This short, fat man in his forties is named Chen Manguan. His name has a good meaning, but unfortunately he has hit a trough now. shu mark 玷癞癹
Chen Manguan was born in a rural family, and his family was poor in his early years. He went to work in the city when he was a teenager and became an apprentice in an antique shop. With his studiousness, diligence and willingness to endure hardship, he was quickly appreciated and promoted by his boss. Coupled with his loyalty and enthusiasm, he has built good connections over time.
In the early 1980s, the owner of this antique shop was taken by his son and daughter to settle in the United States, and the antique shop changed hands to others. Chen Manguan had long wanted to go it alone, but he was a very loyal person and felt that his boss was kind to him, so he stayed in the store. Now that the boss has settled abroad, Chen Manguan naturally has no grudges against the new boss, so he resigned from the antique shop and started working alone.
But in the antique shop these years, even if he was taken care of by his boss, Chen Manguan had not accumulated much wealth, and he did not have the funds to open an antique store. In desperation, he had no choice but to work as a middleman in the antique market. Introduce Benbu among antique buyers and sellers, and offer some bonuses when a transaction is completed. With the connections he had accumulated over the years and his accurate eye for antiques, he did not expect to accumulate a substantial net worth in just three years. Since then, he has officially opened an antique shop in the city.
The business was booming, and Chen Manguan soon became the vice president of the Dongshi Antique Chamber of Commerce, becoming a famous antique dealer in Dongshi and even in China.
The bigger the business, the bigger the heart. Coupled with the flattery and adulation he has received over the years, Chen Manguan's mentality has gradually become a little impetuous. After 1992, the national policy changed and began to vigorously develop the economy. Some foreign friends came to the country to discuss investment, and some of them developed a strong interest in domestic antiques. However, the state has very strict export controls on cultural relics, and the declaration procedures are strict. If the cultural relics are old and have historical value, they are not allowed to be exported even if they are declared.
However, the price of cultural relics in overseas markets was much higher than that in China. This was a piece of fat. Chen Manguan wanted to swallow it, so he started a business of smuggling cultural relics.
Chen Manguan was naturally cautious when doing this illegal business. He did it several times without incident. After tasting the huge sweetness, Chen Manguan became more courageous.
Three years ago, a batch of cultural relics worth more than one billion were exported to Vietnam. The route that had been safely traveled several times was actually caught in a crossfire. Not only was the delivery man dead, but the cultural relics were also broken into pieces. .
Chen Manguan lost all his wealth in one fell swoop. Fortunately, he had been cautious in smuggling over the years. Although he was subject to some investigations, the matter was not leaked and he was spared a jail sentence. But faced with a large amount of compensation, he ended up borrowing money from everywhere. But how could anyone be willing to lend him money at this time? From a well-known wealthy antique dealer in Dongcheng to a pauper, his business friends began to avoid him for various reasons, and the city officials even showed off their official power and spoke in an official tone. Even relatives who had benefited from him a lot over the years began to speak in a nonchalant manner.
Chen Manguan has experienced cynicism, rolling eyes, pointing fingers, and the warmth and coldness of human relationships in the past three years.
When he encountered a trough in his career, only his wife, who had been with him through difficult times, could not stop comforting him. She even endured the instigation and accusations from her parents and borrowed money to help him make a comeback without ever uttering a word of complaint. Seeing his wife like this, and thinking about how he had become so prosperous over the years and then turned cold to his wife when he saw the world, Chen Manguan felt extremely ashamed. He once despised his wife for not being beautiful enough, not slender enough, not even well-educated, not knowing anything about antiques, and having no common language with him. Over the years, he had been socializing outside and faced the temptation of beautiful young women. Although he finally controlled it and did not do anything to disgrace his wife, it was true that he despised her more and more in his heart.
After experiencing the ups and downs, the warmth and warmth of human relationships, Chen Manguan suddenly saw many things clearly. He didn't say anything to his wife, but secretly made up his mind to make a comeback and make his wife happy for the rest of her life!
After that, Chen Manguan started running in the antique market again, but his business friends shunned him, his interpersonal relationships were useless, and the middleman who wanted to return to the track had no capital. So he had to focus on picking up leaks. After all, he had gained a lot of vision and experience over the years.
But it is not easy for him to pick up the missing pieces. After all, everyone in the Dongshi antique circle has known him over the years. Although he was down and out, he still had good eyesight, so as long as it was an item that he was interested in, the stall owner would always look at it carefully several times, and finally find reasons to refuse to sell it, for fear that it would be missed.
Later, in desperation, Chen Manguan had to go outside and bribe a few laymen. He was responsible for looking at it, and then asked the laymen to come in and buy it. After three years, I have achieved some results. But it's not much. All the money I made was used for the original funeral expenses, and now I still haven't accumulated any wealth.
On this day, he was strolling in the market as usual, and the blue and white platters on Zhao Mingjun's stall caught his attention.
There is no authoritative Yuan blue and white appraisal expert in China. The main reason is that too few Yuan blue and white flowers have been unearthed, and there is insufficient research on them. Even if the real Yuan blue and white flowers are placed in front of them, I am afraid that experts will have to go through intense discussions before they can make a judgment. Therefore, Chen Manguan was not sure about his own eyesight. He still didn't show it, only glanced at it and left.
This time, Chen Manguan didn't let outsiders come in and buy it. Instead, he thought of someone.
This man is Mr. Li Boyuan, a leading figure in Hong Kong’s collecting industry. Coinciding with the return of Hong Kong, Mr. Li was invited to Dongshi to restore an official kiln and several private kilns left over from ancient times in Dongshi, and invest in the ceramic industry. Li Boyuan loved to collect porcelain, especially blue and white porcelain. He even opened a private collection in Hong Kong to display the blue and white porcelain he purchased from overseas and domestically. Therefore, he was undoubtedly an authoritative expert in blue and white porcelain.
Chen Manguan couldn't guarantee that the blue and white plate was authentic, and he didn't quite believe in his luck, so he made up his mind.
He wanted to ask Li Boyuan to come and give him an eye. Even if the market price was fake, he wanted to let the people in Dongshi know that Chen Manguan could still hire the leading figure in Hong Kong's collecting industry. Secondly, he was kind-hearted in inviting Mr. Li to come along. Follow him around the antique market, maybe you can open up some contacts. If the big market is true, although I will lose some money, but Mr. Li bought it, I am also considered a middleman, and the middleman fee will not be small, so this favor can be considered a sale.
Chen Manguan felt that this was a decision that was beneficial to him regardless of whether it was true or false, so he went to the hotel where Mr. Li was staying and said that there was a suspected Yuan Qinghua market and asked Mr. Li to help him. Sure enough, when Li Boyuan heard this, he agreed to go with him, and the two of them went to the antique market.
But who would have thought that just when Chen Manguan respectfully brought Li Boyuan to Zhao Mingjun's stall, the big plate was gone!
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
A chapter is used to introduce the experience of Uncle Chen, who is naturally an important person~o(n_n)o~ Mr. Li is also an important person~