Before dawn, the trumpet on the pier was shouted. The neat voice was full of Jiaxing flavor, full of mental excitement and physical fatigue. It was repeated over and over again. Huang Xuan couldn't sleep either. He touched his face and got up.
Jiang Yisheng had woken up long ago and was chatting with the store clerk outside the door. Huang Xuan glanced at it indifferently and started washing up.
Shopkeeper Zhu came over very early in a carriage. Although it was already the 16th year of the Republic of China, cars did not seem to be popularized in ordinary life at all, let alone a small shop like Shopkeeper Zhu. Of course, for him, he did not have the energy to consider such unrealistic issues. These issues were beyond his control, and Mr. Chiang Kai-shek had not given much thought to them.
This morning, the price of food has increased by another 10%. This is the life that shopkeeper Zhu is worried about. All major grain stores are facing the danger of running out of food. It is rumored that the government will also introduce price limit measures. In order to strive for maximum profits, shopkeeper Zhu has spent the whole morning He rushed over.
Huang Xuan drank enough water and stretched out from the concierge. He said to shopkeeper Zhu who had just got off the carriage: "The shopkeeper is early. I have shipped some wheat to my house. Let's go and take a look now." look?"
"I wonder where Boss Huang's home is?" Shopkeeper Zhu immediately raised his hands to show respect, but the two guys behind him looked dumbfounded. They were waiting at the door of the warehouse before dawn, waiting for the possible fleet to arrive. Now is the time Hundreds of stones of grain were quietly transported into the warehouse. There were no porters, no sampans, and not even a grain of wheat sown in front of the warehouse door. The two of them looked at me and I looked at you, hunched their heads and followed behind their shopkeeper. It was not their turn to speak at this moment, so they had to keep their doubts in their hearts.
Huang Xuan walked with his hands waving in front of him, with a nonchalant look on his face, as if he was a rich man traveling on a trip. In modern film terms, this seems to be called true-character performance.
Shopkeeper Zhu humbly stepped back half a step, hugged his long gown, walked two steps and suddenly said: "I wonder how much wheat has been shipped?"
The shopkeeper seemed to like the word "I don't know", but Huang Xuan didn't answer his question. How much wheat there was was entirely up to Lorraine. He pointed to the warehouse and said, "Let's take a look first."
The shopkeeper took Huang Xuan's casual answer to heart, and secretly assessed that he seemed to be another noble man who was well-dressed and well-fed, and was ready to pay for his tuition. After thinking about it like this, he also had some concerns.
Modern seed grains are all excellent varieties cultivated in greenhouses or even greenhouses. They have plump grains and bright appearance. Compared with their children and grandchildren, the price of these seeds is five times higher. Several clerks can see it with their eyes straight. , I secretly estimated that these wheat are better than the rice in the warehouse.
Shopkeeper Zhu is well-informed. Although wheat is not grown in Jiaxing, he can still tell at a glance that these are seed grains, and the price of such good seed grains is much higher than ordinary grains. As for the origin, he sees Glancing at Huang Xuan, who was playing with the grains of wheat, he was not interested in exploring it. That was the boss's business.
"I wonder what the price is?" Shopkeeper Zhu looked at Huang Xuan eagerly, a little impatient, but still looked calm on the surface.
"Seventy percent of the market price." Huang Xuan raised a finger and said, "I'll give you one day to prepare the money. I only accept silver dollars, and I don't want anything else."
At this time, Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Kai-shek had not yet had time to carry out legal currency reform. However, merchants did prefer to collect hard currency such as silver dollars for various purposes. However, raising thousands of yuan a day seemed to be more difficult for the inclined bridge rice shop. Zhu The shopkeeper Nuonuo didn't respond. The 30% profit was too tempting, not to mention that food prices would only skyrocket in the future, but he didn't have enough cash to agree.
Huang Xuan didn't see what Shopkeeper Zhu was thinking. He just wanted to sell the food quickly. Before Shopkeeper Zhu could speak, he said again: "Thank you, Shopkeeper, please lend me two warehouses first. Can the rent be calculated together?"
"That's no problem." The other party agreed. In the past two months, more grain was sold and less was collected. Most of the warehouses were empty. He looked at Huang Xuan and then at the grain in the warehouse, gritted his teeth and said : "You can just ask Xiao Liuzi for the warehouse. Can I send the money over at night?"
"Then I'll wait for you." Huang Xuan shrugged and said casually. Shopkeeper Zhu left three assistants behind
Just like Huang Xuan's era, the upstream controlled the downstream, and the downstream held the upstream hostage. Everything depended on who had the advantage of the market. When the market was short of food, shopkeeper Zhu got the news of a large amount of food, and it was like growing four animals. He flew out of the dock like a duck with wings. Before noon, many shops sent people to wander around the dock area. Huang Xuan pretended not to see it and just stayed in the warehouse with Jiang Yisheng to watch the guys counting and weighing the wheat.
Lorraine probably put about 15 tons of wheat and removed all the packaging bags. His method of concealing the information of the times was much simpler and cleaner than Huang Xuan's. According to the current calculation method, these are about 50 stones, and if you count small stones, it will be even more. In fact, Shanghai and other places have begun to use the imperial measurement method, but in Kanpu, people are still accustomed to the old-fashioned method.
Huang Xuan had an account in his mind and was not too worried about someone playing tricks. He just asked Jiang Yisheng to help him watch and walked out. He was impatient with these tedious and specific tasks and wanted to take a serious look at this changing era. , and take a look to see if there is any extravagant money falling in front of or behind you.
If there is enough time, the information provided by Lorraine can bring hundreds or thousands of times the profit. However, I don’t know whether it is because of Huang Xuan’s authority or the base capabilities Lorraine has. Lorraine only agreed to let him here. There is no guarantee of how much time he can save when he returns home. It may be one day later, maybe three days later. In this case, Huang Xuan does not dare to stay longer.
Looking at the information that Lorraine gave him, Huang Xuan was somewhat emotional. The end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century were an era of explosive inspiration. People who had just gone through technological progress, economic crisis, and world war had countless emotions that they wanted to express, and the results brought about by expression were fascinated by countless collectors in later generations.
But fortunately and unfortunately, perhaps because of the outbreak, contemporary people are overwhelmed with too much information, and more of them have not received attention in their lifetime. The only painting Van Gogh sold during his lifetime was "The Red Vineyard". It is said that others were looking for the favor of his brother Theo, so when he learned that his work had been sold for 400 francs, he happily expressed his gratitude to Theo. Ao said: "Do you believe it? My paintings can be sold for at least 500 francs after my death." However, what everyone expected was that after the 100th anniversary of his death, his painting "With 14 Sunflowers" "Vase" was auctioned for US$48 million, the highest price ever paid for a Western oil painting at that time.
In 1890, Van Gogh committed suicide by drinking a bullet. Seven years later, in 1977, US$10,000 was enough to buy almost all of Van Gogh's works. In another 70 years, the total value of these works would be enough to put anyone's name on the Forbes rich list. , Unfortunately, Huang Xuan did not have enough time to search for them.
It’s not just Van Gogh. Painters of this era—perhaps painters of the entire era—were rarely proud of themselves during their lifetimes, and the prices of their works of art naturally varied. Picasso, Malevich, and Henri V. Rousseau, in just a hundred years, were only In terms of money, its price has increased hundreds of times, and few investments can have higher returns.
However, the reason for Huang Xuan's emotion has nothing to do with the lives of artists. He just regrets that he does not have time to go to Paris to take a look and buy a few volumes to go home. According to the current traffic conditions, even a trip to Shanghai and Beijing is troublesome. Otherwise, we could have gone to Qi Baishi or Xu Beihong. Speaking of which, the latter seemed to have just returned to China in April, which was a good time to ask for the paintings.
Everything is caused by time. Huang Xuan couldn't help but sigh again. He couldn't buy a finished painting and take it home, as that would conflict with the existing paintings. And if he asked a certain painter to paint two fresh paintings for him, it seemed unreasonable. It took three days to complete it, and even trying to collect a few lost paintings was not possible. He sighed and gave up on the tempting idea.
"I wonder why this little brother sighed?" A person beside him suddenly spoke, startling Huang Xuan.
At this moment, just after noon, the dock workers were shirtless and dancing with their shiny arms to work hard for dinner. A chant came from afar. Huang Xuang calmed down. The man in front of him had a beautiful beard, dark beard and hair, and was wearing a t-shirt. The good silk and satin material is not considered old, but the temperament is really old.
"These are all small things." Huang Xuan thought to himself, this is no small matter. His heart was bleeding. If he could smuggle a batch of masterpieces back, he would become the richest among the three generations of the Huang family. At that time, he could buy a sports car, a sports car, a yacht, or he could play games if he wanted to. Buy a gaming company…
The person in front of him didn't know what Huang Xuan was thinking. He stroked his beard coolly and said, "My surname is Huang?"
"Not bad." Huang Xuan opened his eyes wide, "Who are you?"
It's a pity that the same action on a 15-year-old boy is not as powerful as his uncle's. The other party smiled and said: "I'm Zhou Shuming. I heard that a small boss came to Kanpu recently, carrying thousands of stones of food, so I came here."
"oh?"
"I wonder if Boss Huang can give me a more even number?" Zhou Shuming did not look down upon Huang Xuan because of his grade. In fact, in this era, there were countless warlords and politicians making profits in troubled times, and their descendants, relatives and friends were all familiar with it. Huang Xuan was just old enough to have a powerful father. Although Kanpu was a small town, he had seen many such disciples.
Huang Xuan smiled a little cautiously. He was not used to discussing business when he was not prepared, or in other words, he was not used to performing business dramas without rehearsing. Even so, he Still, he scanned the pier covertly to avoid a group of burly men suddenly rushing out.
The chanting on the pier was still going on. Huang Xuan felt that the plot of his movie was a little funny, so he turned his eyes back and said with a smile: "It's not impossible, it's just..."
"If it's the relationship between the Xieqiao Rice Shop and I still have some face, Mr. Huang doesn't have to worry about it." Zhou Shuming called him three times in a row. Huang Xuan shook his head in a funny way and said, "I'm not worried about Shopkeeper Zhu, but because of this." I have other things to do here and I just don’t want to cause trouble.”
"What do you want to tell me about?"
Huang Xuan was in a state of mind at this moment. He considered his words and said, "My father loves Chinese studies. He was particularly sad to hear that many books have been lost in the Jiaxing area in recent years. The purpose of transporting food this time is to contribute to the people of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The first thing I want to do is to buy a batch of books to go back to, but making money is the second most important thing.”
What he said was true and false, with a sense of pride that he had cultivated since childhood. Zhou Shuming was shocked and confused, and he really couldn't guess Huang Xuan's identity. (To be continued)