Chapter 208: Smart Ticket Seller
Two days later, Lin Weimin and Qu Xiaowei met Guo Yudao at the train station.
He came with his wife. When they met again after two years, Guo Yudao's face looked sallow with a hint of gray.
"Old Guo!"
If we simply talk about closeness of relationship, among the four people in the dormitory at the Institute of Literature, Lin Weimin and Guo Yudao did not have the best relationship.
But after not seeing each other for two years, when he saw Guo Yudao again, Lin Weimin couldn't help but feel a little happy as if he were meeting an old friend again.
He waved his hand, with a smile of reunion on his face, but when he saw Guo Yudao's expression, he realized that this didn't seem good and restrained his expression.
"For the people! Xiaowei!"
"Old Guo!"
Several classmates hugged each other and patted each other on the back.
Guo Yudao laughed first: "It's been a long time!"
Lin Weimin and Qu Xiaowei said, "That's right. We are looking forward to your coming to Yanjing!"
After exchanging a few words at the exit, the group left the station.
The car was called by Lin Weimin, a small Toyota, which cost 80 cents per kilometer.
Xiao Toyota took several people directly to Union Hospital, and Lin Weimin found Meng Weizai's daughter-in-law Yu Junli.
It was Lin Weimin who helped her daughter buy a piano before, and she was particularly enthusiastic when she saw Lin Weimin this time.
"Sister-in-law, I'm really sorry to trouble you this time." Lin Weimin said.
"We are all family, why should we be so polite? It was thanks to you that Jenny bought a piano last time!"
Yu Junli's way of dealing with people doesn't seem like a doctor, but rather like someone who works in the government. Lin Weimin guessed that this might be related to the work of her husband, Meng Weizai's son.
In later times, the resources that this couple could leverage in this society would be incomparable to ordinary people, but in 1982, this couple actually asked Lin Weimin to buy a piano for their daughter, which shows that everyone was still honest at that time.
The hospital in Guo Yudao's hometown highly suspected that his liver might be cancerous, but due to limited capabilities, they dared not confirm the diagnosis. Guo Yudao and his wife could only come to Yanjing for examination.
The examination would take several days, so Yu Junli temporarily arranged for Guo Yudao to be hospitalized and also helped him make an appointment with Professor Qu Yuanmin, who was quite knowledgeable in tumors at Peking Union Medical College.
When Yu Junli passed away, Guo Yudao's wife and Lin Weimin came out to see her off. Guo Yudao's wife kept expressing her gratitude to Lin Weimin outside the ward.
As he spoke, his eyes turned red. Lin Weimin comforted him, "Sister-in-law, don't be so discouraged. Maybe it was a misdiagnosis."
Guo Yudao's wife shook her head and said, "Who doesn't hope it's a misdiagnosis? But I've been with Lao Guo for so many years, and I know his temper very well. He would never go to the hospital unless the pain was unbearable. Look at his face now, he has lost nearly 20 kilograms in the past month. It's not cancer, is it possible?"
Lin Weimin felt heavy-hearted. What Lao Guo’s wife said was right. Even he, an outsider, could see the problem with Lao Guo.
The hospital only asked them to come to Yanjing for a follow-up checkup just to be on the safe side. It would be best if they were confirmed to have cancer and stayed in Yanjing for treatment.
"Sister-in-law, you have to be strong. Lao Guo's examination has not been done yet. What if the result is good? Besides, even if the result is not so ideal, you still have to treat it. You can't give up so easily."
Guo Yudao's wife wiped her tears and nodded, "That's for sure. Old Guo is the pillar of the family. He is the sky of our family."
After comforting Guo Yudao a few more words, the two returned to the room.
Guo Yudao was having a pleasant conversation with Qu Xiaowei, but according to Lin Weimin's observation, Guo Yudao seemed to be forcing a smile.
Lin Weimin went out to buy some daily necessities for Guo Yudao and his wife. Because he had a large amount of foreign exchange coupons, Lin Weimin had no shortage of various tickets. No ticket was as scarce as foreign exchange coupons. He could just exchange some foreign exchange coupons for any ticket he needed.
Then they arranged Guo Yudao's wife to stay in the guesthouse closest to the hospital, and Lin Weimin and Qu Xiaowei's mission was successfully completed.
Before leaving, Guo Yudao held Lin Weimin's hand and said, "Weimin, Xiaowei, thank you both so much."
Lin Weimin's expression was relaxed. "Old Guo, when did you become so polite? Xiaowei and I are in Yanjing. If we were somewhere else, we would be out of reach. You, just stay in the hospital for the checkup. When you recover, Xiaowei and I will go to Xining to play. You can't treat us well with food and drinks."
Guo Yudao smiled, "Of course. I'll let you eat as much beef and mutton as you want, and drink so much barley wine that you can't get out of bed."
Lin Weimin smiled and nodded, "It's settled then. Xiaowei and I are leaving now and will come to see you in two days."
After coming out of the hospital, Lin Weimin and Qu Xiaowei sighed deeply. Although they were laymen in medicine, they still had some observation skills.
Old Guo is really in trouble this time.
Qu Xiaowei inexplicably thought of the time when he was at the Institute of Cultural Research, when Lin Weimin seemed to have reminded Guo Yudao more than once to go to the hospital for a check-up.
He looked at Lin Weimin and said, "Weimin, can you really tell fortunes?"
"What do you mean?"
"Wang Shuo told me."
"You believe what Sun the thief says? Have you two met recently?"
"I had dinner at his restaurant a few days ago."
"Is his restaurant still open?"
Qu Xiaowei gloated: "It's almost done. They were just about to sell off their property. When I went there, they had already started moving the tables."
He added: "Wang Shuo said that you said his business of dealing in electronic watches might not be able to continue."
Lin Weimin said: "What is the policy direction? Do you know it? You are a bunch of ignorant people. You should read more newspapers and magazines and spend less time in bed with your wives."
Qu Xiaowei scolded: "You want to drill but you haven't done it yet!"
"Okay, let's stop talking. I have to go back to work."
Lin Weimin rode away on his motorcycle, leaving Qu Xiaowei looking at his back. He suddenly thought of the time when he first entered the Institute of Cultural Research and he took Lin Weimin all over Yanjing to scratch the Gengshen Monkey Stamps.
When Lin Weimin stuffed the monkey stamp into his hand, he had a mysterious expression on his face.
Qu Xiaowei rode his bicycle back home and rummaged through the drawers. He finally found two unused monkey stamps. He then rode his bicycle back to work.
"Old Liu! Old Liu!" Qu Xiaowei called a middle-aged colleague out of the office.
"What's the matter?" Old Liu asked Qu Xiaowei after leaving the office.
Qu Xiaowei pulled him aside and asked, "Aren't you a stamp collector?"
"Yes." Old Liu is middle-aged and his only hobby is stamp collecting.
Qu Xiaowei took out two monkey stamps from his pocket and asked, "Is anyone collecting these Gengshen monkey stamps now?"
When Qu Xiaowei took out the monkey stamp, Old Liu's eyes lit up, "Hey, where did you get that? These monkey stamps are hard to buy now."
"I bought it when I was writing letters, but I didn't use it up at that time." Qu Xiaowei said casually.
Old Liu looked at the monkey stamps happily for a long time, then returned them to Qu Xiaowei, saying with some regret, "It's a pity that there are only two..."
Seeing that he was not getting to the point, Qu Xiaowei pressed on, "Is anyone collecting this thing now? Is it valuable?"
"Of course someone has collected it. Do you want to sell it?"
Qu Xiaowei saw his expression and asked cautiously: "Do you want to buy it?"
Old Liu smiled and asked, "Two yuan a piece, do you want to sell it?"
“Not for sale.”
The face value of a monkey stamp was eight cents, but Lao Liu offered two dollars right away. Qu Xiaowei was surprised, but he also knew that since Lao Liu dared to offer such a high price right away, the value of the monkey stamp must not be low, so he flatly refused.
"You are smarter than a monkey." Seeing that he didn't get a good deal, Lao Liu said honestly, "The price of monkey stamps is rising rapidly now. They are basically three yuan each on the market. If you buy a whole set, it will be even more expensive."
Three dollars?
Qu Xiaowei was a little shocked. From a face value of eight cents to three yuan, this is nearly forty times the amount?
Qu Xiaowei immediately thought of how Lin Weimin had bought several editions and more than a hundred scattered monkey stamps, each costing three yuan. Counting so many monkey stamps, it must be at least fifteen hundred yuan, right?
When he calculated this, he couldn't help but be surprised. It was higher than his salary in the past two years.
In this era, ordinary people in China have no access to financial products such as futures, stocks, and funds. The fact that the monkey stamps have increased nearly forty times in two years is enough to shock them.
Damn, this guy is so lucky.
Qu Xiaowei thought so in his mind, but felt something was wrong. How could this be luck? This guy must have known in advance that the price of monkey tickets would increase.
"Hey, Lao Liu, is it worth it for you to spend so much money on this thing?"
Old Liu looked at him as if he had never seen the world.
"As long as there are people who still collect stamps, this thing will not lose money. If you don't collect stamps, you don't know that when the monkey stamps came out, not many people were optimistic about them. Most stamp collectors only bought a few of them symbolically for collection, but the situation was different the next year."
"What happened in the second year?" Qu Xiaowei asked.
"The next year, the chicken ticket was issued again."
Qu Xiaowei immediately understood, "Is this a zodiac ticket package?"
Old Liu nodded with an excited expression on his face, "That's right. Just wait and see, when the horse tickets and sheep tickets come out, the value of this monkey ticket will definitely be even higher."
Qu Xiaowei understood the secret at once. Since everyone was familiar with the zodiac stamps that came out later, there must be a lot of them in stock.
But the Monkey Stamps are different. No one paid much attention to them in the first year they came out, and the result was that their stock was scarce.
Scarcity makes things valuable. The hotter the stamp collecting market is, the higher the value of the monkey stamp will be.
But the problem is that stamp collecting is just a hobby for a small circle, Qu Xiaowei thought.
"Okay, thank you." Qu Xiaowei got the answer and prepared to leave.
"Hey, I ask, you really don't want to sell your monkey stamps?"
Qu Xiaowei gave him a silent back.
When Liu Haiyan got home from get off work, she was cooking with a big belly.
"Is my son obedient today?"
Liu Haiyan rolled her eyes at him and said, "I've told you so many times, it's not necessarily a son!"
"The same goes for my daughter. You wait a while and cook." Qu Xiaowei took Liu Haiyan's hand and asked, "Do you still have those letters we wrote before?"
"I'm keeping it. What's wrong?"
Qu Xiaowei smiled and said, "It's nothing, we can make a small fortune."
"What's going on?"
Qu Xiaowei then told her the story of the monkey stamps from beginning to end, and Liu Haiyan became happy after listening to it.
"More than 20 tickets, that's more than 70 yuan, right?"
"That's right. I'll find Lao Liu tomorrow to sell all these monkey stamps."
"Didn't they say it could still go up?"
Qu Xiaowei smiled confidently, "You believe in this game of passing the parcel? Stamps are not worth eating or wearing. Without those stamp collectors, the price might collapse one day. It's better to put the money in your pocket and keep it safe."
Qu Xiaowei's family is well-off, but after all, they are just a couple living together, and they rely on their combined monthly salary of less than 100 yuan.
This salary standard is already very good for a family of two, but they are both young people, they earn a lot and spend a lot, and their child is about to be born, so Liu Haiyan also wants to keep more money.
After listening to what Qu Xiaowei said, she said, "That's right, let's sell it then."
The couple discussed it and the next day Qu Xiaowei found Lao Liu at his workplace and took out more than 20 monkey stamps.
"Lao Liu, would you like to buy these monkey stamps?"
Old Liu took it and looked at it, then said with disdain: "These are all postmarks. Look, where are the stamps?"
Qu Xiaowei had no interest in stamp collecting, so naturally he didn't know the difference between brand new stamps, cancelled stamps, and canceled stamps. He thought they were all the same thing.
"Don't fool me."
"Why should I? If you don't believe me, go and find out for yourself."
Qu Xiaowei didn't expect there would be such a saying. He asked unwillingly, "Then how much are my stamps worth?"
"You have to calculate the price of these postmarks based on where the postmarks are." Old Liu picked them up for a long time. "This one can be sold for 1.8 yuan, this one is 80 cents, this one is not bad, it can be worth 2 yuan..."
After all the calculations, the twenty-six monkey stamps that Qu Xiaowei took out, except for two well-preserved ones, the rest added up to a total of 42.60 yuan, with an average price of about 1.70 yuan per coin.
Plus two intact stamps, the total was forty-eight dollars and sixty cents.
"We are all colleagues. I definitely can't make money from you. If you don't believe me, you can go to the market and ask around."
After Old Liu offered the price, he was afraid that Qu Xiaowei would be worried, so he said this.
We are from the same unit and we have known each other for a long time. There is still some trust between us. Although there is a gap between the price and the one he had in mind, Qu Xiaowei still said, "Why are you asking? This is not worth it. I will give you the stamps."
Lao Liu smiled and said, "Okay, I'll give you the money tomorrow."
The transaction was completed, and the price did not meet the initial expectations, so I naturally felt regretful, but it was a windfall after all.
After work, Qu Xiaowei happily ran to the vegetable market to buy some pork head.
The bicycle was roaming on the streets of Yanjing, and the pork head hanging on the handlebars was swinging back and forth, just like Qu Xiaowei's happy mood.
Weimin is a good boy with good vision!
Thinking about it, Qu Xiaowei couldn't help but feel a little regretful. When Lin Weimin bought the monkey stamps, he really should have bought some too.
In the future, we must keep up with the pace of serving the people!
First update today. I will try to write more today to compensate you.
(End of this chapter)
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