Dig graves and dig out ghosts

Chapter 26: photo

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From the flyover on the South Third Ring Road, turn right and walk through a path shaded by sycamore trees to Shenjiayuan.

The stretches of low-rise buildings and the messy street stalls on both sides are incompatible with the modernization of this city, but this is a well-known antique market in the country. Tens of thousands of people come here every day with huge sums of money, braving the heatstroke of being baked by the scorching sun. The danger lingers endlessly from one stall to another, hoping to find one or two buried treasures in the corner, which people in the industry call leaking. Among them are speculators, collectors, tourists, famous calligraphers and painters, and even gamblers. They firmly believe that a city with a history of thousands of years hides unknown wealth everywhere, and it is this mood that gives them a similar look, intoxicated. And the frenzied eyes are like a long tongue sticking out, dripping watery licks over the rough and high-quality imitations on the stalls on both sides.

This is the place where Lin Yan left countless memories when he was young. The middle school he studied was very close to here. After school, he often came here alone with his schoolbag on his back. At that time, there were not so many people, and there was a heavily polluted river nearby. Not being landfilled, the air is always filled with the smell of stinky salted fish, and the hawkers who set up the stalls have not yet learned to doze lazily while peeking at the expressions of customers to judge how much money a business can cheat.

The old days are like a roll of yellowed newspapers. A boy in a light blue school uniform walks through it, exchanging his pocket money for a piece of colored glaze from the late Qing Dynasty. He squats in front of the stall to pick and choose. The story of Liulichang in the late Qing Dynasty, Lin Yan didn’t know why he was only interested in thrift stores when children of the same age were saving money to buy star posters, just like he was still interested in the Belgian chocolate brought back by relatives For several years, I have been obsessed with the pot of honey wrapped in sugar held by the grandmother at the school gate.

Wood, rice paper, and the unique dusty atmosphere of old things have the taste of time, and Lin Yan in his youth can't help but immerse himself in it. Like a lonely fish.

The sun was shining brightly on the ground at three o'clock in the afternoon. Lin Yan held a bulging bag in his left hand and a cup of roasted grass jelly milk tea in his right. The trousers look a bit abrupt in the crowd, and he doesn't know why antique shoppers like to wear black, they look like they just got out of the ground.

"Here, it's really hot, do you want to drink it?" Lin Yan shook the milk tea cup, the ice cube hit the wall of the cup, and there was a soft splash. It seemed to others that he was whispering into the air, but in fact it was an invisible person He was walking beside him, helping to share half of the weight of the bag, so although Lin Yan carried a lot of things, he didn't put much effort into it.

Xiao Yu lowered his head while holding his hand, took a sip at the place where Lin Yan had sucked, bit the straw hard twice and turned his head away.

Lin Yan wanted to laugh a little, and pulled the corner of his mouth to take the cup back.

A Yan said that Xiao Yu might think of more things after following him, so after breakfast Lin Yan took him to the antique market, hoping to remind him of something with the things of his era, who knows that every shop goes by. Come here, I bought a lot of things, but this ghost didn't improve much. Lin Yan glanced at the bag in his hand. It was filled with ready-made clothes bought from a well-known Hanfu shop in Shenjiayuan. They were well-made and expensive. Most people would buy one set for their collection at most. Like Lin Yan, he bought a bunch of them as a bargain. Customers for daily necessities are really rare, even the clerk couldn't help but look at him a few more times.

Xiao Yu doesn't know what his background is, he's so arrogant, he doesn't want to adapt to the times, Lin Yan rolled his eyes and glared at him hatefully, thinking that you should throw a silver ingot and act as a shopkeeper , Let him follow behind as a servant to pay.

Just after he came out of the shop, Xiao Yu hadn't recovered from the heartache, when he passed by a woodware store, Xiao Yu stopped suddenly, Lin Yan looked at the gorgeous decoration of the shop and the pieces of rosewood and red sandalwood furniture, and said with a mournful face that his ancestor couldn't afford it rise. Xiao Yu ignored him, and dragged him straight inside, so after thirty minutes, Lin Yan swiped his card to pay the bill under the attention of the shop assistant, and bought a beautiful Guqin made of Tongzi wood.

"My ancestor, what else do you want?" Lin Yan put the delivery note from the woodware shop into his pocket, turned his head and gave Xiao Yu an angry look.

Xiao Yu shook his head nonchalantly.

There were more people on the road, some of them didn’t know what kind of treasure they found, and they secretly looked at the things they just bought with unconcealed excitement on their faces; Mao Ju bought shadow puppets on the side of the road, looking back curiously at this antique city built in Chinese style from time to time.

Going south from the store area is a large area of ancient buildings imitating the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The bustling narrow streets are a bit like the scene of Water Margin. The wooden windows on the second floor are pushed up and supported by a short stick. Looking up, you can see people drinking tea. Guests, the waiter in the shop is all in bunt, busy back and forth with a big teapot.

The narrow street leads to a large emerald stall, and a plastic shed is used to shield it from the sun. As soon as Lin Yan walked into the shadow of the roof with Xiao Yu, he heard a familiar voice shouting loudly.

"Look at how green and sunny this place is, how good this water head is, even if you search all over Shenjiayuan at this price, you won't be able to find another one!" The transparent blessing bracelet spat at the guests, and the plainly dressed middle-aged woman in front of the booth looked hesitant, taking the bracelet and looking over and over again.

"It's too expensive, let me lower it." The woman said sincerely.

"It's so green, it's so transparent, it's only this amount. If you lower the price again, elder sister, it will kill me. Please go away." The peddler snatched the bracelet back with puffy eyes.

"I bought it for my daughter as a birthday present. It's too expensive. It's a pity that she dropped it. You can give me the lowest price."

"That's it." The peddler Gulu rolled his eyes, took out his calculator and typed a few numbers before the woman's eyes, "Is this all right? It can't be lower!"

Lin Yan couldn't help leaning over to glance at the numbers on the screen, and burst out laughing.

The peddler gave him a hard wink.

Lin Yan shook his head, took the bracelet and said to the woman, "Don't buy this, he's fooling you."

"Hey, what are you saying, what are you talking about, we are genuine and innocent, if you don't believe me, go out and find out..."

Lin Yan curled his lips, put the cup of burning jelly grass on the booth, held the bracelet to change the angle, the curved surface just reflected a gleam of light from the plastic ceiling, and said to the woman who bought the bracelet: "Look at the blurred edge of this reflection. If you look carefully, you can see that there are very fine grids intertwined on the surface." Lin Yan lifted the bracelet up to let the light pass through, "There is purple fluorescence in the inner circle, which means that the bracelet is so transparent after being pickled and filled with glue."

"Also, the green color floats on the surface and cannot be submerged, which means it was painted in the later stage. This thing is only worth one or two hundred yuan, so don't buy it."

The peddler's nose and eyes are wrinkled, and at first glance it looks like a dried walnut.

"Oh." The middle-aged woman hurriedly stuffed the envelope containing the money back into her bag, and thanked Lin Yan repeatedly.

When she left, the peddler snorted and turned away from Lin Yan angrily. Even his swollen belly seemed to be a little flatter than before.

"What can you do, be a way to make a fortune."

Lin Yan slapped the peddler hard on the forehead: "I haven't seen anyone who doesn't even have a wallet, so you're too embarrassed to lie to him. You won't be able to do it in a few days."

Several stalls around laughed together, the peddler put the eyeballs that had rolled up on the top of his head back to their original positions, grabbed Lin Yan’s milk tea, opened the plastic paper and drank a few mouthfuls, Caracalla muttered while chewing ice cubes: “Our business There is no way to lie, who is to blame for my poor eyesight, it is the rule not to retreat when going out."

This is the truth, the business of antique jade and jade wares depends on eyesight, and which store displays more fakes than real ones, it all depends on the sharp eyes of the customers, who never retreat, and think they are unlucky when they leave the store. Lin Yan clicked his tongue: "I'm not a member of the circle, so your dad needs to know that you look good."

The peddler rolled his eyes, knowing he was right and stopped talking.

Lin Yan has been a frequent visitor to the antique market since he was a child. Since he chose this major in university, he prefers to come to small stalls to practice his eyes when he has nothing to do. He has bought at low prices and sold at high prices. All the peddlers know him. For example, today, Lin Yan first met his father, a very upright old man who would even take out the purchase slip when he was negotiating with customers. Unfortunately, the old man fell ill after Lin Yan graduated from high school, and left the business to his son. , So there is a small profiteer in front of him.

Lin Yan was not polite to him, and walked around to the booth and took out a copper box from under the table, which contained some Ming and Qing folk crafts. The original stall owner received small gadgets from nearby residents when he was young, and they were all family heirlooms. As for the old things, Lin Yan thought of this basket of decorations, so he specially pulled Xiao Yu to look at it. Brass mirror, jade bracelet, finger puller, snuff bottle, cigarette holder, all of them looked depressing but just shook his head. Lin Yan threw the last one back into the box and patted the ashes on his body, feeling a little depressed.

"This basket has been thrown here for a long time and no one has touched it. Why are you pulling it?" The peddler kept squinting at him and couldn't help asking.

"Look for some gadgets from the Ming Dynasty, I need them in class." Lin Yan actually didn't know what he was looking for, so he went back to carry the boxes while coping.

"Ming Dynasty?" The peddler didn't care about the bracelet anymore, "Old Man Liu has a lot hidden there."

"No, no, no..." Lin Yan hurriedly refused, thought for a while and then sighed, "Forget it, after shopping all day, he's the only place I didn't go, I'll try."

"Don't say the wrong thing, I wish you good luck." The peddler made a grimace.

The shop opened by the old man Liu is quite famous in Shenjiayuan, not only because other people sell antiques, he only sells old photos, but also because the old man is notoriously irritable, leaving the shop alone every day, hanging an old-fashioned mechanical camera in the The garden earns money, and when I go to his store to buy things, I can never find the owner. Every day when I walk on the road, I see him wearing an old Chinese tunic suit jumping and cursing in the street, with a thin face like a praying mantis and a pair of glasses hanging crookedly. Sometimes the lens is shattered into cobwebs, and sometimes the lens cannot be found at all.

His shop sells old photos of the old city, which are densely hung from the floor to the ceiling. Because old photos are difficult to reproduce, they are also more expensive. The front gate in 1872, the large fence, the old garden in the setting sun, passers-by in long gowns with yellow and emaciated faces and numb eyes. The TV station came to interview them specially, but halfway through the program, all the photographers and reporters were scolded by old man Liu without exception. looking at the camera and lounging outside.

The shop was located in the northwest corner of Shenjiayuan. The location was inauspicious. There was an evil talisman designed by a famous Feng Shui master hanging on the door. Xiao Yu couldn't enter the door, so she stood at the door waiting for Lin Yan.

Looking at the dark storefront, Lin Yan felt for the first time that he was quite reluctant to be depressed.

Unsurprisingly, old man Liu was not in the store. A seven or eight year old girl in a red jacket was facing away from him, pointing to the photo on the wall and muttering something, when she heard someone coming in, she turned her head and grinned at Lin Yan.

Lin Yan was a little surprised. This little girl was his neighbor. Although he didn't know which household she lived in, he often saw her wearing a dirty red dress and running around in the yard downstairs. Sometimes Lin Yan When I went out to buy supper, I saw her playing with the cat in the yard and couldn't go home. It's not common in the past month, and I didn't expect to meet here.

Could it be that he is related to that strange old man? No wonder no one cares about playing crazy outside every day, Lin Yan thought.

"Why are you here by yourself?" Lin Yan squatted down and asked her in a soft voice.

The little girl was thin and lean, her eyes were staring at Lin Yan, she grinned and said nothing, Lin Yan suddenly felt that the little girl's smile made people feel uncomfortable, it didn't seem to be called a smile, it was just a habitual grin The poses are posed, the corners of the mouth are raised, but the eyes are dull, wearing an old jacket in the summer, the whole person has the same feeling of being left behind by the times like the old photos full of houses.

Lin Yan hesitated whether he should go out and wait for that strange old man.

"What are you XX, I XXXX..." Lin Yan was distracted when suddenly there was a thud, and old man Liu fell through the gate with his broken camera in his arms. to the sunny floor.

"You, are you okay?" Lin Yan rushed over to help him, but the old man gave him a hard look, turned over and sat on the ground, patted the dirt on his knees, and continued to walk out the door without giving up. abuse. Lin Yan stood aside in embarrassment, neither leaving nor staying.

The old man had had enough scolding, he got up humming, and when he saw Lin Yan, he suddenly opened his eyes wide as if he had discovered a new world, and said, "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to buy something." Lin Yan couldn't laugh or cry. Shouldn't the owner's first reaction be a customer when he appeared in the store

"Walk around, what's there to buy, young people know nothing." The old man tried his best to help his eyes, and walked around behind the counter in dissatisfaction, "Why are you still standing? Didn't you hear that you weren't doing business?!"

Lin Yan was too lazy to talk nonsense with the old man, so he patted his butt and turned around to leave.

"Hey! Wait!" The old man yelled. Just as Lin Yan walked to the door, he was startled by the voice and had to stop again.

"You look pretty good, I'll take a photo of you." The old man suddenly walked out from behind the counter with a camera in his hands, grabbed Lin Yan by the collar and pushed him into the room, and then pushed him into the small room. Next to the girl, he squatted down involuntarily, and the shutter clicked a few times, and the old man's raspy face appeared from behind the camera, smacking his lips in satisfaction.

After Zizi rang softly, several photos popped up from the top of the camera one after another. The old man pinched it in his hand and glanced at it, then took out one and handed it to Lin Yan: "Take it."

Lin Yan experienced the power of the old man again this time, turned his face angrily, rubbed his shoulders and walked out: "I don't want it."

"Hold it!" The old man yelled in Lin Yan's ear, his whole head was pounding.

Lin Yan took it over speechlessly and glanced at it. In the black and white picture, he looked like a wooden pole, poking against the wall with an expressionless face. The background was dark. His whole figure was like a supernatural picture circulating on the Internet.

what's wrong...

Lin Yan's eyes suddenly widened, a nerve in his head jumped suddenly, he couldn't help but took a step back, looked at himself in the photo, and then looked at the place where he was standing when the photo was taken, a burst of coldness poured down from his head like water.

The little girl who took the photo with him just now is not in the photo, he is the only one in the black and white background like a ghost movie.

Lin Yan raised his head with difficulty. The girl in red was standing where he was just now, wearing an inappropriate ragged padded jacket, biting her fingers and grinning at him.

"Hey, hey." The old man helped his crooked eyes, and a piece of lens fell to the ground with a snap. "It's really nice, really nice."

Lin Yan scrambled out of the room.

The sun was harsh and vicious, the bustling street was crowded with people, Xiao Yu was standing at the door bored, Lin Yan couldn't say a word, tried to swallow his saliva, and rushed over to hug him in a few strides.