This is a wide ancient street. The noise of tourists and the dazzling lights of shops have forgotten the dark night of this thousand-year-old city in the endless rush of time. The moon in the sky is roughly only half of its full size. The dim green glow echoes the brilliant neon on the ground, telling each other the loneliness of the palace in the sky and the prosperity of the world.
In an unnamed wooden jewelry store on the street, there were no customers at this time. The store clerk was sitting on a chair and playing with his mobile phone. A variety of exquisite woodware and lacquerware are placed on the counters around the store. Wood carvings, screens, jewelry boxes... all of them are high-quality goods, which are not in direct proportion to the simple store door decoration.
Occasionally, one or two tourists would come in, walk around and marvel at the exquisiteness of these wooden vessels, but few would buy one. For these customers who just didn't want to buy anything, the waiter on the side didn't even bother to raise his head, fiddled with his cell phone a few times, and yawned lazily.
In the back room at the back of the shop, there is a small square table on a Kang head unique to the north, a pot of white wine and a few side dishes. Chen Tao and Li Hao, the young man, are listening attentively to Mr. Li talking about the mysterious and thrilling underground world.
Things started half a month ago...
One afternoon half a month ago, Chen Tao was leaning on the small wicker chair behind the counter with his eyes closed as usual. An old man who looked like a farmer walked into the shop shrinkingly, carrying a homespun bag in his arms.
Chen Tao looked at him impatiently, yawned and said, "What's the matter?"
Looking at his attire, Chen Tao couldn't help but mutter: "Nima, it's not like he's asking for money..."
The old man looked around, smiled, showed his yellow teeth, walked up to Chen Tao, and said with a strong local accent: "Old...boss, are you collecting antiques?"
The smell of tobacco in his mouth made Chen Tao almost vomit.
"What antique?"
Hearing that he was here to sell goods, Chen Tao sat up straight and asked the old man to sit on a wicker chair next to him.
The old man first looked around cautiously, pulled a wicker chair and sat next to Chen Tao, took out the homespun bag in his arms, and took out a black cloth package from it.
Chen Tao patiently watched the old man trembling as he untied the cloth bag layer by layer.
When he reached the last level, the old man put one hand on it and glanced at Chen Tao mysteriously.
"This antique of mine is a good treasure!"
"..."
Chen Tao was a bit big-headed and showed a smile that he thought was kinder. "Take it out and have a look. If it's valuable, I'll take it."
The old man's eyes were a little nervous. He swallowed and slowly opened the last layer of cloth. A human-shaped bronze object lay quietly inside.
"Here I go, it's actually a bronze!" Chen Tao was heartbroken. After just one glance, he couldn't take his eyes off him again.
Could it be that it is really a treasure?
Chen Tao asked the shop assistant Ajun to make some tea, and asked the old man to put away the things first. He stood up and raised his hand and said, "Old man, let's talk inside."
The old man was stunned for a moment. He held the cloth bag tightly and asked Chen Tao nervously:
"Come in...go in and talk?"
"Don't worry, old man, we are doing business, not bandits. It's too noisy outside in broad daylight, you thing. Let's find a quiet place to have a good chat." Chen Tao was speechless for a while.
The old man looked at Chen Tao suspiciously, as if Chen Tao wanted to do something to him.
I won’t eat you, is it that scary?
Chen Tao held up his forehead and smiled at the old man: "Old man, do you think I look like a bad person? I asked the waiter to make tea for us. If you don't go, it will be cold."
Chen Tao was just a college student who had just graduated more than half a year ago. The old man felt relieved when he looked at the young boss who looked like a child in front of him. He nodded, got up and walked towards the inner room behind the screen.
Chen Tao shook his head helplessly and followed behind.
In the room, Chen Tao asked the old man to pour tea, reached out to take the bronze man, and looked at it carefully.
This is indeed a genuine bronze vessel, about the size of a palm. The shape looks like a simplified human form, but it is not a human.
The surface of the copper figure is very clean, and it must have been rinsed with water by the old man.
The head part is a hollow circle, very smooth.
The arms are drooping, the arms are very long, the palms are a whole, extending at the end of the arms, and the arms are in a semi-open state.
The feet of the bronze figure are in the shape of an inverted crescent moon. The feet are spread apart and bent upward, which looks like a clamp.
The overall shape of the bronze figure is slightly flat, about as thick as a thumb, and slightly heavy to hold. The lines of the bronze body are smooth and smooth, and it should be cast solidly.
What surprised Chen Tao was that there were many small bark-like bumps on the front of the bronze man's body, and there was a strange pattern on the back.
Judging from the age, it should belong to the Spring and Autumn Period or the Warring States Period, but this thing made Chen Tao feel very strange. Why did the ancients make such bronze figures? Decoration? It doesn't look like it either...
Chen Tao weighed the bronze figure in his hand and looked at the old man: "I want this, fifty thousand."
"Fifty...fifty thousand!" The old man was surprised.
Fifty thousand yuan, for a real farmer like the old man, is higher than their income in several years of hard work. It is definitely a huge sum of money.
"What, too little?" Chen Tao looked at the old man quietly. Although he didn't know what this thing was, he was sure that it was a genuine bronze. If you get it to be speculated on the black market, it will definitely cost tens of thousands of yuan. Not worth mentioning at all.
"No, no, no, boss, no more, no less, I'll sell it!"
"But, old man, can you tell me where this comes from? From your accent, it sounds like you're not from here..."
The old man drank the tea in the porcelain cup in one gulp, smacked his lips, and spit out a tea leaf.
"Boss, your tea is a bit bitter."
Chen Tao's face twitched as he looked at it, "My dear, this is the authentic Biluochun, you are drinking it as a big bowl of tea!"
The old man wiped his nose, chewed his teeth and said:
"This thing was dug out of the soil when I was digging the ground. When I went down with the hoe, I thought I was digging a stone."
"I took it out and saw that it was a piece of rotten iron. I thought I would use it to pad the cracks in the wall when I got home, but when I got home, my baby played with it and put it in the water to wash it."
"When my mother-in-law saw it, she said it was not scrap iron, but an antique! It was very valuable! So I secretly took it out and sold it. I didn't dare to sell it in my local area, so I took the train and sold it here."
After saying that, the old man picked up the tea cup and took a sip and found that the tea was gone.
Chen Tao filled the old man with tea. The old man picked up the cup and took a sip:
"I came from Shanxi. Our place is called Heizigou. There are few people and they don't have much money. They are all farmers. The rich people in the town and county don't even come to our village."
"A few years ago, a bachelor in the village dug a pot in the fields and sold it to an antique collector. He married a wife within a few months. Now his son can run around the streets. I never thought that this thing is really a treasure. Leah!"
The old man was obviously very happy when the things were sold for money. Chen Tao greeted the old man and chatted for a long time. When it was getting dark, he gave the old man 50,000 yuan and a thick pile of red bills. The old man wrapped it in black cloth, stuffed it in his tattered earthen cloth bag, covered it tightly in his arms and went out.
Chen Tao saw the old man out of the store, looked at the hunched back of the man who was walking away, and rubbed the bronze figure in his hand.
"Heizigou...why does this place name sound familiar..."
Shaking his head, Chen Tao turned around and walked towards the store. What he didn't see was that not long after he returned, diagonally opposite the store door, a rickety figure was hiding in the darkness and looking at Chen Tao, smiling softly at the corner of his mouth, revealing yellow teeth...
In the evening, Uncle Long came back for dinner. At the dinner table, Chen Tao said mysteriously: "Uncle, I did a big thing for you today!" After saying that, he smiled, his face full of pride.
Uncle Long's surname is Di, and his full name is Di Yilong.
Uncle Long once had an older brother. They had neither father nor mother. His older brother took him to wander around, begging along the way. When I met my grandfather, Uncle Long's brother was caught stealing someone else's wallet. He was beaten to death and left on the roadside. Little Uncle Long was crying beside him.
Grandpa took pity on them and brought them back together to raise and teach them their skills as apprentices.
It's a pity that Uncle Long's brother was hit by a trick when he went down into the cave and stayed there completely.
Uncle Long has no children and has been very fond of Chen Tao since he was a child.
After Chen Tao graduated from college, Uncle Long knew that he would take over some of the family's business in the future, so he simply handed over a small shop next to his own to Chen Tao. Anyway, as long as he was there, nothing big would happen.
Uncle Long gave Chen Tao some food, glanced at him, and saw that he looked like a ghost, and said lightly: "What's the matter?"
Chen Tao smiled mysteriously, took out the tree man from his pocket, and waved it in front of Uncle Long's eyes: "Hey, a serious bronze!"
Uncle Long originally thought that this kid was up to something stupid again. When he saw what he had in his hand, his eyebrows suddenly rose. Chen Tao's face became even more proud when he saw it.
What, not bad, come on! Praise me!
"How come you have this thing!" Uncle Long looked at Chen Tao, a complicated look flashed in his eyes.
He reached out and took the bronze figure. After confirming it, he raised his head and asked Chen Tao: "Tell me, where did it come from!"
? ? ? This doesn't seem right...
Chen Tao took a peek at Uncle Long's face and knew he was not joking, so he quickly told Uncle Long everything about the afternoon.
Uncle Long rubbed his chin and listened without saying anything. He just asked Chen Tao to continue eating.
Late at night, on the balcony, Uncle Long looked at the bronze figure in his hand and blew out a smoke ring, like a ghost, slowly floating over the city.
"Are you targeting me so quickly? Master, this game of chess has finally reached this point..."
