"How could I do that? My father taught me since I was young that only harmony can bring wealth. These are the shoes handed down from my ancestors. They can be worn for many years and will never be worn out. I came here because I need money urgently, otherwise I would not want to part with them. Please take a look and give me an estimate. If it is suitable, I will give you all the shoes in this bundle." Liu Dadao looked innocent as he stared at the bundle, as if he was afraid that Zhang Chaofeng at the counter would swap his bag of shoes.
How poor! Are you so nervous about this bag of worn-out shoes? ! It's true that poor people can't live without pawnshops! Although poor people used to pawn their belongings, they only pawned waistcoats, fur coats and other clothes that were worth a little money to solve their urgent needs, but this is the first time that someone sent a bag of smelly worn-out shoes!
I have been a pawnbroker for more than ten years. This bag of worn-out shoes is the most speechless pawn I have ever received. Let alone an appraisal of the value of this bag of worn-out shoes, it is too damn annoying even to put it in the pawn. What about an appraisal? Evaluate your mother! The purpose of opening a pawn shop is to make money, not to do charity!
These shoes are handed down from my ancestors?! Are you kidding me?!
well
etc?!
Why is this country bumpkin so nervous about this bag of worn-out shoes? This shouldn't be the case. Is there some other secret behind this? Are these shoes passed down from ancestors? !
Zhang Chaofeng's eyelids suddenly twitched. He then remembered the example his master often used to teach him when he first entered the industry:
It was about 20 to 30 years after the Jingnan Campaign. Not long after the opening of another pawnshop called Xinglongchang on this street, a nobleman named Zhou from Beibingmasi Hutong came to pawn a painting. The Zhou family was not an ordinary family. Their ancestor was a hereditary earl awarded when the Ming Dynasty was founded. However, because they stood on the wrong side during the Jingnan Campaign, their family fortunes fell after the campaign. Their descendants were more useless than the last, and they had to sell off their family property to make a living.
A nobleman surnamed Zhou came to Xinglongchang Pawnshop and asked to pawn the painting passed down from his ancestors for thirty taels of silver. The person who received Zhou was an old shopkeeper with good eyesight and rich experience. After taking the painting and carefully examining it, he found that it should be a painting for the old earl to practice, not a work of a famous artist. The structure and painting skills of the painting looked very immature. Not to mention thirty taels of silver, even ten taels of silver would not be worth it. In the painting, an old man is hiding behind the woods, using a bamboo tube to put on his eyes to observe a creeping leopard in the woods. The painting is inscribed with four characters: "Seeing the leopard through the tube". Apart from this, there is nothing else on the painting, no signature, no time, and no poem.
A glimpse of the leopard through the tube? !
The old shopkeeper was experienced and discovered the secret of this "seeing the leopard through the tube" painting after carefully examining it for a few minutes. At that time, the pawnshop's officials all thought that the painting was only worth ten taels of silver, but the old shopkeeper agreed to the 30 taels of silver requested by the noble Zhou, and had someone issue a pawn ticket for the 30 taels of silver, and set the pawn period to three months.
This is a live pawn, a three-month pawn ticket, which means that within three months you can redeem the painting as long as you pay thirty taels of principal and three taels and three cents of interest. But if you do not redeem it after the deadline, the painting will become the property of the pawnshop.
On the evening of the day after the transaction was completed, the old shopkeeper took the painting out of the pawnshop alone after the pawnshop closed. He lit the oil lamp, carefully observed the painting, and felt around the painting with his hands, and finally discovered the secret hidden in the painting.
The scroll part of a general painting is made of solid jujube wood or pear wood, but the scroll part of this painting is made of the finest Xiaoxiang bamboo. When you knock on it with your hand, you can hear an echo inside, as it is hollow.
The old shopkeeper smiled after discovering it, and then fumbled around the scroll for a while and found that the scroll was made of two pieces of bamboo. If you rotate it clockwise, you can pull out one of the pieces. After pulling it out, you found a piece of silk at the other end. You carefully pulled the silk out, and then you found a string of 13 rare old pit glass jade bracelets.
The old shopkeeper is well versed in jade. This string of 13 jadeite beads, each of which is round and smooth, with uniform color, should have come from the same piece of stone and are priceless.
It is estimated that the treasure was seized and hidden by the ancestors of the Zhou family when they followed the army to conquer the southern barbarians of Myanmar. It was hidden in the painting for the sake of secrecy. "Seeing the leopard in the tube" is the code word for treasure hiding, which actually means "seeing the treasure in the tube".
"Fui" means to give something away. -- Guangya
There are treasures left in the bamboo tube.
The Zhou family fell into decline, and because they stood on the wrong side during the Jingnan Campaign, they were suppressed and purged, which probably led to the interruption of this secret passed down by word of mouth.
The old shopkeeper calmly wrapped the bracelet with silk, put it back into the bamboo tube, then put the scroll back together and put the original object back.
This was a well-known fact. The Zhou family made a living by selling off their belongings, so there was no possibility of redeeming the items. As expected, the noble Zhou soon squandered the thirty taels of silver on a life of debauchery and did not redeem the items on time.
As a result, the old manager of Xinglongchang Pawnshop made an astonishing fortune.
Generation after generation
This anecdote is regarded as a classic case to educate every new official in the industry, teaching them to keep their eyes open again and again when making valuations.
After thinking about this, Zhang Chaofeng endured the pungent smell and checked the bundle of broken shoes again and again, carefully looking through every sole and insole, studying everything from workmanship to materials over and over again.
Then
Finally, I came to a conclusion: this is just a pack of ordinary shoes, the materials and craftsmanship are not special, and they were only made in recent years. If there is anything special about them, it is that they are extremely smelly!!!
"How many do you want to be?" Zhang Chaofeng asked grimly.
"100 coins, no, one ounce of silver, no less. This is what my ancestors gave me..."
Before Liu Dadao could finish his words, a bundle of smelly shoes was thrown out of the window, and then Liu Dadao was driven out by the clerks in the pawnshop.
"Damn it, you still dare to pawn the shoes? You don't have any good eyesight at all. They are such nice shoes. I don't believe it. I'll try another pawnshop." After leaving the pawnshop, Liu Dadao spat forcefully, looking like he was not convinced.
"Ouch..."
Just when Liu Dadao was about to leave and try another pawnshop, he suddenly heard a pig-slaughtering scream from behind. Then, when he turned around, he saw a man who looked like a housekeeper falling down the steps at the door of the pawnshop.
Ouch, ouch, ouch
With a cry of "ouch", he put his left foot behind his right leg, put his hands up to the sky, and fell face first to the ground. He fell down the stairs with a thump, right under Liu Dadao's feet.
"Everyone saw it. You fell down by yourself. Don't blame me." Liu Dadao shouted loudly to express his innocence to everyone.
"How could that be? I, Old Zheng, am not that kind of person." Butler Zheng said as he supported Liu Dadao's legs and stood up.
"Thank you, brave man, for helping me with my kick. Otherwise, I would have fallen badly." Butler Zheng stood up and expressed his gratitude to Liu Dadao.
Well
Liu Dadao was confused and said, "I didn't save you. You were the one who pulled my legs up."
"Hey, brave man, I see you just came out of the pawnshop. Are you going to pawn something because you are having difficulties in life? You just saved me. To express my gratitude, you don't have to go to the pawnshop anymore. Just give the things to me. I will pay you a high price." Butler Zheng looked like he was grateful.
"Which one, which one, that's right, when I see injustice, I should help others with my sword. This is what my father taught me since I was a child, cough cough cough, is it true that you can offer a high price?" Liu Dadao sounded righteous in the first sentence, but his second sentence changed its tone.
"Of course. I, Old Zheng, am a grateful person. Is this the package that you want to take over?" Butler Zheng asked seriously.
"Yeah, yeah." Liu Dadao nodded repeatedly.
"Just name a price, brave man. I, Zheng, will take it." Butler Zheng patted the bundle in Liu Dadao's hand, felt the shoes in the bundle, suppressed his inner joy, and said seriously.
"Okay, since Mr. Zheng is so straightforward, I won't say any more. This bag and shoes are passed down from my ancestors. My ancestors said that if the family encounters a disaster, this bag and shoes must be pawned and will not be sold for less than twenty taels. However, seeing that you, Mr. Zheng, are so straightforward and it suits my taste, I will risk being scolded by my ancestors and give you ten taels of silver, not a penny more." Liu Dadao patted his chest, looking like a man who would die for his friend.
Hold
You were so full in the pawn shop that you dared to ask for 1 tael of silver! 10 taels of silver, are your shoes made of silver thread? !
Butler Zheng almost couldn't help spitting in Liu Dadao's face, but thinking of Zhao Daying's instructions, he held back his anger, forced an ugly smile, and reluctantly took out ten taels of silver to buy the bundle of stinky shoes.
After getting the package, Butler Zheng ran back to the Zhao Mansion in Beibingmasi Hutong without saying a word and went to report the good news to Zhao Daying.
"Did you really get it?!" Zhao Daying, who was still at the table, looked delighted after hearing this.
"I must complete what the master has asked me to do, no matter how hard I try. Look, master, this is the bundle of shoes." Butler Zheng presented the bundle to Zhao Daying like he was presenting a treasure.
"Okay, okay, okay." Zhao Daying was so happy that he kept saying "Okay" three times. As long as he got the shoes, it would be useless even if Zhu Pingan caught those rubbish. I would find a few people to fill the vacancies in the camp. What evidence did Zhu Pingan have to prove that those rubbish were soldiers in my camp? !
Excited, Zhao Daying took the package, opened it, and took out a shoe.
vomit
Zhao Daying almost vomited up the overnight meal, and the other civil and military officials at the banquet were also fumigated to the point of being pale and weak in the limbs.
"Fuck! These are the shoes you worked so hard to get?! Are you kidding me?"
Zhao Daying looked at the patched tattered cloth shoes in his hand, his hair standing on end with rage, and put one hand on housekeeper Zheng's face, but he couldn't take them off.
The shoes in this bundle were all patched up old shoes, not a single one was the blue cloth short boots used in the military camp! It was obvious that he had been fooled. Thinking of Zhu Ping'an's meaningful smile before he left, Zhao Daying's blood instantly surged to his head.
"Zhu Ping'an, you and I cannot coexist!"
After a while, Zhao Daying's angry roar broke the tranquility of Beibingmasi Hutong.