Chapter 945: Super big leak, others can pick it up, I can pick it up too!

"Young man, are you the one who wants to buy these calligraphy and paintings?" That Manager Yao glanced at the three of them and immediately said to Li Long, "You want to buy all the calligraphy and paintings we have stored here?"

"Mm, I just feel this price is a bit... and also I don't have that many Foreign Exchange Certificates, so I want to buy with US dollars."

Li Long's request didn't conform to the rules here, which was why the staff member went to ask for instructions.

"Mm, the price can still be discussed, and paying with US dollars... it's not impossible." The manager obviously had higher authority and knew how to be flexible. "What price do you think is appropriate?"

"How about five thousand US dollars? Anyway, it's not easy for you to sell these calligraphy and paintings here..." Li Long said with a smile.

"This price is a bit low," Manager Yao shook his head. "I can't agree to this. Although these calligraphy and paintings are indeed not easy to sell, they were marked with prices before being sent here. My authority here can only give you up to seven thousand US dollars... look..."

"Fine, no problem!" Li Long felt seven thousand was also fine. He was afraid of long nights and many dreams, so he immediately agreed. "Then can you pack them up here?"

"This is certainly possible," Manager Yao said with a smile. "Are you paying now?"

"Okay." Li Long walked to the counter, took money out of his backpack, and asked, "Will you be transferring goods from other places later?"

"Why? Didn't buy enough?"

"Hehehe." Li Long's thought was naturally this.

"We are not sure, after all, this requires arrangements from superiors, but we can apply," Manager Yao was also quite happy, watching Li Long take out US dollars and count them there, and said, "You can come over again in two days, and we'll see the situation then."

The staff member took the US dollars handed out by Li Long and identified them one by one. The denomination of these US dollars was a bit large, so they were also very cautious.

After counting all seven thousand US dollars, they looked up and signaled to Manager Yao that there was no problem. Manager Yao smiled and said to Li Long:

"Then shall we take a look at these calligraphy and paintings? After checking, we will pack them up. Do you want them sent somewhere, or..."

"Can they be boxed and mailed?" Li Long asked suddenly. "I'm not a local, and I'll eventually have to take them home. If they can be mailed..."

"We can pack them well, and there are wooden boxes here that can be used for packing, but it requires extra payment. It's no problem to send the packed things to the post and telecommunications office to be mailed, but the postage also needs to be paid by yourself."

"Okay." Li Long didn't worry about the postage and followed Manager Yao to check the calligraphy and paintings, watching them being packed and boxed one by one.

This could be considered the largest income for the cultural relic store in the past month, so Manager Yao felt it was no problem to provide some extra services.

As for whether to collect Foreign Exchange Certificates or US dollars, isn't the nature the same? As for selling calligraphy and paintings to Chinese or foreigners, this wasn't a big matter of principle, as long as the task of the cultural relic store was completed.

So they were busy until mid-afternoon before these things were packed and boxed. The process of counting was relatively long, and calligraphy and paintings were easily damaged, so they needed to be careful when counting and packing.

Tom had already taken the US dollars and left. He just regretted not insisting on a commission per item; otherwise, he could have earned thousands of US dollars at once.

Shao Li Cheng also had his own things to do. Li Long gave him a referral fee of one hundred US dollars. Although he felt Li Long's handling of this matter was a bit worthless, Shao Li Cheng still admired this person's "money ability."

After these two left, Manager Yao told Li Long that he could come by himself next time. As a big customer, he didn't need to find a middleman again.

Li Long's face was a bit red, but Manager Yao didn't laugh at him and even invited him to eat a working meal at the cultural relic store.

The working meal was very simple, just a bowl of noodles—Li Long was a bit surprised; coming to Yanjing once, he had gotten stuck on Zha Jiang Mian (noodles with soybean paste).

Over a thousand paintings, Li Long didn't let them all be packed. He didn't understand these things at all, so according to his own ideas, he took seven paintings to carry with him: three by Qi Baishi, two by Zhang Daqian, and two by Li Keran.

The rest were packed and boxed, and then Li Long followed the cultural relic store staff to transport these paintings to the Post and Telecommunications Building to be sent to Northern Xinjiang.

Paper was used inside, and wooden boxes were used outside. With people from the cultural relic store following, there wasn't much inspection here—at this time, the inspection of mailed things wasn't really strict, and of course, the lack of advanced technical means was one aspect.

Over a thousand paintings filled two large boxes. Li Long spent quite a bit on postage, but compared to the value of these paintings, it was really far from it.

After mailing, Li Long walked back with his backpack. He didn't take a taxi or a bus. Today's matter was a bit magical and could be considered an accident, so he thought he must sort it out.

After spending seven thousand US dollars, he had less than ten thousand US dollars left on him.

Of course, for Li Long, this money was just numbers, pieces of paper. It would be best if he could buy practical things, but right now the things he needed to buy were mostly done, and he really didn't have the urge to buy other things.

Walking back to the hostel, it was already very dark, and Li Jianguo and the others had already returned.

Li Jianguo was alone in the room, and Li Qiang was in the room next door. After seeing Li Long push the door and enter, Li Jianguo, who was half-lying, sat up and asked: "Why are you back so late? Is the matter finished?"

"Finished," Li Long smiled, took off his backpack, put it by the bed, and said, "I bought some calligraphy and paintings, like Qi Baishi's and Zhang Daqian's. I brought a few back, and some were mailed home."

"Take them out and let me see." Li Jianguo didn't understand this very well, but Gu Bo Yuan understood some. When the two chatted before, they would talk about some. Plus, occasionally listening to the radio, he would also hear some. In any case, they were famous artists of the time, so naturally, he had to see them.

Li Long then carefully took the paintings out of his backpack. These paintings weren't mounted and were just on paper. The seven paintings were rolled up and put in a cardboard tube, which would preserve them better.

"Sigh, can't tell what's good about them," Li Jianguo shook his head after looking. "We are still rough people. Wait until Juan and Qiangqiang go to university to see them. Since they are things from big painters, just keep them well."

No matter what, even if he didn't understand, Li Jianguo or people of this era, many still had a certain awe for artists.

"Did you buy furniture?" Li Long asked.

"Bought some," Li Jianguo said. "When we went over, there were many people queuing up with household registration books to buy things. Mingming's aunt had a work permit and took us into the warehouse to pick those furniture pieces.

Good heavens, there were quite a lot of various furniture piled up in that warehouse! Our courtyard isn't small, but we didn't buy much. We spent a few hundred yuan and bought a large truckload of furniture, just enough to furnish the main room."

Speaking of this, Li Jianguo sat and leaned towards Li Long and said: "I've looked closely, some of the wood in this old furniture is not bad, and it's very durable."

"That's good." Li Long thought about waiting until spring or summer to come over himself to renovate and clean up those two courtyards, and at that time, he would also go buy some furniture back.

Still the same sentence, it's not that he can't afford new furniture, but it's unnecessary. The two courtyards likely won't have people living in them for a while. It's fine to come over and look occasionally, just get some old furniture.

"Sigh, only after seeing it do I know that in this Yanjing city, the common people don't live very well either," Li Jianguo crossed his hands behind his head, leaned against the quilt on the head of the bed, and sighed. "Looking at those people selling things, things worth ten or twenty yuan are being sold, and things worth one or two yuan or a few cents are also being sold. Some are okay, but many look quite pitiful."

Li Long put the painting scrolls away, sat down, and said to his elder brother:

"Big Brother, our life has been good these two years. Have you ever thought that just now you can take out a few hundred yuan to buy furniture without feeling a pinch at all? In this Yanjing city, this is considered upper-middle class. If you put it in the whole country, your current net worth can definitely exceed 80% of people."

"How is that possible?" Li Jianguo naturally didn't believe it.

"Big Brother, you don't believe it? Think about it, outside our Fourth Team, how much can the annual net income of those outside the Third and Second Teams be? This is still Northern Xinjiang where we have a lot of land. If it were in the hometown inside the pass? A family has only an acre or so of land, what can they harvest?" Li Jianguo thought, it's also true. It was just that in these two years, they had done some side businesses and planted cash crops, earning a lot of money. Plus, Li Long started doing it four or five years ago, so the family's life had been very good since the household contract responsibility system started, or rather, very good.

Li Long had always lived in the county and spent little time at home, so he didn't feel it deeply.

Living in the team, especially when it was idle in winter, the old father often said that this life was really good, much better than the landlords in the past. If they lived like this for a few years, this life would really not be a loss.

Why did the old father feel it so deeply? Wasn't it because he lived in the old society for the first half of his life? When he reached the new society, life got a bit better, but in those years, the country was built from scratch, and the Central Plains itself had little land and many people; otherwise, it would have been impossible to send Li Long to Northern Xinjiang.

And even without Li Long in the hometown, the life in the hometown was still below the subsistence line. After arriving in Northern Xinjiang, it took a big turn, from barely reaching subsistence to becoming moderately prosperous all of a sudden. How could the feeling not be deep?

Actually, Li Jianguo himself felt it quite deeply, but he had been busy almost all the time in these few years and didn't think about these things. He knew the old father's sigh, and he also knew the poverty of the hometown. Northern Xinjiang was different after all.

Li Long was running around for a good life, but actually, Li Jianguo was even busier than him. The family had dozens of acres of land, plus Gu Bo Yuan's land, and the newly reclaimed ones. Just planting these lands, they still had to thin seedlings, weed, apply medicine, and apply fertilizer. When idle in the middle, they still had to do side businesses.

Li Jianguo wished he could grow eight hands—fortunately, his wife Liang Wenyu was quite capable, and the old father and old mother could help out from time to time. And the studies of the two children basically didn't need to be worried about; otherwise, he really couldn't handle it.

Then they had a small four-wheel tractor, and last year they had a large tractor, so it was much more worry-free to work. Mechanization of farming was really not a bluff, just like the cultivator Li Long asked to be made, weeding, the work one person could do in a day, the small four-wheel tractor with the cultivator could finish in half an hour.

Although the completion degree wasn't as high as manual labor, it was fast. If a family only had one or two acres of land, they could farm intensively. If they had one or two hundred acres, it would be good enough to farm extensively.

Li Jianguo was too busy to think about it, but now that he calmed down to think about it, it was really like this. Even though the household contract responsibility system had been implemented and it had been nearly eight years since the reform and opening up, the living standards of many people were indeed improving, but their improvement was a bit fast. Although they weren't the best, they indeed exceeded many people.

Others were selling things, but they were buying things, and buying things for hundreds of yuan, and even without feeling a pinch at all. These hundreds of yuan couldn't hurt their family's muscles or bones, which really showed that the family's living conditions were already very good.

Thinking of this, Li Jianguo smiled, agreeing with Li Long's statement.

The room next door heard the commotion here, and Gu Xiaoxia, Gu Xiao Yu, Li Juan, and Li Qiang all came over. Li Long talked about his harvest, but didn't say the quantity, only saying he bought some calligraphy and paintings, and then took out Qi Baishi's and Zhang Daqian's paintings to show them.

Gu Xiaoxia didn't know much, but Gu Xiao Yu had heard of several masters, and was a bit confused about this brother-in-law's "investment direction," so she didn't make any comments.

Li Juan and Li Qiang looked at them properly, but really couldn't tell anything, just feeling the paintings were quite fun.

"Tomorrow I plan to go to the purchasing department of the cultural relic store to see if I can buy some good things. Next, we still need to buy some local specialties to take back. Gu Xiao Yu, please introduce some."

"Local specialties? Now the time-honored shops have all reopened, like the pastries from Zhengmingzhai and Daoxiangcun, the pickles from Liubiju, the roast duck from Bianyifang, the patent medicines from Tongrentang, etc."

What can be brought back? Li Long thought for a while and said: "Then buy some pastries. This thing can only be carried back."

"It can be mailed, and it can also be consigned at the railway station," Gu Xiao Yu reminded.

Li Long wasn't very assured about mailing, mainly because pastries were easily broken, and roast duck and such weren't easy to carry. Consignment at the railway station was a good method. He thought about whether to get a large wooden box like mailing calligraphy and paintings, pack the pastries well, put them in the wooden box, and consign them from the railway station to Wucheng, and then he would go directly to Wucheng to pick them up.

"Then buy more and consign them. It's not easy for us to come to Yanjing once, so no matter what, we have to bring some things back. I don't know if this roast duck can be packed and taken away," Li Long said. "If it can be taken, take some back too."

To borrow a common saying, since we are already here, let's spend this money. It's not like we are short of this little bit—just these paintings, conservatively estimated, can also earn back a lot of roast duck.

At this point, Li Long felt a sense of fulfillment, and what followed was just icing on the cake; at least this trip was not in vain.

The next day, Li Long and the others ate breakfast and acted separately again. This time Shao Li Cheng didn't come over to disrupt the plan, and Li Long went to the purchasing department of the cultural relic store.

Sure enough, there were quite a few people queuing up to sell things, and there were really scalpers waiting here, looking for targets and then going to negotiate with others.

Some couldn't wait, so they sold things to the scalpers, while others disagreed, probably feeling the price offered by the scalpers wasn't right, and they still felt it was more appropriate to sell to the cultural relic store.

Li Long's gaze fell on the things those people brought. Porcelains were the majority, bronze mirrors and such were also there, and there were also those holding calligraphy and paintings, but relatively few.

Most people brought things wrapped in cloth or directly in bags, holding them tightly to prevent them from being stolen.

Li Long observed for a while, and there were really people nearby whose eyes were drifting, looking for targets.

Of course, there would be people patrolling here from time to time, calling out to remind, and those with ulterior motives would also restrain themselves a bit.

Originally Li Long also thought about whether he could learn to collect goods as a scalper, but looking at the current situation, he dismissed this idea. With his current knowledge, he couldn't tell whether these porcelains were from the Shang Dynasty, a thousand years ago, so it would be better not to buy them.

And those few people collecting goods were staring at him fiercely, obviously afraid he would steal their business, so Li Long didn't need to cause this trouble.

So he went back. On the way back, he encountered a consignment store. Li Long went in to look at the goods that needed to be sold and found that there were bicycles, cameras, radios, televisions, watches, etc. being consigned here, and the sundries were varied, but Li Long didn't see anything particularly valuable like gold or jade. He thought these things were specially stored?

He looked around and found nothing to buy, so he left.

When returning to the hostel at noon, Li Jianguo and the others had already returned. Seeing Li Long return empty-handed, they were a bit puzzled. Li Jianguo said:

"Today we went to look at the shoes and hats of the time-honored shops. The shoes were nothing, but we bought a few hats to take back and give to people."

"Did you buy pastries? If not, go buy them tomorrow, buy more, and pack them for consignment back, then take them home to give to people," Li Long said. "We don't have many things left."

"How about we go to the Summer Palace tomorrow? The Old Summer Palace was burned, but the Summer Palace should be viewable, right?"

"It's viewable, it's just that I don't know how it is in this deep winter." Li Long thought to himself that it should be viewed in late spring or early summer, right? Going now, maybe nothing can be seen.

"Then we have to see it."

"Okay, then let's go around the Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, etc." There were actually quite a few old places in Yanjing, and if one really wanted to go around, one day definitely wouldn't be enough. Li Long could see that his elder brother was in a good mood. Anyway, the things that needed to be done were completed in advance, so let's go around properly.

Saying this to Gu Xiaoxia, she was also quite happy. After all, she came here once and only went around the Tiananmen area properly; other places hadn't been gone around properly. If she went back directly, she would still be a bit unwilling.

But she didn't intend to go to other places this afternoon. She left the children to Li Long, and Gu Xiaoxia and Gu Xiao Yu went out together.

A bit mysterious.

Li Long could guess one, two, or three, but he didn't make it public. Since his wife didn't intend to take him and the children, she shouldn't intend to tell anyone.

Then let's ignore it for now.

Li Long simply took his elder brother and the others to see his two courtyards.

"Hey, this courtyard is really not bad!" Seeing the two-courtyard compound, Li Jianguo said with a smile, "Not as big as yours, but the layout inside is really good, looking like the garden of a rich family in the old society."

It was really like this. In the past, how could ordinary common people live in such a courtyard?

Li Long himself was also quite satisfied.

PS: Thanks to book friend Crocodile's Tears L for the large reward, and thanks to book friends Xie Lan'an, Jiangbei Haijiao, Lin Ruo_ae, and Zuo Jing for the rewards. (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 946 =====