talking like that.
Yang Fan curled his lips, you and I are basically innocent, okay?
"No way. I'm waiting for my sister every day. When will I have sex with her?" Yang Fan knew that teasing against such a woman was meant to be serious and one step at a time. She can no longer act.
"Bah, you nerd with a head full of pornography. If I don't talk to you anymore, why do you have anything to do with me?"
"There is a batch of things. Sister, help me control my eyes."
Huang Ying understood instantly that business was coming to her door.
"Wait a moment, I'll call the experts from the appraisal department."
Later, Huang Ying moved the laptop to the conference room and replaced it with a high-definition dedicated camera. After turning off the lights, the ultra-high-definition projector hits the screen with extremely high pixels.
After several experts also sat down, Huang Ying signaled to Yang Fan that he could start.
Yang Fan showed the dead people sent by the pawn shop one by one in front of the camera. Some even observed it repeatedly with ultra-high-definition cameras at close range as required by experts.
The meeting lasted from the afternoon until the early morning of the next day.
Baoli has selected more than 130 sets of classical furniture. Most are rosewood, nanmu, mahogany, and a few are wenge and other miscellaneous hardwoods.
This batch contains the most furniture. In this era, beds, cabinets, etc. were one of the main possessions of a family.
There are more than one hundred sets of jade jewelry. There are more than 150 calligraphy and paintings. The most valuable is the lotus painting by Wang Mian of the Yuan Dynasty. Others are works by relatively famous Ming Dynasty painters.
What Yang Fan didn't expect was that more than a dozen sets of old clothes from ancient times had been taken away by Baoli. Most of them are made of silk, and some are made of fine linen.
Huang Ying made a brief evaluation and found that these items were basically enough to support an auction, and the total value was estimated to be more than 200 million.
Of course, this is just a preliminary identification. Once more specific things arrive, experts will start testing them with various instruments.
Yang Fan breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this. Funds have been very tight recently, and this money can just relieve it.
